Put Your Money Where Your Customers Are
No doubt you’re trying to reduce expenses wherever possible. Sometimes, even when you think you’ve squeezed the proverbial turnip dry, you can find an “aha!” – an effective way to cut overall spend without causing a lot of pain. In fact, you may even stir up more revenue.
One way to do this is to examine your advertising spend and evaluate the mediums you’re using. Traditional TV, radio, and print can be very expensive. Can you really measure what you’re gaining? Not usually.
Advertise Online
Studies show that the majority of your customers use the Internet in their buying process, so why not advertise online? Fortunately for you, the Internet is a cost-effective and measurable tool. By shifting your spend online, you will more than likely reduce your total budget. Plus, you’ll better reach the right consumers at the right time with the right messages.
In this issue we explore ways to leverage the Internet and reduce costs throughout your dealership. We hope the tips you find here will give you many cost-saving, revenue-building “ahas!”
Sincerely,
Trey Hiers
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Reynolds and Reynolds
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Trey Hiers
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Reynolds and Reynolds
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A Dealership Perspective
The service advisor is increasingly becoming the key to retaining customers. As in most dealerships, our service advisors are responsible for building a customer relationship that will extend across the years of ownership to the next purchase and beyond. We needed a way to ensure our service consultants could take care of a very large daily volume of incoming vehicles and stay in front of customers, instead of behind their desks.
To realize higher retention and the higher dollars that go with it, examine your process and define your ultimate goals. For us, those goals included:
- Greet and take all customer service requests in a timely manner.
- Increase sales in service by creating a consistent process that allows more upselling.
- Improve CSI scores.
- Be as technologically advanced as possible.
Find a way to get your advisors away from the desk and in the drive with the customer. We use an electronic system on tablet PCs to drive a customer-friendly, consistent process. Advisors have the flexibility to greet the customer, write up the repair order, perform a thorough vehicle inspection, visually show the customer the recommended factory maintenance, and get the customer’s signature—all at the customer’s vehicle. With consistency comes more selling opportunity and higher revenue. In fact, our parts per RO and labor per RO have each increased by 24% since implementing the new process.
By interacting with the customer at the vehicle, the advisor gets a better idea of the repair needs and those repairs are done right the first time. The entire process is designed to ensure more effective and personal customer communication, which naturally results in better customer relationships. We frequently receive letters from out-of-town customers asking us to transplant our dealership to their neighborhoods so they can always experience this level of service.
Customers are immediately impressed with the highly advanced technology and appreciate walking around the car with the service consultant to show him/her exactly what’s wrong with it. It’s a simple one-on-one conversation without the inconvenience of waiting at a counter or trying to explain the problem at the desk.
Our results were immediate. Over the last three years, our national Customer Satisfaction Index ranking has skyrocketed from #858 to #336 out of 1,200 U.S. Toyota dealerships.
The best place for service consultants is at the vehicle with the customer, listening, questioning, investigating, confirming, and selling. With a more customer-focused process and the right technology, you can keep service consultants right where they need to be – on the service drive.
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Joel Hall is the Service Director for Toyota Mall of Georgia in Buford, GA, serving the greater Atlanta area with the finest vehicle purchase and ownership experience possible.
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Toyota Mall of Georgia uses a tablet PC system to build relationships that last.
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Improve Service Retention and Capture More E-mail Addresses
Looking for ways to improve your service retention rate AND capture more e-mail addresses? Incorporate a customer’s Owner Circle registration and first service appointment directly into the sales and delivery process. By introducing customers to Owner Circle — their very own Web site dedicated to their specific vehicle — at delivery, you will:
- Motivate customers to give you their e-mail addresses, easily increasing your capture rates for this vital information.
- Show your customers how to schedule their own service appointments, increasing the chance they’ll make an online appointment with you in the future.
Explain the key benefits of Owner Circle to your customers:
- They can tell you how they prefer to be contacted.
- They’ll always be able to see their next recommended maintenance.
- They’ll get automatic reminders when their vehicle is due for service.
To implement a successful process, decide who will be responsible for signing up customers and who will follow up to confirm their first service appointment, or re-schedule if necessary.
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Improve customer relationships by communicating online with Owner Circle.
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Keep Your Printers Running Smoothly
September’s Session of the Month will cover printer maintenance throughout
your dealership. It will be held on Wednesday, September 23, from 10 - 11:30 a.m. CST and is designed to benefit system administrators and any other dealership personnel who set up printers and troubleshoot print jobs.
- Setting up new printers.
- Adding new printer relationships.
- Troubleshooting print jobs.
- Printing laser forms.
Please plan now to join us for this exciting, interactive class! For more information on POWER software education, visit support.reyrey.com.
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Fixed Ops in Times of Opportunity
By Bob Stewart
In today’s economic climate, dealerships are looking for ways to operate profitably and stay in business. Cutting unnecessary expenses and focusing on generating immediate revenue is one of the most widely employed strategies. Currently, the service and parts departments present the fastest and cheapest opportunities to do so.
It’s important to conduct a comprehensive examination of your fixed ops to make sure your dealership is getting the most out of every service opportunity.
Continued in Drive Results newsletter
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Bob Stewart
Business Consultant, Fixed Operations and CRM
Reynolds Consulting Services |
Weak Keywords Waste Money
By Aloysius Carl
Reynolds Web Solutions
In today’s Web-focused world, matching your keywords to the search terms consumers are using is becoming more difficult. It is critical to determine if your keywords are providing the best return on your paid search investment.
Pay for Keywords that Work
Pay-per-click ads run on keywords, or search terms. The difference in conversion rates can vary dramatically from one keyword to another – sometimes more than 200 to 300%! So, how do you know you are getting the most from your advertising dollars?
- Track performance of keyword-specific traffic with a good analytics system.
- Adjust your bid rates and emphasis accordingly.
- Eliminate non-performing keywords from the campaign and your monthly bill.
- Focus your investment on those keywords that produce results.
Keywords Customers Are Using
A good analytics system will help you identify keywords current customers are using to find your site. Using these search terms in your pay-per-click campaigns will help you capture new customers like your existing ones.
Use Your Analytics
Paid search can be a powerful way to market your dealership, but it’s only as good as your performance-tracking tool. You’re wasting money and opportunity if you don’t understand the results you’re getting from Web campaigns.
- Get to know your analytics system of choice.
- Daily review the information it provides.
- Modify your campaigns accordingly.
Pay attention to the results your ads are getting, including click-through rate and lead conversion. This will help you reduce expenses on keywords that don’t work and add more to your bottom line with those that do.
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