Here are some thoughts to help:
1️⃣ Give anyone outside of their factory warranty period, Free Roadside Assistance. It costs only like $3.00ea. Just increase your ELR, or your Shop Supplies to offset it. Give to 100% of Retail Customers over warranty, and for any and all makes. This makes you lots different than any competitor – OEM or Aftermarket. Chat with either the guys at BG or Wynn’s to get them. Mike Morrow or Kyle Chrumka.
2️⃣ Give an offer to every customer you have to get their 2nd vehicle in the shop. For example, maybe it’s 50% off an Oil Change for the first visit. Anything of value works – you just have to break their habit of going elsewhere, make it easy for them, and bring the idea forward you do Off-Makes.
3️⃣ Actually advertise you work on Off-Makes. Ideally, you get a DBA (doing business as name). When marketing your OEM brand and it’s logo, Off-Make consumers look past your ad, because it’s not relevant to them. You don’t have to do this – but it’s a game-changer. Ask me how I know. You can use the same entrance and the same employees. Just a DBA, a separate simple website. You can go however deep you like on this – depends on how serious and how many off-make customers you want.
4️⃣ When your Service BDC/Appointment Coordinators do outbound calling, and find out someone sold their vehicle, tell the customer, no problem you’ll make an update in your system. Then right away, ask what they are now driving, and offer them to book that vehicle for its next service. There are thousands and thousands of off-makes in your DMS that you have access to at your fingertips.
5️⃣ Get your Service BDC/Appointment Co-Ord’s to track the Off-Make vehicles they book. I’d spiff them. Make it something like, $5.00 for every VIN# that is Off-Make that hasn’t been in for service in 12+ months, or is a new VIN# to the dealership.
6️⃣ Get your Service BDC/Appointment Coordinators excited about hitting a weekly goal. Think of ideas that gets them compelled to move forward right now. For a monthly goal, usually, the Service BDC/Appointment Coordinators are mostly female. Cater to that. Do something for them, that they would actually like – just for them. Like, taking them out to a Pedicure, or Dinner and Wine. Just them, and their Service Manager. Treat them as their own department, with their own goals, and watch it grow.
7️⃣ Have a Menu Priced Guide, a Service Interval Guide for off makes, and diesel vehicles too. This isn’t a far departure from what you’re already doing with your current brand. But it makes it easy for the Service BDC/Appointment Co-Ordinators to sell and book on-the-fly. Get ahold of your Wynn’s/BG rep, they’ll do it for you. Need a Rep? Contact either Peter MacDonell Oliver Dammer
8. Have an internal process with your Service BDC/Appt. Co-Ords with the Parts Dept to pre-order “at appointment setting”, the aftermarket parts needed to complete the service. For example, if an Off-Make Customer books an oil change, Service BDC needs to tell parts right away, so Parts Dept can have the oil/filter in stock before the customer shows up. Otherwise, it will be the first and last time this customer comes in with an Off-Make. Aftermarket parts, especially common, high-volume parts, are easy to return, and you’ll build parts-sales-history enough to start to stock some of these parts.
9. Meet up with your Aftermarket Parts Vendor (ie. NAPA), and ask them for the Top 10 fastest moving parts outside of your brand for; Oil, Oil Filters, Air Filters, Cabin Filters – for Gas and Diesel. They will let you stock them, and return if needed in 60/90 days. Only do this if you’re really serious about getting Off-Makes off the ground. Otherwise, you order it, only to return it all.
10. I’m out of character space. 🙂
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Can’t get this off the ground yourself? We’ll do it for you – Dealer eBDC