Revisiting Steve Apicella and Connecting the Disconnected

There has been a lot of buzz lately around CDP, CLV, and for some reason adding more acronyms to our industry that already has more than NASA! Back in August I had the pleasure of sitting down with Steve Apicella, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic DX - Your Dealer Experience, and we covered many topics, including Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Considering the current landscape, it seemed a good time to return to this episode!

How many of our businesses provide seamless customer experiences throughout the entire buying process? How many of us are truly connected to our customers throughout their entire digital lifecycle? Is one and done what we're after, or are we interested in repeat and referral traffic? As Steve put it, "Connect the Disconnected" applies to not just our industry, but to CLV, CDP, and however else you want to label it!

Think about your current business culture and process. Are you do the following

Connecting the Disconnected

Focusing on Customer Journey

Embracing the Customer

Inspire A Lifetime Customer

Championing Customer Loyalty

Always thinking “Great…what now?”

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Chapters

0:00 Start

1:50 “If we could see CLV as clearly as costs, all firms would get this. But because costs are so tangible and CLVs are a mere prediction, it’s really hard to get firms to adopt this mindset. But it’s [CLV] the right one, and they should be working hard to become comfortable with CLV as the key driver to this kind of decision.” - Professor Peter Fader Wharton Marketing

3:24 We Have A Great Industry and Not Everything Is Broken - There are Disconnect Parts If we Desire Anything More than A One Time Transaction

4:47 After Customer Acquisition, Step Two Is Customer Abandonment In Our Industry

6:41 Amazon's Strategy For Customer Engagement Before & After The Sale - What Automotive Can Learn From It

12:00 What Is Strategic DX - Your Dealer Experience?

15:56 Making Phones Smart Again - Are You Refining Your Processes?

17:29 Selling A Customer A Car Isn't The End Of The Relationship; It's The Beginning

20:42 What If Sales, BDC, F&I, Service/Parts, and All Other Departments Truly Communicated Leading to Our Customers Having 100% Confidence In Us and the Products and Services We Offer?

23:52 It Takes All of Us and Our Contributions

26:12 100% Online vs Brick and Mortar

27:53 Are We Striving for A Relationship or Transactional Type of Business?

28:45 Great. What Now? The Process of Continual Improvement

34:36 When Was The Last Time You Truly Communicated With Your Customer?

42:14 Hole In One Stories

46:40 Lightning Round