Why a BDC is indispensible for growth.
Leveraging your CRM to build business.
In the “good old days”, automotive dealerships could grow merely by waiting for the next customer to darken the doorway. Today, it’s nothing more than a quaint memory. Dealerships now understand the need to consistently engage target audiences to grow. Not just any audiences, mind you. They’re shifting focus to existing customers, rather than chasing new ones. It’s a job perfectly suited for a high performance business development center (BDC).
Shifting Growth Strategies
Did you know that acquiring a new customer is five times as expensive as retaining an existing one? What’s more, the success rate of selling to that new customer is 5-20%. The success rate for an existing customer? 60-70%. The bottom line? Forward-thinking dealerships are focusing more on customers they already have…and using a high performance business development center solution to deliver on this strategy.
Mining your CRM for Gold.
Here’s the good news. Your dealership already has a prized store of data on existing customers – your CRM. And it’s most valuable when a BDC Manager leverages it to reach out effectively at every stage of the customer journey. Nurturing relationships within your CRM – data mining as it’s commonly referred to – is a huge opportunity to increase profitability and keep customer costs down. Plus, there’s an added bonus. The dealership can achieve better results from digital marketing efforts. Sure, data mining may sound complex, but you don’t have to be a data scientist to unlock nuggets of gold from your CRM. A properly trained and managed high performance business center team can determine where a customer stands in their vehicle ownership journey, then arm agents with sales or service messages that possess a greater chance of resulting in a sale.
The success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%. Conversely, the success rate for an existing customer is 60-70%!
“A high performance business development center armed with a simple data-driven strategy can prevent defection and strengthen any dealership’s customer base,” says Melissa Szekely, Sr. VP Operations at Blueprint, a division of Dealer-FX. “Better yet, when aligned with strong digital communications like our Total Service Marketing packages, a BDC can align their efforts with outbound campaigns that reach the right customer at exactly the right time.”
Creating Trust at the Service Drive: Remember the Four Cs
Quick: What’s the top reason for customer dissatisfaction? Unmet expectations. And while failed expectations happen for many reasons, at the core of every disappointing service experience is a breakdown in trust. Whether that happens due to a broken promise time or another example of miscommunication, it still means that an advisor or manager overpromised results […]
Three Questions to Ask About Service Dashboard…and One Special Feature
The service journey can be fast-paced and complicated. One missed appointment, a broken promise time or confused communication can lead to missed steps and a poor customer experience. The pace of service retail in this digital-driven and on-demand market places a premium on efficiency and creates a need to build an automated monitoring, communication, and […]
Round-Up: Automotive Service, Technology and Trends
Summer is almost over. And it would seem the years of ever-increasing new car sales are also coming to an end, which means service departments will soon be more vital than ever — a fact that underlines the need for an effective operational plan. Here are three headlines that show just how much things are changing: […]