Incentivizing action promotes good will.
The way to motivate customers to act on something they perceive as a burden is proven and time-tested: Incentivize them. Often, incentives can act as the tipping point that brings customers in. Incentives demonstrate that you’re concerned about their safety while also understanding the inconvenience. Better still, once a recall customer comes in, you have the opportunity to engage with them, show your concern, and build the kind of trust in your service department that will keep them coming back.
The Takata airbag recall is a good example of a regulator-initiated recall that still hasn’t captured all the affected vehicles at risk. In fact, as many as 11 million vehicles with defective airbags remain on the road2. Yet there is something you can do to motivate action for this and other recalls.
Incentives can demonstrate concern for your customers’ safety while also understanding the inconvenience.
Gift cards have proven to be especially effective in motivating action.
How effective are incentives when it comes to recalls? A recent Harris Poll3 reports that 80% of consumers with outstanding recalls on their vehicles said an incentive would motivate them to act. But which incentives work best? And how much is the right amount to spend incentivizing customers to come in and have you take care of their recall?
Although there are any number of ways to incentivize consumers to act on a recall, in our survey, we found that there’s one incentive that consumers say stands out above the rest: gift cards3. They’re flexible, convenient and can be used anywhere. Customers have demonstrated a higher likelihood to respond to gift cards as opposed to merchandise, donations, or other motivators.
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), in fact, encourages offering incentives not only to customers, but also to dealership management and staff4.