What channel are your TV's on?

[Eley Duke]

I know this is an odd question. But what are you're customers watching in your lounge's? Currently we are paying over $1,000 a month for an automotive specific TV service in one building, which just makes me when we've got cable in the other 2! It is co-op'ed but I can think of a lot more things I can do with that $1,000 a month. Its not really doing anything other than providing alternative TV to our customers vs them watching the doom and gloom of Fox news all day, or some other crap like "Swamp WTF-ever" on Discovery or a soap, plus seeing competitors ads. We do run specials on there and do everything we can to use it as marketing, but it really isn't paying off. But I am pretty clear in my mind we don't need a $1,000 a month TV cost, and that cable will do just fine.So, I am interested, what channel do you have on in your waiting lounges for people to watch? Anyone got a good all around channel for all ages and is appropriate?

 

[Billfred]

Re: What channel are you TV's on?

Ours changes from time to time (the remote's not exactly hidden), but CBS seems to be the norm. For some reason, the chime they use on The Price Is Right* filters through three walls into my office.

*Full disclosure: My mother made it to contestant's row in the Bob Barker era. She was stuck there at the end of the show, winning about $300 worth of karaoke microphones and outdoor lighting.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I'm a fan of Retail TV personally. There is a lot you can do with it and a great marketing / content piece for the dealership.

I would check into other services that cost less before completely moving away from Eley.

When I was at MileOne - we were piping our inventory with photos into the side ticker slot via RSS. Slick as sh!t.

Great opportunity to push your promotions, social campaigns, text campaigns, online service scheduler. I'm a fan..if you have a busy service department that is.

 

[merritt]

just play a Top Gear marathon.

As a consumer and if I was stuck in a waiting room at a dealership... I'd be a fan of either CNN, Discovery, History, etc.

 

[john.quinn]

I'm a fan of Retail TV personally. There is a lot you can do with it and a great marketing / content piece for the dealership.

I would check into other services that cost less before completely moving away from Eley.

When I was at MileOne - we were piping our inventory with photos into the side ticker slot via RSS. Slick as sh!t.

Great opportunity to push your promotions, social campaigns, text campaigns, online service scheduler. I'm a fan..if you have a busy service department that is.

Soon after Jeff left, so did Retail TV. The bottom line is that you cannot measure the Retail message's effectiveness, but you can certainly see the CSI results tank when you deny an audience their Judge Judy. Really, the customers don't like it. Long Live Jerry Springer!

 

[Eley Duke]

Great opportunity to push your promotions, social campaigns, text campaigns, online service scheduler. I'm a fan..if you have a busy service department that is.

I have to agree with you Jeff, I really don't want to give it up, but $1,100 is expensive, even if co-op'ed!

Soon after Jeff left, so did Retail TV. The bottom line is that you cannot measure the Retail message's effectiveness, but you can certainly see the CSI results tank when you deny an audience their Judge Judy. Really, the customers don't like it.

Actually John, our customers like it, we have little complaints, more compliments that there isn't the same old crap on TV. We use to get complaints any channel we put it on, Fox News = some car chase, little Suzy in BFE is missing, and so on with the doom and gloom! Thank goodness Geraldo is gone, he's still out looking for Natalee Holloway. Then we tried Discovery, all that is now is bad reality, then we though about Travel, till someone complained about some Ghost Show and then No Reservations and all the cursing. Damn how I do love Anthony Bourdain, great new show called the Layover, he gets down right drunk on there a lot.

Let me ask this, is anyone else using ABN, and how much are you paying, we are paying $1,190 a month through the GM iMR deal. Why is it I feel like you get it stuck to you from the GM approved vendors? That's for another thread.

 

[ddavis]

The hostess sets the TV at what the customers want. Our customers tend to like FOX News but this is a red State and they can read.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Just put the remote on the table and let them fight for it ....tune the channel in the sales managers' office to "Customer Waiting Lounge," sit back and enjoy.

 

[merritt]

Actually John, our customers like it, we have little complaints, more compliments that there isn't the same old crap on TV. We use to get complaints any channel we put it on, Fox News = some car chase, little Suzy in BFE is missing, and so on with the doom and gloom! Thank goodness Geraldo is gone, he's still out looking for Natalee Holloway. Then we tried Discovery, all that is now is bad reality, then we though about Travel, till someone complained about some Ghost Show and then No Reservations and all the cursing. Damn how I do love Anthony Bourdain, great new show called the Layover, he gets down right drunk on there a lot.

There's actually some psychology to this.

Does asking for the channel to be changed = complaint?

If it's on a normal tv/cable station, then you will get people asking to change it to whatever station they would rather watch. Reason being is that if one station is available, it tells them others are too.
If it's on some piped in network, then that tells them (the customer) that is their only choice and to suck it up and watch the looped programming.

just my $.02


ps. I can't get enough of Anthony Bourdain. Great guy in person too!

 

[ErinM]

I'm glad this came up. As our new studio nears completion, we've been discussing themes for upcoming videos that we will play in our lounges. I plan on featuring salespeople and service advisors, and addressing top questions that arise in both sales and service. I really feel it's important to feature content that is not sales-y, even non-auto related. So, we're just letting the creative juices flow. We'll see where that takes us!