DETROIT
— ACDelco is looking to increase the company’s parts portfolio and
broaden better program group participation for 2010 and beyond, said
Paul Johnson, general director for GM’s Global Independent Aftermarket.
Johnson spoke to aftermarketNews.com and Counterman magazine at
ACDelco’s eForum held in Detroit. The event ran from April 27 to April
29 at the Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport hotel.
Prior to the
eForum, ACDelco held its advisory council meetings, which Johnson said
provide vital front-line intelligence to the company. The advisory
council is comprised of 35 Dedicated Distribution Group (DDG) members
that represent the broader base of DDGs.
Between the potential sale
of ACDelco and the bankruptcy of GM, advisory council meetings were put
on hold temporarily. “ACDelco is very much a part of the new GM,”
Johnson said. “We’re focusing on the right things – the competition.”
“We
are very pleased to be having these meetings again,” Johnson said,
“because we’re back in front of our customers and our customers are
back in front of us again.
“The advisory council meetings and eForum
are both very important events for ACDelco,” Johnson said. “ACDelco’s
business is very much entrepreneurial. For our DDG’s, there is no guarantee at all that they have to buy an ACDelco part. We’re accustomed to the fact that we have to earn their business.”
For consumers, Johnson said he believes the ACDelco name means trust. “We know the consumer
doesn’t wake up in the morning and say they want to buy an ACDelco
filter,” he said. “But when they see the red, white and blue ACDelco
banner hanging in the window, they’ll know it’s a place they can get
quality service and parts.”
ACDelco unveiled a number of initiatives
and tools focused on maximizing the value of ACDelco parts inventory
through innovative e-commerce solutions during the company’s fifth
annual eForum.
The sessions were open to affiliated warehouse
distributors. Attendees took part in a number of various training
sessions and general sessions, which included discussions on driving
consumers to the Total Service Support (TSS) Program shops through
tools such as mobile phone and Internet search and a newly unveiled
call tracking system.
“We have several initiatives wrapped around
trying to maximize the value of the ACDelco inventory,” said Steve
Sigg, ACDelco’s eBusiness manager. “We’re trying to get the maximum
turns of inventory.”
“Inventory, while in itself is not an
e-commerce activity, is impacted by it,” Sigg said. “In this business,
you gather so much data, that you can turn to it and analyze it. We
spend a lot of time explaining the need for good, clean data,” he said,
as shown by the included courses on PIES and ACES.
ACDelco is
continuing its program to sell obsolescent parts on eBay Motors and has
extended the program to the rest of available inventory. “We’re going
where the traffic is,” Sigg said. “It’s a piece of the consumer side
we’re going to grow.”
Currently, ACDelco is aiming at consumers
through 92 percent of the places they’d likely look to find information
about auto parts and repairs, said Chris Brandt, ACDelco’s advertising
manager. These places include traditional and digital Yellow Pages,
various search engines, mobile search, social marketing websites and
local search sites.
For example, if a consumer types, “detroit auto
repair” or “detroit auto repair phone number,” into a search engine,
they would be taken to a digital Yellow Pages listing or paid Internet
search listings for repair locations near them. ACDelco also is helping
their repair shops heighten their visibility through customized Web
pages that include shop information and times and a “click-to-call”
capability.
Consumers also are doing reviews of ACDelco repair
shops, which increases the likelihood that someone would use those
particular shops over ones that have no reviews. Through all of these
initiatives, ACDelco is driving an average of 20 leads per month per
repair location. While that may not sound like much, Brandt said,
that’s 20 new customers a month a location didn’t have before. And the
programs are really just getting under way.
Many of ACDelco’s Blue
Level TSS accounts are participating in a new “call tracking” program
whereby inbound customer calls are tracked and recorded. TSS accounts
can log in and see the daily call activity as well as hear the call
recordings. That way, managers can see how long it takes for a
customer’s call to be answered and determine if a customer was treated
well by the employee.
ACDelco also has delved into online advertising “retargeting.”
For
example, once someone visits acdelcotechconnect.com as a professional,
their Internet address is recorded. When that person goes to other
websites, they will see ACDelco advertisements in various locations,
reinforcing the ACDelco brand. ACDelco also is offering its WDs tools
that assist them in making email newsletters, newspaper advertisements
and mailers.
“We’re doing the things that many others are doing,”
said Nancy McLean, director of ACDelco marketing. “We’re just doing it
in a big way.” About the ACDelco brand, McLean said, “Most people are
looking for people they can trust. We really try to take what we’ve
learned through our industry research on parts and service and leverage
that to be better.”