I am trying to buy a new car. My transmission is beyond cooked and I need to get a pair of new wheels like yesterday. I’ve been spending my weekends visiting dealerships which have made my life really stressful. Right now, I’m sitting here reflecting on some of those visits; still without a new car in my driveway. In an attempt to get my mind off of budgets, mileage, and whether I would like heated leather seats or not; I am going to try to describe my experience and figure out how it relates to the way how I should approaching marketing in 2020.
Revelation #1 – Customers Know Their Stuff
Purchasing a new car is far from an impulse purchase. It can be considered an investment in most cases. I’ve spent a large amount of my time researching the make and model of the car I am looking for using the internet.
Customers today have more resources at their fingertips to research products. We are more informed more than ever thanks to search engines and websites.
With that in mind, there should be a heavy emphasis on creating a website and a product page that is very thorough in the explanation of the product or service being offered. Making sure that the page is properly optimized for search engines is extremely important. Too many times small businesses look over this and then begin to wonder why customers cannot find their product. Honest video testimonials are also vital to have on your website as well. Your company can say all the great things under the sun about your product however, nothing quite strikes home to a consumer about a favorable review from an outside party.
Revelation # 2 – Customer Experience is King!
Two of the dealerships I visited made the process very uncomfortable for me.
In one instance, As soon as I step foot on the lot, I had a car salesman lock eyes on me like a soaring bald eagle spotting a rabbit grazing below. They came out and asked me right away if I had a car I was looking for in mind and began spitballing features and prices at me. They didn’t even introduce themselves to who they are.
At another dealer, I was sat at a desk for twenty minutes alone while a salesman was looking for a car that matched what I was looking for (I was getting fed up and told him I was just looking for anything with 4 wheels and a functioning gas pedal…don’t think he found anything LOL).
Being the observant owl I am, I noticed an exchange happened right in front of me where an unhappy customer was being helped by a salesperson that sort of went like this:
Customer: (gets up to head to the exit)
Salesman: (stops him) I’m writing up an offer for you right now.
Customer: (Chuckles in Anger) You are selling me a car that isn’t even on the lot! I’m leaving. Goodbye.
Salesman: Bye. (Proceeds to mutter under breath) You are a waste of my F**king time anyway.
Right then and there, I decided I’m not buying from this dealership. Terrible customer experience. Zero Yelp stars.
After that horrendous experience, I was thought to myself “Why am I leaving my car search up to the hands of those shady salesmen? I bet I can find some website where I can purchase the car that’ll give me all the information I need to ultimately make the correct purchase.”
I am among the customer demographic that purchases products online without the use of salespeople. Thank you, Amazon. Customers today more than ever, purchase a product without speaking to a representative. This has led to mistrust between salespeople and the customer during peer to peer interactions.
On the contrary, there are still cases where speaking to a representative is totally acceptable and advised. For example, you wouldn’t want to select a college based on how it looks on the website. You wouldn’t want to buy a house without going inside and checking if the plumbing is functioning correctly.
So you cannot get away with focusing on one aspect without addressing the other, they are both equally as important.
Customer experience needs to be considered whenever a marketing decision. Every email, social media post, website design, automated workflow, and sales call has to correctly answer the question – Is this the best experience I can possibly give to a customer?
We should all take a step back once in a while and reflect on lessons from daily experiences and figure out how you can apply them to your everyday life. This was an interesting one for me to analyze, to say the least. Well, onwards with the car hunt!
