What can car dealers do to keep their customers loyal and stop them going to the showroom down the road next time? It’s a question I’ve been considering a lot recently, as I’ve had to interview a number of people on the issue of customer retention for an article I’m writing.
I can hear you shouting things at your computer, things like call me back when they say will, send me a brochure when I ask for it, smile, pay me some attention when I walk in the showroom, don’t add stuff on the bill and make me feel like they value my custom.
You’re not alone; it’s amazing how many dealers can’t get this basic stuff right. Much of it is down to pressure on their time – something we can all relate to – but is that really an excuse? Even then, it’s all very well to make the customer happy, but that doesn’t mean they’ll come back. Loyalty is totally different to satisfaction, and that’s something else they often fail to appreciate.
The key to loyalty is building relationships. A number of dealers do excellent work, and appreciate that the service desk – aka the aftersales department – is the key role of the business. A customer might only see a salesperson once, but he will have a regular relationship with the service staff.
One expert said something to me which I hadn’t considered before, but it makes perfect sense. He said dealers shouldn’t consider it as aftersales, but ‘pre-sales’. His argument was that if you look after the customer owning car number one, they will be more likely to come back for car number two, hence his name for it. It’s an excellent point, and one many car dealers should think about.
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