How do customers remain loyal to you as a car dealer?

I recently spoke with a Volkswagen dealer about the relationship with customers and their loyalty to the brand. He identified an important ‘split’ in which many car dealers undoubtedly recognize themselves. This practical experience inspired me to write this blog.

 What I heard

‘We have less and less time for customer relations, but at the same time we are expected to sell more and more. Less attention is paid to customers because it takes more and more time to report the correct figures to Excel-driven head offices. Because there is sometimes a lack of sufficiently experienced account managers, the customer relationship comes under pressure,’ I was told.

Getting out of the split

Dus leek het mij interessant om eens mijn visie te geven over hoe je uit deze spagaat kunt komen. Zowel hoofdkantoren als klanten kun je niet negeren; daarom heb je minimaal ‘best of both worlds’ nodig. Mijn uitgangspunt daarbij is wel om ervoor te zorgen dat er zoveel mogelijk tijd overblijft voor de klantrelatie. Dit zijn drie zaken waar je toe in staat moet zijn: 

So I thought it would be interesting to give my view on how to get out of this dilemma. You cannot ignore both head offices and customers; that’s why you need at least ‘best of both worlds’. My starting point is to ensure that as much time as possible is left for the customer relationship. These are three things you must be able to do: 

1: Delivering figures faster

The larger head offices become (due to consolidations), the greater the pressure on supplying the correct sales figures, stock data, financial data and much more. This means that it is becoming increasingly important to have all this type of data available in one central place. The advantage is that you do not have to search for a long time or be dependent on fellow managers who have stored this data somewhere locally: ‘Where was it again?’

2: Organizing your sales process even more efficiently – answering customer questions quickly.

Time can be freed up if you ensure that car salespeople work more efficiently. Simply put, this means that they can serve more customers in the same time. Working efficiently is mainly about having an excellent customer relationship. This means that you have to know everything about the customer and be able to retrieve the correct information from sales files at any time.

3: Integrating personalized communication and aftercare

is the key to winning and maintaining customer loyalty. Customers expect treatment that meets their individual needs and preferences not only during the purchasing phase, but also in aftercare. This means that car dealers must be able to use customer data effectively to personalize communications, offers and service. For example, by sending customized maintenance reminders, exclusive offers based on previous purchases, or by offering a personalized customer service experience.

What the three points have in common

In summary, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a grip and control over your data. Otherwise you cannot personalize, respond quickly or do what is expected of you. I would like to discuss what other benefits this provides. 

Alexander Molhuysen – Director DocBase