Note: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, all standard MRAA educational courses found at MRAATraining.com will be available free of charge to any dealer who wants to use the content from now through May 31st. Between now and then, we will be posting regularly to highlight courses that may be useful during this time.
Are you open? Are you closed? Are you providing video walkthroughs of your boats? Are you offering early delivery of stored boats? Customers want to know this information, and by providing it to them, you can probably sell more boats and get more of your customers out on the water using them.
But how do you share this message in our current COVID-19 world?
Text messaging may be the easiest way to get a hold of customers. Even in times of crisis, we all have our phones on us 24/7.
But there are a lot of considerations.
First, do you have the technology to text? This may be through a service that provides texting from a computer or mobile device, or it could be your staff using their dealership-provided or personal cell phones. You have to work that out.
Second, are you prepared with messaging? You need to make sure you have people on staff who have the spelling and grammar skills to text with customers. And it helps to have some planned responses to common questions ready to go.
Third, you need to be prepared to respond. We know from 2018’s online mystery shop that follow-up isn’t always frequent or well-planned out. If you’re going to start texting, customers are going to text back, and they’re going to want a quick response. Make sure that once you send a text, you’re ready to reply in a timely manner.
Fourth, have you asked permission to text your customers? This is extremely important. Before you start sending a barrage of texts to your customers, you need to ask them if you can text them and only text them if they say yes.
Just the other day, I was looking for an electrician, and as it was off-hours on a Sunday evening, I saw there was a text option, so I thought I’d use it. The whole experience was awkward. The person texted back, but nothing was in complete sentences, and the person didn’t even introduce him or herself. It was uncomfortable, so I didn’t book with that electrician.
There are so many ways texting can go right or wrong. If you do it right, the service can be extremely beneficial, and you can communicate with customers, even when they’re quarantined at home.
To get the most out of texting, I suggest you watch “Texting Customers: Do’s, Don’ts and How to Make It a Win-Win,” in which Bob McCann of the MRAA and Graham Anderson of KENECT, discuss texting tips, best practices and more. Bob even shows you how to create a text signature, so everyone you text with will know who you are and which company you represent.
