Hendrick Lexus Leap Frogs 14 spots in Market Share in only 3 months

  

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December 2010

Hendrick Lexus implements new marketing strategies that improve their sales & service profitability while reducing their overall cost per sale.

Hendrick Lexus is a flagship Lexus dealership and has become a luxury leading retailer for the Hendrick Automotive Group, one of the largest privately owned groups in the country. Located in Charlotte, NC, Hendrick Lexus has grown into a national leader for Lexus in numerous categories and currently ranks as the #1 volume dealership in the Carolinas, and is among the top Lexus dealerships in Certified Pre-Owned category for Lexus Nationally.

“We are consumed with delivering a world class customer experience that far exceeds our customers’ expectations – we want to WOW our customers every chance we get,” said Brian Gendron, Vice President and General Manager of Hendrick Lexus. “We believe that no one will treat our customers as good as we do, so we owe it to everyone in our market to make sure they know about Hendrick Lexus so they can enjoy the experience our team members create.”

To ensure customers know about Hendrick Lexus, Gendron re-engineered the dealership’s entire marketing strategy to attract, serve and satisfy more customers for less cost than they spent before. “We want a holistic marketing plan that communicates a consistent message through every touch point with the customer,” said Gendron. “We were spending too much money with too many companies who were sending different messages to our customers with a different look and feel. This confuses customers and our own employees.” Hendrick Lexus’ new strategy was to use the same message, design and offers across all their advertising mediums: TV, radio, print, outdoor, web, search, social, email, mail, publicity, point of sale merchandising and retention. “We work with one company rather than 15 different vendors and we are spending less for a more integrated strategy that delivers a positive and consistent message to the market.”

Hendrick Lexus continues to provide an award-winning experience that their customers and employees have come to expect, but they just let more people know about it through their new marketing strategy that promotes all their Hendrick Lexus Leap Frogs 14 spots in Market Share in only 3 months departments, New, Certified Pre-Owned, Service & Parts, and Finance. “Too many dealers focus most of their marketing only on sales despite the fact that their service departments are the lifeline when the market slows down,” said Sean Wolfington, owner of www.Tier10Marketing.com, Hendrick Lexus’ marketing company. “It is just as important to integrate all 10 tiers of marketing so the dealership has the same message, look and feel in all their advertising and marketing materials.”

“We are promoting sales and service to customers who have a better chance of doing business with our dealership,” said Gendron. The dealership saved a lot of money by shifting their focus from traditional mass marketing to a more targeted advertising that speaks to consumers that have the highest statistical probability of buying and servicing their vehicle with the dealership.

“We are making an effort to spend more trying to attract and retain customers who spend more with us, not just today but over their lifetime,” added Gendron. “Customers that live far away are less loyal but customers who live closer to a dealership’s “perfect market” have a much higher probability of returning more often, spending more money and referring more of their friends,” said Budd Blackburn, the creator of the “perfect prospect predictor” and the owner of www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com, the targeted marketing team that works with www.Tier10Marketing.com for targeted email and direct mail campaigns for Hendrick’s sales and service departments.

“We used the manufacturer’s research, Polk Market data and the dealer’s historic sales and service trends to target in-market customers who buy and service more often with the dealership over their lifetime,” added Blackburn.

“When the press said we were in the worst market in 18 years, we actually felt some wind in our sails because of this new strategy. We were connecting differently with consumers and it drove them to us,” said Gendron. “We moved up 14 spots in YTD rankings over 2009 by the end of September and our plan was definitely working.” Hendrick also started to use online videos to promote the dealership. Today over 70% of online car buyers initiate their new vehicle search online and Hendrick uses video search engine optimization (VSEO) to appear on top of the search results with hi-impact videos that promote their dealership and the products they sell. Google changed their algorithm so that video results have more search authority than traditional text results so Hendrick uses VSEO to appear on page one for the most popular search phrases in their market.

“Google gives advantage to video results over text results and consumers like video more than text because it combines sight, sound and motion,” said Karry Moore, owner of www.Car-Mercial.com, the company Hendrick uses to produce, optimize and place hundreds of positive videos on top of the search engines.

In addition to attracting new customers, Hendrick works very hard to create customers for life by delivering a world class customer experience. “We want to astonish our customers with extraordinary service. We monitor how our customers are being handled so we can make sure that they receive a 5-star experience at our dealership,” said Gendron.

Hendrick monitors 100% of their inbound calls so they can measure their advertising and track how their customers are handled on the phones, the number one entry point for consumers today. “Our managers get instant alerts whenever a customer is mishandled so they can contact them immediately to resolve issues, save a deal and save a customer in the long term. They will save multiple deals a week and repair broken relationships that could have led to lost customers and bad word-of-mouth.”

Hendrick uses the call monitoring strategy to ensure that every customer is handled properly and their advertising is generating the highest yield. “Within minutes of Hendrick’s management team receiving an alert, they contact the customer and resolve their issues,” said Chip King, president of www.CallRevu.com, the company that provides the call monitoring service to Hendrick.” Hendrick uses the reports to measure the effectiveness of their advertising and to monitor all customer phone calls through daily, weekly and monthly reports, as well as, real-time alerts that save deals and prevent potential CSI concerns. “Our team’s compulsive focus on serving the customer has enabled us to become the proud recipients of the ‘Elite of Lexus’ award 13 years running,” said Gendron. “While we are having a fantastic year, we have a lot of areas we need to improve on so we look forward to improving and growing more in 2011.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

Hendrick Lexus moved ahead 14 spots in YTD National rankings in less than 3 months and their New car sales are up 27% over 2009 as a result of implementing a holistic marketing strategy that combines traditional advertising with digital, social media, reputation management, publicity, targeted marketing, point of sale merchandising and retention. All of their advertising has the same look, feel and messaging so consumers are exposed to a consistent professional message and creative.

What They Do:

1. They execute a highly effective comprehensive marketing strategy with clear calls-to-action across all marketing mediums.
2. They promote all their profit centers via cohesive messaging.
3. They optimize their online visibility through VSEO.
4. They monitor all customer phone calls to ensure customers are handled properly, examine ad tracking, and assess employee call performance.

Resources Dealer Uses:

1. DMS: Reynolds & Reynolds (www.reyrey.com)
2. Ad Agency: Tier 10 Marketing (www.Tier10Marketing.com)
3. Targeted Marketing: Team Velocity (www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com)
4. Video Search Engine Optimization: Car-mercial (www.Car-Mercial.com)
5. Call Monitoring: CallRevu (www.CallRevu.com)

Recommended Actions:

1. Re-evaluate your current marketing strategy to see if you have a clear strategy that integrates all the mediums of advertising with a consistent message, look and feel.
2. Target consumers who have the highest statistical probability of doing business with your dealership today and in the long term.
3. Increase your online presence with search marketing, video search marketing, targeted email campaigns and banner ads.
4. Monitor call activity for tracking your ads, employees, process and to protect and save customers who are mishandled by your staff. well as, real-time alerts that save deals and prevent potential CSI concerns.

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