Five Rules of Engagement for Service Customers

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Your business is under attack and it's time to strike back.

Every day is a battle for online leads and brand awareness. Your competitors are using new online tools such as social media and search engines to advance on your customers. Your customers are rating your company and killing your reputation. You might even be your own worst enemy if you're simply not in the online marketing war.

You need your own specialized, covert digital force to give you air cover. A team that will support your ground troops. A team that will scout new social media marketing tactics and then leverage them to give you an edge.

We are that team. You will get an unfair digital advantage so you can maximize social media, dominate the search engines, protect your reputation and capture more sales.

If you would like more information about leveraging social media for mobile devices please contact TheDigitalCarGuy.com .

Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano

229.251.2462

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Leverage Mobile Devices with Facebook Deals

posted by Glenn Jimerson

March 31, 2011

When was the last time you left the house without your mobile phone? Today's consumer has more access to information than any group in history. In an instant, a person can grab a map to your business, peruse your reviews, and see deals your competitors are offering all from their smart phone. The dealership that successfully leverages mobile technology has an advantage in today's market because many companies are not aware of its potential. In this article we'll discuss how you can use mobile devices to help drive more customers to your showroom.

There are several players in the mobile space such as Facebook Places, Gowalla, Foursquare, and Google Latitude. These services enable people to broadcast to their social network where they are by "checking in" to a location. People are starting to make checking in a part of their daily routine. They check into restaurants, night clubs, and stores they frequent. For this tutorial we are going to focus on Facebook's popular Places service.

The first thing you need to do is claim your Facebook Places location. You can do that by following the instructions on Facebook's help page.

Facebook allows businesses to offer special "Deals" to people who check into their locations. This is indicated on their phone by a little yellow icon. When they select your dealership they will see an offer like this:

Offering Deals is useful for three reasons:

You create an incentive for an in-market customer to engage with your Facebook page. This engagement will allow you to reach them long after they have left the dealership.
Whenever a person redeems a deal, the details are posted to their Facebook "Wall" which in turn appears on their friend's "News Feed". This acts as a peer endorsement of your dealership as well as increases the visibility to potential new customers.
You can easily track the impact of this campaign.

Now that we know some of the benefits, it's time to follow Monte Hall's lead and "Let's make a deal". Once you have control of your Places location, navigate to the Admin area of your Facebook page and select "Deals" on the left-hand side. Click the link "Create a Deal for this Page >>". There are 4 different deals you can offer. The type of deal you select is important depending on your strategy.

Individual Deal

An individual deal works like a traditional coupon. Someone checks into your business and shows their phone to the service adviser or farther down the line at the cashier's desk.

An individual Deal is a great, straight-forward way to incentivize customer engagement with your social media account.

Friend Deal

A friend deal is only triggered when the number of people you specify check into your location. For example, you can create an offer that says check in with 3 friends and receive a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks.

The friend deal would be most beneficial for the new and used sales side of the business. People often bring friends and family when they go car shopping. Offering a Friend Deal leverages the social network of several people by incentivizing all of them to check in. So, the benefits of a Friend Deal are:

With multiple people checking into a location you've expanded the number of people who will see this announcement on Facebook.
The multiple check-ins creates greater social proof/reinforcement of the person's endorsement of your dealership. Think of it like a movie recommendation. If one of your friends says a move is good you'll consider watching it, but you may not take action since you aren't yet convinced it's worth the time. If 5 of your friends tell you a movie is good then you have multiple points of social proof backing up the claim which can tip the scales.

Loyalty Deal

As the name implies, you can offer a special deal for people who visit your location more than once. For example, on the 5th check-in receive 50% off your oil change. A popular tactic is to scale the value of the reward based on the number of check-ins. One thing to keep in mind is to take a look at their buying history to ensure they are indeed a loyal customer and not someone gaming the system.

Charity Deal

A Charity Deal is a powerful tool that can be used to reach a broad audience. For instance, some people wouldn't specifically shop at your location just because of a small monetary gesture like a $5 discount. But they would be willing to consider your establishment if that $5 was going to charity.

Take the recent disaster in Japan as an example. Everyone is touched by the post tsunami disaster they are enduring. This would be an excellent time to offer a deal where you will donate $5 to the Red Cross for every check-in. The customer, who previously did not distinguish between your service center and your competitors, now has an added incentive to choose you. Additionally, you can publically display your commitment to charity.

Tweak your Deal Settings for Maximum Control

Regardless of the type of deal you select, you can dictate the start and end date of the offer. You can also specify how many deals you are willing to honor. For example, can set the maximum number of redemption's to 500. Setting a cap is important if you are offering a steep discount or high dollar promotion. Limiting redemption's will ensure you won't lose your shirt if the viral nature of the campaign grows too fast. Finally, you can keep people from gaming the system by restricting the frequency of redemption. You can allow a customer one Deal redemption every 24 hours. Or, you can restrict it even further to one redemption per person for as long as the offer exists.

The Art of the Mobile Deal

Now that you know how to use each Deal, you can customize it for for your specific needs. If this is your first Deal, go with an Individual Deal. Friend Deals and Loyalty Deals require more leg work to administer. Finally, make sure to time Charity Deals for maximum exposure and the amount of good you can do for the cause.

The mobile phone is a powerful tool in the social media marketing space. Using Facebook Places is just one way to harness the power of mobile devices and social networks to drive real customers to your door. Companies that embrace this technology will have a clear advantage over the competition. The ability to reach a socially connected on-the-move customer base should not be underestimated. A person can reach out to the entire world from any place there is cell phone coverage. Give that person a reason to talk about you. Offering a Deal on Facebook Places is a great way to start.

If you would like more information about leveraging social media for mobile devices please contact TheDigitalCarGuy.com .

Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano

229.251.2462

http://www.autodealermonthly.com/63/4029/ARTICLE/Five-Rules-of-Service-Customer-Engagement.aspx

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Five Rules of Engagement for Service Customers

We started the New Year with the fewest number of new car dealers in decades. I believe the number is somewhere north of 18,000. This of course means there are now fewer dealers to provide warranty services as well as maintenance and mechanical repair services for customers. The question is will dealers aggressively go after customers or simply stand by waiting for them to show up? The latter option will most definitely provide the aftermarket competition with a significant pay raise. What is your marketing plan?

It's not good enough to just say, "Get more customers in the door." The basic principle for you to consider is what are you going to do with the customers when they do come in the door? The answer lies within the rules of engagement. These are basic rules that have been around for a very long time, yet some of them are either not being followed properly or not being used at all.

With that being said, what are the rules, and more importantly, why are they not being followed?

Rule #1: Offer an appointment to 100 percent of the incoming service calls. This certainly sounds simple enough, right? Why wouldn't you want to offer an appointment to every customer? Research shows that service advisors do not offer an appointment to 57 percent of their customers who are calling about a service concern or need. So, you initiate a marketing plan, the plan works well and the phones start ringing. Your service advisors answer the calls and six out of 10 callers are not given the opportunity to say "yes" to an appointment! Why?

The answer is your advisors have not been properly trained on how to sell appointments. This is why you should phone shop every advisor or start listening to recordings of incoming calls. The best solution is to take the incoming calls away from the service advisors and hire an appointment coordinator (with no bad habits) to take all incoming service calls.

Rule #2: Conduct a vehicle walk-around with the customer. This process is well received by the vast majority of your customers, yet far too many service advisors wait for the customer to come to them for the write-up. Why? Again, they probably have not been properly trained or, forgive me for being blunt, they are lazy!

Your service advisors must go to the vehicle with the customer, walk around the vehicle looking for obvious signs of needed maintenance, note any damages found and make service recommendations to the customer (wiper blades, light bulbs, alignments, tires, etc). It's also called selling. Your service advisors need to get the mileage reading anyway, so why not get the customer involved? Many service advisors consider themselves to be clerks versus salespeople. If you would like to know whether you have clerks or salespeople, just ask your advisors, or of course, you could track their performance every day.

Rule #3: Present a maintenance menu at the time of write-up. Nothing new here! Gosh, I even had menus to present back in the '70s when I was a service advisor. If you present menus in finance to increase your gross per retail unit, then why would you not present menus in your service department to increase your sales per repair order (RO)? Your F&I customers are not aware of all the products and services you may offer, so you present them with a menu.

The same holds true for your service customers, since most of them have no clue whatsoever about preventative maintenance requirements and/or recommendations. Clerks do not like presenting menus since it seems like they are trying to sell something, which of course clerks do not do. Professionally trained service advisors (salespeople) know that it is in the best interests of the customers to ensure their vehicles are properly maintained. In doing so, these salespeople will increase your hours per RO by about 0.3 hours.

Rule #4: Complete a vehicle health check (VHC) with every RO. Most dealers complete an inspection of some kind on every used vehicle before it's retailed. Why? My belief is that they want to make sure the vehicle is safe and reliable for their customers. They also would like to maximize their gross per retailed unit, and they value their reputation in the community. When the inspection is completed, the used car manager usually has the final say on what repairs will be made and approves the final cost.

Sound familiar? If so, then I'm sure you will agree that it's equally important for dealers to establish this rule for all of their service customers. After all, isn't it important to ensure the customers are driving safe and reliable vehicles? Wouldn't every dealer like to maximize their gross per RO and have a reputation in their community for providing excellent service? The process is the same for the service customer as it is for the used car manager. Inspect the vehicle, advise the customer on what's needed and present an estimate to the customer. Then, let the customer have the final say on what repairs or services need to be completed and approve the final cost.

Sounds like a simple plan to me. So, why do so many dealers fail to complete a VHC for their customers at no charge? Answer: the technicians do not want to perform the VHC because the service clerks won't sell (don't know how or don't want to) the recommended repairs or services. Properly present the results of the VHC to every customer, and watch your sales increase by another 0.7 hours per RO.

Rule #5: Conduct an active delivery of the vehicle back to the customer. "Mr. Customer, you're all set. The cashier has your keys and your final bill. Have a nice day." Have you ever heard that in your store? Is it the cashier's responsibility to explain the work that was completed and what the final costs are? I hope you said "No." Another way of explaining active delivery is valet service. Always bring the vehicle to the customer and never send the customer out the door to search for their vehicle.

The service advisor should review the three Cs on the RO (condition, cause and correction) with the customer, explain the costs and set their next appointment. If you are interested in saving some money, you might even consider eliminating the cashier's position and let the advisor perform that function too during the active delivery. Rule #5 will definitely have a positive effect on your CSI and owner retention

It is vitally important that every employee in your dealership understand what a "rule" is. Here is Dictionary.com's definition of rule: "A principle or regulation governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement, etc." Now that I have identified the five rules of engagement for your service team and customers, don't you think it's about time you held everyone accountable for following the rules?

Vol. 8 Issue 2

re-posted from

Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano

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Six Ways to Know If Your Teen Is Ready to Drive

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Before your teen asks you about getting a driver's license, parents can feel more comfortable addressing the issue if you consider the following six ways to know if your teen is ready to drive.

1. Good judgment is important. - Is your teen generally responsible? Does he or she show good judgment? This is important because of the necessity to make sound decisions during unpredictable situations that occur while driving - either from other drivers, passengers, pedestrians or other sources. If your teen lacks good judgment, experts recommend that you delay your teen getting a driver's license until he or she shows more signs of maturity. If you can delay your teen's driving until 17 or 18 instead of 16, this can make a huge difference.

2. Ability to resist peer pressure. - Can your teen resist peer pressure? Statistics of teens drinking and driving should be enough to frighten you. This is all the more reason why you want to ensure your child is able to resist challenges to drink and drive, to drive fast, take chances, stay out past curfew, and do other things that put your child and others in danger. Check out your teen's friends. Do they have good standards? Are they responsible? Do they behave well around your teen? If so, your teen probably behave in a similar manner. These are positive indicators that your teen may be ready to drive - if all other factors are appropriate.

3. Willingness to obey state driving laws - and your rules. - How receptive does your teen seem to be about obeying state driving laws? What about your rules? If your teen pledges to abide by the driving laws and your rules - and you believe he or she is sincere - that's a good start. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in teens. Each year, nearly 6,000 teens are killed and approximately 300,000 are injured in crashes. Become familiar with your state's graduated licensing system, one of the few things that have been proven to save teen lives.

4. Comfortable behind the wheel. - No doubt your teen has sat behind the wheel already, pretending to be driving, or asking if he or she can back the car out of the garage. The question is does your teen seem comfortable behind the wheel?

5. Understand what safe driving means. - Allstate Foundation research found that teens differentiate "good" and "safe" drivers. Teens consider a "good" disconnect in what teens think safe driving really is. Teens consider a "good" driver one who can handle a car at high speeds, while they believe a "safe" driver obeys all the rules. Which does your teen believe? Far too many teens are killed each year because they drive recklessly. Before you permit your child to get a driver's license, you should know if he or she understands what safe driving really means.

6. Ability to handle stress. - Along with good judgment, ability to resist peer pressure, willingness to obey driving laws and your rules, understanding what safe driving means and being comfortable behind the wheel, your teen also needs to be able to handle stress. How well does your teen handle anger or fear? These events elicit quick responses that can tell you whether or not your teen is ready to drive.

After going through these six ways to know if your teen is ready to drive, you should have a better idea if now is the time - or if holding off another year or so may be the wiser choice.

Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano

229.251.2462