It’s not just you.

Everything is getting more expensive.

Between the rising cost of inflation, high interest rates squeezing consumers and floorplanning, and the on-again/off-again tariffs, everything is pricier. The Consumer Price Index has risen 21.7% since February 2020, with transportation rising by over 34%.

Times like these try one’s soul. OK, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but all of the pressures upon the auto industry are making it more difficult to run the business and turn a profit. The easiest place to cut costs is through efficiency.

The headlines are rife with companies and even the U.S. government laying off hundreds of thousands of workers and finding ways to be more efficient. But how do you do that at a dealership when you’re just trying to move metal across the curb? When I was a Chevy dealership manager, I stumbled upon that answer.

The service lane is a natural place to look for efficiencies through software. A strong software solution increases customer satisfaction by keeping the customer informed and engaged throughout the process, and a good texting solution is a good, impactful, yet non-intrusive way of keeping customers coming back through your service lane. Automating the scheduling of service also frees up your advisors or keeps you from over-hiring so they can focus on customer service.

Putting the power of good, streamlined software in your tech’s hands frees them up to work on more vehicles, lowers the time of repairs, increases customer satisfaction and gets more vehicles in and out of your service lane.

Also, having a good, easy-to-use software solution can keep the techs at your dealership. We often hear that techs get frustrated with the software tools they have to use and that it can become a leading cause for them to leave the dealership.

Replacing people is expensive; having the right software can reduce this cost.

Having an all-in-one solution in your dealership, especially the service lane, helps you keep your data in one easy-to-see location that enables you to scale and customize it directly to your dealership’s needs. It streamlines your service lane from customer contact through service and payments. It also increases accuracy and decreases errors from disparate systems that don’t work well together. Spending time correcting errors and inaccuracies is an expensive and frustrating process.

As prices rise and you look for ways to save money, the right software solution can help automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, enhance the customer experience, and reduce errors. This can significantly increase efficiency, allowing dealerships to operate more efficiently and profitably.

In turn, it will also keep those high-margin service lane customers coming back to your service lane throughout the lifecycle of the vehicle and when they are ready to purchase a new one.

 

Anthony Greenhalgh is the VP of marketing, dealership division, at Vehlo. He has over 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, including leading service and parts departments at GM dealerships.