For car dealerships, when it comes to marketing, the overwhelming majority of messages tend to revolve around sales. The need to push more units, drive more traffic and conquest new customers seems to be the biggest priority for dealers as far as the allocation of marketing dollars.

The market is highly competitive -- dense markets can have three or more same brand dealers within a 30-mile radius – and that puts tremendous stress on dealers to capture as much of that business as possible.

But think about this for a second: For every competitor you have for sales, I guarantee that you probably have 50 for service in that very same radius. And not just franchised dealerships – all of the independents, whether they are large chain repair centers or small garages.

With lower margins, dealerships rely on the service department to keep them in the black.

Sure, service departments will always be busy with warranty and recall work. But what about customer pay maintenance and recommended services? This is the bread and butter and the highest margin repair orders that exists. However, I find that many dealers do little to market the service department outside perhaps offering some service specials, and an occasional direct mail coupon.

A study conducted by Google in 2012 found that repair and maintenance search outpaces search for vehicles and consumers needing vehicle maintenance increasingly use a search engine to find a local repair shop. Information is now easier for customers to obtain with a proliferation of online information and resources. However, if you visit the website of many dealerships, the presence of the service department is almost non-existent.

It would therefore be a wise move to look at every customer visit as an opportunity to start actively marketing your service department. The sad fact is that many customers already have the perception that dealership service costs more. But visit most dealership websites and you’ll find a surprising lack of information, and almost nothing about pricing or service specials.

Whereas, most independents – especially the large chains – publish information on basic, routine services, including price and details on what is performed.

Dealerships have huge advantages over independents when it comes to service: they use factory parts, service is recorded within the manufacturer system in case of any future warranty claims, and most of the technicians are trained and certified to work specifically on the brand’s vehicles. But those value propositions are rarely, if ever, listed on any website. In fact, on the majority of websites, the service department is little more than a schedule service form, hours of operation, and perhaps some expired service coupons.

Consider allocating more marketing dollars into you service departments through all outbound marketing channels including your website, e-mail marketing, social media, PPC and SEM and local listings. And, as customer reviews are now a big part of the decision process for consumers as far as where they chose to do business, train your service department employees to ask for reviews from ALL customers. Post these reviews prominently on your website as well as to Google and other top review sites. And don’t forget to include them in your traditional marketing – television, radio, direct mail, etc.

And let’s not forget that the service department is not only the most profitable area in the dealership in terms of service revenue, but also highly profitable in terms of sales. Think about those customers that loyally bring their vehicle in for service. If they keep servicing at your dealership, they inevitably become the next car buyer for sales.

If your service customers are treated right and enjoy an exceptional experience at your dealership each time they visit, they inevitably tell their friends and family and refer them to you to buy a car and can be your best source of referrals. They are also a great resource for acquiring front-line pre-owned vehicles without competition and provide the customer pay repair orders that your service department loves.

So, step up your service marketing game and try increasing your service presence in all your future marketing .I bet you’ll be surprised to find that extra sales come just a little easier -- all while seeing your service revenue grow.

The service department is typically the largest revenue source for a dealership. In some cases, service departments carry the dealership and keep it in the black. Yet, no matter how much revenue a service department brings in, it would be hard to believe there is a single dealer out there that wouldn’t want to see it increase.

Manufacturers are certainly pushing dealers to expand their service facilities to increase shop capacity. But what about that dealer that simply can’t afford it, doesn’t have the real estate or simply doesn’t want to make that investment?

Well, there is a simple way to guarantee an increase in service revenue -- and it doesn’t require any additional investment – only something that service managers should be doing already. And that is analyzing service declines.

The reality is that dealers and service managers both know that money is walking out the door with just about every service customer. You may have the best upsell percentage in the universe but I highly doubt every customer that drives through your service lane is accepting every recommendation you present. There’s always room for improvement and knowing how much service revenue is walking out the door, and which services are being declined, is something that can easily be fixed through a small process change and training of your service advisers.

Many dealerships don’t track their declined services at all. Yet just about every DMS has the ability to do it. Why aren’t more dealers and service managers doing it? Perhaps the managers don’t want their dealer to know exactly how much isn’t getting captured.

With every open RO, there are service recommendations. In most instances, after presentation to the customer, a service advisor will then proceed to input codes for accepted services to add them to the repair order. The problem is that at many dealerships declined services don’t get codes attached to them, thus erasing their existence.

Simply implementing and enforcing a process whereby all recommended services get coded appropriately – whether accepted or declined – will give you the data you need to get hard answers to the big picture of how much revenue is leaving and which services are being declined. This data can also be broken up by service advisor, for better accountability

Let’s look at a few ways in which this data can be useful.

• If you have a high decline rate on a specific repair, you now have the ability to analyze reasons. Perhaps you’re pricing yourself out of the market. Your customers have smartphones and can easily price shop your service costs -- just as we know they do when buying a vehicle. Adjusting the price to be more competitive could help capture more of that specific repair work.
• In the same scenario, perhaps your overall acceptance rate is average, but you find that you have one specific advisor that has a very high decline rate. Now you can consult with the advisor and try to diagnose the problem. Perhaps that the advisor simply needs more knowledge of the repair and its importance so that they can more effectively relay that information to your customer.
• By contrast, maybe you have one service advisor who is spectacular at capturing a certain type of repair.  Now you can talk with this employee, discover the secret to their success and then share those tactics or strategies with their fellow advisors, thus helping them all be more successful.

If you know how much total revenue is leaving your service department and can also break down those declined services by repair type and by advisor, you should be able to identify strengths and weaknesses of both the department and your team. With this knowledge you’ll be able to streamline your process, adjust pricing, analyze strengths and weaknesses of service advisors when it comes to recommendation upsells, and increase service revenue. All without expanding or hiring more technicians.

There is nothing more frustrating to a service advisor than presenting legitimate service recommendations to a customer only to lose the sale because of a customer’s finances. The service advisor could do a great job building the relationship, presenting the service recommendations and instilling value. However, if the customer cannot pay for the services, they lose the sale, no matter how much the customer wants to get the work done.

This is exactly why financing options make just as make sense in service as they do in sales. Retailers do a great job of this. You cannot go into a Best Buy without seeing offers for 6 months, or longer, interest free financing. The same is true for most furniture stores. These retailers force everything based on payment. Customers have become accustomed to it. They get it in sales. The first thing out of the customer’s mouth is usually something along the lines of “I want that Toyota Camry, can I get it for $299 per month?” But on the service side it is rare to even talk about financing. While a customer may not be able to afford a $1,500 repair bill all at once, they could perhaps afford a reasonable monthly payment.

We’ve seen dealerships that offer financing increase activity on the service drive, increase revenue at the service center and enhance overall customer satisfaction.  We’ve seen service centers consistently increase revenues by 20%; average R.O. close rates as high as 63%; and it is not uncommon for shops to add an additional $46,000 in shop revenue per month.

The key to decreasing service declines and maximizing customer participation lies in making your customers aware that they have other options available to finance the repair as early as possible in the repair process.

Start awareness early. Don’t wait until a large repair bill is presented, start making your customers aware of this option early in your process. Feature it as a drop down menu on your website under “Service.” Some dealers even have it pop up as an option as part of the online scheduling process. When you send service appointment reminders, include a message that financing options are available, with a link for the customer to get pre-approved. Whether they need a large repair, or a simple oil change, at the very least you have made the customer aware that financing exists.

If your financing partner offer it, promote that you offer 0% APR for qualified customers when they pay the loan off within 60 days. This could capture the attention of any customers that are perhaps momentarily cash-squeezed and find it more convenient to finance the repair for a couple of months, with no finance charges.

Integrate financing options into each process touchpoint. From the moment the customer pulls into your service drive, train your advisors to inform customers that financing options are available to them. The customer is then primed with the knowledge and may not be quite so hasty to decline the recommendations, opting instead to explore financing as a viable option. Copy the successful practices of department stores. Whenever the customer is ready to pay for repairs, train your employees to ask whether they would like to pay with cash, check, credit card or financing. Department stores use this process for a simple reason, it works.

Whenever a service advisor prepares to present a customer with a significant service recommendation or unexpected repair, make sure that they always inform the customer during that presentation that financing options are available. By making this a consistent process, customers that would normally decline service simply because they cannot afford it, can explore an alternate method of payment that they perhaps can afford. We have found that the customer is then less likely to turn down the service.

If you keep the message in front of your customers throughout the entire service experience, an increasing amount of customers will be happy to get the work done, instead of declining the service.