SHOPSMART AUTOS – APRIL 21, 2021 – Videos, photos texted to service customers boost repair approvals
A picture is proving to be worth much more than a thousand words to growing numbers of dealership service departments that are using videos and photos to show, not tell, customers what ails their cars and trucks. The use of such images in text messages, emails and other communications is generating big increases in service revenue and rates of repair approvals by customers, fixed ops managers say. Service technicians at McDonald Automotive Group, which operates six dealerships in the Denver area, began using Quik Video in early 2016. The goal of adding the product was to make the repair process more transparent to customers, says Chris Coxall, the group’s vice president of fixed operations. Coxall: Videos are “no-brainer” “It’s hard to debate a show-and-tell,” Coxall told Fixed Ops Journal. “When you can show a customer a worn brake pad, it becomes a reality. The repair then becomes a no-brainer.” At the group’s Audi Denver dealership in Littleton, Colo., the rate of customer-approved service recommendations, based on issues revealed during multipoint inspections, rose to nearly 47 percent in 2018. That compares with a closing rate of about 23 percent in 2016, before the company started using Quik Video.Saying yes
Bean Automotive Group, which operates four Miami dealerships, began using video/photo technology last spring, as part of a customer relationship management system.
Proceed with caution
Before a dealership invests in video and photo technology for its service department, it should determine whether it can do the same things more cheaply in house, says David Lewis, who runs a consulting firm that trains fixed ops employees. A dealership can create a free YouTube channel as a platform for uploading videos and photos that technicians shoot on cell phones, Lewis says. Technicians then can text or email links to customers, he adds. “I agree a thousand percent with the value of the technology,” Lewis says. “But I’d first invest in the processes and procedures. Make sure your technicians not only are capable of doing it, but will do it regularly. “If you can develop a track record that shows it works, then you can decide if you want to invest in the technology and all the added data and analytics it provides,” he says. Service customers appear to prefer, and typically respond faster to, videos and photos embedded in text messages, fixed ops directors say. That quick response leads to another benefit: Technicians can make more money because they’re more productive. Technicians at McDonald dealerships typically had to work on 41/2 vehicles a day to generate eight hours of work, Coxall says. But with Quik Video, he adds, that number has shrunk to 21/2 vehicles. “There’s not as much wasted time pulling cars in and out of the shop while [technicians] wait for upsell approvals,” Coxall notes. “When we launched Quik Video, we had around 25 technicians. Now we have 48 and are continuing to hire. It’s a good problem.” Quik Video also has helped McDonald avoid potentially expensive litigation, Coxall adds. In one case, he says, a customer threatened to sue Audi Denver after a car crash, claiming the dealership had not warned her that her tires were worn out. But an archived video showed a technician pointing out the worn tires. Records also showed that the customer watched the video seven times before she declined to buy new tires. “It was a pretty short conversation after that,” Coxall says. “And I’ve got 20 or so more stories just like that.” Coxall says the video technology his dealerships use is the next best thing to allowing customers to see recommended-service items firsthand in a service bay.
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