BMW Uses CRM To Aid Service Sales
BMW of North America LLC is trying to keep it simple as it uses customer-relationship management systems to supercharge dealership parts and service sales.
“We want to move auto parts, not come up with new programs that complicate the world,” says Grant Paullo, the German auto importer’s manager-aftersales marketing and communications.
He cites three objectives for leveraging data to increase revenue and build brand loyalty:
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Transition dealership customers from the showroom to the service department.
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Strengthen customer relations. “But what we see as strengthening the relationship, and what the customer sees, sometimes differ,” Paullo says.
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Reconnect with ex-customers. “This is where we’ve had the biggest success,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot of time on it. Sometimes we’ve lost customers because of a bad experience, sometimes not.”
He says BMW is using company information and “data from dealers that they are comfortable giving us” to better target customers and enhance promotions.
“The owner of a 1999 BMW should not get the same service reminder as the owner of a 2008 BMW,” Paullo says. “Their needs are different.”
