The tactics that dealer groups can use to ensure that service and repair customers value their aftersales experience and remain repeat users were discussed in this AM webinar.
Flexibility, convenience, and good communication were the touchstone points, frequently raised as examples of best practice for dealers when working to establish a flawless customer journey and aftersales process that make retention more of a sure thing.
The webinar – available to watch online – featured:
- Chris Wiseman, founder of Wiseman Automotive Insights.
- Richie Robinson, aftersales strategy director at CitNOW Group.
- Simon Bishop, general manager at Waylands Volvo and MG Oxford.
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Best practice for customer retention
Methods for dealers to achieve and measure customer retention were discussed, with focus placed on how to maximise convenience for the customer.
Bishop said: “We put a lot of effort, a lot of time into service plans because, you know, for a lot of customers, it’s convenient. It’s a way of spreading the cost. It also gives them a call to action, to come back to us specifically.
“It’s all about ensuring that everything is right. Can they get hold of us when they pick up the phone and when they arrive on site? Can they park in the carpark? Are they welcomed with a big smile and a warm cup of coffee?
“Without fail, the biggest starting point is getting those basics. It’s being transparent with what we’re going to do and setting an agenda as to what that visit is going to look like.”
Wiseman added: “It’s really difficult to dictate how you measure customer retention throughout the journey, and over what period you do it. Every business is going to have a slightly different metric.
“We’ll start by looking at the sales journey, the service journey, and then at the resale when you’re selling the second and third car down there.”
Robinson noted the importance of an effective CRM system when working on customer retention.
“If you’ve got a good CRM strategy and you’re using the intelligence that you’ve got on that customer,” he said.
“You can then make it easy for the customer to do business with you. Use the tools that you’ve got to make it really easy.”
Communicating with customers
When looking at customer satisfaction, Bishop indicated the need to establish clear expectations as part of a sales journey.
He said: “In a sales process, we will tell the customer upfront, ‘this is the journey we’re going to go on; this is the estimated timeframe. This is what happens.’
“It gives customers a level of comfort.”
Wiseman went further, noting the need for clear communication that complements a seamless customer journey.
He explained: “As an industry, we far too often bombard our customer base with offers and deal-led communications and engage with them when we want to engage as opposed to when the customer wants to engage with us. Making any communication relevant and engaging is important – not just a sales message, but this will come on to technology.
“I had a service booking reminder come through, a typical message pops up on your phone. Needed a service, had the registration number, had my name, no problem at all. Clicked on it to make a booking and the first thing I’m greeted with is a form which says I’ve got to put my name and registration… That made it twice as complicated as it should be.
“Asking me to stop and put in a name when you’ve already got that information is just a total turn off.”
Making sure that good practice is observed by staff on-site was given attention, but Wiseman highlighted the importance of moving beyond metrics and targets to keep the focus on the customer’s needs.
“It’s easy to sit here and say what service manager or a receptionist should do at any particular time,” said Wiseman.
“In reality, a lot is being driven by what the customer wants, but also it is dictated by manufacturers. We’re all a bit too focused sometimes on customer satisfaction for a manufacturer score.”
“There’s a lot of issues around data as well. I think the key discipline, from a management point of view, would be to make sure that every time a customer sits in front of you, we’re updating the record in the right way.”
He highlighted the need for good training for employees making service calls.
“They need to make it a warm call, as opposed to a cold sales call. At the end of the day, it’s not like buying a new car. We’re going to be charging them for something that they can’t see, and you’ve got to work twice as hard at that.”
Learning from failures
Robinson identified elements that can often lead to retention failures for otherwise well-run workshops.
“The biggest retention failures happen due to the intensity of running a busy aftersales department, that’s where processes can fall down.
“A big challenge is amber follow-ups being overlooked. We do all of this work to identify work, when the customer comes in we talk to them about the fact that this work doesn’t need doing today but plan for the future, and then in a lot of cases we don’t do a great job of actually following that up. I think that creates a negative experience.
Additionally, he noted how tyre servicing can prove an ideal opportunity for the competition to steal customers.
“Tyres are not the biggest profit centre, we know that they’re very time-consuming to fit, but you’ve got to look at it as a bit of a loss-leader. You need to be doing it because you want the customer to perceive you as the destination for the tyres. Because, as soon as you identify tyres, and then they go outside of the dealership, and that gives somewhere else the opportunity.”
Wiseman added: “It’s an easy one to fix. You can put in very simple processes to make sure that you don’t have that leakage and they don’t go elsewhere.
“Put into place with your service receptionist that you won’t be beaten on the price of tyres.
Staggered bookings and ensuring flexibility
Staggered bookings and collections were raised as a potential strategy to handle the morning or afternoon rush, but the panellists maintained that this method only works if dealers are ready to adapt to a customer’s needs.
Bishop said: “It’s really important to just to stay open to the customer’s needs.
“It’s all good that you say, ‘Right, we’re going to offer C and D we’re offering staggered appointments.’ Unless you actually execute that, it can very quickly become a negative.
“The mantra is how can we make customer number 17 feel like customer number one? You know, customer one walks in, and the coffee machine is freshly stocked and the cushions are plumped, and there’s fruit and cakes and it’s beautiful and everything’s lovely. How can we make sure that number 17 or 21 gets that experience?”
Robinson added: “You have to understand the customer a bit better. That all comes down to how you manage the booking and how you qualify the customer before the visit. Things like a triage process, where you get a better understanding of the specific nature of the problem, or the complaint that the customer is bringing the car in for then enables you to tailor that user journey.”
Final recommendations
Panellists concluded by offering viewers their top suggestions to improve retention.
Bishop highlighted the value of service plans and the need for robust communication.
“It starts with service plans,” he said.
“And the best person positioned to sell a service plan is a sales executive. So, have you got the right you know, incentives or commission structure in place to ensure that that service plans are important in your business?
“Fundamentally, that is the quickest route to market for retention. If a customer has a service plan, it’s easy and convenient for them.”
Wiseman advised working to understand the customer’s needs and them to use them to make small changes to the business.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he said.
“What you really need to do is start setting baselines of where you are now and where you want to be, what you want to improve, and those will be small.
“There’s no silver bullets. AI isn’t a silver bullet. AI doesn’t take cost out of your business. If anything, it adds cost because you’ve got to have people watching what an AI is doing for you. But you can look at areas in the business where you can improve on efficiency.”
Robinson emphasised the need to embrace a strong aftersales CRM strategy, and to follow up on what has been agreed with a customer.
“Make sure that you robustly update that information, check that and qualify that with the customer,” he said.
“Because, if you haven’t got good data, then it’s no use to you. Then having that strong CRM platform allows you to build a robust contact strategy around it.
“And really do what you say you’re going to do. You make all the promises and all the commitments to the customer but make sure that you do them.”