Are We Flushing Our Customer's Away????

Are We Flushing Our Customer's Away????

Postby Think Now 2009 » Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:05 pm

This was an e-mail sent to all Dealers and General Managers by a Vehicle Manufacture recently, Please give me an opinion of these comments!
ATTN: ALL DEALER PRINCIPLES AND GENERAL MANAGERS

Over the past 60 days, I have heard from many of you about the volatility of service traffic you have experienced recently. While none of us has all of the answers, I am sending this letter to each of you as a call to action. Each of you on this distribution list have either your name on the building, your family's financial futures invested in the business or you are running the day-to-day operation for your owner. I cannot say the same for the people making the decisions on what is sold to YOUR customers on the service drive. Don't get me wrong, they are great people that in some cases are retaining enough gross to keep the lights on every day.

However, I am asking that each of you become personally involved in ensuring that only factory recommended maintenance is sold to your customers. These are challenging times and customer retention is more critical than ever. We can't afford to lose potential future vehicle sales because an advisor being paid a $20 spiff by BG or MOC sells a flush to an unsuspecting customer. Are you aware of the percentage of your service grosses associated with flushes? If you don't, please ask your Service Manager. Are you aware of how much your advisors and management are compensated by these 3rd party vendors? If not, you should ask. I am not asking you to reduce your grosses in your service department. Every day, brakes, batteries, filters, wipers and other recommended maintenance items go unsold because the customer was "flushed". In addition, 70% - 80% of the customers you sold to do not come back for service. Why? Read Attachment #4 for a possible answer.

---------------- has not validated any of the 3rd party flushes as providing your customers any real benefit. In fact in many cases it causes long term damage which is not covered by our warranty. But don't take my word for it. I have attached (4) related articles that validate my recommendation.

Attachment #1 Position Letter from Toyota on flushes
Attachment #2 Position Letter from Ford on flushes
Attachment #3 Article from an industry service leader, ATcon.
Attachment #4 - One of several articles written on flushes. This one is likely the most impactful. Please read.

As I stated earlier, we have addressed this issue before with most of your Service teams. The decision whether or not to "flush your customers" is up to you. I strongly encourage you to investigate the content of your scheduled maintenance bundles, the price points they are being offered and ask yourself if your customers are being sold something they don't need.

I appreciate your time and consideration of this important action. Have a nice weekend.
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Think Right Now


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Think Right Now
Think Now 2009
 

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