Trevor Boswell appointed head of SecretService

Trevor Boswell has been promoted to head of SecretService, having joined the business last year.

He aims to lead the BookMyGarage business to help franchised dealers take advantage of the aftersales opportunities from older vehicles.

Boswell has previous experience in senior aftersales roles across several high-profile brands including BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. He joined SecretService as franchise partnerships manager in April 2021.

Boswell said: “I am excited to spearhead our drive to help dealers win back market share of segment 2, 3 and even older vehicle aftersales. There is a lot of untapped potential in these segments.

“It is a huge opportunity, and we are determined to provide our partners with significant additional revenue, replacing lost segment 1 aftersales with segment 2 or older vehicles, to help ensure their businesses are even more robust and sustainable.”

The decline of new car sales has left the aftersales opportunity for vehicles up to three years old much diminished.

Dealer groups are increasingly turning their attention to older vehicles to keep workshops full.

During the last two years, SecretService has secured tens of thousands of bookings for franchised dealer networks, with more than 90% of these being for vehicles that are more than three years old.

During 2021, SecretService saw a 216% year-on-year increase in franchised bookings, with three-quarters of all bookings from conquest customers.

Boswell added: “Despite excellent results achieved for our partners in 2021, this year is already projected to see an even stronger period of growth. With all-make and model servicing becoming the ‘new norm’ and the growing market share of EVs providing fresh challenges, SecretService is perfectly placed to help dealers during this transition and beyond.”

The software that powers SecretService also enables dealers to reduce the administration of aftersales bookings by managing live workshop capacity and allowing customers to be in the “driving seat” of their booking journey.

Book My Garage claims to have channelled record levels of aftersales work into franchised retailers' workshops after bookings increased by 34% year-on-year in October.