John talks about the ways that they create personalized interactions at Street VW such as providing service videos that customers can connect with.
Tactical Tips Episode #4 Transcript
JOHN: I’m John Luciano from Street Volkswagen. Just want to take a second to reach out to you. We were having some conversations about the things that we do with FIXED OPS DIGITAL, and what FIXED OPS DIGITAL has done for us is helped us really communicate with our customers a little bit better. Look at those customers, the in-market customers, and see what’s out there. For us, it’s all about video. We do a video for every single car. We let the customer know that it’s coming, we let him know the tech, we let him know the service writer, and what that’s done for us is it’s personalized it. The other big thing the video has done is by showing the damage, or showing what needs to be done. You don’t have to be a technician, you can see it. You can see that this is leaking, you can see that this brake caliper has a problem, or you can see that this molding, or whatever it is, and it makes it a lot more believable. So our closing ratios and our take rates from the customers have really skyrocketed at this point. We love to be able to do that and we found when we can have that communication with the customer, we do better we sell more product, and we’re able to convert a whole lot better. So part of our problem was we weren’t quite getting the right person with the right information at the right time. Through this, our relationship with these guys, it’s made that difference for us. It’s given us that opportunity to get our people in front of more people. It’s really fun because you get women that’ll call and say “Hey, I really appreciate it, in the past, I used to have to call my brother-in-law, I have to say, ‘Hey, this is what they’re trying to sell me,’ and he’ll say ‘oh they’re just trying to sell you something.’ And now it’s different because I can see it. I can see that it’s worn out or I can see the tire has a problem, I can see that something is broken,” and they absolutely love that. When you see it on video and you see what the issue is, it’s believable. It doesn’t feel like somebody’s trying to sell you something and we get lots and lots of compliments that way. And what’s really fun is that people want to come in and they want to meet the technicians or go back there. They want to talk to the technician, they really get to where they like their service writer, and we found more of a personal relationship establishing which then, again, builds loyalty, and I think we all agree that loyalty is what it’s all about. There’s nothing inexpensive about doing service work right now. So if you’re not building that value and you’re not helping them feel like they’re really getting something, now that our labor rates all exceed over $100/hr, kind of inconceivable. I remember when we went over $30 early in my career and it was a big deal. People were very unhappy that you could possibly charge that. Now $130 seems to be the average. So you’ve got to step out, you’ve got to make it more personal. You can’t just shoot it out there or just seem like we’re just trying to put the selling pants on them. So that’s just our little tip. That’s what we think. We love our relationship with these guys. They have helped us. Brad and the team have helped us be able to talk to more people on a more personal basis, see the people that are truly in-market instead of that big shotgun approach that we’ve had in the past of just kind of throwing it out there and hoping that we get some business. So want to say a thank you to them and if you have any questions, you reach me at Street Volkswagen. Thanks!
