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Why Your Dealership Should Embrace the Credit Union

By Staff Writer on February 27, 2018

There’s something about a credit union. Known for their local presence and ability to provide a better, more-personalized banking experience, credit unions are well-positioned to provide a higher level of …

Why Your Dealership Should Embrace the Credit Union

By Staff Writer on February 27, 2018

There’s something about a credit union. Known for their local presence and ability to provide a better, more-personalized banking experience, credit unions are well-positioned to provide a higher level of …

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Why You Should Sponsor Local Sports to Increase Retention

By Staff Writer on August 22, 2017

The peak of excitement for a car buyer is the moment they drive their new vehicle off the lot. What better feeling is there for a customer than to drive away with something better and newer than what they arrived in. The emotions are high!

Sports is all about emotions too. The highs of championships, the tribal feeling of belonging to a group and the loyalty one has toward their favorite team or school.

There are obvious benefits of having a presence in the local community but it can also provide free publicity, boost sales and increase retention. Best of all, it’s a welcoming marketing initiative – people can skip commercials but they can’t fast forward through “Your Dealership Name” on the front of a youth baseball jersey.

Car dealerships across the United States are seeing the benefits of sponsorship. Recently, the Brunswick Auto Mart in Ohio signed a 15-year contract as a sponsor for the high school field allowing maintenance and other costs to be covered so school dollars can be used for the classroom. A car dealership helping with education costs? Who wouldn’t want to support them?

Here are three ways that sponsoring sports can create a positive emotional experience with your dealership long after the customer drove off the lot.

  1. Positive Community Impact

As a local company, your dealership can show that it understands the needs of the community. When you sponsor a local sports team, event or field, you aren’t just advertising, you’re showing you know what’s important to the community and the benefits of team sports.

In an era where the consumer is looking for brands that go beyond sales and shows a positive impact in the world, your dealership will have a slew of customers who support you because you support what’s important to them.

  1. Additional Advertising

Car dealerships can also use the opportunities through sponsorship to increase their brand awareness and showcase new products.

Brand awareness could be anything from a name on the jersey to a billboard or ad on the scoreboard.

If you’re looking to showcase your inventory, you could bring cars to test drive or present the types of vehicles that may entice those in attendance of a sporting event. What better way to show the conveniences of a vehicle for transporting equipment and team members than having it available for all the parents to see?

In the case of Brunswick High School signing the 15-year contract, Athletic Director Pietro Demonte said, “(We) reached agreements with local auto dealers, helping the businesses reach newly-licensed students who might be in the market for a car.”

Sponsorships can also bring media mentions i.e. free advertising. When local newspapers and blogs write stories about the game or major sponsorship ventures, they share your involvement exposing you to more potential customers who are glad you are doing your part in the community.

  1. Cost Reduction

How much is a direct mail campaign? A commercial?

First of all, advertising via local sports sponsorships is considerably less expensive while enjoying considerable, consistent exposure to a market that is close in proximity to your dealership. By advertising through a direct and emotional means like sports, it gives your potential and current customers a connection to your business – more than almost any 30-second spot between local morning news segments could provide.

Second, there could be tax incentives. With many youth sports being listed as a non-profit group, your sponsorship could even be a means to a tax break.

 

According to NAYS, the National Alliance for Youth Sports, Inc, “What the company may find is that their sponsorship also goes a long way to strengthen the bond between their brand and their community.”

You don’t have to stop at the local youth sports level. There are many higher-level teams and sports eager to have you as their sponsor – Soccer clubs, minor league teams, and 5k races to name a few. Dealerships near major universities can often take advantage of sponsorship opportunities through the colleges or universities who, in turn, allow them to use the school logo on their advertising.

A sponsorship for a local sports team or event is a magnificent way to help retention rates. When a customer sees your car dealership taking an active role in the community, they are more likely to want to keep giving you business.

There is a reason the Detroit Lions play at Ford Field, the Anaheim Ducks play at the Honda Center and Toyota is the official vehicle of the Chicago Cubs – cars and sports go well together and car companies know that they can get their brand in front of tons of customers when they pay for sponsorships.

Your Customers Don’t Need You Anymore

By Staff Writer on August 8, 2017

The keys are handed over. The customer drives off the lot. The sales team celebrates another sale.

For most dealerships and customers, that’s the end of the relationship because, unless there is warranty work or a recall, the customer doesn’t need you anymore. At least not for 6 years, which is how long the average person keeps their car.

Within those 72 months, other dealerships will market to them and online car shopping will become a more practiced mode of car sales.

Will you see them for service? Probably not. Car buyers are happy to take their vehicle for service at one of the 250,000+ independent or chain service shops available across the U.S.

In fact, retention rates are 49% after just 1-2 service visits and drop off by 40% after the warranty expires.

In the past, radio and TV spots as well as direct mail, would help drive customers back to the dealership when it was time for a new car purchase. But in the new digital economy, 88% of dealers say they can no longer rely on traditional marketing to deliver customers.

How can a dealership sustain business in a world where conquests are harder to come by and service shops are on every corner?

Loyalty via aftersales service.

If the relationship between customer and dealership ends at the point-of-sale, the dealer is leaving behind $1,000s in aftersales service and the opportunity of enjoying true customer loyalty.

Customers want interaction and, in today’s digital world, it’s never been easier to engage with them in a personal way to make them feel valued. A little engagement goes a long way. With just 5 interactions a customer is:

  • 3x as likely to refer a friend
  • 6x likely to purchase a new car
  • 2x likely to return for service

Part of the solution is to give customers relevant information and messaging at the right time. What good is blasting a coupon for an oil change if most people won’t use it?

Strategic messaging encourages a customer to take advantage of dealership incentives and educate them on the benefits of bringing their car in for service at your dealership – including readily available maintenance records for a higher trade-in value. But you can also inform them about amenities exclusive to your dealership such as a clean and comfortable waiting room, shuttle service, free WiFi, kid-friendly waiting areas and more.

With a platform like OneClick Loyalty, the process is automated so you won’t have to consistently manage your customer communications.  Relevant messaging entices the customer to return by building a relationship versus generic direct mail and batch-and-blast emailing.

Your customers don’t need you anymore, that’s true. But by adopting OneClick Loyalty, your customers have a higher probability of coming back to you for service and future new car sales.

3 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Free Oil Change Program

By Staff Writer on August 1, 2017

Are you giving away free oil changes?

Many dealerships are offering a free oil change program to customers who purchase a new vehicle. Sometimes it’s the first one free and other times it’s free oil changes for life. When implemented properly, a free oil change program can drive loyalty while boosting revenue.

Whether you currently have a program in place or you’re considering one, here are 3 ways you can maximize a free oil change program to help raise loyalty and revenue.

  1. Find the Best Program for Your Dealership

Free oil changes for life worked well for the Priority Auto Group who saw retention rates and customer satisfaction rise, however, it was not an economically feasible path for the Lester Glenn Auto Group.

Regardless of the program, it is up to the dealership(s) to determine the best route forward to help guide their retention and customer experience.

The Lester Glenn Auto Group changed course from free oil changes for life and implemented a comprehensive program offering two years’ worth of free oil changes as well as other incentives to entice the cost-conscious consumer. According to Automotive News, since revamping their program they have increased their revenue $150,000 per month.

  1. Engage & Drive Retention

Personalized engagement has proven to lead to a greater likelihood that customers will return for service and refer you to a friend or family member.

One of the surprisingly best ways a dealership can increase retention rates and revenue is by simply offering a service scheduling feature.

Sending the message, “Schedule your free oil change” gets the customer engaging with you and promotes a positive interaction. When you send it at the right time, you are proving your commitment to a personalized and enhanced customer experience.

What good is a free oil change program as a sales tool if your customer isn’t taking advantage of it?

  1. Send Promotions When They Need It

Using the power of digital interaction also means delivering the ideal promotions to your customers when they would most likely use it. Say you wanted to give some loyal customers a coupon for a free oil change. Omnichannel marketing allows you to target them based on triggers and behaviors analyzed through various metrics.

What good is a free oil change now if a customer has another 2,500 miles until they need it?

 

With OneClick Loyalty, we utilize data and analytics to ensure our clients can reach their customers in a way that benefits all parties. For customers, they are receiving communications from the dealership regarding specific promotions and information at specific points in the product lifecycle. For the dealership, they are taking a proactive approach to enticing customers to come in for service.

A free oil change has the power to be a great tool to show the benefits of using your dealership for all their service needs. OneClick Loyalty is a long-term solution designed to steer the message to the customer and shift revenue growth into high gear.

 

The Customer is Always Right – Can You Handle the Truth?

By Staff Writer on July 25, 2017

For over 100 years, the motto “the customer is always right” has been used by countless businesses. And while it has been used to stress customer service in the past, it takes on a very different meaning into today’s socially connected world.

From a quick Google search, I found two reviews for the same dealership:

  • “I would not recommend this service department. They are either liars, incompetent, or both.” (The customer then explains the issue)
  • “I have been to a lot of dealers and by far this is the best one ever. The people are friendly and the technicians are the best in the business.”

Whether it’s a potential customer looking for sales or service, you should expect they will head to the web to see what previous customers thought about you. In fact, according to Vendasta:

  • 92% of consumers read online reviews
  • 40% of consumers form an opinion by reading just 1-3 reviews

When these potential buyers read reviews, they tend to believe the customer was right, even with bad reviews.

You would think bad reviews are, well, bad. But 95% of consumers suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see any bad scores.

What is a dealership to do?

One of the best strategies is to be responsive to the feedback. A potential customer seeing that the business accepts the bad feedback and is willing to make it right means they are more trustworthy.

On top of that, the dealership can turn a publicly unhappy customer vowing never to return into one that will come back for sales and services.

It’s also a good idea to respond to the good feedback with a note of gratitude. This adds another level of engagement and shows that you are personalizing the entire customer experience.

As the automotive dealership industry shifts from a product-centric to a customer-centric model, reviews will become a larger part of the customer dynamic. And when they leave a review, good or bad, the customer is always right.

Proactively and positively engaging with the feedback will help drive customer retention and loyalty while showing that you are a business that cares.