Every minute counts. Whether you’re trying to cut waiting times for customers or increase your dealership’s capacity to service repair orders, saving time means saving (or earning) money. Dealerware’s new partnership with MDL autoMation, announced in August, accelerates service drive operations so dealerships can benefit both ways from saved time.
The Dealerware + MDL integration reduces customer wait times by scanning the license plates of vehicles entering the service drive, and matching it to loaner vehicle data in Dealerware. The valet team will then receive an automated alert that a customer has arrived to pick up their car, so they can retrieve the vehicle and stage it for return without making customers wait.
Faster loaner returns in turn mean more efficient service operations. Dealerships using the Dealerware + MDL integration may be able to serve more repair orders with the same fleet size they currently have, increasing their overall profitability.
A dealership’s customers benefit, too, from more personalized and faster service. Once the integrated systems of Dealerware and MDL identify a returning loaner vehicle, the customer’s information on their contract is used to create a unique return experience. TV screens in the service drive will display a personal welcome message like “Welcome back, Kelly,” and valets can greet the customer by name.
Service advisors will also get an alert so they can gather any necessary paperwork and meet their customer in the service drive, further accelerating the exchange of the loaner vehicle for the customer’s car and the closing of their repair order.
Fast, personal experiences like this help dealerships keep customers coming back. Research from Epsilon, a loyalty technology company, showed 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that create personalized experiences. That loyalty brings higher profits for the dealership as well, as a Bain & Company study showed increasing customer retention by as little as 5% can increase profits 25% to 95%.
That’s a big impact from a little change but, especially now when customers may be wary of waiting in the dealership, understanding and catering to each customer’s needs is the best path to develop loyalty and increase customer satisfaction.
For more information about the way Dealerware’s integration with MDL autoMation works, visit go.dealerware.com/mdl.
