Most dealerships spend significant money trying to acquire used vehicles while hundreds of existing owners drive onto the property every week for service. That has always struck me as an underused opportunity.
The service drive already has the relationship, the vehicle and a natural reason for the customer to be at the dealership. What we have learned through our work at Citrin is that the opportunity is not created by turning service employees into salespeople; it is created by building a respectful process that identifies appraisal interest and hands it cleanly to the used-car team.
The Opportunity Is Already in the Lane
Think about the customer entering the service drive. They own or control a vehicle the dealership may want, the store often knows the vehicle history, and the customer already has a relationship with the dealership. Depending on the repair, they may also be thinking about whether it makes sense to keep the vehicle, which is a very different starting point from buying a lead online or cold-calling a private seller.
Yet in many dealerships, nothing happens consistently. Someone may occasionally ask whether the customer would like an appraisal, another employee may remember to mention it, and then the initiative fades as soon as the store gets busy.
The Problem Is Usually the Process, Not the Offer
I have seen dealerships launch service-drive acquisition initiatives with plenty of enthusiasm. The used-car manager wants more cars, the service manager agrees the idea makes sense and everyone is told to ask customers if they want an appraisal. Then very little happens because “everyone should ask” is not an operating process.
The process has to answer practical questions: who asks, when in the visit the question is raised, what language is used, where the interest is recorded, who receives the customer, how quickly the appraisal happens and who follows up. If those details are not defined, the program depends on memory and personality, which rarely lasts.
Hospitality Team Members Can Identify Interest Without Selling
I do not think a porter or greeter should become a salesperson; in fact, that is one of the fastest ways to damage the service experience. Their role can be much simpler and still be valuable.
For example:
“While your vehicle is here today, would you like us to provide you with an updated value?”
That is a hospitality-oriented offer because the team member is identifying interest, not negotiating a trade. If the customer says no, the service experience continues normally; if the customer says yes, the opportunity is handed to someone whose job is to appraise vehicles.
In some of the pilots we have run, we have seen roughly 15% to 20% of service customers say yes to an appraisal when the question is built naturally into the process.
The exact result will vary by store, brand, market and customer mix. What matters to me is that the opportunity is large enough to deserve a real process.
The Handoff Matters More Than the Question
Getting a customer to say yes is only the beginning. I have watched programs lose opportunities because the customer agreed to an appraisal and then nobody showed up, the used-car department was busy or the advisor did not know who owned the next step. That is why I think the handoff is more important than the script.
A strong process might look like:
Greeter identifies interest → Service advisor reinforces → Used-car specialist completes appraisal → Result is communicated → Opportunity is tracked
There should be an owner at every stage.
Measure Appraisals Before Acquisitions
Dealership leaders naturally want to know how many vehicles were acquired.
That is the final outcome, but it is not the only useful measure.
I would track:
- Service customers offered an appraisal
- Customers who say yes
- Appraisals completed
- Offers presented
- Vehicles acquired
- Time from customer interest to appraisal
- Gross or inventory value created where appropriate
Those numbers tell you where the process is breaking.
If 20% say yes but only half receive an appraisal, the problem is not customer interest.
If appraisals happen but very few offers are accepted, that is a different issue.
Do Not Turn the Service Drive Into a Sales Floor
This is the most important guardrail: customers came to service their vehicles, and they should never feel trapped in a trade conversation. The program has to preserve trust, which means the offer should be optional, low-pressure, and easy to decline.
It also means the frontline hospitality team should never be compensated or managed in a way that causes them to pressure customers.
The best version feels like another service:
“If you are curious what your vehicle is worth, we can take care of that while it is here.”
That is very different from:
“Are you ready to trade today?”
The Service Drive Can Become a Used-Vehicle Pipeline
One of the things I like about this model is that it changes the way a dealership thinks about the porter and greeter operation. The frontline service-drive team is already influencing customer experience and vehicle flow, and with the right process it can also help identify customers who are open to selling or trading their vehicles. That does not turn the porter team into a sales team; it simply makes the service drive a better-connected part of the dealership.
When the process is respectful, clearly owned and measured, vehicle acquisition becomes one more example of what a well-managed service drive can contribute to the broader business.