CUSTOMER LOYALTY, PRODUCT AND THE SERVICE DRIVE

RV dealers have been offering Extended Service Plans and Road Hazard protection for a long time. These are great products that an experienced finance manager can build value for the customer and profit for their dealership. Products such as these benefit the dealer in many ways, not only with initial profit but also in customer loyalty. Whenever a customer is given or purchases a product that they perceive as valuable, they have the opportunity to realize that value. When they redeem that value, they appreciate your service and in turn become a more loyal customer. In summary, the more products and perceived benefit that a customer buys/receives from the dealership, the more loyalty they will have to that dealership.

Finance is a great place to offer customer benefits and it's extremely important that your finance managers are doing a good job presenting the products at the time of vehicle sale. However as sales have decreased in the last couple years, dealerships have had less opportunities to sell product. Remember, by selling product you are not only creating income but increasing customer loyalty. You need to find more opportunities to sell product and that's why dealers have turned their focus to service. Selling a product through service allows you to increase dealership profit and loyalty by giving finance opportunities to sell product. Service is a great time to talk to the customer about the costs of owning an RV. The customer is in tune to the cost of RV repairs and do not want to deal with the cost of repairs in the future.

Road Hazard protection and extended service contracts are both products that sell well to service customers. The key to a successful service drive program is getting service writers to mention the benefits of the product and then turn them over to finance for the final sale and contracting. We have a script and process for each product that works seamlessly with the inspection of the customers RV. A program needs to be created to reward service managers for each service customer that purchases a service plan, (a flat fee taken from finance profit works best). 12 or 18 month financing is available to help make the cost more manageable for people that don't have cash to spend upfront. In closing, product sales created from service customers allows your dealership to profit and gives those customers one more reason to come back.