“Make The Most of the Off Season” Webinar Q&A
How do you get customers to bring in their products before they put it in the shed for the winter?
Running winter service special is the best way to get customers into the service department! We encourage dealers to offer one of these things. Free power washing, discount on parts or service, free pickup and delivery. As long service departments, should advertise that they will do a full look over of the equipment and if anything is under warranty it will be taken care of.
What can we do as a team to make our turf and utility store great?
Create value! Do things that make you different than any other dealership around you. So, when people are walking in the door they feel they are getting the best value they can get. And remember value doesn’t me free or cheap but mean they can see what they are paying for. Especially in the service department they can see why we are charging what we charge an hour. Make sure your shop is clean organized. And your estimates and time to get customers are right!
In the offseason, What kind of approach to marketing and advertising should be used? Spend more? spend less? Direct? General?
Marketing and advertising should occur all year around. Depending on what you want to accomplish will determine your marketing plan. Prior to the offseason we recommend winter service specials and yearend equipment sales to help bring income in during this time of year. We recommend that you market to your existing customer base. These customers have purchased and trust you. Today there are several ways to advertise with little to no costs. Consider e-mail and social media like Facebook these two methods will not cost much money, mostly time.
I heard recently that for every negative customer event, it takes 15 exceptional events to recover. would you agree?
I agree that a negative or poor customer experience will cost you far more than we might recognize. The statistics from those who have had a poor experience that we have seen tell us that 56% will never use you again, 25% will recommend to friends not to use you, 20% will post a negative review on places like yelp and 14% will share the poor experience on social media. It is inevitable that you will come across a customer who feels that they have had a negative event. You can salvage most by having a plan to deal with them. Start by handling complaints quickly, offer a solution and most importantly- follow through!
