ACDelco National Marketing Manager Chris Brandt is an automotive aftermarket industry veteran. He joined ACDelco in 1984 and has served in a variety of roles, including Product Development, Channel Strategy, Supply Chain, Operations and Marketing.

ACDelco revamped its ­service center affiliation ­program this year; can you tell me about it?

We all know successful shop owners understand their business is as much about people as it is cars. Likewise, the ACDelco box contains more than a part: It ­offers more than a century of aftermarket business expertise.

Our shop owners give us high marks on our products, and they also want smart support that helps them drive business growth and efficiency. The ACDelco Professional Service Center Program helps us deliver the business support tools our shop owners are asking for. In addition to high-quality, competitively priced parts, it provides industry-leading technician training and tracking tools; marketing support; easy and attractive purchase incentives; and expanded consumer assurance.

Nearly every member of our former Total Service Support program signed up for the Professional Service Center Program this year. In an industry built upon the cornerstones of mutual success and trust, it demonstrates our shop owner customers believe we’re providing value both in the bay and to the bottom line.

Next year, we are going to leverage the success of the Professional Service Center Program as we explore additional ways to talk to our current customers and bring new ones into the ACDelco family. I am pretty confident our customers are going to like what we have planned.

Can you provide some ­examples of ways ACDelco is supporting shop owners?

Absolutely. For starters, we’re using technology to get customers in the doors with the locator tool on our ACDelco.com website. Consumers type in their ZIP code for a list of nearby shops and driving directions. Clicking an information icon takes them to a landing page with the shop’s history, hours and services performed.

As more and more business transitions to online and mobile, we’re also using Web national and local search tools to drive customers to the ACDelco home page, parts page or shop locator, and directly to our Professional Service Center program participants. We’re doing this with both a national ACDelco branded search and locator, as well as locally targeted keyword campaigns that use unbranded service terms.

Once we provide those business leads, the Professional Service Center shop owner has a full circle of services at his or her disposal, including two new customer-friendly programs. This year, we added same-day labor reimbursement to our White and Blue-level shops. That’s huge.

Also new this year is our Roadside Assistance service that covers eligible services performed at an ACDelco Professional Service Center. Towing, fuel delivery, lockout, jump start and flat tires are included.
Additionally, we continue to cover ACDelco parts for 12,000 miles or 12 months.

And speaking of parts, we simplified our promotions and incentive programs to add flexibility and to streamline the redemption process. We’re also making it easier for shop owners to buy and install ACDelco batteries in two ways: One, with Battery ­Marketer Program trucks that provide consigned inventory, service and point-of-sale materials; and two, with our recent decision to replace pro-rata battery warranties with free-replacement warranty periods.

We also work with distributors to assist shops with professionally developed signage and other store image enhancement because you get only one chance to make a first ­impression. Building graphics, curb appeal elements such awnings, point-of-sale materials and other items convey a sense of sophistication while still preserving local flavor.

Ongoing technician training is ­absolutely necessary yet hard to schedule. So we help our shop owners by making it easy to keep their technicians trained on the latest vehicle repair technologies without costly time away from bay.

Just as vehicle repair techniques change, so do customer demographics. Women now make or influence 85 percent of all consumer purchases, so we developed an award-winning seminar to help them feel more empowered about car maintenance and repair.

Called Knowledge is Power, it gives the shop owner everything he or she needs to deliver a car care seminar to an audience of women, whom we know are among the most effective ambassadors a shop can have. Many of our shop owners are seeing new customers come through the door after sponsoring a Knowledge is Power seminar, and we’re making sure that this professionally-developed program always reflects the most up-to-date ­industry maintenance information.

How is the ACDelco Advantage line performing, and what other news can you share on the product front?

ACDelco Advantage products have been a critical and commercial success for us, and together with our ­Professional and GM OE lines, give us a terrific good-better-best product lineup for our customers. This year we launched an all-new line of ­Advantage chassis components and Advantage batteries.

For many shop owners, the aging vehicle fleet is a double-edged sword: Their customers’ cars and trucks need work, but budgets are tight. That puts the shop owner in a bind. If he installs cheap, no-brand parts and they fail, he risks his reputation and an expensive comeback.

With Advantage, our shop owner customers don’t have to make that choice. The price is competitive and the quality is high. Everything needed for the installation is in the box, which saves time. And, consumers who visit a Professional Service Center Program participant get a safe, quality part backed by a solid warranty and well worth the money they paid to have it installed.

Since introducing the Advantage line in 2009 with brake rotors and drums, we’ve added a friction lineup and hundreds of part numbers. We’re seeing year-over-year growth for Advantage with no effects on our other lines.

Our Professional line of high-quality aftermarket products covers not only GM but multiple makes and models. Major lines include batteries, filters, plugs, brakes, chassis, rotating electrical, water pumps, belts, hoses and more. Our all-new Professional starters and alternators recently went on sale and we’re getting positive feedback from both our ­distributors and shop owners.

Of course, our heritage and strength lie in our longstanding role as the brand of OE parts for the world’s largest car parc – GM cars and trucks. We currently offer GM OE parts available both to distributors and through the GM dealer network. They’re backed by the engineering excellence of GM, which is something our competitors can’t say.

I mentioned earlier that we phased out pro-rated warranties on our batteries. While our battery coverage has always been among the best in the business, our distributors and shop owners told us they wanted a transparent, easy-to-understand warranty that removes the hassle and guesswork associated with pro-rated coverage.