As a luxury dealership, Mercedes Benz of Hoffman Estates prides itself on excellent customer service. This includes providing transportation options to clients when their car needs to be serviced or repaired. “Mercedes Benz franchises are the pinnacle of customer service and customer expectations. If I can't deliver an absolutely perfect, high quality experience, then we fail,” shares Bob Sullivan, Service Director at Mercedes Benz Hoffman Estates.

Traditionally, customers were offered a loaner vehicle to drive until their car was ready for pickup. Sullivan looked into expanding the loaner fleet, but the cost and space required was prohibitive. When loaner vehicles were in short supply, some customers opted to take the shuttle van home, but long wait times led to complaints.

The dealership also offered a pick up and drop off service for customers, which required multiple porters to leave the dealership to fetch a customer’s car for repair. While convenient for the customer, it cost the dealership valuable time and resources.

The dealership was looking to expand its transportation options in a way that would better serve its mission. “We wanted to do something that was very customer-centric, that would give people choices on how their service experience would unfold,” shares Sullivan.

Sullivan’s team was already using CDK’s Dealer Management System (DMS) to book service appointments and manage repair orders, however, transportation to and from the dealership was arranged manually. Sullivan began looking into Hailer , a CDK software integration that would allow his service team to book Lyft rides within his existing system.

Mercedes Benz of Hoffman Estates began using Hailer and Lyft in 2020. Before Hailer, service advisors arranged transportation using email groups and calendar invites. Now, in just a few clicks service advisors can send a Lyft ride to customers after creating a repair order. Or, they can send a customer Lyft credit, which lets them book a ride when it’s convenient.

“We're saving 2.5 hours per day in software interaction alone,” shares Sullivan. “This translates into the ability to spend more time with customers and to deliver a better experience.”

By eliminating the shuttle van and reducing demand for loaner cars with Lyft, Sullivan’s team now services 3-4 more cars a day, increasing daily revenue by $2,100. Average repair orders are up from $850 to over $1,000.

“COVID-19 has really brought a lot of different dynamics this year. One of the obvious ones is that people don't necessarily want to leave their house.” Demand for pickup and dropoff services is up, explains Sullivan, “Lyft massively helps with that. It brings peace of mind.”

Historically, pickup and drop-off services would take two employees: one to drive the loaner vehicle, and one to drive the customer’s car back to the dealership. With the help of Lyft, now one porter can manage the whole job. “Right there, it’s a huge win. The customer satisfaction is significant and the timing is better,” explains Sullivan.

"I’ve got nothing but praise for Lyft. The execution is way beyond our expectations. Everybody's sold on it, including service advisors whose paychecks depend on customer satisfaction,” shares Sullivan.

Next, Mercedes Benz of Hoffman Estates is excited to refine internal processes and explore Lyft’s Parts Delivery Program. “With Lyft, we can get five to six parts in an hour as opposed to two to three,” Sullivan explains.