What is so important about loyal customer? re:member group's very own VPO Tim Clemens breaks it down in a helpful YouTube video clip. See why loyal customers drive more profit to your dealership here: Why are Loyal Customers Important?

I think it’s safe to say we won’t be getting any more snow for a while in Minnesota (I say that with 51% certainty). Since I’ve finally thawed out after the nastiest winter I’ve had in years, I decided to make the most out of the good weather and bought a bike. There’s a bike path near my house that goes all the way to downtown Minneapolis.

Your dealership is great. Otherwise you wouldn’t work there, right?

But how do you show people how great the customer experience is, without ‘differentiating’ like the other guys?

Too often, I view dealership websites that say the same thing as everyone else, even if it may be true in their case.

‘Best service in (city), guaranteed.’

‘No one will beat our prices.’

‘Our staff are your neighbors, and provide unmatched customer service.’

While these may be true (especially the fact that your staff may live in the neighborhood they sell to), your competition has every right to say them as well. And they will.

So what can you do to provide an experience the other guys can’t? One suggestion is a sincere follow-up from the sale. Given, this isn’t in the dealership, but it is an important piece to let customers know they’re appreciated. It’s much better than a template email asking to complete a survey. To me, nothing says ‘we’re done with you’ than a form email.

This is only a suggestion, but what are some truly unique things you do in your dealership that are TRULY different from the guys down the block?

Will Michaelson

re:member group

Business Development Manager

will@remembergroup.com

If you weren’t able to make it out to the 13^th Digital Dealer Conference, you’re in luck! The Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is going virtual December 5-11. In that time, you can check out the vendor programs and services as seen in the 13^th Digital Dealer Exhibit Hall, and also experience the top ten educational sessions on demand 24/7 anywhere with Internet access.

We at the re:member group will have a virtual exhibit there – just click on us in the Exhibitors list! From there, you can check out Nate Sieveking’s session from DD13, ‘Treat Your Customers Like Dogs’, and you can even take a look at ‘The Great Differentiator’, the loyalty platform we’ve built to help our clients reward and keep their most valuable customers.

Every day of the seven day event a dealership attendee will win a free registration to the 14^thDigital Dealer Conference & Exposition May 7-9, 2013 in Orlando, FL. It’s free to register, so check it out at www.DDVirtualExpo.com! I’m available for live chat from 9am – 6pm EST on December 6^th and 7^th, as well as on the 10^th and 11^th. Come say hi when you have a chance!

Will

(952) 224-8002

Will@remembergroup.com

This summer has been a series of ups and downs for the hockey fan in me. On July 4th, I got to see my hometown Minnesota Wild pick up the 2 best free agents on the market, along with a few solid core players. In the weeks that have passed, I’ve gone from figuring out where the championship parade would begin, to accepting that the NHL may be cancelled this year.

That’s classic Minnesota sports luck for you: Fans get hopeful and excited about a great team, then something gums up the works and the excitement quickly fades. What a buzzkill.

Think about your last vehicle purchase, and the lengthy process you had to go through, even after you made the purchase. For me, it was quite like the high-and-crash I saw with the Wild.

I went with a friend and test drove a car. I was in love on the spot, and my logical friend saw the benefits in the car, as well as how well it was taken care of. The price was right, and I wanted to buy it then and there. My friend tells me to this day I was so giddy about the car in the salesman’s office he nearly had to slap me to bring me back to earth.

That was true excitement. Like ‘2 free agents to my team’ excited.

Then came the post-purchase discussions. Paperwork and F&I offerings. Excitement turned to impatience. I certainly understand the paperwork and after-sell is required, but I couldn’t believe how much fun I wasn’t having.

I know instant gratification isn’t always the best, and that you have to wait for some things. But why not make it fun in the meantime? While discussing paperwork, go over the great features of the car again. Get the customer even more fired up to be driving off the lot. My overall emotion after the purchase was relief after it was done. I was excited, sure, but also a little exhausted in the process.

Now, obviously this is just one experience at one dealership. How about you? Are your dealerships ‘fans’ fired up about buying a car from you, or are they just fatigued by your sales process?

Will Michaelson

Sales Associate

952.224.8002 (Office)

Will@remembergroup.com

I’ll admit it. I fear bringing my vehicle in for service as much as visiting the dentist. I recently brought my car in for service, and for some reason, it reminded me of a routine dental check-up. Bear with me on this analogy.

Just like you want your teeth to stay white and strong, you want your car to run in tip-top shape. However, when the time finally comes to go back in for a check-up, you curl up in the fetal position, and softly cry (That’s what I do, at least, you may just cringe in fear).

Isn’t there something wrong with this? Do you want your customers dreading their next visit to your service department?

I was not looking forward to bringing my vehicle in for service, but was pleasantly surprised when it was over. Happy enough to say, boldly, that I will go back and service my vehicle with that specific department again. Let me tell you why:

As a customer, I love being in the know. If my dentist pulled out a drill without warning me what was going on, I’d be a little terrified.  I feel better when I’m taken through a process, and the same thing goes for service visits.

The technician tasked with my car said I could call and see where he was on my car anytime during the process, and I took advantage of that a few times. It was nice to know what was going on with my car, and how much longer it’d be in for.

Friendliness was also a key factor in my experience. My dentist’s receptionist knows I love hockey, and we discussed the playoffs at length before my check-up. Just like at the dentist, the technicians looked genuinely happy to see me, and I felt comfortable when discussing the service. It made me feel better dropping the car off there. This was my first service with them, but it felt like I was a regular there to them.

There were no surprises in my bill, either. If your dentist forgot to mention they pulled a tooth and charged you for it, how would you feel? The same goes for service. Everything the service department did to my vehicle was visible on the service order, and there were no surprises.

Are you providing your customers with friendly service, along with details on the process at hand? If you are, chances are your customers won’t treat their next service visit like a root canal.

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Spinal Tap”.  It’s a classic.  People remember it, even though it was filmed 20 years ago.  Lines are quoted, songs are hummed, and people have parties dedicated to it.  I can quote nearly every line of the movie.   Not a great movie, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one of the move beloved films of all time.

Turns out, you can learn a bunch about Customer Loyalty from the movie.  I’m not kidding, check it out:

1. There’s a fine line between stupid and clever. 
   Don’t be afraid to try new things in your loyalty program.  New promotions, different types of bonus point awards, and referral bonuses may be just the trick.  You don’t know what’s really stupid and what’s clever until you try it out, so go for it.
2. An 18 inch Stonehenge monument tends to understate the hugeness of the overall presentation.
   This was a disaster for the band.  Don’t undersell your loyalty program in the store.  Make sure it’s big and prominent; otherwise you could end up looking pretty silly.  Successful loyalty programs become part of their brand identity – it’s who they are.  If you look at Amazon Prime or World Perks, it’s plastered all over their website.  It’s who they are.
3. If you keep folding the sandwich, the bread keeps breaking!
   If something isn’t working, try something new.  Don’t keep trying the same thing over and over again hoping for the different results.  Einstein called that insanity.
4. While David and Nigel are like fire and ice, Derek feels his role is sort of in the middle, kind of like lukewarm water.
   Derek was also the least popular member of the band, because his glory was drowned out by the bigger members of the band.  Fans screamed for David and Nigel, because they pushed it to the limit.  Don’t be drowned out by your competition.  Be the first to market – do it big, do it first, do it best.
5. And of course, their amps go to eleven.
   Nigel didn’t mess around.  When all the other guys were maxed out on their sound, he found a way to give it that little “push off the cliff”.  Don’t be stuck with nowhere else to go.  Think out of the box and add another notch to your arsenal.   When Marti suggested that Nigel just make the 10 louder, Nigel didn’t understand why Marti didn’t recognize the genius of his plan.  Find your great differentiator, your unfair competitive advantage.  Find that thing that makes your competitors say, “I wish I had thought of that!”   Go to eleven.

re:member group provides loyalty marketing solution that produce results.  We may not bring screaming women to your doorsteps, but our loyalty products have shown results on average a $17 ROI and measureable customer profits.  At the very least, you’ll have one thing in common with one of the toughest bands of all time:  Adoring fans.

I like Facebook. It’s a nice place to check up on my friends, and see what’s going on that day.  I also check Twitter occasionally. Social Media is a great way to share pictures and news pertinent to me, but there’s one thing I don’t go on these sites for, and that’s to be sold on something.

I recently read a blog post on Hanafin Loyalty’s website, titled ‘An Open Letter to Millennials’ (you can find that blog post here), where the author asks Millennial consumers how they prefer to be contacted about products. My answer to him? I don’t. At least not over social media outlets.

I know I might be burned at the stake for my opinions on social media advertising, but this post interested me. I am a big fan of traditional advertising, and the primary reason for that is because it isn’t as intrusive as new media.

One part of that blog that caught me was when the author asked about connecting with Millennial consumers over a text message. That left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t much like the thought of a company having my phone number and texting me news from their company, or the latest and greatest product.  This feels like an invasion of privacy to me, similar to telemarketer calls during dinner. I love being connected to the world, but I want it on my terms.

By now businesses should know not to constantly bombard their followers with product offerings, and instead provide information relevant to consumers. I love companies that show their human side, providing trivia in status updates to get consumers interacting, but many companies still see social media as an extra marketing ‘weapon’.

Maybe I’m being too old-fashioned, but I’ll take a 30-second spot about a new car over a status update on it any day.

This was more of a rant, but I do have a question: Are you using Facebook more to connect with your fans, or sell to them?

Will Michaelson

Sales Associate

Re:member group

Phone: 952.224.8002

Building customer loyalty comes down to one thing: Delighting customers. As I discussed in my last blog, we begin to delight customers by The Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.

At the re:member group, we know that a systematic approach to building customer loyalty works. Our Dealership programs yield an increase of service revenue by as much as 39 percent among Members and have increased sales by 7.5 percent. But I’ll be the first to admit that our Loyalty Marketing Solutions are simply a tool, and successful only in companies that are dedicated to building customer loyalty by treating customers the way they want to be treated.

This starts with hiring the right people. This is so important, it bears repeating: If you want to build customer loyalty, hire the right people. Your staff has the power to earn the enthusiastic loyalty of your customers by creating economically rational ways to delight them. Delighting customers means putting kindness and intelligence into action. Quite often, a customer is delighted by something small that doesn’t cost a great deal of money—for example Bonus Points, or a spontaneous offer to wash the customer’s car or print discount coupons to the restaurant down the street.

You can’t script or incentivize employees to delight customers, however. Doing so makes the gesture mechanical, and defeats its purpose. At the same time, scripting or incentivizing shouldn’t be necessary if you have the right people. If you have hired the right people, they come to work motivated to delight customers. In short, you don’t need to pay them extra to delight a customer, because they already see it as part of their job.

One sales person we know is stuck in the sixties, still using expressions like “right on” and “groovy.” But he makes such an impression on his customers, they write him notes telling him they love their “groovy new car.”

Let’s face it. Companies aren’t equipped to train core values. Our parents either did, or didn’t, do that a long time ago. Companies are equipped to hire the right people, though—those that have an inner desire to delight customers. Companies are also equipped to give these people the opportunity to do it.

What are you doing to delight customers? If you’re an employer, are you hiring the right people? If you’re an employee, are you enriching the lives of your customers, and those you work for?

If you’ve ever worked in retail sales, electronics or otherwise, you’ve probably seen my type walk through your store doors. The type who knows what they want, and will spend as little effort and time to get that product, before abruptly leaving. When I need to get something at an electronics store (maybe an auxiliary cable or that new video game I shouldn’t be wasting my money on), I head right for the item I need, grab it, and get out of the store as soon as I can.

For lack of a better term at the moment, I would call these your ‘hit-and-run’ customers, and they can be a challenge to sell on anything but their needed product. I’m not like that all the time, and many times I leave stores wondering why I wasn’t asked for assistance. This happens particularly in bigger purchases that require thought about future benefits the product will give me.

I recently bought a new stereo from a big-box electronics store. I’m not very knowledgeable in new electronics, but I had an idea of what I wanted. A sales associate approached me, and after asking me a few questions of what I wanted, he directed me to a few specific stereos and described why I should choose them over the others. He helped me through the selection process, and made sure all of my needs were met. I left the store paying more than I expected, with a product he helped me choose. I want to come back to this store, and I feel that if I need help in the future, their staff is more than able to help.

If he hadn’t approached me that day, I could’ve spent much less and gotten a product I wasn’t happy with.

Do you make sure your customers’ needs are met, or are they prompted to visit your store and dash?