Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
You could easily put together your own customer follow-up schedule, if you wanted to. You’ve bought a car or other vehicle before. How regularly did the salesperson there follow up with you? If you can’t come up with a schedule on your own, take a look at what some of the best marine dealers are doing. Most of the Top 100 Dealers use regimented schedules to follow-up with both their service and sales customers. One of the best that we saw was Action Water Sports’ (Ranked 14 in 2006), who uses eight separate communications to keep in touch with its boat buyers.
One day after the sale, the salesman sends a “thank you for the purchase” letter. One day after delivery, the delivery specialist sends a letter to remind them that they can call on the dealer at any time. Seven days after delivery, the general manager sends a 10-percent off, preferred customer card and a letter that asks the customer to “let us know how we can be better in any area.” Fourteen days after delivery, the service manager sends them a letter to let customers know that “our goal is to make sure their recreational time is as free of service requirements as possible.” Thirty days after delivery, the salesman sends a letter to remind them of the upcoming survey they’ll be receiving and encourages them to fill it out and return it. Sixty days after delivery the salesman sends them a “referral letter” that seeks to encourage the customers to spread the word about the dealership. And finally at one and two years after delivery, the salesman sends another survey reminder. Action uses Marine Trac software to administer this program.