SANTANDER will offer service plans from The Warranty Group to its 6000 new and used dealer finance partners.

This additional revenue stream for car dealers is a new point of sale offer from the consumer finance provider.

Santander’s marketing director, Andy Green, said: ‘Service plans are becoming an increasingly important part of the dealer point of sale product mix, alongside warranty, GAP and RTI.

‘This is a product that appeals to customers during the recession, allowing them to budget for servicing well into the future, with a high degree of certainty.

He explained The Warranty Group was chosen because its product was strong, administration was easy, dealers would be well supported, and training was of a high standard.

Indeed, all Santander car dealers are to now be trained as part of the new deal. A ‘product champion’ approach will be used.

They’ll be offering guidance into the planned maintenance product, which breaks down routine car servicing into monthly direct debit payments.

‘For the customer,’ said Green, ‘the service plan offers an easy way of budgeting for scheduled servicing costs that is tailored to their exact needs, which is especially attractive during the recession.’

Indeed, The Warranty Group’s Ian Simpson added that ‘2009 is going to be the year of the service plan.’

For dealers, it means less risk of losing aftersales business, and a stronger bond with the customer. With all the eventual vehicle replacement potential discussions this brings…

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Tags: aftersales, santander, warranty group

This entry was last updated on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 12:50 pm and is filed under News.