Providing Value to Car Buyers throughout the Vehicle Lifecycle

  • July 2, 2018
  • Steve Manzi

The most valuable customers at any car dealership are repeat customers. But where do they come from? Experienced salespeople nurture and cultivate them from first-time buyers by carefully managing relationships with them after the sale. The happiest repeat customers will even offer up referrals, seeding a new generation of floor traffic. With the ongoing digital transformation of the automotive industry, there are more opportunities than ever before for dealers to continue to build positive customer experiences throughout the vehicle lifecycle.

Most customers have done their research before entering the dealership. The days of going from dealer to dealer have given way to online research. By the time a customer hits the floor, it’s likely that he or she already has a model in mind and knows the ins and outs of the vehicle and its available options and add-ons.

Lay the Foundation with a Seamless Sales Cycle

Today’s customer does not want to wait around while you try to locate a vehicle for a test drive. You’ll need to know the location and battery condition of the cars that match what the customer is looking for. In fact, over 60% of dealer personnel with more than one lot say they’ve jeopardized a sale in the past three months because they can’t find a vehicle on the lot; 50% say the same for dead batteries.1 Having this knowledge at your command is the first step in establishing the customer’s trust that you will be able to offer valuable services for the life of the vehicle. An inventory management solution like LoJack® LotSmart™ can go a long way to arm you with this critical information. LotSmart provides pinpoint vehicle locations and low battery alerts, helping you ensure a seamless and uninterrupted car buying experience. Furthermore, LotSmart has a consumer sell-through component that serves as a platform for dealers to continuously engage and nurture customers for repeat business.

Secure Recurring Business with Post-Sale Nurturing

After the sale, there are many tools you can use to build regular engagement. Technology has made it easier to keep in touch with customers by automating purchase anniversary notes, but there are even more powerful ways to keep the relationship fresh and help keep contacts coming back to buy again. Connected car solutions can be an important part of the service strategy, providing value to customers in the form of peace of mind, location awareness and maintenance reminders. Most auto OEMs offer some form of connected car services, but a third-party connected car solution such as LoJack® SureDrive™ can be a smart and lucrative add-on. Apps like SureDrive can provide valuable information that helps you drive post-sale value from your customers, and it will support their family fleet regardless of make or model, making you less dependent on OEM systems across multiple stores. With DTC alerts, the ability to schedule service appointments and more, these solutions can help you build loyalty and generate fixed ops revenue.

To learn more about how LoJack can help you cultivate repeat business by building relationships with your customers, check out SureDrive.

 


1. Source: Internal LoJack Survey of Dealership Personnel – April 2017