Key Hyundai Builds Loyalty—After the Purchase

New cars are an expensive proposition and a purchase that the majority of individuals don’t make very often. But dealerships realize the value in turning the one-time purchaser into a life-long customer.

And there are ways to keep them coming back.

“The key component driving our dealership’s customer interaction is a maintenance book given out when a car is purchased,” says Jim Partridge, service department manager, Key Hyundai, Jacksonville, FL.

This book, the size of a checkbook, breaks down recommended service intervals by time and mileage.

To make sure the driver develops car maintenance habits that benefit both customer and dealer, the first visit is scheduled when the vehicle is delivered. Car buyers are also reminded a day in advance to come, book in hand, to validate their visit.

Adding teeth to that bonding strategy is Autobytel’s Retention Performance Marketing (RPM) tool. RPM provides direct mail pieces that can be customized via mileage and / or date specifications by the dealership for car owners.

Based on data extracted from the dealership’s database, a service reminder is sent in accordance with the maintenance book. Extracted data includes the customer’s name, address, phone number, e-mail address and service history.

“The unique advantage is that contact is made via e-mail and/or direct mail,” says Partridge. “I find that with the demographics of our current owners, the younger folks enjoy e-mail. Most of them look at a label and it goes in the garbage.”

Another function of the RPM tool is an personal-service Web page for customers. At myservicepage.com, they have the ability to log on and register their vehicle. After generating a user name and password, they can access their service database from a home computer. On their customized Web page, customers can view service history and the next recommended service. Twenty-percent of the customers take advantage of the personal Web page.

When customers register on myservicepage.com they are asked if they would like to opt in to receive e-mail correspondence. Since working with RPM, Key Hyundai has grown its e-mail address base by nearly 300%. Based on the number of customers who have chosen e-mail only, program costs have dropped 73%.

“Typically the average dealership has less than 4% of its customers’ e-mail addresses prior to using RPM,” says Marvin Grimm, national sales manager of Autobytel’s RPM tool. Afterwards, it has approximately 17%.

Partridge estimates that 15% of coupons, which are returned each month, are sent via e-mail to customers.

Other advantages of the RPM program are that Partridge can customize Internet specials, discount oil changes or tire rotations for his database of over 3,000 active customers.

There are three segmentations of e-mail contacts – active customers, non-active or prospective customers and inactive customers. If a customer was in contact within the past year, they are considered active and the dealership strives to manage and maintain their business.

The non-active and prospect database consists of customers that haven’t been in contact within the past 13-24 months. These individuals are contacted with mailers containing specials, trying to lure them back in for either a free inspection or discounted oil change.

After four years of non-responsivness, inactive names from the database are purged.

“We’re consistently seeing between 30 and 40% response rates for our solicitations,” says Partridge who is pleased with the management tool the firm has been using for about a year. “On the old program we were only getting 16-18% response rates on solicitations.”

Partridge chalks up the higher percentage to the advantage of using the Internet and e-mail to contact his list, something that the old program did not allow. “Also, a great deal of folks feel empowered by myservicepage.com because they enjoy the ability to make their own service decisions based on our recommendations.”

The 125-employee dealership sells approximately 65-100 Hyundais monthly. “As far as new owners, we’ve sold quite a few new cars because of our service business,” says Partridge. “Return buyers are a high percentage due to a loyal cliental.”