How can dealerships use innovative customer retention strategies to boost sales?

I'm assuming the trigger word in this question is "innovative" - we've seem to forget how to deliver common courtesy to customers so we need to deploy AI or some other tricked out deliverable. Truth is, get focused on the customer experience - streamline processes, remove excuses, exceed expectations, be mindful of the details, act promptly and simply do the right thing. We need every member of the team to act like an owner of the company. That means leaders need to compensate employees accordingly and treat them with respect, empowering them with the resources they need to remedy issues that detract from the customer experience. You won't have to worry so much about retention when you get rid of the problems that make customers defect.

Personalization is important - but more importantly - personalizing to a likely pain point or opportunity that is almost painfully evident - that is salient is the way to go. Do the research, understand the context of your audience, & do your dernedest to nail the bullseye to maximize effectiveness & NOT waste his/her/their time. I would add - that to make communication all the more effective - it is critical to build trust & familiarity. Whether the reach is to one or to many, the frequency is critical to breed familiarity which absent tangents breeds trust. Once this is underway, & succeeding, flipping the personalization, so you the messenger, become known & as having interesting context, helps. Everyone loves a story. It's hard-wired.

In any relationship when you are just “going through the motions” or worse stop communicating altogether things tend to fall apart. The goal of sales is to create and maintain a relationship with your clients. Find out out their preferences and be consistent

Reward's program LOL! Let's start by knowing who our loyal customers are and why are they loyal? They probably are for a variety of different reasons and some may shock us. Nothing is "free" so stop it no more gimmicks! Find out what your customers value and give it to them. You will find many just want you to know who they are, acknowledge their loyalty and make them feel special.

Earn my trust and you will earn my business. What makes someone trustworthy? They do what they say they are going to do. They look you in the eye, listen to what you have to say and respond to your needs. What do we need to do in order to save our customers' time, money, demonstrate we are meeting their needs and maintaining their trust? Answer those questions and you are on your way to a "exceptional" customer experience. The rest is just "fugayzi"