By
Duane Sprague
Information
is power, especially in a crowded market. So you need to
make informed decisions about media buying, prospects to
target, customer service priorities, training needs, competitive
advantages and weaknesses, etc. In order to do so, you need
to have more information about who your customers are, their
media habits, what they want out of a dealership, how well
they were or were not satisfied by the sales and service
experience, and what they do and do not like about doing
business with you, as well as your competition.
You also need
to know where your customers are coming from, and where they are
not coming from, despite your advertising efforts.
You also need
to define which groups of people you need to survey. For example,
you may want to survey ups to determine where they heard about
you, or what source of advertising caused them to come in. Survey
be-backs to determine what caused them not to buy from you. Survey
past customers to find out when they will be in the market again.
Survey service customers to see how you are doing in terms of
quality, meeting estimated repair costs and delivery times. Survey
non-customers who bought from a direct competitor to find out
what the competition offered to close the deal, etc.
Once you have
decided what information you need to collect, and who would be
best suited to provide it, you need to decide which method will
be used to gather this information in a reliable and consistent
manner.
The costs
and complexities very with each method, so lets look at the most
popular.
The easiest
and lowest cost method of gathering data from anyone who visits
your dealership, is a self-service survey, where they complete
a simple, short survey form, preferably with as many check boxes
as possible. You should tie the completed survey to a weekly drawing.
The more frequent the drawing, and the greater the real or perceived
value of the award, the higher the response rate. Make it easy
to find the survey forms, easy to complete, and easy to enter
the drawing. Take photographs of the past winners, and post them
in a conspicuous place, as this will create legitimacy for your
drawing. An attractive self contained kiosk with entry forms,
pens, and entry box that commands attention will help.
Another very
effective method, but more costly, is to mail the survey to your
past customers, be-backs, and targeted prospects. Offer them an
incentive to complete the survey and mail it back. Always provide
a postage paid response form. This will quadruple your response
rate. Never ask the recipient to return the survey to the dealership
in person. This will kill your response rate. For maximum response,
offer everyone who completes the survey a small gift or coupon,
as well as the chance to win something really exciting. As long
as your mailing a survey, send along some promotional information
about sales and service as well. This will create an increase
in sales for the month. Guaranteed if done properly.
Phone surveys
are also an option. Although they are the most expensive and time
consuming by far, as well as the most annoying to some people,
they also offer the opportunity for greater in-depth data collection.
Some people really appreciate the fact that you took the time
to call them just to find out how things went, and what you could
do better. And those that do, will typically give you even more
information than you asked for.
If you do
engage in telemarketing of any sort, make sure you have in place
a "never call policy" to remove the person from your
call list if they so request it. Its the law in some states, and
just plain good sense in any state.
Before you
set out in any fact-finding mission, be sure to have clear, written
objectives as to what data you want to collect specifically, who
you will collect it from, who will be responsible for the project
management, who will implement it, how it will be tabulated and
by whom, and what you will do with the data to improve your situation.
All too often, data is collected with the best of intentions,
but once the message is crystalized, nothing is done to make the
appropriate changes or follow-up.
In other words,
if you aren't ready to hear the truth and make whatever changes
may be necessary, don't bother gathering the facts.
