Use Data to Get Service Drive Customers into the Showroom
45% of customers who service at a dealership bought not only the car they are servicing, but also previous vehicles at that dealership. This demonstrates how impactful it is to keep that sales-service-sales lifecycle churning. Don’t expect the remaining 55% of customers who come in regularly to stroll onto your showroom floor; you need to be proactive about your strategy to get them in the door.
The utilization of data-backed technology is taking on that challenge, allowing dealers to know more about their service customers, regardless of whether they bought their car in-house or not. And it is helping to consistently convert more repair orders into new car sales month after month. Having the relevant data on each customer so that you can engage with them at the right time and with messaging that will motivate them to take action is the key. Your team must know your service customers’ history with both your service and sales department, their buying motivations and why they’re considered “in-market”.
Dedicate Experienced Staff to Support This Process
This is one of the most common challenges when it comes to implementing a service-to-sales process. The person, or team, selected to manage the service-to-sales process needs to be ready to hear “no” a lot. Working the service drive is a numbers game. Service “ups” aren’t traditional “ups” and they need to be handled by people qualified and trained to handle them correctly. Some dealers start with one or two of their best salespeople, while others will utilize a combination of team members like a BDC.
Whoever you choose, their goals should be to:
- Review all upcoming service appointments for the next few days
- Identify the best prospects
- Be prepared to reach out to these prospects in advance of their appointment
Any process you implement needs to be measured against expectations in order to be successful. Set realistic goals and hold service drive sales meetings just like your save-a-deal meetings. The team should treat this like the critical business unit that it is.
Onboard a Data-Driven Sales Platform to Tie It All Together
This brings us to the final piece. The right data and technology can be the linchpin to your successful service to sales process. Sales platforms such as Market EyeQ have capabilities to give you access to information about your service customers like you’ve never had before. Visibility into your service customers’ contract data, service history, purchase history, behavior drivers and more enables you to market to service customers with the right messages. Market EyeQ gives you easy to understand critical insights and data, so when you are making outreach to service customers ahead of their appointments, you can understand their exact buying motives and can create an action-driving offer specific to them that you can actually honor.
Knowing when your customers are going to be in-market before they do is a very powerful advantage. Market EyeQ can enhance data you already have in your dealership to identify qualified customers when they arrive in the service drive and provide the sales team with actionable insights for that individual customer, including a soft credit pull and key selling points to help jumpstart the conversation.
