Service advisors, managers, and even business development representatives working for a busy automotive service center find it difficult to make outbound calls to maximize service capacity and improve customer retention.
Proactive Dealer Solutions has introduced a new Virtual BDC for Service, which serves as an extension of a dealership’s service department designed to facilitate proactive outbound calls to increase first maintenance service, reach out to past customers to enhance customer retention, and generate more ROs with seasonal maintenance offers and other special promotions.
“The Virtual BDC for Service is designed to be the gap filler in your service business to maximize the capacity of your service center,” said Lawson Owen, PDS managing partner. “Service advisors need to spend more time with the customers in front of them. This results in improved customer satisfaction, and typically greater dollars per repair order. Our Virtual BDC for Service alleviates them from the task of making outbound calls.”
The Virtual BDC for Service call center is located at PDS’ headquarters in Huntersville, N.C., and as more clients opt for this service, new reps are being added regularly.
Owen said “There are a number of reasons dealers have opted for the virtual service. Importantly, the reps are professionals who are continually trained on automotive service communication skills. Finding, hiring, training, and retaining professional call center representatives is a costly endeavor, and with it comes risks. By securing the services of Virtual BDC for Service those risks are mitigated.”
“Our service delivers measurable ROI at a very low cost with no long-term contracts,” Owen said. “With a modest investment, dealers using this typically see a 15 percent increase in ROs, and significant increases in dollars per RO.”
Proactive, of course, has been carefully monitoring and analyzing the appointment data. One dealership the company has worked with since March has seen 228 appointment shows, resulting in about $41,400 in new revenue from customers who would otherwise not have arrived at the dealership on their own. The resulting ROI is more than 800 percent. Another dealership saw 127 unique RO appointments, resulting in $27,770 in new revenue. The ROI here was a staggering 993 percent.
“These results are not on the far right of the bell curve, but are typical,” Owen said. “Dealerships who do not have an in-house BDC and utilize existing staff to field inbound calls and make outbound calls, can definitely benefit from having a seasoned virtual staff assisting them in improving their service operations. In fact, dozens of dealerships are already utilizing this new service and additional dealerships are being added weekly.”
“The decision should be easy for a dealership needs to fill in gaps in their service capacity and they don’t have the staff to take on the additional duties,” Owen added.
“Eliminating the need for expensive training, equipment, and not having a long-term contract to avoid any risks, drives home the program’s value,” he said.
Recent studies have shown that consumers want to spend less time at the dealership, and demand convenience and superior service. Taking a proactive approach to assist consumers with scheduling first-time maintenance, or reaching out to them with seasonal service specials is a perfect way to give them what they want.
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