Promising the best in service
Mercedes-benz Commercial Vehicles is on a mission win back service customers, writes Roger Houghton
MERCEDES-Benz Commercial Vehicles (MBCV) has launched a campaign to win back its truck service customers after the recent introduction of a similar programme for the passenger car division.
The programme, which is known as the Trucks Plus Next Generation (TPNG), is being rolled our first at 43 MercedesBenz truck dealers, while similar initiatives will be launched later for the Freightliner and Fuso brands.
The company’s divisional manager for after sales service, Edmin Naidoo, says the recession in 2008 and 2009 saw fewer customers having their trucks serviced at the dealerships and it is this group, as well as operators of older model trucks — especially those that are between seven and nine years old — that are the prime targets in the win-back campaign.
“The drop off in dealer servicing continued after the economic downturn and last year servicing revenue was still 9% down on 2010. This alerted us to a big challenge, and our objective now is to rebuild customer confidence in our servicing operations by showing we are cost effective while providing top quality service. We have also cut the dwell time in the workshop to a maximum of two days in most cases by restructuring workshop processes,” says Naidoo.
“The first challenge was updating the database to locate the customers that we had lost over the years. Then there have been personal visits to the ‘lost’ fleet operators, which includes a full analysis of the true costs to those operators that had switched to doing servicing in-house. In most cases, the full facts and figures confirmed it was less expensive to service at the Mercedes-Benz dealer.
“Firstly, when you book your truck in for a scheduled service we confirm that there will be 100% parts availability, while we have been able to lower parts prices in many instances and are offering an everexpanding range of remanufactured components from complete engines to alternators to cut costs. In addition, lifecycle pricing means that part prices for older models are decreased over the years to make them more affordable.
“We also have special Elite Fleet incentives for major fleets, but are looking at the full spectrum of our customers, including the Sprinter taxi owners who are particularly price sensitive.”
He said increasing the throughput at the dealers provides economies of scale that contribute to a dealer’s ability to lower hourly labour rates to make servicing at a franchised dealer even better value for money. Higher throughput in the workshops also increases parts turnover, which enables MBCV to lower parts prices.
“As a further component in our TPNG programme we have developed a Service Package Price System for scheduled services on our range of commercial vehicles, which enables the dealers to provide an accurate quote of costs quickly and accurately from the computer before the truck is brought to the dealership.”