Customer Retention Strategies Employed by the Automotive Brand Leaders

You might have learned and generated optimum results for your business when you started to implement marketing techniques and sales tactics similar to those that leading automotive brands have been doing for the past few years. That's good, since you've probably nailed customer acquisition down to a science by now. However, are you integrating the right customer retention strategies into your business operations?

Did you know that a business generally spends 600 to 1,000% more to acquire a new customer than to generate repeat sales from an existing one? And, have you heard about recent studies indicating that, on average, it's 60 to 70% more likely for small businesses and even established brands to convert their existing customers into repeat buyers, than it is to convert targeted prospects into new customers? This is where a set of optimized customer retention strategies can significantly help the bottom-line results of your automotive business.

To help you start out on the right foot when it comes to developing cost-effective customer retention strategies for your business - Found below are the top 3 ways that have been proven by many of the leading automotive brands to generate the best results for them. Keep these things in mind, and you'll be able to get more repeat sales and recommendations for your automotive venture:

Top 3 Customer Retention Strategies for Automotive Businesses

1. Get to really know your ideal prospects. Of course, among the best customer retention strategies is to start out with, well, getting the right customer. If you manage to successfully do this, then you're about half done when it comes to converting your new customer into repeat sales later on.

2. Identify the relevant profile details of your existing customers. This is among the most vital customer retention strategies that you should carefully think of. You can actually classify your customer base into different categories. For example, many young and trendy customers tend to be more interested in the latest and hottest car brands and models that everyone in town's talking about. Then, there's your minimalist customer who mainly prefers to drive a brand and model that he or she might be already more familiar with, i.e. This customer might have grown up with parents driving the same brand.

There's also your loyal customer who has, throughout the years, taken his or her family to your store when purchasing a car or acquiring any of your automotive services. This customer might be used to calling your sales agents and managers by their first names, or even regularly asks about their spouses and their latest holiday trips whenever this customer's at your business establishment. Well, there's a certain set of customer retention strategies for this customer, too.

And, there's your utilitarian customer whose main benefit from buying a car or acquiring any automotive service from your business is that your conveniently situated near his or her home and workplace. This customer might be sort of a no-nonsense type. They're ones who mainly go into your business establishment, ask around for the things they need, then go back later to take their cars and pay for your products and services. Believe it or not - There are still a certain set of customer retention strategies that can help increase your chances of getting repeat sales from this customer for years to come.

3. Conceptualize a set of marketing messages that resonate with each customer profile you have at this point. This means you should come up with a unique set of customer retention strategies for each customer type. For example, your loyal customer might prefer a personal touch when dealing with your business. So, they might be more receptive of phone calls from any of your sales agents that they regularly talk to whenever they're at your shop.

Using this example, you'll notice that an important part of your customer retention strategies is to also think about the delivery methods for your marketing messages. As another example, your young and trendy customers might prefer receiving updates via SMS or social media about the most recent brands and relevant products that have just become available in your business.

Now, this other example indicates that not only should you think of how to deliver your marketing messages as part of your customer retention strategies, but also to strategically customize its content for each customer profile. For example, you might be able to get the best results when you promote the latest car brands, models and relevant hard-to-find products to your young and trendy customers. On the other hand, you might want to pitch promos and discount offers for your latest products to your utilitarian and loyal customers.

Just keep these customer retention strategies in mind, and you're bound to generate viable repeat business margins from your existing customers. Don't forget to also train your sales agents and customer support representatives on how to correctly deal with customers classified under each of these profiles.