What happens when the customer says no to your equity offer?

[Alex Snyder]

We keep running into the same story. A dealer has been on an equity mining or service drive tool for about a year. The first few months looked great. Now results are dropping fast, and text opt-outs are climbing.

No wonder... the customer comes in for an oil change and gets an upgrade offer. The monthly equity email shows up. On the next visit, there’s another offer. Most people ignore the text, but the system keeps firing the same message later. They finally opt out.

We have found that 1 in 8 service customers buy in the next 12 months. The other 7 are going to say no, and a lot of them hear the pitch every time they come in. The tool counts the deals it finds. It doesn’t count the customers it wears out. When those customers text STOP, your service reminders usually stop going out to them too.

• Are you tracking opt-outs to your equity texts? Have they climbed since you started?
• Does messaging change on subsequent customer visits?
• Is the tool only focused on trades/acquisitions? Does it present other options for the customer?

 

[Chris Apostalides]

I feel there needs to be more thoughtful targeting if you are mining from the service drive. Using a tool that automatically texts every opt-in as soon as an RO is opened can quickly be overwhelming for customers. Blanket targeting is no better than EDDM mail. It's just throwing a bunch of shit at the wall and hoping something happens.

Dealers should target based on specific criteria.

• What is the age and mileage - how much work does the vehicle need?
• Do you have data on how many months left on their loan?
• Is it a vehicle you can sell vs. sitting on the lot?

It would be more productive to look at all the vehicles that come in and decide which ones you want to make an offer on. Tell the shopper you want to purchase that vehicle.

• Sally, you're 2021 Honda Accord is in high demand. We'd love to purchase it from you. Would you like us to send you an estimated offer? Reply with Yes or No.

I understand the broader picture is lead volume and selling vehicles, not only bringing in resalable units. But if you make an offer on 100% of people that hit your service drive you are going to start burning your DMS.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I think most systems have logic to determine which cars and customers to target based on age, mileage, and potential equity.

The problem is that they lack logic or paths for customers who aren't interested today. And many dealers don't think about that.