After Sales


2021, the list of the most read posts on Automotive Space

11 Years of AUTOMOTIVE SPACE and also this year we publish the list of most read posts! I chose to publish the 10 most read posts to understand what is more interesting for our readers and give a list of posts, to the readers, that the Community deem worthy of being read. Automotive Space is on line since 11 years (with about 290 posts issued); please, contact us ([email protected]) if you...

Do we ask the customer for leading feedback or a specific consultancy?

feedback
The more structured dealers, with or without the support of the companies they work for, have set up monitoring systems for their activities through the release of feedback from customers since years. It is not often an “autonomous” job, but it derives by the fact that car manufacturers recognize a reward when this feedback is above a certain percentage. Not all customers are contacted...

There will be a “disruptive” change for car dealers as well?

autonomous_guide_car-420x236
Will this pandemic actually be the acceleration of changes in every production sector, and therefore also in the automotive field? Will the car no longer be the same as we known it? Maybe yes, and probably the car is at the moment in the same phase which the typewriter or the Kodak paper experienced in the 80s, that is, we are trying to perfect an old model to the maximum, but we aren’t actually...

2020, the list of the most read posts on Automotive Space

Also this year we like to publish the list of most read posts, from begin (about 10 years), of Automotive Space! I chose to publish the 10 most read posts to understand what is more interesting for our readers and give a list of posts, to the readers, that the Community deem worthy of being read. Automotive Space is on line since 10 years (with about 280 posts issued) at this moment we haven’t...

Service and CRM lesson from dentists, gas station attendants and tyre dealers

Service
About twenty years ago, as I started my carrier in the automotive field, I was clearly told that Dealers, would have always done more business on the After Sales and on mortgages. More in general the “Service” would have been the real key point of incomes in a medium and long term. From the simple inspection to the MOT, the tire change, the insurance, the second handed car for the young...

The possible evolution: from workshop to the web

digital
Car dealerships today are one of the few economic realities which haven’t totally understood the Web potential, as well as the social networks one, for their own development in sales and customer management. At least 50% of dealerships uses the same car manufacturer websites with only few adjustments. We often see websites which: Don’t provide any dialog box for customers; Don’t...

Productivity optimization in the After Sales

productivity
Recently, more and more often, the request made by those who own a business in the After Sales is that to increase the productivity. The common query is: “My incomes are decreased, the only thing I can increase is the productivity per employee, how we can do it?” The productivity of an automotive business is based on several factors both internal and external; we will shortly analyse them. We...

The After-Sales and the Digital, are we sure this is the right direction?

officina
In the middle of Digital Revolution, did you think the Post-Sale had been saved? Wrong! After the slogan – far from having been stopped yet – that “if the dealers do not turn to digital are intended to die“, the new fashion 2017 is the “Digital”. Forgive my irony, but if, by chance, you are not digital, be aware that you won’t be able to stay on the market...

What do I have to expect if I choose a LPG car?

The second post of the series that wants to clarify which fuels can respond more appropriately to the needs of each of us is focused on one of the most widespread fuel at the time, an alternative to the petrol and diesel. In the last 40 years its diffusion has given origin to an intense planning activity that has let some of our companies become world leaders of the transformation kits. LPG is a fuel,...

What do I have to expect if I choose a CNG car?

CNG
The OEM has commercialised dual-fuel models for about 20 years: petrol and methane or single-fuel that is only methane. At the beginning the production of these cars didn’t directly take place from the same car manufacturer, but the transformation was entrusted to external fitters, who installed the system on the car with the original petrol version. Basically they were solutions very similar...

From B2B and B2C to 1to1: How the commercial policies change

business
The “dogma” that we learned at the university, during the masters, and then in the working life, that is from a business point of view the private client and the client company were different, is no longer true. The competitive element among the supplying companies, the amount of information that the customer receives (whether it is a company or a consumer) has overthrown many of the assumptions...

Lead generation and CRM: Is it sure they are always essential?

crm
Every year millions of euros are spent, both centrally and as a dealer, to generate leads. Another million euros are used for CRM actions to acquire customers. But what is the generation of “lead” and the CRM? The lead generation “…a marketing action which allows to create a list of possible customers interested in products or services offered by a company.” Whereas for...

Does anybody calculate the damages of the false influencers on the Web Reputation?

Reputation
After 7 years of uninterrupted publications and more than 800 unedited posts published, mostly evergreen, I often want to look at some previous posts. Among the many that I am particularly fond of, and most of them not written by me, there are some that are very current; despite they having been published many years ago. One of these is the post on the WEB REPUTATION; focused on how the web gives space...

How an automotive company could change core business

This post was originated as a practical continuation and as an integration to the previous “The automotive dealers haven’t changed core business yet” and for this reason it is necessary to make some clarifications. For 10 years, if even not more, they tell us the world has changed, or better by making a more careful analysis the world has always changed; in the last few years, however,...

Spare parts bought online, the end of the workshops?

spare parts
In many years who sells new cars can sustain especially with several collateral activities, which in the end, analysing the balance sheets, are not at all collateral. Warehouse, Workshop, Bodywork, Financial Services and Insurance represent much more than “forced activities” to have a mandate. The quickest to look around have turned their company into a multitude of activities on their...

LPG systems, layout and security

LPG
One of the most known indicator that gives us an immediate idea about the safety level provided by a vehicle is the number of stars rated during the Euro NCAP test. The stars are rated to the shock tests passed and to the presence of security – related contents. Thanks to the tightening up both of the tests and the calculation method, today we have on our vehicles an infinitive of electronic devices,...

Digital Automotive: if you are too far ahead, you may risk to burn yourself

Digital-Automotive
The future is in the digital, actually, it is the present; if your company isnÕt ready to ride the wave of the Digital automotive you are the dinosaur that is disappearing! Now this is a mantra repeated endlessly to the point that someone wonders: “could it be real what they go on telling us in every meeting?” Good question … but maybe not! Only because “everybody” says...

The Job Order in the vehicle after-sales; this stranger…

The Job Order (JO), which we know in the reality of the vehicle after-sales, it’s too often “snubbed” and the consequences of an improper use or an incorrect filling out are underestimated. Starting from its definition, it is a contract of performance of work and as such it is regulated from the current legislation. In particular we refer to the art. 1519 bis of the Civil Code (Italian...

Customer satisfaction vs Customer Defection

Customer-Satisfaction
Some time ago we wrote about that topic (and related costs). The following is a true story, I will tell you about this one step by step to comply with the limits imposed by the website. The events! 1991 One night, my car, registered 1989 with 45.000 Km (I bought it new and always done the MOT at the official place) after the start at a traffic light, suddenly stopped as pushed by an invisible giant...

Why Alfa Romeo Stelvio will be my next car

Alfa Romeo Stelvio
Saturday, February 11, I spent a beautiful day in the famous test track in Balocco. It was presented in world premiere, before the Official Press Conference in thenext February 22 in Saint Moritz, what will be the next Alfa Romeo SUV, expected for several years, since the exercise of “style” Kamal. The newness are first of all, in the communication mode, this preview “social”...

The Communication Plan of a dealer in the Business Plan

Comunication
This post deals with a technical aspect usually considered the “Cinderella” of the Business Plan, that is to say the Communication Plan. It minutely describes what will be the ordinary investments, eventually attempting to program the extraordinary ones, about all the allocated budget to this specific field. The Communication Plan is drawn up in collaboration with the commercial area, the marketing...

The myths of autonomous cars

Google Car
  Automotive Space has already dealt with autonomous cars, for instance in this post which reported people’s impressions on the topic. But in the meanwhile the matter is become more and more current, also because the “bricks” – needed to build up the structure of this type of vehicle – still continue to be added. By now it is a little wonder that a car can brake...

Pirelli and Pininfarina: an unavoidable epilogue

Pirelli
Another company in the automotive sector of our Europe moved in the court of the giant Asian ChemChina. Pirelli, the fifth tire manufacturer on the world, has been acquired by means of sovereign funds of nationalized China. An operation financially complex which opens the debate to a series of assessments on the health conditions of our badly off capitalism, especially if you consider that the company...

The list of the most read posts of 2014 of Automotive Space

Post letti nel 2014
It seems that during these Christmas Holidays, and for the end of 2014, the most popular blogs,– not belonging to an editorial group, used to do a roundup on the best posts published in the last year. I want to practice this custom as well, and in order to be impartial during my choice, I commit it to St. Google (Analytics) so that it will choose the 10 most read posts, regardless of the date of publication,...

Outsourcing in the automotive: does the abuse hurt?

outsourcing
I’’ve already largely expressed my opinion about the growing precariousness management in the automotive field, which finds its highest expressions in the outsourcing. It was a year ago…. We were convinced that some strategic position couldn’t be the subject of outsourcing and that others, even these strategic ones, during the start-up and re-engineering, could be optimized through the outsourcing. Then,...

The LPG and CNG help you, such as the electrics

gpl
The plan, which foresees about 3,000 LPG fuel stations and 1,000 CNG ones to the end of 2012, is proceeding at a steady pace toward the goal. Actually Fiat Professional has already monitored 3065 LPG points (+40 closed) and 908 CNG points (+8 closed) regularly active (data September 7, 2012). In spite of this, a subtle and insightful enemy, the electric Lobby, which includes several devices in its...

Moment of truth: the delivery

truth
In one of the most “rusty” sectors of the economy, since a long time carmakers are trying to convince their partners that the sale of a vehicle does not ends with the signature of the contract, but rather – from that moment – begins a long journey made of many steps that should be likeable for customers and profitable for dealers. A study delivered by JD Power – the Company...

Interview with Stefano Villanti, Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Product Strategy at Qoros

stefanovillanti
Interview date: Feb 21,  2014 Professional Profile: Stefano Villanti is the Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Product Strategy at Qoros Automotive Co., Ltd.. He joined the organisation in 2008 and was a key staff member during the initial start-up phase. As Qoros has grown so has Stefano’s responsibility and he now leads over 260 internal and external Qoros staff. Prior to joining Qoros,...

Mclaren says goodbye to wipers?

Fantozzi
From the Fantozzi’s Bianchina car to the world rally, the wiper blades are one of the few components common to every car. Thinking to do without them? Madness! The more daring are the rally drivers, capable of striving with lucky systems if necessary: two laces and little else to operate them manually when the electronics abandon them. Perhaps the future holds a more refined technology to be able...

The last illiteracy: internet in automotive!

illiteracy
In China – despite the censorship that slows or blocks access to the Web (Facebook and YouTube do not exist) – the dealers that I visited during the CADA convention collect more than 50% of their prospects through the Web! It’s possible to make money with cars and Internet? YES! Facts-and-figures show that this business is suitable for all, even if – in the automotive...