E-MAIL

[dew23456]

HOW MANY DEALERS ARE CURRENTLY USING E-MAIL TO MARKET SERVICE? HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT SETTING UP THE PROGRAM, DID YOU USE A FORM FOR CUSTOMERS AUTHORIZATION TO SEND E-MAIL? HOW OFTEN DO YOU SEND OUT E-MAILS, OR NEWSLETTERS? HOW BENEFICAL HAS IT BEEN?

[btk]

Emails is a big part of our service marketing, we started agressively collecting emails about 8 years ago-we made it part of our advisor write up process-sort of like verifying correct address and phone numbers, etc.. We let the customers know that it will be used solely for service reminders and recall notices or service coupons. I have saved alot of expense by eliminating direct mail to anyone with an email address. We currently have about 11,000 email adresses with 19,000 active customers- so every time a do a mailer, I save about 11,000 pieces of direct mail. We collect the majority of our emails throught the sales process-they average about 80 % collection on all sales customers.
We send out service remnders, special order parts are in, your car is ready reminder, service thank you, service coupons,service appointment reminders, I would say we average about 1-2 contacts every 1-2 months depending on what the customer is needing. We use Cima Systems to manage our email programs and campaigns-works great

[oldsfan]

I would also like to know does anyone have any other good ideas on how to gather e-mail addresses from service customers?

[This message has been edited by oldsfan (edited 02-12-2007).]

[Matt Parsons]

How are you all managing the opt in/opt out process? Can your email targets opt out?

[FJFXDOPS]

btk,
Any contact information on Cima?

[flyboy]

We collect addys by a weekly drawing for something; lof, rotate or some accessory. Cust fills out a coupon at the cashier.

One word of caution, along with those regarding the need to inform customers as to why you are collecting and what they may recieve, you really have to be aware of the frequency of addy change. I think it was AOL, or maybe MSN, somebody did a survey about how long e-mail addy's were valid. If I recall, it was about 9 months on average! Point is, a person needs to be getting back the "bounced" e-mails and then update them in the system.

If we dont do that, it is sort of like sending things first class and not updating addy's in the postal mail info. Just pissing money away!

I get great comments back from our customers regarding SOP info, specials, appts etc, so I am confident it is working for us, but we work the system pretty hard, inspect what you expect thinking.

[btk]

Cimasystems.net- you can find information that way-the opt in/opt out is on every communication email with the customers.

I agree with flyboy, that just like mailing addresses , you need to correct the bounced emails. All bounced emails go through the service manager and he will correct them.