RETHINKING THE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL SERVICE CAMPAIGN
At Digital Dealer Conference & Expo 2026 in Detroit, one question took center stage during Inmar Intelligence’s Dealer Tech Live fireside chat: How can dealers protect retention without giving away margin to customers who were already going to return?
Jesse Forbes, Sales Director, Automotive at Inmar Intelligence, joined Amy Reynolds, Senior VP of Marketing & Customer Engagement at Flow Automotive Companies, to share how Flow has evolved its retention strategy through smarter customer segmentation, more disciplined offers and measurement designed to show what actually changed customer behavior.
Watch the full session to hear the complete conversation and see how Flow is putting a more accountable approach to service retention into practice.
NOT EVERY CUSTOMER NEEDS A DISCOUNT
Blanket service offers can drive appointments, but they can also leave margin on the table.
The discussion explored a different approach: understanding each customer’s likelihood to return and potential value before determining whether an incentive is needed. A loyal customer may only need a timely reminder, while a customer showing signs of defection may warrant a stronger offer.
The goal is to make the offer fit the customer and the moment.
TURN CUSTOMER DATA INTO ACTION
At Flow, moving beyond blanket campaigns meant using customer signals to create more targeted retention and reactivation strategies.
Factors including historical conversion, repair order value, model year, warranty status, declined services, mileage, sales history and drive time can help identify which customers are likely to return, which are beginning to drift and where a stronger incentive may make sense.
That intelligence also needs to carry across channels and into the dealership. As Amy explained, marketing can earn the appointment, but the in-store experience helps determine whether the relationship continues.
MEASURE WHAT ACTUALLY CHANGED
The conversation also addressed a familiar measurement challenge: Did the campaign cause more customers to return, or would they have come back anyway?
Using Inmar’s proprietary holdout methodology gave Flow a comparison group for measuring incremental impact rather than attributing every conversion to marketing. Six months into the pilot, Flow saw a consistent five-point lift in OEM retention scores.
For dealers, the takeaway is practical: start with the retention data you already have, look beyond top-line scores, and ask whether the same message and offer really make sense for every customer.
Watch the full Digital Dealer 2026 conversation for more on segmentation, offer strategy, activation and incrementality-based measurement.
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