Connecting the Customer Journey for Improved Engagement and Retention

Written by John Clavadetscher

Excited for NADA 2024! 🚗 I just dove into Brian Pasch’s post on “The Disconnected Customer Journey,” and Brian hits the nail on the head, highlighting the fragmented nature of first-party data management and how it consequently impacts the dealer’s ability to optimize communications and marketing. The challenges are real. Amazon’s CEO continues to state that Amazon is entering selling cars and they enter markets where there is a tremendous opportunity to improve the customer experience.

Importantly, the opportunities of understanding and then communicating/engaging with your customers are tremendous. According to a recent Harvard Business Review, improving your relationships with your current customers is 5X- 25X more effective and efficient than conquest spend and marketing activities. Importantly, most of the conquest marketing efforts leads to a decreased retention as the communications are disconnected and do not demonstrate a knowledge of their customers- a HUGE turn off for consumers based on their experiences outside of automotive.

Let’s talk customer retention: Most dealers believe that their retention of their current customers is better than it is based on the lack of proper data as well as different and inconsistent OEM rules. At Outsell, we process over 64M car owners’ lifecycle daily, and we see that the average dealership sales retention is between 25-40%. Yet, after leveraging Outsell, customer sales retention can increase customer retention by 35%. Using the same personalized engagement drives a 41% increase in Repair Orders to your customers. The cost savings of focusing on improving your knowledge of your customers and how you communicate to them drives incremental revenue and saves the average dealership/dealer groups considerable marketing spend.

The future of Automotive retailing is built around customer engagement and a view of the customer’s needs. Helping dealers compete in this ever-changing landscape is something we do best. If you are at NADA, swing by our booth to chat (4801 W) and explore how Outsell can take your efforts and results to the next level in 2024.

John