Chris Collins and Christian Lafferty discuss two ways auto dealerships could boost business: a FastPass-style expedited service option, and IHOP-style PR tactics like topical press releases, blogs, and local sponsorships. Both could increase customer loyalty and revenue without changing the core business.
So the, so the first strategy that we are pulling from another industry that we're curious, how would we make it work in the service world? Automotive service, specifically dealerships, which will be around for at least the next few years.
Is, is there any way we could incorporate.
Disney's use of the Fast Pass into service departments?
Okay, so would customers pay for.
Expedited.
Service, FastPass for service?
Yes, but I don't think that you have to charge it separately. You can just raise your rates.
Just because we've learned we tried to charge customers for pickup and delivery and it always became this weird hang up.
Yeah.
And when we just put it in the price.
It felt like to them it was just added value because they really had no concept what the cost of an alignment was anyway. Most customers don't shop the price.
Right.
And even if they did, then they had a choice. Go with somebody whose prices are a little bit higher but they're going to pick it up and it's hassle free or go, you know, wait in line and deal with, with that. So in, in our experience, just raising your prices and building it in and using it as added value is, is more effective. But yes, we can learn from that.
But whenever we've charged for the valet, it's, it's harder than if it's just included.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
I don't know, I feel like there might be a, there might be a market for someone that would pay to be at the front of the line. Maybe it depends on the brand.
Well, like for example, in Illinois we tried that, right? Land Rover.
Yep.
Goes all, all those states go to Indiana. Yeah, Indiana. Ton of customers in Indiana, downtown Chicago, all over the place. When you would charge, nobody would do it. They just always felt weird about it. They would, they would pay it or whatever. But it just was weird when you just said, yeah, we're going to come get it. And then you have it captive and then you tell them, hey, you know the hours pero on those was like five, five or six and a half. Right. So if your labor rate is 120 versus 140, it. It's not that big of a deal to the overall transaction of a Land Rover or whatever it is now. You know, you got Brian Benstock with Honda. His average ticket is double what everybody else's is by picking up. So it pays for itself, right?
Yeah, for sure. And then just your, your reach that you're getting, retention, everything like that, like you're definitely the, you're at the forefront.
But I don't know if it'd work in Minnesota, you can always ask Paul. Paul, the president of the National Dealer Disassociation.
The Negative Automotive disassociation.
All right, so fast pass. Interesting. I like it. What about the way that the International House of Pancakes really just created a lot of buzz about themselves for no reason, just other than changing their name, they think that any news is good news. What can we learn from that in the service department?
To be topical, have a PR agency and be doing press releases especially, you know, even online, just having a blog and having your SEO working.
Certain media outlets will just pick that up. They're always spidering and looking for new things. And so your local media will pick up those sort of things.
Yeah.
And so just being topical and announcing what you're doing, even if to us it seems boring, it's interesting to the outside world. Especially like, you know, let's say you, you're hiring and nobody else is. Or let's say that you are expanding or doing a remodel. Any, anything that you do, if you add 50 loan cars to your fleet, whatever it is, it's, it's topical and telling everybody what you're doing.
Yeah, I've seen this a couple of times where I've seen service managers write for like the town newsletter. Have you seen that before? I've seen a couple of service managers where they have like a auto corner and then they just put it. They just every month they write a little blurb. It's a little three paragraph thing. And then at the end of it, you know, if you need service on your vehicle, please call. Blah, blah, blah. Just that little outreach where they're not really expecting anything in return. I think, I think sponsorship. I see a lot of dealers doing sponsorship events for schools and athletic events and stuff like that. I think that that helps. It's just having the name somewhere where it's always in the back of people's subconscious is a really good way to do that. I think we can learn a lot from the IHOP model.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers dot. Chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers dot chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in.
The next video sa.
