According to J.D. Power's 2016 CSI study, the key areas that dealers need to pay specific attention to are...

• Wait Time: Consumers are willing to wait 1-2 hours for service. Unfortunately, the majority of customer visits are well past 1-2 hours. I also have to believe that customer defection wouldn't be at 70% if customers didn't have to wait and be inconvenienced.
• Service with a Smile: Service satisfaction improves considerably when consumers are greeted within 2 minutes. What percentage of the time are your customers greeted within 1-2 minutes?
• In Search of the Elusive Tire Customer: In the first five years of ownership, the components that customers most frequently replaced during the past 12 months are front wiper blades (25%); tires (22%); brake pads (6%); rear wiper blades (6%); and batteries (5%). Among these, tires are the only replacement component that customers are more likely to have replaced at a non-dealer facility than at a dealer facility. Dealers should take note of this finding, as their ability to retain customers for tires is important. Among customers who purchased tires at a dealership, 40% say they “definitely will” repurchase the same brand, compared with 31% of those who purchased from a non-dealer.
• Dealers Need to Get on the Text Message Bandwagon: only 2% of all customers currently receive service updates via text message or email.
• The Value of Getting it Right the First Time: 94% of customers who take their vehicle in for service indicate that the dealer fixed it right the first time.

What would happen to the three key areas that dealers need to pay specific attention to if customer pick-up and delivery was provided? I'm not speaking to offering this type of service to only heat customers or very highline customers, but to all customer pay, warranty and recall customers.

• Wait Time would no longer be an issue as consumers wouldn't be waiting at the dealership. Their vehicle would have been picked up and delivered on the customer's behalf.
• Service with a Smile would happen every time since consumers aren't being inconvenienced with taking their vehicle in for service. Your greeters and or advisors wouldn't be rushing to engage with a consumer within 1-2 minutes.
• In Search of the Elusive Tire Customer would result in considerably more tire sales. Consumers would be more than happy to purchase tires from the dealership if customer pick-up and delivery was offered. Consumers would even be willing to pay more for the added convenience.

One area that J.D. Powers doesn't address is conquest customers. How many more customers would take advantage of your service and part operations if customer pick-up and delivery was provided? How many more new car customers would service their vehicle at your dealership if customer pick-up and delivery was provided? How many more new and pre-owned vehicles would you sell each month if consumers knew you offered pick-up and delivery service for customer pay, warranty and recalls. You can even offer test drives at the consumer's home!

80% of consumers take advantage of customer pick-up and delivery when dealers offer this level of service.

Ken Hite is Senior Vice President at RedCap. RedCap's technology and drivers are utilized by OEMs and dealers for test drives and service customer pick-up and delivery. Ken has 25 years experience within the automotive industry, inclusive of retail, OEM, after-market and start-ups. The auto industry must learn to exceed customer expectations and implement business processes based upon customer convenience.