“However, we have noticed that customers are not having their cars serviced until a warning light comes on, or an MoT reminder letter arrives or they get a puncture.

“We try to warn people this is a false economy as they have no idea what state their car is in. Safety is vital and that is why I am against any move to a 3-2-2 or 4-2-2 MoT regime. It would put lives at risk.
“Every vehicle that comes into our workshop gets a free health check.

“We also keep an electronic diary of things that might need doing in three or six months. It is all managed by our ADP dealer management system. Our service advisers will ring the customer and invite them for a further, free check.

“It is the same with dings and dents. We look for these during the health checks and if we find something that needs doing we will ask the customer if they want it repaired.

“When it comes to upselling it is important to give staff the freedom to make their own decisions. They should not have to run off and ask the manager if we can ‘knock another £10 off’. We trust our service advisers to use their judgment.”

Top-up oil sales are another not-to-be missed opportunity. “We get our oil from Mobil and we upsell its one-litre packs,” said Raw.

”Scotthall BMW has long been ahead of the game in aftersales, but the credit crunch has forced others to pay more attention.

“Times are hard and people are changing their behaviour accordingly,” said Raw.

“Car sharing is increasing and people are not doing the miles they were. Some families are even dropping from two cars to one.

“Marketing is the way forward and the AM and Continental prize helped to pay for a local radio campaign, which has been very successful.

"We have had a series of adverts on Radio Aire, which covers a wide area around Leeds and is very popular. It was not cheap, but it has been worth every penny.

“We started a promotion on MoT tests in August, offering to do them for £30. That brought in a lot of cars we have not seen before, some of which needed repair work. We then followed-up this up in November with an advert about winter tyres.”

It all adds up to a cohesive plan: targeted local advertising to attract new customers; service plans to help with customer retention; electronic diary reminders to flag-up potential jobs and free vehicle health checks to highlight other work.

The finishing touch? A complimentary wash and vac of course.

“We have our own in-house valeters and there is a profit opportunity in upselling to a full showroom valet,” said Raw.

“We have an automatic machine and a separate undercover bay for hand washing. We use mainly BMW consumables and some from Autosmart.

“Continental do very good point-of-sale material and every single car that comes in to our aftersales department gets a wash and vac.

"We leave information about tyres in every car – on stopping distances etc.

Customers frequently ring up and say ‘I have read the leaflet and would like you to take a look at my tyres’. It is simple but it works fantastically well.”

Tyres and windscreens top-up profit

One especially strong area is tyres. Scotthall BMW won the Tyre Retailer of the Year Award from AM and Continental earlier this year and Kim Raw described it as “a great, reliable revenue stream”.

“A lot of dealers hate doing tyres, but it tops-up profit margins and sales are doing really well at the moment,” he said.

“Because the last two winters have been terrible, people are more concerned about having a decent tread.

“Everything is driven by the manufacturer – the tyres come from Group Tyre, but we will only fit the
‘star rated’ ones that BMW recommends.

“I think winter tyres are the best thing since sliced bread and I put them on my own car each year.

“They improve stopping distances and can get you up a slight gradient which you wouldn’t make with normal tyres.

“I tell customers about the benefits and they fit them because they trust me.

“We offer a tyre hotel facility and store the summer tyres off site until they are needed.

“Windscreens are another great example – we fit our own because we can control the quality of the parts and the fitting.

“Customers don’t want the hassle of having to going somewhere else,” he said.