WOW Your Service Customers

Tomorrow morning on your way to the dealership, I challenge you to do a little experiment. Just for fun count how many places you could go to get your oil changed. Count them, I dare you. You don’t even have to count the other car dealers…they aren’t really your competition; it’s the independent shops that you should be worried about. Count them.

Count all of the Goodyear, Firestone, and Sears stores you see. Count the Pep Boy’s, NTB’s, small independents and quick lube shops and as you count, and count, and count…keep this in mind-  these guys aren’t stupid. They are aggressive and they know what they are doing. They focus on convenience, price, and quality and they advertise. They play hard and they exist only because you failed to keep your customers in the first place. They not only cost you serious service income, they also broke the important customer relationship cycle that should take place from the sales department to service and back to vehicle sales over the lifetime ownership of a car.

Now, before you slit your wrists, here’s the good news: it isn’t too late. All you have to do is get serious about customer retention and be willing to make some changes about the way you think about your lost and existing customers. Instead of always thinking about how to attract new customers, you have to also focus and be willing to spend time and money on giving customers a reason to never go anywhere else.

Start by doing things that make your dealership clearly different, things that impress customers, things that make them say ‘WOW!’ Little things, like valet parking their car when service is completed. Reviewing invoices and making sure they understand what they are paying for when they pay their bill. Things like, always doing what you say you will do and making sure your customers feel special and know just how important they are to your dealership’s future. Make your dealership a fun place to be, hold bingo games in your customer lounge and give away free oil changes to the winners. Have once or twice a year customer appreciation parties, monthly new customer orientations, send out newsletters and offer special service discount days for loyal customers. ‘WOW!’

You also have to aggressively go after your lost service customers and get them back in your store. You have to get creative and entice them to give you another chance. And when they do, you have to ‘WOW’ them and ensure they will never go anywhere else, ever. And remember, it’s the little things that make customers feel special, that makes them say ‘WOW’ – like free car washes anytime with no purchase necessary, honoring all competitors’ coupons, no expiration dates on service reminders and showing you really care with consistent follow-up and fast resolution when problems arise. You have to actually try to make them say ‘WOW!’

Here’s the best part: ‘WOW’ your customers and they will ‘WOW’ you back. They become loyal, really loyal. They visit more often. They bring their friends. They spend more, are easier to up-sell and because they have a relationship with you, they buy more cars from you. Now that’s what I call ‘WOW!’