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.

It is a well-known fact that today most customers that are in need (or want) of a new vehicle begin their shopping experience by going to the internet. It is probable that most people begin at the Internet for almost every major item they purchase. So it just makes a lot of sense that an automotive dealer use the same technology to market to his current customer base.  But, where does he start?

First, it is imperative that the Dealer do a review of his marketing expense and find the few things he is spending dollars on that either he can’t determine what the results are, or what he has “always done” but just is not working and giving a fair return on those spent dollars.

Secondly, the Dealer must be bold and decide to do something different from the norm and invest the found dollars into a marketing program that rewards his current customers with the goal of making them customers for life.

Third, put together a package of benefits that will give the customer reasons to use the Dealer for all their vehicles needs over the period of ownership. Studies have shown that a customer that returns to the selling dealer for all their vehicle servicing will re-purchase from that dealer over 85% of the time.

Finding a company that is experienced in providing the guidance and administration is critical in ensuring success.

Dealership For Life (DFL) is just such a marketing program. For over 7 years DFL has been helping dealers retain the customer after the initial sale by rewarding the customer with benefits that are exclusive to that Dealer. Using the internet to stay in regular communication with the customer on a variety of topics pertaining to their membership in a rewards program and issues relative to their vehicle is the technology of choice.

Once a Dealer makes a commitment to reward his current customers a series of standard communications is set up. The capture of the customers email address is done at the point of sale. This sets up what happens after the customer drives home in his new vehicle.

• First, he will receive an email directing him to their own personal Web Site where they will be able to manage their account, check points accumulation and review  service history.
• Next, he will receive a personal “Thank You”  letter from the Dealer welcoming him to the Rewards Program.
• He will receive a sales survey where he can let the dealer know about the purchase experience.  They will be rewarded with points for returning this survey. (keep in mind that this is a Dealer survey and should not be confused with the manufacturer survey, which they will receive within the first couple of weeks of ownership)
• At the beginning of each month of ownership the Dealer will email a statement showing the customers points records and service history
• Occasionally Dealer will send, via email, special “First to Know” announcements about what is happening at the dealership.  These will include specials on service, parts and accessories that will enhance the customers driving experience.

Each customer gets a personal web site. This is a dealer branded private and secure vehicle website. It was designed to allow the customer to easily take control of managing all aspects of his Rewards Program.

Features on the Rewards Web Site customers can explore are:

• My Points – See the value of the points they earn in both Service and Sales.
• My Benefits – A detailed explanation of what benefits they receive as a member of the Rewards Program-All at no additional charge!
• My Service History – A detailed record of every service visit.  Your customer will never have to wonder when and what was done to their vehicle.  Dealer will provide all the details.
• My Statement – Review an up to date statement of reward points earned through purchases, for one time and recurring events. They can also see a record of all points used.

Customer webpage also has links to all Dealer social media pages, Facebook and Twitter, so Customer can become a fan and remind their family and friends that they will be rewarded for introducing them to the Dealership.

Using the technology of the internet combined with a robust Loyalty Rewards Program, will pay dividends to the Dealer in the following areas (list not all inclusive):

1. Email capture rates go to 80% +, allowing all types of marketing to take place.
2. Repair Order count will increase due to a higher retention rate.
3. Retention of both New and Used Customers will more than double the National Average
4. With a strong Service department, the dollars generated per repair order will increase
5. Over a period of time dollars spent in traditional marketing will decrease
6. Create a sales environment that other dealers in the market area cannot compete with.
7. Because there is no increase in overall marketing dollars spent, sales become more competitive and will retain higher grosses.

For as long as I can remember, dealership service departments have strived to retain customers. From implementing proven processes to practically giving the store away. Change in business practices like change in customer behavior play a large role in what could determine the outcome of how often a customer will frequent your service department. We continuously monitor our staff in making certain they are engaged with customers. We research our pricing structure with focus on meeting the competitive market. Technician and adviser training is certainly up to date with factory requirements. Yet, we still struggle keeping every customer that had purchased a vehicle from the dealership coming directly to our service department for all service needs. I wonder if we have a real understanding to what service customers are looking for….

Once we start to understand that most all service departments are offering the same type of service to customers in terms of processes, pricing and availability, we must take a hard look at the concept of providing that one service every vehicle must have – and make that service beat any and all competition in every way. When your staff is offering great customer service and following the processes in place, customers would have no reason to defer their business to anyone else! Rewarding your customers with every visit has a much higher yield than a sporadic discount. The opportunity for relationship building begins, creating a captive audience… Now that’s the power of retention! Next, start planning for that steady increase of customers coming to your service department!

– Jack Garrity