car salesman showcasing importance of human connection

Human Connection in the Digital Era

admin | Automotive BDC, Customer Service | , , , , , ,

Re-Incorporating People in Your Dealership’s Growth Plan

Technology continues to revolutionize every aspect of our lives and the automotive industry isn’t immune to its transformative powers. From cutting-edge CRM systems to virtual showrooms, the way we do business is evolving at breakneck speed. But among all these shiny new tools, there’s one timeless aspect that remains indispensable: human connection.

Customers today arrive at your dealership with an array of information gathered from their online research. They’ve already compared prices, read reviews, and scoped out their dream car’s specs. Customers are more informed and empowered than ever before, thanks to the wealth of information available at their fingertips.

So, where does that leave us? It might be tempting to rely solely on technology to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. And don’t get me wrong, technology has certainly revolutionized the way we work. CRM software tracks customer interactions, AI-powered chatbots handle initial inquiries, and predictive analytics help forecast inventory needs. It’s a brave new world out there, and we’re embracing it with open arms.

Your Dealership’s Secret Sauce

Your people, from the showroom receptionist to the advisors and technicians in the service drive, are the secret sauce that sets you apart from your competition. In a world dominated by screens and algorithms, there’s no substitute for genuine human connection. After all, behind every click, query, and purchase, there’s a customer with unique needs, desires, and emotions.

That’s why your staff is the face of your dealership, the frontline ambassadors who bring your brand to life. Technology might enhance their capabilities, but it can never replace their warmth, empathy, and expertise.

Take, for instance, the car-buying process. Sure, customers can browse inventory online, compare prices, and even complete financing applications from the comfort of their couch. But when it comes down to making the final decision, they crave reassurance and guidance from someone they trust. That’s where a knowledgeable salesperson can work wonders—answering questions, addressing concerns, and ultimately sealing the deal with a handshake and a smile.

Maybe that’s why it’s not surprising that in Cox Automotive’s annual Car Buyer Journey Study, consumers indicated improved satisfaction with the overall vehicle shopping and buying experience specifically as it relates to the test drive, vehicle delivery, and interaction with the sales team. Human interaction matters.

And let’s not forget about the service department, who keeps our customers on the road and coming back for more. With technology-enabled diagnostics and streamlined scheduling systems, we can optimize efficiency and minimize downtime. But when a customer’s car breaks down unexpectedly or they are trying to determine if they need to bring the car in now or wait for a later appointment, they need more than a quick fix. They need reassurance, transparency, and a guide to help them through the process.

That’s why every interaction matters. Whether it’s a floor up, a service appointment, or a follow-up call, each touchpoint shapes the customer’s experience and influences their perception of your dealership. And while technology can facilitate these interactions, it’s the human element that leaves the lasting impression.

Harness the Power of Human Interaction

Start by investing in your team. Train them to deliver exceptional service, empowering them to build genuine connections, and recognizing their efforts to go above and beyond for your customers. This will help foster a culture of empathy, integrity, and accountability, where every employee feels valued and appreciated for their contributions. Their connection to your dealership and their teams will deepen and will be felt by every customer they encounter, creating a culture that not only generates employee but also customer loyalty.

Next, leverage technology as a tool to enhance, not replace, the human touch. Use CRM systems to track customer preferences and personalize interactions. Consider implementing chatbots and virtual assistants to handle routine inquiries that free up your team to focus on more complex tasks. And above all, never lose sight of the fact that behind every byte of data, there’s a real person with real needs and real emotions.

Lastly, outsource those tasks you don’t want managed by technology but don’t have the bandwidth to manage internally either. For these, evaluate if your people have the time to handle these functions and consider whether they will need a back-up. For example, a receptionist has the time and training to answer your phones but when someone walks up to their desk with a question and the phone rings, do they have a back-up or are they asking the person in front of them to wait a moment? By utilizing a call center or automotive BDC manned by real people, you can ensure every call is answered, which can lead to more appointments, and increased profitability. Not to mention, you can rest assured that your customers are being taken care of by professionals who know your brand and care about your business.

As technology continues to revolutionize the automotive industry, the importance of human connection cannot be overstated. While digital tools and automation can improve efficiency and streamline operations, it’s the warmth and expertise of your internal and external teams that ultimately drives revenue and fosters customer loyalty. So, embrace technology, but never forget the power of a reassuring voice and a helping hand.

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2024 issue of Fixed Ops Magazine.

About the Author:

Lynn Engebretsen is the Client Service Manager for Customer Traac®, an automotive call center and BDC that helps dealerships across the country improve performance and profitability. With over 20 years of experience with Customer Traac, her background includes telemarketing as well as call center management and implementation, including customer satisfaction index and sales calls. Lynn plays a key role in working with Customer Traac’s clients on a continual basis to assess needs and identify key strategies to ensure efficiency and ongoing success. She takes pride in her team’s ability to provide clients with prompt responses, resolutions, and exceptional customer service.

bdc employee on the phone

How to Create an Automotive BDC Phone Script

admin | Automotive BDC | ,

Training your BDC agents to effectively interact with your customers involves ensuring you have the right phone script for your agents to follow. Creating a comprehensive phone script can be challenging from a technical standpoint. Fortunately, though, there are many options for products you can buy that can help you create the right script for your dealership. We recommend checking out RingCentral as an example.

For this article, we won’t dive into the technical aspects of creating a phone script. Rather, we will focus on communication best-practices when it comes to creating a phone script that works for your agents and customers. Specifically, we will discuss three key tactics to keep in mind while creating your phone script. We will then discuss how outsourcing your automotive BDC can help you optimize your phone script and overall customer service operations.

  1. Focus on Listening to the Customer: We recommend designing your phone script around the idea of getting as much information from the customer as you can. And this means ensuring the script is built around listening to the customer and allowing him or her to speak as much as possible. This way, you will ensure your agents can receive as much information about the problem as possible to best prepare your service advisors.
  1. Allow Your Agents to Improvise: While having a set list of questions and script your agents must follow is important, it is equally as important to have room in your script for agents to improvise and use their best judgement to try to obtain the right information from your customers. After all, most problems your customers face are unique in at least some way, and it is important for your agents to identify and learn about these problems as much as possible so they can best prepare your service advisors for the appointment. Similarly, if your agents are running an outbound marketing campaign, it is important that your agents have the freedom to interact with your customers in a way that works for that specific interaction, seeing as each outbound calling interaction will be unique in some way.
  1. Have a Call-to-Action: Having a call-to-action is crucial for the success of each call with your customer. In your script, be sure to have your agents ask your customers to “do something” after the call. This “something” could be coming in for an appointment, signing up for a service, signing up for a follow-up call, or so much more. The bottom line is that you don’t want the call to end with no next step clearly outlined by your agent and agreed upon by the customer.

Writing the right script for your agents and overseeing a customer service operation in general is challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. Because of this, we recommend partnering with a third-party BDC to enhance your operations and save you time and money. We discuss the main advantages for dealerships who outsource their BDC’s in our article titled, “Why Should a Dealership Outsource Its Service BDC?” Briefly, though, outsourcing your BDC will lead to more service appointments scheduled, a better customer experience, a strategically made phone script, more enhanced marketing and sales campaigns, and the saving of time and money.

If you are interested in speaking with someone about partnering with a third-party BDC, please read on below.

Outsource Your Service BDC with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your service BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

automotive BDC employees

3 Characteristics to Look for in an Automotive Service BDC

admin | Automotive BDC | ,

Partnering with a third-party automotive BDC is the right choice for dealerships who want to improve their operations and enhance their overall customer experience. In fact, we discuss the specific benefits of outsourcing your service BDC in our article titled, “Why Should a Dealership Outsource Its Service BDC?”

In this article, we’ll discuss three key characteristics to look for in an automotive BDC when choosing your third-party partner.

  1. Wide Range of Services Offered: When partnering with a third-party BDC, be sure to partner with a company that offers a wide range of automotive marketing services. After all, dealership BDCs must be able to perform a wide variety of tasks, such as automotive marketing, appointment scheduling, customer service, outbound sales campaigns, and more. And it would be expensive and time consuming to hire a different company for each service. So, find a business development center that can handle everything.
  1. Excellent Communication: Good communication is crucial for the success of any company, especially in the automotive industry. So, be sure to find a BDC that a) has agents who are expert communicators with customers and b) has leadership that is able to effectively communicate with your dealership. When you meet with prospective BDC partners, be sure to take notes on how they communicate with you, so you can make sure you choose a partner that fits your business’s communication style.
  1. In-Depth Agent Training Program:  As you already know, providing exceptional customer service is one of the keys to running a successful dealership. Because of this, you better be sure that the BDC you hire is able to provide the best customer support possible. And one of the best ways to ensure this is the case is to examine the agent training programs of each prospective BDC partner. Make sure that whoever you hire to run your BDC operations has a proper training regimen that fits your dealership’s business style, so you can ensure that the agents at this BDC will be as prepared as possible to interact with your customers.

Outsource Your Service BDC with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your service BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

Customer Effort Score

3 Ways to Optimize Your Dealership BDC Support Services

admin | Automotive BDC, Customer Service |

Running customer support services at a dealership can be challenging given everything you need to do to ensure your operations run smoothly. In this article, we will discuss three things you can do to improve your BDC support services and enhance your overall customer experience.

  1. Become an Expert on Your Target Audience: Too many marketers try to develop their goals and strategies without first taking the time to fully understand their customers and who they are trying to reach. As a dealership, if you want to provide the best customer experience and run a BDC that best meets the needs of your customers, you must first ensure you know everything there is to know about your customers. This means understanding automotive consumer trends, the demographic and psychographic makeup of your customers, identifying the right potential new customers, and so much more. Understand everything there is to understand about who you are serving, so you can tailor your business goals and strategies around the right audience.
  1. Communication, Communication, Communication: Good communication can be the main reason for success for many companies, while bad communication can be the main reason for failure. And the automotive industry is no different. You must excel in communication in two key ways. First, you must be able to communicate effectively with your customers (this is obvious), which means you must prioritize client communication in your training and day-to-day activities. You should also adapt your operations strategy to ensure your agents are able to communicate with your customers in ways that work for your customers. For example, some of your customers may prefer phone calls, while others may prefer email or text messaging. Secondly, you must prioritize internal communication, meaning you must ensure that your BDC is able to effectively communicate with your sales team, senior management, and other key stakeholders.
  1. Partner with a Third-Party BDC: Following the two tips discussed above will help you optimize your internal service operations. However, to fully enhance your customers’ experience and dealership operations, we recommend partnering with a third-party BDC that can fully manage your appointment scheduling, outreach, marketing, and more. We discuss the main advantages for dealerships who outsource their BDC’s in our article titled, “Why Should a Dealership Outsource Its Service BDC?” Briefly, though, outsourcing your BDC will lead to more service appointments scheduled, a better customer experience, more enhanced marketing and sales campaigns, and the saving of time and money.

Outsource Your Service BDC with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your service BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

automotive BDC training session

Why Should a Dealership Outsource Its Service BDC?

admin | Automotive BDC | , ,

Outsourcing your service BDC has numerous advantages for your dealership that can help you increase your ROI. The following are just a few of the most important benefits:

More Service Appointments Scheduled

Your service advisors are busy servicing vehicles and assisting customers in the store, so they do not have time to answer each call and schedule appointments. And each missed call in your service department is a missed potential customer. Outsourcing your service BDC will ensure nearly all of your calls are answered by trained customer service professionals who can schedule more business for your dealership.

Better Customer Service

Customer service is crucial for any dealership, so it is important your customers are treated to an exceptional customer experience. And while your service advisors may be excellent employees and communicators, as mentioned earlier, they are probably so busy working with customers on site that they cannot dedicate the time necessary to deliver a good customer experience over the phone. They may not even be able to answer the phone in time.

Outsourcing your service BDC will ensure that highly trained and experienced agents deliver each customer an exceptional customer experience over the phone. Your customers will get an excellent first impression of your dealership.

Enhance Your Marketing and Sales Campaigns

Running marketing and sales campaigns for a service department of a dealership is time-consuming, stressful, and expensive. It is also difficult to do if you are not a seasoned marketer or salesperson. Outsourcing your service BDC allows you to partner with third-party and objective professionals who are experts in automotive marketing. Third-party service BDCs can run integrated marketing and sales campaigns tailored to meet the specific needs of a dealership, while also working on upselling customers who call to schedule appointments. They have the resources most dealerships do not have on their own to run these large scale campaigns.

Save Time and Money

Outsourcing your service BDC will not only save your service department the time and hassle of managing appointment scheduling and marketing campaigns, but it will also save your dealership money. If you do not outsource your service marketing efforts, you will need to pay the costs of hiring, training, and managing a full-time team of marketers and customer service employees. Outsourcing your operations to a trusted third-party is much less expensive.

Outsource Your Service BDC with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your service BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

call center employee

Tips for Automotive Appointment Scheduling

admin | Automotive BDC, Automotive Marketing | ,

As the manager or owner of a dealership, we’re guessing that few things annoy you more than an empty service schedule. After all, service appointments are a huge source of revenue for a dealership, so a sparsely populated service schedule presents a huge problem for any automotive operation.

From our experience, one of the best ways to enhance your appointment scheduling is to outsource it to a third-party automotive BDC. In this article, we will discuss why outsourcing your appointment scheduling will help you schedule more appointments and increase your dealership’s ROI.

Why Outsource Your Automotive Appointment Scheduling?

Outsourcing your automotive appointment scheduling has numerous benefits for your marketing efforts. The following are just a few of the most prominent benefits:

  • More Calls Answered: If your service advisors are responsible for answering the phones and scheduling appointments, they will miss many calls because they will be busy helping customers at the dealership. And each missed call is a potential missed appointment. On the other hand, outsourcing your appointment scheduling ensures that nearly 100 percent of your calls are answered, which leads to more appointments scheduled.
  • More Appointments Scheduled: Another reason why third-party BDCs schedule more appointments is because most service advisors are hesitant to fill their schedules during certain times of the day. For example, many service advisors don’t like to schedule appointments on Friday afternoons or afternoons before holidays because they may want to leave early. If you outsource your appointment scheduling, however, you will ensure that your schedules are filled as much as possible, regardless of the time of the workday.
  • Better Customer Experience: Automotive BDCs that offer appointment scheduling services have agents who are highly trained and experienced in providing the best customer service possible. This is important because the customer experience for your dealership starts with the customer’s first phone interaction, and you want to make a positive first impression.
  • Increase in Upselling: Agents at third-party BDCs are trained to upsell customers when they call to schedule an appointment. This means that your appointment schedulers can act as salespeople for your dealership while also ensuring your service schedule is full.

Enhance Your Automotive Appointment Scheduling by Partnering with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your appointment scheduling, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

automotive BDC agent

How to Hire the Best Automotive BDC Representatives

admin | Automotive BDC | ,

As a manager or owner of a dealership, you know that customer service can make or break the success of your business. And arguably the most important aspect of building a successful customer service operation is hiring and working with the right people.

In this article, we will discuss what to keep in mind while hiring agents for your automotive BDC, as well as why outsourcing your BDC to a third party could be the best way to ensure you have the right people handling your customer service.

Tips for Hiring the Best Automotive BDC Agents

While interviewing and hiring your automotive BDC agents, we recommend looking for professionals who possess and prioritize the following qualities and values:

  • Excellent Communication: Good communication is key for any aspect of business, especially for running an effective customer service operation. Since your BDC agents will be communicating with dozens of customers every day, they must prioritize exceptional communication skills above all else. Moreover, as your BDC agents will be the first point of contact for many of your customers, they must make a good impression, further showing that their communication skills must be excellent.
  • Welcoming Phone Personality: Because your BDC agents will be the first point of contact for many potential customers, they must be able to welcome customers into your dealership. So, they must give off a welcoming and warm personality while communicating over the phone. Please do not confuse this, though, with the need to possess an extroverted personality. In fact, introverts bring many strengths to the table when it comes to customer service. All this means is that your BDC agents must have the communication skills to be able to sound warm and welcoming throughout the customer experience.
  • Prioritize Listening to Customers: The first step to being a good communicator and providing exceptional customer service is to be able to listen to your customers’ needs. So, it is important that the BDC agents you hire possess exceptional listening skills. They must be able to listen to your customers, analyze their problems based on their specific needs, and provide solutions that are tailored to each customer.
  • Company Loyalty: Customer service roles at automotive BDCs can have high turnover if you aren’t careful in your hiring process. And having to constantly hire and train new people is expensive, time consuming, and annoying. So, try to find employees who possess loyalty and can show that there is a good chance they will stay with you for a long time. While loyalty can be difficult to measure in a candidate, there are a few things you can look for. For example, has the candidate been floating from job to job over the past few years, or has he or she been steady at one job? Why is the candidate leaving his or her past position? What are the candidate’s career aspirations? Is he or she looking to grow within a single company?

Outsource Your Automotive BDC to Ensure High-Quality Agents

If you follow the tips discussed above, you will be more likely to find agents that can sustain your BDC as a successful operation. However, finding the right agents and managing this type of operation can be expensive and take your time away from other aspects of your dealership. Because of this, the best way to maintain a high-quality BDC with exceptional agents may be to outsource your BDC to a third party.

We discuss the many advantages of outsourcing your automotive BDC in our article titled, “How to Improve Your Automotive BDC.” In addition to the benefits discussed in that article, outsourced BDCs are able to focus their time and energy on hiring and training the best agents for the job, meaning they are able to provide the best customer service for your dealership. Moreover, third-party BDCs have the resources available to use their agents’ skills to run multifaceted marketing campaigns that can help your dealership grow and increase its ROI.

In sum, outsourcing your BDC could save you time and money, while also allowing you to expand your marketing operations with trained and experienced automotive BDC agents.

Enhance Your Automotive BDC by Partnering with Customer Traac

If you are in need of an automotive BDC for your dealership, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

automotive BDC training session

Automotive BDC Training Best-Practices

admin | Automotive BDC | ,

As a manager at an automotive dealership, you’re constantly thinking about how to best train your employees and/or prepare them to serve your customers. After all, effective customer service can make or break your dealership’s ROI.

And if you operate your own internal business developer center, there are a few things you should keep in mind to ensure your agents provide the best customer service possible. Read on to learn some automotive BDC training best-practices, so you make sure your agents serve your customers in the best way possible. We will also discuss why outsourcing your BDC to a third party may be your best option for minimizing your costs and providing excellent customer service.

Tips for Automotive BDC Training

If you’re managing an automotive BDC at your dealership, we recommend taking into account the following:

  • Learn Your Customers: As mentioned above, the success of your dealership is hugely impacted by your customer service. And the first step to providing the best customer service is to learn everything you can about your customers. So, while training your BDC agents, be sure to focus on the demographics and psychographics of your customers so your agents are as prepared as possible to serve them well.
  • Teach Patience: As you know, customers can be difficult to deal with at times, but you still need them to be happy and to want to continue to buy your products and services. As difficult as customer service can be, your agents must be able to treat your customers with respect and satisfy their needs. And this starts by mastering patience.
  • Teach Confidence: While your agents must be patient with your customers, they must also be strong and authoritative. In other words, they must be able to say “no” when necessary and be confident in their conversations with customers. While satisfying your customers is important, knowing how to avoid being pushed around by rude customers is crucial as well, especially for employee morale.

Outsource Your Automotive BDC

Effectively training your BDC agents and running a business development center can be difficult and expensive, so we recommend looking into outsourcing your BDC operations altogether. Outsourced BDCs consist of trained and experienced customer service representatives that specialize in providing an exceptional customer experience in the automotive industry. Third-party business development centers specialize in the following elements that help enhance dealerships’ customer service:

  • Answering nearly all inbound phone calls, so customers do not wait on hold or have trouble getting in touch with you
  • Interacting with customers in a friendly and professional manner
  • Communicating with customers on a variety of platforms, including phone, email, SMS, chat, and more.
  • Going above and beyond to make sure your customers are happy

In addition to providing excellent customer service and streamlining dealership operations, outsourcing your BDC saves money, as it eliminates the costs associated with hiring and training call center agents, as well as the costs of operating a full-scale in-house BDC.

Enhance Your Dealership by Partnering with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s customer service by outsourcing your BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

automotive BDC employees

How To Improve Your Automotive BDC

admin | Automotive BDC | ,

As an owner or manager of an automotive dealership, your goals are to increase revenue and ROI. Our guess is that the last thing you want to deal with is an in-house BDC that falls behind in answering calls and lacks good customer service. And the best way to avoid these in-house BDC woes is to outsource your automotive BDC operations.

Outsourcing your automotive BDC has many advantages. In this article, we will discuss these advantages and why outsourcing your business development center is the best way to improve your automotive BDC.

Benefits of Outsourcing Your Automotive BDC

The following are just a few of the benefits of outsourcing your automotive BDC, as opposed to running your own internal BDC:

  • Save Money: One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing your BDC is the money you will save. If you run your own internal BDC, you must cover all of the costs associated with this intense operation, including:
    • Finding and hiring employees
    • Conducting exhaustive customer service and marketing training
    • Office space and other overhead costs

On the other hand, if you outsource your BDC, you only pay one cost. And while this exact cost depends on many factors, it is never as high as the combination of the costs listed above.

  • Save Time: In addition to saving money, outsourcing your BDC saves you valuable time. Finding and hiring employees, training agents, and overseeing the extensive operations of a BDC takes lots of time that could be better spent on selling cars or servicing customers at your dealership. We recommend working with a trained third-party BDC so you can focus your time and energy on growing your business.
  • Do More for Less: The best automotive BDCs can conduct a variety of marketing and communications operations all in one place. By outsourcing your BDC, you can schedule more appointments, conduct automotive marketing campaigns, interact with your customers, and enhance your service department all from one place at the same time.
  • Enhance Your Customer Service: Running an efficient in-house customer service operation is expensive and difficult, but outsourcing your BDC ensures that your customers interact with highly trained agents who focus solely on satisfying your customers. Since providing excellent customer service is one of the backbones of running an effective dealership, this is one of the biggest advantages of outsourcing your BDC.

Enhance Your Automotive BDC Operations by Partnering with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s operations by outsourcing your BDC, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

customer service agents at an automotive BDC

How To Improve Dealership Customer Service

admin | Automotive BDC, Customer Service |

As a manager at an automotive dealership, you probably value customer service above nearly everything else. After all, providing the best customer service allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition, keep customers satisfied, and ultimately sell and service more vehicles.

In this article, we discuss four important tips for improving your dealership’s customer service, followed by how Customer Traac can help you provide the ideal customer experience.

Research Your Target Audience

One of the most important first steps in increasing customer satisfaction is conducting thorough research on your target audience. To provide the best service for your customers, you must fully understand their wants, needs, and how they operate.

There are many ways you can research your target audience to gain a better understanding of your customers. For example, you could interview a group of customers and ask them about their habits, what they are looking for in a dealership, how they want to be treated, and more. Or, you could send out surveys to a list of people you believe best represent your target audience to learn about their wants and needs. You could also study market trends and make decisions on your customer service based on relevant trends. The bottom line is that it is crucial to thoroughly research your target audience so you can better understand the people with whom you interact every day.

Always Answer the Phone

As a customer, one of the most annoying aspects of any buying experience is having to wait on hold or not being able to speak to anyone when you need. Just think about any time you’ve had to wait on hold; it always starts the customer experience off on the wrong foot. In fact, dealerships lose tons of current and prospective customers every day by not being able to answer the phone or by putting customers on hold for too long.

So, we recommend prioritizing a high phone answer rate so your customers never have to wait on hold. Partnering with an outside automotive BDC or contact center is one of the best ways to ensure your customers get through to customer service representatives quickly, and we’ll talk more about this below.

Seek Customer Reviews

Figuring out how to improve your customer service can sometimes be as simple as just asking your current customers how you are doing and what you can improve on. After all, who will give you better advice on how to treat your customers than your customers themselves? Plus, seeking reviews from your customers will show your customers that you care about their experience, which in itself is a good customer service practice.

Moreover, compiling customer reviews can help you obtain testimonials you can use for other marketing efforts. And it will help with your SEO as well.

Partner with an Automotive BDC or Contact Center

If you want to ensure you optimize your customer service, we recommend partnering with an outside automotive BDC or contact center, both of which employ trained and experienced customer service representatives that specialize in providing an exceptional customer experience in the automotive industry. BDCs and contact centers specialize in the following elements that help enhance dealerships’ customer service:

  • Answering nearly all inbound phone calls, so customers do not wait on hold or have trouble getting in touch with you
  • Interacting with customers in a friendly and professional manner
  • Communicating with customers on a variety of platforms, including phone, email, SMS, chat, and more.
  • Going above and beyond to make sure your customers are happy

Enhance Your Customer Service by Partnering with Customer Traac

If you would like to improve your dealership’s customer service and overall customer experience, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.

We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.

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