Outstanding Recalls: Your Opportunity to Turn a Negative into a Positive for Your Customers.

Reaching out demonstrates concern in three critical ways.
Let’s face it: customers consider recalls a hassle. Yet when recalls concern safety-related items, inconvenience needs to take a back seat. In fact, reaching out to customers regarding a safety recall 1) shows you care about their safety; 2) reinforces your role as your customers’ expert service provider; and 3) creates the opportunity to build long-term loyalty and relationships.

Reaching out for safety recalls works. According to a Penn State Smeal College of Business-led research team, ¹ “Regulator-initiated digital marketing campaigns aimed at urging consumers to comply with automobile recall requests can improve compliance, saving money and possibly even lives.”

Incentivizing action promotes good will.
The way to motivate customers to act on something they perceive as a burden is proven and time-tested: Incentivize them. Often, incentives can act as the tipping point that brings customers in. Incentives demonstrate that you’re concerned about their safety while also understanding the inconvenience. Better still, once a recall customer comes in, you have the opportunity to engage with them, show your concern, and build the kind of trust in your service department that will keep them coming back.

The Takata airbag recall is a good example of a regulator-initiated recall that still hasn’t captured all the affected vehicles at risk. In fact, as many as 11 million vehicles with defective airbags remain on the road². Yet there is something you can do to motivate action for this and other recalls.

Gift cards have proven to be especially effective in motivating action.
How effective are incentives when it comes to recalls? A recent Harris Poll³ reports that 80% of consumers with outstanding recalls on their vehicles said an incentive would motivate them to act. But which incentives work best? And how much is the right amount to spend incentivizing customers to come in and have you take care of their recall?

Although there are any number of ways to incentivize consumers to act on a recall, in our survey, we found that there’s one incentive that consumers say stands out above the rest: gift cards³. They’re flexible, convenient and can be used anywhere. Customers have demonstrated a higher likelihood to respond to gift cards as opposed to merchandise, donations, or other motivators.

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), in fact, encourages offering incentives not only to customers, but also to dealership management and staff⁴.

1. Digital Marketing Campaigns Focused on Auto Recalls Can Improve Consumer Safety, https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/digital-marketing-campaigns-focused-auto-recalls-can-improveconsumer-safety/.
2. 11 Million Takata Airbags Are Likely Deadly Tumors, Official Warns, https://www.motorbiscuit.com/11-million-unfixed-takata-airbags-deadly-tumors-special-administrator-warns/.
3. Incentives and Recall Consumer Pulse, Urban Science Harris Poll.
4. Tips for Increasing Recall Completion Rates, https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-manufacturers/tips-increasing-recall-completion-rates.