Automotive News - May 10, 2010 - 10

10 • MAY 10, 2010

service & parts Schedulers save time, make money
Online tools give customers ability to set up service
Jesse Snyder
jsnyder@crain.com

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Helping hand

Dealerships that use online service schedulers to cut administrative time say they are discovering other advantages: smoother work flow, new business and dirt-cheap targeted marketing. Three specialists in online schedulers — Xtime Inc., TimeHighway.com and @utoRevenue — say they have won contracts with 3,500 stores, roughly one-fifth of U.S. dealerships. Letting customers schedule their service appointments online is a big improvement from basic dealer Web sites that take customer requests and require a callback, said Steve Martin, service manager at Grappone Toyota in Bow, N.H. Martin has used an online scheduler from @utoRevenue, of Lee, Mass., for three years and said it arranges about 30 of his 100 daily service appointments. “It frees up my advisers to handle inbound calls, and it’s convenient to our customers to schedule their service appointments whenever they want to, 24 hours a day,” he said. Bergstrom Auto Group, of Neenah, Wis., uses a TimeHighway scheduler for its 20 dealerships, said Greg Lingenfelter, Bergstrom’s director of fixed operations. The group is No. 59 on Automotive News’ list of the top 125 dealership groups. “We love it,” Lingenfelter said. “It automatically generates e-mail reminders, reducing administrative time. Companywide, it schedules about half of all service appointments, and we can customize it for

Darrin Kuster of Continental Acura in Naperville, Ill., uses TimeHighwaygenerated e-mails that offer coupons for service on vehicles other than Acuras. Online service scheduling helps dealerships by 1. Reducing callbacks, staff time 2. Automatically feeding service data to dealership’s computers 3. Marketing to customers with e-mails

each of our 30 brands.” Each of the online scheduler specialists offers a service designed to mesh with major dealership management systems. When customers create service appointments, the online schedulers automatically link that data to dealership service histories. Dealership management systems vendor Cobalt Group, of Seattle, prefers it that way. “We don’t actively market a service scheduler product,” said Chris Reed, Cobalt chief marketing officer. “We choose partners and make it easy for our customers to plug a scheduling service into our system.”

Xtime, TimeHighway and @utoRevenue market themselves differently. TimeHighway, of Naples, Fla., emphasizes value and simplicity, although it has add-on features, said CEO Karen Dillon. The basic fee is $300 a month plus a one-time setup fee of $1,484 to integrate the TimeHighway system into the dealership management system. @utoRevenue touts customization and outbound e-mail marketing campaigns, said the company’s national sales manager, Bruce O’Brien. Xtime has become the largest of the three by getting companies such as Lexus, Hyundai, Audi, Volkswagen

and Toyota of Canada — and dealership groups AutoNation, Group 1 Automotive and Sonic — to name Xtime an exclusive or preferred service provider. XTime also offers a variety of additional services, including links to greeter boards that welcome customers. Xtime says it has 2,500 stores, TimeHighway has 650 and @utoRevenue reports 350. Dealers said much of an online scheduler’s value comes from outbound marketing opportunities. Mike Hill, general manager of Acton Toyota in Acton, Mass., said @utoRevenue lets him automate a hey-we-miss-you e-mail offer to service customers who have not been in for months. “That can bump revenue when you need it,” he said. A campaign last November generated nearly $130,000 in service revenue by late December, Hill said. A follow-up campaign e-mailed in February to 9,100 customers who have stopped coming back for service generated $93,900 within six weeks. “We made an offer of $25 off any service, and we got 234 dropouts who paid an average of $401 each,” he said. Hill said such campaigns require dealerships to actively collect and maintain their own e-mail lists of customer contacts. “We started seven, eight years ago” and have 25,000, he said. Darrin Kuster, service director at Continental Acura in Naperville, Ill., said he uses TimeHighway-generated e-mails to broaden his business beyond Acuras, offering coupons to Acura owners for other vehicles in their households that aren’t Acuras. He is afraid the word is getting out: “I don’t want other dealers to have what I have.” c

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Jaguar: Free service will maintain loyalty
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Jaguar executives expect a free scheduled maintenance warranty for the 2011 models that debuted this month to bring more Jaguar owners back to the dealership for service, reversing a recent trend. The executives say the program also will make for higher-quality vehicles coming off lease and will help close more deals on the showroom floor. The Jaguar Platinum Coverage program debuted with the launch of the redesigned 2011 XJ sedan. The 5-year/50,000-mile new-vehicle warranty includes free scheduled maintenance, no-cost replacement of major wear-and-tear parts and 24/7 roadside assistance. Jaguar North America says that 90 percent of owners return to dealerships for service in the first year of ownership but that the figure drops to 35 percent by the fourth year. With the new warranty, about 70 percent of customers will use dealers at the end of their warranty, says Richard Beattie, vice president of marketing and sales. Unlike Jaguar’s previous free maintenance program, there is no charge

for oil changes, filters, brake pads, brake discs, brake fluid and wiper blade inserts. Jaguar pulled the plug on the old free maintenance program after the 2005 model year. The brand’s European competitors also eliminated free maintenance at about the same time to cut costs. Mercedes-Benz killed free maintenance for 2005 models; Volvo, for 2006 models; and Audi, for 2007 models. Only BMW kept its program, which was launched in 1997 and includes wearand-tear coverage. Volvo relaunched its plan last year. Beattie says Jaguar also will benefit when cars covered by the warranty come off lease because the vehicles will have been serviced regularly by dealers. Dealers will have higher-quality used cars to sell as certified preowned vehicles, he says, and a smaller number of cars will go to auction. Service visits have fallen off “dramatically because the product quality has been so good,” says Michael Levitan, vice president of Long Island Automotive Group, which owns Jaguar Huntington and Jaguar Southampton on New York’s Long Island. “We didn’t see a lot of customers,”

Levitan says. “Now they will come back without reminders, and dealers won’t have to solicit for business.” Jack Terhar, owner of Sill-Terhar Jaguar in Broomfield, Colo., says the program also helps dealers close sales because the package is worth $2,500 to $3,000 in service costs over a five-year period. He says a similar program at Volvo has worked. Terhar says at his Volvo store, service retention after the first year of ownership jumped to 90 percent from 30 percent. Tassos Panas, executive vice president of sales for Volvo Cars of North America, developed the brand’s 5year/60,000-mile warranty with scheduled maintenance, wear-andtear coverage and free roadside assistance. The program began last July. “It has exceeded our expectations and pushed the closing ratio from 32 percent before the plan to 37 percent,” Panas says. “It has locked people into Volvo service for the next five years.” Jim O’Donnell, BMW of North America CEO, says dealers make money on service because 97 percent of buyers return for the free 4-year/50,000-mile maintenance program. c

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Automotive News - May 10, 2010

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