Saturn of Marietta

Background

Saturn of Marietta, a Bridges Auto Group dealership located in Marietta, Georgia, was the first Saturn dealership in the Atlanta area. Besides being the first, Saturn of Marietta has proven to be one of the best by ranking in the top 100 Saturn dealers for service CSI.

But just a year earlier, it was a very different story. Saturn of Marietta was facing “low CSI and diminishing service business,” Lee Burdett, Director of Fixed Operations said. “Before Prospector, our sales and service CSI scores were in the very lowest segment. The losses were tremendous. We were losing service customers at an alarming rate.”

Business Challenge

Lee came to Saturn of Marietta with 40 years of automotive industry experience under his belt. Lee understood the importance of customer relationship management. “You really have to take care of your customer base,” Lee said. “It’s just too expensive not to.”

Lee needed to stop the bleeding by increasing customer retention rates and improving customer satisfaction. Lee also demanded accountability from his staff, but lacked the necessary technology and processes to produce results. “Accountability was one of the biggest problems,” Lee said. “There was no accountability.”

Lee wanted a solution that would deliver technology, process and accountability. As a believer in automotive retailing technology who doesn’t miss the “good old days” when everything was done manually, Lee understood the importance of combining technology with good processes. “All systems and all businesses are built on processes,” Lee said. “You need a process for everything.”

Impact on Business

Without the effective tools and processes to manage their customer relationships, Saturn of Marietta was losing customers. “There’s just too much information. You can’t effectively manage without systems.”
Solution

Lee turned to Cobalt and Prospector to provide a solution to his business challenge. Prospector, the automotive retail industry’s leading CRM solution, helped Lee achieve 100% employee accountability and increase customer retention. By building and retaining lifetime customer relationships through established processes and flexible automated follow-up, Prospector was able to reverse Saturn of Marietta’s course. “Cobalt Prospector has helped us to finally stop the bleeding,” Lee said.

Prospector has proved its value to Saturn of Marietta, offering them a clear view of their customers, prospects and leads; and how well their employees handle them. “Prospector has definitely put accountability where it needs to be,” Lee said. “If you have people in the dealership that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, you’ll know. With Prospector’s customer follow-up systems, you can actually manage your business instead of just being a fireman running around trying to put out fires all the time.”

Results

With real-time reporting and automated follow-up and campaign management tools, Prospector provides Saturn of Marietta with all the tools and information they need to easily track and follow-up on every prospect and customer.

Lee is impressed by how much Prospector has helped Saturn of Marietta turn things around in the last year. “Prospector has really enhanced our performance. I see the results. It’s been outstanding,” Lee said. “We’ve modified our customer messages and our action plans tremendously. Prospector has made the difference between night and day. As a result of Prospector, our customer retention rate has increased by 100% and our service CSI scores have increased by 20%.

“Other dealers ask me if I think they can afford Prospector. I tell them, ‘you can’t afford not to have Prospector.’ I’m serious. Prospector gives me a real advantage. I’ve looked at a lot of systems on the market. Prospector is the best product out there.”

Key Highlights

Franchise

- Saturn

Cobalt Products

- Prospector
- Nitra Website

Results

- Customer retention increased 100%
- Service CSI scores increased 20%