Today’s marketplace is extremely competitive, and taking advantage of every sale opportunity can make a huge difference in overall dealership performance. This is where your service lane can provide some assistance. Every day, there are multiple opportunities coming through your service department begging to be acted upon. Utilize the talent in your service department to bus all these potential customers over to the showroom. The employees in your service drive are first-hand responders, relationship experts, customer liaisons and product consultants, handling any issues or questions your customers might have. They create the perfect link between your service drive and the showroom floor.
Know When to Act
When a customer makes a service appointment, do a little research. Get to know the customers, where they stand with their current vehicle, if they have been looking for a new one and how much they can afford to spend. The more you know about your customers and their current vehicle situation, the better. Knowledge is a good tool to have that can aid you in any situation, especially when that situation calls for providing someone with something that they really want. It gives you the power to create a deeper, stronger connection between them and their goals.
Making Connections Across Departments
Making a sale from the service drive can’t be done alone. The technician servicing the car doesn’t have the ability to sell a car to the customer and the sales staff doesn’t have the ability to determine the value of a car in the service drive. It is important to have the right expert, in the right place, at the right time. Creating a seamless dealership where connections between departments are a breeze allows you to quickly and easily move a customer along to the next department. There is plenty of technology and tools available today that can help dealers connect departments, provide each with up-to-date, real-time information and put customers in contact with the right person at the right time.
A few things that can be done to increase the number of cars sold in your service drive are:
- Put displays everywhere — Don’t be shy when it comes to displaying your vehicle upgrade program in your dealership. Place helpful and relevant information throughout every department where it can be easily seen by customers.
- Make some offers — Create a personalized offer statement for each customer, making them feel important and appreciated. Make the message powerful and the offer credible, giving them no choice but to accept.
- Leave no stone unturned — Noticing every opportunity that is presented creates more traffic and more profit. Being able to recognize these opportunities at the right time is the most important part.
