How DriveSure Helps Protect Service Visit Frequency

Thanks to advancements in engineering and manufacturing, vehicles are running longer and performing better than ever before. As a result, and much to the chagrin of your service department bottom line, they require less regularly scheduled maintenance.

Good for your customer, not so good for you.

In the not-so-distant past, an average customer would bring their car to their dealership or local shop for an oil change every 3,000 miles or so. Today? That number is more like 5,000-7,000. And according to AAA, could be as high as every 15,000 miles depending on the type of engine.

With the intervals between regularly scheduled car maintenance only continuing to grow longer, dealerships need to ensure they are incentivizing customers to return to their service department for every oil change – and doing so on schedule.

How to Keep Service Customers Coming Back with DriveSure Benefits

So, how do you keep customers coming back to your service department…and ward off the threat of your low-cost competitors winning out with their cut-price, bargain basement oil change?

The answer: DriveSure’s renewable benefits – and the elevated overall customer experience they provide.

Because while the competition might try to undercut you with deals and discounts, DriveSure helps you differentiate your dealership on the basis of experience. And that’s a differentiation tactic with merit.

It’s widely accepted across industries that customers are willing to pay more for a better overall experience. In fact, PwC reported that customers will spend 16% more on your products and services if you offer a better experience.

Which begs the question, why ever compete on price again? After all, a coupon for 15% off an oil change is nice, but premium benefits and protection on the road for the next few thousand miles is even nicer!

What Your Customers Can Expect

Creating a positive experience for every customer means providing them with more than just an oil change, it means helping them anticipate their needs and proactively providing a solution. And that’s where our benefits come in.

DriveSure benefits include:

• Premium Roadside Assistance: Whether your customer locked their keys in their car, needs an emergency jump start, or had the misfortune of running out of gas, DriveSure’s roadside assistance has them covered. Better yet, if they need a tow and are within 25 miles of your dealership, they’ll be towed straight back to you. That means they’ll get service and repairs from someone they trust, and you’ll get the additional business.
• Road Hazard Tire Protection: Simply put, tires are expensive. Giving your customers the reassurance that a punctured tire won’t put a hole in their monthly budget could just win you a customer for life – and some positive word of mouth to boot.
• Emergency Alternate Transportation: Getting the car taken care of is great, but what’s an owner supposed to do in the meantime? We’ve got that covered too – whether that means paying for a rental vehicle or covering the cost of their rideshare.

What It Means for Your Dealership

Great! Customers are happy – they have a great experience every time they bring their car in for maintenance thanks to your service team and they know they can count on continued coverage while on the road thanks to DriveSure benefits. But what does that really mean for your dealership? And how will our benefits ensure your customers stick to their scheduled frequency of maintenance?

While happy customers are intrinsically more loyal to their service department, it can be difficult to rely on customer sentiment to move the needle on your bottom-line revenue and growth. Which is why we designed our benefits to benefit the customer and the dealership.

How? By making the roadside assistance, tire protection, and emergency alternate transportation renewable with every regularly schedule maintenance visit.

Put into practice, it looks a little something like this:

1. Customer A comes in for their regularly scheduled oil change and maintenance.
2. Customer A receives DriveSure benefits and protection included in their maintenance cost.
3. Customer A is covered for the next 180 days (or however long you determine to be the appropriate interval for your dealership).
4. Benefits expire unless Customer A comes back in for their next oil change and to renew their benefits.

Because the benefits don’t apply for the entire life of the car (or more accurately the duration of ownership), customers are highly incentivized to continue to bring their vehicle to your dealership within that set interval in order to renew their coverage and protection.

Looking for proof that it works and works well? When Lilliston Ford came to DriveSure looking for a way to grow their business, differentiate their dealership, and incentivize loyalty, we got to work– and as a result, helped them achieve some pretty outstanding results:

• 74% of vehicle owners returned within 12 months
• On average, customers return 2.6 times per year
• 12-month customer retention average increased by more than 10%

And all of that improvement helped Lilliston Ford grow by more than 33%. Talk about an ROI!

At DriveSure, we do more than just offer renewable benefits, we help incentivize customer loyalty and drive real revenue for dealerships just like yours.

Ready to see how DriveSure can help incentivize your customer base and in doing so help you meet your yearly or quarterly quotas? Schedule a call today!