Two partners in retention marketing and retention plans have come together to provide dealership prepaid maintenance plan and loyalty rewards customers a speedier service check-in experience that helps advisers yield more time for additional customers.

The provider of prepaid maintenance (PPM) customer retention plans Fidelis PPM announced Tuesday that it has entered a new partnership with SmartTech Enterprises to simplify dealership service adviser lookup with a new integrated rewards program that can help dealerships deliver a faster service check-in process.

The new partnership aims to ease customer lookup for service advisers, as well as strengthen dealership customer retention, according to Fidelis PPM.

“We've now streamlined for advisers this part of the customer check-in to help them deliver a faster check-in and plan accounting that encourages repeat benefit use and deepens customer retention,” Fidelis PPM president Ryan Williams said in a news release.

At check-in, advisers can now provide this new streamlined process for customers covered by either a Fidelis prepaid maintenance plan or SmartTech loyalty rewards program.

In agreement with the new partnership, dealers who use SmartTech Enterprises’ seamless program integration dealerships can quickly identify whether the customer is using a Fidelis plan or SmartTech rewards program.

When a vehicle comes in, dealerships using either of the retention programs can be automatically notified via their device that the customer’s vehicle is covered by prepaid maintenance protection, rewards or both.

The process is entirely automatic without key fobs, computer hardware or manual website lookup required, according to Fidelis PPM.

Along with discounted prepaid oil and filter services, Fidelis PPM offers consumers reduced rates on tire rotations and other related routine needs.

And with SmartTech, consumers can earn rewards that are connected to purchases made on tires, and future vehicles, as well as select maintenance needs.

In addition to advisers' ability to track customer use of retention service and view benefit or spend statistics reports for the customer and dealership, Fidelis PPM said that car owners can also track both their usage statistics and savings via a customer benefits portal supported by each program.

Car repair coverage platform earns tech honor

Meanwhile, in other service department related news, a digital platform for extended vehicle repair coverage is a winner of the 2018 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award for innovative private technology companies.

ForeverCar announced Monday that among 99 other award winners, it is the only insurance technology company recognized by the global technology news provider this year.

Red Herring has industry experts, insiders and journalists judge companies on criteria regarding financial performance, innovation, business strategy and market penetration, according to ForeverCar.

In addition to ForeverCar, other award winners include fintech, marketing, security and IoT companies. The ForerverCars platform facilitates vehicle repair plan transactions on behalf of auto dealership, insurance and financial services partners.