Defection rates deliver vital information to dealers, allowing them to identify how many customers took their business elsewhere while measuring the impact of retention strategies. However, it has been exceedingly difficult for many dealers to find a tool that tracks defection rates and also explains the “why” behind customers leaving your business.

On this episode of Driving Solutions, host Jim Fitzpatrick is joined by Eric DeMont, Global Product Director at Urban Science. Now, DeMont explains how modern technology is helping dealers gain a deeper understanding of their defection rates while improving long-term sales, profitability, and customer retention.

Key Takeaways

1. Urban Science’s products, like SalesAlert and TrafficView, leverage defection data to help dealers understand when and why they lose potential customers to competitors. This data enables dealers to refine their sales, marketing, and operational strategies effectively.
2. The tools provided by Urban Science allow dealers to optimize various aspects of their operations. For example, they can adjust follow-up processes, evaluate sales team performance, and improve cross-departmental collaboration to address issues that lead to customer defection.
3. Dealers are using insights from defection data to improve their sales effectiveness and inventory management. Motor City Buick GMC, for example, adjusted their follow-up process and inventory based on defection trends, which led to increased sales and better customer retention.
4. Defection data is also being used to refine marketing strategies. By understanding when and why potential customers are choosing competitors, dealers can target their marketing efforts more effectively and allocate resources to areas with the highest potential for sales growth.
5. DeMont emphasizes the importance of continuously integrating defection insights into dealership operations for ongoing improvement. The affordability of Urban Science’s solutions, priced at $299 per dealership per month, makes its advanced data analytics system accessible for any dealer looking to enhance their performance and profitability.

“[Motor City Buick GMC] was able to grow share in this really competitive market by adding defection rate to the inventory of metrics they use to coach salespeople and evaluate their performance. They even recognized patterns in their sales team’s defection rates and began using those defection insights to inform the type of leads they were assigning to each salesperson, whether before internet, commercial, or retail.” — Eric DeMont