NATDA : How do you believe dealerships should be marketing their businesses to maximize customer service and retention ? Are there any programs or campaigns that you have personally found success with ?
Jordan : We try to keep up with what is coming in from the manufacturers , but time frames have changed drastically over the last month . Letting customers know what we have on order helps a little . We also offer financing with several companies that offer incentives , not only to the consumer but also to us .
NATDA : You have a “ How-to ” series on your website . What made you decide to put that up and do you feel it has contributed to more interaction with your customers ?
Jordan : We spent countless hours weekly trying to explain things to our customers . It ties up our sales representatives and mechanics who are answering questions that could easily be found elsewhere . We found was that our customers want to know how to do things on their own . Most people do better with visual learning rather than verbal explanation . Since everything can be easily found online with today ’ s technology , we thought the page on our site would be very helpful to our customer base .
NATDA : I found it interesting that your dealership has advertised through your Facebook page that you will buy used trailers . Have you had much success with that campaign ?
Jordan : New trailers are hard to find right now , but demand is extremely high . So , we take trade-ins or will buy a trailer that we think we can sell after doing a full service on it . It has been beneficial for both of our stores .
NATDA : Looking internally to your own business habits , what do you find to be the most valuable thing to invest in when to comes to bettering your business as a whole ?
Jordan : The most valuable thing for us is business-customer relationships . More than half of our customers are businesses and municipalities , and the relationships we have with them is a massive part of our success .
We have also found that good communication with our customers helps us understand what they need . Often , we need to help them determine what they need since some customers have no idea about the strengths and weaknesses of trailers . We ask a lot of questions to find out what they actually need to make sure their experience and relationship with us is a lasting one .
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