The Best Options To Increase Customer Loyalty And Provide Incentives For Car Purchases

Car Buyer Loyalty Programs

The enticements offered to car buyers to make a purchase is an old concept. There are cash back rebates, car loyalty programs, and discounted prices used as incentives.

According to Incentive Magazine, United States consumers are more motivated to purchase a car when offered cash back. Considering the appeal of a $1,000 rebate immediately available on a prepaid card, in comparison to a discount received over the course of the loan, it is not surprising a rebate is one preferred choice.

Prepaid Cards

An individual is more likely to take a test drive if an incentive is involved. According to a survey, the most effective combination is a rebate for $500 after purchase and a prepaid card for $50. Customers have stated they would give their loyalty to a dealership if they were provided with a $100 prepaid card for each year they went to the dealership for service and a $10 prepaid card every time they received service. This is one way to ensure customer loyalty.

The Best Incentive

Prepaid cards are also an excellent incentive for individuals shopping for tires. The strongest motivation for anyone interested in tires is a $50 prepaid card. The surprise is the $50 card has been more effective than a $60 card, $300 of discounts for tire services in the future, or free oil changes for an entire year. This is the premise of instant gratification over savings in the future.

Consult with Auto Awards to improve your customer retention strategies and increase customer loyalty.

AutoAwards’ Solution to Preventing Dealership Revenue Loss

Why Many Dealerships Face a Huge Loss of Revenue

Selling cars is only part of a dealership’s sales departments. The main goal AutoAwards recognizes in car buying is to maximize the profit of each sale and retain customer loyalty for maintenance services. However, once the customer goes out the door with their new vehicle, there is no guarantee that they will use the dealership’s services.

Vehicle owners have many options as to where they can get oil changes, tire rotations and basic maintenance. Up to about 85 percent of those who own vehicles choose alternative services due to the advertisement of cost savings and convenience. This has caused a huge loss of revenue for many traditional dealerships.

How Dealer Maintenance Has Prevented Their Share of the Loss

Dealer maintenance departments can solve this issue with automotive prepaid maintenance programs. These prepaid programs open the door for consumers to experience cost-savings on their maintenance within their car’s own dealership site.

Dealer maintenance programs with AutoAwards send friendly remembers to ensure that a dealership’s customers keep their appointments. This helps to maintain the warranty’s validity and the future re-sale of another vehicle. It also allows the dealership to sell additional services and develop a stronger relationship with the customer. That increases the likelihood of them buying their next vehicle from them.

Here’s some additional benefits of starting a prepaid maintenance program:

1. 1. Build a reputation for excellence

PPM programs are the foundation for building a reputation of excellent service.

1. 1. Increase customer retention

Utilizing our program will increase your customer service retention to over 70%.

1. 1. Eliminate peaks and valleys

Gain a more consistent flow of traffic from regularly scheduled service visits.

1. 1. Create relationships that last

When customers get to know and trust you, they will return…and bring friends.

Find out how to build a prepaid maintenance program with AutoAwards’ help! Contact us for more information.

5 Ways Auto Dealerships Can Successfully Build A Loyalty Program

Customer loyalty programs are supposed to convince your customers to keep coming back to you whenever they want to make a purchase. Unfortunately, many automotive brand loyalty programs have the effect of scaring them away instead of bringing them back. Engaging with customers is essential for a business looking to expand.

Don’t Scare Customers Away!

The first step is to create a solution that partners with the customer, rather than one that scares the customer away. With the wrong approach, it’s entirely possible to do something which will hurt your brand’s reputation. It’s much easier to attract customers than to upset them.

Showing Appreciation is Key

This is done through showing appreciation for the customer. One idea for doing so is through customer appreciation events which encourage people to come by and interact with your business. If customers feel appreciated, they will be more likely to be loyal to you and your brand.

Email Promotions Are Very Successful

Doing email promotions will also attract new customers to sign up for your business. Encouraging existing customers to interact with you on social media is also a highly desirable way to build loyalty: some sort of incentive to share on social media should do the trick to drive engagements – a free item if the customer shares on social media would suffice.

Create Referrals and Opportunities

Once you have decided to build your solution from the ground up, your next step is to get people interested. Sending business to other businesses whom you work with is another way of being able to build the critical goodwill that your business needs. Ultimately, you want to be the person creating opportunities for other businesses whom you associate with. AutoAwards’ “Keep It Local” program can help you set up a way to generate referrals for businesses in your community and vice versa.

Show Gratitude For Customers

Showing gratitude toward your customers is one of the most important things you can do. All it takes is a simple smile or expression of thanks to make a customer like you and your business. If a customer likes you, then they will want to be a customer for life.

Fortunately, as an automotive brand, you’re capable of being able to drive the customer loyalty that you need in order to succeed. It’s not easy to market and position yourself, but as long as you are able to avoid scaring people away, you should be able to figure out the right formula for success.

You might have plenty of questions in mind when you are considering ways to build your loyalty program. After all, you wouldn’t want to take a chance with programs that do not have a solid reputation. For that reason, Auto Awards is able to help you navigate some of the pesky waters surrounding your loyalty programs. After all, you definitely want the reassurance that you are doing everything you need to do in order to have a successful loyalty program.

Call us to start creating a loyalty rewards program today!

Buying Cars Online, The New Wave Of Internet Markets

Getting a license was considered to be a right of passage when it comes to American culture. Kids rushed to their nearest driving schools to get their licenses the moment they turn sixteen. Times are changing, and getting a license has no longer become a priority, owing to the increase of public transportation, increase of biking and walking to locations, ride-sharing apps and self-driving cars. We are already living in the future, and our car riding habits are an example of that.

Car Buying in the Digital Age

With the growth of online shopping sites, even car selling and buying has taken to the digital medium and has paved the way for an all new way to get a car. With this, the way that auto companies sell their cars has also had to be altered, with companies having to switch their marketing focus from one-off ads in the newspapers to constant ads on various social media sites.

Because of the nature of the product that these companies are selling, it is slightly tricky to find a good and viable way to market to customers in this sector. A car is not like a piece of clothing that one can just buy off Amazon, it is a big investment, and people tend to want to know a lot more information about the car that they are selling.

With this in mind, the ads that a car dealership puts out to market to people in this sector should also revolve around the principle of being informative, but engaging at the same time. Fortunately, Auto Awards has experienced automotive marketing consultants who are trained and who know the business inside out to help car dealers with their marketing. By working with Auto Awards, car companies can easily experience profitable online marketing and expand their customer base to people who prefer to shop online.

Tips for Auto Dealership Email Marketing

Email marketing might be old school, but it is one of the most efficient ways to keep an audience engaged in either the content or products that you choose to put out. Email marketing is also one of the easiest forms of online marketing, and does not require a lot of monetary investment. Neither does it take up much time.

How Well Does Email Marketing Work?

A survey which was conducted states that almost 75% of adults respond to email marketing as an effective tool to engage them in a particular product or brand. Since other means of social media are sometimes relatively obscure to older adults, email marketing comes in as an extremely effective and efficient to reach a group of people.

Tip For Email Marketing

However, as easy and effective as this might be, customers don’t like getting multiple emails a day from the same brand or company. If they get spammed, your emails will begin to get sent to their spam folder, rendering all your marketing efforts useless. A brand must always send out emails only when necessary, and in moderation, to make the entire process a lot more useful.

Take for example an auto or car dealership. They might have the latest promotional offers or even new ranges of cars that they want their prospective customers to known about. When it comes to automotive email marketing, there are some pointers that one can take to decide when is the right time to send in new emails.

Email Tips: Which Emails Do People Respond To?

1. Emails telling the customers about a new inventory is one of the best uses of email marketing. This gives the customers a heads up for what they can expect from the brand or company.
   
2. Loan maturity is one of the next things that auto brands can send their emails for. This, however, is only to one target person, for obvious reasons, but can serve as a reminder to pay their loans, and also seek new products from your company.

5 Ways to Create a Loyal Customer by Rewarding Them

Creating a business where a customer’s return is where the real profit is. You work hard to get them in the door and you want to do what you can to get them back time and time again. Creating a loyal customer base can jump your profits from 25% to an amazing 95% based on a study that was conducted by Bain & Company.

Here are a few ideas to create repeat customers.

1. Offer Free Stuff to Repeat Customers

Customers always expect great service and value. Letting your customers know you appreciate them while helping to offer additional discounts is a recipe for success. Some of the things you can offer are discounts for multiple purchases or purchases on each return. You might not make as much profit on the items, but those additional purchases add up to even more profit over the long run.

2. Offer Discounts or Cash Back for Returning Customers

Customers love to feel special and save money. Offering them a discount for return visits help make their return visit to your location a no-brainer. This can come as a “save 10%” on your next purchase, for example.

3. Premium Memberships Work Too

Some customers don’t mind shelling out the extra money if they see an opportunity to save in the long run. Dealer branded loyalty programs can offer them additional discounts that regular customers don’t get to save money. It is another great incentive for them to return several times to help increase your profits.

4. Rewards or Gifts for Referrals

Getting return customers is great, but what better advertisement is it for them to go out and encourage them to bring in customers. Customers will refer friends and loved ones to come and spend their money too. Show the customer you appreciate that by offering them a gift or additional discounts for both you and your new client.

5. Contests are fun and bring additional profits

There is nothing more fun for publicity than holding a contest. Everyone loves to win something. Make it a fun competition for the customers by entering their name into a raffle. The more money they spend, the more entry options they can enter into the contest. You can even combine the rewards. For example, if the customer is enrolled in the dealer branded loyalty program, they can earn double the entry votes into the raffle.

There are a ton of ideas out there to help turn a one-time customer into a lifetime customer today and keep your profits maximized.

3 Tips To Improve Your Dealership’s Customer Vehicle Buying Experience

People remember only two kinds of shopping experiences: the very best and, of course, the very worst. If you want customers to really remember your dealership, you need to make every sale feel like it’s the most important one you’ve ever made.

How Dealerships Are Commonly Perceived

This is in large part due to how auto dealerships are commonly perceived. What does the average person think of when visiting a dealership? People often think of confusing price structures and pushy sales tactics. Overall, it’s not something most people are eager to do. As a matter of fact, a study recently showed that around three quarters of consumers would rather buy a car online rather than at a dealership.

You can’t change everyone’s mind, especially not instantly, but there are a number of things that you can do to foster customer loyalty and create a better vehicle purchase experience for customers. These are a few recommendations from our expert automotive marketing consultants:

1. Focus On Customer Experience

It’s safe to assume that customer service is already a priority for you, but you can do even more to make visiting your dealership something that potential buyers actually look forward to. Start at the beginning by assigning one of your staff to greet and chat with visitors until one of your sales team can take over.

2. Provide Amenities

Consider adding some amenities for your visitors while they (and their families) wait.

These may include:

-A play area for children
-Free wi-fi
-A family-oriented approach to test drives
-Complimentary refreshments

3. Free Maintenance for Customers

One thing which is guaranteed to improve your customers’ experience is complimentary maintenance. Consider, for instance, offering free inspections, oil changes and tire rotations for the first six months to a year after a purchase. Everyone loves getting something for nothing and these kinds of services can create long term loyalty among your customer base.

Need more tips on how to create a customer retention program? Call us to start creating a loyalty rewards program today!

Benefits of Using QR Codes In a Dealership Rewards Program

A recent study at Experian found that 75 percent of companies that use loyalty programs generate a positive ROI. That’s 3 out of every 4! Companies that aren’t utilizing some sort of loyalty program are basically throwing money down the drain.

QR Codes in Loyalty Rewards Programs

QR codes look like the little black boxes you see in supermarkets and you can use your mobile phone camera to scan them. QR codes can be placed virtually anywhere and they link to some sort page or offer. Savvy business owners are already using these to create a more meaningful connection with their buyers.

Taking these facts into consideration, using QR codes that link to an enrollment program would be a smart investment. QR codes already allow you to collect more data about your best customers and allow you to follow up with surveys or offers. Not to mention that almost everyone carries a mobile phone, 70 percent of those being smartphones.

Smartphones usually already have the users’ credit card information as well as the ability to store cookies. Cookies are just bits of stored data that can be used to track online behavior. They also allow people to enroll without any extra effort.

Creative Ways to Boost Customer Retention and Growth

Keeping up with the times is the only way to keep your company relevant through the years. This digital age allows very creative ways to connect with your customers and allow them to provide feedback.

Customers that are enrolled into a loyalty program are more likely to share your company with friends and family. So if you really want your customer to have the best experience with your brand,incorporating a dealer rewards program is a must! Don’t leave money on the table. Set up a consultation now.

How to Start An Effective Auto Loyalty Rewards Program

From grocery stores to ecommerce retailers and everyone in between, loyalty programs have surged in popularity in recent years. In fact, loyalty program enrollment has increased about 10% per year in the last decade. Consumers are adopting these incentives based programs in record numbers each year.

What Incentive To Offer In A Loyalty Rewards Program

The type of incentive you offer matters, though, if you want to make the most of the loyalty program model for your business. While every business is unique, an approach that is points-based can help encourage customers to spend a little more each time they shop, simply to earn the reward.

A points system is easy to keep track of for both you and your customers and rewards them for buying more they’re more likely to upgrade to a large from a small – or swap out their regular basic black coffee for a latte when they can earn points.

A points-per-dollar system is appealing to both consumers and businesses, since it is easily understood and offers the most versatility.

No matter which approach you take for your rewards program, the process needs to include the following steps to be effective:

*Set a goal so customers know what they are working towards
*Clearly defined explanation of how they’ll earn that reward – what action do you want them to take?
*An early, easy, desirable incentive to get customers in the habit of using your program

Loyalty Program Best Practices

1. Choose the right rewards. For your program to be effective, the buyer or participant must want the item you are offering. By offering a broad selection of items you can be sure you appeal to your entire customer base, not just the ones who like and are willing to work for one specific reward. From merchandise to event tickets and even travel, offering a variety of rewards helps consumers truly get excited about the program and buy into what you have to offer.
2. Make it user-friendly.Your customers need to be able to easily see where they stand and how far they are from the reward they’re earning. Point balances, reward options and the latest news from your program should be easily accessible from your site or via an app or mobile device.
3. Send regular alerts.Keep participants in the loop and make sure they always know what’s new; your communication program not only ensures your loyalty members know what you have to offer, it gives your marketing team plenty to work with, too. Members also love to feel like they are “in the know” and getting deals not everyone is privy to.

Done correctly, a dealership loyalty rewards program can help boost your brand awareness, ensure your customers get engaged and stay engaged and even help you expand your per-order or per-sale revenues.

Can Re-Insurance Be Used In A Points-Based Loyalty Program?

We realize that the success and future of your dealership is connected to loyal customers. Most car manufacturing plants realize this as well and as a result, they offer incentives or rewards to dealerships that are able to retain loyal customers. Reward programs, such as points-based rewards programs, have slowly grown and become a popular tool within the auto industry within the last 20 years. The following article by Tim Byrd, originally published on DealerRE, discusses a different kind of accelerated profit program to gain loyal customers in a reinsurance program.

Keep in mind, including a point based loyalty program or an inner prepaid maintenance program into your reinsurance program begins with really seeing how it functions and how to set it up effectively. See how Tim proposes it can be accomplished.

This article is a republication of “The Answer to Reinsuring Points-Based Loyalty Programs” by Tim Byrd.

Build a Different Kind of Accelerated Profit Access Program

Loyal customers become more profitable over their ownership life cycle as they purchase new products, repair older ones and recruit others to do the same. In fact, customer loyalty is the single most important driver of growth and profitability for a dealership. A properly retained customer base that actively spends money and becomes a referral source to drive additional incremental business allows dealers to effectively reduce their overall spray and prey advertising spend. Live by the door, die by the door. That simple.

I have had the opportunity to work with dealerships that implemented very successful loyalty strategies and the companies that create, implement and manage them.  As a car dealer reinsurance expert, I am often asked if the contingent liability that is created by a point-based loyalty strategy or if an internal pre-paid maintenance program can be seeded into a reinsurance environment. The answer is yes, with a true understanding of the rules and if the loyalty company you choose to work with truly understands your business. Existing F & I products may dovetail neatly with a points-based loyalty program or a customized pre-paid maintenance program and work well for a dealer-owned reinsurance company. But, like all insurable products, the devil is in the details.

The opportunity to take the risk created by this customer-driven incentive program and transfer that risk to a dealer-owned reinsurance company works by systematically reserving a percentage of the points accumulated each month by each customer into a dealer-owned reinsurance company. The fact is, breakage is not necessarily good for your long-term retention goals, but certainly part of the reality and why a dealer-owned reinsurance company may make sense.

A few preliminary thoughts to consider are a program must be based on a “cash-in, cash out” model and provide a clear and structured process to earn out over time. Premium can only be a fraction of the total liability and your loyalty partner MUST have the ability to track this liability accurately and in real time. Not only must the points (liability) being earned be tracked accurately, the points earning out or redeemed are also vital data to making it work. If both sides are accurately tracked, premium deemed unclaimed or earned out can become underwriting profit.

Combining this approach with other products such as warranties and Vehicle Service Contracts, the dealer is assured a tremendous profit center from their Dealer-owned Reinsurance Company. An often misunderstood benefit to a Dealer-owned Reinsurance Company is that they are small Property and Causality insurance companies.  “Small property and casualty insurance companies with less than $1,200,000 in annual net premiums may elect to be taxed only on investment income under Internal Revenue Code 831 (b).” So, when setting aside premium reserve in your reinsurance company to transfer the risk created, unlike making a deposit in your account at the local bank, you are not increasing your taxable net profits.

Remember, including a points-based loyalty program or an internal pre-paid maintenance program into your reinsurance program starts with truly understanding how it works and how to set it up correctly. Do your homework and partner with a loyalty program provider with a long track record, a solid ability to track your points and ability to report it as needed. If you are considering developing a program or have one and would like to better understand how to seed it into an existing dealer-owned reinsurance program, speak to an expert and know the rules.

Tim Byrd is Founder and President of DealerRE a Tim Byrd & Associates company, a managing agency located in Gloucester, Virginia. An Auto Industry Expert on Dealer Owned Reinsurance Companies, BHPH Operations, Dealership and F&I Development. A 25+ year veteran of the car business, Tim is a trusted advisor to many car dealers. Tim has appeared on Auto Dealer Live and has been featured many times in AutoSuccess Magazine, Dealer Solutions Magazine, The Virginia Independent News, Special Finance Insider, Around the Commonwealth, The BHPH Report, DealerELITE.net and the Dealer Business Journal. Tim is a sought after speaker and co-author of the #1 Best Selling books “Unfair Advantage” and the just released new book Race to the Finish Line. First and foremost, Tim is a Christian man whose values, he strives, are a reflection of those of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Tim can be reached at www.DealerRE.com or by calling 804-824-9533.

If you would like to create an automotive loyalty program to help your dealership then be sure to contact Auto Awards.