Tracey E. Schelmetic
When customers check in for vehicle service, dealers are presented with a unique opportunity: several communications touchpoints that are the ideal time to begin talking with customers about upgrading their vehicle. It’s estimated that on average, three out of 100 service customers will take advantage of a vehicle upgrade opportunity, particularly if they’re informed about elements such as current incentives, lower interest rates and lower maintenance costs.
To try and make the most out of these opportunities, many companies use sales conversion solutions that aggregate the data needed to make a compelling offer to the customer. Most of these service conversion tools, however, rely on batch pre-screen and direct mail to bring customers back to the store after the service has already happened. Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Servisell prides itself on being a bit different: it provides instant results so dealers can target and contact service customers while their vehicles are still in the store. Thanks to a new partnership with Auto/Mate Dealership Systems, the capabilities to upsell service customers can be right in the DMS.
With the completion of all dealership management system (DMS) integrations with Servisell, the integrated solution will allow sales managers that use Auto/Mate’s DMS to monitor recently opened repair orders to view real-time data that Servisell obtains and displays, including instant Quickscreen credit on the customer and NADA Trade Data on the vehicle. The goal is to help dealerships quickly identify the service customers who are most likely to respond to an upgrade offer.
“Servisell has a unique technology that combs through customer and vehicle data, then presents the information real-time and in a format that sales employees can easily understand and take action upon,” said Mike Esposito, president and CEO of Auto/Mate, in a statement.
Auto/Mate’s integration program, Open/Mate, is based on open standards so that third-party vendors can easily integrate with the DMS. Auto/Mate’s Service Merchandising module offers dealers a variety of tools to help dealers increase service volume while effectively tracking and managing all aspects of service operations.
“The process of integrating with Auto/Mate’s Service Merchandising module was fast and very cost-effective,” said Willard Stawski II, president of Servisell. “We appreciate Auto/Mate’s support of open standards integration so that dealers have more vendor choices at affordable prices.”
