Road trip season is here. 97% of people plan to travel by car for their summer vacations, which means you can boost your fixed ops revenue and customer loyalty by offering a service package for a safe and smooth road trip.
Whether it’s a “Road Trip Ready” offer that bundles multiple services, or a “Buy 3 Get 1” tire deal — here are the top 5 things you should do to promote your summer campaign effectively:
1. WEBSITE SUMMER SERVICE MAKEOVER
As any avid roadtripper knows, you need to plan out your trip carefully before the rubber meets the road. Part of this process is finding the right place to service your vehicle – so let’s make it easy for them to decide!
Proactively highlight your Service Department’s summer offer(s) in all key areas on your website including the homepage, service landing page, and specials page. This ensures your messaging is consistent, clear, and easy to find while they are mapping out their perfect summer vacay.
2. PUT SUMMER SPECIALS IN THEIR POCKET
Once they’ve seen your specials on your website, it may be easy to get lost in the vacation planning shuffle. Use the DI Wallet to create a smart coupon that users can easily add to their Apple Wallet.
You can even code your coupon with a geofence so they’ll get a push notification when they pass through the locations that you define. If only I could figure out how to get a push notification to remind me to pack sunscreen!
3. CHECK YOUR SERVICE LANE EXPERIENCE
Let’s think beyond the summer road trips. How do we use these service appointments to secure repeat business all year round? A good place to start is to ensure that your team is delivering top notch service with a friendly demeanor that customers will keep coming back for. But how?
Find out what your customers think of your service department (and other aspects of your dealership) by downloading your Cars.com Experience Report. Use the data in this report to identify which aspects of your dealership experience need improvement. Sometimes it can feel like we wait for a problem to enhance our service experience, so be proactive this summer to capture these customers for life!
4. LAUNCH A CONNECTED CAMPAIGN
Let’s keep it all together by ensuring that your messaging is consistent throughout your advertising as well. Your customers will appreciate seeing the frequent and familiar creative messaging as they serve as gentle reminders to check servicing their car off their to-do list.
Launch a connected Dig Ad campaign to reach local service intenders with search ads, and new customers across social and video channels.
5. GET REVIEWS FROM THE ROAD
Your campaigns (no doubt) will create some extra traffic into your bay. Capitalize on this increase in service biz to simultaneously build the online reputation for your service department. Once an R/O is closed, send a text or email to each customer with a link to leave a review.
If you’re a Cars.com Premium Listings subscriber, then you have ReviewBuilder™ which syncs with your DMS to automatically do this for you! ReviewBuilder™ will direct your Service reviews to distinct Service Department profiles allowing you to independently manage and grow both sides of your business.
WE CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE SUMMER SERVICE SUCCESS
Your service department has all the right tools to provide the best customer experience this summer. Just think of this strategy as the umbrella in your favorite summer drink — definitely wouldn’t be as EPIC without it 😉. No matter what season it is, wen you partner with Dealer Inspire, you can expect these types of strategies and tactics to help boost your bottom line. Drop us a line any time. ⛱️ Cheers!
