Marketing Service Dept

[flyboy]

Anybody have a really good marketing program? I have been using direct mail, service reminders, e-newsletters etc etc etc.

I would like to get in contact with someone who has some fresh ideas, or just help in developing a plan of marketing.

Anybody use such a thing? Recommendations?

[btk]

Flyboy,
The standard marketing ideas are proven and can work well and there are certain new, fresh ideas out there but it is my firm belief based on my personal experience that if you are not getting the response from your marketing ideas the problem is probably not the marketing but maybe something internally that is driving the low response.

But if you want a new/old idea. A short story should be told here, I worked for a dealer one time who let me be very creative and I bet him that I did not have to advertise for my service department for an entire year and that I would still maintain double digit RO and Gross growth. Besides the fact the I had the right people and solid processes in place, what I did was give away 20 services a month randomly-sometimes it was a major service sometimes a minor service, sometimes a brake job. I just based it on a few things-
1- Is the customer local?
2- The cost of the service?
3- Does the advisor know what the customer does for a living?-When the advisor calls the customer at the business number-who does he work for?

We did not miss a beat as far as growth and the advisors thought that it made an impact because they ended up talking about the program with other customers and we started seeing feedback that the word was getting out and we had alot of fun with it. We also made sure that the customer who had received the free service-we kind of made a mini-production of the active delivery-We had little gift cards made up for the customer and made sure that any other customer standing around waiting for their vehicle had heard the commotion.

Food for thought

[DealerProfit]

Flyboy,
I am using a system I installed at another store and it worked great. All electronic multiple vendors.
Eleads for all inbound service calls. they will sort out which are status and which are appointments. They control the appointment calls and get them on the schedule. I was shocked to see how this alone boosted my appointments.

Eleads for outbound 30 60 90 K service scheduling.

XTIME web based appointments the customer can schedule there own appointment on your website. The appointment loads directly into your CRM.

Auto Revenue for Email coupon firing. They can tailor to which customers you want on the drive. I personally hate to send discounts to people who are already coming to see me. They send to those who are not. The can also buy and purge lists to expand your base. I like this because it is fast. Two down days on the schedule and I start firing emails.

Call Bright so I can monitor telephone calls at will. I know who is saying what to whom.

Hope it helps. If you want contact info let me know

[PHoskins]

Flyboy
Are you looking for marketing ideas or advertising ideas? There is a difference.
With marketing you put your focus towards areas where people are looking for your service. With advertising it is more towards put your name anywhere, ie valu-pak coupons. Things that work for some do not work for others. You will probably need to try several different things and monitor what works best for you.

[parnotte]

I use a company called Dynatron for all my service reminders, bulk email, and auto calls. We send reminders for everything, about 4000 per month. My cost is still less than half of what a Newgen would charge. I have complete control. Customers love it. Email blasts support mailings. Worth looking into.

------------------

[topshop]

Sometimes the best program is one that you create...aided by a reasonable amount of experience and common sense.

For a fresh approach at our shop we listed every marketing idea that we could think of...3 pages, single spaced, one idea per line.

Then we separated them by cost....free (or nearly free), low, middle, high. The list of free and low cost was huge and gave us a long to do list that requires more effort than dollars. No one idea makes a massive difference, but together a few dozen free or low cost ideas add up nicely.

------------------
Tom Ham
AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com