AUTOMOTIVE INSIGHT: GM Uses Good Service to Keep Customers
May 12th, 2008 at 10:11am
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General Motors is using technology to improve service all with the idea of holding onto the customers it’s got.
About 3 out of 10 GM customers bring their cars to the dealer for service. But GM’s Service Operations figures if they can boost that to 4 out of 10, it can drive a lot more business for the company and its dealers.
First off, GM dealers would do about $1.3 billion in more maintenance and repairs every year. Second, a lot of those customers will turn into repeat buyers. GM says they could account for 360,000 sales of new cars and trucks. And it sees the opportunity to sell $160 million in accessories to those people.
A key tool to improve service is monitoring a car’s health via OnStar and then alerting customers when their cars need work. It all has to do with satisfying existing customers so they keep coming back to GM dealerships.
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May 16th, 2008 at 2:25 am
I agree that it’s important to keep customers coming back for service, and the industry needs to survey the 7 of 10 who do not use dealerships to find out what dealers need to change to bring back more customers.
I’m not sure how this works, but I find the current program interesting at some dealers (mainly Honda) where a car keeps the drivetrain warranty forever if all maintenance is conducted at a specific dealer. I would consider this if it were expanded beyond a single dealer. For example, if all maintenance was performed by GM dealers, the drivetrain warranty stays in effect. Dealers could offer this with “certified” used cars as well.