It’s no secret that your dealership’s biggest profit center is the Service Department. Those dealers or groups that have spent the proper amount of time and effort to ensure it stays that way have busy bays, full customer lounges and healthy CSI scores.
However, with the state of the current market, more dealers are looking at the Service department to balance out shortfalls they may be seeing in the showroom. If the focus is ensuring that this area of the dealership continues to be profitable, it may be worth the time and investment to employ an Up System for the Service Advisor team.
We know what you’re going to say, “Up Systems are for the showroom, the service department has always had a greater level of organization based on how customers have to interact with that staff.” How often though are we looking at just the ROs and the gross profit per transaction and ignoring the customer’s experience? Sure, you’re going to get your CSI scores back but are you taking those and looking to improve your department’s process?
In our 12 years in developing, enhancing and deploying Up Systems for dealerships across North America we know, based on over 30 million data points, the organization and analytics they provide can drastically increase profitability. So, wouldn’t you want that same advantage for the service department that an Up System has given the showroom? We thought dealers would and we have evolved our platform beyond the showroom. Here are two questions to help you assess the efficiency of the Service Drive and why you may want to consider adopting an Up System and process for your Service Advisor team.
- How good is your service advisor team’s process? Start simple and quickly audit the department’s current process. Does your service department function as professional service advisory team or as individuals each abiding to their own level of competency and not necessarily putting the customer first? Do your advisors have adequate time to work with a new guest, produce clean ROs AND have the time to follow up with customers in the waiting room or remotely? They have a lot going on, look for areas where things bottle-neck or where guests may be over-looked.
- Are you introducing new customers to service department team during vehicle delivery? Build better relationships between departments increases both sales and CSI. Are both your sales and service advisors ensuring that customers get proper introductions a part of the delivery process? Richard Truett of the Fixed Ops Journal reported that only 41 percent of buyers of new and used cars were introduced to the service department when they purchased their vehicle. Of these customers, 53 percent said that introduction was a factor when they decided where to take their vehicle for service. Customers who were shown the service department were 5 times more likely to return to the dealership for service in the 12 months after purchase.
Profitability can increase in the Service Drive through training, monitoring, and mentoring. That is very much a given. Adopting and leveraging a Service Drive Up System can elegantly tie all those pieces together and strengthen the team’s overall performance and enhance your loyal customer’s ongoing experience. Flatter markets are a great time to re-evaluate your processes and people, small strategies, like bringing in an Up System can be very helpful.
Want to ensure your Service Department continues to be a strong revenue center for the dealership? You can. We invite you to visit https://thenextup.com/maintain and learn more about our Service Up System.
Click here for Richard Truett’s full article in Automotive News.
