Customer notes
Letters to lapsed service customers
A customer who has stopped coming in for servicing has usually not decided anything. They missed one, then it was awkward, then they went somewhere closer. A letter that treats it as a lapse to be explained will not work; one that makes the next booking trivially easy sometimes does.
Written by Autopen Australia · Updated
Standard overdue service
[FIRST NAME],
Your [MODEL] was last with us in [MONTH YEAR] for [LAST SERVICE]. On the usual interval the next one was due around [DUE MONTH].
No lecture attached. If you have been going elsewhere that is completely fine. If you have simply not got around to it, ring [NUMBER] and we will find you a morning that works.
[NAME], [DEALERSHIP]
Where there is a genuine reason to come back
[FIRST NAME],
Two things on your [MODEL]. The [ITEM] is on a recall we are handling at no charge, and the logbook service is overdue by about [NUMBER] months.
Both can be done in the same visit. Ring [NUMBER] and ask for [NAME].
[NAME], [DEALERSHIP]
Long lapsed, worth one letter only
[FIRST NAME],
It has been [NUMBER] years since the [MODEL] was in, so you have almost certainly found somewhere you like.
This is the last we will write. If you ever want to come back, we have your history and nothing has moved.
[NAME], [DEALERSHIP]
Getting it right
- What to mention. When they were last in and what was done. What is due now. A phone number that reaches a human who can book it in that call.
- What to leave out. Warranty threats. Implying neglect. A discount that is bigger than the one you give loyal customers, which they will eventually find out about.
- How long. 60 to 100 words.
- How personal. Practical and slightly apologetic about writing at all. Nobody enjoys being chased about a service.
- When not to send one. Where the vehicle is known to have been sold or written off. Check the registration status before the run or the letter lands with somebody who no longer owns it.
Personalising more than a handful
The fields that earn their place here: [FIRST NAME], [MODEL], [MONTH YEAR], [LAST SERVICE], [DUE MONTH], [NUMBER].
Service history fields are the richest personalisation available to a dealership and the most dangerous. One wrong last-service date tells a customer their record is unreliable, which is precisely the reason people change workshops.
Before any run, read the piece with the longest value in your data, the shortest, and the empty one. If all three read as English the merge is sound. Personalising direct mail at scale covers the rest.
Sending these at volume
A service database holds thousands of lapsed records and the economics only work as a large run, which is also the point at which nobody is going to write them by hand.
Autopen Australia writes each piece individually with a real ballpoint, personalises every piece from your list, written into the sentence rather than dropped into a gap, hand-addresses the envelopes and lodges the run with Australia Post, or sends it back to you to release in waves.
Have a service database going cold? Reactivating a service file
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Writing more of these than you have evenings
Tell us roughly how many and what they say. We will come back with an exact price and a production window.