this is so true 

It surprises me that even though BDC's have been around since 2003, dealership's are still struggling to embrace the concept. I appreciate your commentary on this issue. What is your opinion on the BDC's role in store CSI? Are the scripted customer satisfacation survey calls a thing of the past? And if they are not, should they be?

It surprises me too.... Some dealers do a great job with the BDC. Some can get by without one. Others are still stuck in 2003. This last group is where we typically see a disconnect..... One thing is for sure, done correctly, every dealer can benefit from having a BDC.

CSI (follow up after the sale or service visit) should be something the BDC is very involved with. In my opinion, a BDC should be the voice of the dealership.   

Scripts are actually something we highly believe in. (We have a call training division of our company so I am admittedly biased....) We have not found a faster or more effective way to train the agents on how to handle incoming and outgoing communication. 

However, over time, we see where BD agents start to use their own words and not sound so robotic. Once they learn the structure the script and the psychology of a great call they don't need the script anymore. But they usually need continued accountability and coaching and our program covers that.

How about you guys? How do you handle CSI calls? Do you have a BDC?  

The issue becomes that BDC's are often broken off into their own little hub of the dealership. Their pay plans typically revolve around appts and shown appts to be more exact. 

So what ends up happening is that you have BDC agents with hundreds of open events with even more tasks per those open events. Why? because in an environment where you are paid to produce a single thing you need will want to cast a very wide net to try and capture as much as you can. Even at the detriment of the business. 

So instead of losing out events that have gone cold and moving on to stuff that is more important. BDC's that revolve only around the idea of just appt setting become less effective over time.

There is a difference between quality appointments and everything else. When you pay per appt. You can expect the quality to go down as well. In turn bringing your sell thru rate down and so on. 

I'm not saying that selling appointments isn't important. What I am saying is that their needs to be a bigger role for the bdc in the dealership than setting appointments. I see their role as more of an Expeditor like in a kitchen. 

Expeditors make sure the orders are being cooked in a timely fashion, so that all orders for a table are ready at the same time and make sure that once the food is cooked, servers run food to the table while it's warm and ready.

They are neither the cooks, nor the servers. They are the key go-between that makes everything run smoothly. If their job was to only whip up salads they wouldn’t be nearly as effective in the kitchen. 

The BDC folks aren't the Sales Managers or the Sales People but they need to be the key go-between to make sure everything is running smoothly. If they are only focused on making appts. there is a huge area in your dealership that is lacking. 

Thats just how I feel about it though. Your mileage may vary. 

Chris, I enjoy reading your commentary as it is aways thought provoking and  insiteful. You reference pay plans and while I understand that can spark quite the debate, I was wondering if you could expand on that. When I was a BDC Manager back in 2010, we paid $10 hr, $.50 per call completed (inbound/outbound), $10 per passing VOC survey returned (had to show proof they completed the follow-up call) and then tiered $ amounts for appts shown and sold. Essentially, there was a financial incentive for every task they did. Is this type of pay plan still common?

thanks Tegan.. 

I think that payplan is veery common. I would argue though that completed calls, setting appts and appts showing are what the hourly rate would be for. Doing it that way you can start setting minimum standards instead of a volume thing. 

I dont know that I would pay for phone calls. I think that gets way to meta. 

If it were up to me I would rather see higher salaries and higher standards. If you can't make the standards then the job would not be cut out for the person. I think rewarding for tiny tasks promotes tiny behaviors and doesn't really do much more than standard busy work. 

Hey Chris, 

Interesting perspective and for the most part I agree. The one thing I might need help understanding is how paying for show appointment hurts quality? Sure some are not going to be great but how many appointments get missed by someone who doesn't even try to set the appt because "they weren't a buyer". 

Pay-plans always drive behavior. If the goal is to keep the doors swinging at the Dealership wouldn't you agree that appointments are the one thing they should be focusing on? 

The relationship to other departments is crucial and I could probably write a whole new post on that (thanks for the idea!!!). But being the go between should all be handled by process. 

By part of the process I mean it should just be part of the job description or pay-plan. I.E. Getting paid for a shown appointment only happens when: You have notified Detail & Sales departments and all was in order and ready to go before the customer arrived. 

I always find it interesting how every dealership is different in how they handle internet customers and long term follow up. How do you do things in your dealerships? Does your sales staff work the leads cradle to grave or do you have a BDC etc...?

Thanks for sharing. Great input!