As you already know, maintaining relationships with your customers is extremely important. We found that the leading reason customers return to the same dealership is because of a great relationship; yes, even more than getting a great deal. One important part of maintaining a relationship is staying in touch, but there is a thin line you must walk between regular, helpful communications and frustrating spam. To help, we asked customers what they actually want.

Customers are looking for you to contact them

After making one of the biggest purchases of their life, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the overwhelming majority of buyers are comfortable with you staying in contact with them after the fact. Only a mere 2.5% said they don’t want to be contacted at all. This means that possibly every customer that you’ve sold a car to would want to hear from you after the purchase.

What do customers want to hear about?

There are plenty of things that your customers are interested in hearing about. The highest interest is around information on recalls and repairs, followed by information about their warranty expiring, then maintenance reminders. Considering these topics grouped together, customers want you to focus on communication that will bring value to their vehicle ownership experience. But don’t delete your holiday greetings quite yet, as one in three customers are still interested in friendly holiday greetings, event information or promotions.

How do you stay connected?

When it comes to how customers want to hear form you, email was by far the most popular choice with 75% saying email would be appropriate, while only 20% of customers are ok with you texting them. But you should always ask your customers what they would prefer. Customers varied when it came to how often they would like to hear from you, but if you’re focused on providing high value communication that customers want, the frequency of that communication shouldn’t be an issue.

Having a communication program that adds value to your customer’s vehicle ownership, and provides it in their preferred method of communication, can be the way to keep the communication channels open between you and your customer, while not pestering them too much. Finding this balance will keep your customers thinking of you when it’s time for their next vehicle.