Digital retailing meets the service department

“Offer 100% of your products 100% of the time to 100% of your customers.” Commonly known in F&I offices as the 300% Rule, the old sales axiom certainly applies to closing rates for service advisors on recommended services. You simply can’t sell what you don’t present. This is where technology can help, especially when your advisors need to communicate service recommendations to a cash-strapped, credit card-maxed customer who has spent the last 18 months navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Like the emergence of digital retail tools on front-end departments, the pandemic towed service departments into the Digital Age behind customer conveniences like text-to-pay. However, users realized other opportunities to extend that contactless experience. Texting service customers links to multipoint inspections that connect approvals to digital payments offered service management teams a way to ensure 100% of service recommendations coming out of the bay are presented 100% of the time to 100% of their department’s customers.

Hearing the following would make any service advisor hesitate: “Why are you always asking for money every time you call?” A digital multipoint inspection tool with the ability to text the tech’s findings won’t. That 300% Rule is adhered to 100% of the time. And why shouldn’t a customer be aware of those recommendations? Not only does presenting everything a good thing in today’s litigious environment, your customers likely won’t be surprised by the photo your technician snaps of their dirty air or cabin filter.  

And that’s really what a digital multipoint inspection allows you to target — that low-hanging fruit like a 60,000-mile service the manufacturer recommends. Remember those car-buyer studies that said consumers would be more likely to buy F&I products if they could learn about them on their own time before finalizing a vehicle purchase. The same applies to upselling service. The difference is service advisors aren’t selling intangibles as F&I managers do; they’re selling needed repairs your customers can see from the video and photos your technicians shot with your department’s web-based digital multipoint inspection tool.  

At the very least, the solution will reveal your customer’s core concerns and objections your advisors can use their knowledge and talent to overcome. The beauty of these tools is they follow proven sales principles of successful selling. Your customers will first see 23 items that are good before they see those recommended and needed repairs. And it’s not ABC Motors saying they need new brakes; it’s a picture — maybe a video — and a short blurb explaining why your recommendation is so important.  

The quickest way to lose a service customer’s trust is not to mention recommended repairs they deferred during their last visit. It tells them those service recommendations were just upsells. A good digital multi-inspection tool should offer a dashboard that prevents that from happening — a view that can also fuel declined-services campaigns. 

The right platform will automate those efforts, so customers receive a follow-up message 30 days after their service visit 

Having access to those critical insights also provides managers the transparency they need to ensure usage of the tool. They can see service recommendations by technician and advisor, as well as the percentage of invoices that included digital inspection reports texted to customers — a metric you can attach to pay-plan bonuses. Attaching a dollar figure to anything makes it a team effort — the counter needs all the correct information, and the tech needs to conduct an accurate inspection. 

Knowing which recommendations are getting the most declines also informs you on a couple of things: Maybe the repair isn’t in the average customer’s budget, requires more explanation, additional photos, and videos. Maybe you’re just priced too high. 

The same feature that allows these digital inspection tools to drive service upsells also addresses an old service adage: The longer a car hangs in the air, the less you’re going to make. According to Gartner, 90% of all people read texts within three minutes of receiving them. The communications channel also enjoys a 98% open rate. The beauty of today’s digital multipoint inspection tools is that they can alert your service advisors when a customer opens the text. 

One recommendation is to have service advisors reach out to vehicle owners five minutes after an inspection report is sent. The general rule should be to get approvals on recommended work within 20 minutes. And once that approval is received, your digital multipoint inspection tool should alert both the parts department and your technician. 

The workflow-monitoring dashboards offered on today’s digital multipoint inspection tools are designed to keep your service teams connected, allowing managers to monitor repair orders as they move through the process. The right solution will even prepopulate parts and labor pricing for your advisors and alert advisors and parts managers to the availability and bin location of needed parts. That means no more queuing at the parts counter for advisors. 

Those capabilities also mean VIN-specific quotes and estimates for customers, who can approve recommended work from the report link your advisors texted to their mobile devices. However, this contactless experience shouldn’t stop there, as digital multipoint inspections serve as a natural springboard to a remote payment experience. 

Aside from a contactless experience, your service department doesn’t have to wait for a signed invoice and payment on a high-ticket repair because the customer doesn’t have time to pick up his car. Text-to-pay can also reduce your liability since the transaction happens in your payment provider’s digital domain, reducing your operation’s risk if a data breach occurs. Besides, you’re a service department, not a bank. Getting paid today is critical. 

Some providers even offer fraud protection, which might be enough to get a break on your insurance. July through December 2021 data from TEXT2DRIVE shows that out of more than $143 million in revenue processed through its mobile payment solution, its advanced fraud protection saved $14 million from suspected fraud. The average repair order on those protected transactions was $2,016—nearly three times higher when compared to the $716 per-RO average on approved transactions. 

Eliminating the payment discussion — and the embarrassment of a credit card decline — can be especially helpful to a pandemic-weary customer. According to the Federal Reserve, 40% of Americans would struggle to come up with even $400 to pay for an unexpected bill — half of them have maxed out credit cards. In a poll conducted by The Ascent prior to the pandemic, the financial advisory site found that one in five Americans are dependent on their credit cards to pay for basic living expenses. If anything, your advisors can use that time to schedule a customer’s next appointment or communicate the plan for their next visit. 

Of course, like implementing any technology, usage needs to be supported, expected, and monitored. Pay plan incentives need to be considered, and compliance needs monitoring. That means paying a visit to that technician whose inspections, according to your dashboard, always seem to show a lot of green. The Digital Age is here, and it’s time your service department dipped its toe into those digital waters. 

Gregg C. Owen is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer for TEXT2DRIVE. Since 2008, the company has helped dealerships lower costs, increase conversion rates, improve CSI scores, and drive higher ROs. Recently, the company launched its own integrated MPI solution to empower dealers to combine the power of our automated communications, multipoint inspections, and mobile checkout. Learn more about TEXT2DRIVE at text2drive.com.