Easily Bring Expired Offers Back to Life with RE-ENGAGE

Executive Summary Section

Your dealership is probably already well aware that the average age of cars on the road today is increasing. While this means you may be getting more revenue for your dealership through maintenance and repairs, it might also mean that your dealership is struggling to bring in high-quality pre-owned vehicles to resell. Luckily, the new RE-ENGAGE product from Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer is an easy yet effective way to increase the offers your dealership receives. RE-ENGAGE is a one-of-a-kind product on the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer appraisal software tool that automatically sends custom follow-up emails to car owners for you using data analytics. Utilizing this unique customer follow-up product will help make the entire sourcing and buying of high-quality pre-owned vehicles much more efficient for your dealership. Learn more about RE-ENGAGE and its benefits for your dealership.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, the average age of cars on the road is 12.1 years. As your service department may have noticed, people are taking better care of those cars. If you’re using Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer at your dealership, your service team may help those customers with nicer cars get cash for their trade-in and inventory for your lot.

Why quality vehicles matter

The benefit to the increased quality of the vehicles is that your service department likely has a steady line of customers keeping up with the manufacturer’s maintenance schedules and doing routine repairs and other services as needed. There could be cars on the road that have had multiple timing belt or oxygen sensor replacements.

Routine maintenance includes:

• Oil changes
• Tire rotations
• Alignment and balance
• Fluid changes
• Brake service
• 30,000-mile service
• 60,000-mile service
• 90,000-mile service

As customers keep their vehicles longer, they could be out of the market for a new one for years, and that makes it hard for your dealership to keep used inventory in stock.

According to Automotive News, economic experts forecast modest growth for 2023, but it’s uncertain whether that will translate into new car sales. They state that between rising interest rates and transaction fees, some consumers can no longer afford to buy a new car. Although new inventory is starting to arrive at dealerships, buyers may not come through the doors.

What does that mean for your dealership?

People shop for cars differently today. They use online sources like Kelley Blue Book to get an estimate of their car’s worth, and they read reviews and ratings from trusted sources for more information on their car. So, Kelley Blue Book’s Instant Cash Offer means a lower cost to market.

When you look at your service lane, do you notice cars that you know you could sell on your lot? You might already have someone on your prospect list who’s looking for one of those cars.

You need to keep your used car inventory fresh, and one of the ways to do that is to approach the customers in your service lane to see if they’re interested in trading in their vehicle or selling it to you outright. You can also set up Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer on your website adding the new product, RE-ENGAGE — this product automatically reaches out to a customer who doesn’t respond to their cash offer before it expires. For up to 90 days from the date a customer’s Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer expires, the RE-ENGAGE product sends a series of reminder emails showing your dealership’s interest in buying their vehicle. Dealers report that 64% of transactions occur in around three weeks, so an expired offer doesn’t mean you’ve lost a solid lead — buying these cars is still possible.

What are the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer and RE-ENGAGE tools?

According to sources at Cox Automotive, after finding out how much their car is worth, today’s average customer takes a lot longer to decide if they’ll actually trade it in or sell it outright. It’s easy for the 7-day Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer window to close before customers reach out to your sales staff.

With Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer RE-ENGAGE, you stay top-of-mind with customers and can still capture inventory leads.

How does RE-ENGAGE work if the customer’s offer expires?

When a customer uses the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer portal on your dealer website, the Kelley Blue Book website, or on Autotrader, they receive an offer that they need to bring to your dealership within seven days or risk its expiration. They can use the offer to trade in their car or to sell it outright. Then, you buy the car from the customer or apply the cash offer as a trade-in amount towards a vehicle purchase. You can either keep the car and resell it at your dealership, or you can sell it to Cox Automotive for the full offer.

But if a customer’s offer expires before they’ve had a chance to come into the dealership, RE-ENGAGE takes over:

1. RE-ENGAGE notifies your dealership about the expired offer.
2. From there, you choose the customers you want to send follow-up emails to.
3. The system then starts sending customized emails regularly to remind them that the offer they received has expired, but they can still come in and you’ll still honor it.
4. Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer customers bring their car to your dealership, and then you either buy it outright or apply it as a trade-in.

By using Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer with RE-ENGAGE, you save both your time and your customer’s time. You can let the system work on its own, and your customer gets emails customized to their offer, which can make them more receptive. Your customers are more likely to open these customized emails than generic marketing emails.

How does today’s consumer shop?

Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer lines up with the way that people like to shop today. A significant amount of the population does their shopping online and expects their product to arrive without a hassle. This is also the way that they shop for cars. They want to find the car they’re looking for, check the price, and buy without a hassle.

They feel the same way about selling their cars. They want to get the most money from the buyer, without the typical hassles, and they don’t want to spend a lot of time buying or selling their car.

Today’s consumer spends time comparing and researching prices — sometimes in the store right on the shelf — so when they’re ready to sell their car, they’re inclined to look for the best deal. Maybe they’ll check prices online to see what other people are asking for similar cars or read customer reviews for more information. When you have Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer on your website, you help your customers get a price for their car without the hassle.

No matter where they shop, most people forget they have a promo code or may let offers expire, which is one of the reasons why many online retail stores send abandoned cart reminders.

As many as 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned; that means seven out of 10 customers walk away from the shopping process, whether intentionally or not. It can take a series of emails to get a customer to come back once they’ve moved on. You can see how easily they might forget an offer so a product that works like an abandoned cart email reminder can be handy for the customer and your dealership.

How does RE-ENGAGE help your dealership?

Online shopping requires a degree of trust from the customer that prices and offers are real. A customer who’s received an email through RE-ENGAGE trusts the offer they received because it came from Kelley Blue Book, a name consumers have trusted for more than 90 years. By using Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer with RE-ENGAGE, you’ve already earned the customer’s trust.

You can let customers know they’re under no obligation to sell you their car, trade it in, or buy a new one. You might encounter customers who are a little skeptical, so you may have to explain it’s an actual offer — in cash.

What other tools are there to go with RE-ENGAGE?

In addition to RE-ENGAGE, other tools that work seamlessly with Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer include:

VinSolutions

When you integrate Connect CRM with Kelley Blue Book, you’ll get Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offers sent directly to your CRM, where you can follow up efficiently. You must have VinSolutions and Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer to subscribe to the RE-ENGAGE product.

Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals Plus

Get insights into the timelines of the shopper’s browsing habits via their digital trail. This new enhancement to Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer takes all the customer’s data, analyzes it, and delivers information that you can tailor to meet the customer’s needs. It’s like knowing in advance when someone is ready to buy.

Digital Retailing

Provide Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offers — even if they don’t finish buying the car online and opt to come into the dealership instead. Coupled with Buying Signals Plus, Digital Retailing can help you win more trades or buy more quality pre-owned cars from current customers. It’s believed that 70% of shoppers buy from a dealership if they can start the process online themselves. With the Kelley Blue Book My Wallet, customers can get estimated payments, other financing information, and save it all in their My Wallet, saving your time and bringing in a quality lead.

Final thoughts on retaining customers and bringing back prospects

Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer is a simple way to bring customers into your dealership with an offer in hand, and RE-ENGAGE is a simple way to remain in contact with them while they consider selling their car to your dealership. Because they’ve checked prices, they know the offer is real, which makes them more willing to do business with you.

If you’re looking for more ways we can help your dealership, read our blog.