Drive Dealership Customer Retention in Your Sales Dept.
Key Take Aways
- Customer retention is one of the biggest struggles dealerships face.
- Dealerships can drastically increase chances of selling their customers their next car if they stay in contact with them for the entire time they own their current vehicle.
- TEXT2DRIVE’s innovative solution uses artificial intelligence to send text messages at the perfect time, which makes it more likely for customers to return when it is time to purchase their next vehicle.
- TEXT2DRIVE’s Lease Expiration Notice helps dealerships close the deal on customers whose lease is about to expire.
Drive Dealership Customer Retention in Your Sales Dept.
Selling a customer a new vehicle is just half of the battle. Losing customers to a competitor once they are ready to replace it is far too easy. Customer retention is one of the biggest struggles dealerships face.
You will drastically increase your chances of selling your customers their next car if you stay in contact with them for the entire time they own their current vehicle. The key is to strike a balance between communicating with them just enough and overdoing it to the point of irritation.
Automated Texts Sent At The Right Time
TEXT2DRIVE™, a full-featured communications platform designed specifically for automotive dealerships, sends automated text messages to customers throughout their lifecycle. The innovative solution uses artificial intelligence to send these messages at the perfect time. The result? Your dealership retains consistent communication with customers, making it more likely they will return when it is time to purchase their next vehicle.
Sales Thank You
Customers receive a message thanking them for purchasing their vehicle and offering assistance should they need it.
Happy Birthday Message
This friendly message wishes the customer a happy birthday and keeps your dealership at the forefront of their mind.
Vehicle Anniversary Message
This message is not only a thoughtful gesture, but it is also a clever way to remind the customer their vehicle is getting older and remind them they purchased it from your dealership.
Lease Expiration Notice
This alert is sent out 90 days before the expiration of the customer’s lease.
Improve Your Chances To Upsell Leases
Customers who have leases are among the best to target for new sales. Now, when their leases expire, you have a valuable tool to close the deal: the lease expiration notice from TEXT2DRIVE.
You can still profit from the lease expiration notice even if some customers opt to renew their lease rather than purchasing a vehicle. You could upsell them a more expensive lease or, at the very least, renew their current lease. Either way, your dealership will benefit:
- Your dealership will make more money from a lease than a car sale because customers with a lease turn in their car frequently, whereas people who purchase keep their car many years – typically a difference of 36 months versus 79 months.
- A lease generates revenue over the long-term.
- Every customer who has a lease is locked into a term length, ensuring you will get this revenue for that period of time.
- A small increase in the monthly payment for a lease is easier to sell than a large purchase and a loan.
- Vehicles that are taken care of well during a lease, have low mileage and are less than three years old are perfect candidates to sell as used cars.
Interact Features That Motivate Customers to Buy
TEXT2DRIVE puts a suite of interactive sales features at your fingertips. These features motivate customers to take action on their vehicle purchase intent.
TEXTconnect
Customers can easily connect with the right employee by clicking on their photo. The employee is sent a real-time alert so they can respond promptly.
TEXTvehicle
When customers text message the stock number of a vehicle displayed on your website or elsewhere such as a window sticker or ad, they will receive information and pictures of the car while simultaneously launching a “live” text message conversation with your sales department.
LIVEchat
Give customers the power to connect with your sales staff via live chat to encourage their buying impulses. You have the power to set the days and times this feature is enabled.
TEXTmarketing
Once a customer opts-in, you can send coupons and other offers to them via text message.
Video Walkarounds You Can Do For Customers Anywhere
The TEXT2DRIVE video communications tool allows your sales associates to give each customer a tour of a vehicle for sale even if the customer is not onsite. They can record videos of the exterior, interior and even certain parts such as the engine. From there, your salespeople can send the customer the video via text message.
An Interface That Finds Cars For Buy-Back Campaigns
Your sales manager does not have extra time to spend searching for vehicles to use in buy-back campaigns. Fortunately, TEXT2DRIVE makes doing it quick and easy.
Service-To-Sales Mining Tool
Locating pre-owned cars for a buy-back campaign is a cinch with the service-to-sales mining tool. The sales manager selects the year, make, and model of the desired vehicle. From there, a push notification is sent to them to let them know that a vehicle matching the description has entered your service drive.
Maintaining consistent, relevant communication with customers at the right time is critical for getting them to return to your dealership after purchasing a vehicle. Using TEXT2DRIVE, you will increase sales revenue by motivating customers to buy from you again or to renew their lease.
