HOW IT WORKS:
When Gregg Perry purchased Best Auto in Longmont, Colo., roughly two years ago, the shop’s former owner had little to no processes in place for customer retention.
“He had a great reputation and good things going for him but he really didn’t stay in touch with the customer,” Perry says.
Perry began using MOTOSHOP’s MotoREV Shop Marketing system, which integrates with his shop management system to help attract, retain and connect with customers. Perry can use the system to send personalized email service reminders, postcards, coupons, as well as track a customer’s service and maintenance history. The system is also used to collect reviews, which he can then integrate onto his shop’s website. To date, there are more than 110 reviews, which are all real time and instantly added—good or bad.
Now, Perry’s shop reaches out to all customers one of two ways: Either with a postcard—if they haven’t seen the customer within the last six months—or a service reminder email, alerting the customer that their vehicle may be ready to come in.
“As a business, it’s harder to acquire a customer than to keep them,” Perry says. “I really want to get after the customer base we have and make sure that one, they’re being notified and two, they write a review. As well as letting the customer know about service reminders. I think a lot of people appreciate those things these days. It gets the customer in the door and thinking of us more often.”
Perry worked with his representative from MOTOSHOP to initially set up the postcards and service reminders. He says this took a few days and he used both pre-existing templates offered and customized his own postcards and emails. Although the set up took considerable time, he says it made maintaining his new strategy easier in the future.
“What I liked about the program was that you don’t have to spend a lot of time once you set the initial postcard up, as well as email. After that, it automatically does it. There’s not a lot of effort on my part any longer that I necessarily have to do to keep it up and going,” Perry says. “I know how much time it can take if you’re just doing it if it’s ongoing. There’s less effort but there’s still a lot going on in the background.”
THE RETURN:
Perry says that since starting the program in July 2014, the shop has reaped numerous benefits. First, he says that he on average gets 3.2 visits per year for people on the program, versus 2.1 visits for those not on the program. In addition, he says that his annual revenue for those on the program is $500 more annually.
“Just by that alone, that tells me that the programs are working,” he says.
