There is nothing better than a well-oiled machine when it comes to working efficiency. On a dealership level, by that, I mean - everyone has a set of specific tasks, they focus on completing while co-workers perform separate/similar work for the greater good as well. In theory, this is the way a great business operates and succeeds. But is that truly the case when it comes to phone etiquette and process at a car dealership? I say not.

Each customer interaction on the phone can make or break whether we continue to see business transactions at our dealership. While a seasoned BDC rep should move a customer through a call comfortably because that is what they do all day, there is no reason that a sales rep or service advisor cannot do the same thing. A superior dealership will have a specific standard of decorum when it comes to how a customer is worked with over the phone. When a unified front is presented and expected, the level of professionalism expected also falls right into place and rises, for that matter.

This starts with reception and moves right down the line. We have all heard the green salesperson/advisor hop on the phone and completely mangle a call, which will happen occasionally. But what if we include that in the training process from day one and give them a set of tools to utilize and practice, so those failure statistics are much less? We would all succeed.

There should be no difference in how a BDC rep and floor rep handle a call, as the phone is merely an extension of the dealership experience. We should be creating a unified front and experience, as the first impression can make or break whether we ever see a customer set foot in our store. We have all heard that seasoned “vets” have their own way of doing things because it works for them; however, there is NEVER anything wrong with working to improve upon a process – especially if it’s needed.

Lest not forget that the process put in place should be practiced in an ongoing manner and perfected. We cannot have a process in place and then it not be used. We should be working to have all staff up to speed and proficient in their phone etiquette skills ASAP as again, that first impression can make or break a deal. There are a lot of places these days that forget that a team of people all working together for a common goal will always move more efficiently than a group of people moving in opposite directions. Keeping that team aspect in play and holding the line when it comes to a customer service standard not only keeps current business but will also attract new business.

There will always be an imperfect call experience, however, if we’re not working on learning from it and improving then we’re failing ourselves and our customers. Let’s keep working on improving ourselves even if it’s 1% better every day, regardless of the staff position. Then we are making progress and making money. 

When it comes down to it, your dealership’s success relies fully on your ability to close sales successfully. There are various ways to accomplish this, but inbound and outbound sales have become the buzzwords of car dealership sales. But which one should you use, and how do you make them work for you?

Inbound vs. Outbound Sales

To understand how to use each sales method properly, you need to understand what they are. Inbound sales are when a potential customer reaches out to your dealership about buying a car or using one of your services. These customers usually come from marketing campaigns and other targeted materials that you use. They can also come from referrals from other satisfied customers. Outbound sales occur when one of your agents reaches out to a potential or returning customer about making a purchase they have not yet expressed interest in.

Sales Strategies to Entice Customers

To have successful inbound sales, you need to get your dealership name out there so people know who you are and want to visit your dealership. Inbound sales rely heavily on personalizing the experience and helping the buyer feel like their needs and concerns are at the center of the entire experience. This requires your sales team to work closely with the marketing team to create a seamless experience. Your marketing team puts the promotions out there that draw people in, and then the sales team delivers on the promises. This starts with the phone call experience. Some people will show up at your dealership, but others prefer to make an appointment ahead of time. 

Your sales team should tailor the appointment to the customer’s needs by ensuring they understand what they are looking for and what stage of their buying process they’re in. If they are only looking for information and aren’t ready to buy yet, avoid pushing to close the sale. This will more likely alienate them than to get a sale.

Methods of Identifying New Prospects

Outbound sales for car dealerships differ slightly from outbound sales for other companies. Most people don’t need multiple cars, so you must adjust your efforts to match their needs. One of the most valuable ways of drawing in new prospects for sales at your dealership is by pulling from the list of people who have already bought a car from your dealership. While you have already converted them to a customer once, you want to keep them. You can use outbound sales tactics to book maintenance appointments for past sales. Having someone call to schedule the oil change for their car is much more convenient than having to schedule it themselves, which means that they are more likely to book with you, especially if they had a solid experience before. 

You can also target past customers who have had their car for a few years by offering them trade-in deals and letting them know about the exciting deals you have on your lot. Not only does this bring you the benefit of new sales, but it can also lead to you acquiring their trade-in car, which adds to the valuable inventory on your lot.

Which Way is Best?

In the end, both inbound and outbound sales are a valuable part of your sales strategy that allows your dealership to be successful. You need both. There isn’t just one way to sell cars; focusing only on one area of your dealership sales means you are ignoring a large part of the population you could be reaching. But that doesn’t mean that everyone should do everything. You may find some of your agents are much more successful at outbound sales than inbound sales or vice versa. When setting your strategy, evaluating the strengths at your disposal and placing your employees appropriately is important.

Inbound and outbound sales are both successful sales strategies you should be employing, but you need to make sure you keep your market in mind. You may prioritize one over the other at different points based on the type of business you are looking for and what people are receptive to. Keep your finger on the pulse of the car market and adjust your strategy as needed.

Want your agents to be more successful in setting appointments? Click here to learn about our phone skills coaching!

There are a few points to consider when debating on adding a service BDC. How big is your shop? What are your primary appointments being made? Are your advisors overworked, or can they handle making their own appointments? These are all important things to consider when determining whether a service BDC is right for your shop.

A large shop should be bringing in much work. That statement alone is enough to merit a service BDC. Even with advisors to match the number of techs so that work is efficient, volume is always something that needs more managing, and a service BDC is an adequate addition to the team. Keeping the advisors moving allows them to focus on their customers in the shop, which in turn should create a better quality of customer service and, thus, more profitable transactions.

Moving on to appointment type. This is crucial because, depending on the appointments being set for the shop, a service BDC may not be as efficient as an advisor taking the call. If a recall or service campaign is in full swing like that of the Takata Air Bag Recall, it may be most efficient to have the advisors making and taking those appointments. This is based on their knowledge of the workflow, capabilities of their technicians, and parts availability. This can all change based on the other active or inactive campaigns, and advisors need a little more control. However, if the shop isn’t experiencing that, then again, a service BDC should be a great addition to the team. This can also be mitigated by implementing well-trained and informed employees in any case. So, let’s not count out a service BDC based on this argument alone. It really all comes down to communication between the department and the BDC standards in the end.

Are the advisors overworked? We all know what a burned-out advisor looks like. It is a fine dance a service manager must perform to keep techs and advisors happy. There is never a perfect scenario in the shop, and everyone always thinks they can do it better. There will always be people who need more work and some who should focus on less. But ensuring a team culture in the shop should help reduce some of the stress an advisor has during the day. Making sure the lane is fully staffed is also a great way to manage that (in theory). However, a service BDC is a great way to funnel calls away from the advisors so that they can focus on their current customer base, not only waiters but also those drop-off appointments. A focused advisor can always turn more cars through a shop with eager technicians. When a tech sits on their box waiting for an answer on a job, the shop comes to a halt. A grumpy tech can break even the most seasoned advisor if they are acting like a stubborn mule.

Overall, what we’re getting at is that customers will always benefit from a well-staffed service BDC. By well-staffed, we mean staff with common sense who are willing to learn along the way, striving to serve your customer base. We cannot continue to hire based on whether someone has a pulse or not. Creating a culture of hard-working individuals and holding them to your standard of service will be the make or break of any department. A well-working service BDC will only ever be an asset to your department and your customers in the long run. 

It's hard to believe that March 2020 will soon be three years behind us. Digital Retailing became more than just a call to action on our websites three years ago. Many dealers quickly responded to the pandemic by offering customers the ability to purchase their vehicles online. Or in some cases, dealers provided at-home delivery. But just because dealers offered customers the ability to purchase their vehicle online doesn't mean it worked. It didn't necessarily mean the customer could buy their car online. Hence why, dealers are still figuring out "digital retailing."

Fast forward to today, we should ask ourselves - have we learned anything from Carvana? Do customers really want to purchase their vehicle online? Did Carvana get it right by offering the customer to buy a car online? More importantly, is there a need to continue with online digital retailing?

All are valid questions, so let's answer them. Before Covid, Digital Retail meant a myriad of different things. Some dealers allowed you to view potential payments, apply for financing with a specific lender, etc. Yet so many dealers - those with digital retailing features - didn't have an internal process to manage the steps the customer completed online. So, when the lead came into the CRM, the response sent to the customer didn't always match the steps they completed.

As a customer, it's frustrating to complete a "digital retailing" process online to have to start over when coming into the dealership. And whether this is about having unclear steps online or simply not following the steps online at the dealership – it's important to note that online steps can positively impact both the customer and the dealership. Regardless of whether or not the customer switches vehicles at the dealership, starting the finance and trade-in process online with clear directions will save them time at the dealership. And we all know that saving time at the dealership can positively impact their post-purchase survey from the OEM. Not to mention it’s a win for the dealership as well. This allows more efficient turn rates and thus saves everyone time which is, as you know, the most precious commodity today.

However, if when the customer gets to the dealership and the Sales Consultant expects the customer to repeat the entire "online" experience, it can and will cause unnecessary break-points. Albeit Carvana is in turmoil, but one thing they did get right is setting a level of expectation for the customer. They legitimately went through the process of purchasing their vehicle online. The customer clearly understood what their vehicle payment would be before delivery. If we can use elements from Carvana - such as financing/payments - it could save time. Of course, it's not to say that when the customer gets to the dealership, they'd end up purchasing the same car. Hence why so many customers continue to prefer going to the dealership to purchase their vehicle.

So that poses the question, is it still necessary to continue offering digital retailing? Well, that depends. It depends on whether or not dealers will follow the steps they place online in the dealership. As mentioned above, if the dealer pushes the customer through the same processes they completed online at the dealer, then no – it doesn't make sense. It will only cause frustration for the customer. It's essential to explain what customers can expect when visiting the dealership. There's nothing inherently wrong with offering the customer the ability to get the financing process started by reviewing payments and pre-approvals.

The key thing to note here is ensuring that you offer the customer the next steps. Even though they fill out an online credit application and review payments, they still need to select the right vehicle to meet their needs. More often than not, the car the customer inquired about differs from what they ended up purchasing. An issue that has and will continue to plague Carvana. It seems so simple to buy a vehicle online, BUT they wouldn't offer a 7-day return policy without merit. Without test-driving the car and ensuring it fits their needs, it's begging for issues with the customer's overall satisfaction. It's equally important to note their trade-in process, which is not the best practice. Since when does it make sense for a dealer to purchase a vehicle without actually test-driving it or completing a walk-around? How often have we seen a trade-in lead from KBB where the customer indicates it's in pristine condition only to find out it's less than perfect?

The bottom line is that digital retailing has a place in the industry. While Carvana is everything but nirvana, they offer dealers an opportunity to get digital retailing right. That is offering the customer the steps to purchasing a vehicle. Imagine if your dealer had a video that clearly explained the steps to purchasing a vehicle? In doing so, it shows transparency and can also help build the rapport needed to earn their trust. Trust built on solid rapport remains the best way to approach selling a vehicle. So, while Carvana is scrambling to figure out what it should be, let's use this as an opportunity to refine what Digital Retailing is on the dealer level. Offering our customers a straightforward and to the point experience by mirroring their dealership experience to what we're offering online.

In the meantime, it never hurts to complete a health check! Take a minute and complete a free stealth test - you won’t regret it. 

With the start of the new year, you should be looking forward to what you can do to make 2023 a success for your dealership. While there are endless marketing strategies to employ, having a solid outbound calling strategy should be at the core of your efforts. Whether or not it was successful for you over the last 12 months, there are things that you can do to make it more effective.

Implement Scripts

Phone scripts for outbound sales calls are a must these days. There is a lot of information that your sales reps need to include in the call, and it can be hard to keep all of it straight. Using a phone script allows them to feel confident in the work that they are doing and to have the resources they need to have a successful phone call. There are a variety of phone scripts that they can use, depending on the purpose of the call. This can also help them not get tripped up and accidentally talk to the person on the other end of the phone about something that doesn’t apply to them at all. Phone scripts also improve your training because no one is going off and trying their own techniques that won’t be as effective. They also serve as protection for your dealership, so you don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Record Phone Calls

Recording the phone calls that your dealership makes and receives is a great way to see what is happening in the conversation and where improvements can be made. Even if you have a supervisor in your call center, they only hear half the conversation. If they do hop on the call, it’s typically because it was escalated. You can choose whether you record all of the phone calls or just record them randomly, but you should have a sample for each person making phone calls that can be reviewed at regular intervals. 

When listening to the recorded phone call, you can determine if the sales rep asked the right questions, if they introduced themself and the dealership, and how the sign-off was. If your reps are consistently hitting these marks, their calls stand a good chance of success. While the sales managers should check up on these metrics, they shouldn’t be the only ones responsible for improving employee phone skills. That’s where coaching comes in.

Invest in Active Coaching

At a time when car dealerships are feeling the pressure to stay competitive and remain profitable, phone coaching for sales teams is becoming an increasingly popular tool for improving customer service and boosting sales. As a dealership owner or manager, you know that having a strong sales team is key to success. Active coaching allows you to provide individual coaching to each salesperson in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and provide tailored advice that can help them set more appointments. This includes regular feedback on their coached calls, highly effective scripts, personalized one-on-one sessions, and well-placed mystery shops. 

Phone coaching can also help you keep track of the progress of your sales team. You can monitor their conversations with customers and provide feedback in real-time to help them improve their performance. This will help them develop the skills they need to be successful and engaged sales reps. With proper coaching, they should be able to set appointments for your dealership 80% of the time, which can bring in a lot of business.

Listen to Employees

Your employees are the ones on the phone every day, and they are the ones who talk to your customers, web leads, and prospects. Ideally, your team is filled with talented and hardworking reps, which means they likely have a good pulse on what is going on with the company, the calls they make, and areas that can be improved. You should be empowering your employees to step up and make suggestions on how things can be improved and share what they have had success with. Let them own their success and take pride in their work. Even if their suggestions won’t work at this stage, make sure they know you appreciate their contributions. An engaged employee is a valuable asset you need.

Using these strategies will help your dealership see more success and closed sales in 2023. With the ever-changing market, it is important to not just talk to people but to get them to take action. Take a look at what you are doing and how these actions can help you improve your strategy this year.

If you want to improve how your dealership handles outbound phone calls, check out our Active Coaching Services and see how Phone Ninjas can help you!

Over the past few years, managers have been working to turn every stone in the dealership regarding opportunities. One phenomenal idea created is called an “upgrade” or “exchange” program. If you’re not up to speed, a sales associate spends time in the service lane, and their job is to speak to potential service customers and work to convert that customer to a new vehicle sale AND retain a trade from the transaction. There are many benefits to working with a client this way and generating a lead in this manner; the biggest advantage is that the customer and the vehicle are in the building without having to set an appointment for a sales pitch. The second benefit is that they’re NOT in the market, so they’re not shopping you.

When working their leads correctly, a vehicle exchange specialist [VES] should be able to determine which customers are in the correct position to present an opportunity. Depending on whether the customer is coming due on a lease, they have never been in for service before, or their vehicle is on its last leg, there are plenty of scenarios to work with daily. They should be working to create a comfortable relationship with the service customers in the waiting lounge, and they should also create a good relationship with the service advisors. This is crucial because when the departments cohesively work together, the customer wins every time.

Communication between the departments and the efficiency of how details are processed should be quicker. The used car manager should have an even better idea of trade value when the vehicle is in for service since they’re essentially getting a free multipoint before having to put a number on the car. Having one person to assist both departments and the customer is always a great way to ensure all necessary details are handled, and the customer has a reference point throughout the process. Even if the customer doesn’t plan to purchase right away, if their experience in service was good, they are likely to return to that sales department and their VES before going anywhere else.

It really all comes down to excellent customer service and making the dealership look like a cohesive team instead of separate departments. With that being said, can a VES be a detriment? The answer to this is - if they are not up to speed on what vehicles and customers are appropriate to present to and their communication between both departments is poor - then yes. A VES needs to be able to communicate with service advisors, managers, and customers during the entire process. If they cannot communicate with all of those parties from the start of the process, then they are not the right person for the job. A skilled VES can never be a poor asset to either department or its customers.  

As a customer, there’s nothing worse than being ignored or getting a response to your inquiry that doesn’t answer any of your questions. Before the world of Covid, many dealers heavily focused on answering leads in a timely fashion. Heck, even most, if not all, of the OEMs had standards in place to ensure that all leads were answered within a certain time frame. Yet during the height of Covid, when supply and demand weren’t equalizing, some dealers just didn’t answer their leads. Or if they did answer leads, it certainly wasn’t within ten to fifteen minutes. In fact, it was actually noted in a study that dealers slid significantly in 2021 in both response time and actually responding to a customer inquiry.

So, what happened if we know that it’s important to respond to leads and answer the customers’ questions? Well, we can’t fix what didn’t happen, but we can fix how we’re going to respond to leads today. To start, one of the best things you can do is review your CRM workflows. When was the last time they were updated? If it takes you a minute to think about it, it’s time to give it a look. After you’ve completed a check-up on your CRM workflow, take a minute to review the automated emails. Are the signature lines complete? Do your automated emails still make sense? Do all of the social media links work? It sounds simple, but some dealers are still sending out automated responses regarding Covid-19 and store hours!

Once you tackle the core basics with your CRM, meeting with your BD agents and Sales Consultants is best. A quick refresher never hurts. Once you’ve gone over what best practices are for responding to leads, it’s important that they’re held accountable. To hold your teams accountable, you can simply use CRM reporting to check on response time. The other thing to review is the actual response. We can all easily stop the clock. But we’re not all sending out the best response to the lead. Let’s ensure we’re answering the customers’ questions and providing the next steps for the customer. The end goal is to build rapport with the customer to increase the chances of earning their business. But we can’t do that if we’re not responding to the leads or if the responses we’re sending out don’t answer the customers' questions - failing to provide the next steps.

If your teams are still struggling with word tracking or how to best respond to customers' questions and objections - we can help with that. Knowing what to say and when to say it can make or break the chances of your dealership earning that customer's business.

If you’re still on the fence, take a minute and submit a request for a FREE Stealth Test! Once we’ve completed your stealth test, we’ll be in touch with very detailed results. Here’s to getting back to the basics and ensuring we’re proactive instead of reactive. Let’s start 2023 off on the right foot. 

Appointment setting is one of the best ways that a dealership can get people into the showroom to buy a car. But if your agents don’t see success on the phones, it can feel like a waste of time. Luckily, proven training methods increase your agents' efficiency in getting people into your dealership and closing sales.

Hold Regular and Ongoing Training

Phone training plays an important role in improving the outcome of your agents’ phone calls, but training is never just a one-and-done thing. Holding training at regular intervals will allow you to address current issues, teach new techniques to try, or allow team members to share stories of success. The type of training you require will depend on the length of time a person has been on the job, their responsibilities, and their overall performance. You can have training that involves the whole team for company-required training and team updates, but you should also focus on individual and small-group training that allows people to hone the skills they need at their own pace. These training sessions should happen at regular, expected intervals.

Involve Different People

Everyone on your team has their own strengths, and the best way to utilize them is to allow your team members to share the things that they are good at with everyone else. If the same person has been hosting the same training for a while, consider switching out who is in charge. Not only will this give the former trainer a chance to learn, but it also gives your team a new perspective to consider and a new way to learn something they may have heard before. Nothing makes people pay less attention than feeling like they already know every word that is going to be said. You can also reach beyond your team to find experts to help you train your employees. Professional coaches are a great resource to use when you are trying to help employees develop new skills and increase their success rates.

Set Clear Goals

Unless the training that you are implementing has clear goals that you can use to measure progress, you may not see any difference in the before and after your training. If there is no measurable change, that means you’ve wasted your time and your team’s time. The most measurable goal you can set for phone agents at a dealership is the outcome of their phone calls. Agents should set appointments, resolve concerns successfully, and generally have good phone interactions. Before you start any training, make sure you know each employee’s metrics for their phone calls, and set a customized goal for them to work on based on what they learn during the training. Custom-tailored goals can help employees feel empowered to be successful and apply what they have learned. After all, you probably shouldn’t expect your top performer and a new employee to have the same results. You can also set an overall team goal to motivate them to work together. 

Provide the Right Tools

No matter how much training you provide, if your phone agents don’t have the tools they need, they aren’t going to be successful. It’s important to not only provide them with these tools but also train them with them and incorporate them into all aspects of the job. Phone scripts are an excellent example of one of the best tools that allow your phone agents to be successful at what they are doing. Phone scripts give them the information and direction they need to have successful phone calls, but if your agents have never used a phone script before, it is unlikely that it will actually help them. If you update software, procedures, or anything else your agents use, ensure you have enough training to empower them to use these tools successfully.

Using these methods to improve the efficiency of your training will help you and your dealership flourish. With the ever-changing car market, you need all the resources you have access to to see the success you want.

Want to improve your appointment-setting phone calls? Click here to see what we can do for you!

When breaking down the job of a service advisor in terms of selling work, a question that can get asked sometimes needs a bit more explanation. What is that question, you may ask?

Well, here it is:

To sell a job to a customer in the most effective manner possible… is it better in person or over the phone? A service department is a BUSY place. There’s always something going on and always work to be done. Waiters fill the schedule and make up the bulk of most shops’ daily routines. However, there are also the coveted drop-off appointments to fill the time. When scheduled appropriately, the average day has enough work to keep all of the techs busy with tasks ranging from simple oil change-type jobs to a few more task-oriented or diagnostic jobs to fill the hours. When this is done appropriately, the advisor should sell work to waiters and drop off appointments as the techs get to them.

While we would all prefer the perfect scenario when it comes to selling work, life is never perfect, and scenarios to sell work (or do our jobs, for that matter) are rarely perfect either. So, what does this mean? It means that selling work over the phone OR in person should be done the same way. The advisor needs to create a system where they present the jobs to be done in an organized and efficient manner, no matter where the customer is. Now while each vehicle’s needs are different, we should still work to serve our CUSTOMERS’ needs to the best of our abilities. Each advisor is different regarding how they sell, and the best advisors are always learning new ways to do that. SELL. Checking in and updating your customer are the best way to get a feel for what you’re working with before going in to sell that full job. While that’s not always an option, a great service department communicates with each other to give heads up or tips to the advisor working the job based upon their write-up as well.

So, we should create a rapport with our customers to start the process if at all possible. After that it’s all about the 3 C’s. Complaint, Cause and Correction. We should explain the problem/ complaint efficiently, provide the cause -  or, if unknown, our best-educated guess - and then the correction with the cost. If done that way, the customer should know what is going on and how to fix it. Providing photographs or offering to show the customer is a great way to earn their trust AND always present multiple repair options if possible. We all know that aftermarket parts can be a great solution to cutting customer costs. However, we also know where we can do that and where to stick with factory parts as well. The advisor should present all of those options in an organized fashion without providing too little or too much detail.

At the end of the day, it’s about serving our customers to the best of our ability and ensuring that our communication is clear and concise. When we have given our best presentation, whether on the phone or in person and provided all viable options to the customer for repair, we have done everything we can. This should be done with confidence and authority. There is nothing worse than a mumbling and unsure advisor. It’s going to be up to the customer at that point to decide what works best for them. If the team operates in this fashion as a whole, the shop should experience growth and retention in their department and be closing more jobs than not, whether the customer is physically there or on the phone.

There will always be scenarios that don’t work in our favor; however, if we know that we have done everything in our power to be as helpful as possible, then our jobs are done. Serving the customer over serving our wallets at the moment will always bring the valuable customer back to service with us again. 

The department-to-department handoff at a dealership is something that can be overlooked during the sales process. However, it’s a crucial step to creating a stronger bond between the dealership and the customer as a whole. Hearing, “I’ll buy a car from you, but I’ll never service my car here,” is something that should not be coming out of a customer’s mouth during the sales process. While that statement is heard often, it’s also the same in service but about buying the vehicle!

While both departments operate separately, the end game for the organization as a whole is to have both departments serve their entire customer base holistically. So how does that happen, and how can dealership staff ensure that it happens more often than not?

Sales needs to make an effort to introduce their customer, whether their customer is purchasing a new or a pre-owned vehicle. This is sometimes a policy put in place by management, which is a great way to go about it. However, what should happen is that sales and service understand each other and respect each other’s position within the company. When that happens, you get a sincere handoff from sales to their favorite service advisor for the customer’s benefit, and that advisor receives this customer with open arms. When there is a palpable positive relationship between sales and service, they are also strengthening a trusting relationship with their customer. This works 10-fold when the customer and sales associate have a great rapport. However even if the salesperson and customer don’t see eye to eye 100% of the time, the professional manner of the sales associate should still shine through to create a good relationship with the advisor as well.

A good salesperson will keep up with their customer after the sale, to the point that a few years down the road, if the customer needs something in service, the salesperson should have no issues saying, I’ve got a guy for you to see that will help you in any way they can. This kind of relationship creates longevity in a direct customer relationship with the store. Then the advisor needs to take that ball and run with it. Sometimes it takes both the advisor and salesperson to work together to determine what is best for the customer based on the condition of their vehicle and present this neutrally and factually to the customer. This allows them to make a decision based on their own circumstances and with all of the proper information they need to do it.

We seem to forget between departments that it’s about the business as a whole, not just one department or the other. So, when departments collaborate to create the best CUSTOMER SERVICE experience possible for each and every customer, there can be no losers. Some jobs in the shop will be sold, for others, their vehicles will be traded, and a sales transaction will occur instead. The advisors need to remember that the potential job has a high likelihood of coming back through the shop during recon and that customer will be back with their newer vehicle as well. Sales is the same way; some jobs in the shop will not be “big” enough to produce a sale, however when the customer is presented with their options properly, and communication is accurate across the board, the customer is very likely to come back and purchase from them in the future.

A team effort will always rule over individual departments running their own show. If we can remember that and work together, we cannot lose!