Use Prepaid Maintenance Programs to Retain Customers (For Automotive Dealerships)
Many product providers focus their marketing campaigns around dealership customer retention. They seldom provide specific reporting, or incorporate strategies to bring customers back to the dealer. The most important aspect is bringing customers back to the store several a year during their cycle of ownership. This standard is met by PPM, or prepaid maintenance programs.
The Advantages
Dealers using PPM with their retention plan are seeing real results nationwide. The program has five basic requirements.
- The return trip must be positive and valuable.
- The product must mutually benefit the customer and dealer.
- There must be enough properly trained staff to ensure the traffic increase is handled smoothly.
- The dealer must have a goal, and a starting point.
- The plan must include every department in the dealership, including the goals, strategies, and measurement of success.
The Goals
PPM has the capability of achieving every goal listed above. The difficulty is in the numerous moving parts that must be properly placed before the goals can be reached. The dealership must make the right choice, and there is a wide variance among prepaid maintenance programs.
Third-party F&I providers and OEM programs both have some type of offering, although they were not all equally created. Even with the best intentions, not all programs provide benefits for the dealer, customer, and provider. Sometimes this is due to the presentation of the program.
Once the retention goals have been satisfactorily laid out, the PPM programs attributes must be considered. Some will establish retention, but some won’t, and each program component can be tested and measured for success.
Create Your Automotive Dealership Loyalty Program
AutoAwards offers assistance creating loyalty programs that support dealership-designed prepaid maintenance programs. We help execute your loyalty program to make it profitable. Contact us to find out how to start your dealership’s prepaid maintenance program and retain customers.
AutoAwards Team
Since our founding in 1991, AutoAwards has been widely recognized as the industry-leader in automotive and marine loyalty marketing, earning longstanding relationships with many of the industry’s most successful dealer groups and OEMs. AutoAwards understands the #1 predictive factor for dealer growth and profitability. Customer loyalty is the most successful way to build revenue. AutoAwards has always recognized the need for top notch, highly creative, effective loyalty strategies in large and small businesses alike. Contact us online to talk about dealer loyalty or call (800) 405-4227.
