Don’t neglect aftersales in your post-lockdown car sales rush

SINCE the government published its ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, dealerships in England will have had one date circled on their calendars: 12 April, the day when they can welcome customers into their showrooms again.

It’s true that, across the three lockdowns, dealerships took great steps in digitalising their retail operations and embracing e-commerce. Nevertheless, several industry figureheads are hailing the need to re-open showrooms and welcome back physical shoppers as the start of a prolonged bounce back from COVID-19 lockdown three. There’s little doubt that the return of physical shoppers to showrooms will provide a boost, but we need to be careful that this boost does not come at the expense of other dealership services.

Restarting physical new car sales need not – and should not – be detrimental to aftersales. After all, this has been possibly the only uninterrupted source of business since the first lockdown. In the intervening period, dealerships worked hard to shift to a business model where aftersales took a greater priority. If we simply shift back, we lose the fruit of those endeavours – and lose aftersales as a stable and important revenue stream. 

Instead, let’s put our efforts to use and create a new model that makes aftersales as much of a priority as retail, getting the most out of both. 

How to keep aftersales strong post-lockdown

How do we make this model a reality? There are some practical steps dealer principals and aftersales managers can take to improve their aftersales prospects from 12 April – without unduly adding to workloads.

• Improve data accuracy: For customer-facing staff, time efficiency is crucial. They can’t afford to waste time contacting the wrong customers or missing renewal windows. Getting your records right not only avoids these problems, it also ensures your customer communication is more targeted, memorable and impactful.
• Integrate your back-end systems: Teams should not be working in silos – and you can link them up effectively by connecting your sales management, aftersales management and dealer management software (DMS). Not only will this save your staff time, it also gives customers a seamless digital journey through every stage of car ownership.
• Improve data visibility: Having customer data is one thing. You need to ensure it’s actually used – flagging up key information such as previous advisories or upcoming service intervals. That way, you discover upselling opportunities at the right time – when the customer is on your premises or on the phone – and not when it is too late.
• Offer contactless options: Self check-in and check-out will be critical for some time to come – customer cleanliness anxiety will outlast lockdown by a margin. More than that, it’s about convenience. Customers are used to receiving a ‘click and collect’ service for all manner of goods; they will appreciate it and come to expect it from the aftermarket too.
• Reconcile deferred work records: During lockdown, cash-strapped customers may have put off expensive repair jobs. With the situation easing and a summer of ‘staycations’ looming, they are more likely to book important work in – so now is the time to put these deferral records to use. Bear in mind that owing to workshop closures, many customers were forced to defer scheduled servicing and MOTs in Q2 2020, which will create a gap in the opportunity for Q2 and a potential capacity issue in Q3 of 2021.

Bringing everything together

We are emerging from a very difficult period, and dealerships need to maximise every opportunity to bring in business and make up for lost time. 

The return of in-person retail is a major milestone – so why not extract the maximum benefit from it by integrating it with your other business activities? Everyone who buys a new car from you is a new customer entering the aftermarket in the future. With accurate customer records, robust processes and a customer-first approach, you can use sales to drive maximum opportunities for aftersales in subsequent years.

This is what the new dealership model looks like: sales and aftersales supporting each other as part of a joint strategy, rather than conflicting priorities. By adopting an integrated, digitally-led strategy, you can retain aftersales’ vital contribution while adding the long-awaited benefit of physical retail – a true ‘best of both worlds’ for dealerships.