Convenience, Convenience, Convenience… you’ve probably heard it your entire automotive service career. “Convenience is King”, and as long as it is paired with a fair price, it wins every time for your dealer auto service department. So why do dealers still struggle to achieve it? There are costs involved, and that initial cash outlay to improve convenience can be scary. Attaining convenience for every consumer is also a moving target.
Convenience is constantly evolving. There was a time when convenience meant an oil change appointment took one hour, and that waiting in an area with adequate seating and a free cup of coffee was the baseline for successfully attaining convenience. To a very limited few, this may still be true… I’d like to meet them!
Convenience is something every dealer auto service department needs to keep under constant surveillance. This is because it can mean something different to each customer, or each customer segment. One of the biggest mistakes dealers make is cutting costs, or forgoing investments in convenience that negatively impact performance. Here is an example:
Taking Tech videos requires data licenses, smartphones or tablets, internet connection improvements, and solutions to enable sending the video to customers. The costs add up, so we hear rationale like this: “My staff is not comfortable talking to customers through videos… we are going to save money and not do it.”
The convenience these tech videos can bring to consumers is a reliable easy to understand recommendation channel. The trust perception they deliver is proven to increase acceptance rates. So the video costs each month can be paid for by just one marginal RO that a video solution transforms into a highly profitable job.
In this case, the dealership is saving themselves – out of business – by limiting their ability to provide true convenience. They are missing out on the repeat business from customers who like this feature, and they are missing out on the additional RO revenue they generate that far outweighs the costs. But this is just one example of cutting a convenience to save money. Rest assured, this is not just about video.