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SUCCESS STORY

The team at Santa Margarita Ford prides themselves on growing their business by reputation. They count on customers to recommend their services to friends and family members. Since enrolling in FordDirect‘s Targeted Marketing in June 2010, it has become easier to execute this philosophy. “Our reliance on Targeted Marketing began almost instantly. This powerful technology allows us to keep the lines of communication open with our customers,” states Gina Allen, Service Director at Santa Margarita Ford. Currently the team at Santa Margarita Ford is utilizing voice and email to communicate to their customers, plus they offer every service customer a Personalized Web Page (PURL) to track service history, upcoming maintenance requirements and vehicle recalls.

When economic hardships challenged much of the automotive industry, Santa Margarita Ford was impacted and had to reduce its staff. Allen explains, “We didn’t have enough people to make the follow-up communications, so we turned to FordDirect’s Targeted Marketing program for help.”

In the year since enrolling in Targeted Marketing, Santa Margarita Ford now engages customers on a more regular basis. Each customer receives a follow-up communication three days after service. Allen explains, “Service CSI calls have always been done as a live call, so we were pretty nervous about sending out Voice of Authority messages and emails.” To date, the Santa Margarita team has sent out 14,342 Service Thank You communications thanks to the Targeted Marketing program. “We are very happy with the response of this campaign and have achieved a customer follow-up process that would have been impossible without Targeted Marketing,” says Allen.

As part of a dealer’s subscription in Targeted Marketing, monthly Best Practice campaign recommendations are shared to help support Ford national campaigns. “The monthly campaigns are fantastic - all we have to do is customize the offers we are featuring for the given month, and the Targeted Marketing support team does the rest,” states Allen.

In December 2010, Santa Margarita Ford sent an Explorer Preview Party email invitation to all customers, to accompany the national Ford push. They returned 560 ROs for $203K in service revenue and 12 vehicle sales. “The Explorer Preview Party was a big hit! We sent all the invitations through Targeted Marketing’s email tool and opted not to send more expensive, traditional mail invitations,” comments Allen.

Manufacturer recalls continue to be a revenue-producing opportunity - one that Santa Margarita Ford utilizes when necessary. Targeted Marketing includes a voice and email communication that alerts customers of an open recall on their vehicle. “Targeted Marketing recall communications complement and reinforce what Ford is already sending to our customers,” comments Allen. Santa Margarita Ford has sent 1,292 recall communications, resulting in 89 ROs for $26K in service revenue and 1 vehicle sales.

While the team at Santa Margarita Ford is enjoying great success with Targeted Marketing, they are mindful of the communications and monitor customer response. “We are very conscious not to over-communicate with our customers, so our general rule is no more than two event communications in a given month,” says Allen. By delivering relevant and timely communications to customers, Santa Margarita Ford hopes to continue its trend of satisfied and loyal repeat customers.

In closing Allen states, “Targeted Marketing is a one-stop shop for all our customer relationship marketing needs. It provides digital channels, which are the new way of marketing to customers and prospects. This is the way that consumers are accustomed to receiving communications from other retailers and they expect the same from us.”

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