How Mohawk Honda acquired 75 used cars from its service drive in March

Mohawk Honda, located in Schenectady, N.Y., acquired 75 used vehicles directly from the service drive in March alone, up from 25 to 30 per month, after overhauling the people, processes, and pay plans behind the program.

"Change up the people, the process, and the pay plans," General Manager Greg Johnson told Daily Dealer Live host Sam D'Arc. "We just finished March with 75 acquisitions out of the service drive, which was incredible."

How it works: The store runs 3,000 customer-pay and warranty ROs per month. Johnson's target is to get 15% of those customers to request an appraisal, then convert 20% of those into acquisitions, a goal that puts his ceiling around 90 cars a month.

When a customer checks in, an automated text goes out via AutoHub asking if they'd like an appraisal of their vehicle.
If a team member can intercept the customer in the waiting area first, they pause the automation and handle it in person.
If not, the system fires back a “$500-range of an appraisal” within two minutes, based on a combination of MMR and Kelley Blue Book.

To support this: Johnson has two dedicated exchange consultants (one a former salesperson, one a former gym greeter) whose only job is soft engagement with service customers.

As he explained, their task is to hand off to the sales team once a customer is interested.
And if all goes well, the salesperson closes the deal.
Worth noting, too, Johnson says he tries to route returning customers back to whoever sold them their current vehicle.

Adjusting the pay plans: Johnson shared that the single biggest lesson that tripped up the process early was failing to pay service advisors on internals for acquired vehicles.

Without it, advisors saw the program as taking money out of their pockets and actively pushed back.

That said, once they were paid on the internals, he said, they started walking customers directly to the exchange consultants themselves.

"That's one of the easiest and quickest ways to get pushback from service," Johnson said. "But the second that you start paying them on the internals, they are so bought in."

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Explaining equity: At Mohawk Honda, they also use automotiveMastermind (in addition to the appraisal process) to identify customers in a strong equity position before they're approached.

If the numbers support an upgrade at a similar payment, the exchange consultant leads with that using a full deal structure, not a vague pitch.

What they’re saying: "The more information we could give a service customer upfront, the better chance we had of converting them. Here are the numbers, here's your estimated trade, here's the new deal. Just being that transparent instead of, 'Oh, do you wanna look at a new car?'"

At another point during his segment, Johnson continued, adding, "You have to roll out the red carpet.”

Because, as he sees it: "If you're willing to pay the moon for a car at the auction and fees and transportation, pay the moon for a car that's in front of you that you see, you touch, you smell, you know what the recon's gonna be."

Bottom line: Mohawk Honda is currently ranked fourth in the nation among Honda dealers for certified pre-owned sales year to date, up from ninth previously. Johnson says the service drive program is a primary driver, and that dealers who avoid it out of fear of bothering customers are leaving significant volume on the table.

"Out of a hundred customers, we might get one person that's like, 'eh, leave me alone,'" he said. "And that might even be high."

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