Auto Dealer Monthly, Q4 2018

D e a l e r O p s 28 auto dealer today Q4 2018 PHOTO GETTYIMAGES COM MARIE MARTIN top selling advisor for three months in a row and he stopped getting heat stopped me from getting his heat and customers liked him It was a total game changer He became an effective communicator He was staying in touch the way his customers wanted him to stay in touch When evaluating your communications you need to look at everyone Consider how your advisors communicating with your techs the parts desk lot porters and the receptionist Are you still paging Bob for a call on Line 1 over the intercom How do you think that sounds to the 20 something year old customer who uses their smartphone for everything Think speed contact and convenience Grade your store on a scale of one to 10 Look for gaps and fill them Be prompt communicate with customers the way they like to be communicated with and be sure its easy for them to stay in touch 2 Advertise Effectively Have you watched open source television lately Me neither Most of my viewing is on cable Amazon Prime or Netflix Rarely do I flip to a local broadcast channel to see whats on Your customers are doing the same thing Most surveys say that the average person is watching two to three hours of video a day using platforms they want to use and not open source television And they are turning from traditional radio to app driven listen to what I want to platforms It doesnt mean that TV and radio are dead But they are becoming increasingly desperate for advertising dollars If you are not moving forward on social video platforms getting on the appdriven music platforms and advertising where your customers live you are going to have a tough time in the future You will find an ever shrinking audience for your message Set a budget of dollars per repair order for your fixed operations and start a campaign that takes advantage of social platforms that people are paying attention to Send videos explaining everything from the shuttle service to the waiting room to the parts counter Everything can be videoed and sent to the customer put on your website and installed on your waiting room TV Use every means of communication that is effective not just the tried and true Advertise to educate first and entice second People are watching because they want to be entertained and they want to learn something while they are being entertained 3 Retrain Your Personnel Dealers must train managers and staff to capture and keep this and future generations of customers Transparency convenience speed competency value proposition all words describing what our customers want and what they say will lead to them making a repurchase decision or come back for service The problem is we have been industrializing our dealerships to provide cookie cutter processes just like a fast food chain Its all the same A tornado could pick up one of these stores and plop it down three states over and it would deliver the same experience as if it had never moved Customers may say they want this but they really dont especially when it comes to their dealership While there is comfort and predictability in familiarity there certainly are no profits in commoditization nor any loyalty Why should they visit your store when they can get the same experience anywhere The average customer rolling into your service drive and dealership is seeking something else They dont want an industrialized or institutionalized service or sales experience We all want to feel as if the world has been tailored to us Think attraction Think value Think personal contact and relationships I dont want a relationship with the guy who loads my tray at McDonalds I do want a relationship with the advisor who is responsible for the service on my vehicle A value driven experience answers the question of why a customer should choose your dealership over any other service provider out there What can they expect that they cant get anywhere else This means your training must stress personal service and relationships We do this by reeducating our service personnel to build value by being human personable helpful caring and empathetic while using a service sales process that walks the advisor and the customer down the aisle together The future is now Equip your dealership with useful communications tools advertise in a way that makes sense to the buying public and retrain your personnel to build value by stressing what makes the experience personal and value driven Leonard Buchholz is the founder of CarBizCoach He helps dealers meet performance objectives in service sales CSI and profitability and has extensive experience in evaluating fixed operations and providing corrective training and guidance Contact him at leonard buchholz@ bobit com Experts say todays consumers demand a predictable uniform experience from retailers but homogenization is better suited to fast food restaurants than car dealerships