There is no doubt that there’s a seismic shift to mobile, and it’s changing every aspect of business.  As a dealer, you want to find a way to keep customers coming back. You want your dealership to be memorable. You want to make it so memorable that it can create change, and spur your customer into action. This is the quality of making your dealership ‘sticky’. The stickiness factor involves how effective your dealership stays in the minds of your customer. If you are to make your dealership memorable and brand it into the minds of your customers, an App for your dealership is an essential element to achieve the stickiness effect you want.

People take for granted many of the things they see every day, but subconsciously it has a large effect on them. With an App, your dealership’s brand can be seen every day, as it lays on the home screen of your customer’s mobile device. In this mobile era, one can’t deny that users have a habit of pulling out their mobile device and play around with the content on their phone, especially apps, when they have idle time to spare. If one them was your dealership’s app, automatically you are contributing to your stickiness effect on them. By incorporating useful features and an appealing aesthetics into your dealership’s app, you can successful achieve this stickiness effect upon your customers, build your brand, and enhance your marketing strategy.

Features That Make Your App Sticky

Apps that are successfully sticky engage users, so having useful features and an eye-catching appearance is important as it compels users to continuously revisit it. An App for your dealership should include a service scheduler, a messaging system (a way to send personalized as well as generic messages and notifications to your customers), inventory browsing, monetary service (“payment gateway”), useful tool kit, contact information, and other convenient amenities. Also, keep in mind that looks matter. Just like you are inclined to pursue things or people that catch your eye, Apps that are visually appealing are likely to be sticky. With an attractive App that allows customers to schedule service appointments, complete daily tasks, and allow them to find what they want quickly and easily, it not only helps your customers’ busy schedules, but also helps you keep your customers coming back.

 Having a robust messaging system will make your dealership’s presence known to your customers anytime and anywhere, and presence is key for obtaining the stickiness effect.  Like never before, you can take advantage of mobile technology with location services and push notifications, giving you the ability to reach customers exceedingly faster than emails. With various integrations, you can alert customers that are due for service or notify them that their vehicle is ready for pickup. Your dealership’s app can have the ability to send pictures and videos of needed repair for transparency and upsell opportunities as well as incorporate a monetary service to it so your customers can make payments through the App. This eliminates complexity in their ownership cycle, and keeps them coming back.

Branding and Marketing

An App for your dealership develops the stickiness effect as it enhances your brand and your marketing strategy. Having an App will have the greater effect than placing a billboard in a strategic area or advertising regularly in a newspaper or commercial. Unlike before, your dealership is App real estate on a customer’s or prospect’s most prized technological possession—their mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, etc.). Not only will an App build your dealership’s brand, but it improves your marketing strategy as it gives you unique data mining capabilities that allow for targeted marketing. Dealers can use demographics and patterns to attract new buyers and resell to existing customers. Before, email or direct mail were the method of choice to deliver, but now an App can help dealers reach out to a more refined audience. So not only will you have a sticking effect on your existing customers, but an App gives you the opportunity to spread that stickiness.

Time For Action

It’s time to take your customer retention to the next level. As a dealer, you already have a mobile site and the stats look good, but to create the much needed stickiness effect that all businesses crave for, you should think about incorporating an App into your dealership’s marketing strategy. You already know mobile is here to stay, so take your mobile strategy seriously and create a stickiness effect like never before. With an App, you have the power to make your dealership unforgettable.