If the current economic conditions are putting a damper on your dealership’s profitability, we have some pleasant news: many of your sales customers would be likely to purchase a maintenance plan, meaning more long-term customer loyalty and revenue for your store.

Making the most of each opportunity is crucial to your profits, and offering a prepaid maintenance plan after the sale can help you grow the customer lifetime value, prevent defection to your competition, and drive service retention.

How Maintenance Plans Capture Loyal Purchasers and Lasting Profits

Providing Peace of Mind at the Point of Sale

Why is it important to address and emphasize your vehicle maintenance plans at the time of purchase? According to our recent National Consumer Survey, 75% of consumers expressed some level of likeliness to purchase a service plan that covers maintenance costs—and this investment is in addition to the vehicle warranty.

These shoppers help your dealership draw in more profitability upfront as well as overcome some of the common service retention obstacles. Ensuring your customers develop a strong preference for your service department helps build a relationship with them as their primary source for service, offering you more opportunities to upsell additional services, parts, and accessories while they’re there.

Building a Loyal Customer Base

The biggest reason customers return for vehicle service is because they purchased a maintenance plan at their dealership—this doesn’t mean your store can slack on providing an exceptional experience, though.

At the time of sale, be sure to introduce your sales customers to the service team and inform them of your unique offerings, highlighting amenities that include touchless online services such as appointment scheduling, vehicle pickup and delivery, and bill payment. After customers take their new vehicle home, stay in touch with service communications reminding them of any upcoming vehicle maintenance. Letting these customers know their vehicle service is covered under their plan will go a long way to build retention.

Completing the Vehicle Ownership Lifecycle

As your sales customers move through the vehicle ownership lifecycle as your service customers, it’s likely they will continue to count on your dealership for their vehicle needs, including repurchase.

A great way to engage these customers in the service lane is with personalized vehicle upgrade offers. Knowing the vehicle’s sales and service history helps give your store the advantage on creating these vehicle equity offers, helping customers upgrade at the ideal times, and capturing high-quality preowned inventory.

Maintain Your Profitability with Powerful Solutions

Knowing what your sales customers want is only part of your service retention strategy. Equip your staff with the solutions they need to capture lifelong customers and close more deals. To learn more about how our advanced dealership technology can help, contact us today.

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