The Problem With Having Your Service Advisors Answer the Phone

admin | Uncategorized | automotive appointment scheduling, automotive bdc, customer service, dealership customer service, service bdc

A service advisor at a dealership is a liaison between customers and the service technicians. They determine customer’s needs when it comes to vehicle issues, repairs, and scheduling. Which means they can almost fall into more of a sales role than customer service. However, a lot of things can fall through the cracks of their busy schedule that can both negatively impact the customer experience and miss revenue generation opportunities for the dealership. So let’s dig into why having your service advisors answer the phone could be costing your dealership instead of helping it grow.

Inbound Calls Stack Up

The service advisor’s day fills up with several things they do that are crucial to the business of the dealership. They have to build and maintain trustworthy relationships with the dealership customers, communicate repairs to the customer, sell the auto shop’s services, all while ensuring safe, reliable vehicles to their customers. This may require time on the phone, moments away from their computer, walking about, and if they are the only service advisor, that’s a lot of calls for one person! Which begs the question, if they are on the phone all day, then who is talking to your customers who are at the dealership waiting for service?

Long Call Wait Times

Being put on hold is probably one of the worst parts about calling any business. A Google Consumer Survey conducted by Arise Virtual Solutions asked 1,500 consumers how long they were willing to wait before hanging up on a customer service agent. 13% of respondents said that there was no acceptable hold time, with closer to 60% of respondents stating they were willing to wait 2 minutes or less before hanging up.

These results may not reveal any new information, but it reiterates the importance of short wait time on customer service calls. One service advisor might have to put a lot of people on hold throughout the day, or even miss some calls if they are servicing on the floor or helping other customers. A back-up plan for when call volume is high or when service advisors are unavailable, like an automotive BDC, is a great way to mitigate the impact of long hold times and ensure every call is answered.

Appointment Schedule is Empty – or Too Full!

Pre-scheduling service appointments for customers is the duty of the service advisor—to upsell services and keep them driving safely. It’s important to map out the customer’s entire service journey throughout the time they are going to have the vehicle, so that requires some time and due diligence to keep that calendar full. A calendar that is TOO full, however, is not going to spread out the work and it can get gummed up – leaving fully booked weeks in conjunction with empty weeks. BDCs can help alleviate that issue by being extremely proactive about appointment scheduling.

Inefficient Work Flow

Piggybacking off of scheduling issues, keeping a steady workflow at the dealership is important to customer and employee satisfaction. An outsourced BDC, though not in the office, can help alleviate this unbalance in workflow by doing all of the above. They can schedule appropriately, encourage customers to plan ahead, and keep call volume steady by spreading it out across the day—allowing ample time to communicate with the service advisors throughout the day if need be.

Stop having your service advisors answer the phone and start letting them be a customer liaison that will improve the customer experience and drive revenue. Customer Traac can handle the calls and scheduling that keeps your dealership running smoothly. Help out your service team and give us a call today!

Interested in reading more about automotive BDCs? Check out this article.