Service Business: Quit Whining & Get a Ladder

If you ask anyone in the car business they will tell you that things aren’t as easy as they used to be. The mortgage crisis, the election, the war, the price of gas, and, I think most of all, the media doomsayers have all taken their toll on the car business, both for sales and service – and that has effected our business. Dealers have changed from asking how can I make more money to how can I cut expenses. The fact is, in any business (especially the car business), you have to change if you expect to succeed. You just can’t keep living off the low hanging fruit – it’s gone!  You need to get a ladder to reach the top of the tree.

So get a ladder. Get serious about your customer retention and customer pay service business. Stop wasting time and thousands of dollars in advertising trying to attract new customers (low hanging fruit that is very expensive to get) and start climbing the ladder to the customers you already have or have had. You know, give your existing customers a reason to keep doing business with you.

You can do this in several easy ways. First, call your dealership and pretend to be a service customer that needs a price on an oil change. See how long it takes to get an answer, how professional your service sales people sound and see if they give you features, benefits and advantages of why you should choose your store as a place to have your car serviced. See if they even invite you in or try to set an appointment to get you to do business with them, or if it seems like you're interrupting them?

Next, get competitive with your prices. If you are charging too much for your oil change, you will not even get the chance to up-sell anyone in the drive. They won’t show up! Now before you go all postal on me about this low-priced oil change plan I have, I have a question for you: how much money do you make on the customers that don’t show up? Or on the ones that go somewhere else for service? I’ll tell you Scooter – Zero, nothing, nada, zippo. You don’t make much on a $30 oil change, so why not get aggressive and triple your service drive traffic with a $17.95 one? You won't make much on it either, but you will get the chance to up-sell.

Last, but not least, advertise. Your service department is probably the best kept secret in town. It will do no good to drop your oil change price if no one calls or comes in. You have to advertise. Get the word out, and don’t get into the panic mode. So many dealers are trying to save themselves into a profit, but we know that doesn’t work. In the vehicle sales department, anytime sales decrease, advertising expenditures are increased. Why not do the same thing in service – run your service department like a sales department.