A new customer retention solution for General Motors
General Motors' 8,000 dealerships throughout the US are being offered an in-vehicle merchandising (IVM) solution from Reynolds & Reynolds, which aims to increase both service and parts revenue by encouraging customers to return to their dealers regularly.
The solution is easy and relatively cheap to implement, and measures specific customer retention and loyalty-building efforts, providing cross-selling opportunities at each customer contact point (such as when a customer brings his car in for service). Up to six promotional offers can be made available at any one time.
How it works Several methods are used to attract customers' attention:
- A control number: Placed in the customer's vehicle, the control numbers are consecutive and customisable, enabling retailers to assign different codes to different service teams to easily identify which team worked on a specific vehicle.
- A care card: Hand-delivered directly to the customer, care cards contain six pressure sensitive coupons, along with dealership information. The card and coupons are customisable.
- A key tag: Attached to the customer's key ring, the key tag also contains a coupon as well as a write-on surface.
- Reminder stickers: Stickers can be placed on the door jamb or windscreen of the customer's car, serving as a reminder of their next tyre rotation or lubricant service, for example.
- Direct mail postcards: Containing built-in care card and coupon incentives, postcards can be mailed to customers who have not returned to the dealership within the past 12 months. The cards are customisable, and can carry four peel-off coupons.
More incentives According to Reynolds and Reynolds, its IVM solution gives customers another reason to want to do business with a particular dealership. For every car that comes in for service, several opportunities are created for repeat business.
"One dealership told us of a 38% increase in oil change business in the first month of using IVM," said Tom Suttmiller, senior vice president of Reynolds. The company already supplies data-driven marketing solutions to GM retailers, including service reminders, reactivation programmes and a variety of other campaign management services.
More Info: