My wife and I purchased a new car in December of last year.
Prior to our purchase, we did a lot of research into what car would best fit our needs and provide us the most value. Once we decided on a specific make & model, we then began visiting different car dealers in order to find the best price and customer service.
After visiting a number of dealers, we found several that offered basically the same price for the car we wanted. So, the decision of where to buy came down to which dealership, and the individual salesperson we felt most comfortable.
While we were in the decision-making process, my wife and I received numerous emails and phone calls from the salespeople we had met with, all trying to win our confidence and car purchase.
My wife and I talked it over and we both felt there was one salesperson who seemed to be the most genuinely (admittedly, genuine is very relative in this case) interested in helping us get the car that we wanted at a price we could afford.
We went in to the dealership, met with the salesperson we liked, and made a deal for the car we wanted.
That was more than seven months ago and we have not heard from the salesperson, or anyone from the dealership, since.
I wasn’t expecting lots of post-purchase follow-up, but I do think it was a major missed opportunity on the dealership’s part to create further customer good feelings and loyalty.
I recently read a statistic that existing customers are seven times more likely to buy from you.
A short call or email from the salesperson asking how we liked the car and if we had experienced any problems would have gone a long way towards cementing our loyalty.
Had the salesperson or someone from the dealer just spent 5 minutes on post purchase follow-up with us, they would have greatly increased the the possibility of turning a one-time purchase into a repeat customer.
So, the moral of this car-buying story is that customer service after the purchase must not be neglected as it can lead to future sales. If you’re not providing your customers with post-purchase follow-up, you are likely throwing money out the window.
