6 minute read
when they’re not saying it
How to understand what customers are saying when they’re not saying it
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Customer transac ons and sales trends are more closely monitored than before, making Business Intelligence (BI) tools cri cal for helping dealers access customer data and for giving parts personnel clear insights in order to make proac ve, informed decisions.
There’s a common story about a parts department and a parts manager who rou nely sold a shop customer parts over the course of years or even decades. But like many business rela onships a lot can – and, in fact, always will – change in just a few years. As the story goes, this wholesale dealership, like many dealerships, relied on its usual shop customers to submit and buy parts with regularity. In turn, the dealership processed and fi lled the orders without much thought, remaining comfortable in its belief that it was mee ng its customers’ needs as its parts vendor.
Un l one day, this dealership’s parts manager no ced that its once-reliable shop customer stopped ordering parts from the dealership. A li le hurt, the parts manager called the shop to discuss the drop in transac ons.
“Why’d you stop ordering from me?” the parts manager asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?” “I did tell you,” the shop owner said. “I’ve been telling you for years.”
When the parts manager returned to his books, spreadsheets, purchase orders, carbon-copied invoices, and so on, he no ced that in recent years the shop owner started scaling back his order volume, li le by li le, un l he stopped ordering from that dealership en rely.
Trends and customer buying pa erns, like the one above, are not unique to the automo ve parts industry. Market forces disrupt sales trends. A business’ bo om line pushes customer loyalty to its limits. Costs can run – and ruin – the day for a business or even threaten its very existence.
While the problem may not be specifi c to the automo ve a ersales business, there are solu ons designed specifi cally to address industry-specifi c performance and sales issues. BI solu ons are proven to be extremely benefi cial in increasing dealership wholesale performance by providing insights into a dealership’s parts sales business and customer trends.
Understand the message behind customer data
If the parts manager in the story above adopted a business intelligence tool, like PSXLink, then he would have been able to access in-depth insights into sales trends, dealership performance, and customer behaviors. He probably would have known that the customer he thought was loyal and steady was incrementally reducing his parts spend at the dealership, pping the manager off to the issue.
When the customer told this parts manager that he had been telling him that he was upset or shopping around – for years, perhaps – he wasn’t lying; he was just speaking with his wallet and ac ons rather than outright voicing his displeasure.
But ge ng back to the core problem – not ge ng the message the customer was sending – it’s important to know why this happened. There’s no doubt that the parts department knew this customer pre y well and probably had completed hundreds, if not thousands, of transac ons with the shop. Continued on Page 5
Continued from Page 4 However, if all this data (customer informa on) is not presented in an accessible way, then it remains an unopened book or untold story that the dealer isn’t able to access.
Business Intelligence tools, such as PSXLink, allow parts departments to get the message that those customers are sending. By unlocking this data and presen ng informa on in an easy-to-process way through interac ve dashboards, the parts department can iden fy when buyer behavior changes – either abruptly or, in the case above, incrementally.
Strengthen your customer rela onship
It’s easy to think of these tools as numbers and spreadsheets and long arrows that go up and to the right (great) or trend down ( me to act). But what’s at the core of Business Intelligence tools (beyond the ability to easily track customer behaviors and department performance) is the ability to foster exis ng rela onships or cul vate new ones. This level of analysis provides the hard data and objec ve informa on that is necessary to have real, produc ve conversa ons with customers.
Let’s say, for example, the parts manager was able to see these trends with his shop customer and think, “Woah, he’s spending less and less each month,” and then pick up the phone, swing by the shop, or chat him up on the back nine. It’s about having the necessary informa on to start the conversa on – and some mes the informa on required is in the details that are, without the right tools, inaccessible to the parts team.
Iden fy strategies & growth opportuni es
It’s important to note that the customer insights dealers get through BI pla orms are not just huge red fl ags or fi ve-alarm fi res. Customer data provides insights into the en rety of the dealership’s parts sales business and helps teams iden fy opportuni es and growth strategies, meaning BI tools do much more than serve as preventa ve solu ons to guard against churn or call a en on to dissa sfi ed customers.
When the parts team is equipped with the tools to monitor all sales ac vity, it’s also able to track which customers or markets present the biggest growth opportuni es. As parts departments can a est to, a pile of unorganized, likely crumpled invoices or a bo omless spreadsheet may not be the best sources for telling the parts team that one customer has increased its transac on volume in, say, four of the last fi ve months.
With the level of insight and in-depth repor ng that Business Intelligence tools provide parts wholesalers, the messages customers “send” through their ac ons are clear and easy to iden fy. This allows parts personnel to pinpoint sales opportuni es, make informed decisions, track sales ac vity, view follow-up progress, u lize customer rela onship management tools, and develop growth strategies. Plus, all of the data that becomes available – once organized and clearly presented – allows parts teams to navigate wholesale growth and act with greater certainty, stronger insights, and be er customer awareness.
Take control of your parts business
Missing opportuni es or losing customers is never good for any business, but in mes of heightened economic stress and cost-reducing ac vi es, these two things can be devasta ng and the collec ve impact on your parts department can pile up. When you have enhanced access to customer data, you can see what those customer behaviors and trends are telling you. BI tools, like PSXLink, are designed for wholesale parts and provide your parts team with the necessary insights to accelerate sales growth. Customers are always conveying a message to your parts department – even when they’re not “saying it” out loud – and now, more than ever, you need to make sure you’re receiving the message loud and clear.
