Today’s consumers are asking significantly more of all retailers. And automotive dealers have the unique responsibility of shaping the majority of the vehicle ownership experience—so they should do their best to tilt that experience in their favor.
Five-star experiences are earned, not demanded. And providing one to each and every customer can be as simple as listening to their unique set of circumstances and going the extra mile to provide what they need.
Walk-ins are a major source of dealership traffic. On the one hand, that’s great for dealerships, because it means less time chasing down leads, since customers simply show up at your door. But it also means that when walk-ins dry up, so does a major portion of revenue. So how can you get more people in the door, prepped and ready to go?
Like any sales company, dealerships want to get their messaging and advertisements out to as many people as possible. It’s historically been a numbers game: throw as much as you can at a wall and see what sticks.
Just because a customer redeems a coupon and comes in for a service does not make them loyal. If the only reason they come in is because they got a great deal for a service, guess what? At some point, an independent repair facility will offer them an even better deal, and that customer will defect. The reality is, they were never loyal in the first place.
Notifying customers when they are due for service is an obvious—yet crucial—part of any dealer’s marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not all notifications get the same results.
Every day, dealers are faced with multiple decisions about various facets of their business. Among them: constantly trying to decide if they should invest in buying leads to conquest more consumers or if they should spend more to retain existing customers.
When you buy something online, checkout can take mere seconds. And chances are good that your credit card was saved from previous transactions, meaning you just have to click the checkout button and your order is submitted. At the grocery store, checkout takes maybe a few minutes—if you have to insert your card and wait for a receipt. So it comes as no surprise that customers expect this level of expediency in all transactions.