Why SMS for automotive is the key to success
In a highly competitive automotive industry, standing out is essential. SMS for the automotive industry is one affordable and convenient way of helping you differentiate your business from the rest.
Promoting your sales and services
Whether you’re trying to increase sales, fill out your service appointment calendar, or improve customer loyalty, SMS can help.
With a phenomenal open rate of 98%, you can quickly get your message across to your audience about taking advantage of any of your sales or promotions.
- Send service discounts: Have an oil change service promotion? Let your customers know. Typically, 25% of mobile discount offer redemptions occur within three days, and 60% within a week, according to Business.com.
- Promote new car models: If you run a dealership, entice your customer base by alerting them of new car models that arrive on your lot.
- Deliver price cuts: Prospective customers typically have their eyes on a few different vehicles at once, taking their time before settling. If you plan on dropping the price of a model, send a text message to let your customers know. Since 90% of messages get read within three minutes, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you had a customer reach out almost immediately.
Managing appointments
Appointments are a key part of the sales funnel for both auto repair shops and car dealerships, and a missed one is a loss of productivity and revenue.
SMS allows you to easily send appointment reminders, drastically reducing the rate of no-shows by giving customers the option to confirm or cancel their appointments. SMS reminders can also be used for:
- General service reminders
- Seasonal tire changes
- Oil change reminders
- Test drive reminder
- Vehicle collection reminders
Providing customer care
Customer service is vital in the world of buying and servicing cars. Transparent and caring service can help retain your customers and improve loyalty.
Show customers that you care by using an SMS customer service platform to:
- Conduct surveys or ask for feedback after appointments or a sale
- Chat to customers about their contracts, payment schedules, and any questions they have about servicing
- Send personalised upgrade offers
- Allow customers to send pictures of their vehicles via MMS to quickly determine what service they might need
- Send automated service reminders
- Send urgent SMS alerts for any safety recalls
For detailed customer support cases, you can also choose to send and receive SMS online. If paired with email-to-SMS functionality, it allows your teams to receive SMS as an email, managing separate conversations at once. All messages sent via email are then turned into SMS for your customers.
