Consumer Communication is Changing
Many dealers have been doing things the same way for years – Newspaper ads, inbound leads, and posting to Autotrader. But today’s consumer is much different than that of even five years ago.
Social media is one of the biggest communications channels, and most dealers aren’t utilizing it to its full potential. It’s important to have a page and be active on it, but interacting with followers takes it to another level. There is also a huge opportunity for advertising – cheap advertising – that likely makes more sense than big, expensive newspaper ads. Social ads give dealers a chance to reach a very targeted audience with a very specific ad. Retargeting ads are also a major untapped area that dealers should consider.
Even if you don’t want to pay for advertising, you can allow people to make sales inquiries and service appointments directly through your Facebook page. Send them appointment reminders, give them trade-in values. Allowing your dealership to be more accessible through social media can only mean good things for your bottom line.
Consumers don’t want to pick up the phone to call a business. They want to send a message via social media or text. In Facebook messenger alone, consumers exchange 2 billion messages per month with businesses. Allowing digital messaging increases sales and customer satisfaction ratings.
Over 22 billion texts are sent every day worldwide, 6 billion of those are in the US. So, why aren’t you using it? Have new customers opt-in for texts about service reminders, sales, specials, etc. Give your sales team phones, so they can text their leads and follow-up with new customers via messaging. Put a number on your website that people can text. There are ways to integrate this with your CRM, obviously, so one phone isn’t getting 1000 texts in a day.
Why do people prefer this? It’s faster. It’s more convenient. And, they can even do it in the middle of the work day. Texting will free up your staff too because sending a text is 10 times faster than making a phone call, especially if you have pre-scripted messages they can paste and send. How many times has a voicemail gone unreturned? Well, 99 percent of texts are opened in 4 minutes. 4!
This is even more important for fixed ops. You would probably be getting more appointments if customers could text in, “I need an oil change Saturday morning. Do you have a 10 am available?” Waiting on a part that didn’t come in today? Shooting the customer a quick text is much easier than a phone call. “Sorry for the delay, but your caliper won’t be in until tomorrow morning. I’ll call you as soon as your car is done.” Plus, everyone has been on the phone with a customer who wants to tell you his life story. This prevents that, too. Time is money.
Some dealers may feel this is a less genuine form of communication. They’re right. But it gets people in the door, and that’s when you get a chance to make a real relationships with your customers. Don’t let changing technologies keep your dealership in the past. Join the business messaging revolution.
