Month: December 2018

Ways to Increase Your Car Count

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3 Easy Ways to Increase Car Counts

By Bob Cooper of Elite

1. You need to make sure that your advisors are well trained when they pick up the phone. In far too many cases low car counts are because the advisor(s) is either the wrong person, is not properly trained, or isn’t being held accountable by the shop owner. Having clearly defined car count goals, recording all the calls, and discussing the lost calls are all keys to your success. As an added note, at Elite we have seen dramatic increases in car counts when shop owners do nothing more than record the calls, and the reason is obvious: When employees realize they are being monitored, that in itself improves their performance.

2. Call those customers who have recently declined repairs. However, in doing so you need to be careful about who you call and how the calls are presented. Any customer who failed to authorize a repair or service that poses a safety risk to the driver, needs to be called. Although there are exceptions to every rule, I would strongly recommend that you call these customers within one week. The call doesn’t need to be a “sales” call, but merely a call to let the customer know you are concerned about their safety and well-being. If it’s a first-time customer, you can simply let them know that you are following up to see if they’ve have had the chance to have the repair done since they left your shop, because regardless of where it is done or by who, you just want to ensure that the recommended repair wasn’t forgotten, and that they are safe.

3. Call those regular customers who you haven’t seen for a long time. Let them know you couldn’t help but notice they haven’t been in for quite a while, and then simply say something like… “Do you mind if I ask, did we somehow drop the ball?” The answers that you hear will be priceless. In some cases you will hear that they bought a new car, and you’ll be able to let them know you can service their new vehicle as well. You may hear that you or your employees did drop the ball, and if that’s the case, you can apologize, make things right, and offer them a complimentary service to show them just how sincere you are.

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Who are the Automotive Marketing Masters??

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Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Falken? What? Strange trio right? Analytics firm, Shareable, who makes it their business to track such things, says those three companies are “Killing it on social media.” Mercedes is on the top of the list of automotive firms at 340 million social engagements in 2017. BMW posts once or twice per day but they have so many handles posting that it really adds up. They were second with 237 million engagements. Interesting fact. All BMW posts feature a photo while most other brands are only 85% photo-centric. Some interesting points: “Falken Tire is clearly focused on Instagram. Each post comes loaded with relevant handles and hashtags, which allows the message to spread beyond the 429k followers the firm has attracted.

Falken is a great example of the power of social media when it comes to automotive brands. In the age of ‘social’, the marketplace expects to have a relationship with brands. Social media has helped to level the playing field when it comes to huge brands and smaller companies like Falken.” Doesn’t it make you wonder why the other tire manufacturers barely seem to be even trying to engage? What’s in it for you? For starters, you could jump on board and associate your business with a very successful brand that has an incredible following. Wanna know how, read an excerpt of the article below:


3 Automotive Brands That Are Killing It on Social Media
5 October 2018 Lilly Edwards

FALKEN TIRE
Falken Tire is clearly focused on Instagram. Each of its posts comes loaded with relevant handles and hashtags, which allows the message to spread beyond the 429k followers that the firm has managed to attract. For example, it can tag other automotive brands when they feature the brands’ cars in certain posts. In fact, the company’s most engaging topics include Chevrolet, Nissan, and Ford, according to the Sprinklr Business Index.

Falken Tire is a great example of the power of social media when it comes to automotive brands. There are numerous other industries, however, that have proven the power of engaging with customers online. In the age of ‘social’, the marketplace expects to have a relationship with brands. Often, companies call upon social marketing specialists such as growthsupermarket.com to point them in the direction of the tools to work on their engagement strategy. These specialists help the brand choose the right social channels for them by helping them find out where their prospects are, as well as find relevant influencers to help spread the word on their clients’ products and services.

When associated with such traits as thrills, luxury, and speed, a product isn’t that difficult to promote. Social media has helped to level the playing field when it comes to huge brands and smaller companies, as Falken Tire appears to have benefited from.
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More to Nexen Tire than you might think…

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There’s your basic o.e. and then there’s
Ohhh – Eeeh!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re original equipment on the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Big whoop. Zzzzz.  But check out this NEXEN company. Earlier this year they announced they’d be supplying Porsche with tires for their hot-selling Macan model. Seems that some Porsche engineers were traveling around Korea on a fact finding trip and one said “Let’s try to set up a meet with NEXEN…” The meeting and R&D tour went on for hours and at the end of the day the Germans were so impressed with what they learned they agreed to cooperate on tires.
That’s neat. Big name sports car company and all, but… – WE LOVE AMERICAN MUSCLE, right? The December cover of HOT ROD magazine features the new Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320. The number 1320? That’s how many feet are in a quarter of a mile of course. Yes, this is a new take on the classic factory drag car. 392 HEMI making 485 hp, Line Lock, TransBrake, and modern launch control are all on board. What’s putting the power to the pavement? Yep, NEXEN cooked up new drag radials called SUR4G Drag Spec. They even have knurled bead seats to minimize tire on rim slippage. These tires won’t lead an easy life. Their job is to launch this two-ton monster to 11.70s in the quarter mile. How did NEXEN get tipped for this gig? Hint: their Tire Tech Center in Richfield Ohio is only 170 miles from Detroit. You can bet there are some real gearheads there in addition to the folks that engineer tires for more run of the mill O.E. There is way more going on at NEXEN than most people think….
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