A good salesman or marketer is never done. Let’s talk about après-service communication strategies and how you can use your website and social media to encourage conversation and get the word out.
Let’s assume your success strategy is happy customers and not get into the business model side of things. You and your team worked your butts off with the lot maintenance, vehicle preparation & certification, the advertising, sale of vehicle, and delivery…. wow you’re a busy person! You’re confident in your customer’s reaction because you did a good honest job! Now ask the question “how was your experience with us?”
Come up with an après-service campaign, maybe get your new happy customer to join twitter and follow you within 24 hours and offer them a free gas card or some other promotion (gift card for car washes, oil changes, etc…) Give them the media to speak freely about their dealership experience.
It’s scary
There is always the risk of a bad review (and don’t hold me accountable for it). But it forces you to be honest and do the best job possible to make your customers happy. I would personally buy a car from someone with a twitter account full of people saying “hey this place is great, I love my new car” or “they solved an issue I had with my car, very helpful staff” as opposed to hoping my decision is a good one.
For example when companies like Best Buy started customer reviews of products sold on their website they saw a large increase in online sales. Lots of websites are using customer reviews as an advantage. If you have nothing to hide – by all means, get cracking.
The advantages
The advantages of open communications are great for the web user wondering about your dealership practices. It furthers their experience and builds confidence in their decision to buy from your dealership. Combine those strategies with social media and customer loyalty programs you can build yourself some very powerful tools.
I hope this was helpful and you’re thinking about dabbling a little into après-service communication strategies.