Outsourcing Customer Service

Outsourcing Customer Service: The Competitive Edge You Need

admin | Customer Service | , , , , , ,

Outsourcing your dealership’s customer service has a lot of benefits including lower costs, increased bandwidth to focus on your core competencies, and around the clock availability. After all, missed calls and appointments are missed opportunities, and outsourcing customer service can fill those gaps. Partnering with a team of customer service professionals that already has the resources to go above and beyond can be one of the best moves you can make for your dealership or dealer group. 

Outsourcing Can Cut Labor Costs

You can often hire a team for contract and a flat rate, which can pale in comparison to labor expenses of having an in-house customer service team. When you consider all the expenses beyond salary that come with each customer service agent, you see how much it actually costs to employ someone full-time. Taxes, insurance, and other benefits must be taken into account.

Not to mention, the required office space and the cost of their equipment—computers, telephones, desks, and other supplies that help make them successful. Vacations are a lost expense in terms of time and work output, and bonuses and other incentives really start to add up over time.

It all adds up! And, remember, you still have to recruit, train, and develop those employees. According to Boulo Solutions, the average cost of hiring a new employee is around $5,000. And with talent shortages across the country, positions are remaining unfilled up to six weeks or longer. (SHRM) Fortunately, outsourcing customer service can lead to more control of your overhead and budget. 

Outsourcing Boosts Customer Retention

Customer retention efforts that an in-house customer service team doesn’t have time for, or cannot prioritize, can be more of a focus if you outsource your customer service team. They have the people and time to make outbound calls, as well as answer all the inbound calls. This eliminates dropped calls, wait times, and increases outreach and satisfaction. Research from MaritzCX found that by simply improving customer satisfaction by one point on a standard five-point scale, the average car dealer would see an extra $2.5 million in loyalty-generated revenue. 

Focus on your Business

Outsourcing your customer service creates the bandwidth you need to focus on achieving dealership goals. Owners and managers alike can focus fully on running the business, making sales, or whatever their role entails. There can also be less distraction from phone calls and customer service chatter, which can help create a more positive and engaging work environment for everyone. 

Higher Security and Fraud Prevention

Customer service companies already have incredible measures in place to prevent fraud and keep your and your customers’ information safe. Highly secure phones and programs provide critical peace of mind that your information is secure and your customers are being well taken care of. 

24/7 Multi-channel Support

Something your customer service team can’t offer in-house is around-the-clock support. The restrictions of business hours can reflect negatively on your customer service by increasing wait times on hold, and even dropped calls. 24/7 Support allows your business to take advantage of those otherwise unscheduled times. An outsourced team can also have more resources and staff to manage multi-channel support across phones, emails, and social media all at once. A fast turn around time on multiple channels is key to customer satisfaction and following up on leads. 

Seasonal Spikes in Call Volume

Certain times of the year have a spike in call volume, and require more coverage on phones and emails. An outsourced team makes these times much easier to manage because there’s no need to have employees work overtime, or hire more people for coverage. Organizations like Customer Traac are able to prioritize spikes in volume before they happen with simple shifts in staff.   

Increase Efficiency and Improve Competitive Position

All of the benefits of outsourcing your customer service will lead to an increase in efficiency in your company, and improve your competitive position. Introducing more service specials and opportunities for the service team to upsell, can show upwards of 20% increase in service repair calls. No missed calls, means no missed opportunities. 

The positive correlation Customer Traac has seen in dealerships we work with is astounding. We absolutely recommend outsourcing your customer service department, and we want to work with you every step of the way. We can ease your transition and help you capitalize on the opportunities you might be missing out on without an outsourced team. Reach out or call us anytime at 763-553-2989.

A rep displaying how an automotive business development center can help dealerships grow

How an Automotive Business Development Center Can Help Support Your Sales Team

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

The sales team at a car dealership is comprised of multiple positions with multiple responsibilities throughout the company. Some positions you may find at a dealership that play a role in the sales process include sales associates, sales managers, and the general manager. And while these positions are primarily focused on driving dealership success, they are still responsible for elements of the customer service strategy. This might include answering the phone when they aren’t with an active customer, greeting customers on the lot, or even grabbing a bottle of water for a service customer waiting for their vehicle. And while all of these tasks certainly keep team members busy throughout the day, not all of them are actively generating revenue for the dealership. That’s why moving customer service activities away from the sales team is a great way to create more bandwidth for those employees to tend to the sales process and develop a truly seamless transition between the sales and customer service teams. Let’s dig into a few of the ways in which an automotive business development center can help support your sales team. 

What is a Business Development Center?

In the automotive industry, Business Development Centers (or BDCs) work alongside sales and service teams to manage incoming calls, schedule sales and service appointments, and perform outbound campaigns that generate sales and service leads. Additionally, BDCs can help improve customer retention, conduct satisfaction surveys, and handle general or overflow call volume. By removing these tasks from other teams, sales and service staff can focus on what they do best and dealers can rest assured that no ball is being dropped in the process. 

Answering Calls and Managing High Call Volume

An automotive business development center can help alleviate heavy call volume by answering calls that otherwise could pull salespeople and sales managers away from customers. BDCs, like Customer Traac, become masters on the subject of your dealership so they can answer questions, resolve inquiries, and even relay specific details regarding car service needs and timelines. This removes a lot of the time spent by sales teams on customer service issues that can pull focus away from the selling of cars, which in-turn opens up availability to make more sales and keep moving inventory.

When your dealership sales or service teams are getting a high volume of calls for questions on top of inquiries, it can get messy. Additionally, consider the times of year when you typically experience an increase in people purchasing cars as well as servicing them. These increased call volumes can be a lot to handle, and outsourcing them to a team that is equipped to manage these seasonal shifts can aid your dealership in its busy season. A BDC can take those calls and turn them into schedules for the sales and service teams that keeps everyone busy but not overloaded. 

Follow-up Calls

Following up with customers about their purchase, their vehicle’s maintenance schedule, returning calls with issues, and other customer service tasks can be left for the BDC to handle in a timely, and efficient manner. This way, salespeople won’t have to worry about keeping track of customer voicemails, emails, or disrupting sales efforts to make these follow-up calls. Additionally, follow-up calls can bring a lot of recurring business to the dealership. It’s a tactic that can easily fall by the wayside if salespeople aren’t getting responses or calls back after a week or two. A BDC that remains diligent in reaching out to existing or potential customers have a very high chance of turning calls into appointments, future trade-ins, or even a good review. 

Scheduling Service Appointments

BDCs will know a car’s suggested service maintenance schedule based on the make, model, year, and when the customer purchased the vehicle. This means they can make and maintain a full schedule of service appointments that improves customer retention and creates a full schedule for the service team. 

An automotive business development center can help create a ripple effect from the initial sale, and takes care of all the supporting activities associated with it. Customer Traac starts at once after a sale and can start outbound campaigns, pre-schedule service appointments, and alleviate call volume from the dealership. 

For over 30 years, Customer Traac has provided outsourced business development center solutions for dealerships across the country. We know that when your teams have more time to focus on what they do best, your dealership grows. Reach out today to learn how we can help your sales team sell more cars and create lasting customer relationships. 

Instead of having your service advisors answer the phone, let them work with in-person customers

The Problem With Having Your Service Advisors Answer the Phone

admin | Uncategorized | , , , ,

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.

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