60% of used car drivers say they would buy again from a dealer they knew they could trust; that’s according to new research released by Carsnip; the UK’s biggest car website.
The YouGov survey, commissioned last month found that more than half of the people questioned said that trust would play as big a part as price in their decision to go back to the same dealer to buy their next car.
The full results can be found at dealers.carsnip.com/yougov17
Alastair Campbell, Carsnip CEO, said: “We wanted to challenge that frustrating cliche that says used car salespeople can’t be trusted. Our research shows that they can, and in fact when it comes to the Holy Grail of repeat business, trust breeds loyalty. Trust takes time to develop and this is where the most digitally savvy dealers are winning by focusing on driving early stage customers to their websites as early as possible.
“These dealers are supporting drivers through their car buying journey by positioning themselves as the experts – this is the opposite of today’s classified websites where dealers generally engage with customers at the end of the buying process when price is more likely to be the primary motivation. The big take-away for dealers is that building trust and investing in digital skills to drive early stage engagement with buyers can pay off in more sales and better margins.”
“For a long time we’ve realised that trying to engage earlier in the buying process is important. As such we invest heavily in our website and online customer experience which also means engaging with early stage buyers by driving visitors to our website through sites such as Google, Facebook and Carsnip.”
Hamish Livingston, digital manager, Peter Vardy
The poll is part of Carsnip’s efforts to help car dealers turn trust into sales; giving them actionable steps to increase repeat business and improve margins. It asked drivers what would make them go back to a car dealer to buy another used car. 62% said good value for money, followed by 60% who said trust.
They were then asked how likely they would be to purchase the same make and model of car for less money from elsewhere if they trusted their existing dealer – just 10% said ‘very likely’, further highlighting another big opportunity for the digitally savvy dealer, trust.
60% of drivers say trust is as important as price when buying a car from a dealer
Gerry Moxham, managing director, Click Dealer, said: “Trust is a vital component in customer retention. Our data shows that a retained customer generates more vehicle margin and purchases more F&I product thus making them more valuable than new customers. We have also found that reviews, ratings, rich customer content and transparency on matters relating to vehicles go a long way towards earning a new customer’s trust.”
The poll discovered that online sales remains an untapped resource for dealers, with just 2% of drivers saying that having the convenience of being able to buy a car online would be their main consideration when looking to buy a car.
Carsnip, which already has over 7,000 dealers live on its platform, will be showcasing its new dealer marketing tool Carsnip Premium which promotes a dealer’s cars above other listings on relevant searches. Current customers include Peter Vardy, Fords of Winsford and Imperial Car Supermarkets. Carsnip listed more than 750,000 cars last month, more than any other UK website.
Media contacts
Press office – 07723602254
Rob Tomkinson – pr@carsnip.com
Visit http://press.carsnip.com/ for details.
Full details and founder interviews available on request.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,020 UK adults, lowered to 1,433 UK adults who had previously bought a car. Fieldwork was undertaken between 27-27th April 2017. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).