There are a couple different reasons that I can gather as to why customers are so damned invisible:
1. They don't trust us. Why should they? What have WE done as a collective group to encourage anyone to trust us?
Is it the bullshit advertising that some of us choose to do that promises the outrageous and ends with a disclosure that may as well say *We really can't fulfill this offer but it sure made you look!
Is it the BDC that relentlessly chases a customer to the point that they are given no choice but to go into a witness protection plan and take on a new identity so that they can finally answer their phone again?
Maybe it is the wonderful visits to F&I that leave them hoping that they can afford the vehicle that was clearly within their budget when they walked in and is now $75/month above that number when they leave?
As a group, we really used to suck, and quite frankly a great deal of us still do. Now many of us are going through the awakening process and the customer's don't buy it. They don't buy the fact that we are willing to do business in a way that is driven by THEIR experience. We are willing to listen to them. We care about what it is that they want. The problem is, there has never been a time when the customer WASN'T trying to tell us how they wanted to be treated. We just didn't listen. Now the customer is in the position of power. They don't feel that they need us until the very end of the process. Hell, they really DON'T! We will just keep trying (to the best of our ability) to scoop up the low funnel buyers.
2. They CAN be invisible. This is really nothing new. Hello Mr and Mrs Customer. Welcome to xyz Motors. We really just want to look around. We will come in and get you if we see something that we like. But now, the customer has the luxury of being invisible.
All of this is just a fact of what our industry has become.
My question is this. What can I do to convey the attitude of my store? How can I get people to believe me? (We all have a different way of doing business, but we are all telling the same story about customer service etc.) How can I get my happy customers to tell other people about their experience? (We post customer pictures all over the internet and via our customers Facebook. We offer referral fees. We send all of the follow up material.) I have reviews splattered all over the internet! I have happy customers. (The dirt bag down the road pays some outfit to wash all of their shitty reviews and to google bomb with bogus review sites) I fix problems on the rare occasion that they arise. Our entire business model is built around over delivering, right down to the way that we work payments with our finance customers and present our vehicles on our website. We really ARE different. I am not convinced that they believe it. This is my challenge, and like others here have posted, I have faith! I will not give up. I realize this is a journey, not an event. I would also take any and all advice along the way!
