Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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in the beginning viewpoints
What Type of Customer Loyalty Program Do You Use in the Service Department?
Jim Willoughby Fixed Operations Director Bill Barth Automotive Group
Mandan, ND
We use Ford Owner Advantage Rewards. Basically, customers get $100 from the sales department towards buying a vehi- cle. They also get $10 for a future service visit, and that's the kicker. Everything is for a future service visit. Five percent of what loyalty members spend in service goes towards their next visit as a discount. They can let that build and use it when they have a larger repair bill, or they can use it every time they come in. Also, when they buy four oil changes, the fifth one is free.
I've got folks coming in here with every vehicle they own, not just their Ford products, because of the owner loyalty program. My retention at this store is phenomenal, in the upper seventieth percentile. We also have a program called Auto Butler. When customers buy vehicles and purchase the Auto Butler program, they get postcards from me every six months to bring their cars back in for basically a complete detail.
C.J. Romig General Sales Manager Motor Werks Barrington, IL
We are pretty captive out here in Barrington, IL. Our customers love our service department big-time, but like most dealerships, customers do go astray sometimes. We initiated a free oil change program with our Infiniti franchise to get our "new" customers to come back and start the relationship with the service advisers. If that does well, then I will get that started in the other showrooms.
Also, we just started promoting our Motor Werks Savings Card which seems to catch the attention of most of our customers in our service department. [It's a] pretty
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straightforward program on taking advan- tage of good discounts that the customers are eligible [for] on service visits.
Mike Vogel Fixed Operations Director Carson Toyota - Scion Carson, CA
We feel it's very important that we offer a rewards program to our valuable customers to help us stay competitive in today's market. Customers can sign up to earn up to 5 percent of their customer pay invoice(s) that can be used towards future maintenance or repairs. They can also use their points towards a new or used car purchase.
Our program has been in place for about 18 months and we have over 1,300 customers signed up. To date, our customers have accrued over $40,000 in their rewards accounts and have redeemed over $12,000. Impact Dealer Services set up this program for us. Customers can view and redeem their rewards online or have us assist them when they visit our store. Our service reminders are personalized to show how much they have available to redeem. We consider our rewards program to be a win- win for our customers and our dealership.
Bob Bressi President College Hills Honda Wooster, OH
We give a three-punch oil change card to all [sales customers for] … the first three oil changes free. We then sell as an option a six-punch card at our cost, saving the customer almost half off the regular price. I have been doing this program since 1997. Being competitive in oil changes, you either have to lie in your advertising (bait and switch), sell at your cost or give it away. We choose the latter two. … This brings the customer to us for the oil changes, and we can recommend and upsell services at that
time. Our absorption is at 76 percent from the fixed operation.
Our customer retention is very high in sales as well. Our focus is on repeat and referral business and this certainly helps our service numbers. Our sales retention … is 55.6 percent, and the benchmark is 52.1 percent.
Stan Bostic Director, Corporate Part- ners and VIP Program Rick Case Automotive Group Fort Lauderdale, FL
We have a VIP Program for sales and service. It's all-inclusive. We develop corporate partnerships with organizations, corporations … the availability is no charge to those corporations. All we ask is that they give us the first look when they're in- terested in the automobiles we carry. With that, we give them a rewards and benefits program that has a value of about $2,200 when they purchase or lease a vehicle. We look at businesses that have 200 or more employees within their businesses, and we have approximately 130 of those busi- nesses in the south Florida area right now.
When they purchase a vehicle, they get a value points system, which is worth a dol- lar-value that they can use towards parts, accessories and service. Many times, that will cover their oil changes for three to four years of ownership of the vehicle. They can accumulate those points all the way up to accumulating enough points to put down a pretty healthy down payment on a vehicle. They get priority [service] appointments. We have a VIP lounge with TVs and computers, a barber shop and a café, so they can relax while they're having their cars serviced. We also have concierge service.
Go to www.AutoDealerPeople.com and tell us what you think.
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