The automotive industry has been completely shaken by the recent economic downturn. According to a study conducted by Automotive News, almost 70% of dealers felt like they were not at all prepared to respond to the changes brought on by COVID-19. It’s time to prepare your dealership for any economic crisis by investing in the revenue generator that is your fixed ops department.
In just 3 months, over 3 million individual new car sales have been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, that won’t be the end of it. The biggest challenge of rebounding from this loss will be the increased financial burden customers will have to overcome. This means they still won’t be buying cars at a “normal” volume for months to come.
LEARN MORE: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR FIXED OPS REVENUE
While customers might not be buying cars when they’re in a financial crunch, they will pay to make sure the car they’re driving stays on the road. Customers always need their parts and service departments, and they’ll be looking online to see what dealer will offer them the best bang for their buck.
So, how can you use the website you have right now to start growing your fixed ops revenue? By improving how you market your service department and sell parts to your customers:
Get More Customers into Your Service Drive
Service departments are important now more than ever. Any oil changes or service warnings customers might’ve been neglecting for the last few months are ticking time bombs. Getting those valuable customers into your service drive is crucial to growing your fixed ops revenue. In order to do that, you’ve got to listen to your customers’ needs.
Most Important to Customers in A Service Provider
VALUE
QUALITY
CONVENIENCE
TRUST
Customers are looking for a transparent and trustworthy customer experience, but they’re also looking for a deal. Sure, you probably have a “Service Specials” page on your dealer website. How user-friendly is it? If your customers can’t find the deals or don’t understand what they’re looking at, they’ll move on.
So, How Do You Fix It?
By offering customers affordable, effective, and modern coupons, you’ll be able to effectively capitalize on services. For example, FixedOPS Marketing specializes in customer-focused service specials and coupons. They make sure your Service Specials page attracts new customers, uses marketing best practices, and reclaims previous customers lost to the competition. In fact, they offer six ways to convert customers using their service specials videos.
These coupons and videos live directly on your Service Specials page. Customers visiting your website will be able to find them without ever having to leave your dealer site. Get more customers into your service drive with an improved customer experience and better deals that will keep them coming back without breaking the budget.
Sell More Parts and Accessories
Let’s be real. Your customers hate using the parts form that lives on your website. It’s outdated, confusing, and unresponsive, making it a chore for both you and your customer to use it. The average conversion rate for this form is only 5%. That means out of 20 customers that visit the form, only 1 person is filling it out.
Customers expect instant gratification with minimal interaction, especially after spending the last few months shopping online for everything. They’ll search for a solution to get the parts they need before picking up a phone to call and order, but a complicated parts form will stop the average customer in their tracks.
So, what’s it costing your dealership? If the average online order value is about $180 and you’re missing 20 orders a week, that’s a lot of potential revenue lost.
$3,600
PER WEEK
$14,400
PER MONTH
You can’t grow your fixed ops revenue when your parts form is losing you money.
So, How Do You Fix It?
While customer expectations have evolved, so has technology. By simplifying the way your customers order parts, you’ll waste less time, prevent lost sales, and keep customers coming back to buy even more. Before rushing to build a new parts form from scratch, let’s talk about an affordable solution: the RevolutionParts’ Storefront Plugin.
View a Live Demo of Our Storefront Plugin
The Storefront Plugin allows you to:
- Rid customers of a confusing parts form
- Save time by minimizing the back and forth
- Sell more parts and accessories
It gives your customers an eCommerce shopping experience that allows them to browse your entire catalog and complete a transaction, completely self-served. The Plugin lives on your current dealer website, bringing in all those customers that are looking for both parts and accessories. It’s your all-in-one solution to sell more parts and accessories, increasing your revenue.
Dealers that are intentional about the overall customer experience they’re offering are the ones that rack in the big bucks. To grow your fixed ops revenue, you have to think about the customers. Let us help you improve your dealer website with easy-to-use solutions that will only help you bring in more money for your dealership.
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