Offering vehicle pickup and delivery to customers may not be a good fit for every fixed ops department.

But if a dealership’s competitors are offering the service, that dealer should as well to remain competitive, says Lee Harkins, CEO of M5 Management Services, a service department consultancy and training company in Pelham, Ala. And if no others in a dealership’s market are offering pickup and delivery, that might be a reason to start to set the store apart.

But Harkins cautions that once a dealership offers pickup and delivery, it must be ready, willing and able to continue.

“I just think it’s a great tool for customer retention, but when you’re successful with it, you’ve got to be prepared to scale it,” he says. “I don’t recommend doing it and then backing off. Once that customer has their car picked up and delivered back to them, they will love it.”

Harkins also thinks customers are more apt to spend on recommended maintenance work when using pickup and delivery. He cites a Hyundai and Genesis dealership in Houston that offers the service. The service department is earning, on average, $160 more on repair orders on vehicles that are picked up than on those that aren’t, Harkins says.

A third-party delivery service charges the dealership $35 to pick up the vehicles, and the dealer, in turn, charges customers $25 for the convenience.

“He’s $10 under on that, but he’s getting $160 more per transaction,” Harkins says. “It’s a pretty good deal.”

Harkins says he probably wouldn’t charge customers for pickup and delivery, “but I don’t know that I’m overly concerned about the guys who do charge. I don’t think it’s a showstopper,” he says.

He remembers a Pennsylvania dealership that charged $5 for a shuttle van ride, and no one complained. The upside of charging is a dealer adds value to the service and covers some of the costs.

And if customers really think about the convenience of pickup and delivery, they would be willing to pay for it, he says.

“Would I spend $25 so I didn’t have to make a trip down [to the dealer], didn’t have to make a trip back, make another trip to pick it up and make another trip to come home?” Harkins asks. “That’s four trips, and all I have to do is give him my key and get a loaner for $25?

“That’s not a bad deal, and I would probably pay it.”