Why Auto Dealerships Need to Focus on Customer Retention - AutoAwards
Auto Dealerships Must Focus on Customer Retention

Why Auto Dealerships Need to Focus on Customer Retention

Auto dealerships must focus on customer retention now more than ever before. There are many reasons that customers leave your car dealership, but not all of them are known. Perhaps, they have experienced poor service concerning repairs or sales. They could have changed brand preference. For a dealership to be effective at customer retention, you need to learn how to recognize and adjust to your customers’ needs.

Why Customers Leave

Recent studies show that between 68-82% of customers leave because they were upset with how the staff treated them. They lose trust in the dealership. Often the team does not respond to the problem or offer a solution to customers.

About 92% of customers say that they would go back after a negative experience when offered a solution to the problem. Dealing with customer problems helps dealerships retain customers. Sometimes this led to customers being willing to pay more for services when asked.

What Retains Customers

Research on client demographics shows that older consumers are more loyal to a brand. By retaining loyal customers, a dealership can see the average spend is about ten times a regular customer. Loyal customers also increase profitability for a dealership by at least 5% and can be as high as 95%.

Tips to Retain Customers

Since service was one of the reasons why customers left the dealership, focus on the best possible service for all customers. Here are some ways to focus on customer service:

  • Always make the customer at the dealership feel welcome when they come in for sales or repairs.
  • Dealership incentive programs attract loyal customers.
  • Respond to inquiries in 1 to 4 hours by email or phone.
  • Contact customers regularly about repairs and services.

Customer retention means more money for the dealership. Calculating your dealership customer retention rate every month can help dealerships improve retention by analyzing why they gained or lost customers in a specific timeframe. Call AutoAwards at (302) 696-6000 to talk about how our loyalty program helps with customer retention.

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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.

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