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

[Think Now 2009]

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

[Old Irish]

My, my....such melodrama !

The author of the letter is summarily condemning the product while missing the real issue: sales practices and techniques.

We all know that overselling, strong-arming, and misrepresenting a product or service is a sure way to make enemies and lose customers. However, there's no reason "flush" services can't or shouldn't be sold....if presented properly and performed properly, and on the right vehicles.

There will always be some old school, hit-n-run, rape-n-pillage advisors out there. You guys know the type: they look like heroes to the SM and DP until the complaints start rolling in.

But, really, haven't most of us moved beyond that? Don't most of us know and understand the old adage "You can shave a sheep a hundred times but you can only skin him once"? This is 2009, after all, not 1979.

And let's not forget the additonal pressure fixed ops and, by proxy,the advisros, are under these days to keep the old ship afloat. Yeah....let's hold their toes to the fire for gross profits but then add the proviso " Flush services are history. Make up for the lost gross with wiper blades and batteries." Yeah, right.

Adding a bit of sour grapes here, does the author of this letter also condemn all the upsells in the F&I office? Credit insurance, life insurance, road hazard protection, service contracts, paint sealants, nitrogen filled tires, window etching, etc etc?

Maybe if could open the attachments I might gain some different insight on the author's concerns. As it stands, though, I think he's reacting and not thinking, and I'm not nearly ready to agree.


Cheers
DD

[nineball]

These position letters are a little touchy in the market right now.Toyota also took a position on nitrogen tire fills because some people sell it as better fuel mileage(which may or may not be true)i havent seen any better mileage out of my car,but what about selling on the truth.The truth is nitrogen is more stable and dryer so i see less problems with air pressures and tire sensor lights.As for flushes i and apparently Toyota think they have some place or they wouldnt use instructions with pumps,racks etc..instructing the tech to flush the system,i agree there is a fine line on this one but lets not forget Toyota doesnt have tire balance or alignment in their recommended,Does that mean we shouldnt sell them ?? The truth is the manufacturers are battling for the right to say they have the lowest cost of ownership and selling cars to them is their number one position today...i guess they forgot parts and service is what pays their bills to (not just the dealers)Irish is correct,there will always be those rapist advisors out there but as Directors it is our responsibility to manage them.

[capsgs]

You know the Factories should just stay out of the retail end of the business. While I do support the notion that you can't take advantage of your customers, there is some value in doing certain services that are not recomended by the factories. I have no problem presenting those items for what they are to customers. The factories want to condemn your method of increasing profits while they charge what they do for parts. Maybe we could make it up on batteries and wipers if they weren't so overpriced to start with.

[TheOne]

Who ever sent the email has summarily dismissed "flushes" as snake oil, and those selling them as crooked. I am no advocate of direct spiff to the emloyees by any vendor, but refuse to throw the baby out with the bath water.

It is no secret that an out of balance PH in the cooling system will create an electrical charge in a cooling system. It is also no secret that the weaker of two metals at a bimetal connection will be suffer electrolysis caused exclusively by the out of balance PH. I have seen many Dodge intake bolts rusted away because of this issue. Similarly it is also no secret that 6.0 and 6.4 Ford diesels as well as 6.7 cummins diesels plug intake and EGR passages with slugde and coking caused in no small part because of poor design. Chemical flushes effectively and economically solve each of these issues.

For the manufacturers to point fingers of dishonesty into the dealerships in a wholesale fashion is in my opinion the pot calling the kettle black. I have also been made aware from high level sources that several of the manufacturers have had discussions with several of the flush companies to relabel existing flush products for the express purpose of selling as OEM products. One only has to look as far as the relationship of Chrysler with Wynn to verify this as truth.

Sounds to me like just another factory fool making sweeping judgements about an entire segment of our business based on the example of a small minority of dishonest dealer employees. Probaly the same guy that we support by paying too much money for an inferior product as we buy truckloads of OEM bedliners.

[sermgreby]

I remember several years ago GM issued a bulletin on Dealerworld advising that they do not recomend cleaning fuel injectors. The same day they issued a bulletin stating they were having driveability problems due to injectors clogging up.

In my opinion there are two reasons they do not want us to service fluid systems, clean injectors, etc., 1. They do not make money on it when we purchase BG of MOC products and 2. They want to use the minimal maintenance requirements as a marketing tool to sell their vehicles.

[arnien]

Here's the other side of the coin. Our company banker has a diesel pickup, and very often pulls a large horse trailer. He came in for a trann7y service, a few days later he saw me and said the next time his tranny needs serviced, he was taking it somewhere that did a flush. He believed, and rightly so, that by dropping the oil pan, changing the filter, then putting in 6 quarts of fluid, that the old fluid was just getting diluted

[djs]

old irish should know that the letter was sent by factory higher ups out of the corporate offices not some service director somewhere.

[ZOOM1]

I see nothing wrong in many of the flushes being used,as long as they are presented correctly as a preventative maintenence program, and not pushed every 20,000 miles.I have seen tranny fluid with 50,000 miles on it that looks horendous-I wouldn't want it in MY vehicle !It has been proven that dirty fuel injectors cause oprerational problems,as well as old coolant.Don't forget-the manufacturers just want the vehicle to make it out of warranty-then they make more selling replacement parts, or replacement vehicles than they do selling preventative maintenance.

[cantfind12]

As the cosmic tumblers of my life fail to click into place I realize I am comforted in the fact they are never supposed to. If I had a dime for every factory or independent juxtaposition on recommended whatever....well you know the rest. I have found although the technology changes the understanding of the science changes the thing that matters most is to believe you honestly care and what you are selling (or in some cases not selling) is an honest emotion and a feeling of benefit to people you care about.

I grew up in this business and my bias reflects that, however, I still beleive there are good people out there (like most of you on this site or we wouldn't be having this discussion) that care about their customers the same way they want their Doctor to care about them.