Best Practices

Everyone wants referrals, but a lot of salespeople are reluctant to ask for them.  It can be off-putting to some customers, and there seems to be a sense that if a referral comes without having to ask for it, it is more “deserved.”  There is nothing wrong with asking for a referral from customers that are satisfied after doing business with your dealership.  Here are some creative ways to make asking for the business of your customer’s friends, family, and colleagues:

Expectation:  After the sale of a car, tell each customer that you expect they’ll be satisfied with the process, and will check back with them in 30, 60, or 90 days to ask them if they know of anyone else who needs a new vehicle with a hassle-free experience and superb follow-up.  Of course, fit this to your dealership, and make sure that you actually do follow through with this promise.

Giveaway:  A lot of dealerships already send coupons, promotions, or discounts to their existing customer base through email.  Add some text instructing those customers to feel free to forward the email newsletter (including the discount) to anyone that might need it.  Your customers will refer their loved ones to your dealership while looking like the good-guys by saving them money.

Refunds:  Although this is essentially buying referrals, doing it in a round-about way makes it a little more interesting.  Tell satisfied customers that you will offer a certain percentage off of their next bill (service, parts, purchase, etc) for each referral they send to the dealership.  This allows you to track who is sending the most new customers to your dealership (they’ll have to tell you who sent them in order for the referrer to receive the discount), and they’ll be more likely to get their vehicle serviced with your dealership, bringing in additional money.

Asking for referrals from satisfied customers doesn’t have to be painful.  Try asking in a different manner (link to older post), or put a creative spin on rewarding those who refer customers to your dealership.

Every sales person I have ever met is always looking for referrals.  Referrals tend to come with a level of built-in trust, which especially in the auto industry, can make it much easier for you to sell them their next car.  The struggle comes in knowing how to get your existing customers and salespeople (referral sources) to recognize potential referrals.

When most people ask for a referral, it’s a straight forward question like “Do you know anyone who might be in the market for a new car?”  When asking your customers this question, try tweaking it a bit so that it provides a solution to a problem your future customers may have.  This can increase the number of referrals your dealership gets, simply by helping your existing customers really think about the people they know who might need a new car.

For example, try asking your happy customers questions that address the reasons people purchase cars.

• “Do you know anyone who has an unreliable car?”
• “Can you think of anyone who needs to replace their existing car (accident, stolen, etc)?”
• “Has anyone in your life received a promotion or had a baby?”

Another way to make this mindset work to increase dealership sales is to remind the salespeople you work with to listen for these key phrases in their daily life.  Expanding the view of the “I need a new car” that some salespeople may be listening for can help increase your dealership sales.

Referrals can come from a variety of sources, and helping your referral sources (customers, salespeople) recognize these key phrases can do wonders for your auto dealership’s bottom line.

I wrote a post last week about the search engine optimization (SEO) stats your dealership needs to track, and wanted to expand a bit.  Your dealership website needs to allow you to track more than just SEO statistics.

The 6 things your dealership website provider needs to measure are:

• Traffic—this should include all sources like organic, paid (PPC), OEM, referring sites, and direct.  If your website provider isn’t showing you which sources your traffic is using to reach your website, they need to be.
• Organic Traffic by Keyword—there are three types of keywords: branded, platinum, and long tail.  Branded means someone is using your dealership name as a keyword.  Platinum is typically 2-3 words and includes your city, make you sell, and “dealer” or “dealership.  Long tail keywords are longer and can be specific makes, models, or even vehicle years.  Challenge your website provider to take it a step further and provide you with the actual keywords that are being used to find your dealership online.
• Changes in Traffic—which months brought the most traffic to your website?  Which years?  If you don’t know, your website provider isn’t doing their job.  Being able to see when traffic is reaching your site, as well as how, will help you determine what accounts for the shifts in numbers.
• Changes in Lead Volume—knowing when your dealership website has a dip or spike in lead conversion will help you know why these changes happened.  You need to be able to see your leads on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, and see where they are coming from.
• Leads by Lead Form—does your website provider show you which lead conversion forms are doing their job?  If not, how can you test which are most effective, which need work, and which can done away with?  Unfortunately, you can’t—but you absolutely need to.
• Leads by Traffic Source—just as you need to know where your traffic is coming from, it’s equally important to know where your leads are coming from as well.  This will allow you to see which traffic sources are converting at the best rate (organic, PPC, OEM, etc).  Knowing which sources convert the best will also help you determine where you should be spending your online advertising budget.

If your website provider either doesn’t or can’t provide you with these statistics, it’s time to reconsider who you choose to create and manage your online presence.

Every dealership is after the (often) illusive repeat customers.  With people buying less often, earning the loyalty of the customers you do sell to can pay off.  Once you’ve earned the business of repeat customers, the next step is to turn them into evangelists—those who recommend your dealership and ultimately send more sales into your showroom.

These types of customers are beneficial because they not only help to create more profit for your dealership, but also to direct those sales away from your competitors.  But have you ever thought about how much people who recommend against buying from your dealership could be costing you?

Found on the Church of the Customer blog, Satmetrix published a study about how much financial harm unsatisfied customers can have on the bottom line of a business.  While the results below are focused on the wireless industry, I think it’s worth looking at:

In this case, a negative word of mouth results in losing $300 per unsatisfied customer.  Can your dealership afford this?

Make sure customer service is consistent throughout your dealership, and that there is a plan in place to try and satisfy unhappy customers BEFORE they start costing your dealership money.  This could include using automatically sent surveys to attempt to find those who are less than content with your dealership, as well as keeping you finger on the online pulse of blogs and other online forums.

Now, more than ever, it’s essential that your dealership keeps your customers happy.  If you don’t, ignoring an unpleasant experience may be costing your dealership more money than you know.

There are always classes in school that make you wonder, “When will I ever need to know this?”  For me, that class was English.  Have you ever needed to know when to use a past participle, or what a homonym is?  Neither have I…but the more I write and get involved online (conducting business via email, writing this blog, participating in online social networks), I have begun to realize that while I may not need to know the definitions of these grammatical terms, I definitely need to know how to use them accurately.

Using correct spelling and good grammar are becoming more and more essential to running a successful business.  It’s amazing how much of a blow to your credibility and professional image it can be when a potential customer reads an email with misspellings or incorrect grammar.  Put yourself in their shoes…two vendors are showing you similar products, but one doesn’t speak well and their emails have spelling errors…which vendor are you more likely to choose?

I never paid much attention in English, and wish now that I would have.  While the written word is not my strong point, I’ve found ways around this.  I use a spell-checker every chance I get, both in my word documents and in my emails.  I have co-workers look over and proofread almost everything I send to customers or potential customers.  Some things do slip through the cracks, and when they do, I go back and fix them when possible (blog, social networking), or make a point to learn from my grammatical mistake.  Nobody’s perfect, after all.

Whether you’re already a stickler for grammar, or lean a little more to the “alternative spelling” side, not utilizing all the tools available to ensure your spelling and grammar are correct could be costly to your dealership’s sales.  Whether it’s fair or not, using correct English gives your potential customers confidence in doing business with your auto dealership and helps build trust that they are choosing the right place and salesperson to buy from.

What tools do you use to help check your spelling and grammar?  Any tricks of the trade that work well for you?  Let me know—I can always use more help!