Last year, I was shown around a local dealership by the dealer principal, someone I had worked for elsewhere in my past. He walked me through the parts department with a passing mention of massive monthly tire sales volume, straight to a small office hidden deep in the bowels of the store. We didn’t see the showroom or the service department, and we didn’t cross the street to their collision center either. We bee-lined to his pride and joy, the BDC.

It’s here that he spent nearly all our short time together, boasting about their incredible successes among the five-person team. They’re committed to answering every call, sending video messages to interested buyers in the vehicle they’ve inquired about, maintaining customer relationships, and setting sales appointments that comprise approximately 90 percent of their sales traffic.

It was obviously a source of great pride as he turned this tradition dealer with a limited physical footprint into a huge success story, all on the backs of a tiny BDC.

But as someone with a fixed ops background, there’s a nagging feeling that their service department remains forty years behind the times.

How Can a BDC Benefit the Service Department?

When I was a service advisor, I was expected to make all my own calls – and half the time, I did. Every call was supposed to be answered by the second ring – and when I wasn’t with a customer, that’s what I did. Follow-up was the service advisor’s responsibility for the most part.

What I can tell you first-hand is this: countless, innumerable phone calls went unanswered on a busy day. Not just me, but across the five service advisors on the front line. A little support would’ve gone a long way.

What I can be certain of is that dozens, hundreds, or thousands of those calls that weren’t answered in a timely fashion were from potential new customers, or customers who defected because we couldn’t be reached. There’s no way to break down the cost per missed opportunity here, but there’s no question it would be much, much more than the cost of implementing a BDC.

Answering Calls

Depending who you ask, anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of dealership calls are for the service and parts departments. For busy service staff, it’s a nightmare trying to stay on top of phone calls while serving customers in person. A BDC, most obviously, can be used very well to answer calls and alleviate constant phone ringing.

Setting Appointments

A central source for appointment-setting can give advisors a sigh of relief. Some customer just naturally want to talk to their advisor personally, or have additional questions about their vehicle, and that’s fine. But taking the majority of appointment calls and putting them in the hands of call center professionals isn’t lazy – it’s good business. Proper time can be spent advising on the vehicle requirements for the current mileage and time without the pressure of a customer across the desk.

Dealing with the Minutia

The follow-up calls, diverting calls for “is my car ready yet”, and funneling incorrectly-transferred calls to other departments is minor but necessary. In the BDC, these calls are normal, everyday business, freeing up valuable time for service advisors.

But one thing a service advisor must do on their own is properly advise customers about their vehicle while it’s in the shop. An idea from the BDC I mentioned earlier is ideal, and advisors may have the time to do it if a service BDC is working well. Advisors should be equipped to send quick video messages from a customer’s car about the cause and correction for their concerns. Just a 20-second video clip sent by cell phone to the customer where they can see what’s needed as if they were there in person.

So, it’s now not just about time management and catching calls from customers that would be lost otherwise. It’s about creating space for advisors to do their jobs really well. If that’s not the trifecta to use your BDC for the service department in the same capacity as the sales department, I don’t know what is.