While the average age of cars on the road has risen steadily over the past decade, the average trade-in and repurchase cycle for vehicles sits between 48-72 months.
I don't have to tell you that is a long time to not see a customer, and we both know that the solution to this is obvious: keeping the relationship with the customer through service.
In other words, customer retention begins with service retention.
So how do you increase your retention rates?
Two of the easiest ways to do this are:
Maximizing your customer satisfaction through reputation management.
How do you know when a customer has had a bad experience with your dealership?
Have you asked them? Seek out reviews after a purchase and continue to listen to customers using your Google My Business reviews and Facebook reviews. You can handle negative reviews as soon as they appear and turn that negative experience into a positive one by acknowledging the customer and their complaint.
For more on handling negative reviews click here.
Individual communication with the customer.
Often times customers fall out of the service funnel due to lack of communication.
In the car business we spend all of our time thinking about the customer and it can be easy to fall into the trap of assuming that they think about us as well. When a customer leaves one dealership for another, it isn't always personal or that they had a bad experience in your service department.
Often they simply choose another place to get their car serviced elsewhere as a matter of convenience or assumption that their prices are better.
By engaging your customers when its time to schedule services and reminding them of your dealership your specials, you will stay at the top of their mind and be their first choice when it comes time to service their vehicle.
If you would like to learn more about how Edifice can help you re-engage existing customers, click the link below for a FREE Market Study.
