Aftersales teams at franchised dealers are failing to sell tyres to customers, even when they’re identified as illegal.
New data from Realtime Communications shows that almost two-thirds of customers leave volume brand franchises with an identified illegal tyre.
For premium brands the number jumps to almost three-quarters.
"From a safety, let alone profit perspective, it cannot be right that the vast majority of people are leaving franchised dealers with tyres identified as illegal through an electronic vehicle health check," said Richard Robinson, COO at REALtime Communications.
In cases where tyres were identified as needing to be changed imminently, franchised dealers achieved a conversion rate of just 4%.
Franchised workshops should consider aftersales retention as "a number one priority" as the impact of three years of falling new car sales starts to tell.
Robinson believes there is a “glaring disconnect” between what should be happening when a tyre safety issue is identified and what is happening.
He said: "Given that the numbers we are publishing are averages and we know that where best practices are adopted, performance improves significantly, some serious work needs to be undertaken in many aftersales teams.
“As a former aftersales manager, I suspect that the issue lies in failing to address customer tyre cost perceptions of a franchised dealer versus a fast-fit, but perhaps even more so in the productivity metrics/rewards used internally.
"The profit per hour from tyres has often been lower than service/repair income. However, as the industry faces rapidly falling servicing work, dealers need to re-think historic metrics or appoint dedicated tyre specialists because much of the £98m of red tyre work identified was never converted. Metrics apart, under a duty of care, work needs to be undertaken to bridge the performance gap."
Serious duty of care concerns were sparked by statistics which revealed that the average UK dealership failed to replace 71% of severely worn tyres in 2018, according to data from autoVHC.
In this issue - the last ever monthly AM magazine
Maserati's 'hell of a ride' - 2023 is a big year
Cybercrime increasing - recent attacks put focus on awareness and training
PHEV fever could be set to spread
Finance: salespeople must ask awkward questions
Open all hours: how do omnichannel dealers cater for customers any time, anywhere?
How to make car buying truly seamless
Choose your supplier: opening the door on the latest developments from key suppliers to automotive retailers
Read now
If you are not a registered user your comment will go to AM for approval before publishing. To avoid this requirement please register or login.
No comments have been made yet.
11/01/2021
18/06/2021
19/07/2021
The UK’s leading event for motor retailers.
A day of insightful, engaging content that Automotive Management LIVE is known for whilst enabling our audience to connect with the full range of suppliers to motor retail, learn and share industry best practice, and discuss how to prepare for the future of motor retail.
When: November 10, 2022
Where: NEC, Birmingham

​Find out what features are in this month's, and future, issues
© Bauer Consumer Media Ltd
Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA - Registered number 01176085
AM magazine: Newspress Awards' Automotive Business Publication of the Year 2020

Please note:

source