Part 1

In a recent survey customers said they returned to the dealership because of the customer experience. 

Wow, not pricing, not location, not OE parts, it’s not trained technicians.…………It’s the Experience! Process, Hospitality, Software, Attention to detail, Commitment to the Customer’s experience and a commitment to the reduction to the inconvenience of customers.   It’s a shift from what we use to believe drove customers to our service departments:  pricing, location, OE parts, trained technicians, 

What is your Service Customer Experience?

With this shift, I can teach my advisors to sell, but that doesn’t ensure my customers loyalty.  And studies have shown that customers will spend more when they have a great service experience.  Selling is such a small piece of this puzzle, that it almost gets buried in the shift of other focuses.  Aligning your Digital experience with your “people” experience is critical and having processes written that work in alignment with your technology.  A great customer experience is not a hand-off from Digital to “people.”  It is an intertwined process that creates excellence.  

Your first Customer Experience is your Online Appointment or Incoming phone call.  Today, let’s talk about your online experience.  There are hundreds of studies out there that agree your experience to sell an item (your customer’s appointment) should be 3 clicks to convert.  Amazon and many other retail companies are using this model as a goal for their websites to allow a customer to buy in 3 clicks.  The challenge here is that many of the appointment companies associated with service aren’t even looking at this metric.  And, most customers are tapping out before they complete the appointment because we are requiring them to put so much information in an appointment request.  HERE’s the danger.  When customers are tapping out of the experience online, and dealerships aren’t booking a high percentage of customers online, they won’t look at investing in a better experience for their customers.  “We only get 6% of our customers booking online,” is a common phrase from dealers.  Our customers prefer to call in.  Do they really?   If this was the case, all dealerships would be at 6% online, but the ones who have a great online presence sport a 28%+ online appointment experience.  

Let me inject a NEW KPI:  Online Service Appointment percentage.  You should be doing everything you can to increase your online bookings.  

Why?  Years past, I worked as a moderator for 20 Groups.  In those groups, we would do an exercise where we called the dealerships on speaker phone to make an appointment.  Lots of nervous dealers each time. Many of them had BDC’s in place and good processes.  With a great online experience, the customer has a consistent experience each time 24/7.  And with less incoming phone calls, maybe we can convert that time to outbound phone calls for the BDC adding net profit, or reduce the incoming phone calls to the advisors promoting a better customer experience.  

Integrated Solutions vs. Website Form for Appointments

Website Forms:  This is a form that you have on your website that customers must put their name, address, phone number, year of vehicle, make and model, why you want to come in, and time and date requested.  There are typically lots of clicks here, and customers might use this, but usage is probably horrible.  Dealerships like these forms because they may have no expense associated with the page and Fearful Managers and Advisors like it because it gives them control over when the customer comes in.  Results are not immediate for our customers.  They have to wait for a phone call or email from our staff to confirm the appointment.  If they are online at 11pm, nothing gets resolved from their actions to schedule an appointment.  We’ve just elongated the process for the customer, with an additional required contact from our staff. 

Integrated Solutions.  Customers like immediate gratification and Integrated Solutions provide this for them.  By spending a few minutes in one of these solutions, customers can view available appointment times and dates, review their recommended maintenance with pricing, in some cases, even review previously declined services with pricing.  They may be even able to shop for tires with pricing.  They can also opt in for texting or email preferences.   And, they receive an immediate confirmation of the appointment.  Remember that CLICKS is important.  Find a solution with the least amount of clicks to make an appointment.

Is the manufacturer’s solution for appointments good?  In most cases, the answer is that there are too many clicks to make an appointment.  I have personally counted as high as 17 clicks to make an appointment.  Big TAP OUT potential.  But many of the manufacturers put pressure on the dealers because they want the data flowing to them.  It’s a decision that you’ll have to make, but if I owned a dealership, I would want a great customer experience vs. mere compliance.

Why not drive more gross profit to the dealership through your service department?  This all begins with the first experience.  Note: for those of you who have invested in your service BDC, a nice integrated online solution is a no-brainer financially.  For those dealers who don’t see the value to invest in a great first-time experience, look around at your competition to make the decision.  

This is Part 1:  Creating the Greatest Customer Experience