Ian Simpson, a marketing man at Warranty Direct, explained: "The thinking behind ‘amber' sales is simple. Most competent dealers look at wear parts such as tyres and brakes during routine servicing and rank them on a red, amber and green scale. Green parts are fine, red need replacing now and amber have a little wear left. All of these are flagged up to the customer and most will OK the replacement of the red parts and wait on the amber.
"However, surprisingly few dealers then go on to remind those customers at the point in the future when it is likely that the amber items will have reached the red level and definitely need replacing. They leave the ball in the customer's court and, of course, many people do not bother replacing the parts until the next service or they just go elsewhere."
Simpson said that dealers who put systems in place that made the most of amber sales opportunities tended to experience both an increase in profitability and improved customer retention.