C.R.M. on T.A.R.G.E.T.

Effective customer relationship management is critical to the success of any business today: However, most underestimate its financial impact on daily operations. CRM solutions will help you increase sales closing rates, improve retention of present customers and lower reliance on expensive media advertising by optimizing the more effective word-of-mouth referrals.
What is the likely financial impact on your daily dealership operations? Surveys show that the average closing rate for product sales to existing “loyal” customers is more than four times the closing rate for first-time shoppers. Most studies also indicate that the average loyal customer will continue to do business with a marine dealer for more than 15 years.
Dealers, in one recently completed survey, estimated that this is worth more than $100,000 in sales, service, parts and additional services revenues. In addition, most agree that one loyal customer can be responsible for more than $500,000 in incremental referral business.
In today’s difficult market conditions when so many businesses are fighting for survival, there is no better time to cash-in on existing customers and create referral business
In order to better understand how to improve customer relationships, it’s important to first examine the customer touch points of your business. These are the experiences that help shape the customer’s relationship with your organization.
Visualize a customer visiting your Web site, phoning for directions, arriving at your dealership, following up with service, purchasing a part or filling out a finance application. What would they experience, and more importantly, what would they expect?
If we are going to establish, maintain and improve personal relationships, then our touch-point experiences must be on “target” with customer’s expectations.
There is a simple process to determine if your dealership is on T.A.R.G.E.T. to optimize customer relationships. Use the aforementioned acronym to guide you as your business works to hone its customer relationship management skills:
Train your touch-points team to ensure that everyone in regular contact with prospects or customers understands how to build personal relationships, collect quality information and follow your business processes. Consider working with key members of the team to review their plans and processes. Coach your managers on ways to best monitor these touch points during peak volume periods.
Accessibility and operational standards for Web, phone, appointments and on-site technology systems should support your touch-point team. Have your team identify the standards that they feel should apply to be successful.
Retention incentives should first recognize managers who are responsible for retaining excellent employees, and then recognize employees responsible for selling additional products to customers who have purchased from them in the past. Studies have shown that retaining excellent employees is the first step to retaining loyal customers, which is the primary goal of any CRM strategy.
Gather customer contact and behavioral information throughout the operational processes by emphasizing customer benefits. Many different strategies exist to encourage this collection of information; however, some of the most effective directly incentivize the customer to participate in the process.
Expand customer experiences and participate in events that build customer excitement and enthusiasm. This is an area where many marine dealers excel. Some best practices to ensure that we remain on target with memorable events involve asking every new customer to complete an event survey, and encouraging willing employees to be event champions.
Target specific performance metrics to analyze the effectiveness of your CRM strategy. Metrics commonly used include the number of Web inquiries, phone contacts, showroom contacts, repeat purchase sales, customer referral sales, first-time sales, Web-sourced sales, service department referral sales, business-to-business referral sales and event attendees.
Remember, CRM is a work in process. During these challenging market conditions, CRM processes should remain a top priority for dealers wanting to dramatically improve revenues while managing advertising and promotional expenses.