To compete with aftermarket rivals, dealers need a new approach to service

The right front tire looked so alarmingly low that I wanted it attended to right away, even on a Sunday morning. So I took my car to one of the few shops near me that was open — a repair chain outlet 3 miles up the road.

No problem, the service adviser told me: If there's a leak, we'll fix it before we close at 5, and we'll call or text you when your car's ready. With those assurances, I decided not to hang out in the dingy waiting area.

When I hadn't heard anything by 4:30, I called the store. Uh, we got a little backed up, the adviser said, and there's still one car ahead of you. So your car won't be done by 5, but we'll definitely have it for you before we leave today. We'll call or text you when it's ready.

Guess what happened. No call. No text. No email. And the next time I phoned, no answer. Everyone had gone home.

I returned to the store Monday morning in a surly mood. The adviser (a different one) looked up my repair order and said: Oh, yeah, your car was ready yesterday. Didn't anybody call you? Seeing the expression on my face, he told me he wouldn't charge me for patching the leak — a nominal 20 bucks.

Rather than name the store's brand, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and conclude that my bad experience was an aberration, not business as usual. The second adviser took the initiative to set things rights, albeit belatedly.

Still, if you're going to advertise how comprehensive and convenient your service is, you'd better deliver. Because if you don't, someone else will. The next time my car needs work, even in an emergency, I won't take it back to the place that fell short.

A special report in this issue of Fixed Ops Journal examines the state of competition between new-vehicle dealerships and other providers for service business: not just traditional maintenance and repairs, but also quick service, collision repair and mobile service. What we found: On the major measures — price, speed, customer convenience, quality of care — the gaps, real or perceived, between dealerships and their chain and independent rivals are closing.

Dealerships still bring plenty of ammunition to the battle: service technicians who are specially trained to fix the brand's vehicles, new repair parts from the automaker, their own reputation in the community. But consumers are making it clear that they also want to save their money and their time when they seek auto service. And in an era when companies such as Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Starbucks are defining customer service, vehicle owners — especially younger ones — demand the same sort of convenience and digital sophistication from whoever works on their cars and trucks.

It's a familiar story: While vehicles are under factory warranty, their owners return to the dealership for a large majority of service visits. But after the warranties have expired, dealerships keep these customers for fewer than one-third of visits. Other owners of older vehicles, which tend to need more attention than newer ones, switch to independent garages, quick-lube and tire stores and other aftermarket providers.

Now that fixed ops provide half of gross profits for the typical new-car dealership, simply ceding that degree of service customer defections won't work anymore. Instead, customer retention needs to be the agenda, not the aspiration.

Say you've worked hard to price your services, for everything from a basic oil change to a major repair, at a level that equals — or beats — your market competitors. Do your customers know that? Have you told them? Better yet, have you shown them, with a head-to-head comparison on your website?

You do your best to maintain an efficient workflow in your shop and to give — and meet — realistic promise times. But how do you handle customers who can't or won't wait in your service lounge in the meantime? Instead of cramming them on a shuttle, do you provide an appealing loaner or an Uber or Lyft ride? Do you text photos and videos to show them the status of your work on their car or truck?

For that matter, do you still take for granted that your customers have to come to your shop at all? Jim Roche, vice president of Cox Automotive, observes: "You get the vehicle to the service, or the service to the vehicle." Are you prepared to pick up service customers' vehicles and return them when the work is done? Will you send technicians to customers' homes or workplaces to perform basic repairs and maintenance?

You may not be accustomed to doing these sorts of things, but odds are, you'll have to get used to them — soon. Meanwhile, if you say you'll call or text when the car is ready, make sure you do.