Customer feedback is one of the most important tools for streamlining and implementing a good marketing plan. Your marketing plan won’t work if you don’t know what your customers want, their problems, or what they think about your dealership. Marketing only works if it meets the needs of the people you’re trying to reach.
So, how can you find out how happy your customers are with your dealership and what they will need in the future? Here are seven tools that the best dealerships use to keep track of what their customers want and need. Here are seven ways to track what your customers want from your dealership.
Configure Google Alerts for Hot Topics and Industry Statistics
The most important thing you can perform to find out what your customers think is to know what they need. Keeping up with industry trends, part cycles, and seasonal changes can help you get your parts department in great shape before orders start pouring in. Researching your inventory and how buyers behave is best done proactively.
Today’s most significant market trend is buying parts online.
Digital shopping is becoming the most popular way for people to shop. For parts departments to make enough money, they need to use and keep improving eCommerce strategies for parts.
- By the end of 2022, online parts and accessories sales are expected to reach $38 billion ( Hedges & Company).
- It is expected to be just under $67 by 2030. ( Hedges & Company).
- In the future, 90% of people are more likely to buy auto parts online than in a store (PR Newswire).
These numbers show that people use the Internet to look for parts and buy them. But on most dealership websites, you can’t usually buy parts online.
Investing in a good eCommerce solution (like RevolutionParts!) can help you improve customer service and streamline your dealership’s operations. It’s easier to sell online when you have an instant parts catalog integration, an easy-to-use site for parts, and tools that help you keep track of customers and talk to them.
Use behavior tracking software
This might sound hard, but it’s straightforward and a great way to see what your website visitors care about. Software like HotJar or other heatmap-tracking choices is a great way to see how your clients use your homepage and what they care about.
These tools can help you keep track of where your customers click, where they get stuck, and which sheet they are most concerned about. Even without written feedback, this can tell you a lot about how to help shoppers find what they want and buy it more easily.
Here are some suggestions:
- HotJar
- Inspectlet
- FullStory
You’ll need to copy and paste a small piece of code into your site most of the time. You can add code to the site’s headers and footers with RevolutionParts, so it’s an easy way to improve your auto parts web store!
Allow reviews and testimonials on your website.
Web stores that use RevolutionParts have a simple way to add testimonials. All you have to perform is turn it on, and shoppers will be able to talk about their experience right on your site.
We also work together with Yotpo, the software with the most reviews on the market. With the integration, it’s easy for shoppers to review products. It’s also a great way to determine what your customers think about your products and how well your parts department is doing.
Customer Survey
Sometimes, you have to ask. Distribute a survey! You can offer an incentive to shoppers to get them to join. You don’t have to spend much on the reward, either. Participants can obtain a discount on their next order or enter a monthly drawing.
When you write the questions for the survey, keep them simple. It’s best to give choices from a drop-down menu or a list of options. Shoppers are less likely to fill out open-ended text boxes because it takes more work.
You can choose from a wide range of survey software. You can choose from the following:
- BirdEye
- SurveyMonkey
- Wootric
Look at review websites.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but dealerships rarely look at review sites or Google reviews. It’s a good idea to check out as many review sites as possible. People don’t have time to leave reviews everywhere, so most will leave one review and be done with it. Make a list of review sites that you often check to get the best information.
Make sure you look at sites like:
- DealerRater Car Dealer Check
- Cars.com
- Kelley Blue Book
- Edmunds
Check your comments on social media.
This is just one of the numerous places on the Internet where customers can find you. Do you often look at your comments and direct messages? Social media is a great way to determine what your customers think and how they think about your business.
Social media is more of a public, casual forum than a direct email, so many shoppers use it to talk to the businesses they do business with. It can help you figure out what they like, value, and act online in general. Of course, managing your social media is something that many people do almost full-time.
We know you have a lot going on. So it makes sense if you can’t check Facebook, Twitter, and other sites as often as you’d like. You can use different software tools to help you keep track of your social media accounts. We recommend a framework like Hootsuite to assist you in engaging with, tracking, and managing your online profiles.
With a device such as Hootsuite, you can attach all your financial records to one place, making it simpler to maintain track of everything. You can timetable posts, get real-time updates, and talk to your clients all from one place.
Keep track of tags and mentions on social media.
Some people will talk about your dealership on their pages instead of yours. They might tag your dealership, but most of the time, they won’t. On social media, it’s easy to find posts about your dealership.
Finding comments like these can take a little more work, but since they are left on the customer’s page, they may be more honest about their buying experience. Be sure to keep an eye on your customers’ messages, comments, and other interactions on social media, because that’s where you can quickly solve some customer problems.
Leave a Reply