Customer loyalty and your bottom line

Everybody wants loyal customers.  Repeat business, peer recommendations and glowing online reviews are just a few ways happy, loyal customers can have a positive effect on your bottom line. Few businesses can maintain long-term success by consistently underwhelming their customers with subpar experience or service. You need to get them to ‘happy’, so that loyalty will follow.

Okay, so how do you inspire loyalty with your customer base?  And how do you even measure and monitor what customers are saying about their experience with your shop?

There’s three little words that, while not very romantic sounding for your loved ones, will go a long way in gauging customer loyalty:  the ‘Net Promoter Score’ (NPS).

The Net Promoter Score was developed by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company.  It’s based on a single question:  “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or family member?”

Using a 0-10 scale on customer surveys, customers are identified as Promoters (9 and 10), Passives (7 and 8), or Detractors (0 to 6). The score is calculated by subtracting the negative responses (detractors) from the positive ones (promoters).  The higher your shops’ NPS score, the more “promoters” you have. 

Can you increase customer loyalty?

A few years back our group did an analysis of AutocheX phone survey respondents.  We identified four drivers of customer loyalty in the collision repair sector:

1. Being kept informed
2. On-time delivery
3. Shop service
4. Shop quality 

Our analysis revealed that ‘being kept informed’ had the largest correlation to whether or not a customer was willing to refer the shop to a friend or family member.  This very simple, incredibly valuable concept can often be overlooked in the repair process.  Customers who felt they were kept informed throughout the repair had Net Promoter Scores dramatically higher than those who were not kept informed (79.6 percent vs. -14.8 percent).  So if you’re looking for a simple solution to flip this problem into a benefit for your shop, keeping customers informed is your key to building loyal customers and turning them into your shop’s brand promoters.

This research, coupled with feedback from our shop customers, led us to develop our new product: Reputation Manager.  Reputation Manager is a suite of products that provides users the tools to manage their online brand, gain business insight from customer survey data and keep customers informed during a repair via email or text messages.

At Mitchell we take customer satisfaction seriously.  When you have a spare moment, take a look at Reputation Manager’s tools to monitor and benchmark customer satisfaction through traditional surveying as well as social media mining.  

Attend Trade Shows? Why?

Exhibitions and trade shows – maybe they’re not as popular as they once were, but the shows that are still thriving give customers the opportunity to interact with companies they buy from.  Attending trade shows is all about visibility – to give face-to-face feedback with your vendors, build relationships, chat with competitors, and discover the latest and greatest of what is being offered in the industry.

So why do you go to trade shows?  To see the latest and greatest? Check in on current products? See what the competition is up to?  Network with peers?  Most likely it’s combination of all of these.
 
As a marketing professional, I’ve attended entertainment, furniture, real estate, automotive, you-name-it industry trade shows.  Each has their unique flair.  Regardless of the industry, my all-time favorite activity is seeing so many new products.  I mean, how fun is it to say you were able to see a movie trailer before anyone else? Or see an aftermarket part in a store months after you first tested it at a trade show?

At Mitchell we understand the excitement in seeing new up-and-coming products.  We’ve worked hard this year to put together a lineup of our latest and greatest products that will help enhance your business.  To see a preview (kind of like seeing that new movie trailer before anyone else), here’s what we’ll be featuring this week at NACE:

1. RepairCenter ToolStore – Add-ons from industry partners for Parts, Paint, and Rental that will help make your shop more efficient.
2. Reputation Manager – Conduct customer satisfaction surveys via web and phone, and monitor social media to keep up-to-date on your shop's reputation – so you can draw in more business from great online referrals.
3. RepairCenter Hub – Bring all of your communication and collaboration needs into one location for faster turnarounds, more understanding, and less waiting.
4. Mitchell Estimating – The system you’ve relied on for years, one that continues to meet the needs of your estimating requirements.
5. Mitchell Tablet Solutions – This is truly our latest and greatest estimating system that is fully housed within a tablet. We’ll even have a damaged door that you can write an instant estimate on!

So while trade shows are not as vast and popular as they once were, the products themselves keep on improving, progressing and impressing.  If you get a chance, take a tour of what we’re offering at this year’s main trade show event.  We hope to see you at NACE!