Service Lanes: The Untapped
Powerhouse for New-Vehicle Sales.

A common refrain in the industry is that “the sales department sells the first car, and the service department sells the next ten.” Based on our research, customers seem to agree on the central role that service has in their decision to buy their next new vehicle. In a recent study conducted by Urban Science and The Harris Poll, we found that nearly half of car buyers believe that “a service department plays a significant role in their car-buying decisions”¹. This ranked only second to the importance of a test drive, where 67% of responders strongly agreed, “I would not buy a vehicle without test driving it first.”

Furthermore, an Urban Science analysis of where service-loyal customers purchase their next new vehicle proves the value of cultivating service-department customer relationships. In fact, service-loyal customers are twice as likely to come back to the dealership where they regularly get their vehicles serviced, compared to purchasing at other same-brand dealerships².

When service department managers are held accountable for contributing to new-vehicle sales, the dealership wins. This is also true at the OEM level for VPs of the aftersales organizations. On the other hand, dealers and OEMs who take a narrow focus for their service operations — concentrating on service retention and departmental revenue growth — are missing out on the contribution service lanes can provide to new-vehicle sales.

The evidence from our surveys and recent service-to-sales conversion analyses shows that service departments need to be top-of-mind for dealer and OEM decision makers, especially now, as vehicle inventory levels continue to grow. And they are growing. As of November 2022, new vehicle inventory in the U.S. is approximately 2.8 times higher than their lowest level in September 2021³.

Until today, the biggest challenge has been the inability to accurately measure service-to-sales loyalty both at a dealer and brand level. But, thanks to an innovative solution at Urban Science, we can determine where in-market, service-loyal customers purchase their vehicles — whether it’s from a dealership they service with, another same brand dealership, or another brand altogether. In other words, the old mantra, “You cannot manage what you cannot measure” becomes moot, now that there’s a way to measure the performance in the service-to-sales step of the vehicle-ownership loop.