Pay $50 to Find Out Why the Customer Left

I've offered customers a $50 gift card to spend ten minutes on the phone telling me why they bought somewhere else.

I've seen it get people to call back. They've told me the salesperson wasn't listening. They felt rushed. I've had people tell me the salesperson didn't seem knowledgeable about the vehicle.

I've also heard that the other dealership gave them more for their trade. Sometimes the gap was $250 or $500.

That's information you can do something with.

But you have to let it change what happens inside the store.

The customer experienced the visit you gave them

When a customer says they felt rushed, the salesperson may have a perfectly reasonable explanation. They were trying to keep things moving. They thought the buyer was ready. They thought they'd answered the question.

Listen to the salesperson too. You need to know what happened.

Just be careful that knowing their intentions doesn't become your reason to dismiss the customer's experience.

The customer isn't buying the explanation you give each other afterward. They made a decision based on how the visit felt to them. Their perception is their reality.

That's why I want to hear from more than one person.

A trade gap that keeps coming back deserves a look at your appraisals and the competing offers. Maybe that dealership needs inventory and is willing to pay more. Check it. Find out whether you're missing something before deciding the customer was unreasonable.

Repeated feedback about feeling rushed gives you a different place to look. Where are people getting pushed toward a decision before they're comfortable making it?

You have control over a great deal of this. Your team decides how to greet people, answer questions, explain numbers, and keep them informed. Those decisions happen inside your building.

What to ask on the call

Pull ten recent showroom visits that didn't turn into sales, including customers who bought elsewhere. Read the CRM reason before calling.

Offer a $50 gift card for ten minutes. Explain that you're trying to learn about their experience. If they want to talk about buying again, fine. First, hear them out.

“Was there anything about our pricing or process that you couldn't get a clear answer on?”

Then:

“What did the dealership you chose do better for you?”

Ask about the moment they mean. Keep their words in your notes. Send the gift card regardless of what they tell you.

Ten completed calls cost $500 in gift cards. I'd spend that before adding more money to ads.

What changes because you made the calls?

Ten calls won't give you a reliable defection rate. They will give you ten experiences to compare with your deal notes and with each other.

If several customers describe the same surprise, bring that to the people handling that part of the visit. Find out where the surprise started.

For example, buyers who felt rushed through the pencil give you a reason to listen to the presentation. Does the salesperson explain the numbers, ask what needs another look, and allow an answer? Or do they move straight from the payment to a commitment?

Work on the part you find. Then ask later customers about it. You need to know whether they experienced the change your team agreed to make.

Take that to your owner: what customers said, what you checked, what you're changing, and when you'll look at it again. Now the discussion is about a problem real customers described and a practical way to fix it.

I think managers have more room to improve the customer experience than they sometimes give themselves credit for. Start with the part you control.

Those customers already gave you ten minutes. Make sure the next person who walks in gets something out of it.