One of my biggest secrets to bringing customers back into our showroom is my Customer Relations person. They are part of my BDC crew but her title is Customer Relations Representative. This is our way as a dealership to separate ourselves from the salesmanship mentality, giving a customer to trust that they are speaking with someone who wants to know how their visit went. Many dealers have their salespeople or sales manager make the next day thank you for visiting call but we have our Customer Relations Representative contact our unsold showroom traffic. I found in my experiences that when a sales manager and or a salesperson made those follow up next day calls customers do simple one liners such as “still looking”, “not in the market”, or “I will call you”. With my customer relations person they take out the threat of a sales tactic. The customer truly gets the feeling our dealership wants to know how their visit went and if they had any additional questions. Many times it opens the flood gates as to how poor our salesman were or how they did not like the sales managers attitude. More often though, many express on how they did not receive enough for their trade and we were not able to get to the payments they wanted. With those statements from our customer triggers my Customer relations person to ask appropriate questions such as: I’m sorry to hear that we were not able to get to where you wanted to be, but if we could re visit your deal with my sales manager and get to your number or close to it will you come back into our dealership? Majority say yes of course, then I the BDC Manager receives the deal, takes a look at what and how the customer was treated and find out why our sales floor did not sell the customer when they had been in the showroom. I then negotiate with my sales manager to either push the trade or take off on the sales price that was presented to the customer. The Customer Relations person is to handle all unsold traffic floor ups and internet ups.
Some Customer examples:
Example 1:
A customer had come into our showroom and was greeted by a salesperson just as they always do. Customer wanted to be at a certain price on one of our used cars and the sales manager would not agree to sell the car at that point to the customer for the price they wanted. My customer relations person called to find out how their visit went. The customer expressed that the dealer was not willing to negotiate and that she wanted to be at a particular price out the door. They had been waiting for a call back from the salesperson which they had still not received. My customer relations person asked what car they were working on and the number they needed to be at, the customer expressed concern as how are you going to help me if I was already at your dealership and they were not willing to do anything then. The customer relations person response was my sales manager re visits the deal and that if we can get you to the price on that car you will come back in? Since a relationship was developed with the customer relations person they found out the problem as to why she need to be at a certain price it was because she was approved through her credit union and wanted to purchase that car with them but we had been able to get her a better interest rate and to put the difference of our price of $265 dollars on her credit card we could make the deal happen. We didn’t do anymore on the price, but since the relationship was built and found out more details as a non salesperson we had been able to convince her of purchasing the vehicle with us and not changing the sales price.
Example2:
A customer had little and not much credit pretty much a ghost is how they described them. The sales manager did not waste too much time with them and expressed that we were not able to get them financed. Once my customer relations person had followed up and discussed what happen during their visit my representative was able to discover that a family member could provide $10,000 towards a purchase of a car and was able to come back down and bought one of our pre -owned car.
Example 3:
A customer’s vehicle choice of trim and model had to be located from another dealer. The particular salesperson they had in the showroom avoided locates at all costs. Once my customer relations person was able to talk with the customer so much information was collected they were able to find out that we need another salesperson to work this deal so we could find the car for this customer and sell it.
Below are some word tracks, scripts, and follow up process ideas:
Unsold Showroom Follow up Contact
1 day after visit Phone- BDC Thank you for visiting
2 day after visit Phone/email- BDC if did not contact 1st day after visit attempt another call- then unsold email
3 day after visit Phone- BDC Thank you for visiting
7 day after visit Phone- BDC Thank you for visiting- depending on previous contact
21 day after visit Phone- Are you still interested in make or model? Depending on previous contact-
Schedule appropriate phone/email based off the follow contact above- you are responsible for assigning your phone calls where you see appropriate
1 Day after visit (phone)
BDC Rep: Hi, may I please speak with (customer name)
Customer: This is (customer name)
BDC Rep: Hi, (customer name), this is (BDC Rep name) from the customer relations department at Ray Price (make) the reason for my call is to thank you for visiting our showroom and to make sure your questions have been answered and to see how your visit had went with (salesperson).
If yes: Great, do you have an idea of when you would be visiting or seeing (salesperson) again? Is there a message I can relay to him to help assist in your buying process?
Voicemail message:
If no: (This is where you may find out if the customer liked or disliked the sales representative, bring to appropriate managers attention for this customer service situation to be handled)
If customer does not want to work with Salesperson, offer alternative solutions such as:
Working with another salesperson
Working directly with a sales manager
If resistance: explain that we are looking for any feedback that could help us improve how they were treated in the sales department. It’s important to our dealership that we know how to improve.
More options for a process:
Unsold Traffic:
Guidelines to Succeed in Unsold Showroom traffic
- Reconcile daily to make sure the up count matches the number logged. It’s important to make sure all customers had been logged the previous day by the sales representatives or sales managers.
- BDC handles the call as customer relations call, BDC has a strong sense of confidence and belief towards the customer so customer show that we care here to assist on any situation
- BDC handles all objection and issues regarding the customers visit in the showroom, and brings the issues good/bad to the BDC/General Manager
Process for Unsold
Next day follow up call is to ask customer how visit went, if a message is left assign again later that day- Do not leave message on 2nd attempt. If cannot reach by phone send unsold email
Day 3: make an attempt for call but do not leave a message, only one message should be left with in a 72 hour period especially if the salesperson has called the customer.
Day 5: Watch the salespersons follow up; make sure that salesperson has not yet already talked with customer
Depending on what happened after day 1-3 will determine follow up for next steps
If customer is not sure of when they are ready to purchase:
Follow up calls every 5 days up to 30 days
After 31 days call once a month
If left message during this process use to your best knowledge of appropriate follow up
If customer bought elsewhere, transfer to BDC manager so it can be kept track of
IF customer has email address:
Next day: Unsold email
3 Day: KIT email
5 Day: (email) Incentive?
7 Day: Unsold Email
12 Day: KIT email BDC
Once a month, KIT email
Jenna Dellanno
Business Development Manager
Ray Price Auto Group
raypricecars.com
