With a growing number of customers only visiting a dealership once to collect their car, products that keep them coming back for maintenance and repairs are becoming essential, says The Warranty Group.

Ian Simpson, sales and marketing director, said: “The continuing growth in online sales means that the opportunity to get to know a customer and build a relationship with them over the course of a number of visits, when they choose and finance a car, is disappearing.

“In order to attempt to secure their future aftersales business and eventually sell them another car, you have to create a means of ensuring that you capture their future business, and warranties and service plans are the most obvious way of doing so."

Simpson believes added that, in order to make service plans and warranties work in this manner, they needed to be introduced into the sales process in a structure manner, ideally as part of the online journey.

He said: “Many customers are now choosing and financing their car online. Making their warranty and service plan choices at the same time is an obvious development yet it is offered by very few websites."