High dealership turnover can put key customer data at risk
In 2024, CADA Workforce Study measured overall dealership turnover rates at 31 per cent. The sales consultant and service advisor roles were the highest for turnover at 33 and 36 per cent, respectively.
I find this especially concerning from a customer experience standpoint. Not only are dealership customers constantly seeing new faces when they come in for service and to shop for their next car, it is almost like they start from scratch with the dealership every time.
When speaking with dealers over the past year, it became clear that their common position was that their teams are not fully utilizing their DMS and CRM capabilities.
In fact, most thought their staff only scratched the surface in terms of what they could be doing with these systems, yet all agreed they were spending a significant amount of money on them.
Regardless of the turnover, a significant majority of dealers are not harnessing the data they collect, especially when it comes to continuity of the customer journey.
Initially it seems like the obvious thing to do is work on employee engagement and reduction of turnover, however as we all know, some turnover is necessary or unavoidable.
There will always be customer-facing people coming and going. To avoid large gaps in the customer journey, dealers need to turn attention to processes and use the technology they already pay for.
The first order of business when an employee leaves is to ensure their customer’s data is protected and doesn’t leave with them.
In this era of communicating with customers via text and social media, ensure your dealership consolidates these functions within a proprietary app, rather than allowing employees to interact with customers from their personal platforms.
As with any change initiative in the dealership, the impetus and energy have to come from the top. Dealer Principals and General Managers should be champions of technology usage and demonstrate the power of utilization.
A quick review of privacy laws and CASL compliance will find many dealers exposed on these fronts. Chances are, your CRM, website provider, chat provider, and lead handling software already have built-in solutions to keep communications within your care and control. When someone leaves the company, simply terminating their access will ensure customer data isn’t compromised.
The second component to this initiative involves continuing the customer’s relationship to your dealership without interruption.
If data is properly captured in the DMS and CRM, simple steps like reassigning orphaned customers to new sales and service advisors, sending a nicely worded email notifying the customer of their new contact at the dealership, and strategic follow-up by team members can go a long way.
Take a look at the amount of effort dealers sometimes put into prospecting for a sale event or month-end scramble. What if we spread some of that effort out to build bridges between orphan customers and current employees? The result would be more natural sales and service conversations and increased trust levels.
As with any change initiative in the dealership, the impetus and energy have to come from the top. Dealer Principals and General Managers should be champions of technology usage and demonstrate the power of utilization.
Flowing into the team, efforts such as creating an orphan customer process and updating job descriptions to include accountability for these actions are logical next steps. As new employees are onboarded and these processes bed into the dealership, customers will take notice.
The tangible results of proactively taking care of your orphan customers will soon become evident. Customer complaints and conflicts will reduce and be easier to resolve, since customers will be more familiar with dealership staff.
Customer satisfaction scores improve with continuous relationships and the feeling of being taken care of. Service retention will increase and your customer pay hours per work order will see a lift due to increased customer trust and comfort. Sales consultants will be able to generate better outbound leads and prospecting activities with customers who have not been allowed to go cold due to turnover.
Finally, by investing in proactive customer management, employee engagement and satisfaction should see a beneficial impact.
By showing the team what is expected, how to use the resources at hand, and the long-term benefits of these processes, our customer-facing team members will feel positive and empowered to take care of customers and utilize their data for a better and more even path to doing business.
