Remote Service: Is Your Dealership Asleep at the Wheel?

By John Schimdt, Mobile Next Level

Pick up or delivery? It’s become a permanent choice in the busy lives of consumers in all industries. Convenience is part of doing business, and dealerships could make or break relationships with a customer based on the options. Thus, the topic has become a crucial element to the success of your dealership (and your bottom line).

Let’s start with a question: how many products or services are offered right now that require you to go to a location and sit there for 2-3 hours to wait for something? Not many.

The Move to Remote Service

The car industry is quickly moving to mobile or remote service. This approach allows you to take care of some parts and service for your customers at their home or location, making it convenient in their busy schedule. This concept used to be a luxury, but now it’s an expectation.

Due to a perfect storm of an already-changing consumer sentiment combined with the pandemic, the world of options and convenience through our array of readily available devices is now mainstream. Millions of products, meals, groceries, and everything else is available for delivery straight to a consumer’s doorstep. The once-popular dealership services can look outdated and inflexible without taking this into consideration.

Asleep at the Wheel

One of our experts in mobile service software, who is also a performance coach, shares that many manufacturers are asleep at the switch right now in the remote service aspect of their business. Ford and Mercedes Benz are out front while other manufacturers are napping.

We don’t have to think too far back to see the last time a trend upended some of our regular work at the dealership. Remember the Jiffy Lube model? Businesses like those took profit away from dealerships by promising a quick oil change, getting customers in and out in thirty minutes. Dealerships didn’t care enough about the business to keep it during that time, and now they’re begging customers to come back for that kind of service option. History is repeating itself, and right now, in the wake of manufacturers not paying attention, independent groups are working on remote service and getting it right–taking away your potential business yet again.

Working Together to Support Remote Service

What do you do if your manufacturer doesn’t fully support remote service? It’s tricky, but you can be successful. You can’t do it yourself, though. You need someone that understands this emerging arm of your business and how to properly structure it. Dealerships that have thought of this as a “business within a business” have not done well. It is not like your regular operations, and the challenges are different.

Where do you start? We can help you create the foundation for mobile service at your dealership. And once that foundation is created, we work with your team on all aspects of building that line of business. We focus on people, process, resources, and the daily attention needed for success.

Innovation changes behaviors and creates something a consumer now needs that they did not know they required before. Uber, Apple, Amazon all have created that. Make your sales and after-sales experience consistent with the other consumer experiences. For dealerships, that will positively impact your sales team and will create something all dealerships look to build: owner loyalty and retention.