Just today, Bankrate.com issued a press release about credit card usage according to demographics. The results are rather intriguing, so here are a few of the key points:

• 33 percent of those aged 18 to 29 have credit cards
• 55 percent of those 30 to 49 use credit cards
• 62 percent of 50 to 64-year-olds have credit cards
• 68 percent of those over 65 years of age confirm they use a credit card

That’s pretty interesting, isn’t it? As age increases, so does the likelihood that your customer will pay with a credit card. Okay, so maybe you aren’t struck dumbfounded by this revelation. Maybe that’s because you don’t think it matters much to you.

HOW your customer pays is intrinsic to your service department, make no mistake.

Car repairs and maintenance are slotted into the same category as vehicle purchases, home-buying experiences, and student loans. You’ll remember just last decade the United States experienced a recession that lasted for years. Countless families lost their homes, gave up their cars, and defaulted on personal loans that will taint their consumer credit for years. Millennials were watching this all unfold before most of them were even eligible to apply for a credit card.

Now, those millennials are guarding themselves against the horrific experience of debt going bad. They pay for their purchases as they can afford them whether it’s consumer electronics, a condo, a car, or car repairs and maintenance. It also means that major purchases aren’t made on a whim – they are carefully planned out and budgeted ahead of time.

While your “older” clientele (sorry, I’m referring to those 30 and over) is more tolerant to work order add-ons like unexpected repairs and overdue maintenance, the younger generation won’t be as inclined. Moreover, they won’t be able to, and that’s a choice they make.

How it affects your approach

Although millennials are the smallest section of your customer base, they are the fastest-growing. They are the customers you target because you want to capture their business for future decades. You need to relate to their demographic on THEIR terms or they will simply go elsewhere.

A typical service visit at most dealerships involves an appointment, a write-up process, an upsell attempt at the service desk, and an inspection followed by another upsell. With baby boomers, and Gen-X and Yers, you can confidently try to sell additional work at each of these steps. If they can’t really afford the add-ons, no problem – charge it to the credit card.

With millennials, that approach isn’t likely to succeed and will quite possibly frustrate and upset your customer. A customer that pays cash for all their purchases is more apt to respond to pre-booking for future services and repairs. If repairs are urgent, that’s another matter altogether, but for services that can be postponed a week, a month, or until the next service visit, you’re much more likely to get the sale through planning a future visit.

That being said, you can maximize your current maintenance visits with your appointment process. When an appointment is set through either your service staff or your BDC, you have the opportunity to check your customer’s service history and pre-sell their due services. If that’s not done, you have the ability to try again when your appointment reminder calls are placed.

The same goes for recommended services and repairs from the last visit. If anything wasn’t completed last time around, it should be recommended once again during the appointment process.

Place an Emphasis on Maintenance

Because millennials are restricting their credit usage for financial responsibility purposes primarily, it would stand to reason that emphasizing regular maintenance would resonate with them. The idea that expensive future unplanned costs can be avoided with a bit of maintenance today is much more attractive to someone who knows where each dollar goes.

The principle is foundational in your service department but with other generations, you can often get soft on the pre-selling aspect without much consequence. It’s an excellent practice to use regardless of your customer.

Offer Discounts that Engage Millennials

If you know that one of the important financial factors for millennials is that “cash is king”, use that to your advantage. Offer a modest discount or rewards program that piques the interest of cash buyers.

Keep in mind that credit card transactions cost YOU money. It’s typically in the 2.5% of the total transaction charged. That means you save money by dealing in cash purchases, offsetting any discount you may offer your clientele. Keep it small, though, like five percent.

Space Out Expensive Services

Help your customers who don’t rely on credit by spacing out larger maintenance items instead of trying to hit the home run on one big visit. If a 60K service is typically $1,000, break out some of the services that may be performed on the previous visit so the pill isn’t so hard to swallow at one time. Your cash customers won’t have gobs of money on hand to spend at once, so two $500 visits instead of one $1,000 visit will ease the pain.

If you can capture the millennial market early, you’re going to reap the benefits for years to come. That’s not to say you should abandon what you’re doing with the older generations – if it’s successful, keep doing it. Just don’t let the future of your service department –the millennials – slip between your fingers in the process.