by David Kushma
An extremely simple way a dealership can start to build trust, loyalty, and retention among service clients is for salespeople to introduce vehicle and truck buyers to the service department when the vehicle is in the process of being purchased. But a new survey of consumers shows that such handoffs occur less than half time.
In December, DealerRater polled for Set Ops Journal over 16, 000 consumers who purchased a new car from a dealership in the recent past.
Of those, 42 percent mentioned that the dealership introduced them to the service department upon making as purchase. One-fourth of the customers surveyed said there had been simply no such introduction, and another 25% stated they couldn’t remember whether they met service employees— an indication that no such introduction had occurred or had enough impact to be memorable. Luxury-brand dealerships were somewhat more efficient at conducting sales-to-service handoffs, producing introductions 46 percent of the time, compared to 41 percent for dealerships promoting less expensive mass-market brands, according to the survey.
M5 Management Providers, a dealership fixed operations contracting firm, says the handoff “should be an important focus point inside your sales process.” Customers, the firm says, “want to be familiar with the individuals and facility where they obtain service. “
