Increasing Dealership CSI in 30 Days

With dealer incentive money playing a crucial role and providing much needed revenue to dealerships during this economic downturn it is imperative to increase and then maintain your Customer Satisfaction Index.

One way to perform this function relatively quickly is to TARGET your dealership response rate directly at the source, "Your customers". It is imperative to collect and capture as many customer emails as possible within both the sales and service departments. You will still always have those customers who you will never truly be able to please no matter what you do, expectation levels are different with each and every customer, yet you can control the amount of positive surveys that are filled in and returned to your manufacturer.

I DO NOT provide ways to cheat the system nor do I advocate this type of behavior, what I do incite is the need to have your BDC contact customers on a daily ON GOING basis. The customers you want to call are the ones that you know you gave an exceptional purchase or service experience to and will willingly fill in the survey and return it to your manufacturer.

Here is how it is done:

1. Create a spread sheet in excel for the sales department and create one for the service department. This sheet should be designed as follows;

Customer Name - Vehicle – Contact Tel – Contact Email – RO or Deal # - Contact Yes / No

The sales and service consultants MUST fill this sheet out for each customer in which they know the customer received an exceptional customer service experience. Each morning the dealership BDC retrieves the individual lists and calls the customers with the following script;

2. Good (morning, afternoon or evening) my name is ___________, I am calling from (Name of Dealership), is now a good time to talk? Wait for answer. (If not) What is a good time to call back? ______ Great, the reason for this call is to remind you that (Name of Manufacturer) will be sending you the CSI questionnaire by email, this survey is our report card to (name of manufacturer) of our level of service and commitment to quality we have to our valued customers, may we count on your support to fill in the questionnaire and return it to the (Name of Manufacturer)? Wait for answer. If the answer is no, ask “May I inquire if there are any unresolved issues at this time”? Wait for answer. If the answer is yes, write the concern down and inform the customer that the appropriate manager will contact them shortly. If the answer was yes and they will fill out the questionnaire and return it to the manufacturer, the BDC dealership representative MUST state;

On behalf of our dealership we thank you for your support and look forward to providing you with exceptional customer experiences in the future. Thank you for choosing (Name of dealership) and have a wonderful day.

If you do this religiously for thirty days I guaranty that your CSI scores will be MUCH higher than they are today. Once you start this program make sure you maintain the process to stay ahead of your competition. Once your employees start seeing the CSI level rise they will as well be committed to the process and more aware of WHAT it takes to continue to provide outstanding exceptional service experiences to ALL customers.

David

Dealership Marketing Strategy

When trying to decide where you will center your marketing and advertising campaigns do not ignore your most valuable target, this is your current customer list contained in your DMS. If you study this list carefully you will begin to see critical areas in defining new markets. Below are some key market segments to consider:

1. Customer’s gender – It is no secret today that women have become a major purchasing force within the automotive sector. You don’t have to look too far to see how much and how often auto manufacturers are targeting women in their television advertising. In today’s new recessionary world, vehicle manufacturers consider women to be 50 percent of the new car market, and they also consider woman to be more involved with family vehicle purchases and repairs, meaning that woman make up more than 50 percent of the decisions pertaining to purchases and decisions affecting fixed operations.

2. Customer’s age - Why would you want to target a specific age group for purchases or servicing? Many excellent reasons include but are not limited to: their ability to pay. Your older customers tend to perform more preventive maintenance and repairs associated with keeping the vehicle running in top shape. Younger drivers are more apt to install accessories and in certain instances cannot afford to maintain the vehicle. Therefore younger customers tend to perform the most basic of servicing, like oil changes only! Don’t judge a book by its cover when it comes to age. A study done in 1998 by the aftermarket segment concluded that older drivers with stable incomes spend more money on maintenance and repairs then their younger counterparts.

3. Customer’s income level - This should be one of your highest priority target market segments. Drivers earning higher incomes drive high end types of vehicles, they perform more regular services and repairs. As a general rule of thumb this class of customers don't mind paying for value and quality. One cautionary note, this group is much more selective and they normally demand an exceptional servicing experience coupled with value, ease of service and quality. Middle and lower income drivers are far more likely to own vehicles out of warranty and need to keep the family car in road-worthy condition longer, this provides you with a large segment that you must market VALUE ADDED servicing to keep them within your sphere of servicing influence.

4. Customer’s family circumstances – Your customer’s marital status, the size of their family and the ages of their children play an important role in their vehicle purchases and their servicing ability. In today’s fast paced world, larger families ussually have more vehicles within any given household. Parents and teenagers each need repairs and servicing, many families remain loyal to one repair or servicing dealership. Market to these families as VIP families, offering benefits to this segment.

5. Demographic and geographic location – When studying purchasing and servicing trends, historically the dealership location has been the first mark of walk-in business success. Today the tech savvy mobile diverse customer has evolved to the point where location is not as important as price, added value, dealer repair quality and dealership reputation. You no longer have to restrict your markets to within a one- or two-mile radius of the dealership. Today’s consumers will go the extra mile to find truly unique value added purchasing and service experience.

6. Deciding where to concentrate on marketing – Track your current customers, break down your results into categories that you can quantify. Multiple vehicle households, woman, high income earners and middle class families, target each with different campaigns to increase your floor traffic. Offer incentives to each different category to draw them in the door. The object of your marketing is to keep your name in front of your customers all year long, offering them a reason to continue to do business with you.

If you keep your name front and center, you give your customers no reason to go anywhere else, providing you are giving them an exceptional customer experience. When you continuously offer your complete customer base an exceptional experience, these customers you currently service will ultimately begin to market for you by telling friends, co-workers and family members how great you are. What better way to market your business then to receive continuous FREE 24/7 marketing?

David

Service Department Action Plan to Rev Up Gross Profit

During this economic slowdown dealerships need to be aggressive in finding new business and continuously marketing to the existing customers in their DMS. Some handy tips on revving up the gross and keeping your shop full of vehicles are listed below. If you stay on top of this list daily you will be ahead of the game and dollars will chase you instead of you chasing the dollars.

1. Call all customers the day before they’re scheduled to bring their vehicles in to confirm their appointment.

2. Review your DMS and call those customers whose state inspection sticker or emissions certification is due to expire.

3. Review your “Estimates” file for work that was never performed, track your declined services, and people who would have had work done but hadn’t found the time to come in.

4. Call all customers with recommended repairs listed on previously closed repair orders – again tracking your declined service work is a great source of future potential revenue..

5. Call customer “no-shows” from previous days. Often these customers simply forgot, or an important issue arose.

6. Notify customers of special order parts that have come in and book their appointment.

7. Make “Thank you for your business” phone calls the following day.

8. Call customers regarding maintenance and repair of the second or third (or more) vehicles in their
household, “We Service Your Other Vehicles Too”.

9. Review repair orders for factory or shop warranties due to expire, offer to perform a FREE courtesy inspection.

10. Call all customers with vehicle leases due to expire and recommend an inspection prior to turning their vehicles in.

11. Estimate current mileages on the vehicles in your DMS and determine upcoming vehicles due for various services such as oil changes and other scheduled maintenance items. Then call those customers.

12. Request that your employees personally refer work to the shop, ALL employees should have a business card.



As well, call the following and advise them that you can provide them with priority service on any day that’s not full on your appointment schedule:
1. Vendors.

2. Local used car lots.

3. Local Body shops.

4. Any and ALL fleet customers.

5. AAA Automotive

6. Local Towing companies.

David