Ghosts, skeletons, and kids in costumes asking for candy can only mean one thing — Halloween is near!
While it’s fun to decorate places with ghosts and skeletons, it’s not fun to deal with them in your customer base. Here’s some tips to make sure you have the best experiences with your customers, even in the spooky season.
Don’t Ghost Your Customers
If you’ve ever communicated with a potential customer only to have them disappear on you, you’ve been ghosted. Ghosting is a common occurrence in dating situations today and according to Fast Company.
“Early communications with clients and prospects is a lot like dating."
However, it’s possible that you could be at risk of being a ghost to your customers. Without a system to manage your customer communications, you could be missing out on leads from a lack of organization. In other words, you could be making potential customers feel like they’ve been ghosted.
According to a customer study by B2B software Salesforce, introducing a CRM platform improves lead conversions up to 30%, sales up to 30%, customer satisfaction up to 35%, and revenue up to 25%. Invest in getting a CRM, or customer relationship management system.
A CRM serves the purpose of being your hub for all your customer activities. Follow up with your customers on a consistent basis and respond promptly; if you’re engaged, they’re more likely to engage with you.
Dust Off the Skeletons in the Closet
So, let’s say you check your customer base and you realize there’s lot of customers that dropped off in the sales cycle. Maybe they couldn’t find a car they were approved for? Maybe they backed out last minute? Maybe they ghosted you? Point is, they’re gathering dust in your closet, aka your customer management system.
Don’t be afraid to dig up those skeletons in your closet and re-target them. A 2015 study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau stated that the definition of re-targeting has expanded to include goals for brand awareness, social engagement, and customer retention. By re-targeting, you open yourself to sales opportunities and referrals, simply by sending a message to your existing customer base. With the upcoming holiday season, re-targeting is something to try.
Trick or treat?
You don’t have to look too far to hear or see customer horror stories where a customer felt their dealer did not deliver what was advertised. In a survey reported by F&I Magazine, 61% of those surveyed felt they were taken advantage of at some point during their dealership experience. Everyone goes into car shopping with the treat mentality—they’re looking for the best deal possible.
You want to be the house on the block with the good candy because the house with the good candy gets all the traffic. So, what is the good candy? (Hint: it’s not just the quality of your inventory.) The good candy is your attention to customer service.
When people come to your dealership, do they feel welcome? Are they assisted with their questions as soon as they walk through the door?
The more you can make a customer experience checklist, or a road to sale, the more likely you’ll develop a reputation as the house with the good candy. Ultimately, the customer experience at your dealership is what drives sales. When you invest time into building the processes that enhance the customer experience, you open yourself up to more opportunity to sales, referrals, and brand awareness in your market.
Learn more about DealerCenter's CRM here.
* This blog post was originally published on 10/30/2019 on dealercenter.com
