Want Higher Retention? Consider Dealer-Branded PPM’s

A big challenge in today’s dealership environment is how to increase customer retention across the board. You want customers to come back and buy their NEXT car from you. Service departments want customers to come back consistently for repairs and scheduled maintenance. The same for parts purchases, too.

When it comes to service, today’s dealers are competing with the long shadow of national chains and quick lubes popping up all over the marketplace. Customers are bombarded with marketing specials in their email and via social media. It’s everywhere.

But is there a simple strategy that could increase customer retention in service before they have even driven off the lot with their new car? Sure is….dealer-branded prepaid maintenance.

‍Prepaid maintenance (PPM) has been around for a long time and has been thought of as an OEM-only direct offering (think BMW, one of the early pioneers of PPM). Customers buy a new car and automatically get (on average) 2 years of scheduled maintenance included in the price of the car. Easy and great from an OEM perspective.

But there is a real, tangible benefit to branding your PPM to your store. Here are a few reasons why your dealership should consider a branded PPM offering to every customer:

• Service Retention: If the plan is branding to ‘ABC Nissan’, guess what? That customer will come back to that location for those oil changes and service, not the other 3 Nissan stores in the market.
• Easy Upsell: As the customer comes back to your service lane, the advisors now have the easy upsell opportunities to help drive more revenue and increase CSI by suggesting other services that will help keep the car in tip-top shape.
• Boosting the ‘Why Buy Here’ Value Prop: If your store is one of the few that offer this exclusive PPM plan to your customers, it reinforces why your dealership is THE place to buy a new car. Along with any other preloaded ancillaries, your dealership is offering an inclusive level of protection and helping to foster that long-term service relationship that many dealerships don’t bother to cultivate.

If your dealership doesn’t have a branded PPM offering, reach out to us by clicking here. We here at truWarranty will be happy to help you set it up and customize the branding for you. Don’t sit around and hope your customers come back for maintenance...make them WANT to come back to your dealership.