Advertisement feature: Can the franchise market overcome consumer misconceptions about having their cars serviced at their local dealership?
Advertisement feature from SecretService™, powered by BookMyGarage
More often than not, the answer is no – not by themselves at least. Many drivers believe that franchised dealers aren’t interested in servicing their older vehicles. Even OEM campaigns have struggled to achieve any significant ground in terms of the market share of vehicles aged four years-old or more.
There are reasons for this. The expense of creating and administering their own marketing campaigns to win conquest customers is not cost effective. As one participant pointed out in a recent AM webinar: “it costs more to obtain the customer than the cost of the service itself”.
With the 0-3 year-old vehicle parc shrinking fast, it is more important than ever for franchised dealers to fill their workshops with older vehicles. However, it is incredibly difficult for their own marketing departments to overcome the misconceptions that consumers have about having their cars serviced at dealerships. Consumers believe:
1. Franchised dealers are not interested in servicing 4+ year-old vehicles
2. Franchised dealers will only service the vehicle if it has been purchased via them
3. Franchise servicing is expensive
The success of SecretServiceTM proves that all these issues are surmountable. Over 80% of bookings via the franchised dealer aftersales marketplace are conquest customers – in other words, they have never been seen by the garage before.
With segment 1 vehicles (the 0- to 3-year-old parc) dwindling significantly, it is more urgent than ever to attract older vehicles into the franchised workshop. Especially as retention will be even more challenging in the future – retaining a shrinking future customer base is not the answer, so gaining new ‘conquest’ customers is vital.
The benefits to tapping into this market don’t end there. Attracting older vehicles into the network also means that final invoice values are higher. Invariably more work is identified through the normal VHC process.
SecretServiceTM uses AI and algorithms to identify the right price while placing ads in front of the right people, securing customers via social media for a price which makes it viable to win market share. It has proven to be incredibly successful. SecretServiceTM is now the only viable solution, created purely for franchised dealers, for gaining conquest business and it is growing significantly year-on-year. In the past month alone, it has increased the number of franchise customers signing up to SecretServiceTM by nearly 20%.
The technology that powers SecretServiceTM is designed so that only customers which aren’t already looking to book with that garage are targeted. It also accesses the diary of availability for each dealer, irrespective of the Dealer Management System used, and without additional cost. Motorists can see MOT advisories, recalls and the dealers own warranties or service plans can be promoted. SecretServiceTM also offers a full suite of reporting, providing excellent KPI insight.
The service is capacity-driven, meaning bookings are only gained as and when there is spare capacity to fill. And with a 400% guaranteed minimum on revenue return, there is no risk for dealers – only additional profit opportunity.
To find out more about SecretServiceTM, visit https://secretservice.co.uk/
