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

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The sales team at a car dealership is comprised of multiple positions and multiple duties throughout the company. Some positions you may find at a dealership that have some part in the sales process include the Salesperson, Assistant Sales Manager, Sales Manager, and the General Manager. Being able to move customer service activities away from the sales team can create more time for them to tend to the sales process and develop a truly seamless transition between the Salespeople, Managers, Customer, and Customer Service teams. 

Dealership Sales Team

The Salesperson is generally your first point of contact when you arrive at a dealership. They are the ones on the floor, talking with customers, and going along for test drives. They need to be super knowledgeable and be up to date on car makes, models, trends, and price points to negotiate appropriately. 

The Assistant Sales Manager is usually the next person up the ladder from the salesperson. They come in to talk numbers and seal the deal. In terms of the work they do, they don’t do as many managerial duties, as they do sales, but are there to represent the dealership as a whole and ensure they get the deal. They will fill out all the paperwork with the customer, talk incentives, future appointments, and terms of the purchase. 

The Sales Manager works more behind the scenes, and really don’t get any face to face interaction with the customer. They pre-approve prices and strategy and encourage the Salespeople and Assistant Sales Managers to hold firm in their negotiations to get the cars sold at the price they agreed upon and that the dealership is willing to settle on.

The General Manager is the one who heads all of the sales team, and the rest of the dealership including receptionists, service teams, vehicle delivery specialists – you name it. 

Where a BDC Comes in

Business Development Centers can allow the dealership sales team to make even more sales, and focus on the sales process in the dealership. The Business Development Centers can help with customer service appointments, customer retention and satisfaction surveys, and handling call volume. By removing those things out of the dealership, and out of the hands of the sales team, it’s likely sales could increase just by salespeople and managers having more time and energy to devote to sales. The BDC can essentially become an extension of the sales team, supporting them with day-to-day tasks and follows up with customers. 

Answering Calls to Alleviate High Call Volume

The BDC can help alleviate heavy call volume by answering calls that otherwise could pull salespeople, and sales managers away from the floor. BDCs like Customer Traac become masters on the subject matter so they can answer questions, resolve inquiries, and know specific details regarding car service needs and timelines. This removes a lot of the time spent in the dealership 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 team or in-house customer service are getting high volumes of calls for questions on top of inquiries, it can get messy. There’s also a few times of year, mostly in December around the holidays, or right before the new year, that there is an increase in people purchasing cars. These high volumes of calls can be a lot to handle, and outsourcing to a team that is equipped to handle these seasonal shifts in call volume can help aid your dealership in this busy season. They can take those calls and turn them into a schedule for the sales team that keeps everyone busy, but not overloaded during a busy time of year. 

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. The salespeople don’t have to worry about keeping track of customer voicemails, emails, or disrupting sales efforts to make follow-up calls. Follow-up calls can bring a lot of recurring business to the dealership as well. It is a tactic that can easily fall by the wayside if salespeople aren’t getting responses or calls back after a week or so, they may give up on that customer. A customer service team that remains diligent in reaching out to existing or potential customers have a very high chance of turning that call around into a service appointment, a future trade-in, 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 ensures customer retention and a full service schedule for the service team, all based on the sale made by the salesperson. 

Outsourcing your Business Development Center helps 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. 

Customer Traac proves having an Automotive Business Development Center can help support your sales team in more ways than one. More time, means more sales, and having a specific BDC focused on the automotive industry can truly create a curated customer service experience for your dealership that goes above and beyond for your customers. 

Customer Appreciation Ideas to Maximize Retention

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Customer retention is the true key to success. It’s what any business should be striving for. Within the dealership industry, repeat customers are extremely valuable and can make the jobs of your sales and customer team that much easier. So, what can a business do to show appreciation for their customers in a way that makes them want to come back for more? We’ve got a few ideas!

Offer a Loyalty Program or Incentive Plan

One of the best ways to increase customer retention is to offer a loyalty program. Programs that incentivize repeat buying can increase sales, and according to recent studies, 87% of customers want brands to have a loyalty program. In the automotive industry, this is especially true. In a dealership business development center, with the main goal being appointment scheduling, we can offer special repeat services for customers if they schedule now. By offering 3, 6, even 12-month deals for a loyalty program, can make all the difference in customer retention and satisfaction. They want to know that they are cared for, and that their business is important.

Provide Free Upgrades

Everyone loves a free upgrade. If the customer were to upgrade services on their own, there may be a small expense, so offering it as a FREE upgrade is a great way to get that business. Customers who are already receiving services, or have received service from your business in the past, are highly likely to return if they are offered a good reason to. Free upgrades for one customer can also lead to them spreading their good fortune to others via word of mouth. A good review from a customer is an absolute blessing for getting new customers into your business.

Give Them a Free Car Wash

In the industry of scheduling service appointments, trade-ins, and car sales, a free car wash may seem like nothing, but what an awesome way to show the customer you appreciate them! At Customer Traac, we know a free car wash—especially in these Minnesota winters—is quite a gift. It also shows we care about their purchase as much as they do, and we want it to last the lifetime of their relationship with us, and hopefully continue on to their next vehicle.

Celebrate Their Milestones

Did your customer buy their car in the last year? Did they make payments and service appointments regularly and on time? This is something to celebrate! Finding any reason to celebrate a customer milestone can be a great way to show you care and appreciate them. This could even be in the form of points or levels. By giving a customer gold status because they got 3 oil changes through your dealership. You’ll be increasing the likelihood of them continuing that relationship. Make those milestones a big deal, and you may have a customer for life.

Do a Prize Drawing

A prize drawing is something you could do both over the phone or on location. Have a bowl where customers can drop their business cards in for a drawing for a prize once a quarter. If you’re over the phone, ask if they’d like to submit their phone number or email into the pot for a drawing! This makes your job fun, and it makes the customers feel like they’re appreciated and part of something bigger. Follow through and make sure you share the winners on social media, this will entice everyone to continue to put their names in for a drawing, and it can attract other customers as well! You can’t ask for better promotional content than a prize drawing.

Treat Them to Unexpected Discounts

At the end of your call surprise the customer with a discount! This can be a great way to solidify them in your business, especially for repeat customers. After you resolve their issue or make the sale, say “To thank you for being such a great customer, we want to offer you 10% off your next service!” Customers deserve to be rewarded for repeat business, and for just being good customers. Everyone loves a good surprise, and if your business budgets for that in your department, it can be a super awesome way to give back to your customers, without breaking the bank.

Send Thank You Notes

A personalized thank you note can really make a customer feel appreciated. If you’re at a smaller business, a handwritten thank you note to a few of your best customers can be a really fun addition to customer retention programs. Your staff could have a stack of thank you notes on their desk at all times, and when they receive a customer that just was so kind, and so grateful, they could write up a thank you note on the spot, and send it off in the mail. Customers make your business, and without them, you wouldn’t have one. They deserve to be recognized and appreciated! Giving and receiving thanks really makes people feel good and can give an added value to the work you do. Plus, it keeps customers coming back. It’s a win-win!

Business Communication Strategies That Will Drastically Improve Your Teams Efficiency

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Communication is key in almost any relationship, and that includes the relationship between your employees and yourself. For a team to work efficiently and effectively as a cohesive unit, there needs to be clear, well-defined communication.

We have some tips on how to prioritize communication strategy to improve your team’s efficiency.

Talk Big Picture

In order for your employees to fully grasp their impact, and to appreciate your business strategy, they need to know about the big picture. Sharing industry trends, insights, and news with your team can increase their engagement and help them become fully immersed in the work they do.  Doing this will also help them understand their impact on the company and industry as a whole.

Sharing consumer insights and behavior in industries can help drive teams to want to work effectively within the business and in the community. Showing how your business is working as part of the bigger picture can be a great motivator.

Invest in Your Employees

Your employees are the heart and soul of your business. They run the cogs of the machine, and they need to be treated as an integral part of the business. This means investing in them both financially, and emotionally. Allocating resources into your business strategy to cater to your employees’ well-being is key.

Make sure to recognize and acknowledge your employees for a job well done. An analysis done by Gallup.com found that an employee who did not receive regular or adequate acknowledgment could be twice as likely to quit in the next 12 months. Communicate with them what incentives they have, how important they are in the business, and share their wins amongst the group. This will boost morale and encourage them to work even harder as a team.

State Your Purpose, Clearly, and Frequently

A good business has a clear vision, mission statement, and every single member of the business knows their purpose—both granularly and in the big picture. The company’s purpose should be simple and laid out in a way that relates to every single person involved in the end goal.

Make your purpose centralized around communication, employee well-being, and keep communicating it in a way that links your strategy to their day-to-day jobs. Your purpose should be a driving force to motivate your employees in their roles.

Prioritize Messages with Everyone

Being open and communicative with your team is very important to ensure a cohesive team experience. Creating a wedge between executive levels, senior levels, and employees can divide a team. There should be an openness to a communication strategy that brings teams together, not separates them. Share business wins, fails, and important updates. It should be a priority to share uplifting messages about accomplishments that encourage your employees. This gives your employees a sense of achievement, and that their work matters.

Encourage Continuing Education

Share messages that encourage education to your employees. Offer them resources for continuing education and growth. An employee who feels encouraged to learn and grow will more likely want to actively improve upon their career because they feel supported. Allowing your employees to feel involved in business strategy decisions and processes, will only add to the success of it.

It must be accepted that employees want to learn and grow by contributing their part to the business, whether they stay there in the future or not. Communicate these learning opportunities to them, so that they can enhance their careers, not only for themselves but for the overall business.

Be Present

As daunting as it may seem to have to meet regularly with all staff, especially in a big company, it’s important to set goals to communicate effectively with all staff across the organization. Investing time to speak with employees in executive positions, as well as those on the frontline can be incredibly effective in boosting morale, and enforcing inclusivity.

Many companies have weekly and monthly meetings with their teams or departments to maintain a constantly flowing communication funnel. On top of that, bringing together the entire company in a quarterly meeting can solidify communication strategies, and get key messages across to all aspects of the business.

Switch up Meeting Formats

Meetings, meetings, meetings. We all sit through them, and we know that if they aren’t run efficiently, they can really waste a lot of valuable time. On top of that, they should be engaging, worthwhile, and cover topics everyone wants to know about. By using the same old format, time and time again, it can get old and people can become disengaged.

Switching up how meetings are formatted quarterly can help keep staff engaged and interested. Powerpoints over and over again can also lead to longer, less efficient meetings. Use creative methods to get people involved. Some businesses have a no phone or laptop rule during meetings and encourage employees to simply bring a pen and notebook. This creates an environment where everyone must communicate effectively to have their issues heard, and everyone can take part in resolving problems. This format can also easily pinpoint areas of meetings that are deemed repetitive or unnecessary and can be improved for better communication amongst the group.

Communicate on a Personal Level

When executive-level managers can connect with employees on a more personal level, it can create more cohesiveness in the company and build a positive team atmosphere. By being real, vulnerable, and honest with your employees can give a sense of personability that is a crucial component to relating to customers. If your communication strategy does not include being friends with your coworkers, then it is going to be hard to relate to customers in the same way.

Maintaining good communication strategies, and upholding an ever-changing work environment can change the entire outlook for your business. You can’t expect to build good, everlasting relationships with customers if you aren’t doing the same within your business. Following these structures and listening to employees in all aspects of the business, will allow your team to be as efficient as possible, and work with purpose.

Customer Traac helps to facilitate these avenues of communication within teams with their business development center. By following best practices with customers, they can also maintain great communication amongst their team and that is shown through.

Bad Customer Service Examples: The Most Cringe-Worthy Customer Service Scenes in TV and Movies

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If you’ve ever dealt with bad customer service, which you probably have, you know that it is the absolute worst. Some people have had such bad customer service experiences, that they dread dealing with any customer service, to begin with! As terrible as it can be in real life, some of our favorite TV shows and movies display the worst of the worst, where we can cringe from afar. The very least we can do is laugh at these other customers’ misfortune dealing with some of the worst customer service imaginable.

The Time-Waster

Fans of Saturday Night Live will know the instant classic of Kristin Wiig portraying the Target Lady, who although quite loveable in her own way, takes her love of Target too far and often abandons her post or wastes people’s time. If you’ve ever come across a slow checkout attendant, or someone who commented on every item they scan, you know the feeling of wanting to bump them out of the way and scan it yourself!

Taking Things Literally

Kel Mitchell made Ed working at Good Burger the epitome of poor customer service. Ed was charmingly dumb, but that can’t excuse his taking customer requests VERY literal. Like the time a customer ordered a Good Burger with nothing on it, and Ed served him a plain bun. According to Ed a meat patty is something, and the customer wanted nothing. The next thing you have is an irate customer.

The Intentional Non-Helper

Not often will you find a customer service team that doesn’t actually want anyone to buy a single thing. The owners of femininst bookstore in the show Portlandia seem to want to drive any customer away that doesn’t side with them, or just in general. Candice and Toni tend to hate when their store is busy, which is generally what you want in order to have a successful business. Their loss!

The One Who Doesn’t Care

Have you ever talked to the IT team at your corporate business and don’t get the help you needed? Or they say they’re going to come by and fix the problem, but give you an 8-hour window? Yeah, the IT team from IT Crowd, an amazing British TV show, really takes the cake for least concerned IT team. They are known for answering the phone, asking if you tried turning it off and on again, hanging up, and showing up to help fix the problem at some point in the next few days. Not the best service, we’d say, but perhaps not the worst?

The Customer is Always Wrong

Sketch comedy show, Little Britain USA showcases a lot of interesting characters. Some funny, some awful, but one, in particular, is Carol the receptionist. She couldn’t be less approachable, especially for a welcome receptionist at a hospital. She is easily annoyed by the 5-year-old checking in, and isn’t afraid to show it!

Putting Protocol before Customer Needs

In Meet the Parents, even though Greg Focker is a known screw-up, we can’t help but feel his pain when he deals with some ridiculous service trying to board his plane at the airport. Though we understand protocols, to be petty with a customer is something NOT to do.

https://youtu.be/v6FK2RmVgGE

Of course, these bad customer service experiences are satire, but when satire becomes a reality you know it’s bad. We saw a few examples like the time-waster, the one who intentionally does the bare minimum, and the one who doesn’t act as if the customer is always right. Customer Traac takes these examples and does the opposite. We are here to help, to listen, and to get the customer to their end goal as efficiently as possible. But, we sure love to have a good laugh about those who don’t know good customer service.

How to Create a Customer Service System That Will Survive When You’re Out of the Office

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Building a good customer service team means having people you can count on, even when you’re out of office. Relying on a team that you can trust to run independently, take the reins, and own their work is crucial to building a good customer service system. A good manager invests in their team, encourages them, and trusts them to do top-notch work without supervision. You should be able to rest easy knowing your customer service system and the team can run the show, even while you’re out of office.

Here are ways to make it easier to step out of the office and allow yourself to focus on working on the business instead of in it.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing your team can be a surefire way to have a trustworthy, supervised team that can get the work done despite our absence. An outsourced customer service team or business development center can allow your business to thrive because of this team that consists of its own full staff, supervisors, managers, and processes that easily integrate within your business. Outsourced can not only be self-sustaining outside of your business operations but can cover hours outside of your business hours, and handle all training, education, and turnover, so you don’t have to.

Documented Process Guides

Documenting every single process a business does is crucial for maintaining synchronicity and consistency within a business. No matter how small or silly a process may seem, it’s important to be able to keep those same processes across the board, whether onboarding a new employee or continuing education amongst veteran employees. Being able to have detailed, well-written guides for any and every situation can alleviate the worry about leaving a team unattended without management. By having employees write them, you can get accurate processes, combining everyone’s information, knowledge and techniques to formulate a seamless guide to all parts of the job. It can also help determine and fix any efficiencies to develop a perfect process to use for training purposes and a guide for working independently.

Accurate Forecasting

A few key factors to track data can help forecast busy or slow times, which can help with staffing issues and planning ahead. Some key metrics to keep track of include call volume, handling time, and daily intake times. There are programs and softwares that can help track these metrics automatically so they can be used to staff and train appropriately. Knowing what times of day, week, month, and year you receive the most calls can help with coverage and preparation. You can schedule lunches around slow times, and even hire extra people around holidays and busy times of the year. Forecasting is crucial to running a successful business, and can help create seamless processes.

Continuing Education & Training

Investing in good continuing education and training programs for new and existing employees can help curate a team that is always up to date, grows in their roles, and be a great team you can instill trust in to manage problems on their own. When turnover happens, having a well-planned training program can create an easy transition into the role, but the training should never end there. Continuing education can happen in many forms, to keep employees invested in their work, and finding more ways to grow, learn and succeed. By investing that time and energy into employees, it not only positively affects the business, but their careers as well. Continuing education can happen monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually depending on the amount of changes in processes throughout the year.

“If This, Then That” Employee Scripts

Having a script can actually help a lot with handling one-off issues or problem customers. It can be formatted in a flowchart that indicates if this happens, then the agent says this. Agents can have laminated sheets that display common questions and answers, or popular interactions with customers to help them go through the easy calls first. Or, they could keep notes of uncommon questions and answers to help agents get out of a bind with a problematic customer or a complicated issue. By having a guide, they can avoid any slip-ups by having to think on the fly or have to sort through process guides or documents to find the response they are looking for. By keeping the team fully prepared and well equipped to handle any situation, you can trust they should be able to handle the department in your absence and unsupervised.

While these are great ways to build a customer service system that can survive in the absence of supervisors or management, the true trust can lie in hiring the right people and ensuring they have the proper tools to thrive. Customer Traac supports businesses in a way that allows them to instill trust in us and know we will be able to handle anything that comes our way. For more information on how to improve your new or existing customer service system, call us today.

5 Best and User-Friendly Automotive Dealership CRMs

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In an industry as customer-centric as the automotive industry, a good CRM can be the driving force in business strategy. Now, what is a CRM and why is it important to your business?

Customer relationship management solutions help companies gather and organize information on both existing and prospective customers, which in turn helps them to optimize their marketing efforts towards these customers, and improve their customer relationships as well.

Different industries need different things when it comes to CRM solutions, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all. A dealership’s success relies on customer retention and service maintenance that comes after a customer purchases a car.

So as important as customer acquisition is, dealerships need to have a CRM that can best utilize data to navigate new and existing relationships to improve customer retention. In no particular order, here are a few automotive CRMs that work best for dealerships, to help save them time and money in the long run. 

1. DealerMine

DealerMine uses data to give a 360° view of your customers. They offer a service and sales CRM separately, so the dealership can have a truly curated CRM that fits exactly what they need.

In their service center CRM they cover all the bases, from online scheduling to data organization, to dropped calls and missed service opportunities.

The sales CRM helps automate sales systems like tracking equity, online leads, and tracking inventory levels and turnaround. They make everything easy with mobile integrations, and easy user-friendly tracking.

2. DealerPeak

DealerPeak has hit the market with a much needed CRM service for dealerships, which is not the usual one-size-fits-all design. Over the years they heard from everyone ranging from independently owned dealerships to franchise and enterprise levels, and they don’t all need the same things from their CRM.

With three different levels, DealerPeak can be a completely customized solution for any size dealership. They are very transparent with their pricing and what each program entails.

The CarDog program, for small independent dealerships, ranges from $300 to $1000 a month, and all levels include mobile capabilities.

DealerPeak Plus is the same price range as CarDog but includes multiple mobile device capabilities, for higher-level dealerships.

The DealerPeak Classic, that they’ve coined the Bentley of enterprise-level dealerships starts at $700 for the minimum package but includes even more customization with reports, dashboards, and integration capabilities. 

3. Drive Dominion

With their AI platform, Olivia, Drive Dominion works with the sales team and helps them best engage with customers. Dealerships get to utilize a personal assistant across multiple platforms.

Their services also include lead generation organizations, equity mining, review management, and a fully automated marketing platform. Their customized dashboards are incredibly user-friendly and have features that include calling out priority leads, industry stats, and an online scheduling calendar. 

4. DealerSocket

DealerSocket also looks out for both independent and franchise dealerships and their different solution needs.

Their CRM for independent, small dealerships helps connect the points between sales teams and customers. Even smaller companies need streamlined workflows to work more efficiently. On top of CRM assistance, they combine inventory management, website marketing and tons of other solutions to help them.

Franchises that are a little bigger in size, with more complicated systems, need a few more advancements within their CRM solutions. Customizable options like DealerSocket can give them analytics support, web analysis, desking, internet lead management, and sales management, for both small and large scale companies.

5. VinSolutions

Understanding the struggles that lie within dealerships in this day and age, VinSolutions has built the tools that can help dealerships succeed. They know that tracking leads, sales, goals, and customer information can be tough, so their Connect CRM integrates with existing processes to help streamline them into one single dashboard.

Their CRM focuses on streamlining the purchasing process so every second spent with a customer counts. They offer solutions to challenges for everyone at the dealership including the owners, general managers, general sales managers, or internet sales managers.

In Conclusion

Aside from streamlining workflows and improving customer relationships, two other things are crucial to increasing profitability within a car dealership. Answering phone calls, and keeping a full service schedule.

The major chunk of profit comes from post-purchase activities like following up with customers, pre-scheduling service appointments, and selling service packages.

Customer Traac’s services, combined with outsourced CRMs can boost profitability for dealerships, no matter the size. Put customers first with streamlined solutions, and let us help your dealership on its path to success. Visit us today at https://customertraac.com/ to learn more!

Key Tracking Systems for Car Dealerships: The KPIs You Need To Keep A Close Eye On

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There are a lot of moving parts to managing a car dealership, and if you aren’t tracking your KPIs (key performance indicators) you can’t get a true sense of the success of your business. There are a few key metrics that every dealership should keep a close eye on, because they tell the true story of how operations are going and where the business is headed. They also allow accurate forecasting for future growth or adjustments. 

Used to New Inventory

At a dealership who buys and sells both used and new vehicles, an indicator of success lies in the used to new inventory ratio. A ratio of used cars that is equal to or higher than the new inventory is a great sign. A 1:1 is considered a good ratio for dealership standing, while a 1.25:1 is a great ratio. Basically, it all comes down to profitability for a dealership, and more profit comes from the service appointments that come after a vehicle is purchased. Trade-ins and used inventory also bring more profit than new vehicles will bring due to turnaround, trade-ins, and service maintenance. 

Gross Return on Investment

The GROI is a number that can track the rapid rate of return on vehicle sales. It takes the gross as a percentage of sales multiplied by the turn rate. For example, a $15,000 sale can make $1,500 of profit, which is 10% gross. Divide that by the turn rate and you will get the GROI, which an ideal result is 120% or higher. The less time that car took to sell, the higher the GROI.

Inventory Turn Rate

The inventory turnover rate can tell a dealership how many times their full inventory turns over in a year. It’s a simple math equation to figure this out. The cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory value equals the inventory turnover rate. As an equation that looks like costs of goods sold / ((beginning inventory + ending inventory) / 2) = inventory turnover rate. 

Price to Market / Market Days Supply

Inventory that sits at the dealership unsold for long periods of time, has a window of profitability that shrinks by the day. There is a close balance between the market demand for a vehicle and its price. HyreCar says to try and keep at least 50% of your inventory under 30 days old. 

Online Lead Response Time

When a customer sends an online inquiry to the dealership, that is at their peak interest, and that lead should be utilized. Response times should be within minutes, not hours or days. A customer who is shopping around will be far more attracted to responses they received within 15 minutes, instead of the next business day. These response times can be tracked within the sales or customer service team and if response times are not falling within at least an hour, that process needs to be improved. Don’t drop those warm leads simply because you aren’t sending a simple email response back. 

Customer Retention Percentage

Considering dealerships make most of their profit from post-purchase activities like service maintenance, trade-ins and warranties, customer retention is incredibly important for business. Studies have shown that a customer retention percentage increase of just 5% can increase profits anywhere from 25-95%, depending on the industry. Figuring out customer retention rate at a dealership may be slightly different than in other industries, but by tracking the time between a customer purchasing a vehicle, and when they come back for maintenance or other activities can be a good indicator. If six months have passed and a customer has not scheduled any service maintenance, like an oil change, it would be time to reach out to them with retention programs. 

Social Media Traffic

Tracking how much engagement, and when, is happening on social media accounts can help with marketing strategy. When and how much you post on social media can directly affect traffic. For example, if you are posting too early during the week, when people are likely working and not seeing your posts, can bring traffic down. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will allow you to utilize analytics and metrics for your business account that can track all types of social media data from traffic, to engagement, to how long they watch your videos. Use this free data to craft a more effective social media presence, and capitalize on basically FREE marketing! 

How Having a Call Management Team Can Help Dramatically Increase Customer Satisfaction

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It has been said that acquiring a new customer is up to five times as costly as retaining an existing customer. Yikes! Those expenses take into account the time and energy spent by staff to acquire new business, but also the actual costs of ads and marketing expenses to get those new customers. Customer loyalty and retention is easier and more cost-effective than many customer acquisition efforts. A lot of customer satisfaction is going to come directly from how they interact with your company through customer service and phone calls, which should be held to high regard if you want to maintain a successful business. 

So, how can having a call management team dramatically increase your customer satisfaction?

Eliminating Missed and Dropped Calls

A call management center can alleviate pressure during seasons of high call volumes. Dropped calls or being put on hold are an immediate no-no if you are trying to maintain positive customer feedback. A fully-staffed, dedicated team can ensure no calls are missed, dropped, or put on hold for long periods of time. 

In a time where we can get information in literal seconds, nobody has time to wait around for someone to answer the phone, let alone be put on hold for any amount of time. We need fast responses, and even faster resolutions. The bar is very high for customer service these days and one bad call can lead to a poor review, and lost business. 

In-house customer service teams can fail at this sometimes because they are first of all, much smaller than a call management center, or business development center, but they also work within constrained hours. A call management team should be able to accurately plan for call volumes and coverage. Data analysis can help with what to expect for calls based on time of day, peak seasons throughout the year, and any sales, specials, events, or issues that arise. Teams like Customer Traac can have someone on hand at any given time to answer any number of calls – no matter if someone called in sick or took a long lunch. Alleviating these dropped calls is the first order of business and an obvious need that a call management team can resolve. 

Focusing on Customer Outreach and Marketing Efforts

A call management center, or business development centers like Customer Traac, can assist in marketing efforts that in-house customer service reps don’t often tackle. Cold calling is not a tactic that necessarily improves customer satisfaction, in fact I think most people hate it, but outbound marketing campaigns for existing customers can be a huge business driver. Customers who have purchased a product or service from your company, but never came back are an opportunity to call and remind them of upcoming service dates, or upgrade offers and sales. In the automotive world, customer service teams can track data that spans the life cycle of the customer’s car and knows when it’s a good time to get maintenance, or simply trade it in for the upgraded model. 

Customers want to feel cared for, and tending to their specific needs with outbound calls that are personalized can boost customer satisfaction, even if they don’t decide to forego a purchase or upgrade. Now with text reminders becoming more and more popular, it’s a great way to get the word out to customers while also making it easy for them to unsubscribe if they desire. However, keeping them up to date on service reminders can help get the stress of worrying about it on their own, off their plate. 

Offering Loyalty Programs and Other Incentives

The sales team of your company may offer incentive programs or continuing loyalty programs for customer retention. They may only have that initial interaction with a customer, and either gain that customer’s loyalty, or they don’t – the moment is over. Call teams, however, can continually offer new and improved incentives to customers whenever they have their attention. Maybe, a customer never even heard about the incentives before now, and a call center rep can be very specific to the customer’s location and type of product they have – giving them a truly catered experience and offering. A customer wants a good deal, and if all it takes is signing up for a free, no-obligation loyalty program in order to get first dibs on sales, they’re likely to take that opportunity! 

Gathering Direct Customer Feedback

If you’ve ever been on either end of a customer phone call, you know about anonymous customer feedback surveys. They are generally at the end of the call and prompts the customer to answer questions via the keypad for 60 seconds or so. This feedback is then used to better processes and service to customers. 

While interacting with a customer, a call management team can get real-time customer feedback. Sometimes it’s negative, right out the gate, which can then be used to ensure that never happens again. The same goes for positive customer feedback via word of mouth, surveys, or online reviews that help continue moving the needle in the right direction. It never hurts to ask a customer who had a good exchange to leave a review on Google business page. Google reviews are one of the very first impressions your company can give, and it’s super important to gather and maintain those good reviews. Showcasing your customer satisfaction can be the best thing for you. Those poor reviews and poor customer satisfaction surveys should be used as leverage to better your company and team overall. Never let it get you down – use it to make sure every customer has a better experience!

Customer Traac knows that fast response time, diligent follow-up calls, scheduling, and more efficient call volume management are all ways that customer satisfaction can increase when it comes to customer service.