By: Annette Clemens, Senior Project Manager and John Hardacre, Product Manager

Create long-term relationships with customers at your automotive dealership by gaining their trust. Existing customers are obvious candidates for equity mining opportunities, but they are not always ready to trade-in or purchase a new vehicle. Maintaining notes will keep you proactive, empathetic and knowledgeable in front of your customers and can help turn them into equity customers.

Be Proactive

Being proactive does not simply mean recording essential notes from customer conversations. Today’s automotive dealers must create action plans based on them and rely on these key reference points during follow up customer phone calls or mail pieces. If your customer mentions preparing for his or her daughter’s graduation, start off your next call by asking how it went. If your customer mentions that an anniversary is coming up, send a card as the next mail piece from your dealership. These proactive actions based on CRM notes build long term customer relationships that every dealership is driving toward.

Be Empathetic

A recent study by BARE International (2016) indicated that at least 40% of customers in a dealership felt that their vehicle needs and preference were ignored during the sale. Be empathetic; don’t presume to know what prospects want on your dealership lot. Review past notes and keep them updated to fully understand a customer’s present needs. Don’t show them a two-seater sports car if they just told you they had twins last month. Discuss vehicles based on past conversations and prove you are listening. Making the sales experience more personal fosters a long term relationship beyond the sale.

Be Knowledgeable

Successful selling is closely tied to confidence, and confidence comes from knowledge. The more you know your clients and products, the more knowledgeable you sound. As a result, your dealership’s customers will feel more comfortable. Use the CRM notes section to create questions and prepare for upcoming appointments. Afterwards, update notes with the answers to prepare for the next time they enter your dealership. Even if you made the sale, those notes will be useful when they enter an equity position again.

DealActivator – Your Ultimate Tool

DealActivator easily integrates customer notes into any CRM system. Dealers can send recent customer notes to the CRM individually with just a click or as a campaign batch in just 3 easy steps.

For more information on DealActivator call 877.421.1040.