Sponsored Content: Hope is Not A Strategy

Are you waiting for customers to walk in the door, hoping it will be a good day? As a dealer, you can have a bad day and still have a great week, but you can’t have a great month if you have a bad week. The good news is you can take control of your appointments and set each day up for success.

In the past, a Rolodex with a customer list was all you needed to have a healthy portfolio. Unfortunately, this is no longer enough. To address slow days and increase service appointments, you need a good CRM system. A robust CRM platform can notify the sales rep that worked with the customer on their vehicle purchase, providing them the opportunity to walk over and say hello when they come in for service. It also gives you the ability to create a personalized experience for each customer and understand their needs and wants over the lifetime of their vehicle. Your CRM can do much of the work for you by sending automated emails and texts at specific key customer contact points. If you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with them, customers are more likely to contact you when they’re ready for their next vehicle.

Do you know if you’re retaining or losing sales to your competitors? If you aren’t currently keeping your share of the local market, don’t get comfortable with status quo – there are systems and processes you can put in place to turn that around. Let’s start with your CRM system. The follow-up process is important and if you can’t easily use your customer data, you won’t be able to follow the customer’s journey.

Imagine a customer did their research and performed about 18 different searches. If you continued to follow up with that customer and build a relationship, you’ll probably have a much greater chance of getting the deal when it’s finally time for that customer to make a purchase decision. Your CRM will also provide you with the customer’s preferences. This can help lead to increased engagement and customer satisfaction because the customer doesn’t have to explain what they’re looking for all over again.

Are you communicating in a way that is natural or preferred by your customer? If someone calls in, call them back. If they email, email them back. Whatever method of communication they are using is probably their preferred method. Text messages are the most effective method of contact with the highest response rate. Your CRM will provide you with a complete texting system that will include the ability to view all communication (texts, emails, etc.) sent to a customer from across the dealership.

Advertising is expensive, but if you can’t tie sales back to your investment, how do you know if your dollars are being well spent? A CRM system will manage the leads so you can track them back to your campaign.

The more information you have about your customers, the easier it is to tailor and implement strategies to meet their needs. When you have the ability to easily maintain a customer database, you have everything you need to close more sales and build stronger relationships.

To learn more about how Lightspeed can help you optimize your leads, visit www.lightspeedDMS.com.