L r D apN'eCDM4 Key To Success Those loyalty cards on your key chain? Make room for more. HARRY KIRSBAUM Staff Writer A tidy Wolfe has grown out of the upstart business model of working in a home- office, holding sales meetings in a restau- rant and contacting staff though e-mails. Dealer Concepts, the company he founded four years ago, now merits its own office in Bloomfield Hills. Wolfe's concept is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" ventures, he said. As the former co-founder and vice president of Stoneage.com , an automotive marketing Web site, Wolfe said he kept hearing car dealers talking about ways to get their customers back to service their cars. At the same time, his wife kept coming home every month with another card attached to her key chain: first a Kroger . card, then one from the Detroit Zoo. "Everyone was putting offers on my keys," he said. "One day I was thinking, 'Now we use our key chains to hold our loyalties. If Kroger's put- ting something on my key chain, why isn't my car dealership?' "It gives the dealership the opportunity to say, `Here are the keys to your new car. Enjoy the car, and, by the way, we want you to come back, so here's a loyalty card." The loyalty card can give discounts or offer free Joel H. Kaufman services as a way of retaining customers — some- thing the dealers have ignored until recent years. According to the national average, dealerships lose 80 percent of their customers after a purchase — and they're starting to realize it, he said. "Jiffy Lube, which has 2,200 locations around the country, would never be in business today if car deal- erships 30 years ago would have serviced their customer properly," he said. "We're try- ing to be on the cutting edge of that." Four years ago, he went door to door with the idea and found most of the stores using just a plain key chain with a dealership emblem that cost 45 cents apiece, Wolfe said. "For the same amount of money, we can give you something that will bring the customer back to the dealership," he told them. Four years later — and after numerous trade shows and dealer referrals — Dealer Concepts has 1,200 cus- tomers across the country, and prints up 400,000- Andy Wolfe 550,000 cards a month. Wolfe has four salespersons and a few support staff people. "The foundation's in place," he said. "We're actively trying to find more people. We'd like to get this up to 30 or 40 people." There's been no need for an office the last four years he said. "Why spend money on an office? No one calls on us," he said. Weekly meetings were set at 8:30 every Monday morning at the Orchard Grill in Bloomfield Hills — same tables, same wait- person. But he will soon move to an office in Bloomfield Hills, and he said the sales should double. Wolfe can be reached at (248) 763-0870. 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