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Tax Season

Take Advantage of Tax Season

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Tax season presents a unique opportunity for dealerships to boost sales and attract new customers. With many individuals receiving tax refunds, it’s a prime time for car buyers to invest in a new or used vehicle. Consider this: Research indicates that 10% of people expecting income tax refunds allocate them for vehicle-related purchases!

Automobile dealers who strategically market their stores during this period can significantly benefit from increased foot traffic and higher sales volumes.

1. Increased Consumer Budget
For many prospective buyers, a tax refund represents a financial windfall. In many cases, the average tax refund is often substantial enough to cover a down payment on a vehicle. This provides car dealers with an opportunity to tap into a motivated customer base looking to make large purchases. By offering attractive financing options and promotions, dealerships can convert these potential buyers into satisfied customers.

2. Leverage Marketing Opportunities
To get more than your fair share of these shoppers, you must advertise enough to make a positive impression. By doing this, you make sure your dealership is top-of-mind with everyone in your community who may be in the market for a car. When you are No. 1 in the hearts and minds of those in your market, you will reap the rewards.

3. Clear Incentives for Trade-Ins
Another powerful incentive during tax season is offering increased trade-in values. Many customers are eager to trade in their old vehicles for a newer model, and tax refunds can make this transition more feasible. By highlighting competitive trade-in offers and demonstrating how they can lower monthly payments, dealerships can build rapport with customers and close deals faster. Some dealers offer a “we’ll double your tax return for your down payment” special; others will even go as far as preparing customers’ tax returns at the dealership for extra motivation.

The Takeaway
Tax season offers car dealerships a chance to tap into a motivated market. By offering promotions and targeting the right audience with the proper reach and frequency in their advertising efforts, dealerships can make the most of this lucrative time of year.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

Standing Out

Is Your Dealership Standing Out in Your Market? If Not, Why Not?

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Standing out in your market is important, especially if there are other dealers in your area selling the same products you offer.

YOUR USP

What makes your dealership unique? If you cannot immediately come up with a good reason or two why a prospective car buyer in your area should by from you, it’s a good idea to try and determine your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. The Cambridge Dictionary defines USP as, “A feature of a product that makes it different from and better than other similar products and that can be emphasized in advertisements for the product.” Ask yourself these questions:

What, if anything, does my dealership do (or not do) that’s specialized in my market?

Is there something about the way you do business that would make a shopper want to visit my dealership?

Is there something in the customer experience at my dealership that leaves us standing out among the others? (Note: It could be in the showroom, service department or anywhere else at your store. It could be anything that eliminates what would otherwise be a frustrating thing for a customer – and must be important enough to be part of your USP.)

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Another way to ensure standing out is determining who comprises your target audience. A great place to start is looking at your current customer base. In what age range is your typical customer? Where do they live? What are their interests? What are their incomes and educational levels? When you know your target audience, you’ll be more effective in developing advertising campaigns and special offers that coincide with the interests of your customers.

If you are still unclear of these things, it’s time to enlist the services of JKR Automotive Advertising. We’ll help you find a clear identity, meaning you’ll be standing out amidst the sea of dealers in your area. And once your USP has been determined, we’ll let everyone in your area know all about it, so people will want to buy from you! Get the ball rolling by calling Richard Brauns at (407) 701-4233 today.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

Employee,Retention,Programme.,Retain,,Motivate,And,Train

How to Reduce Your High Employee Turnover Rate

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As always, the employee turnover rate at automobile dealerships is extremely high. According to a recent JMA Group study, turnover for service advisors came in at 49%, while yearly turnover for sales consultants was at 80%. In support of these telling statistics, a Zippia study showed that the average tenure of an automobile sales consultant is less than two years. That’s astonishing!

Why is this? When searching for the answer, a good place to start is examining past history and comparing it to today’s automotive dealership climate.

A couple decades ago, dealers just accepted that a high employee turnover rate was part of doing business – especially in the sales department. At that time, a big part of the problem was the commission structures, meaning if a new salesperson wasn’t instantly successful, they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills. In addition, the salesperson of that era worked 60-plus hours, which gave them less time to spend away from the dealership.

It almost boggles the mind that these were once accepted practices when you remember that employee retention has a direct correlation with customer retention – and that it costs a great deal of time and money to train a new employee. Are you ready for a stunning stat? According to this study, dealerships lose an average of $500,000 to the revolving door of employees. So that begs the questions: What can be done to combat the employee turnover rate issue?

Employee Turnover Rate Solutions
∙ Based on the aforementioned studies, it appears that today’s automotive sales business professional prefers time off over money. Though the ones still working 50-60 hours per week earn more than their counterparts working 40-45 hours, there is a larger turnover rate among those enduring the longer work weeks. So be careful not to overwork your best people.

∙ A dealer would be wise to really get to know candidates during the interview process. Don’t just settle for any old “warm body”. Look for the people who understand what it takes to give your customers what they need and want.

∙ It’s important to show paths of career opportunities for your employees. No one wants to feel stuck in a dead-end job.

∙ Train sales staff well so they’re ready and qualified to be on your sales floor! Invest in them and pay special attention to those with the most potential. Think about it: the longer an employee sticks around, the more they will learn about their jobs – and the jobs of others at your store. That’s a win for you and your customers!

∙ Eliminate the “good-old-boy” network and you will go a long way toward keeping a larger percentage of female employees. People want to work where they are respected and treated as equals. Right now, 21.4% of dealership employees are female according to the US Bureau of Labor, and that number is expected to continue growing. When you foster a comfortable work environment for women, it will help you immeasurably.

You likely can’t account for those who “just want to give it a try” and discover they don’t like working at car dealerships; or those who aren’t cut out for the business – but you can greatly reduce your employee turnover rate if you make a concerted effort to put your people in positions to succeed.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

Perception,Is,Everything

Radio Advertising from a Customer Viewpoint

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When you prepare your radio advertisements from a customer viewpoint, that is, being cognizant of how they’ll process your ad as they consume it, you’ll have a greater chance of achieving success. And as you’ll discover as you read on, this is more important today than ever!

There are some fundamental things that customers have in mind as they begin their search for a vehicle. These include whether they should shop for new or pre-owned; do they want a car, truck or SUV and which one fulfills their needs; can they afford the payment (think: getting the best deal possible); and which dealerships/dealer Websites to visit during their search. You should always create your advertisements with these things – the customer viewpoint – in mind, especially knowing they shop for cars differently these days than in years past.

Consider a recent Cox Automotive study that found, on average, most car shoppers consider just two vehicles and visit only two dealerships. This is remarkable when you consider that only one out of every three buyers know exactly which car they want before beginning the shopping process.

The Not-So-Secret Ingredients
So how do you do what you can to increase the likelihood that your dealership is one of those two? Let’s start with this: you need the proper amount of reach and frequency. Second, you need an enticing offer good enough to produce action. Next, a cleverly written ad or catchy jingle helps. And finally, your radio advertisements should create a sense of urgency in the mind of the potential customer.

Need a New Direction? We Can Help.
Now that you understand radio advertising from a customer viewpoint, stop and consider if your current advertisements are on point – or do you need to re-evaluate things a bit? If you need assistance or can’t immediately say yes, we’d love to have a chat with you. Call Jon Albert at (407) 718-2494 or Richard Brauns at (407) 701-4233 for a complimentary review of your advertising strategy. You’ll be amazed at the information you get from a brief, no-strings-attached talk with our industry experts!

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

Complaints

Don’t Discuss Customer Complaints with Them Online

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Today’s social media landscape has changed the way customers deal with their complaints about a particular product or service they’ve received. This is no different in the automobile industry. And when a potential customer looks for reviews of a business online and finds negative ones, it can have an effect on the company’s reputation and can make that person decide to shop elsewhere.

it or not, people go out of their way to look for bad reviews. The vast majority of customers want to know about a company’s shortcomings, real or perceived, before doing business with them. Also, the unfortunate fact of life is that people are more likely to leave a negative review than a positive one. Why? Because negative reviews – complaints – are inspired by emotional responses!

Then, consider this bit of information, which makes these negative reviews all the more concerning: More than 80 percent of the adult population trusts online reviews as much as they would an in-person recommendation.

Tread Lightly
Knowing this, it is imperative that you react to complaints promptly and with 100% sincerity … but do not get into a discussion with a customer about their issue on social media. However, it’s OK (and even recommended) to ask them to contact you privately! A brief, public response indicates to those who read it that you do care and are paying attention. You are sorry they are unhappy and want to resolve their issue … and you sincerely thank them for the opportunity to serve them. But after that, private communication is a must!

Despite an automobile dealership doing its best to demonstrate care and proactiveness, engaging a customer online risks drawing others’ attention to a negative experience. If, for whatever reason, the public response to the customer’s complaint doesn’t immediately solve their problem, this could lead to excessive, unnecessary responses, not only from the upset customer but also from others. And a sudden influx of negativity can dominate a brand’s social media presence and cause all sorts of headaches for a dealership!

But when you offer a sincere apology and an invitation to continue the conversation using a “closed response” strategy and inviting further conversation via private channels, any additional damage is effectively mitigated. And when you take care of complaints in the right way, these customers often become your biggest future advocates!

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

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