TURNING PASSIVE CUSTOMERS INTO PROACTIVE SHOPPERS tomers sitting in your Service Department are passive; Your service customers see it as a given that you will ford from your predetermined list. that is, they're going to wait and see what options you attempt to upsell them at some point. Whether it is additional recommended maintenance on their vehicle or a chance to upgrade to a newer model, customers are expecting to be sold and have their guard up. This happens for a few reasons. For one, your customers generally feel vulnerable while you have their vehicle in your possession. It is easy to forget that we need to see this from the customer's perspective since the vast majority of customers know next to nothing about what maintenance their vehicles need. It is best to avoid present them and choose what they think they can af- Something amazing happens when customers interface with a self-service kiosk. They go from being passive recipients of your sales offers to being proactive shoppers. Why? Two reasons: 1. Looking over the available options at their own pace, without a technician or service advisor selling them, creates a sense of empowerment. putting them in a defensive mindset from the moment they set foot in your service department. Nobody wants to feel taken advantage of. Here's another way of putting it: They go from being passive recipients of your sales From the perspective of buying and offers to being selling goods and services, the cus- proactive shoppers. 22 2. Since some of customers are predisposed to not fully trust dealership employees, giving them the option to engage with a device provides an element of transparency and helps eliminate their defensive mindset.