Reminder: Building Customer Relationships is Always Important!

Relationships matter. In all walks of life, whether personal or professional, the relationships you build are vital to success. It’s no different in the automotive industry; in fact, it may be even more important than you’ve considered.

A recent article by Qualtrics, a Seattle-based experience management company, presents several excellent effects that occur from positive customer relationship building.

Improved Customer Loyalty/Customer Lifetime Value: The article mentions that, not only do happy customers come back more often, they frequently spend more when they do! According to their study, customers who give perfect five-star ratings are more than twice as likely to purchase from that company again. And in the current automotive climate, that’s an especially big deal, because each time they come back to you, they’re giving you more value and costing you less.

Reduced “Customer Churn”: Customers who are consistently pleased with their experience at your dealership are certainly more likely to be loyal to you. Good professional relationships with your customers means they know they can expect the best from you – every time … and that hard work pays off in a number of ways.

Lower Customer Acquisition Costs: What’s the best way to ensure a great ROI? You got it … relationships! The article cites these telling numbers: “You have a 60-70% percent chance of selling to an existing customer; in contrast, selling to a new potential lead is as low as 5-20%. And this is supported by the old adage that it costs 5-10 times as much to gain a new customer than it does to retain an old one.

One of our clients, a Fixed Operations Director, put it best when he said, “The sales department sells a customer their first car, but it’s the service department that sells them their second, third, fourth, and so on. When you build relationships with your customers, it makes a huge difference. Over time, the customer enters the dealership with the feeling they’re coming to see friends.”

How many “friends” do you have at your dealership? The short answer is, you can never have enough of them!

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.