Track Service Opportunity Calls

It amazes me when I ask dealers all over the country what their vehicle sales closing ratio is. They instantly know the number – 25% they brag or even 30.  I am told that the national average is about 20%, so I guess it is ok or even a good job if they are above average. Now don’t get me wrong, if you are above average then I guess you are, well, above average. It just amazes me that dealers are satisfied and even proud of the fact that 70-80% of the customers that shop for a vehicle on their lot don’t buy. Seems low to me…but what do I know. I am a fixed guy.

What amazes me even more is the answer I get when I ask what their service department’s closing ratio is. Most dealers have no idea – in fact, they don’t really know what I am talking about. I ask them how many service shoppers that call their store actually end up coming in for service. I ask how many no shows they had. A mile away from that question is this one: How many customers that were presented with an up-sell item or two, actually buy. Still, I get no answer, just a blank stare. Sad, isn’t it?

This is a fact: Your service department is a sales department just like your showroom is and you need every single penny of gross and net you can produce today. You should track incoming calls, number of customers that show up and how well your advisors are doing at selling – don’t you think? An easy way to track your advisors’ closing ratio on the phone is to give them what I call an “opportunity call tracking log”. Take a simple piece of legal pad or notebook paper with lines on it and draw 5 lines vertical to form 5 columns. Write the headings as follows over the columns – Request, Vehicle, Name, Price (FBA) and Invite. The idea here is to have advisors (service salespeople) fill in the blanks of each column heading when they are on the phone. If a customer calls and asks for the price on a service, they write it in the request box, and when they say what kind of car they are driving, the advisor writes that in the vehicle box. Next, the name box is empty, prompting the advisor to ask for the customer’s name, which builds the relationship further. The Price FBA box (features, benefits and advantages) is just there to remind them to talk about all the reasons customers should choose your store…and the last invite box, is to get the important closing question asked – I have openings today or tomorrow, which is best for you?

Track how many calls on the log have a day and time entered in the invite column compared to the total – the result is your opportunity call closing ratio. It’s been said that you can’t manage what you can’t measure – so now you can measure – go manage. Ghost call your store and pretend to be a customer – see how well your team does on the phone…and my guess is there is room for improvement, so go and train, train, train.