News / Blog

(Fremont, NH) 

If your customers aren’t buying new vehicles, they’re busy maintaining old ones. Automobiles need routine upkeep, regardless of their age, and trips to the shop have long been a staple for the American consumer.   

Fleet maintenance has driven dealership revenue and supported the auto industry for years, and it has increasingly become the primary source of income for auto groups in recent years. As margins shrink on new and used vehicle sales themselves, the priority has shifted to service accommodations and the creation of a unique customer experience. Free coffee. Snacks. Air-conditioned receiving areas. Work lounges. Complimentary vehicle washes. You name it.  

To give this some context, the National Automobile Association’s annual financial publication reported $78 billion in Parts/Service revenue back in 2011. This same metric presented $111 billion as of last year, representing over 40% growth in nine years…and those figures were likely skewed to some extent due to the slower travel months of Summer/Fall 2020.

Service and parts represent an increasingly critical source of income in the automotive space. For dealers who want to increase their share of both revenue and customer loyalty, the service experience is paramount. This priority has impacted the way Jewett designs and builds dealerships, and it’s a focus throughout every step of the planning process with our clients in the automotive space.  

To highlight a few trends that we’re noticing:

Dedicated Quick Lanes and Speed of Service

Many consumers believe that independent or specialized franchise tire/lube/exhaust/brake shops are quicker and more cost-effective than certified dealerships for standard maintenance or state inspections. There has been a shift to address this through the use of dedicated quick lube lanes and equipment installations within the customer receiving lanes that focus on the timely assessment of vehicle alignment, tread-depth specifications, and general vehicle health. Rather than parking in the lot, walking into the service advisor area, and waiting for the same oil change or alignment check to take place, this all now happens on the fly, in a fraction of the time. This trend has been making headway for years, but it’s now the absolute industry standard.   

Service Advisor Proximity to Receiving Lanes & The Use of Mobile Writer Stations

Great service performance supports great sales performance and service loyalty drives sales loyalty. In fact, industry data suggests that after five successful service visits, a customer is three times more likely to purchase their next vehicle from that  dealership. Service conversion, when done effectively, is a tremendously powerful and efficient method of sales generation. This function relies on providing an excellent customer experience from the moment the customer drives into the receiving bay. The most important component to this, we have found, is having a close proximity to the customer’s entry-point and establishing a forward-facing image with the Service Advisor staff. Similarly to recent Showroom trends that have pulled sales staff from their offices and desk spaces, Service Advisors are becoming upward-seated staff with a focus on greeting customers and walking their space to communicate energy and enthusiasm. Every advisor layout that we design focuses on eliminating the old stationary desk configuration in favor of forward-facing stations that are intentionally minimalistic.

Consider Promoting Tire Sales & Quick/Seasonal Mounting Services

Jewett design-builds for auto groups in New England. It snows a lot in New England. The winter tire business is a boon for our dealers who know how to sell it. The up-sell that many dealers are missing occurs in the Service Drive. Similar to the benefits of dedicated quick lanes and tread-depth units outlined above, sophisticated tire carousel systems and an advisor staff that prioritizes tire volume promotes a customer experience that increases overall service volume, service revenue, and new vehicle sales. A high-volume tire operation brings customers back between other routine and more major services for work that would otherwise be sourced through local tire shops and independent franchises. That extra visit presents another opportunity for a new vehicle sale or another more involved service or alignment in addition to the tire swap itself.