lost customers

[bob s]

What have you done to bring back those customers who no longer come in for service. Im a parts manager now running service and when running a cust. list I find a very large amount of old customers with no activity.Mailers with service specials only seem to bring in regulars. Has anyone one tried free oil changes or something else extreme then try and sell the customer on the service dept. once in. Thanks!!

[kcatdeejay]

The direct approach has merit. Call a few of them and ask them where they've been. If, in fact, there is a problem, a free oil change along with anything else you can muster up might help mend the fences. Most of all, address their concerns that caused them to leave in the first place.

[robc]

I agree, you do need to know why they left. In one case when we were calling customers about why they left we heard a whole list of reasons - few of which had anything to do with price.

- Customer moved to a neighboring town/dealership no longer convenient
- not enough parking, got tired of driving around lot looking for a space
- didnt like appointments preferred to just swing in when they had time (ala quick lubes)
- I didnt think you liked to do oil changes I thought you only wanted the big repairs
- advisors tried to turn my $24 LOF into a $250 bill with recommended services, I was afraid to comeback
- No Saturday or evening hours very inconvenient to do business with

If you can address the main defection points you might be able to save a lot of wasted effort.

------------------
** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[Louis]

Does R&R have a canned report to list service customers with no activity or do you have to create one in 6910?

Thanks!

[Mike Vogel]

Best way is to build your own report in 6910 this way you can choose the criteria such as how many months of inactivity, what zip codes, what model years, last mileage,etc.