Customer retention is huge for service lanes. Improving retention could mean the difference between a thriving business and a failing one. You know how hard and expensive it can be to get customers to your service lane in the first place. Don’t lose them once you’ve got them. Use these strategies to make first-time customers long-time customers.
Focus on the Experience
The customer experience needs to be at the heart of everything if you want to have any hope of getting customers to come back to your service lane time and time again.
Make sure the process of scheduling and completing a service appointment is convenient. It would be a shame to lose a customer because your appointment scheduling process (online or otherwise) is too complicated, or employees aren’t available to answer incoming calls. Of course, this often means freeing time from other activities, something that can be difficult in a busy service lane.
Create Relationships That Will Last
You’ve probably heard the phrase “treat them like family.” It might sound over the top, but customers will remember businesses that treated them well and are inclined to return to those businesses when they need additional services. The employees who interact with customers make up the face your business shows to the world. They should receive the proper training in customer relations and more importantly, in your dealership’s service lane processes. If a customer walks away from your service lane feeling like they were simply a number, they’re less likely to come back.
Optimize the Experience
It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to “optimize” everything; squeezing every possible second from your processes in a quest for efficiency, but eventually, your customers will notice. That strategy will start to hurt you rather than help you. Much like the first tip, this one hinges upon saving time for the customers. Optimize and reduce the “fluff” time wasted on gathering the vehicle information and other service lane processes, in favor of time spent face-to-face with the customer. If your optimization efforts are not freeing your service advisors to spend more time with your customer, then you’re fighting a losing battle.
Choose eAdvisor
Give your service advisors the tools to show customers their business matters. Service lane eAdvisor automates vehicle data collection with a proprietary scan tool that plugs into a vehicle's OBD2 port; wirelessly transmitting critical information to the service advisor’s work computer. It takes less than ten seconds to complete and requires absolutely no manual data entry.
This, in turn, frees up time for the customers. Use it to address the customer’s concerns, answer their questions, and personalize the experience. You’ll be amazed at the results and incremental sales opportunity.
Loyal, happy customers mean steady revenue you can count on. Make a noticeable difference in your business today – click here to learn more about how the eAdvisor system can help!
