If you sell an off-brand vehicle, how do you keep that customer coming back? You need to sell your dealership experience as well as your brand.
Customer retention is among your most important dealership priorities. Studies show it can cost seven times more to win over a brand-new customer than to keep a previous one. Brand loyalty can be a driving force – but what about someone who purchases an off-brand vehicle from your pre-owned lot?
These buyers may not feel much need to return to you, since you may not be able to supply all their parts and service. But with many customers, vehicle brand loyalty is secondary to their dealer loyalty. If you can win them over, it can help bring them back in and possibly have them recommend you to others.
Turn an off-brand customer into a lifetime customer
The questions customers ask about their vehicles are pretty much universal. How do I pair my phone, or set my radio stations? How do I set the cruise control, or change the information in the instrument cluster? Where’s the spare tire or tire kit?
Most of this will be in the owner’s manual (if the vehicle didn’t come with one, it should be downloadable from the automaker’s website). Some manufacturers also have online videos showing these functions. If you’re not familiar with the vehicle, do a little background reading or viewing, and proactively show the customer how to perform these functions when delivering the vehicle. It makes you look good, and reduces the possibility your customer will visit that brand’s dealer to find out.
Maintenance and repairs
You won’t be able to do everything on an off-brand vehicle, but you should be able to handle scheduled maintenance such as oil changes or tire service. Introduce your customer to the service manager and explain what the department can do. Be sure the customer’s information is set up to receive service reminders. They have choices – not just with their brand dealers, but from quick-lube shops and big-box stores, which are usually top-of-mind for owners of pre-owned vehicles. Those are often an impulse decision when the lineup is short. If you reach out to your customer before the service is due, offering a convenient appointment time, you may retain that business.
Remind them that all their records will remain in your system and be immediately available to them, should they need proof of maintenance for any factory warranty repairs from that brand. Offer any of your discount programs, such as for early winter tire switchover or storage. Customers need to know they’re important to your service department, even if their car’s logo isn’t the one over your door.
Keep in touch
Once the customer drives off the lot, your salesperson or manager should be in contact. Call the following day, then within a week, and then within a month. For the first call, ask if everything’s intuitive, or if they need help with any of the vehicle’s functions, and if there’s anything they forgot to ask. In a week, remind them of available offers, such as extended warranty. In a month, check in to be sure they’re still happy with the car, that they know who to call for service appointments, and if anything’s coming up such as tire changeover. On each call, ask if there’s something anyone in the dealership could have done better – and if there is, make it right, and right away.
Even if the customer hasn’t kept in touch, send a reminder within a year to note the purchase anniversary, along with alerts for new vehicles from your brand, or cars that will be coming onto the lot. All of this requires meticulous record-keeping, and the dealership should be keeping spreadsheets with daily reminders of customer milestones. Should that particular salesperson leave the dealership, a manager should call and inform the customer, with reassurance that the dealership as a whole is still here to help.
Think about your favourite store that sells numerous brands, whether it’s clothes or shoes or stationery, and why you keep going back there to buy. It’s all about the experience, and not just the brand. That’s what will keep your customers coming back.