Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 12
FIXED OPS JOURNAL
SCREEN TEST
Service profits depend
on up-to-date digital
ads and marketing
RICK POPELY
foj@autonews.com
our service department has replaced those old-school snail mail
postcards and newspaper ads with
web pages, email messages
and Google searches as
the most effective ways
to reach your customers. So you're on the
cutting edge of online
marketing, right?
Not hardly.
The most marketing-savvy
dealerships also are communicating with their service customers via social media such as
Facebook and Twitter, smartphone apps and slick YouTube
videos. In a digital age, many
other dealerships need to do
more, and do it faster, to promote
their shops online.
Although the typical
dealership makes most of
its profits from parts and
service, says industry consultant Jeff Clark, it still
devotes just 3 percent of
its online content to fixed
operations.
"Dealers are so foWright: Limits to
cused on selling more
mobile content
cars that they tend to overlook what actually pays the bills and keeps the
lights on," says Clark, the executive vice president of business development for DealerOn, a
provider of dealership websites and interactive
marketing services in Derwood, Md.
"They need to have an online service offering
that is at or near parity with their sales offering," he says. "That means explaining the features and benefits of the service department,
what a particular service does, and why they're
the right dealership to service your vehicle."
Because 60 to 70 percent of vehicle owners
search for service options on a smartphone,
PAGE 12
JUNE 2017
"
"
Y
Subaru dealership
taps local roots,
social media to gain
customer pay work
I PAGE 16 I
"Dealers are so focused
on selling more cars that
they tend to overlook
what actually pays the
bills and keeps the lights
on." JEFF CLARK, DealerOn
Clark told Fixed Ops Journal, dealers need to
optimize their websites for mobile devices.
They should strive to offer a "responsive" site
that will automatically reformat according to
the device it's viewed on - phone, tablet or
personal computer.
"If you're designing your website to a desktop view, you need to get out of the 1980s,"
Clark says.
Most service customers at Shaheen Chevrolet in Lansing, Mich., gain access to the dealership's website through a smartphone, says
Fixed Operations Director Dave Wright. Ser-
vice departments must keep mobile devices'
restrictions in mind when they design their
websites, he notes.
"We try to put as much content online as we
can, but you can only do so much, particularly
on the mobile side, because there's only so
much space on the screen," Wright says. "You
are more limited on a phone than you are on a
tablet or an iPad or a desktop."
Overall, Clark says, service marketing requires a different mindset from sales marketsee DIGITAL, Page 13
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Service Counter
Legal Lane
Web threads
Chitty’s law
Port of call
Richard Truett
Featured film
Wisdom of age
Future techs
Intake, outgo
Feedback
NADA numbers
Top 50
Guest comment
Five Minutes With
Shop Talk
Fixed in Time
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Intro
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Cover2
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Contents
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Editor’s Letter
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 5
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Service Counter
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 7
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Legal Lane
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 9
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 10
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 11
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Web threads
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 13
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 14
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 15
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 16
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 17
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Chitty’s law
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 19
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 20
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 21
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 22
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 23
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 24
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 25
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 26
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 27
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Port of call
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 29
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 30
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Richard Truett
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Featured film
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 33
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Wisdom of age
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 35
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Future techs
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 37
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Intake, outgo
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Feedback
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - NADA numbers
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - 41
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Top 50
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Guest comment
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Five Minutes With
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Shop Talk
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Fixed in Time
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Cover3
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2017 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201904
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201810
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201808
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201804
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201802
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201712
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201706
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201704
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201702
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201608
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201605
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201602
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/fixedops_201708
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com