Congratulations! Your dealership has made a sale to a new customer! With a handshake, papers signed, and introductions made to the service department (as part of your dealership’s customer-centric approach), they’re off to enjoy their new vehicle.

Guess what? Your dealership marketing journey with that new customer has just begun.

While bringing in new customers is excellent, it’s more efficient to retain your current ones. The Performance Administration Corp. CRM makes it easier to do this by managing and alerting you to key data you need to keep up essential communication with your customers.

Weekly Reporting

What happened in your dealership in the past week? How many customers came in? Were they current customers returning for service or to purchase another vehicle, or were they brand new ones? What about customers who are due for service but who failed to show back up again — did you have any of those?

Dealerships that use our CRM software can answer all of these questions. In fact, our system sends out weekly reports letting management know all of the essential numbers every seven days. While some dealership software generates reports on a monthly basis, we’ve found that weekly reports are better because they allow your dealership to see trends and take immediate action if something needs to be shifted.

Targeted Dealership Marketing

CRM software also lets you compile key information about each customer. Why should dealerships worry about collecting customer data? For one, it’s an essential tool that can be used for targeted dealership marketing. Using collected data, you can send out bulk texts or emails that are customized to specific customer groups.

For example, what better time to let a group of customers know about your newest upcoming vehicle model than when they’re nearing the end of their current lease? If you have a segment of customers that are almost outside of the period of their complimentary maintenance coverage, they’re the perfect audience to educate about your cost-saving service maintenance packs.

Transform Your Customer Experience

Dealership marketing isn’t only about bringing happy customers back in; it’s also a useful tool for reaching out to customers who have had a bad experience. These customers often won’t contact the dealership and ask to speak to a manager to right a wrong that’s occurred (“The technician got grease all over the interior of my new car.” “I waited two hours for what should have been a 30-minute oil change appointment.”). Instead, many of these customers simply drift away, failing to return for their next complimentary maintenance appointment and opting instead to pay to take their vehicle to a chain lube shop or a competitor.

The best way to handle these kinds of situations is to be proactive, and this is where the Customer Experience Transformer comes in. After each appointment, customers receive an email and are asked to rate their experience on a scale of 0 to 10. Anything below a 7 or an 8 will generate a follow-up contact from the dealer to find out where they failed to make things perfect. This is excellent not only for bringing that individual customer back in; it’s also useful for fine-tuning issues within the dealership itself.

Another useful CRM tool is the Lost Opportunity Transformer. For customers who fade away or fail to show up for service appointments, this tool holds dealership staff accountable for contacting them and providing them incentives to return.

Marketing Where It Matters Most

All too often, dealerships fall into the trap of only targeting their marketing towards new customers. With CRM tools, the process of aiming your dealership marketing at current customers is made much more simple. In the end, a focus on customer retention will help your team boost service department visits and ultimately sales — leading to long-term growth and heightened success.