SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -

Revenue- and retention-building prepaid maintenance software Fidelis PPM acknowledged that more than 100 companies came to this year’s NADA Convention & Expo to marketed products and services aimed at making fixed operations more efficient and profitable. 

Fidelis PPM said that the big question coming out of the dealer gathering in Las Vegas was this: did dealers grasp onto the better ideas to help them eliminate costs, improve service volume, and increase customer retention?

“If not, that’s a big miss,” Fidelis PPM president Ryan Williams said. “Dealers should already be investing in solutions that create new revenue streams and then hold on to it.”

Williams said that products such as prepaid maintenance programs meet criteria such as monthly proven return on investment and 20-percent service growth.

“When programs like this can deliver a three-year retention average of 68 percent and $70 per RO upsell, their contribution to a dealership’s profitability can be enormous,” he said.

Williams went on to suggest that dealers should ask the following three questions when considering products or services that are being offered:

• Does your retention program drive consumers to your shop?

• Is the customer experience it delivers positive enough, so they come back again?

• Are there accountability tools baked into the solution to measure the lift in customer-pay dollars for each visit, so program ROI can be proved?

Fidelis PPM recapped that the dealers Williams met with at NADA were actively gauging vendors’ service-profitability ideas. Principals and managers were also seeking advice about solutions that didn’t require them to reinvent how their service department operates. 

Williams emphasized that programs that enhance existing processes, such as prepaid maintenance plans that drive buyers back to the selling dealership, can help retain customer business and keep service bays occupied. Such plans can produce:

• 85 percent first-year retention, 65 percent each of the following two years

• $70 customer-pay upsell per repair order

• On average $1,105 in customer-pay service business a year with you, for the majority of the six years consumers own their vehicles today

“Every decision a dealer makes about an investment factors in at least two objectives: How will it streamline operations to remove waste and cost, and how will it drive service volume, retention, and thus revenue,” Williams said.

“If a dealer isn’t evaluating purchases for their ability to achieve both goals, dealers leave potential revenue on the table. That’s not the way to situate the dealership for leaner days ahead,” he went on to say.

Williams pointed out that most any vendor’s service offering, especially from those marketing prepaid maintenance and related programs, must offer the dealer measurability.

“Most programs cannot substantiate their retention promises, and dealers putting faith in such plans have misplaced hope,” he said.

Fidelis PPM is an authority in helping dealers retain customers through process-driven prepaid preventive maintenance retention programs. These programs can drive consumers into participating dealers’ service departments. Deep reporting tools can provide dealers with detail-rich accountability metrics.