Customer relationship management in the car trade
An increasing proportion of the sales of car dealers comes from car servicing and other auxiliary services. And competition is tough particularly in larger cities.
A company offering authorised servicing was struggling with the problem of how to differentiate itself from other, competing servicing dealers.
Putting the customer register into use
Luckily, the company had at its disposal a register of people who had bought a car from its own shop. The register contained not only the buyer’s contact information, but also the make and model of the car. Next, the company created, in co-operation with a mailing company, a customer relationship management programme.
The programme makes use of the life cycle of the purchased car by approaching the owner systematically according to assumed servicing needs. The company sends regular invitations to a vehicle inspection, autumn service and annual service, for example. The invitations even contain a suggestion for a service time, but the time of this service is of course at the convenience of the customer.
Using the Itella’s Address Services is a good way to ensure that the customer register is always up to date.
Loyalty generates profit
The results have been amazing! The response rate was high from the beginning, and the customers also rewarded the company by becoming even more loyal.
Besides bringing in a profit, the programme helps the company to fully utilise its servicing capacity, enabling it to manage the use of the capacity through invitations.
