Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A26

26 | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
M A R K M I L L E R S U B A R U , S A LT L A K E C I T Y

MAKING HOUSE CALLS

Utah Subaru dealer
goes to customers for
vehicle pickup, delivery
Published in Automotive News April 15, 2019

Jackie Charniga
jcharniga@crain.com

ark Miller Subaru is betting that
by the end of 2021, 20 percent of
its sales and service customers
won't set foot in the dealership.
How will the retailer make that happen?
Dedicated concierges who deliver newly purchased vehicles to buyers or pick up a car for
an oil change. After hiring its first concierge in
2016, Mark Miller now employs 13 at its two
Salt Lake City-area stores. As the dealership
group prepares for a larger digital future,
meeting customers where
they are is becoming a vital service.
While there's no way to
quantify how the service
has boosted repeat sales,
said Jeff Miller, general
manager at Mark Miller,
customers regularly submit
positive feedback through
Jeff Miller:
dealership surveys after reProvide services
ceiving personalized attencustomers want.
tion from dealership concierges. The vast majority of Mark Miller Subaru
customers already are repeat buyers.
"More people want you to come to them
versus them coming to us," Miller said. "Is it
for everybody? No. But we think there's a pretty solid group of people out there that don't
want to drive their car to a dealership."

Customer satisfaction
When the program began, a handful of hourly
employees were charged with delivering vehicles to online customers and walking them
through the car's technology at their homes. The
concierge role expanded last year with the
launch of Mark Miller Direct, the company's
complimentary pickup and drop-off service,
which is tethered to Subaru's two-year
free-maintenance offer. Today, Mark Miller's
concierges make between 10 and 20 house calls
a day within 30 miles of the dealerships.
If more customers begin to use Mark Miller
Direct, Miller projects that the concierge de-

Among its staff, Mark Miller Subaru in Salt Lake City maintains a force of concierges for pickup
and drop-off services as well as helping customers understand their vehicle's technology.
Mark Miller Subaru in Salt Lake City
is preparing for the digital future by
employing concierges who meet
customers where they are for vehicle
delivery or service pickup.

partment could grow to 20 employees between the two dealerships.
There's still a long way to go to hit that 2021 target. Today, around 3 percent of vehicle sales begin and end online, and 3 percent of service customers use Mark Miller Direct for service.
Hitting the 20 percent goal would mean online sales and concierge delivery of about 90 vehicles a month, based on Mark Miller Subaru's
current monthly sales of 450 new and used vehicles. And about 150 fewer service customers
would physically come to the stores, Miller said.
Concierges use the dealership group's Uber
Business account to catch a ride-hailing vehicle
to or from the store when they make a delivery
or pickup. They aren't focused on closing sales,
Miller said, which frees them to focus on customer needs.
That promotes better customer satisfaction.
By contrast, Miller said, a salesperson conducting a delivery might get impatient with
longer appointments.
"Human nature is that he's going to be
looking out the window for his next deal,"
Miller said.
Mark Miller began deploying concierges before Subaru's national launch of its Love-Encore program in 2017. Through that program,
customers can make one-on-one appointments with a Subaru Star Delivery Specialist
within a month of purchase to address questions about the vehicle and its systems; they
receive a complimentary gas card.

About eight of the concierges at Mark Miller
have gone through Subaru's Star Delivery
training.
A side benefit of the Mark Miller concierge
program is that it has set up an active pipeline of
potential sales and business development center employees. Most concierges are in their
twenties, and some are college students working
between classes. An assistant service manager
at one of the stores started as a concierge.

More changes
Mark Miller has implemented other changes as it prepares for a digital future. Those include no-haggle processes for vehicle sales
and in the finance-and-insurance office.
Digital sales require price transparency online, and a one-price approach keeps transactions as consistent as possible, Miller said.
Since the one-price program began four years
ago, employees are selling more cars, with average sales going from 10 to 12 vehicles a
month to 14 to 16.
In 2017, Mark Miller stopped discounting
products and financing. Notable exceptions
include the group's VIP customer program,
where customers who have purchased several
new vehicles or have frequently visited the
service department are offered a standard discount on bundled F&I products.
Other changes are in sight to prepare for
digital sales. Becoming paperless is another
Mark Miller goal for 2021.
Though not every program tried has increased profits, the dealership group is better
positioned to maintain operations in a changing retail landscape.
Miller said, "This is how you're going to remain competitive, especially with the car
dealership world becoming so much of a big
group market." a

Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement