What’s the most incredible act of customer service you have ever performed for a customer, and did it inspire their undying loyalty? In this story by Peter Shankman, he recounts how after a long travel day he boarded a plane, tired and hungry. As a joke, he tweeted out to Morton’s steakhouse to please have a Porterhouse waiting for him at the airport when he landed. Of course he was not expecting any response, but guess what? At the airport Morton’s was there, waiting for him with a Porterhouse.

Shoe purveyor Zappos is also well-known for its great customer service. When this blogger’s mother was suffering from health issues and related problems with her feet, she had to return some shoes to Zappos and ended up getting into a long conversation with the customer service agent. The customer service person sent a bouquet of flowers to the mother and gave the mother, daughter and sister VIP memberships. The sister vowed to buy every pair of shoes from Zappos from then on.

And there’s the famous example of Southwest Airlines holding a plane flight for a grandfather who was flying to Denver to see his three-year old grandchild who had been beaten to death by his daughter’s live-in boyfriend, and who was scheduled to be taken off life support that night. When the grandfather arrived at the gate twelve minutes late for his flight he was shocked to find the plane still there. The pilot said, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you.” Cost of delaying flight: who knows and who cares? The knowledge that Southwest did the right thing and the amount of goodwill it created: priceless.

Of course, you don’t have to be a restaurant, retailer or an airline to provide outstanding customer service. Opportunities exist every day in your dealership. When was the last time you dealt with an upset customer or noticed that a customer seemed stressed? What did you do? Did you avoid them, get defensive, or did you ask questions so you would understand their concerns, stresses, problems or fears? Then did you go out of your way to provide a service that was above and beyond what was expected?

What is the best customer service experience that you have ever had, and did it inspire your loyalty to that company? What acts of customer service have you or your co-workers provided that created loyal customers for your dealership?

What’s the most incredible act of customer service you have ever performed for a customer, and did it inspire their undying loyalty? In this story by Peter Shankman, he recounts how after a long travel day he boarded a plane, tired and hungry. As a joke, he tweeted out to Morton’s steakhouse to please have a Porterhouse waiting for him at the airport when he landed. Of course he was not expecting any response, but guess what? At the airport Morton’s was there, waiting for him with a Porterhouse.

Shoe purveyor Zappos is also well-known for its great customer service. When this blogger’s mother was suffering from health issues and related problems with her feet, she had to return some shoes to Zappos and ended up getting into a long conversation with the customer service agent. The customer service person sent a bouquet of flowers to the mother and gave the mother, daughter and sister VIP memberships. The sister vowed to buy every pair of shoes from Zappos from then on.

And there’s the famous example of Southwest Airlines holding a plane flight for a grandfather who was flying to Denver to see his three-year old grandchild who had been beaten to death by his daughter’s live-in boyfriend, and who was scheduled to be taken off life support that night. When the grandfather arrived at the gate twelve minutes late for his flight he was shocked to find the plane still there. The pilot said, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you.” Cost of delaying flight: who knows and who cares? The knowledge that Southwest did the right thing and the amount of goodwill it created: priceless.

Of course, you don’t have to be a restaurant, retailer or an airline to provide outstanding customer service. Opportunities exist every day in your dealership. When was the last time you dealt with an upset customer or noticed that a customer seemed stressed? What did you do? Did you avoid them, get defensive, or did you ask questions so you would understand their concerns, stresses, problems or fears? Then did you go out of your way to provide a service that was above and beyond what was expected?

What is the best customer service experience that you have ever had, and did it inspire your loyalty to that company? What acts of customer service have you or your co-workers provided that created loyal customers for your dealership?

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the final blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on retail member spend.  This week’s topic is member repurchase intent.

This metric measures the number and percentage of loyalty program members who purchased their second vehicle from the host loyalty dealership. Dealers say that loyalty programs, which allow members to apply their rewards dollars toward vehicles purchases, truly work. Driving repeat sales is easier when using incentives redeemed from an existing customer base.

An analysis of member repurchase habits in 72 dealerships with loyalty programs revealed the following:

• ŸAverage number of member new vehicle re-purchases per year per dealer: 126

  

• Ÿ Percent of members who have re-purchased a new vehicle from the original selling dealer: 12.4%
• Ÿ Average number of member pre-owned vehicle re-purchases per year per dealer: 58
• Ÿ Percent of members who have bought a subsequent pre-owned vehicle from original selling dealer: 4.7%

How do these figures compare to your re-purchase rates from customers who are not members of loyalty programs?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the final blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on retail member spend.  This week’s topic is member repurchase intent.

This metric measures the number and percentage of loyalty program members who purchased their second vehicle from the host loyalty dealership. Dealers say that loyalty programs, which allow members to apply their rewards dollars toward vehicles purchases, truly work. Driving repeat sales is easier when using incentives redeemed from an existing customer base.

An analysis of member repurchase habits in 72 dealerships with loyalty programs revealed the following:

• ŸAverage number of member new vehicle re-purchases per year per dealer: 126

  

• Ÿ Percent of members who have re-purchased a new vehicle from the original selling dealer: 12.4%
• Ÿ Average number of member pre-owned vehicle re-purchases per year per dealer: 58
• Ÿ Percent of members who have bought a subsequent pre-owned vehicle from original selling dealer: 4.7%

How do these figures compare to your re-purchase rates from customers who are not members of loyalty programs?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the fourth blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on service visitation.  This week’s topic is retail member spend.

Member spend is viewed as money that loyalty members actually spend in a dealer’s service department, both by individual RO and by annualized spend. Visit frequency is one key component, but perhaps more important is wallet share.

When we compared member spend vs. non-member spend rates across 72 dealerships, the results were significant:

Ÿ Average non-member per customer pay RO: $191.32

Ÿ Average member spend per customer pay RO: $235.01 (an increase of $43.69)

Ÿ Annualized total non-member service spend per 12 months: $336.63

Ÿ Annualized total member service spend per 12 months: $662.01 (increase of $325.38)

Dealerships with increased customer pay ROs and annualized spending credit their loyalty programs, citing higher customer retention rates and increased frequency of visits as reasons.

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the fourth blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on service visitation.  This week’s topic is retail member spend.

Member spend is viewed as money that loyalty members actually spend in a dealer’s service department, both by individual RO and by annualized spend. Visit frequency is one key component, but perhaps more important is wallet share.

When we compared member spend vs. non-member spend rates across 72 dealerships, the results were significant:

Ÿ Average non-member per customer pay RO: $191.32

Ÿ Average member spend per customer pay RO: $235.01 (an increase of $43.69)

Ÿ Annualized total non-member service spend per 12 months: $336.63

Ÿ Annualized total member service spend per 12 months: $662.01 (increase of $325.38)

Dealerships with increased customer pay ROs and annualized spending credit their loyalty programs, citing higher customer retention rates and increased frequency of visits as reasons.

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the third blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on sales-to-service conversion. This week’s topic is service visitation rates.

Service visitation measures the rate at which loyalty program members are visiting the dealership’s service department for customer-pay retail transactions. Members’ visitation rates were then compared to that of non-members during the same period of time. Here are some of the results:

• Members have an average of 4.26 months between service visits, compared to an average 6.82 months between visits for non-members.

• Members visits service departments an average of 2.82 times per year, compared to non-members visiting an average of 1.76 times per year.

Only when the service department has an opportunity to service a customer can parts and labor profit opportunities be created. Our study found that rewards-based loyalty programs create more active and frequent visits. Do you track the average frequency of visits for your service customers? How do your numbers compare with these?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent.

This is the third blog in a five-part series where I explain how loyalty programs improve each of these metrics. Last week I touched on sales-to-service conversion. This week’s topic is service visitation rates.

Service visitation measures the rate at which loyalty program members are visiting the dealership’s service department for customer-pay retail transactions. Members’ visitation rates were then compared to that of non-members during the same period of time. Here are some of the results:

• Members have an average of 4.26 months between service visits, compared to an average 6.82 months between visits for non-members.

• Members visits service departments an average of 2.82 times per year, compared to non-members visiting an average of 1.76 times per year.

Only when the service department has an opportunity to service a customer can parts and labor profit opportunities be created. Our study found that rewards-based loyalty programs create more active and frequent visits. Do you track the average frequency of visits for your service customers? How do your numbers compare with these?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent. This blog will address the first of these: marketing responsiveness.

In a recent study, we tracked 14.8 million loyalty-based marketing communications and matched those communications to specific labor operation codes in the dealerships’ service DMS. Here are the results:

• Average number of unique loyalty-based communications sent by dealer every month: 6.36 (Note that not all members received every communication.)
• Average number of individual loyalty-based communications sent per month, per dealer: 32,643
• Average number of service appointments derived from loyalty communications per month, per dealer: 177
• Average number of loyalty communications required to garner one service appointment: 184

Knowing how many communications are necessary to garner an appointment makes it easy for service departments to achieve their goals.

How do you track the ROI and effectiveness of your marketing communications?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”

Dealerships with the most effective loyalty programs drive results in five key areas: marketing responsiveness, sales-to-service conversion, service visitation, retail member spend and member repurchase intent. This blog will address the first of these: marketing responsiveness.

In a recent study, we tracked 14.8 million loyalty-based marketing communications and matched those communications to specific labor operation codes in the dealerships’ service DMS. Here are the results:

• Average number of unique loyalty-based communications sent by dealer every month: 6.36 (Note that not all members received every communication.)
• Average number of individual loyalty-based communications sent per month, per dealer: 32,643
• Average number of service appointments derived from loyalty communications per month, per dealer: 177
• Average number of loyalty communications required to garner one service appointment: 184

Knowing how many communications are necessary to garner an appointment makes it easy for service departments to achieve their goals.

How do you track the ROI and effectiveness of your marketing communications?

More information on this topic can be found in our free ebook, “The Hard Facts and Financial Impact Report: Auto Dealership Loyalty Programs & The Effects They Have on Profitability.”