3 Tips to Help Improve your Dealership’s Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM)
Lee Peters | 26 April 2022
Depending on your industry and market, the cost of acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing customer. Loyal, repeat customers tend to have a greater level of trust and a greater propensity to spend compared to prospective new clients - to leverage this, dealerships need to look at other ways to offer value to their customers across the entire customer lifecycle.
Here are 3 tips to help shift the focus away from the customer being a one-off purchaser, to being a potential long-term, loyal advocate of your dealership.
Service Retention
One of the most crucial links in the dealership CLM chain is service retention. Rather than waiting on the customer to book a service on their own accord, encourage your sales team to take on more of a proactive role in boosting the rate of customers returning for their 12-month service. Customers have an existing level of trust in the sales staff following their initial purchase. This is a crucial relationship that can be leveraged at all stages of the customer lifecycle.
Consider incentivising staff to schedule a service during their anniversary calls to the customer, and ensure they are aware of the significant repeat sales opportunities that can stem from service retention.
Service Bookings = Sales Opportunities
Having customers bring their vehicle in for service is a golden opportunity to help drive repeat purchase and vehicle upgrades. Encourage service staff to collaborate with your sales team and update them on scheduled bookings for the upcoming week.
Sales staff can then leverage this information to identify customers that may be willing to upgrade their vehicle. Consider, for example, having sales staff calculate the residual value of a customer’s financed vehicle and chatting to them post-service about their changeover position. Customers are often pleasantly surprised at the value of their ‘additional weekly repayment’ and may be open to upgrading their vehicle on the spot.
Foster a CLM Driven Culture
Forming a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with customers across their entire purchase journey starts with having a team of staff that communicate regularly and understand the rewards that can be unlocked by working together. High performing dealerships are contingent on their departments working collaboratively.
Taking time to embed a culture of collaboration in your dealership across all department will help you navigate and factor in the considerations above.
Please get in touch with us if you would like to chat through your dealership’s CLM processes in more detail.
“The Value of Keeping the Right Customers”, Harvard Business Review
To read more articles visit, https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/consumer-blog/2022/3-tips-to-help-improve-your-dealerships-customer-lifecycle-management-clm.html
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