CincinnatiOneCommand has announced the addition of Loyalty Programs to its suite of relationship marketing solutions. In announcing the new offering, the preference-based, automated, multichannel marketing solutions provider cited statistics charting the average car buyer's defection rate: 21 percent annually, equating to a complete turnover every five years. The company also noted that, on average, only 11 percent of buyers return to their original dealership of purchase for ongoing and regularly scheduled maintenance. However, of the 11 percent that do return, 72 percent will eventually buy another vehicle from that dealership.

OneCommand believes that Loyalty Programs can help to minimize the costs of creating new business by creating value for a dealership in the customer's mind.

“Loyalty Programs make customers feel that they are valued by the dealership and that feeling of value goes a long way in building a longer, more profitable relationship,” said Al Babbington, OneCommand CEO. “Our customized Loyalty Programs are making a huge difference to our dealer’s bottom line. Loyalty Programs keep the relationship tight, fresh and valuable to both parties.”

OneCommand said that Loyalty Programs are designed to identify customers in the dealer’s database that are not performing in a loyal fashion and craft multichannel marketing campaigns to help improve loyalty.

“A huge percentage of our customers are now repeat buyers thanks to Loyalty Programs,” stated Jim Gill, dealer principal at Chesrown Auto Group, a Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Kia group, in Columbus and Delaware, Ohio. “Loyalty Programs helped put us ahead of last year in both sales and profitability, despite tough market conditions.”