7:00 am, September 7, 2024
The motor trade has a widespread problem with retaining customers and car dealers need to work on their post-sales contact plans.
That is according to Vines BMW boss Sean Kelly, who has admitted the industry is ‘c**p’ when it comes to keeping in touch with customers.
Speaking at Car Dealer Podcast Live, sponsored by Motorway, Kelly admitted the issue was particularly prevalent in the used sector.
He added that businesses, including his own, need to become better at giving customers ‘a reason to come back’.
The characteristically frank Kelly said: ‘What we [at Vines] have seen, and this is probably hopefully relevant to everyone else, whatever vehicles they’re selling, is we do a bad job as an industry of retention full stop and used cars especially so.
‘It’s almost like we assume and believe that with every used car we sell, that customer is only going to come back to us if they see that we have a right car for them. The post-sale contact plan is normally a bit c**p.
‘What’s happened recently with AI and the power of computers, we do a lot of that now by email and text it’s c**p!
‘You’ve got to create a relationship with these customers and you have to do that by talking to them and giving them a reason to come back into the business, even if it’s just a free health check on their car every year.
‘The service intervals are so long now, you’re not seeing these customers as frequently as you used to.
‘You’ve got to give them a compelling reason to want to have a relationship with you and I think the move towards internet driven stuff is kind of killing some of that, which I think is bad for all of us, actually.’
Car Dealer Podcast Live was held at Milton Hill House in Oxfordshire, with Kelly joined on the panel by EV Experts boss Estelle Miller and Wheeler Dealers star Mike Brewer.
The audience heard from Miller how used car dealers can adapt to selling EVs and Brewer, on why he loves the motor trade so much.
You can listen to the Car Dealer Podcast Live on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
