Southfork CDJR is located in Manvel, Texas and is one of four stores in the dealership
group. The dealership has 24 service department team members and 27 sales
employees. Southfork CDJR averages 1,700 ROs per month.
Fixed Ops Director, Jeff Burket started at the dealership in 2005 in the parts
department. Over the years, he’s worked his way up to management, and eventually
became the Fixed Ops Director in 2013.
I love being a
hands-on leader, but
not when it comes to
managing vendor
solutions. I save a
massive amount of
time each month not
having to manually
update our service
specials pages.
Automation and
conversions are keys
to a successful vendor
product.”
Proposed Solution
Southfork CDJR was interested in finding a trackable automated service specials solution that increases the interaction between the service department and customers, while also increasing website traffic. It is imperative that the solution save the Fixed Ops Director the time updating and maintaining service specials at the end of each month. Most importantly, the results need to speak for themselves through accessible reporting and data provided on a recurring schedule. Lastly, the solution had to be easy to implement and built to integrate into current software and solutions, making the learning curve quick and simple.
Goals and Results
Within the first few months of installing FixedOPS Marketing, Southfork CDJR went from having no data on leads and conversions to showing promising numbers of 16% conversion rates in February and March 2020. After one year of consistent conversion rates, Southfork CDJR now sees around 22% conversion rates on a monthly basis, with 254 conversions in February and March 2021.
22%
Avg. Monthly Conversions
254
Conversions
1153
Unique visitors
Tom Peacock Nissan
Scott Read - Fixed Operations Director
Background
Prior to becoming a partner with FixedOPS Marketing in March 2020, Tom Peacock struggled to find a reputable fixed ops marketing vendor that offered a creative solution that wasn’t generic. Tom Peacock wanted a variety of services marketed, not just a templated tool that everyone else had, that looked professional. It was also important that the
company be able to target specific audiences in creative ways at a low cost. They did not want to sign a lengthy agreement to later find out that the service itself didn’t offer creativity, look professional or work.
We’ve had a 31% increase in online conversions since we started using FixedOPS Marketing!
Proposed Solution
After contacting FixedOPS Marketing and seeing the 15 minute demo, the dealership was eager to try on the service specials. They didn’t have to sign a contract or make a long-term commitment, so the risk was low. After setup, the dealership easily implemented their service specials. After being with FixedOPS Marketing for over a year, the dealership has seen twenty percent+ conversions month over month. The simple and automated technology keeps their service department relevant and continuously ranking high in organic search results on Google.
Goals and Results
There were specific requests that this dealership really wanted in a fixed ops marketing tool. They wanted automation, but also the freedom to market their services with their own branding and messaging. They wanted customers to be able to convert in many different ways. They wanted to be able to use video as a sales and education tool.
More than anything, the dealership wanted to be perceived as professional because they knew that if their service website looked bad, customers would assume the service center was bad as well.
After several months, the dealership took a look at their conversion rates and were shocked to find 36% conversion rates in January/February 2021!
Prior to becoming a partner with FixedOPS Marketing in February 2020, Affinity Auto Group and its dealerships had no marketing solution. Brookshire Hyundai and its sister dealerships had a real issue with not being able to send email marketing reminders for missed appointments, upcoming appointments, monthly service specials, service-needed reminders, among others. However, their biggest concern was not being able to communicate to the customer the importance of denied services. This caused the dealerships a lot of lost revenue.
FixedOPS Marketing helped us run the biggest ROI campaign we’ve ever run: The Roadtrip Special. We got amazing traction out of it.
Proposed Solution
Affinity Auto Group needed an automated solution that the service directors could implement quickly and easily. They needed to automatically send out emails and text messages that had consistent artwork, from the website to the email, to the text message. But they didn’t want to have to spend time on their own graphic design. FixedOPS Marketing’s ADVANTAGE+ product would enable all the service managers to determine their own specials and communicate those specials to customers on a predifined schedule, taking extra weight off managers.
Goals and Results
FixedOPS Marketing created and designed all of their service specials, a seasonal banner, and made sure each special had an embedded educational video.
Prior to this, the dealer website was unusable. Once implemented, the specials pages began to drive traffic to the website. Not only were customers using the specials, they were finding the service specials pages organically. It began to make an enormous impact on conversion rates and filling service bays.
“No dealership has ever gotten the service specials page right. Now that it’s right, it’s been incredible,” - Jeff Burket
Brookshire Hyundai now enjoys conversion rates that grew from 0% to an average of 19% a month.
A common problem for many service departments is not having visibility at all into their conversions, leads or reporting. This was no different for Ancira. In the past, Ancira would have static images on their service landing pages and they didn’t know who or if anyone was converting.
Ancira was aware that their click through rates were less than 10%, but they never knew if customers booked an appointment for any particular service.
Since Ancira has implemented FixedOPS Marketing’s service solution, Michael Drexel now gets a notification every time someone converts on the service website. Conversion rates are now at 30% month after month. During the first 30 minutes of our conversation, 18 leads had come into the store!
I’m surprised that we have such a good reaction. Was I losing those people before? What message were we sending before? I don’t know because I didn’t have the feedback. But now I know.
Use Rewards and Competition to Win
In late 2021, the Ancira Auto Group ran a competition amongst the nine dealerships. For every alignment, the Group would donate $10 to the San Antonio Food Bank. Michael Drexel was leading the 4th largest store in the group, one without alignment check machines, and with RO less than ⅓ that of the larger dealerships. They were the underdogs, but willing to accept the challenge!
The strategy he implemented was to use service specials to send information on needed alignments to the customers prior to their appointment. The conversation was then started 24 hours before, which made it easier for Service Advisors to approach the topic in-person. Advisors were then able to begin the conversation with each customer by asking if they’d received the text that was sent and ask if they’d like to get an alignment.
In conclusion, Michael and his dealership team won with 292 alignments sold. The next closest winner had 560 more repair orders and Michael and his team oversold them by 75 alignments. And remember, they didn’t even have an alignment check machine!
Success After Implementation
How does the service department get the service content on the website into the hands of customers? Turns out, it’s as simple as informing the customer. Michael Drexel takes a very proactive approach by sending customers service video reminders the day before. Because of this, the conversation has been started before the customer arrives for their service appointment.
When a service is offered on the service website, Ancira will receive a 60% or more increase in that service. Just by opening the conversation and communicating with the customer before their visit, during their visit and after their service visit, Ancira is increasing advertised services by over 60%.