Dear valued customer.  Okay, let’s back-up one step. For those that receive emails or letters that say “dear valued customer” do you ever sit back and wonder why you’d receive something like that? Where if you were so valued why they could not bother to use your first name? And no, it is not about ego or that “how dare they not know my name,” but instead it's about being transparent without being overly cliche. 

In a recent post, I talked about over sending emails, and part of the issue with using “dear valued customer” aka buzz words is that it can turn the customer off. Especially (as mentioned above) if you are over sending emails! 

Think about it for a moment, here is a sample workflow for after the service appointment: 

1. Dealer Thank You Email w/ Review
2. OEM Dealer Thank You Email 
3. Dealer Email Asking for Review
4. OEM Dealer text/email pre-survey survey 
5. Dealer Phone Call/Text
6. OEM Email reminding them of survey thanking them again 
7. OEM Survey 

Besides that being way, way too many emails, calls, and texts for an appointment (which when you sit back seems a bit silly) have you ever taken a minute to look and see what the content was in the email? 

Here is are some common examples of the text and emails that go out in between the pre-survey surveys.

Email 

Dear Valued Customer, thank you for servicing your vehicle here with us at (dealer). We appreciate your business. If there are any concerns, please feel free to contact me? We look forward to seeing you on your next visit. 

Text 

Thanks for servicing your vehicle here with us at (dealer). We appreciate your business. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. 

While you might think this is a good thing. It might not be. As you are asking the customer 3-4 times if they had a good experience. They could probably write about their experience on getting too many surveys, calls, texts & emails! 

That said if your OEM sends out a text or pre-survey survey than it is not necessary for you to call those who have already completed the OEM pre-survey and/or have left feedback on social media. What you can do, however, is comment on their feedback - with a personalized response - thanking them for their review.  And use that saved time by calling customer who has not submitted anything or those that have submitted an issue. 

As for the template(s), try and condense your content into one cohesive piece of correspondence. Where you can ask them for a review and if their experience was less than pleasant the ability to speak with the manager. Less is more. 

Bottom line: asking for feedback is crucial, BUT chasing for feedback on what was an otherwise good experience is not necessary. In fact, it is best to use the instances in which case the customer did complain or have an issue to better understand if the breakdown was a one-off or it was a personnel issue that needs to be addressed. 

How do you handle the “after” service correspondence?