Creating an integrated customer proposition
Mike Macaulay, Head of Corporate Sales, AutoProtect
“We need to change the classic approach to added-value services and ensure they become an integrated part of every sale. It’s an approach that will be good for consumers and dealers.” This is the view of AutoProtect’s Head of Corporate Sales, Mike Macaulay, as he encourages dealers to develop a fresh approach to services such as warranties and GAP insurance.
Macaulay’s call for change reflects shifts in the dealer environment that he believes are moving the traditional ‘push’ approach to added-value sales out of sync with the developing car purchase model.
Among the shifts identified by Macaulay are; increased demands for compliance; more engaged and better informed consumers; margin pressure; the shift in consumer behaviour towards usership from ownership and a trend towards ease and convenience in all aspects of the way people live today. Increasingly, he said, a ‘pull’ approach, where products are introduced that meet a customer’s needs, established through a considered and appropriate dialogue, is far more appropriate.
Following the FCA’s onus on ‘treating customers fairly’ and truly meeting each individual’s needs, best practice for dealers offering add-ons is to avoid focusing on a single product by taking a portfolio approach. Dealers need a wider product range; a single ‘vanilla’ product is too narrow, said Macaulay.
To support this strategic shift, AutoProtect offers a broad range of insurance services, dealer warranties and administration facilities.
AutoProtect’s insurance product portfolio stretches from Warranty, GAP and RTI (return to invoice) cover, key insurance and SMART repair policies to insurance for alloy wheels, tyres and MOTs.
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