Five Tips To Boost Success of Car Dealership Service Departments

Dealers who want to keep customer satisfaction scores and profits high in the service department need to take extra steps to welcome customers, according to automotive information technology provider CDK.

CDK’s market-trend study, “Five Service Features to Invest in Now,  is based on a survey of more than 2,000 active shopper respondents who patronized both dealerships and independent shops.

“Today’s customers come with new expectations,” Kim Saylor, CDK’s senior product marketing director for fixed operations, tells Wards.

Here are five actions dealers can take to win and keep service customers:

Offer Transparent Pricing

“No surprise here,” Saylor tells Wards, noting that price matters to shoppers across the board during inflationary times.

Many consumers perceive dealership service departments as charging more than independent shops. It’s not essential to offer the lowest prices, but it helps if the pricing is clear and transparent.

Although it’s tough to be penny-perfect on initial repair estimates, transparency is a crowd-pleaser.

Tout Factory-Trained Technicians and Certified Parts

This scored high across different age groups of polled consumers.

“It’s where dealers can win,” Saylor says. It’s a big advantage franchised dealers have over independent and chain service centers.

Survey respondents indicated how important both factory-trained mechanics and certified parts are, scoring them high on the “love-to-have” side (both at 41%).

Both scored the highest overall in the “hate-it-if-it-wasn’t-offered” category at 46% and 45%, respectively.

CDK recommends dealerships tout the high quality of their mechanics and parts in marketing materials, direct mail, email and on social media.

Provide Real-Time Mobile Updates

“This lets service customers step-by-step see the progress of the service work,” Saylor says of features such as digital progress bars and text-message updates.

Both types of updates found “a soft spot” among surveyed consumers, she says, adding that “more dealerships should be doing it.”

It also saves service representatives time because they don’t need to personally update customers.

Offer Data-Driven Personalized Offers

Nearly 50% of customers said they want timely, proactive reminders for vehicle maintenance updates.

Today’s service customers expect a level of personalization, Saylor adds.

Accordingly, service personnel can extract connected-car data from a vehicle and combine it with predictive information based on databases of repair records. Example: how long a particular vehicle model’s brakes typically last before needing work.

“It’s specific information,” Saylor says.

Furnish Dedicated Spots for Remote Workers – and Parents

In varying degrees, dealerships have accommodated remote workers for some time, realizing a service waiting area should include more than a vending machine and coffee.

Some dealerships offer full-fledged workstations with Wi-Fi, charging ports and semi-privacy. Others go the communal route.

And some service waiting areas include a place for children accompanying their parents.

Such kiddie spots aren’t a must, says Saylor. “But it’s a good idea to have charging ports for the children’s computer tablets to make both kids and parents happy.”