BMW of Schererville was looking for ways to increase service RO revenue. To increase the service revenue, they decided to look for ways to boost their parts and service departments’ presence online and increase the conversion of the visitors that they were attracting.

Like many dealerships, their service department marketed through direct mail, email blasts, and regular coupons. Each of these mediums was used to drive people to the service lane and the dealership website where there was an option for the customers to schedule their appointment online. The online scheduling, however, simply consisted of a standard lead capture form that was not engaging enough and didn’t create a good conversion.

The first step in boosting their service revenue was to create a better converting website. Rather than edit their current site, they realized the power in creating a separate dedicated site exclusively for the Fixed Operations side of the business. Many high-performing dealers are realizing that one website (your primary website that is 95 percent dedicated to sales) is simply not enough to market and engage consumers into taking action when hoping to increase revenue for your dealership in a cost-effective way. BMW of Schererville launched BMW24service.com in September of 2010.

When visitors arrive at BMW24service.com, they first notice a very engaging Virtual Service Consultant, Live Repair Orders, and up to-date service coupons. All of the navigation keeps the user within the Fixed Operations real estate.

The implementation of the Virtual Service Consultant came via Dealer e-Process, the 2011 AWA Best Fixed Operations Software winner. According to Howard Dwan, “the Virtual Service Consultant engaged customers in a way they were never engaged before. We had something on our website that customers had not seen anywhere in the market, giving us a decided competitive edge.” The Virtual Service Consultant benefited BMW of Schererville by personalizing service, reinforcing key messaging, manufacturer specific customization, displaying service pricing online and differentiating their dealership.

Part 2 of the journey for BMW of Schererville was to train customers to use the BMW24Service.com website as a tool, and deliver on high expectations of the BMW customer. This challenge was met with the integration of Live Repair Orders. Live Repair Orders is a mobile app that allows car dealerships to visually explain car repairs to customers. The app allows photos of needed repairs to be captured and uploaded to the dealer's website in real time. According to Howard, “this solved a lot of problems we had at the dealership.”

Customers no longer questioned the integrity of the repairs needed; customers were text messaged and emailed immediately after photos are uploaded and we are ready to talk repair costs; advisors who used to pick and choose what to up-sell from the repair order were now forced to discuss all repairs needed; technicians service bays were not tied up with vehicles taken apart waiting on customers to see repairs needed or explanations; customers became trained to visit our Fixed Operations website to view the repairs; the app handled all this for us!

After the user experience was optimized, it was time to increase the traffic to the service-scheduling site. Rather than stick with the traditional marketing that they had utilized in the past, they decided to get into PPC search marketing. They targeted specific keywords in their market so ads were shown to visitors looking for BMW services in their market. As a result of this additional marketing approach, they were able to pinpoint the customers and expand their reach.

The resulting added revenue from a dedicated Fixed Operations has made a more than compelling case that all dealerships small and large need to have a strategy they can implement now.

Dave Page is the director and co-owner of Dealer e Process, LLC., founded in 2007. For more information please visit www.dealereprocess.com or call 866-606-7916.

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