Auto dealers are taking more aggressive steps to improve their online marketing efforts and internal processes in Fixed Operations. Finally, General Managers are realizing that Service Directors need to be part of their digital marketing strategy.

As new and used car sales numbers plateau, customer retention and sales generation in the service drive is going to be even more important for dealerships. How dealers leverage their DMS data will be critical for their future success.

Fixed operations is the largest single contributor to dealership profits. Having a great relationship with service customers will not only provide revenue continuity as sales numbers fluctuate, but should make it easier to keep these customers loyal to the dealership when their next vehicle purchase comes around.

PCG surveyed more than 900 consumers with the intention to investigate specific areas of consumers’ automotive servicing journey that we believe have not been adequately covered in previous industry research.

Our questions were designed to ask consumers directly where they choose to service their vehicles and why. We also inquired where the process of servicing a car at a dealership could be improved. We feel going directly to the consumer will benefit the dealership’s processes and marketing efforts.

We hope that dealers and industry consultants reading this report will work closer together to create a better service experience for consumers.