Dealers embrace new tools to boost service retention and adapt to mobile first customers
The customer-facing experience in automotive is changing — fast.
Each new iteration of the iPhone, android operating system and the constant introduction of countless mobile devices and apps into the digital marketplace are fundamentally changing the ways dealerships interact with customers to retain their loyalty.
Today’s dealerships are facing customer retention issues on multiple fronts, says Hilary Biggart, Director of Marketing at AutoPoint, a customer retention solutions provider that offers research-based analysis and data to dealerships, among other tech-driven services.
“Customers are making more and more of their sales and service decisions online, before they ever show up at the dealership in person — that means fiercer competition and a harder fight to make yourself heard,” explains Biggart.
With service intervals getting longer, that also increases the need to engage more frequently with customers, she says. Customers want a “cohesive” experience, explains Biggart.
CRM systems can be powerful tools, but can sometimes weaken retention rates if the system is not properly integrated. “Technology that’s supposed to make your life easier can complicate things instead if it doesn’t work well with other parts of your operations,” she says.
First launched in 2003, AutoPoint originally specialized in multi-point inspection systems; it has since expanded its product offerings to include marketing, titling, service drive and engagement solutions, combining them into a single platform.
Training is everything
CRM tools also help dealerships track the productivity and efficiency of their staff, said Mathieu Spinelli, Vice-President Customer Experience and Administrative Support at Groupe Spinelli of the Greater Montreal Region.
“The CRM is there to help create deals and transactions from the door or from the Web,” said Spinelli. He explained that his dealer group is combining Cox Automotive software tools with a pre-booking system it has used since the 1980s. Their customers are typically scheduled for a visit after their first appointment, each time a customer goes to the service department and two pre-bookings are set per delivery.
The dealership has begun integrating several Cox Automotive products such as vAuto, VinSolutions and Xtime to help with retention efforts. “Once they’re actually in your database, then the pre-booking becomes effective…we use it to keep customers with us in a full cycle of four years — right now, we’re averaging 2.3 visits,” he says.
The dealership has also leveraged a loyalty program customers can use towards purchasing oil changes or other products at the dealership’s service and parts department. This helped to increase its average number of customer visits
per year. “They’re coming back more often because we’re training our people; training and training
and training again,” says Spinelli.
Spinelli says his dealership also decided to deploy AutoAlert to measure the productivity of its representatives and also to make sure they weren’t losing out on any opportunities.
On their own terms
The customer experience is going to continue to shift increasingly towards the digital realm, predicts Biggart.
She said that dealerships would be wise to begin the process of transferring “everything from test drive scheduling to inspection reports” to an online format that customers can access on their smartphones or tablets.
With so many customers migrating away from dealerships once their vehicles are out of warranty, it’s crucial for dealerships to use any available technologies to maintain that connection with their customers.
