Gus Hoelscher of Austin Subaru says video inspections are everything.
Sending videos to consumers recommending maintenance and maintenance revealed through multipoint inspections is a proven way to generate service and portion revenue. But persuading technicians to film their inspections can be as complicated as cutting rusty bolts from the collector.
But at Austin Subaru and Austin Infiniti, two adjacent dealerships owned by Continental Automotive Group, service officials cracked the code for two other strategies. In the Infiniti store, top technicians produce their own videos. Play cinematographer, 3 professional videographers do the heavy lifting.
While the methods differ, the effects are similar: significant increases in profits because the videos cause consumers to say yes to recommendations and repairs, said Austin Subaru service manager and Josh Sandoval, Austin Infiniti service manager.
Here are some pivotal videos from Mark Perritte, Expressway supervisor and videography trainer at Austin Infiniti, and Diego Garcia, who leads a team of videographers at Austin Subaru:
“It works because you see it directly from the technicians,” Sandoval said. “With video, recommended maintenance and maintenance sell themselves. When we send a video to a client, it’s less of an insistent sale than an informational sale for anything they can see they need.
“We would be happy to escort visitors into the service areas and show them their cars,” he added. “But we can’t. So instead, those videos link our consumers with our technicians. “
Hoelscher agreed, noting that the videos alleviate visitors’ classic considerations about mechanics pushing for repairs.
“They like transparency,” he said. If we show them a broken socket or an oil leak, they do. Transparency and acceptance as true with that supply of videos cannot be quantified; The videos take consumers directly to the store with us. “
Hoelscher says one visitor posted his multi-touch inspection video on Reddit and garnered thousands of likes, with many commenters saying they sought out their broker to film the inspections.
Both retail outlets use the myKaarma self-service software platform to send SMS, send emails, and archive videos. Hoelscher said its branch will pay about $700 per month for the service; Austin Infiniti position is not available.
After a pilot program reserved for highway technicians, video inspections were conducted at Subaru’s workshop branch in April 2022. The branch employs 44 technicians and has 42 service bays, with plans to charge 26 more bays, Hoelscher said.
Since April, videos have provided an average “raise” of $279 consistent with the fixed order, and that figure exceeds $300 consistent with the fixed order, he said.
While the average backlog of fixed orders before the branch moved to available videos, Hoelscher said the branch nearly doubled its customer-paid earnings from January to October 2022 compared to the same was in 2021.
“We are the largest generator of portion profit and hard work of any Subaru dealership nationwide,” Hoelscher told Automotive News.
“And we calculate that the videographer is worth an accumulation of about $868,000 in revenue per parts and hard work” through November 2022.
“We wouldn’t have such a successful year without our video guys,” Hoelscher said.
At the Infiniti store, which began recording multi-point inspections about five years ago, Sandoval said the average RO-consistent increase for customer-paid paints from November 2021 through the end of November 2022 was $397 based on 4,336 videos. And while he can’t compare that number to pre-video numbers years ago, he said he “absolutely” knows that videos make a difference.
The branch employs 19 technicians and operates 38 bays.
Austin Subaru’s 3 videographers are full-time employees. They are paid $18 per hour, plus a $1 bonus per video.
“Of course, it’s an additional expense,” Hoelscher said. But fighting with technicians is getting old; Forcing them to make the videos is like pulling out their teeth. “
In addition, recording videos and telling them in an understandable way is an advantage for top technicians. That made hiring Diego Garcia, the department’s first cameraman and video team leader, a simple decision.
“I highly recommend hiring someone who speaks well and knows how to communicate with a camera,” Hoelscher said.
Videos are about 1 minute and 30 seconds long on average. Each videographer produces about 20 videos consistent with the day, with a base purpose consistent with the month. But the equipment takes about 1500 per month, Hoelscher said.
Because the videos only touch on the highlights of the repair, the videographers at the end of each video discussing anything as well as other things will be covered in more detail through a service advisor, he noted.
“Customers may not know what an arm socket is, for example,” Hoelscher said. “So it’s vital to go into more detail than the video provides. “
Mark Perritte of Austin Infiniti
At Austin Infiniti, highway supervisor Mark Perritte, photographer and YouTube video enthusiast, trains technicians to record effective video. Higher-level technicians can create just 3 videos per day, while highway technicians can produce 10 to 15 per day, Sandoval said.
The biggest initial hurdle is locating the technicians to produce the videos. But it has become less difficult after seeing the monetary benefits, he noted.
“When we started, we paid the technicians 1/10th of an hour (6 minutes) for the video they took,” Sandoval explained. “But we don’t do that anymore because once they saw that videos were generating more revenue, I don’t want to push them as much.
Sandoval: Speaking Candidly
“They see that it’s more hours and more money. “
Perritte said he explained in detail to technicians how they can make financial gains. He tells them that if they generate even a few tenths of an hour more work per day for an entire year, it’s like receiving a month’s salary.
“People don’t like to do things that make them uncomfortable,” she said. “But once they have that ‘aha’ moment and the light bulb goes out, you can’t stop them from making videos. “
However, two or three technicians still refuse to shoot videos, the creation of which takes between three and five minutes. Sandoval will pay a valet worker that the dealership uses to film his videos.
At first, technicians sent videos to service consultants, who reviewed them and sent them to customers.
“We were afraid the technicians wouldn’t do it clearly,” he said. “Or that the video quality wasn’t smart enough. “
But now, technicians send videos directly to consumers. Waiting for service advisors to time to review videos created bottlenecks that prevented consumers from receiving them quickly. Or service counselors didn’t even review the videos, Sandoval said.
“We also learned that consumers didn’t expect the best videos,” he added.
Hoelscher said he plans to have two more videographers.
“Finding your Diego is the biggest challenge,” he said.
Luckily, Austin is a hub for creative, arts-oriented people, so it’s much less difficult to find videographers than for other service managers.
But locating cameramen and getting on board the multi-point inspection video exercise pays off, Hoelscher said.
“If you don’t take out MPI videos, a little bit it beats and you leave a lot of opportunities on the table,” he said.
“Spending is a small obstacle. But once you start making more money, you need to rent 10 more. “
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