Automotive News Canada - December 2019 - v2 - F17

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

VALET

another supplier, Driver Network Service.
Benstock says he insisted from the beginning that the valet service would be free.
"When we first started discussing this, we
were wondering, how much should we
charge?" Benstock says. "Would it be a subscription that you purchase? For how much
- $20 a month, $99 a year? Something F&I
would sell? So I said, let's make it free."
Petito says dealership managers were
floored by Benstock's decision. "We all said,
what? You know, you can't go the other way.
You can't make it free and then charge people
if you find out you have to."
That hasn't been necessary. Through August
of this year, customers who used the valet service averaged $405 per repair order for warranty work - almost 70 percent more than
customers who delivered their vehicles to the
dealership and retrieved them when the work
was done.
The difference was even greater for customer-pay work - $600 per repair order on average, more than twice the average for customers who took their cars and trucks in. This
added revenue more than pays for the valet
service, Benstock says. When Paragon's ser-

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Acura dealerships. His customer satisfaction
scores have greatly increased from their "notoriously poor" levels earlier in the decade, he adds.
The greatest proof that pickup and delivery
works, Benstock says, is that the average repair order for valet customers is considerably
higher than for customers who drive themselves to the dealership.
"We expected loyalty - return customers,"
he says. "But we never expected it to pay for itself, and it's paying for itself. So, really, it's free."

Spend it to make it
Well, not exactly free. Petito says the average
cost of a valet trip is about $53 one way. Those
occasional, extra-long rides could cost $300,
he adds.
To run the system, Paragon uses a logistics
platform provided by RedCap Technologies of
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It accepts and dispatches
orders for valet service, tracks the valet drivers
and their driving behavior, supports customer
surveys and handles customer communications. Paragon obtains its 30 valet drivers from

vice department recommends additional
work, customers are more willing to approve
it in return for the convenience of valet service, he adds.

Outrunning the bear
Valet service is an example of creativity that
dealerships need to show to win service business from aftermarket providers, Benstock
says. "We are presenting this as an antidote to
the independents," he says.
Some dealerships don't bother to advertise
their quick-lube services, Benstock says, because they think they can't compete with the
aftermarket on price. "That's baloney," he
says. "Customers don't do it for $9 oil changes.
They do it for convenience."
Instead of ceding business to independent
and chain stores, dealership service departments must make themselves more convenient
by offering such things as pickup and delivery,
he says. He cites the old joke about the hiker
who doesn't have to outrun the charging bear
- he only has to outrun the other hikers.
"I don't have to outrun Jiffy Lube or Pep
Boys," Benstock says. "I only have to outrun
the other Honda dealers." 

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trust is everything

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DECEMBER 2019

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