Walk into the service drive of a traditionally-modeled shop and, rather than hearing the quiet hum of customers and Service Advisors interacting, you hear phones—the sound of phones ringing and ringing, interrupting the Advisors as they try to work with the customers in the drive. This is where automotive call center benefits can make all the difference.
First Hand Call Center Experience
“My phones would ring off the hook in the morning. My service team was overwhelmed,” says Jim Bloedel, former Service Director of a large Milwaukee-area auto dealership. “Calls came in four, five, and six at a time when it was busy.” The challenge isn’t so much the noise, but what the unrelenting ringing represents. On the other end of each call is a prospective customer who needs Service work, often, as soon as possible. From the dealer’s perspective, each call has the potential to serve a customer, book a repair, sell a part, upsell a promotion, and enhance a customer’s loyalty. But those ringing phones come with a cost.
They divide the Service Advisor’s attention between the customers in the shop and the customers on the phone. This often compromises both customer face-time and the ability to efficiently schedule Service appointments. “I would routinely hear Service Advisors say, ‘Hey, my schedule is full,’” Bloedel recalls. So he was riveted when he attended a presentation that featured the practice of outsourcing a dealership’s BDC function.
The concept has since spread coast to coast, resulting in what can be characterized as a second group of dealerships: those whose Service drives are distinctly phone-ring-free.
Sold on the concept, Bloedel decided to outsource his BDC. “Now, I’m suddenly busy all day. There’s no mad rush in the morning and the phones aren’t ringing off the hook, so my guys have time to talk to my customers.”
Bloedel engaged Customer Traac to receive and manage incoming customer calls for Service and Parts and to schedule customer repairs directly on the dealership’s Service appointment calendar. In short order, the dealership noticed that available slots, from open to close, weekdays and weekends, were efficiently filling. And customers reported higher satisfaction with the service they received, too.
Each call has the potential to serve a customer, book an appointment, sell parts, upsell a promotion, and enhance a customer’s loyalty.
Reaping The Benefits Of An Experienced Automotive Call Center
“Within 60 days we found an increase in repair sales. My customer satisfaction level went up because my people had more quality time to spend with our guests,” he says. “Here’s the big thing—my R.O. counts started to go up and I started to get more appointments mid-afternoon and Saturday because I’d taken control of my schedule away from my Service Advisors.”
The value of an outsourced BDC, coupled with Customer Traac’s approach to customer service, convinced Bloedel to join the company as a sales representative. During his tenure, increased dealership demand is reflected in the numbers: Customer Traac continued to expand its client base, serving dealerships across the country from its roots in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
There’s always risk in transferring an internal company function to an outside organization. However technology and training enable outsourced BDCs to operate seamlessly on behalf of their dealer clients.
In an outsourced arrangement, when a customer calls your Service Department, the call will initially be picked up by your representative, who then forwards the call to the outsourced call center. Alternatively, an auto-attendant can route calls directly to the call center, depending on the dealership’s preference.
By syncing up with your in-house scheduling and customer databases, the outsourced Service Representative has immediate access to everything they need to serve both you and your customer: available slots on your Service calendar (based on the nature of the needed repair); an estimated price (you can choose whether to provide this information on the initial call); the maintenance history of the caller’s vehicle; as well as any promotions your dealership is offering at the time of the call.
How Our Automotive Call Center Gets Results
The call center representative will ask for the customer’s name and phone number, allowing the representative to immediately find that customer’s information in your database. If it’s a new customer, we can add them to the system. That’s huge for the dealership, to have updated information. The conversation can then focus on the customer’s needs and schedule.
Representatives are trained to schedule the next available appointment for the customer, even if it’s late that same day or on the weekend. No longer does the Service Manager or Advisor control the schedule based on their (or the technicians’) personal needs.
From the customer’s standpoint, the person on the other end of the phone is a dealership representative with the job of getting their vehicle booked for Service and finished.
From the dealer’s perspective, the value proposition is simple: Does outsourcing its BDC result in a net financial gain and a better customer experience? Operationally, outsourcing a BDC can significantly reduce fixed labor costs and overhead while bringing modern-day efficiencies into a dealership’s Service drive. And if using an outsourced BDC nets just one additional appointment per day, he says, the service pays for itself each month.
Agents have access to your store’s Service schedule, as well as customers’ vehicle data, enabling them to fill your schedule and maximize shop loading. The upside, depending on how the Service team chooses to use its newfound time freedom, can be significant.
“When we take the pressure of the phone away from the service advisor, we give them back two to four hours of talk time every day,” Bloedel says. “This is time that can be used to improve the sales process, the greeting, the walk-around, the review, and service recommendations, all leading to increased revenue opportunities.”
An outsourced BDC can also contract with a dealership’s internal BDC to offer “backstop coverage”, automatically handling overflow calls that the internal BDC is unable to field. Having this coverage assures that you can handle rush periods, like that weekly Monday morning barrage of calls, knowing that you won’t drop calls or miss Service opportunities.
Years Of Call Center Experience, Backing Your Hard-Working Dealership
Three years ago, Berlin City Honda Nissan of Portland, Maine outsourced its BDC to Customer Traac, effectively routing approximately two thousand customer phone calls from its Service Department per month. “We wanted to make it a very easy customer experience,” says Nick Sansone, the dealership’s Service Director. “And when you have a call center that communicates as effectively and efficiently as Customer Traac has done for us, it certainly builds the value of who we are as an organization. We don’t feel like the Advisors have a phone in their ear the whole time. They’re not rushed. It lends more time for them to have that good one-on-one time with each customer.”
Ultimately, it’s about having the full force of a call center team to cover and consummate customer calls that could have otherwise been dropped. “When dropped calls are minimized, it keeps customers from falling through the cracks,” he says. “More appointments is what drives additional sales.”
It’s one sales dynamic in which quietude on-site belies a bustling business.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is the main benefit a dealership would get from hiring a call center?
By far the biggest benefit any dealership will get from hiring a call center is consistent, high-quality call service. When large quantities of calls start coming in it can be difficult to give each call the attention it deserves, especially when multiple come in at once. A Call center makes sure each customer gets the attention they deserve.
What are the risks involved with outsourcing a call center?
Hiring a call center does come with its risks, which makes it incredibly important you vet your call center before hiring them. Low-quality call centers are much more likely to drop calls or provide inadequate service while on the phone with your customer. Make sure you check customer reviews before hiring a call center.
How long will it take to get positive results from hiring a call center?
Hiring a call center can help lift much of the call-heavy burden of running a dealership within the first month of getting set up. As time goes on, processes should improve, allowing call centers to provide an even larger benefit to their respective dealerships. If you’re a dealership and think you need call support, we strongly recommend looking into hiring a call center.
Originally written by:
Jon Stone is a writer and digital communicator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose work focuses on health care, manufacturing, and auto industry sectors.
This article was originally published in Fixed Ops Magazine.
Updated March 8, 2024.
