According to Marketing Metrics*, businesses have a 60% to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer—which is 50%-55% higher than selling to a new prospect. AutoLoop Essentials^™ helps maximize your revenue by utilizing a strategic cadence of customer recovery communications. And last year alone, these recovery communications generated $89 million in customer pay.

However, to ensure you’re achieving your maximum return, it’s important to optimize your triggers to reach customers before they drop off.  Here are a few quick tips on making the most of your customer recovery triggers.

What is the Customer Recovery Trigger?

This automated email notification (shown at right) is designed to recover customers who have not been back to your dealership for their regularly scheduled maintenance and are overdue for service. The notification looks at the last service performed or purchase date to determine when to notify the customer. And the timing of the notification is determined by the number of months selected for each of the six intervals.

Adding a meaningful offer

Your customer recovery triggers already include the ability to add offers. And for customers who haven’t been in for 8-18 months, you’ll want to deliver a coupon or discounted service that is truly valuable to compel them to return.

Adding just any offer may not entice customers enough to make an appointment. And if you include the same or similar ones for each interval, your customers will feel less valued by your dealership—leading to undesirable response rates. That’s why we’ve put a strategy in place that’s easy to follow. All you need to do is decide which offers you want to add.

Taking advantage of the strategic cadence

The customer recovery trigger has separate intervals—and with each interval, the messaging becomes more urgent. You’re telling them you haven’t seen them in a while, and that you’re concerned for their vehicle. You’re also reminding them of the benefits they’ll receive by servicing with your dealership.

In the ideal scenario, you’ll land the appointment within the first interval or two. And the best way to achieve this is by:

1. Follow the trigger cadence already set in place; and
2. Match your offers to the timing of each interval and the related message

For example: engage those in the early stages of becoming lost customers by sending a free or discounted oil change, tire rotation and/or car wash. Or, include a certain dollar- or percentage-off general service for customers that haven’t visited in over a year. Just as each trigger becomes more urgent in messaging throughout the cadence, we recommend your offers for those triggers escalate as well.

Want to learn more about Customer Recovery best practices? Reach out to your Performance Manager with any questions or comments today.

*Marketing Metrics. Paul Farris, Neil Bendle, Phillip Pfeifer, David Reibstein.