Enhance Your Customer’s Experience With A Reward Platform
We’ve been conditioned by airlines and the corner coffee shop – and a proliferation of other businesses – to expect some kind of reward for our repeated patronage. You probably have a wallet-full of plastic or punch cards for your favorite businesses. Putting that same concept to work for your dealership, or as an OEM, can enhance your customers’ experience and increase sales. Using a specialized reward platform can ensure your program delivers value that’s right on target.
Creative, meaningful rewards help you stand out from the competition. In fact, simply having a program in place can make you best-in-class, because amazing as it may seem, studies show many businesses still don’t understand the importance of rewarding loyalty.
“Members only” exclusivity makes customers feel special. Tangible value is even more appreciated, especially for dealerships and contractors facing ever-narrowing margins. A reward platform designed specifically with OEM’s and dealerships in mind can be easy to set up and use, making administration of your loyalty program simpler and more responsive.
You can tailor your reward platform to match specific sales and marketing goals, by setting up accounts that accrue dollars or points which are redeemable, essentially the same as a gift certificate or line of credit. This type of platform is equally effective for OEM’s or dealerships.
How can dealerships use it?
Customize the platform depending on key sales areas – types of products, OEM lines, after-market services such as parts, maintenance and repairs, etc. You can arrange each customer’s account to reflect what matters most to them, but you can also direct them toward products or services you especially want to promote.
OEM’s can provide rewards in two valuable ways.
- Reward your dealers by creating an account that creates floor planning, encourages larger parts orders or promote extended service contracts, etc.
- Or offer co-op funds to sponsor a dealership’s own customer rewards program, as an alternative to traditional print or other forms of advertising.
It’s a win-win-win.
There’s no doubt that loyalty is profitable. Your best customers expect to continue doing business with you in the future, so it takes less effort to “sell” to them. On the other hand, in today’s marketplace you simply cannot afford to take even the most dedicated customers for granted. You have to continue to earn that loyalty.
Establishing a well-targeted rewards program is one of the best ways to do that. Both OEM’s and dealerships can increase market share by retaining customers — gaining a larger portion of their future purchases and working to boost the average dollar value of each order. And end-users get bottom-line benefits, too.
When surveyed, customers usually say the thing they value most from any business is exceptional service, at every stage of their engagement with you. Using a customized reward platform to offer timely, valuable thank-yous and incentives demonstrates that you have your customers’ best interests in mind. What could be more exceptional than that?
