Key takeaways
- In towing, the true repeat customers are commercial accounts. Retail drivers come back only if your number is saved in their phone.
- Reactivation starts with a clean export from dispatch, split into retail customers and accounts.
- An account agreement with priority response and simple billing is the loyalty program that pays.
- Measure returning callers and calls per account, and watch for accounts that go quiet.
To get repeat customers, a towing company has to plan for two very different people: the driver who needs a tow once every few years, and the body shop, dealership or property manager who could call you every week. Retention means being the saved number for the first and the default call for the second.
Why retention matters for towing companies
Retention matters because the cheapest tow call to win is one from someone who already trusts your trucks. A new caller from Maps costs you visibility, ad spend or both. A returning caller costs you nothing but the job.
Towing is a one-time purchase for most drivers, so retention looks different here than in a trade with service plans. Repeat business comes from three places:
- Retail drivers
- They need you rarely, but when they do, it is urgent, and they will call a saved number before they search. The job is to be in their contacts and in their memory of a good night that started badly.
- Households and referrers
- One good tow reaches the family's other cars, the coworker who asks "Who towed you?" and the mechanic who hears how the drop-off went.
- Commercial accounts
- Repair shops, body shops, dealerships, used car lots, property managers and fleets send recurring volume. This is the closest thing towing has to a subscription.
Calls a motor club dispatches to you are different. The club owns that relationship, and the next breakdown may go through the club again. The customers you can keep are the ones who have your number.
How a first customer becomes a regular
- The first job
- Thanks and a review request
- A check-in and a referral ask For when the next need comes
- They come back
Reactivation campaigns
- Export your history from dispatch. Pull past jobs from Towbook or your field service CRM with name, phone, call type, date and whether the customer was retail or an account.
- Split the list. Retail customers get light, occasional messages. Accounts get a personal call from you or your account manager.
- Check consent before you text. A receipt or job update is not the same as a promotional message. A "thinking of you before winter" text counts as marketing, and it needs the customer's consent (47 CFR 64.1200). Every message must honor STOP (CTIA).
- Send a contact card to recent retail customers. A short thank-you from the driver's company with a saved-contact file, so your number is in the phone before the next dead battery.
- Send a pre-season note before winter storms and holiday travel. To opted-in customers only: a battery or tire reminder and your after-hours number. Send it before the storm, when you have trucks free, not during it.
- Call dormant accounts. A shop that sent you steady work and went quiet has a reason. Ask what it was, fix it, and ask for the next tow.
- Thank your referrers. Mechanics and shops who send callers your way should hear from you personally, not through a blast.
Memberships and loyalty
For most towing companies, the loyalty program that pays is a commercial account agreement, not a punch card. A discount on a future tow means little to a driver who hopes never to need one. A clear agreement means a lot to a shop that needs cars moved every week.
A good account agreement covers:
- Priority response windows, written down, that your fleet can actually meet.
- A rate sheet for standard tows, transports and after-hours calls.
- Monthly or per-job billing, whichever the account prefers.
- One contact person on each side, and a direct line that skips the public queue.
Some owners consider selling their own prepaid roadside plan to retail drivers. Talk to your attorney or insurance agent first, because in some places a prepaid roadside plan may be regulated much like a motor club membership.
For retail drivers, related services do the loyalty work. The driver you jump-started last winter is next summer's lockout or tow, if they remember your name.
Measuring repeat rate
Measure repeat business by matching callers to your history, not by counting messages sent.
| Measure | Where it comes from | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Returning callers | Caller numbers in your CRM matched against past customers | Whether you are the saved number |
| Calls per account per month | Your dispatch platform | Which accounts are growing or fading |
| Days since each account's last call | Dispatch, reviewed weekly | An early warning before an account is lost |
| Referral source | Dispatch asks "How did you hear about us?" | Which shops and people to thank |
A falling count for one account is worth a phone call that same week. By the time it shows up in monthly revenue, the shop has a new tow company.
The automations behind these messages are covered in the marketing automation guide for towing companies, and the CRM setup page explains how they sit alongside dispatch.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We pull your history out of dispatch, split it into retail customers and accounts, write the messages and automate them in a CRM that stays in your name. The work has a launch date before your next busy season, and we report in returning callers and account calls, the numbers that show whether anyone came back. Book a growth consultation and we will look at which accounts and customers are worth calling first.
Sources
- 47 CFR 64.1200: Delivery restrictions (TCPA rules), Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- Messaging Principles and Best Practices, CTIA