Feedback key to going forward

This article was originally published in the Autofile Magazine - Nov 2018 issue. 

Feedback is a game changer

Listening to your customers is a highly valuable resource for any business, and is a very important component of success today, tomorrow and for many years to come. Don’t ignore these tips, but embrace them.

Yes, taking the leap into encouraging and receiving feedback can be daunting if you’ve never done it before, but what you can learn is very likely to be a fundamental game-changer for your business regardless of the type of feedback.

Chances are though that most of the hesitance comes from nervousness around potential negative feedback. However, most dealerships are surprised at how much positivity they get from many customers.

Industry-leading survey solution BuyerScore in its first year has received more than 40,000 ratings and reviews of dealerships where 90 per cent of respondents would recommend the dealership they purchased from to family or friends. That alone indicates that customers want to give feedback, and certainly not just the negative kind.

Solutions like this give you the ability to leverage that feedback and educate future prospective customers on past buyer experiences with your dealership. You may already know that your customers love dealing with you, but how are you leveraging that? We’ll have some tips about this in a future issue.

Having a trusted independent source external to the dealership conducting your surveys ensures you provide customers with enough confidence to be open and honest, which is harder to get when asking them directly from the dealership.

Leverage feedback internally and externally

It’s then what you do with this feedback once you receive it – it is what allows you to capitalise on it by leveraging it, not only internally but also externally. Never discount, overlook or not embrace positive feedback. Celebrate it, reward from it, leverage it and – best of all – be proud of it and ensure that you continue to deliver it.

Understanding the negative feedback allows you the luxury to adapt, evolve and change to ensure future customers don’t have the same experience.

Better still, this proactive attitude towards change not only means purchasing customers having a great experience, it provides prospective buyers with an experience that will lead to an increased level of conversion through to sale.

Improve your bottom line

Converting more customer opportunities through to sales is critical to improving the bottom line of your business. The secret to converting more lies in the feedback from the ones who didn’t purchase from you, and combining that with the ones who did go through to purchase.

This information – and what your dealership does with it – is the single best investment you can make today in the future success of your dealership.

It’s too easy for businesses to think that spending more money on advertising is their first priority, but while this may provide you with more customer opportunities, you still only convert a similar percentage to what you’ve always converted.

However, if conversion is optimised you get more buyers from what you already have connecting with your dealership. Then, when you do spend more money on advertising, that investment returns greater value.

Be smart – think of it this way. For all of those into fishing, imagine your net is a combination of your employees, your processes, your vehicles and your dealership. Does your net have large holes in it, or are the holes small and refined?

Then when a customer – a tiny fish – comes into your net, are they caught in the experience? Or do they swim right through one of the many large holes?

It’s certainly something to think about. Retaining more of what comes into your net is smart business. Invest in your customers, listen to them, learn from them and appreciate them.

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Disclaimer:
The Motorcentral blog is intended for educational purposes only. All writers opinions are their own and nothing published on this blog should be interpreted as a recommendation or advice in any way. Motorcentral is also not responsible for and does not verify accuracy of any of the information contained within this blog.
In the event third parties are referenced within this article, Motorcentral is not necessarily affiliated with those third parties.