The car is sold and your customer has been showing off their new ride to friends. They brag about the dealership and the deal, because who doesn’t brag about the deal? Then the time comes for them to bring the car in to be serviced. This is a key moment in which the customer will decide whether or not to return to your dealership for continued service as well as whether or not they want to look to you for their next car purchase. In order to retain the customer and their business, you’ll want to make the process as smooth and seamless as possible.
It requires a bit of teamwork from both your sales and service departments. The salesperson should set up the date and time for the customer’s first service appointment so the salesperson can introduce the customer to the service writer. This also allows the salesperson to connect with the customer again which can result in future business and referrals. The rest of the experience is up to the service department so here are four easy tips for making it a good one. [keep reading]
Oftentimes, the sale of a car signals the end of our relationship with that customer. Once the customer drives off our lot, we worry about bothering them. After all, they got the car, we got the sale…what more could we want?
Our hesitation to follow up most likely stems from not having a solid follow up procedure in place for our sales people. They don’t know when to make calls, what to say or how often to followup. Following up can be a huge opportunity to build a relationship, bump up referral business, create repeat customers in your service department and on your sales lot.
Five things to do after the sale:
Call the day after. Thank them for their business and ask if they are enjoying the car or if they have any questions about the vehicle. Most of the time, the customer has so much on their mind during the sell that they forget a lot of the information you gave them.
Write a thank you card. Put some thought into it and make it personal! I’ve seen salespeople take a photo of the car the day the customer bought it and used that as a thank you card. Don’t forget to include your business card as well.
Call 14 days after. Ask if they have any questions regarding the features of the car. This shows them that you are there for them even after the sale.
Call 30 days after. This is a good time to talk about your service department and offer to setup a service appointment for them. In addition, you can ask them the name of someone in the market for a vehicle.
Create a customer appreciation event. Establishing a relationship between you, your sales staff and your customers. Events also give the sales team a reason to call their customers and check-in.
At my dealerships, I liked to organize what I called Family Cookout. I let my sales staff know the date we would throw a cookout on the lot and tell them to invite their sold customers. Organizing an event falls into the lap of the owners and managers, but these events are important tools for salespeople to properly follow-up after the sale with customers.
Customer appreciation events and calls after the sale are the beginning of creating a followup up procedure for your sales teams. As a result, you’ll find a growing loyal customer base who will come back to your dealership time and time again because of the investment you’ve made into them and the sales team.
A large part of what we do at dealerships involves establishing contact with the customer. However, all too often we respond to online customer inquiries with an auto response email. If you’ve ever spent any time mystery shopping your competition you’ll find that they’re doing the same thing.
Does a general auto response really engage our customers with answers to their questions? If we’re being honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We are just relying on the auto response email to ensure that the customers gets something/anything from our dealership. Here are a six quick tips to help you effectively engage your customers and add some sizzle: [keep reading]
In the world of car dealerships, we like to measure the effectiveness of any number of things, from what our customers think of their overall experience to how the color of the mulch in our flowerbeds affects the look of our buildings. The one thing that we don’t always do a good job of measuring is what our employees think about their experience working at our dealerships.
In an industry where employees are one of our greatest assets, why are owners and general managers not investing into them more? Why do our dealerships feel like a revolving door where people come and go, leaving us in a constant state of hiring and training? Think about when the last time you saw a dealership or auto company in the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For besides Mercedes who ranked #30 this year. [keep reading]
Take a quick look around your dealership. Look long and hard at both your lot and your showroom. Do this and you will quickly see where much of your investment lies…in your pre-owned inventory. If you are willing to invest a significant amount of time and money into your pre-owned vehicles, then the best thing you could do for your dealership is research what kind of cars you are stocking, what the market says about these cars and where you are getting them.
First, what kind of inventory are you stocking? Having looked at the data using tools like AAX and vAuto, I have come to a conclusion. Dealerships will very quickly find themselves in a bind when their pre-owned departments are stocked too heavily with late model vehicles. It’s important to have a healthy balance. I have seen far too many stores with late model vehicles making up 50% or more of their inventories this increases turn rate and the amount you are spending in marketing.
So what does the market say? The table below shows us a breakdown of VDPs (VDPs showing in 10,000 units) in relation to each calendar year. [keep reading]
As a former Internet Director, I understand the “I need more leads!” mindset that can permeate a sales environment. It is engrained in us by our management, the manufacturers and of course, third party providers whose businesses exist to generate leads. In the world of car sales, the lead is gold. Honestly, I think the time has come for a change in that mentality. Leads, as we know them, are slowly fading out of style.
Customers are smarter than we’re giving them credit for. They approach buying a car armed with even more information than they had the last time they bought a car. This means that they are less likely to give out their information so that you can contact them. They know how that process works and don’t want to be subjected to relentless sales calls and inbox spam. [keep reading]
Over the years in NASCAR there have been many voices bringing race results and news to fans. Whether it was calling the race like Bob Jenkins or reporting from the pits like Chris Economaki, these talented broadcasters brought NASCAR to life over the airwaves. For the drivers, on air abilities and public personas are keys to making a driver a fan favorite or the one they love to hate.
Let’s take a look at a few of those drivers that draw the crowds as well as the boos like the late Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski who have been known to run their mouths from time to time. [keep reading]
In the world of competitive racing, there are many different kinds of races but there are few that are as exciting as the good, old dirt track racing. When I heard that NASCAR Camping World Truck Series would be back on the dirt track at the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway on Wednesday, July 24th for the first time in 43 years, I just had to get an interview to find out more about Eldora and how to get tickets. I gave the track a call and quickly lined up an interview with Roger Slack, the general manager and promoter at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The transcript from our interview follows after the jump. You can also listen to the entire interview here.
Welcome everyone to the Mojo Motors Race Report! Today on the show we have the privilege of hosting @RogerSlack, the general manager and promoter at Eldora Speedway. Eldora just made the big announcement that they are bringing dirt track racing back to the NASCAR circuit by hosting the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. [keep reading]
In How a business trip is done Part 1, I talked about my excursion down to Florida with Paul, the Mojo Motors CEO and meeting with car dealerships. The first two tips discuss the importance of planning travel dates early and not relying on travel sites for the best airfare.
Today I’ll write about finding the best-priced hotels and how critical communication is with the client. Make the jump for the final two most important tips to remember when planning a business trip.
In the beginning, there was work. And it was good. Then there was the business trip and well…it was interesting. For those of you that have ever been in charge of putting one together, you know it can be a lot of, well, work. I am writing this blog fresh off the road after planning and executing a 5-day business trip spent meeting with 21 clients across the state of Florida.
It was me, Paul (the CEO of Mojo Motors) and the open road. Go ahead, be jealous. In addition to planning a shirt and tie combo each day, details about which company to meet with and when is equally important. Here are a few easy tips to planning your next successful business trip. [keep reading]
