Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F30

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

SOFT SELL

 Done right, the service lane can be a great
place to talk vehicle trade-ins with customers

ALYSHA WEBB
foj@autonews.com

hen customers enter the service
lane at one of Bill McDaniels' six
dealerships, a service adviser
greets them, walks around their
vehicle, reviews the work to be done, and shows
them to the waiting area.
Then the "concierge service" takes over: A
salesperson offers a bottle of water, presents a
business card and discusses the customer's
transportation needs. The salesperson checks
back in 15 minutes to see whether the guest
needs anything.
And he or she may casually ask: "If we could
get you into a new car for what you're paying
now, would you be interested?"
"It's a very soft approach," says McDaniels,
owner of McDaniels Auto Group in South Carolina. "We don't want [customers] to get out of
the car and start pouncing."
As new-vehicle buyers increasingly shop
online, dealerships are relying more on their
existing customer base to boost sales. Service
visits offer a great opportunity to get to know
these customers, and plenty of sales tools
identify likely candidates to purchase a new
car or truck.
But selling out of the service lane requires
an approach tailored individually to each customer, dealers and analysts say.
So-called equity mining in the service lane
is "a great idea," says Lee Harkins, president of
M5 Management Services Inc., a dealership
consultancy in Pelham, Ala., that specializes
in fixed operations. But a hard-sell pitch isn't
the best way to approach service customers,
he warns.
Service departments "are trying to fight for
customer retention, to get them to come
back," Harkins told Fixed Ops Journal. Rather
than put the pressure on, he advises, "just
bring [the possibility of buying a new vehicle]
to the customer's attention with a comment in
passing. Then you have to follow up."

PAGE 30

JUNE 2018

vehicle sales emerge from appointments
made online. Only in the service lane, he says,
can a dealership really talk to any customer.
"We are working the service lane really hard
to get as many customers back as possible,"
says McDaniels. He says he sells as many as a
dozen new vehicles each month out of the
service lane.

Paging Mr. Wizard

Dealer Bill McDaniels says he avoids
"pouncing" on service customers to discuss
trade-ins.

Sales and service

How dealerships can encourage vehicle
sales among service customers
 Get the service department's
cooperation in talking with customers
about trade-ins.
 Create a dedicated position for these
sales and select the right person to
fill it.
 Avoid the hard sell.
 Don't wing it; follow a set process.

At the McDaniels dealerships, the initial
concierge contact is followed by a note left in
the service customer's vehicle saying the
group would like to buy it.
The service lane has become a crucial
source of business beyond repairs, McDaniels
says, because walk-in dealership traffic has
vanished. He estimates that 85 percent of his

Brandon Honda in Tampa, Fla., relies on its
service lane for about 35 percent of its newand used-vehicle sales volume, says Grant
Hocking, the dealership's quality assurance
manager.
"My No. 1 focus is to sell cars out of [the service department]," he says. "I want people to
stay at the dealership, be happy, and be taken
care of. From that comes car sales."
Hocking regularly visits the dealership's service lounge to tell waiting customers that his
job is to help them. He asks about them and
their vehicles.
Then he turns to equity-mining software
called Dealer Wizard, produced by a company
of the same name in Austin, Texas. Using artificial intelligence, the product assesses a customer's credit history and equity position in
his or her vehicle. It even recommends specific models at the dealership that the customer
could buy.
Hocking uses this information to tailor an
offer for a customer. He produces a printout
showing how much the customer's trade-in is
worth and suggesting some new models of interest.
"Did you know your vehicle is one of the
most desirable in the market?" he asks. "Can I
show you a buy bid?"
To make sure the service department buys
into the process, Brandon Honda pays a service adviser a $50 bonus if one of his or her
customers with an open repair order buys a
new or used vehicle from the dealership within three days.
In the past year, Brandon Honda has consistently sold 150 new vehicles a month out of
see SOFT, Page 31

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