"Doesn't mean goodbye" — Recapturing "lost" customers through fixed operations | Kristine Lentz, Urban Science
Is your dealership losing customers you thought were gone for good? Every automotive professional knows the sting of a "lost" sale, but what if those defections weren't permanent goodbyes, but instead, opportunities for powerful comebacks through fixed operations?
In this episode, Kristine Lentz, Product Operations Manager at Urban Science, reveals how using precise data can transform your view of customer defection from a failure to a strategic advantage.
What you will get from this episode:
Understand why traditional "defection" metrics might be leading you astray.
Discover how leveraging sales data can pinpoint exactly why and when customers leave.
Learn how to use fixed ops as a potent reactivation tool for "lost" customers.
Redefine your follow-up strategies to recapture customers and build lasting relationships.
Strategically deploy AI in your sales process to close crucial gaps.
Kristine Lentz is the Product Operations Manager at Urban Science, bringing years of expertise in leveraging data to drive actionable insights and improve dealer performance.
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:42 Defection Defined
02:43 Finding the Leak
04:35 Days to Sale Insights
05:32 AI as a Partner
07:26 Empathy Still Matters
08:57 Facing the Fear
10:26 Stop Chasing Sold Leads
10:59 Service Reactivation Play
12:31 Data Plus Human Response
13:55 Outro
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Episode Transcript
[0:13] Intro
Michael: All right, gang. Welcome back to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast. I have my good pal here, Kristine Lentz, the Product Operations Manager at Urban Science. Thanks for joining us.
Christine: I'm so excited we get to do this in person. I know this is the funnest thing ever.
Michael: What in the world? Can you believe it? It's like when you only get to talk to people online, we're all from here up. So it's like, oh good, you walk.
Christine: I'm a real person.
Michael: And you're a real person too. Okay. I want to get right into this with you because there are so many things that I want to pick your brain on.
[0:46] Defection Defined
Michael: The first one is, when dealers hear the word defection, they often think failure. Why is this the wrong way to look at it?
Christine: So first of all, I think they need to know what defection is. Let me say deflection, defection. So let's break that down first of all. All dealers, they're working a bunch of leads, and this is a collection of leads that is in their CRM that they're probably still following up with, that has actually purchased elsewhere at a competitor. So that's a defection as it is.
And why they need to know about this is, I think the first thing is knowing what defection is. The second part is really, what are you going to do about it?
What you're going to do about it is you need to first of all know, from Urban Science, Urban Science has something special. I know everyone says that, but we really do. I always say, everybody give us a minute, let us tell you. We have our data hub, and what it has is sales data that we get every night from all the major OEMs. That's exclusive to us. We're not looking at data that's 30, 60, or 90 days old. This is the lead in your CRM that purchased at a competitor yesterday. That's the really huge thing about what Urban Science can provide you, and that's nowhere else. These are exclusive contracts we have with the OEMs.
And so when you have that, you're able to see Sally Sue, the name I always make up, Sally Sue in your CRM.
Michael: Do you have a voice for Sally Sue? I'm sorry, I have to ask.
Christine: I don't, but maybe I could make one for you by the end of this show.
Michael: We're going to have a voice for Sally Sue.
Christine: Sally needs a voice, and I thank you for advocating for her because she is always here with us.
Michael: And so you're getting the sales data, it's exclusive to Urban Science. You brought up, okay, well, what do we do with it?
[2:43] Finding the Leak
Christine: What do we do with it, right? We need to find out. So when we know these people have purchased elsewhere, and it happens for a couple of different reasons, the first reason could be price or inventory. And then what we do with it is we can actually start breaking down those processes and understand where that leak is.
So we break it down by sources. There are sources that you might think, hey, these are not great, we don't even do anything with these, we throw those leads aside. We'll show you, hey, are these people actually buying? And do I need to have a follow up process for this that is better to actually demonstrate what is going on? It's actually a good lead source.
I will tell you, I've had dealers when they start with us on Traffic View, that's when they can break it down and actually see everything in there. They'll say, cut out these lead sources, don't even show me them, I don't even want to know about them. I just want to see what the real meat and potatoes is. And I always tell them, give me a minute, let me show you, let's just look at it all the first month. And then we'll dive into it, and then we'll see.
There's a huge percentage of these leads that are actually purchasing, living in their backyard, but purchasing at a dealership farther away from them. Which is crazy, right?
Michael: Which is interesting, because you know, often we'll hear about the pump in, pump out report, where is the defection happening? But it's such a limited piece of information because it's just numbers on a map and we're like, oh shoot, people on the fringe of my primary market area actually bought from one of my competitors. And sometimes it's like, yeah, because they were actually closer, even though they were technically in your primary market area.
So my question for you is, with the information that you're able to see with the data you're getting nightly from all of the OEMs, what changes when dealers can actually see where and why defection happens versus just an ambiguous number?
[4:35] Days to Sale Insights
Christine: One of my favorite things that we show in our solution Traffic View is days to sale. This is always one that makes sales managers fall out of their chair. We know that the follow up process with salespeople isn't usually as long as we want it to be. And so what we can break down is we look at a lead from the day it comes in all the way to day 90. And then we can see when you made your sales on that chart, when you lost sales to the same brand, and when you lost sales to competitors.
And so when you match that with your sales process, you can say, okay, we typically drop off at day five. Everybody wants to say we reach out forever, but let's be real, you don't reach out forever. And maybe your salespeople start dropping off a little bit around day three, day four, whatever. And then we can see a spike. It's like day 8 to 14 is usually the sweet spot of when defection is just huge.
[5:32] AI as a Partner
Christine: And so it really can help you to understand, you know, everyone's talking about AI. We're at NADA right now.
Michael: Yes, please tell me.
Christine: AI is like, I think I've heard it nine million times today. And so when we're implementing these tools, AI is great when you know when to use it. And so that days to sale chart, like I was telling you, you need to know what days that automated AI tool needs to jump in in order to actually fill those gaps. Salespeople are getting tired. They don't need to reach out nine million times, but give the tools an actual timeline that's going to make sense and going to make a change.
Michael: Okay, this is super interesting to me. I've been taking a few notes. AI nine million times a day, what to do with it, where do we actually inject this? Because here's my worry, Christine. People are like, yeah, you know what, if I'm being honest, I do only follow up for three days and I'm losing so many opportunities. I can only imagine your data is showing us how much people would actually appreciate it if you tried following up with them longer than three to five days. What are you seeing?
[6:50] Empathy Still Matters
Christine: Yes, that is totally true. The personal touch of it and the relationship building aspect is always going to be important. There's never a time I believe that we're not going to need that. AI is amazing and it's supposed to be our partner. I don't think it's supposed to be our replacement.
Michael: Did you hear that? It's not meant to be our replacement. Do you think a time is coming, this is our off brand question, do you think there is a time coming when it will replace us? What's your view on the human experience as a part of this whole thing?
Christine: So I've worked in multiple different parts of our company. I've been here now at Urban Science for six years, and I've had five different roles in that time. They have been too good to me. I started off on our support team. When you call into us, you actually talk to somebody that's real, every time. When you chat in, you chat into a person. And I can't tell you how many times people start messaging us and we're like, no, I'm real, I'm real.
Michael: And it's 9:30 at night and I'm trying to do a piano lesson.
Christine: But how much relief they have when they're like, somebody hears my concern and someone's going to do something about it. Sometimes you just need to vent to somebody about it and have them be an ear.
Michael: Is that the empathy thing, you think?
Christine: It is. And then you can give it to AI to solve. You don't have to do everything yourself. AI is good for some things, but there is something inherently comforting about knowing someone else, some other person, is actually hearing you out.
Michael: Yeah, a hundred percent. Everybody wants to have somebody empathize with them, wants to have a conversation. And like I said, sometimes you just need to vent it out and say, Michael, I am so upset about today, let me tell you about it for 20 minutes, and then go and solve it for me please, and come back with a response that's going to help.
[8:58] Facing the Fear
Michael: What's the biggest fear you see with dealers who now have access to defection data? They understand the why and the what. What's the biggest fear they're expressing to you?
Christine: Fear, I think the fear comes at the beginning, even before they can see the defection data. Once we get people in to actually look at the data, it guides them to results so quickly that there's not much fear. But I think it's the ego in some of that. It's hard. And I always say, I compare it to a test. It's like after you failed the test, you don't want to look at it because you're like, I already heard that I failed. I don't want to see all the answers I did wrong. But you need to, and that's what's going to help you win tomorrow. When you realize, hey, it was question B, and I didn't study long enough on this subject. It's the same thing with those leads. If you didn't follow up long enough, or you didn't have enough information, or you didn't make a connection with that customer, we need to diagnose that in order to do something different tomorrow.
Michael: You're making me think of something that I heard once, which I love the perspective of. There is a real fear of being too aggressive. But then there's this mindset, which I really appreciate, which is it would be a disservice to the customer to not get to experience working with our store. It would be a disservice. What's your take on that?
[10:26] Stop Chasing Sold Leads
Christine: I have a great take on that. What I would say is, I think of defection at the end of the sale. If you put yourself in the customer's shoes, you know you've already purchased elsewhere, and I keep telling you, hey, come check out this new vehicle. You're like, leave me alone, get off my back.
Michael: Get away, stop bothering me.
Christine: Right. And so if I continue to do that, defection data is going to open that door for you to say, hey, this person has purchased somewhere else. Let me stop wasting energy on them. Let me stop bothering them.
[10:59] Service Reactivation Play
Christine: And what some of our customers have done, who have really made some success here, is they've switched to service. They can say, hey, I'll give you the first two oil changes for free if you come to us. We know that we're closer to you, because this is the kind of information we can give you with our defection data. We know that you live maybe closer to us, and I know that you just bought the same brand. We can service you. Come in for your first two services for free, and then we can start building that relationship. Then you're like, hey, I trust you, you came in, and you can start to rebuild.
Michael: Oh my gosh. This is something that I've been thinking about so much lately and you're striking a chord, Christine. The driver of most conversations tends to be around variable operations. But fixed operations can be a real reactivation driver. It can be an acquisition driver. It can be the thing that drives people right back into variable. You're bringing this up and I'm like, this is an unlock people need to be paying attention to. Fixed ops is not the awkward step sibling. These two departments need to really work hand in hand. And if I'm hearing you correctly, tell me if this tracks, you can use fixed ops as the reactivator.
Christine: It is. And that's how you continue that relationship.
[12:31] Data Plus Human Response
Christine: Defection doesn't mean goodbye forever. It doesn't mean that this is a total loss and it has to be doom and gloom and sadness. It is, if you don't do anything about it. If you take that action, do something with it, learn for the next time, and connect with that customer again, we've seen tons of our customers do this and they are actually building back sales, building back relationships, and even surveying through that time.
So they say, hey, you came in for that oil change, maybe this is the third one, how did we lose you? And then they're actually getting real answers from their customers. Things like, your salesperson didn't even answer what I was asking them, or they didn't answer my call and I needed something, so I went to another store and they answered right away and I got what I needed. All of those things can come in, and the more information we have, the better we can do.
Michael: Data activated. Human response. You can't take out the human part.
Christine: You can't take out the human part.
[13:32] Outro
Michael: This has been so delightful. How can those listening and watching connect with you?
Christine: You can connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Christine Lentz. And then you can also connect with Urban Science. We have our own LinkedIn page and you can also go to urbanscience.com.
Michael: Christine Lentz, thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook Podcast.
Christine: Thank you so much for having me. It's great to see you.
Michael: Thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share, and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
