The automotive industry is always evolving and with that evolution we must constantly adapt to the changes.
Question: When is the last time you thoroughly reviewed your CRM processes in your dealership?
Think about it. A CRM in the dealership is generally setup for sales people to enter an UP and follow up with sold/unsold customers by scheduling phone calls and email actions. The CRM is sometimes setup to properly follow up with internet leads. However, not many CRM systems are setup to follow up with lease retention, equity mining, service, birthdays, and other events that can enhance the guest experience of doing business with the dealership.
Now if the proper processes have been setup for he dealership, when is the last time they were updated? Do you continue to send the same old message month after month? It is amazing how most of the time I walk into a dealership to setup and train processes only to find that the dealership is relying solely on what the CRM company had installed during installation. Every dealership needs to have an effective action plan for proper CRM management. This includes templates, action plans, and reporting. A large dealer group needs to employ a CRM administrator to work the CRM a full 45 hours a week while smaller operations need to have proactive management.
The bottom line is that it is very important to manage and maintain the CRM system in dealerships on a daily basis. In many cases, the proper use of merging can clean duplicates. When a CRM is used properly there should never be a need for excel spreadsheets to measure performance.
by Stan Sher
www.dealeretraining.com
Practices and viewpoints expressed on this blog are my own