Using the F.A.S.T. Approach to Sell More Cars and Increase Customer Retention

The F.A.S.T Approach can be used to enhance the customer experience and sales growth at dealerships.

• Fast: Maintain an unwavering focus on providing fast, efficient service by quickly responding to inbound leads, chats, and phone calls and delivering accurate information to help guide customers through their entire buying process.
• Attentive Listening: Truly listen and ask insightful questions to understand each customer’s specific needs, wants, pain points, and personal preferences. This allows you to tailor your approach precisely.
• Strong Relationships: Build and nurture long-lasting customer relationships by offering loyalty rewards, exceptional service experiences, consistent communication, and making customers feel valued.
• Train Continuously: Fostering a culture of continuous training, skills development, and product knowledge enrichment for all employees to ensure they provide outstanding customer experiences.

Here are some additional details on each of the four steps:

Fast: In today’s digital age, customers expect to be able to get the information they need quickly and easily. You’ll lose out on your competitors if you’re not providing fast and efficient service. There are a few things you can do to improve the speed of communication:

• Ensure inventory is up to date and easily accessible within more than two clicks.
• Offer live chat and staff the phones so customers can get help when they need it.
• Fully utilize your CRM to track customer interactions and ensure the sales staff is following all communication processes. 

Attentive Listening: The best way to understand what your customers want is to ask them. Make sure the sales staff is consistently asking questions about their needs, wants, and budget. The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve them. There are a few different ways to ask your customers questions:

• Ensure the sales staff greets every customer and follows a standard list of sales conversation starters.
• Observe your customers as they shop in your dealership, what vehicles they are looking at, who is with them, and their overall demeanor.
• Analyze your customer data to see what they’re searching for and what they’re buying. Look into lost sales reports to determine if there is any consistency in why they didn’t buy at your dealership.

Once you know what your customers want, you can tailor your sales and marketing efforts to meet their needs.

Strong Relationships: It’s much easier to sell to a customer who has already bought from you than it is to sell to a new customer. That’s why it’s so important to focus on repeat business. There are a few things you can do to encourage repeat business:

• Make sure your customer service is excellent so that customers have a positive experience that they’ll want to repeat.
• Offer loyalty programs and rewards that give customers a reason to come back.
• Send out regular communications with special offers and news about your dealership.

Train Continuously: Your employees are the face of your dealership, so it’s important to ensure they’re well-trained and knowledgeable. When your employees are happy and engaged, it shows in the customer experience. There are a few things you can do to train and develop your employees:

• Offer regular training on new products and services.
• Provide opportunities for employees to learn additional communication skills.
• Create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

When you invest in your employees, you’re investing in your dealership’s success.

By following these four steps, you can create a dealership with customers who love doing business.