If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times – relevant, timely messaging is the best way to reach your customers. In today’s marketing landscape, you have to ensure each message that reaches your customers is consistent and professional, but most importantly it should be pertinent to their current vehicle needs. This type of direct one-to-one marketing is important to help your message cut through the marketing clutter that surrounds today’s consumers. Let’s assume that all of your communications are hitting customers at the appropriate time in their ownership or buying cycle, which drives them back to your Sales and Service Departments. Are there other ways to gain stickiness from your customers? Are direct one-to-one communications enough to gain their loyalty and continued business?
With the fast pace world of today’s consumers, marketers being more conscience with their budgets, and the need to quantify every marketing effort, many are turning to Personal URLs (PURLs) for their customers. Now I know what you’re thinking, “How could I possibly find the time to produce a PURL for each of my customers?” or “How do I ensure that the PURL is relevant to my customer’s vehicle needs?” Today I’ll share the answers to these questions and explain some of OneCommand’s best practice tips to ensure you receive the most out of your marketing efforts.
Produce a PURL for Each Customer
Most likely your dealership has a DMS that stores all customer sales and service records. You can utilize this database system to populate important information about your customer’s specific vehicle through their PURL. For example, you can show their specific vehicle’s maintenance history. You could get even more in depth and populate specifics about each visit, such as what services were performed, the price of the service, and their vehicle’s mileage at the time of their visit. By utilizing your dealership’s DMS to populate customer vehicle service history through a PURL, you can save valuable time and resources in your service drive. Plus, your customers will appreciate having this information at their fingertips, especially when thinking of reselling their vehicle.
Personalize Each Customer PURL
Often times, consumers are turned off by marketers because they don’t feel like they understand their needs or aren’t speaking to them individually. Keep this in mind when creating a PURL for your customers. One way you can ensure your customers receive value out of their PURL is to record the mileage listed at their last visit. You can use a calculation to inform them when their vehicle is due for its next maintenance. This helps to create a personalized experience for each customer. Another great way to personalize a customer’s PURL is informing them of any recalls for their vehicle. This can also go a long way in helping build trust and loyalty between your customers and Service Department.
OneCommand PURL Best Practices
Every dealership that signs up for the OneCommand Customer Marketing and Loyalty Automation Platform™ receives a unique PURL for each of their customers. Through our experience, we have learned how to answer the questions, “How do my customers know when their next vehicle service maintenance is due? How do my customers know what services should be completed during their next visit to my Service Department?” At OneCommand, we tap into the dealership’s DMS to pull vehicle maintenance service history for each customer and then use this data to populate each unique PURL. We even take this data one step further by predicating unique driving habits based on mileage and time intervals between service visits to help inform customers when their next vehicle maintenance should be completed. We’ve found that creating visibility to a customer’s maintenance schedule helps when building lasting relationships with them.
Another best practice that OneCommand recommends is utilizing PURLs to promote savings coupons at your dealership. The truth is, consumers love a good deal and if they know where to go to download consistent dealership discounts, they will seek it out and find it. We recommend offering a variety of different coupon values on a customer’s PURL and changing them out frequently to adjust to market price fluctuations.
OneCommand also suggests listing dealership contact information on the PURL, so customers can reach the Sales, Service, or Parts Departments by phone or email. Consumers should also be able to schedule a service appointment from their PURL. By creating one central location where the consumer can track key vehicle information, schedule an appointment, download valuable coupons, and check important recall information, you can maintain relationships that you have worked so hard to establish.
Benefits of Providing a PURL to Customers
There are numerous benefits to offering your customers a Personal URL for their vehicle, but probably the most important is ongoing contact with your dealership. PURLs have the ability to open a channel of communication between the dealership and its customers, which directly impacts top-of-mind awareness and overall customer retention. In addition to the obvious loyalty boost you’ll receive from PURLs, you’ll also see an increase in service traffic, revenue, and frequency from your customers. When you go out of your way to provide your customers with an exceptional ownership experience, they will reward you.