Auto Dealer’s Implementation of the SBF Model

Pt 1

Strategy

For an auto dealer, Customer Retention Management (CRM) is focused on making sure a customer is satisfied and to ensure that they have a positive experience and want to return when it’s time to purchase or lease a new car.

Potential car buyers are bombarded with billboards, radio ads, and flyers about new models, low prices, and great service. Successful auto dealerships work to cultivate organic relationships with real, personal attention.

Keeping a Client Advisor’s name in front of clients makes it more likely that clients will think of them first when they need service or a new vehicle. But too much heavy contact can be annoying and counter-productive and many large dealership Customer Retention Systems take a lot of work to use.

At SBF, we understand the auto dealer industry and know how to effectively reach your customer base without overburdening them.

Pt 2

Implement

Our goal is to ensure that our clients’ audience finds them approachable. We achieve this by creating friendly, non-corporate-looking correspondence that offers personalized service reminders and coupons and that recognizes a customer’s birthdays and anniversaries with handwritten notes.

Our web-based system allows salespeople to use their time during a sale to enter things like the VIN number and customer contact information. In less than 2 minutes, sales staff can select any number of 36 different contact letters over the next 5 years. Once they save the information, their job is done! The letters they’ve selected will print automatically on the appropriate day, at which time they can sign and add a short personal note.

Pt 3

Looking Ahead

Client advisors report that customers bring the letters they’ve received with them when they come in for service or to acquire a new car. Some letters that offered suggestions and updates prompted customers to come in to ask questions, which helped client advisors become trusted and knowledgeable sources of information.