If there’s one thing that your customers want, it’s convenience. In today’s world, many consumers seek convenience, even preferring it over equally important factors like price.
Just look at Amazon Prime. For a little over $10 per month, you can have purchased products on your doorstep within 24 hours. Also, consider food delivery apps. Postmates, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub have become staples in society. Even on a nice day, when you can easily hop in your car and pick up your food, it’s tempting to use a delivery service instead of leaving the comfort of your home.
With convenience reigning in most people’s lives, your customers expect ease and simplicity from every brand they purchase from, including your dealership. It doesn’t matter if you’re not running a billion-dollar e-commerce brand or a food delivery service app. Convenience is not bound to a specific industry—it’s a desire that your customers have for every single brand they come into contact with.
That’s why your dealership must take steps to offer the same convenience that other companies are providing. If it doesn’t, your brand won’t succeed long-term, and that’s not an exaggeration.
Luckily, offering this convenience isn’t a hard thing to do. In fact, something as simple as vehicle pickup and delivery can significantly increase your customers’ happiness and satisfaction.
Why vehicle pickup and delivery is crucial
The pandemic made one thing very clear for dealerships: you can’t rely on foot traffic. When consumers were confined to their homes, every business struggled, including dealerships that didn’t offer a touchless experience.
If their customers couldn’t come to the lot, they couldn’t buy a car. Similarly, if they couldn’t drive to the service center, they couldn’t get an oil change or the tune-up they needed.
This reality forced auto companies to reconcile with the fact that they had to make life easier for their customers. However, don’t get the wrong idea—dealerships have always needed a way to offer more convenience, but the pandemic made that fact crystal clear.
Even now, as life starts to normalize, people are still wary of coming into dealerships. Crowds and too much face-to-face interaction are not things that everyone is currently comfortable with, especially if they can avoid it. And if you’re assuming your dealership can hold out until life is completely back to normal and foot traffic is on the rise, you may find yourself disappointed.
Many auto brands—both large and small—are starting to replace face-to-face transactions with touchless experiences like vehicle pickup and delivery services. Brands that were doing it pre-pandemic are now making it the central focus of their business.
If you’re not doing the same, consumers who had your dealership top-of-mind will remember the auto company down the street and call that one instead. Convenience is king, so regardless of whether there’s a pandemic, your customers will buy from the dealership that’s making their lives easier.
The benefits of vehicle pickup and delivery
When it comes to vehicle pickup and delivery services, there are a couple of ways that your auto dealership can provide them.
One option is to deliver the vehicle that your customer has purchased. If you have online sales capabilities, where customers don’t have to come onto the lot to purchase a car, you can complete this process by delivering their vehicle to them.
The second option is also simple: pick up the vehicle that needs servicing and deliver it to your customer once it’s ready. This offer will allow consumers to skip the hassle of waiting in line to check in their car and get a loaner vehicle. With your help, customers can simply sit at home while you take care of the details.
Of course, you can implement both of these options. Doing so would give your customers all of the convenience they seek, which would come with many benefits.
For example, Brain Benstock, who works at Paragon Honda-Acura in New York City, told Automotive News that his department’s valet program—a vehicle pickup and delivery service—expanded to more than 3,000 trips per month in a little over two years. Major automakers like Audi, Infinity, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also have local dealers implementing pickup and delivery services because they know how beneficial it is for their customers and success.
By offering this type of convenience, growth spurts in sales and customer retention are inevitable. Customers who have used vehicle and pickup services even claim that the offering is a “great experience” and “amazing and unique” and that it saved them “time and effort.”
How to offer convenience to customers
While providing a pickup and delivery service is an excellent idea, it can go terribly wrong if you don’t do it correctly. What’s also important to know is that it can come with costs if you’re not careful.
Management software, increased labor spending, complexities in your customer’s schedules, and the risk of getting into an accident while driving your customers’ vehicles are all factors you have to consider. Consequently, you may not have the easiest time implementing this strategy.
After all, even though 67 percent of auto dealers created some sort of vehicle pickup and delivery department in April 2020, only 59 percent of dealers still offer it. The difficulties are sometimes too much to handle, which is why you need to find experts who can help you roll out and maintain this program.
Barry Risk Management has a team of experienced professionals who can help your dealership implement and manage its vehicle pickup and delivery services. With over 30 years of experience in the industry, the representatives at Barry Risk Management know how to handle unforeseen delays, mishaps, schedules, and consumer needs to increase dealer efficiency, enhance customer service, and grow customer satisfaction.
You don’t have to do this all on your own. Since this type of offering is new territory for so many dealerships, lean on companies like Barry Risk Management for help. The representative you work with will ensure your customers enjoy the convenience they’re seeking so that your sales and retention rates soar.
For help implementing a vehicle pickup and delivery service, call 1-888-995-TAGS(8247) to speak with a representative at Barry Risk Management.
