Everyone knows Valentine’s Day celebrates the ladies. That’s why Bristol Toyota Scion in Bristol RI, recently used LoyaltyTrac, their service rewards program, to conduct an email campaign centered on Valentine’s Day being “Ladies’ Day”. Colorful, Valentine’s-themed emails were sent to all of their service reward members, with the Subject Line: Be Our Valentine - View Your Gift Inside. The email included an offer: Ladies Receive $15 Off Any Service of $35 or More. The campaign ran on 2/10/12, with available redemption being from 2/10-2/18.

This was the first LoyaltyTrac promotion Bristol Toyota Scion had ever done to its service reward members and it resulted in a very heartening open rate of 58.33%, far surpassing the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMS) average of 12-14% for opt-in lists.

Other LoyaltyTrac auto dealerships have achieved similar results with this Valentine Day-themed email campaign.  Howdy Honda in Austin, Texas, ran the same campaign and enjoyed an open rate of over 30%. The campaign also resulted in 41 service appointments scheduled and a nice profit too: estimated campaign revenue to date of more than $8,700.

Specially designed email campaigns themed around holidays and events can boost return business throughout the year. It's key to engage users with content that is informative, easy to digest and adds value. Good Luck!

Everyone knows Valentine’s Day celebrates the ladies. That’s why Bristol Toyota Scion in Bristol RI, recently used LoyaltyTrac, their service rewards program, to conduct an email campaign centered on Valentine’s Day being “Ladies’ Day”. Colorful, Valentine’s-themed emails were sent to all of their service reward members, with the Subject Line: Be Our Valentine - View Your Gift Inside. The email included an offer: Ladies Receive $15 Off Any Service of $35 or More. The campaign ran on 2/10/12, with available redemption being from 2/10-2/18.

This was the first LoyaltyTrac promotion Bristol Toyota Scion had ever done to its service reward members and it resulted in a very heartening open rate of 58.33%, far surpassing the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMS) average of 12-14% for opt-in lists.

Other LoyaltyTrac auto dealerships have achieved similar results with this Valentine Day-themed email campaign.  Howdy Honda in Austin, Texas, ran the same campaign and enjoyed an open rate of over 30%. The campaign also resulted in 41 service appointments scheduled and a nice profit too: estimated campaign revenue to date of more than $8,700.

Specially designed email campaigns themed around holidays and events can boost return business throughout the year. It's key to engage users with content that is informative, easy to digest and adds value. Good Luck!

“The customer is always right.” was coined and made famous by retailers including Selfridges and Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s) around the turn of the 20th century. It’s a phrase that most of our parents and grandparents had ingrained into their brains as children, and yet it somehow appears to have been lost in translation among the generations – and businesses – born within the last 20 to 30 years.

We are all human and we all make mistakes – businesses and customers alike, but if you want to strengthen the relationships you have with your customers and keep them loyal, then knowing exactly who is right and who is wrong doesn’t matter in most situations. The important thing to focus on is that the customer always deserves to be treated right and with a professional respect and courtesy.

As a business, you must decide where that line is going to be drawn, and then be consistent. When a customer crosses the “unacceptable behavior” line, your concern should not be for the customer so much as for your employee and your business. The Customer Service Point article explains that “when a customer actually does cross the line, you can tell them that you no longer want their business. And at that point, they cease to have the right to be right.

“The customer is always right. But not all customers need to stay customers.”

Do you think the saying, “The customer is always right” is still important for businesses today? Why? Why not?

Source: Excerpted from DrivingRetention.com and The Customer Service Point, February 2012.

“The customer is always right.” was coined and made famous by retailers including Selfridges and Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s) around the turn of the 20th century. It’s a phrase that most of our parents and grandparents had ingrained into their brains as children, and yet it somehow appears to have been lost in translation among the generations – and businesses – born within the last 20 to 30 years.

We are all human and we all make mistakes – businesses and customers alike, but if you want to strengthen the relationships you have with your customers and keep them loyal, then knowing exactly who is right and who is wrong doesn’t matter in most situations. The important thing to focus on is that the customer always deserves to be treated right and with a professional respect and courtesy.

As a business, you must decide where that line is going to be drawn, and then be consistent. When a customer crosses the “unacceptable behavior” line, your concern should not be for the customer so much as for your employee and your business. The Customer Service Point article explains that “when a customer actually does cross the line, you can tell them that you no longer want their business. And at that point, they cease to have the right to be right.

“The customer is always right. But not all customers need to stay customers.”

Do you think the saying, “The customer is always right” is still important for businesses today? Why? Why not?

Source: Excerpted from DrivingRetention.com and The Customer Service Point, February 2012.

In a recent article on Forbes.com, “The Final Frontier: Customer Expectations,” Robert Passikoff points to a shift in the past 15 years: customer expectations have increased significantly, rising 24 percent in all categories. After explaining how customer loyalty is measured and providing an example from the wireless carrier industry, Passikoff concludes, “…brands that are able to better meet – even exceed – growing customer expectations always end up on the top of the list.”

Tying customer loyalty scores to customer expectations is not the answer. Why? Loyalty scores are important, but they don’t take into account all the reasons customers stick with a company. The “how well” question is the field of loyalty. The “if/if not solved” is the field of performance.

Until we come up with a “complacency” or “frustrated and stuck” index and begin dissecting truly loyal, enthusiastic consumers from those who don’t have the time or resources to navigate the breaking of a contract, loyalty is one metric – but not the most important metric we can fully trust to drive improvements in customer experience and organization performance.

What is more important: exceeding customer expectations or solving customers’ problems?

Source: Driving Retention and Business2Community.com, February, 2012. Author, Linda Ireland.

In a recent article on Forbes.com, “The Final Frontier: Customer Expectations,” Robert Passikoff points to a shift in the past 15 years: customer expectations have increased significantly, rising 24 percent in all categories. After explaining how customer loyalty is measured and providing an example from the wireless carrier industry, Passikoff concludes, “…brands that are able to better meet – even exceed – growing customer expectations always end up on the top of the list.”

Tying customer loyalty scores to customer expectations is not the answer. Why? Loyalty scores are important, but they don’t take into account all the reasons customers stick with a company. The “how well” question is the field of loyalty. The “if/if not solved” is the field of performance.

Until we come up with a “complacency” or “frustrated and stuck” index and begin dissecting truly loyal, enthusiastic consumers from those who don’t have the time or resources to navigate the breaking of a contract, loyalty is one metric – but not the most important metric we can fully trust to drive improvements in customer experience and organization performance.

What is more important: exceeding customer expectations or solving customers’ problems?

Source: Driving Retention and Business2Community.com, February, 2012. Author, Linda Ireland.

Developing meaningful relationships with clients requires you to connect with them on a personal level. The more you know about a customer, the easier it is to sell them services and/or products that meet their individual needs. It also helps you determine which type of marketing the customer will be most receptive to.

Effectively engaging customers through direct marketing channels hinges on several key principles:

1. Start with the customer data.

Knowing how customers have responded to communications in the past allows you to better target them with your next communications. Use data to tailor your marketing to fit the individual needs of your customers.

2. Recognize and reward your best customers.

If your redemption rates are low, you are not giving the customers what they truly want or need. Find out what customers want and tailor your rewards accordingly.

3. Remain communication channel agnostic.

Combine the information you receive from customer data and your personal knowledge of the customer to choose the right communications channel. The best channels to use are the ones that are most effective.

How have you used your customer loyalty data to better target and reward your best customers?

Source: Excerpted from DrivingRetention.com and Direct Marketing Guide magazine, January 2012.

Developing meaningful relationships with clients requires you to connect with them on a personal level. The more you know about a customer, the easier it is to sell them services and/or products that meet their individual needs. It also helps you determine which type of marketing the customer will be most receptive to.

Effectively engaging customers through direct marketing channels hinges on several key principles:

1. Start with the customer data.

Knowing how customers have responded to communications in the past allows you to better target them with your next communications. Use data to tailor your marketing to fit the individual needs of your customers.

2. Recognize and reward your best customers.

If your redemption rates are low, you are not giving the customers what they truly want or need. Find out what customers want and tailor your rewards accordingly.

3. Remain communication channel agnostic.

Combine the information you receive from customer data and your personal knowledge of the customer to choose the right communications channel. The best channels to use are the ones that are most effective.

How have you used your customer loyalty data to better target and reward your best customers?

Source: Excerpted from DrivingRetention.com and Direct Marketing Guide magazine, January 2012.

Prepaid Maintenance Plans (PPMs) have traditionally been used as a customer retention tool by dealers, and rightfully so. Paying up front for services is a guaranteed way to get customers back into the service lane. But the pricing and structure of many PPMs administered by third parties did not make the plans very profitable for the dealerships, and even more important, for the customers.

The new generation of self-administered, self-managed PPM plans offer many benefits beyond customer retention—mainly, more revenue. PPM customers frequently purchase additional customer-pay retail parts and labor services that boost profitability.

Boosting PPM repair orders by upselling an additional $150 to $350 of retail customer-pay business adds serious money to the bottom line. A dealer who plugs a basic three-product PPM plan into every one of the 600 used units he or she sells each year can expect to generate more than $1.3 million in total incremental service revenue, even after factoring in a 55 percent utilization rate and plan costs.

So, given these upsell profit opportunities, why are some dealers' prior experiences with PPMs disappointing? Many have said that customers simply won't buy these plans. However, this may not tell the entire story. When those programs are examined, it is clear why customers wouldn't be interested — they were loaded with services of low value to the customer yet priced quite profitably for the dealership. This is unfortunate, as the nature of these plans and dealers' inability to sell the plans cost dealers much lost service business.

Newer, redesigned PPM programs help to eliminate this downside. Today's programs offer a wide range of products and services and are completely customizable to each dealership. They are also software-driven, handling once time-consuming chores like plan registration, service claim and premium submission. Because dealers control these programs, any reserve or forfeiture is immediate and goes directly to their bottom line.

Retention vs. revenue? A PPM should deliver both.

Prepaid Maintenance Plans (PPMs) have traditionally been used as a customer retention tool by dealers, and rightfully so. Paying up front for services is a guaranteed way to get customers back into the service lane. But the pricing and structure of many PPMs administered by third parties did not make the plans very profitable for the dealerships, and even more important, for the customers.

The new generation of self-administered, self-managed PPM plans offer many benefits beyond customer retention—mainly, more revenue. PPM customers frequently purchase additional customer-pay retail parts and labor services that boost profitability.

Boosting PPM repair orders by upselling an additional $150 to $350 of retail customer-pay business adds serious money to the bottom line. A dealer who plugs a basic three-product PPM plan into every one of the 600 used units he or she sells each year can expect to generate more than $1.3 million in total incremental service revenue, even after factoring in a 55 percent utilization rate and plan costs.

So, given these upsell profit opportunities, why are some dealers' prior experiences with PPMs disappointing? Many have said that customers simply won't buy these plans. However, this may not tell the entire story. When those programs are examined, it is clear why customers wouldn't be interested — they were loaded with services of low value to the customer yet priced quite profitably for the dealership. This is unfortunate, as the nature of these plans and dealers' inability to sell the plans cost dealers much lost service business.

Newer, redesigned PPM programs help to eliminate this downside. Today's programs offer a wide range of products and services and are completely customizable to each dealership. They are also software-driven, handling once time-consuming chores like plan registration, service claim and premium submission. Because dealers control these programs, any reserve or forfeiture is immediate and goes directly to their bottom line.

Retention vs. revenue? A PPM should deliver both.