 | Hi, I'm Pat Reininger, Vice President of Sales & Client Services for R. L. Polk & Co. In this role, I'm responsible for managing the customer development and sale of products and services in Polk's Pacific Region. I feel that I bring a unique perspective to my role at Polk, having previously spent 14 years at Chrysler Canada, Inc. and four years in retail automotive sales. I joined Polk in 2006, serving as European CRM Director based in Essen, Germany. In this role, I was responsible for the commercial development of PolkConnect, an integrated CRM solution that spans the entire vehicle ownership lifecycle. It’s very gratifying to see that PolkConnect is now utilized in 12 countries and seven languages and represents the first global product of its kind. I'm excited to be able to share my thoughts on building and implementing profitable customer retention strategies. I welcome your comments, and look forward to starting a conversation on the subject. |
I recently received an amusing email that contained a personalized service reminder to a Model T owner that dated back to 1928. It made me laugh at first, but then I thought, if personalized communication has been a part of automotive marketing for such a long time, why do we continue to struggle with it to this day?
Well, for starters, there are over 235 million vehicles in operation in the U.S. today. Keeping track of who owns what and where is daunting enough. Establishing a personal relationship with each of those drivers, based on their personal driving habits is infinitely more complex and challenging. That said, the power of a personal relationship is arguably more important than it’s ever been. To prove the point, an OEM using Polk’s Predictive Marketing service reminder program recently ran a test to judge the effectiveness of its communication strategy, which incorporates targeted marketing based on individual driving patterns and other factors. In the test, they withheld 10% of all scheduled mailers that were due to go out during the test period. Using DMS transactional data, Polk then tracked the conversion rates of those customers who received the communication versus the control group. The results were startling. During the test period, 20.3% of customers who were contacted had the recommended service performed (without financial incentive). In contrast only 10.6% of the control cell group acted on the reminder. That represents a 93.5% improvement in overall response rate for the group that received targeted communication! |  |
The program has driven not only a significant increase in parts and labor sales but has improved overall service retention by 4.2% on average across the OEM's brands.
Our forefathers understood the power of personal communication. Our challenge is to improve on the lessons they’ve taught us.
Posted by Patrick Reininger, Vice President of Sales & Client Services, Polk (07.14.2009)I recently had the pleasure of participating in the Automotive Customer Centricity Summit 2009, hosted by Thought Leadership Summits (TLS) in Marina del Rey, California. We heard from some of the most respected thought leaders in the industry on the topic of Customer Centricity – the evolution of automotive CRM. We witnessed how Collier Automotive Group leverages technology to improve the showroom experience. And, the aftermarket showed us how collaboration and vehicle personalization can create not only profitable customer relationships, but can drive brand loyalty by appealing to an individual's need for self-expression.
Tactical efforts to improve customer experience are important. But, I feel that the fundamental challenge in the current automotive industry is its inability to consolidate customer touch points (vehicle purchase, sales satisfaction index [SSI], Captive Finance, warranty, CSI, customer pay service) into a single customer-centric view. Without this singular view, we see customers bombarded with often conflicting messages and offers from the OEM, the Dealer and the Captive Finance source, which invariably drives down credibility and damages the overall brand experience.
More importantly, this often impersonal approach to communication contributes to the defection of retail service customers into the aftermarket as the vehicle ages. In today's challenging economic times, dealerships and OEMs can't afford to lose loyalty or vehicle sales. Maintaining customer relationships and customer loyalty to a brand is essential to not only prosper... but to survive. |  |
Posted by Patrick Reininger, Vice President of Sales & Client Services, Polk (06.26.2009)
Powered by Compendium Blogware