I have witnessed a lot of Service Advisors in many situations over my years of travel.  Some of these situations are funny to the Service Advisors, some sad, a lot are unbelievable and some just right down scary.  The scary ones are the interesting ones because they encompass such a wide range of things.  I myself have found myself in some of these same situations when writing service. 

I remember sitting in a van to get the mileage, feeling hot breath on the back of my neck and turning around to find my face inches away from a growling Doberman Pincher.  That was scary.  I once saw a 300 pound Service Advisor run the mile in two seconds flat when he sat in the vehicle of his girlfriend to get the mileage and discovered his wife in the passenger seat.  That was scary too, for him.

But one thing that universally seems to scare the living daylights out of every Service Advisor and most Service Managers is the customer who shows up in a vehicle that was bought used from their Used Car Department.  The only thing worse than that, is if the vehicle is not the same manufacturer type as the ones’ the Dealership they work in sells.  Why all of the fear?

Service Advisors and their Managers fear these customers because they are put in the middle of a situation that can quickly become heated, costly and even physically confrontational – and that’s just the Used Car Department verses the Service Department.  Put the customer in the middle and it even gets uglier or at least that is what the Service Personnel fear.

However, in most of these situations the exact opposite is the reality.  In fact, Craig Braunagel, the Fixed Operations Director at Weidner Chevrolet in Anderson, Indiana, says that he finds the used vehicle customer to be among his best.  He said, “Outside the fact that these customers tend to need more services earlier in their purchase due to their vehicles starting out with miles already on them, we find them to be excited about coming to the Dealership.  Part of our vehicle delivery when a customer purchases one from us is to walk the customer through the Service Department and get them familiar with it, at the conclusion of the walk we set up the customer’s first service appointment.  We do this with all of our customers not with just the new vehicle purchasers. We don’t care what they buy, Honda, Nissan, Ford or whatever.  All vehicles need to be maintained and sometimes repaired.  We sell everything and work on everything and our customers love it. Although most of my Technicians can work on a variety of makes, I have three Technicians that specialize in being versatile and can work on anything.”

He continued with “I believe our used car customers like coming back to us for service for the same reasons that our new car buyers do.  They already have a relationship with the person who sold them the car, they have a friend in the business office, they have met some of the sales management staff and they have met and set an appointment with one of our Service Advisors.  They are familiar and comfortable with us and us with them”.

Used Vehicle Service customers can also being highly profitable.  Although my experience has taught me that most dealerships do very little to develop this part of their customer base and in most cases actually shun it, I have worked with a few that see the bigger picture.  Service Director Mike Mamic of Santa Margarita Ford is one of these.  Mike and his staff find the Used Car Customer to be easier to work with overall. “Think about it, when a customer invests in a brand new vehicle they simply do not understand if something breaks even when it is covered under warranty and it is free!  They tend to be the tougher customer.  Our Customers are smart.  They know they have bought a used car, that it has miles on it and that it is going to need more maintenance and repairs sooner then if they purchased a brand new one”

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“I do not fear these customers because I trust my Used Vehicle Sales Manager.  He has years in the business and when he puts a vehicle on our lot it is always one that he is willing to stand behind.  Plus we inspect every vehicle prior to it going on the lot so we know what we are working with.”

From a financial standpoint Mike also told me that his department’s average customer paid parts and labor dollars per repair order for a new car buyer over the first two years of ownership is $235 per ticket while his used car customers will generate an average of $395 customer paid parts and labor per repair order in the same time frame.  That is 40% more per customer paid repair order.  Think about it, at these numbers if you were to add just 25 of these vehicles a month to your shop that would be an additional $9,975 per month for a total of $118,500 a year. 

Trying something new can sometimes be as scary as a Doberman Pincher breathing down your neck or even your own spouse.  But often times something that we think sounds scary at the onset turns in to be something that is a blessing in disguise.  I don’t know about you but I can be pretty brave and face my fears if it means getting a customer in the door that may spend 40% more per sale. I am not saying that this will be everybody's result that pursues this, but leaders like Craig and Mike have at least proven it is possible.

Jeff Cowan

President

Jeff Cowan's PRO TALK®, Inc.

Copyright 2005, all rights reserved.

Fixed Ops Magazine, October 2005