Apple Ford’s ability to keep Customers sets them apart from the competition.

Apple Ford in Columbia, Maryland decided in 2004 that their focus would be on providing a customer experience that would lead to maximum customer retention. Today, this decision is impacting every department in the dealership and has changed everything from new and used car marketing to the quick lane. “Not only do we sell more cars, retention has helped us to grow service, parts and body shop,” said Apple Ford President Chip Doetsch. “We are in the process of expanding our second quick lane to accommodate the volume we have and set an all-time record in parts and service last month. Our retention initiative has had a major impact and has become an engine that drives subsequent business to every department.”

Let’s begin with how Apple Ford got its retention initiative started. The dealership knew that to really excel at customer retention across all departments, they needed it to be a part of the company’s collective soul. Every employee during every customer interaction would need to embrace this new dealership direction. This is apparent in the first two sentences of the “About Us” section on Apple Ford’s Website. “At Apple Ford Lincoln, we want every customer that walks through our door to be a customer for life,” Doetsch said. “We know from experience that nothing beats a courteous and respectful experience when it comes to buying cars, and we strive for the best for every driver who enters our showroom.”

With a mission in hand, Apple Ford sought out the technology and a partner to help them complete this dealership transformation. The leadership knew that they needed more than just technology to really make a difference in their business. They needed someone with experience that had already seen the mistakes made and solved the issues that would arise. They found an experienced partner that could help them hands on at the dealership to train every employee on how improve the customer experience and maximize retention. They relied on this partner for not only for technology and marketing but to help every employee at every level feel confident in their role to deliver the best customer experience and build retention.

The benefits of retention at Apple Ford are seen everywhere. “Our more than 100 percent absorption allows us to be as price effective and aggressive as we want to be,” Doetsch said. “We are often willing to go further than other dealers just to get a new customer into our retention machine. We know the future value of that customer will far exceed a little extra money on a trade or a little larger discount. Our OEM volume-based incentive program helps, too. Retained or repeat customers cost less to sell, so our average advertising cost has declined dramatically.” Apple Ford enjoys a 42 percent share of the parts and service dollars available in their market for the brands, where most dealers in the area average 25 percent. This means that Apple Ford is getting way more than their share of the parts and service revenue in their area.

“Our whole brand is built off of the relationship program,” said Apple Ford GSM James Koser. “We added lifetime powertrain in 2012 and this really differentiates us from the competition both near and far. About 40 percent of our sales come from out of state. Our OEM can change the incentives three times a month. We like to be first to let our customers know and can have custom creative the same day. We use our retention system to pull the list, have creative produced, send an email to relevant customers and track performance for continuous improvement. For the customers who don’t act right away, the system will let us know if they visit our site later and notify us so we can contact them, answer any questions and invite them in for a test drive. Both our past customers and new prospects benefit and the dealership sells more cars and grows our customer base.”

In a nutshell, over the last 12 years Apple Ford has enjoyed tremendous growth by implementing a comprehensive retention system and working with the right partner that has helped and mentored them along the way. It has truly become the value differentiator for them versus their competition. They have grown every department in the dealership and now have reinsurance on every vehicle. If this sounds like a story you would like to tell about your dealership a few years down the road, you should look into starting a retention program at your dealership.

Jack Garrity

Wikipedia defines “customer retention” as, “…the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship.” But, how do you achieve that, exactly? Based on 10 years of working with dealers of all makes and models scattered across the United States, I believe it can be summed up in a single word: culture.

The dealer must be willing to refine the culture of his business and how it relates to the customer. Almost all dealers “think” they do a good job at customer satisfaction, but when compared against the nationwide dealer network, they are pretty much all the same. Consequently, the customer perception of automotive dealers has not really changed much and, in fact, the perception was generally not that great to begin with. Changing the culture in the business model is essential in gaining a higher level of customer satisfaction, which results in retention rates that have not been seen before in the industry.

It is simply not good enough to design a customer-centric retention program without making sure that it includes the dealership staff. Getting 100-percent buy-in from every employee in the dealership is essential to achieving success with any retention program. You get engagement from your staff by training, monitoring and accountability.

Day One must include extensive group and one-on-one training be retention professionals who have the experience to establish professionals who have the experience to establish a foundation of understanding that everyone can easily understand. Every employee must know that this new culture is a “game changer,” and that there is a new way of doing business in your organization. Without the basic foundation, your program will begin with a few successes, but not the overwhelming results you should be seeing from it. The amount of time you devote to this training defines your level of commitment to your program. Too little time, and your employees will see this as just another “annoyance” and will continue to do “business as usual.” I recommend that one to two days be devoted to retention training at small-to medium-sized stores in order to accomplish the goal of creating a new culture.

Beginning with the day after training, your staff should be implementing your retention program with every customer encounter. You ensure this is done by constantly monitoring their work process to confirm it includes at every interaction with a customer the mention of your retention program. This must be done on a recurring daily basis, and with the goal of 100-percent compliance by every employee.

Holding your managers accountable for fully implementing your program should be the new norm – and not the exception. This can be done by continuing training and focusing on the new retention program at every opportunity. It is crucial that the dealer principal and general manager be the driver of this program in order for it to become culture.