Five tips to tackle the oncoming £1.3bn aftersales gap

The pandemic has seen a dip in new-car registrations to the tune of around 1.3 million over the last two years, and this could rise to as many as 1.8-million by the end of 2022 according to estimates by data specialist Real Time Communications (RTC).

RTC insights and data director, John Law, says: “While a shortage of new vehicles is increasing used values, it is also masking a major aftersales shortfall that will affect servicing departments.

“The true impact is yet to realised, but we are now at a crossroads where higher volume service revenue from third services of new cars sold in 2019 start to wash through (at the higher pre-pandemic sales volumes), and the lower volumes of first and second services of cars sold during 2020 and 2021 start to be seen in service departments.”

Retailers can counter this dip by taking proactive steps now, with RTC’s commercial director Alistair Jeff:

1. Marry bookings with invoices

Contact centres are tasked with upselling to customers, getting them to agree to anything from an air-con refresh through to amber work that needs to be completed. However, the promised job might not then be done or, worse, be done but not invoiced for.

Make sure that everything that is promised on a first call or a video health check makes it through to the technician’s job card and the final invoice.

2. Categorise service customers

Not all customers in your DMS are the same, and their servicing needs are different. By categorising them into groups – older vehicles, those with warranty plans that are coming to an end and those that have their first MOT approaching – you can talk to them in a bespoke way that feels personalised.

3. Innovate to keep customers returning

The perception is that getting a car serviced at a franchised retailer is more expensive, so work needs to be done at the point of sale and soon after to ensure a used car customer comes back for their services for years to come. Customer retention goes from around 90% after the first year to around 60% in the fourth year of a car’s life. Be inventive with offers to bring them back. Consider offering a longer service plan, or work with multiple providers to package up a servicing plan and a warranty together.

4. Get older cars through the door

Most retailers have lapsed customers that they haven’t spoken to for a while – they have either gone elsewhere or don’t have the car and either way it is worth knowing. It isn’t just a case of giving them a call – come up with an offer to get them through. It could be as simple as offering a cut on the labour rate for cars over a certain age.

5. Digitise to streamline tech’s workload

One company we worked with saw a 35% increase in technician’s productivity when they moved from a paper-based workflow to a digital system. It meant quicker customer authorisation on parts, less physical wandering around with job cards and swifter part identification. A 35% time saving allows service advisors to spend more time on the phone to those lapsed customers and could even enable an extra technician to join the workshop.