Marketing for Results: 0% Defection & 100% Retention: a 14-Step Model to Maximize Service Profitability and Potential – Part One

There are 3 ways to increase your profitability.

1. Reduce expenses

2. Increase the number of customers

3. Increase the amount sold to each customer

0% Defection & 100% Retention focuses on the quality of your customer relationships (Retention) and the quantity of your customer relationships (Defection). In Part One of this two-part article, we focus on the 7 Steps to 100% Retention.

7 Steps to 100% Customer Retention

What is retention? For our model, it’s the percentage of business you do or earn with each customer, compared to the total amount each customer spends and/or should spend. If a customer spends $500 per year servicing his/her vehicle-and $250 of that $500 is spent in your premises-you have a 50% retention performance level.

Many owners insist they simply need more customers. In reality, they first need to focus on the customers already crossing their countertop.

STEP 1

Create a Service Maintenance Schedule

Develop a tight, clearly defined maintenance schedule.

Consider high-tech options-such as injector and transmission flushes-as potential options for increased business and customer satisfaction.

Once you have finalized the schedule, ask yourself if you would invest your hard-earned money in this schedule. If the answer is No, are you being too aggressive in the deployment?

STEP 2

If it’s not in writing, it does not exist-in the customer’s mind.

Document each line item in a presentation binder to use at the counter with your customers. Include the following.

A description of what you do (exactly) in each of your maintenance items

The benefits of investing in such maintenance items

The potential consequences, if this maintenance item is not attended to.

Also . . .

Create a summary grid (in Excel or other program). Place a 0 to 120,000 K summary of all primary maintenance items, on one page.

Document a menu pricing list for your advisors and customers. It saves time and builds confidence with your customers.

Note any special opportunities in accessories and add-on sales.

Make sure all your print materials are congruent.

STEP 3

Train Staff

Confirm all staff members are on board.

All staff must understand all new documentation and schedule items.

Conduct an orientation session for all staff.

STEP 4

Understanding the details of your maintenance schedule is one aspect of good service. Knowing how to sell them to your customers at the counter is another skill set.

Our responsibility is to inform our customers of the reasons and benefits of each maintenance item, and ask if they would like us to proceed with the maintenance item. Train your service advisors to ask for the order. The process must be modelled and coached. Once they see it works, they quickly embrace the new selling process.

STEP 5

Research on customer satisfaction overwhelmingly links customer retention and loyalty to the service processes the customer experiences.

To improve fixed operations profitability and performance, the following must all be addressed.

The appointment process-both on the phone and in person

The write-up process

Fix it Right

Ready-when-promised

Parts availability

Inspection processes

Pickup and waiter processes

STEP 6

Focus on Customer Current and Future Needs

Follow up current needs; anticipate future needs. Make sure that service advisors book the next appointment before your customer departs from the current visit. Or a follow-up call should be scheduled at the appropriate time, to book that unfinished work.

STEP 7

Your current DOC does not measure opportunity cost.

If two service advisors each sell $20,000 this month, that means very little in terms of their performance. The critical measurement is what did they sell in comparison to what they could have sold? You need in-house measurements for your closing ratio and opportunity costs overall in the department.

Using 7 steps to 100% Retention, a business can usually achieve a 20% increase in CP sales within 120 days of implementation. We trust the possibility of this level of ROI will cause you to seriously consider some of the strategies identified above.

About Results Consulting Group Inc.

Results is an international full-service business consulting company with special expertise and experience in the automotive industry.In the past five years alone, Results’ team of automotive professionals has trained more than 20,000 automotive personnel-and logged thousands of in-store consulting-project days, from independent operations to national and international chains. Senior Partners Ken Keis and Gordon Cameron have over 45 years of combined business-ownership experience and 15,000 hours of automotive consulting experience. The Results Performance Institute provides a full range of information products and services designed to increase your business and individual performance, including personal one-on-one coaching, in-store consulting, on- and off-site educational sessions, tele-conferences, videos, and audio solutions. Results also provides appointment-scheduling and dispatch software solutions-ServiceMate-specifically designed for the independent maintenance and repair sector.

Results’ copyrighted service marketing and operational system, “0% Customer Defection & 100% Customer Retention,” has a proven track record of increasing service gross by 10-20% and beyond-in less than six months. For further information about Results and its automotive and business solutions, call us Toll Free at 1-866-852-4347,

email results@shaw.ca, or visit our Website at www.resultsconsultinggroup.com.