Whenever a Customer calls a dealership to book a service, (s)he is positioning as a potential service consumer. The problem is that, in most of the cases, there is a “Booker” rather than a Service Consultant! The phenomenon is a common ground to all brands, but this time we analysed Mercedes-Benz workshops in Portugal. Learn about what is urgent to do on post-sales, so as to avoid another auto sector profitability crash.

We went shopping

Whoever books a service at a dealership is actually purchasing something. This happens because nowadays there are many believable solutions, with different costs, for the same purpose: fast repairing multibrand branches, independent shops which are specialised in some brands and… the other dealerships for the same brand! After sales is still a profitable business for operators, but it already is a highly competitive activity; and, there is the possibility of after sales responding to the general protocol for competition, soon in 2010…

Opting for a service at a dealership, just like any other option, must hence start to be sold for the very beginning, since the phone-booking.

In the first half of July, we contacted 37 shops from Mercedes-Benz Dealerships, located in Portugal. We presented ourselves as a Customer that was willing to book his first maintenance service (25.000 km) on a C Class (W204) 220 CDi (2008). Just like with any other Customer, we wanted to know the cost for this service that we were going to book and the waiting period. Besides, we always showed availability to answer the questions asked by the attendants at Dealerships and we reported on their attitude.

Is it possible that we are going to find true Service Consultants, able to seduce the customer for quality and price of its performance?

Service "Bookers"

With no difficulties regarding the phone access, the Mercedes-Benz Dealerships showed a globally positive attitude at the beginning, despite only 57% had initially greeted in a truly professional way (company and name). For the customer, the official Dealership owes its price prize, among other factors, to the high professional standards that are expected from this kind of structures.

While a “Booker” only gathers data about the booking itself, the Consultant tries to explore the Customer’s needs, looking for an opportunity to solve them, generating value for the Customer and profitability for the Dealership. Not even half of the attendants (46%) asked the Customer if the vehicle had any other malfunctions besides the service. Others “loaded” their shops with a vague service (service with or without additional malfunctions…). Nobody suggested complementary services. Although the phone is not the ideal moment to do it, suggesting complementary services is not an impossible task for an efficient Consultant! Experience tells us that this outcome is the result of a commercial passiveness that, overall, is maintained when the Customer is in front of the Receptionist, on the service day.

Most the attendants (68%) only suggested a standard schedule to receive the vehicle, without exploring the convenience opportunities for the Customer that eventually could turn out to be interesting, as far as the shop workload distribution is concerned. Speaking of convenience… One of the most inconvenient side-effects of delivering a vehicle at a shop for a “not quick” service is… to land out of car! In this situation, for 78% of the situations, there was no solution regarding a replacement vehicle for the Customer.

Unpredictable situations? Schedules restructuring? Almost a quarter of the attendants (24%) were unable to solve any of these situations, because they didn’t ask for the Customer’s phone number.

Exceptions at Mercedes Benz? Naturally, we found them! Every now and then we would be facing especially nice and helpful tenders and that had, for instance, ready suggestions for the replacement vehicle... It is really possible to sell the post-sales!

One service and 20 different prices!

The cost, or rather its high cost, has the main role when it comes to the official post-sales service. We had already seen that the Customer has this perception, even before getting to know the real demanded values… If there were no other reasons, this should be more than enough for the official retail sector pay top attention to “selling” the price.

On this Mystery Shopping intervention, what impresses one the most is not the average cost of 372,10€ for a first service (with no unpredicted replacement of consumable parts) of a 2008 C Class 220 CDI… First, what’s shocking is that nobody has had the courage to spontaneously face the “cost” issue, so as to try to “sell” it and that, even after soliciting, one of the attendants was unable to communicate the cost of the requested service. Ten of the Dealerships were unable to communicate the exact cost, mentioning a price range. In a universe of 37 Dealerships, 20 different costs were presented for the exact same service. It is also noticeable the gap between the top and minimum costs, for the same service: 375€ (minimum: 225€, top: 600€), which is difficult to explain just by the difference in terms of labour costs. Even between Dealerships within the same region (Lisbon), hence less exposed to this phenomenon, there were 272€ differences. Dealerships within the same group, located within the same region reached 120€ gaps.

If the service had actually been performed, the differences in terms of final cost would grow shorter, since, most likely, the heterogeneity in terms of predictions is related to a poor data collection about the vehicle. But in terms of prediction, this setting has an influent role regarding the Customer perception about the procedure transparency at organizations and may generate options for competitors that are apparently stronger throughout the booking process.

Throughout this Mystery Shopping intervention, the shoppers have always been available to provide upon request the vehicle features for an estimate purpose. However, we did not provide the chassis number, thus simulating the situation where the Customer does not have it available when calling to book – which often happens, in fact.

Let us save after-sales from the “discount-addiction”

The phone-call to book a service is seen by operators as a procedure phase which is part of attending somebody who has already purchased the service. The problem is that, in most cases, the Customer completes the call being less of a buyer than he was at the beginning. Even worse a situation takes place when this Customer does not make the phone-call anymore because he remembers the last experience he had – or that he was told about.

Considering the current competition level on after sales, booking a service must be interpreted as a sales procedure. One must take care of the image of the provided service and value the offer presented to the Customer. Cost and service arguments must be spontaneously presented to the Customer, so that he understands he is taking the correct choice when booking an official service and at that particular Dealership.

The after-sales services booking, receiving and delivery procedures must evolve swiftly in a commercial logic way. Otherwise, this retail sector is deemed to, sooner or later, end up just like the sales department, where it is more and more difficult to persuade the Customer without systematically crushing the minimum profitability margin.

Note 1 – Just like other brands, Mercedes-Benz and its Dealerships have been working hard as far as after sales attending quality is concerned. Throughout 16 years of market follow-up, Jotoliveira has noticed huge evolutions: e.g., regarding service booking, a few years ago, it would unimaginable to get any prediction for the service cost. With this assignment, we do not, by no means, intend to diminish this evolution, but rather to set up new ways to develop onto the service-booking phase.

Note 2 – All booked services throughout this Mystery Shopping intervention were later cancelled, so as not to harm the operability of the analysed shops.

Get some inspiration! Listen to our approach of an ideal service booking... (Portuguese)

Toolbox

The results of isolated Mystery Shopping interventions will be published on Toolbox; these interventions are carried out by Jotoliveira’s members of staff and aim to give a heads up to marketing and brand and retail sales professionals, for opportunities that have not been correctly used.

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