Tech To Transform Used Car Business In Next Five Years

Car Showroom
Used car retailers will see online auctions overtake physical sales, franchised dealers will take an even bigger part of the market, sales systems will have to be far more integrated and digital-only dealerships will begin to replace forecourts – all within the next five years.

These are some of the predictions from NextGear Capital, part of the Cox Automotive group, which has funded more than £2 billion of used car business since 2014. MD, Liam Quegan, and sales and marketing director, Pam Halliday, said the landscape will fundamentally change for retailers by the mid-2020s.

One development is that franchised dealers will continue their expansion into the sector to counter falling revenue and margin with new cars, devoting more resources and forecourt space and setting up more supermarkets.

Pam said:

“The used car market is heating up at the same time dealers’ ability to turn a decent profit from new cars is receding so we’ll see franchise dealers sharpen their focus on their used offer both in terms of an increased and diversified used car stock holding and online showrooms, but also the rollout of more car supermarket-style dealerships from established names.”

A huge shift will be the expansion of online auctions as dealers come to trust the quality of the stock they can buy. Liam said:

“The volume of stock bought via online channels will overtake that bought through physical auctions. We’re already seeing this shift of course, but the trend is set to accelerate exponentially as existingchannels mature, new services come to market and buyers generally learn to trust the quality and providence of the stock they buy. New upstream services from the OEMs and big lease companies will change the way dealers buy cars forever.”

Online-only used car retailers

 

Building on this, dealers will also have to use and be able to use more integrated services. Liam added:

“The ability to view a car in detail and interrogate its provenance digitally, buy it, move it via an Uber-style transportation service, publish it to your own retail website and trigger marketing actions, all via a few taps and swipes on your smartphone is around the corner. Combining that with AI that finds the most time or cost-effective option for each stage automatically will offer significant gains for dealers. Most notably this will be in terms of accelerating the process and reducing days to sell but also through simplified admin and better-informed decisions.”

Finally, the power of the internet will move to its inevitable conclusion and we will see the arrival of online-only used car retailers.

Liam said:

“We’ve already seen this concept teased by a number of start-ups and established businesses; it’s a definite feature of our future. Online shopping is now the norm in most aspects of our lives and it’s logical this will apply to used cars too. The argument against is cars are a big ticket and emotive purchase, and in the used market, a physical inspection is necessary to be sure everything is as described. But with improved photography and digital evidence, user reviews that provide reassurance, and water-tight return and refund processes, it’s entirely feasible we’ll see used car dealers without a physical retail presence make their mark.”

 For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via[email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

Click Dealer Launches Subprime Finance Paid Social Leads Service!

Click Dealer has had great success managing some of the UK’s biggest bad credit finance companies and we want to offer you a chance to take advantage of our expert services with our new Subprime Finance Social Media Package.

Our Subprime Finance Leads package is tailored specifically for dealerships that offer car finance to customers with low credit ratings. We can help you generate leads from social platforms such as Facebook with a wide range of adverts. This package does not include everyday engagement posts, and instead solely focuses on ads.

After careful research and analysis, our social media experts create targeted and relevant adverts, that reflect your brand and style. Canvas ads are a relatively new tool in Facebook marketing, they allow you to display, text, video, and photos. This can help massively increase engagement and reach.

Benefits of Subprime Finance Paid Social
  • Increase your lead generation
  • Improve your brand awareness
  • Lower cost per lead than PPC
  • Leads are sent to you directly
  • Features re-targeting and look-a-like campaigns
  • Sponsored Inboxes which uses Facebook Messenger adverts
  • Quality outbound social media adverts including Canvas ads, carousels and boosted posts
Monitoring Performance

Any advert that we run for you will be closely monitored, if the ad is underperforming, we will make changes to the targeting to achieve better results. The benefit of Facebook adverts over traditional advertising is that you only spend money when they make an impression. We will cover the ad spend which is included in your package and strategically use it to generate the highest amount of leads possible.

Click Dealer is dedicated to improving your company’s chances of obtaining business and raising brand awareness and we know that one of the best ways of doing this is promoting your name and business through social media marketing! Tap into the modern consumer market and make a memorable impression that we know can lead to an increase in leads, and therefore profit.

We will also provide you with monthly reports to give you an overview of your performance. These reports will show you how much engagement your ad campaigns receive, the extent of your reach (audience size) and follower demographics, allowing you to clearly visualise how our social media efforts are contributing to your brand awareness goals.

Tap into the modern consumer market and make a memorable impression that will generate you more enquiries.

If you’re still not sure about our Paid Social Media Management service, we’d be happy to discuss this with you in more detail and answer any questions. Request a callback via our contact us page or get in touch on 01782 478220 or via [email protected].

Click DMS Could Cure Your Office Headaches By Saving You Time And Money

DMS
The foundation of Click Dealer has always been its award-winning Dealer Management System (DMS). The DMS is a comprehensive product that offers dealers a one-stop shop to manage their full administrative workload online. Time is vital to all of us, and if you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, Click Dealer can help.

Click DMS can streamline your processes, meaning less time spent in administrative monotony and more time spent selling and driving profits for your dealership. You can design branded invoices digitally and print them off, add stock individually or in bulk, and track expenses and suppliers. Just to name a few. All Click Dealer customers receive some form of a back-office system.

We asked Crompton Motors if they found Click DMS saved them time:

“It does, without a doubt otherwise you’re using a book and you’d write everything manually. I do my invoices electronically through Click and it saves a lot of time. You can run a VAT return so that’s saving on an accountant too, you don’t have to involve an accountant with your VAT return you just press a button and it does it for you!”

Easy To Use

Through the Click Dealer DMS dealers can manage their online advertising and web presence. Using a simple DVLA lookup tool to enter the registrations of your vehicles, all dealers then need to do is populate their adverts with the required fields. This makes adding images, price, mileage and key features to the vehicle incredibly easy and ensures that it is ready to be advertised online.

Rather than wasting time uploading vehicles to third-party advertising platforms, ClickDMS does it for you automatically. Click Dealer has licenses to feed to the majority of leading vehicle portals including AutoTrader, Motors, eBay motors, Car Gurus and many more.

Scottish Dealership A.G. Lee’s said:

“Everything is right there in front of you. Before I had to load everything onto AutoTrader and load it all onto our website, it’s basically halved that. The dealer management system has made the process lots quicker. The system is very easy, I can have all the paperwork for customers finished very easy.”

Stock Management

Click DMS is broken down into four main categories; Stock Management, Lead Management, Sales Process & KPI Reports. Under the stock management umbrella, dealers will find features such as the DVLA lookup, stock book, document Upload, prep schedule, purchasing costs and collections diary. All of these features combined help dealerships to manage the day-to-day processes for vehicles in stock.

Lead Management

Managing stock is all well and good, but if there are no leads coming into the business, the stock management tool isn’t going to be needed for very long! This is where the lead management section comes into play. Lead management is all about generating more revenue for your business. Running alongside your existing marketing campaigns, Click Dealer gives businesses an added boost with features such as automated enquiry replies, both lead source and lead geo-tracking and much more.

Sales Process

Once the lead has been triggered, this then brings in the sales process section to help dealers out along the way. Customers will fill out an online finance application which lands handily in the Click DMS and allows dealerships to process the deal. Click’s DMS provides features such as the deal stacker, taking payments and recording them digitally, part-exchange valuations and has the ability to seamlessly add any part ex-changed vehicles into your stock after the deal is completed.

Reporting

The fourth and final category of the Click DMS is KPI Reports. What use is purchasing a vehicle, generating the lead and selling it, if you cannot view how much profit you made from it? Well, Click Dealer has got this covered too! With the help of sales margin and forecast reports, lead source and conversion rates, VAT & Gabriel reports as well as make/model analysis for vehicles sold, these powerful tools give a complete insight into how dealerships are performing, enabling businesses to make informed decisions and saving them valuable time when it comes to end of year reports.

Angus MacKinnon found the reporting side of our DMS to be vital in increasing their profitability:

“The reporting systems are very clear and concise which gives you the option to extract the vehicles we think are going to move quicker. The detail is great and you can concentrate on the more profitable lines which is in the helpful report that Gerry sent to us.”

It would be easy to talk about the benefits of Click DMS all day, especially with some fantastic new changes coming this summer for both new and current customers to appreciate. If you have any further question’s about ClickDMS or would like a free demo, please contact us at [email protected] or by using our contact page.

Auction Volumes To Stabilise In June

ULEZ AUCTION SALE
Auction houses expect to see volumes stabilise next month as the impact of reduced new car registrations in April and May and the fewer part-ex vehicles traded feed through to the supply of used stock.

Many experts forecast that diesel values will continue their slide but those for petrol cars and vans will remain broadly the same as now, as will those for hybrid and electric vehicles.

In contrast, consumer demand for cleaner and lower emission vehicles could well push up values of Euro 6 compliant cars.

The data comes from the National Association of Motor Auctions, whose Head, Louise Wallis, said:

“NAMA members are expecting used car volumes to stabilise in June, due to a lower number of new car registrations in April and May which led to a reduced number of cars coming through to remarketing centres from dealers and fleets.”

She said almost 30% of members are expecting volumes to drop or stay the same and almost half predict diesel values to fall. More than half say petrol values are set to remain steady but only 12% reckon they will rise. Auction houses say AFV prices are probably set to stay the same as now.  A large majority – 70% – say average age and mileage should remain steady through June.

Euro 6 compliant vehicles to get ULEZ boost

However, increased awareness of cities following London’s lead in enforcing Ultra Low Emission Zones – Birmingham and Leeds start theirs in January – will focus demand on Euro 6 vehicles and 40% say values will go up accordingly with half saying they will at least remain at current levels.

Louise added:

“The auction market appears to be stable even though car values have been softening in recent weeks. Vehicles which are presented well and competitively priced are still in demand to fill dealer forecourts.  Any decline in vehicle values should be seen in the context of very strong prices over the past year, which could not continue at those levels without some correction.”

BCA’s latest Pulse report shows that the headline used car value went up last month, to an average of £9,262. Fleet and lease values averaged £11,370, up £407 year on year, dealer part-ex values rose slightly from May 2018 (by £159) but the cars coming through were younger with mileage and age dropping. The rising values of nearly-new vehicles continued during May, with values averaging £21,579, up by £1,549 (7.6%) from a year ago.

 For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via[email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

Second Hand Prices To Stabilise With Diesel Holding Strong

Diesel
Prices in the used sector are going through a period of correction after petrol was boosted to a peak last summer but the market should stabilise going ahead and diesel becomes relatively more attractive, an analyst has said.

Andrew Mee, head of forecast at cap HPI, said prices have been “volatile” for the past couple of years with petrol values being boosted since early 2017.

“In mid-2018 used petrol values were very strong and up about 5 or 6% for a car of the same age/mileage profile of a year before. This followed the anti-diesel sentiment which began in early 2017 and then a shortage of supply around WLTP last autumn.

“However, over the past nine months or so petrol values have fallen more than diesel and what we have been seeing is a market correction. There may be a slight drop overall in the next six months because there often is in the second half of a year but our forecast is that prices for both fuel types will stabilise from now.

“We think the fall from last year’s peak has pretty much run its course and we are not far off the point where prices will stabilise for both petrol and diesel. We probably won’t see the fluctuations up or down we’ve had over the past 18 months.”

Diesel vehicles will hold their value and appeal

Andrew also said that second-hand diesel vehicles may, in fact, gain more momentum and that bigger MPVs should also get a boost.

“Looking ahead, we think diesels will be strong in holding their value and appeal. We are probably about a year away from diesel supply being significantly hit by the switch in the new market but buyers in the used market will always want their fuel economy benefits and so we don’t see diesel values falling off a cliff.

“Looking at the various sectors, we also see MPVs finding favour because there are not many new seven seaters being built apart from big and expensive SUVs. We are already seeing MPVs like the Ford Galaxy or SEAT Alhambra do well as family vehicles and as supply slows so their values will hold up well.”

 For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via[email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

The Benefits of Using PPC Advertising For Your Business

PPC
It is vital that dealers are aware that PPC should be considered a huge part of their digital marketing activity but they shouldn’t throw all their eggs in one basket. PPC works best when it is planned to work as part of a fully comprehensive strategy and not used in desperation to chase sales aimlessly.

That said, PPC does have numerous specific benefits which can prove effective too, such as:

Highly-targeted website traffic – Providing varying ad copies for unique keywords and demographics should dramatically enhance the calibre of traffic to your website.  Dealers can target the best sales periods with PPC ads and select which specific regions to run them in.

Speed to market – PPC ads can be launched quickly, unlike SEO, bringing in targeted traffic and qualified leads straight to your website.

Maximise the Return on your Marketing Investment – The only time you’ll pay for PPC is when an advert is clicked. This makes it easy to keep on top of your costs, work out your ROI and monitor conversions. In order to compare your dealership’s PPC campaign with other marketing strategies, cost-per-conversions are supremely valuable. If data is reported correctly then campaign results can be monitored meticulously.

Reach – Extra traffic can be diverted to your website, increasing your online visibility and ensuring that your dealership establishes itself as an industry leading example.

Testing capabilities – PPC serves as a wonderful way of running low-risk testing for keywords. This helps to determine whether a full site optimization campaign is necessary and indeed worthwhile. It’s also perfect for A/B testing on landing pages. Allowing dealers to direct traffic to various pages on their site to test which ones have the highest conversion rate.

Additional benefits of PPC

Coherence – Dealer’s search marketing communications become rationally connected when using PPC as a strategy.

Consistency – SEO & PPC are not contradictory to one another. Rather both methods are used to support and reinforce the other.

Continuity – Over a duration of time search communications are linked together.

Complimentary – These two search communication channels work better in tandem than they do individually.

What is Best PPC Practice

When possible, all dealer’s PPC campaigns should adhere to best practice so as to ensure the highest possible chance of success. Below are some opportunities to capitalise on best practice.

Keywords

• A mix of generic, long tail, product specific.

• GEO modified keywords.

• Negatives used to ensure incredibly targeted campaigns.

• Fresh keywords will be added regularly based on the search query report.

Adverts

• Every Adgroup will consist of three live adverts.

• Each advertisement will include differing CTA’s and USP’s.

• Adverts with the poorest CTR/Conv rate should be changed and replaced with a new alternative.

Match Types – Mixture of broad, phrase and exact match. Phrase and exact match help to make sure that dealer’s campaigns are targeted and broad match expands reach.

Structure – Number of campaigns depends on the budget and marketing objectives. Click Dealer would generate several AdGroups to ensure keywords are grouped into relevant themes. This then has a huge impact on CTR.

Deep Linking – Adverts and keywords are deep linked to ensure the best possible user journey. This is imperative to achieve the best possible conversion rate.

What Makes a Great PPC Advert?

Advert Title – Wherever possible the advert title should mirror the keyword phrase that has been searched or at least feature the keywords.

URL – The actual destination URL should be reflective of the page URL the customer expects to land on. It may be a trimmed down URL  and may not be the URL the end user ultimately lands on. However, the shortened URL should exist and work.

Description – This should be relevant to the search and it should accurately describe the page/product. At the very least tempt the end user towards the page in an honest and relevant way.

Contextual Information – Includes more useful information that Google decides to display that gives the end user further reason to consider clicking. This could be the number of ‘+’ the website has on Google+, the number of reviews or ratings or could even be site links.

Key Elements to Make a Great Landing Page

Page Title – When a potential customer lands on a page they assess whether they are in the right place or not. They need to clearly see that the webpage will help them achieve their purpose. The title of the page (and the landing page URL) will be a vital marker that an end-user will look at to ascertain whether the page is relevant for them.

Imagery – High calibre imagery is essential when looking at the standard and relevance of the product. For browsers looking to buy on dealer websites, the imagery on the page is often the initial thing they assess when determining if they have landed in the right place and with the right dealer.

Description – Just as with the PPC advert itself, the dealer’s description is very important for a potential client to identify if they are in the right place. The description should effectively describe the vehicle and its features or benefits, without being too wordy if possible.

Call to Actions (CTAs) – Potential leads need to be able to take some form of action if they believe that the website was useful to them. Especially if they’ve got the information that they came for. Often this will be a big button to “buy” or “add to basket”. But for a car dealer, this might be buttons such as “contact us”, “arrange a test drive”, or any other action that helps sell the car.

Find Out More

Click Dealer are experts in automotive retail marketing and offer a variety of PPC packages to suit dealerships of all types. Whatever your ambition, Click has the product to suit your aspirations. Contact [email protected] for more details.

New Car Buyer Secrets Exposed To Help You To Adapt In 2019

Car Sales
A recent survey conducted by Carwow, focusing on the car buying public shows that certain assumed knowledge about automotive retailing might not be based on reality.

To gain a better understanding of how consumers make their new car buying decisions, extensive research and data were analysed and from it, Carwow head of manufacturer partnerships, Phil Davies came to these conclusions…

A Difference of Decades

The average age of the new car buyer is 55. Meanwhile, the average age of someone who is working in the dealership is 34. There will be a significant difference in attitudes, interests, and style. If possible assign your sales team to handle customers that are of a similar age, this may allow for a connection to be made much more easily.

“It’s important to recognise that most of us aren’t the average car buyer, and we need to keep that in mind when we’re thinking about what consumers want,” said Phil.

A Rise of Robot

There was a time when buying a car was a beautiful and memorable emotional decision. But research tells us the opposite is true for 60% of car buyers.

“A lot more people than we might have thought are entirely rational in the way they are processing information about the vehicle,” says Phil.

In fact, 43% of car buyers are not even interested in cars. They’re considered an A2B tool, nothing to take pride in or enjoy. Just a modern necessity that burns a hole in their pocket and takes up space on their drive.

“This is an important consideration when we think about the language that we use. Our automotive -heavy language doesn’t speak to a lot of consumers.”

A Change of Heart

Carwow found that users configured an average of five cars that included at least three brands. There’s not the same loyalty to a brand anymore. The competition is fierce, and with consumers caring less about the car and more about getting a great deal, this creates a huge window for conquest.

“Customers don’t think in the way we have traditionally believed they do. They don’t think ‘narrow basket’, of similar cars in similar price brackets. They will readily cross-shop. And any sense of being ripped off is a complete anathema to consumers. People want price confidence.”

Carwow also found that customers were more likely to pull out of a deal if they were buying from further away. While the internet can connect us all, buying from a dealer in Scotland when you live in Bristol is probably not going to work out as the best value deal once you factor in fuel and time spent travelling. It’s always best to stick to local dealers, and this way, if you ever have a problem where you need to return the car, it’s not any more inconvenient than it already is.

“People still want to buy from a local dealership. We see conversion rates drop steadily for every five miles further from the customer the dealer is,” Phil said.

A Way of Thinking

It’s easy to assume that because one deal has worked for one customer, that it will be just as effective to another. But customers have different motives and circumstances. The best thing you can do is be flexible and try to get to know the customer a little bit before preparing a deal. If you find out they have a dog, for example, you could include a heavy-duty boot liner and seat covers for example. Or if they have young kids, maybe you could tint the back windows or include TV screens. The perceived value of personal touches like this can often be higher than offering things like a free MOT and servicing, gap insurance and warranty.

A Plan of Action
  • Recognise the difference between your team and your customers
  • Put rational thinking before emotions
  • Ditch the enthusiasts’ language
  • Don’t assume your customer fits in a certain segment
  • Target locally
  • Personalise your deals to each customer’s needs

For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via [email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

Part-ex prices crucial for profit says auction boss

Part-ex Auction
Used car valuations could be heading for their biggest drop in a decade this month and dealers are being advised not to pay over the odds for part exchange and then plan to recoup their money at auction.

Andy Conde, of Manheim Auctions, says that cars which were force-fed through the new car sector by dealer pre-registrations over the past few years have artificially inflated supply just as the Brexit uncertainty has begun to put the brakes on consumer demand.

More vehicles are taking longer to sell as a result with some being returned to auction several times before finding a buyer but for a much-reduced price and that values will inevitably adjust to reflect the current market.

He said: “The past few months have been somewhat turbulent in the auction arena with a fall in buyer demand but an increase in stock supply. This ultimately means a fall in auction conversion rates and prices. We are seeing many vehicles re-entered into auction multiple times because vendors have refused the first bid, eventually taking considerably less in the third or fourth sale. We are now going to see a further drop in Cap prices of around 3% from May to June – this will be the biggest reduction since 2009.”

Andy added: “The auctions cannot be relied on to make the dealers’ profit.  Everyone is competing for the same deal, and the danger is that over-paying for a part-ex in the hope of the auction bailing you out is just not going to happen in the current climate.”

 Dealers facing ‘a perfect storm’

Market analysts are split over precisely how values are responding to the current trading conditions with some talking the market up and others taking a slightly more negative view.

While there have been winners and losers among the market sectors and various models within them, Cap HPI spoke of ‘a perfect storm’ facing dealers handling stock that went through price increases a couple of years ago but which they are now trying to sell in a climate of weakening demand. On the other hand, Cazana says there is no evidence for a general fall in values over recent months and that in fact, 18-plate nearly new cars have actually gone up.

Last month the SMMT released data showing the Q1 used car market remained broadly stable with a year-on-year drop of just 6% and more than 2 million sales. While diesel has taken a battering, internal combustion engined cars still took more than 98% of the January-March market.

 For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via[email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

Used Estates Coming Back Into Fashion

Cars
Estate cars knocked SUVs off the top seller’s list last month as space and value became a priority among buyers in the used car sector and the chances of a dealer selling one were especially strong if it was a Ford.

A 2012 petrol/manual Focus estate was the fastest selling used car last month, taking just 18 days on average from being advertised on a dealer’s website to finding a buyer with a typical transaction price of around £8,100.

Proving there has been a shift in demand another estate, this time the bigger Skoda Superb – a 2017 diesel model – was not far behind and taking just 21 days to sell. In fact, analysis by Auto Trader found that more than a fifth, 21%, of all searches, were for the estate body type, overtaking SUVs and hatchbacks which each accounted for 17%.

Trade watchers believe that estates could be making something of a comeback among family buyers on the grounds that they are often more spacious than an SUV, many have a better ride and because they have been seen as functional rather than fashionable over the past several years this is reflected in their prices which can offer better value for money.

Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader’s Director of Commercial Products, said:

 

“It’s easy to overlook estates in the wake of the surging popularity of SUVs over the last few years, but it shouldn’t come as any surprise to see them take the top spot; they’ve come a long way from the uninspiring models that prioritised functionality over style. Many of today’s estates offer elegant styling, excellent efficiency, and plenty of practicality that can often outperform an equivalent SUV in the real world.”

Functionality over style

Ford was once again the dominant manufacturer and its cars were the best sellers in many regions with the Fiesta, Focus, Kuga and EcoSport taking top spot in several areas.

Internal combustion engines remain by far and away, the most popular type of power unit but it is telling that searches for pure electric cars, not just plug-in hybrids, jumped by 14% during May from the previous month.

May’s top ten fastest selling cars were:
  • 2012 Ford Focus estate (petrol/manual)
  • 2017 Skoda Superb estate (diesel/manual)
  • 2016 Vauxhall Astra hatchback (petrol/automatic)
  • 2016 Volkswagen Sharan MPV (diesel/manual)
  • 2016 Kia Sorento SUV (diesel/manual)
  • 2016 Ford Kuga SUV (petrol/manual)
  • 2012 Ford Focus hatchback (petrol/automatic)
  • 2016 Smart forfour hatchback (petrol/automatic)
  • 2017 Seat Ateca SUV (petrol/manual)
  • 2016 Vauxhall Zafira MPV (diesel/automatic)

 For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via [email protected], alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.

Vehicle Health Checks Are Important to Build an Ongoing Relationship With the Customer

Vehicle Health Check
Communication is key when it comes to building a loyal customer database. You can bridge the gap between services or new car purchases by inviting customers in for a free vehicle health check.

Not only can technicians identify work that needs doing which can help you generate additional profits, but they also allow you to display an element of openness that will help build the customer’s trust in your judgment.

Staff Support

Getting your staff behind the idea of a free vehicle health check is going to have a positive knock-on effect. They will only spend 5-10 minutes checking it over, but if they do a thorough job, they could find an issue that needs addressing. This can lead to the dealership selling parts, servicing and labour time.  

Work = Reward

You can help your staff feel better about giving up some of their time for ‘free work’ by creating an incentive bonus for them to up sell from a certain number of health checks each month or simply to complete more than a specific percentage of the vehicles they work on each month.

Amber Means Go

Normally technicians will work through their list and identify areas as red, amber or green. Work that is classified as red is high priority issues, things like tyres for example if the tread level is below or near the legal limit. In these instances, the red items are almost certainly selling points. A customer won’t likely want to risk even taking his car home until these are taken care of.

However, make sure you’re also focusing on the amber work. Amber issues can still cause the failure of an MOT or lead to performance issues with the car, so they are important to get resolved but less urgent.

Make sure your service team or a familiar sales executive follows up with the customer about anything that was highlighted in amber that they opted not to have fixed at the time. Your focus should be making the customer recognise that you have their safety and interests at heart.

Make It Easy

Don’t make the customer face a battle to contact you about any issues they’re having or to follow up on their vehicle health check. Below is a list of bespoke ways you can increase the number of customers returning for follow-up work.

  • Appointment Cards
  • Company Personalised Air Fresheners or Window Stickers
  • Company Personalised Key Rings, Pens, Fridge Magnets or Mugs
  • Send Out Email and Text Reminders
Through Your Eyes

The equipment needed for a video health check is minimal. A mobile phone, a source of light and a pointer are often enough. By using video to show any red or amber faults, the customer can’t deny that they don’t exist. It helps further with building that level of trust and a loyal relationship as a result.

Make sure the workshop is kept tidy and the video reflects the business in a good and professional light. You can also add an incentive for staff with the best or most videos at the end of each month. This will likely lead to an increase in the quality of your representation.

For more information about what Click Dealer can do for your business, contact us on 01782 478220 or via [email protected].  Alternatively, you can get in touch through our contact page.