📒 You need a full plan for your Spring Tire Change Over Season. You want to ensure you nail it, so you don’t lose any customers over the next few months, and grow your department.
🗓️ Even if it’s too early in your region to swap tires, I’d still be at least a few weeks early and have that conversation with every customer.
☎️ Add it into your script, that they should book now, to beat the rush, and get in on their schedule – even if it’s booked a few weeks out. Some customers who like to wait will book out 30 days.
Customers understand this concept and appreciate you making it front of mind. They have all been there, trying to fit into someone’s schedule to bring in their vehicle because it’s too busy.
💵 For your Service & Parts Dept, the best way to find more work, is by getting the wheels off.
🕐 Most customers know it will take some time to get tires swapped, so they are already planning their day to have some downtime – so it’s the best time to sell the work needed.
Here’s what I’d do to set up for the seasonal rush;
1️⃣ Pull the list of every single tire change over/swap from last tire season rush from your DMS/CRM. Call/email/text 100% of them, until you get a booking/answer.
2️⃣ Pull the list of tire storage customers, get them booked in too. (review for overlap in data/contacts)
3️⃣ Have Seasonal Tire & Lube Techs trained and rolling. (see Crystal Nicholson‘s posts on how to execute this.)
4️⃣ Pull a list of all the customers from Spring 2024, and compare it with Fall 2025 who came in for tire change overs. The customers that didn’t come back in the fall – get a hold of them too. I’d make a compelling offer to get them back.
❗ Tire season is the busiest time of the year for Parts & Service. It’s also the easiest to lose customers to another dealer, or aftermarket shops – but it’s also the easiest to get ones deflecting from those places.
⌛ Customers deflect because of many things. During tire season, a lot has to do with convenience. Ideally, you have a way to track with software the amount of missed calls inbound, and can react quickly to adjust.
💰 Tire season makes it so easy to grow substantially year over year, just because the phone never stops ringing. But keep this in mind – if you don’t answer right away – they are going elsewhere.
⚠️ More than 70% of the customers who call, and don’t get a human on the phone, don’t leave a message, and call somewhere else.
Now you’re 1 more customer short, and either flat or down year over year. That’s the way to look at it.
At an average dealership, a missed call in Service happens many many times in a day, especially in the morning. So measure it, and have a plan to fix it.
But knowing consumers do this, is an easy way to get more customers from other shops, and grow your Service & Parts dept.
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Cold Call/Email/Text every single Lost Customer and Recall Outstanding Customers, with Dealer eBDC.