Nearly 80 percent of customer touchpoints at a typical new car dealership begin with a phone interaction. If you, as a leader want to positively impact customer experience at your dealership, stop everything else and please start with the phones.

In order to have a meaningful and a long lasting impact on your customer experience strategy, the first and foremost step would be to better understand your organization's own unique "phone culture" or DNA.

I think most GMs, Service Directors, and other leaders would agree with me when I say: Every store is a unique eco-system with a unique business DNA. See picture below for illustration.

The best way to start towards understanding your own "phone culture'" or DNA, is to first identify what's working and what's not. Improve what's working and change what's not. This is a novel approach currently not practiced in the industry.

Decoding your dealership's existing "phone culture" will reveal a few measures you can take immediately to see lift in customer experience. Is it the phone setup, process, people or pay? At any rate you will be able to laser in on concrete actions to take right away to see tangible results.

We at Callsavvy call this decoding of new car dealership's own "phone culture": "Phone Performance DNA Assessment". If conducted the correct way with diligence and detail it deserves, your dealership will be able to answer the critical questions of whether a Service BDC pencils at your store, and most importantly which type: Onsite,offsite, hybrid.

Regardless of whether your dealership currently has a Service BDC, considering one or you think you cannot afford one. Once you conduct a Phone Performance DNA Assessment, it will reveal answers which may totally surprise you. It is an absolute pre-requisite to implementing any customer experience (CX) strategy for Fixed Ops.

The power of knowing how your dealership ticks is immeasurable. For instance, some dealerships may be surprised to find, that with just a few tweaks to your phone setup and current process, your team might be able to drastically reduce excessive phone ringing, relieve call-traffic bottlenecks and minimize missed and mishandled calls, and all that before spending a dime on a Service BDC solution.

Now that your team sees that a Phone Performance DNA Assessment is a must-do for every dealership regardless of which Service BDC cycle you're in, it is pertinent to say that there are four main components of a successful Phone Performance DNA Assessment and they are:

1. Phone Culture & Data Asessement
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7.  - Monetizing your calls
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9.  - Service BDC feasibility -
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11. Service BDC proof-of-concept

These critical components above will assist in understanding your dealership's true missed call revenue impact, which type of Service BDC to switch to or launch, how much to invest if internal, what to pay for it if third-party, which processes, and which team members are the weakest link needing training and coaching and inversely which the strongest needing recognition.

The Service BDC proof of concept will help your team build a Service BDC blueprint which is elastic and durable. Your Service BDC should grow with your business and should grow your business, not break with increasing scale.

In conclusion let me say this: Seeing the amount of work each leader puts in their dealership day-in-day-out, there is no doubt in my mind that he/she is in for a long-haul. So, keeping that fact in mind let us ensure long term success for your dealership in times of dizzying disruptions. I am a firm believer that the elixir to phone performance excellence and Service BDC success lies within each dealership's wealth of talented team members, from top-to-bottom

One of our jobs at Callsavvy is to hightlight what your team already does well and build a blueprint behind it. As to what is not working currently, there is a wealth of knowledge we have accumulated over the years working with dealers nationwide, putting us in a very advantageous position to share those nuggets with you.

Here are three additional benefits of conducting a Phone Performance DNA Assessment at your dealership.

• It will help with negotiating a more accurate pricing model from third-party vendors and guide through Service BDC installation process, whether onsite or offsite.
• It will help define what longterm success should look like for a Service BDC at your dealership.
• It will act as an insurance policy against a catastrophic Service BDC failure. Whether onsite, offsite or hybrid.

Call us and find out how your dealership does not have to be our paid client to benefit from our novel approach.

We are here to serve and build long term relationships.

Joe Tareen

Chief Consultant

www.Callsavvy.io

ph: (214) 945-4734

email: joetareen@callsavvy.io

Are you in-charge of running a new car dealership and starting to see the signs of slowing car sales? You are not alone. The national news agencies, the Federal Reserve, and industry analysts all agree. The slow down is coming and with it brings immutable changes to the auto industry.

Here is what Forbes is saying referrencing a Bloomberg report regarding the coming economic recession in the US:

"United States Recession Probability Forecast, which shows the median probability (of a US recession) in the 35% range as of this writing..." https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor-intelligence/2019/09/24/recession-what-are-the-odds/#1fc27e167764

Here is another revealing article from Bloomberg directly, predicting the coming collapse of US auto sales figures:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-01/toyota-typifies-ugly-month-with-16-slide-auto-sales-update

Here is the main takeaway: New car sales are declining and that is not occuring in isolation. Truth of the matter is; the US consumers' current buying patterns are weakening and we're due for a recession in the US soon. When it actually occurs, is anyone's guess, however it is near.

That being said, the-show-must-go-on. You're a smart dealer and you want to plan ahead for all contingencies. You want to win today but not at the expense of tommorrow. What's the best strategy to recession proof your dealership? On that later.

First: What are recessions?

Besides the technical definition of a decline in GDP in two successive quarters, recessions are economic baptisms: Old businesses die, new businesses are born. Old demands vanish and new demands appear. Old industry wither away, new industries take shape. Old companies become irrelevant and new companies are created. Here is short list of companies started during a recession:

1. General Electric:1890
2. IBM: 1896
3. General Motors: 1908
4. Disney:1923
5. Burger King: 1953
6. Microsoft:1975
7. Apple: 2001

Do you recognize any of them?Of course it is a rhetorical question!

The reality is; consumers just do not wake up one day and decide not to spend their money anymore. They simply reallocate their dollars to alternative products and services. It's all mental, in a sense economies are not static realities, they are physical manifestations of our collective conscious and unconscious believe systems.

So, we agree that recessions bring about a marked change in buying habits of consumers and the auto industry is certainly not immune to that change. This is precisely why as a general manager or a dealer principal, you must find ways to keep your dealership relevant and your customers engaged.

This means for example; when other dealerships are reducing marketing budgets and going conservative, a winning strategy might be to increase marketing budgets along with raising your customer service levels. This is the time to buck-the-trends and double-down on your efforts.

Here are five areas of focus to recession-proof your dealership:

1. 1) The mindset change: First and foremost: You must as an organization adopt a recession-proof mindset and that mindset is your ability to change and the speed with which your team implements that change. Every single team member of your dealership must and will need to run plays from the same playbook. You're a leader and a leader is a "dealer of hope". Make decisions a quick enterprise. Do not allow the old mindset to force your organizition to recede back into the old ways. The most dangerous phrase in business: "We've always done it this way" will always be the easiest thing to revert back to. Do not let it slow down your ability to respond to new customer demands or create mental roadblocks in introducing new intitiatives. The best place to start is to gather as much customer feedback as possible. Ask your customers what do they want from you - simple. Obssesively read your CSI survey results and online reviews. What do they reveal about your organization and better yet the mindset of your customer base?

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2. 2) Double down on your ad spend. Market more aggresively not less, but make marketing an investment not an expense. Hold third-party vendors to the fire if they make a claim. "Retail is detail" and if you have never been a detail oriented person, its time to change and evolve.

1. 3) Solve a problem that gets worse with recession: When customer are not buying cars they are servicing them more. Is your Service department ready for the increased traffic on the drive? More calls, more appointments, and more repair orders. However, same capacity, will result in less attentive staff, delays in work completion times, unhappy customers, bad surveys and reviews will eventually lead to a decline of profits. Be obsessed with how your customers experience your brand. Invest in drastically improving the quality of every customer touchpoint. In every crisis there is an opportunity. Tactically, it is time to streamline your organzation's decision making process. Learn to run lean so you can run fast.

1. 4) Competition proof your dealership: Do one thing your competition is scared off their socks to do. Perhaps it is time to take your Service concierge program to the next level and implement a technology solution which facilitates an efficient customer vehicle and drop off operation. How will this affect your market penetration inside your own Primary Marketing Area (PMA)? There are a few third-party vendors out there with solutions which are being utlilized by a healthy dealer base. Always ask for references before signing up with any vendor and make sure the added expenses do not negatively affect your balance sheet. A positive return-on-investment is a must.

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2. 5) Unlock the hidden profits in your DMS data: Equity-buy-back programs only work when you fully work them. There is no better place to start with those then your Service drive. Where else are you going to get so many daily cutomer touchpoints? The customer is there and so is their trade. It is a captive audience. However there is a particular way you must execute the Service equity program to get the daily wins. Here is the best and the most proven way to do it: Split up the efforts in three separate areas. 1) The Technology - look for solutions which track real-time open repair orders and provide you beyond just the equity on the vehicle in Service. You will need more detailed open loan information such as monthly payments, current interest rate, term of the loan and principal to personalize each transaction to customers' needs. 2) The Strategy - Setup real-time alerts for open repair orders and have your Sales BDC call customers who are still at your dealership and enroll in a vehicle-buy-back program. Once you get a verbal "yes" from your customers on-site, then it becomes substantially easier for your sales associate to approach them. 3) The Approach -The best way to close Service equity leads, is to not treat them as traditional sales transactions, because they are NOT. Customer did not show up at your dealership through the front door, rather through the Service drive. Provide them options and craft offers "they can't refuse". Be decisive and do not be greedy. If they have a strong FICO score, positive equity in their trade, and are willing to talk, there is a strong probability, that it is a deal.

A complete automotive sales collapse may be a thing of fantasy. However some stores are barely hanging on to a profit thread and surviving only through OEM incentive programs. Do the internal financial math and come up with a figure in terms of percentage decline in over-all sales which might put your organization in a severe financial bind. Then go as a team and craft new products and services to deliver to your customers, so you can mitigate for those revenue losses. Be PROACTIVE. BE INNOVATIVE.

So, your dealership has decided to implement a Service BDC: Congratulations your dealership just started a customer care business unit and this business unit is nothing like what has been seen before. Up until now most of the inbound call traffic has either filtered through your receptionist and or has ringed simultaneously on all service department extensions. Well, answering all these calls has not been an easy task. Following the implementation of a Service BDC, a.k.a. customer care center, your dealership has hopefully quantified the challenge and has written down a clear statement of purpose. With the additional investments made in equipment and technology and added payroll expense of multiple agents and a supervisor, business expectations are now beyond simply answering these calls and telling customers to “just-bring-it-in”. It will not be business as usual and a new mindset and new skill sets will be required for success. What must be done then? We highlight some of the challenges and their potential solutions below for new car dealerships to consider.

• Happy and joyful phone greeting.

Let’s start with the basics. Let’s make sure the answering agents are smiling through the phone. Every single instance of the phone greeting not only represents your brand but also enhances and, even in some cases, creates it. The reality is; many customers are anxious about bringing their vehicles in for service. Not only because of unexpected expenses that may pop up, but also the thought of being without their main mode of transportation even for half a day is just downright scary. Making each call greeting a pleasant one and always putting your customer’s needs before your own will set the right tone.

• Proper talk-track to overcome customer frustrations.

One of the biggest mistakes dealerships or third-party vendors make when implementing a Service BDC is thinking that what worked in sales will also work in service. However, this line of thinking is fundamentally flawed. Sales BDCs are dealing with customers who happened to have a completely different emotional state. The conclusion of every sales interaction is that there is a big win waiting for every customer at the end: Driving off in a brand new car! Not so with service. Instead of a big win, at the end of a service transaction there might be a big bill waiting for them. The set of emotions in customers, which this uncertainty creates, require a completely different set of skills, talk-track and inflections to manage. Reassuring, calming, and compassionate words must be used to mitigate any stress triggers. Customers will appreciate this effort and entrust your dealership with all their hard-earned dollars.

• Proper and accurate service menu options.

Many customers will inquire about pricing before they book an appointment. Your agents ability to not only provide accurate price quotes, but also to effectively communicate all the features and benefits of each service item will create credibility and customer confidence. Having a universal pricing strategy in the form of menu items based on each vehicle model speaks to the care and attention every customer deserves. Use your scheduling software to create easy-to-comprehend, and customer friendly menu items. It is incumbent upon management to truly understand the customer base and the surrounding demographics by custom tailoring their service offerings along with market competitive pricing. Also utilizing a detailed menu will reduce the number of times an agent will have to put a customer on hold and go ask a service advisor about the right price of the requested items or all that it contains. Make sure to link your proper operations codes in your DMS with the newly created menu item for accurate reporting results.

• Instant communication with the service staff.

Your dealership has now truly ventured into a customer care business and might as well add a third word at the end: “communication”. No business can ever truly prosper without having an effective communication strategy with both their clients and internal team members. Better communication equals to increased operational efficiency also known as ‘productivity’. Marketing is what often drives revenue, but you can bet your bottom dollar that operational efficiency will drive your profit margins like little else. Therefore it is imperative that Service BDCs are complemented with the latest communication tools for both internal conversations and external engagements. Online tools such Slack can be utilized for internal communication as well one can create their own messaging board. For customer engagements look into various texting applications which many technology vendors are offering within their pre-existing services and solutions packages. Ultimately, you should have a plan in place to exploit all possible communication channels between your service drive personnel, the Service BDC team, and your customers.

• Who’s managing it?

The most understated element which ultimately dictates the success or failure of this effort is going to be the Business Development Manager (BDM) or the person in-charge of running your Service BDC. In-house BDMs are essential for hiring and training agents and fine tuning your Service BDC moving forward. However, if you hire an unqualified person for this job, your entire program could be at risk. Don’t just hire a candidate who looks good on paper. Take your time and set aside a week to interview multiple candidates. Hire the one who is not only qualified but also a great fit for your dealership culture. Your BDM must be able to work and collaborate with a wide range of personality types. From the GM to a fixed operations manager, service drive manager and right down to the advisor. These various dealership positions require a varied set of personality traits. The center point of your Service BDC is going to be the BDM and his or her ability to carry forward the diverse interests and serve up multiple roles will be critical. Also your BDM must possess a combination of both technology and customer service experience. Research the space thoroughly and learn from other verticals. Do not hesitate to provide your BDM and your Service BDC with tools necessary to succeed in today’s hyper competitive environment. Constantly learn from your own operations by making analytics and reporting the most critical aspect of this endeavor. This business unit requires a leader who possesses a blend of high IQ (intelligent quotient) as well as a high EQ (emotional quotient) to succeed.  Don’t skimp on this position, pay well.  You may even consider poaching a proven, experienced candidate.

This is not going to be an easy task or a set-it-and-forget-it type of a mission. There is no doubt, today having some sort of a Service BDC, whether on-site or remote is absolutely mission critical for not only higher profits but also for higher Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores. Many OEMs are pushing for this and laying out the ground work to make this department a “must have” for every new car dealer partner. Ultimately, this operation will be the responsibility of the new car dealers to manage and grow. Luckily, today there are few vendors ready to assist in any shape or form. Whether in the form of consulting to help you execute your own on-site Service BDC or help you take the entire burden off by offering end-to-end solutions. Reach out to the market players in this space, set up educational sessions to learn from past mistakes and current successes. Dealers, it is time to start separating yourself from the competition. Your customers and you deserve the best!

Joe Tareen

Technical Analyst

Traver Connect

Email: jtareen@traverconnect.com

URL: www.traverconnect.com

Let us start with this famous Thomas Edison quote: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. Same holds true today as it did way back then. If you are an OEM franchised auto dealership and tired of missing tons of customer inbound calls and have finally come to the realization that something must be done, you are no doubt thinking about the term ‘Service BDC’.

Although the definition and the purview of a Service Business Development Center (BDC) has evolved over a period of time, it is now safe to say that it is essentially your Fixed Operations customer experience center and perhaps even beyond. This is where the epic battle of customer retention for both Sales and Service plays out and it all starts with a “Hello”.

Whether you are thinking about hiring an outside company or engaging in a Do It Yourself (DIY) model, there is no lessening of the fact that this is a very critical customer experience function.

Traver Connect has an immense experience in this field. We are one of the pioneers in this space and have lived through the growing pains and the front line experiences like no other. We like to think we have somewhat turned this into a near science and are delighted to share some of the best practices with the industry.

Here are five ways that will help you not only get your Service BDC off the ground but help maintain it and ensure its ongoing success.

1. Hiring the Right Agents: This is where it starts and no doubt that not everyone is qualified for this position. A Dealership must look for two strong traits to fill this position:
   1. Attitude:  The right attitude will overcome all obstacles trust me there will be many for this type of position to overcome. Service customers are not the easiest to handle. No one looks forward to getting their car fixed of course no one looks forward to having car troubles in the first place. So right off the bat this is a tense situation. Agent attitude will determine the tone on the phone and the smiling voice will go a long way soothing any customer pain points.
   2. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is described by Dictionary.com as the “quality or state of being conscious or aware of something”. This may be a relatively newer concept to be considered for BDC agents but being present in the moment and having the right listening skills go hand in hand. If you’re agents are not listening to the customers wholeheartedly and showing empathy there is no way they can provide an equitable solution to their problems. This is a must have skill set in every Service BDC agent. But this can be developed as well.
2. Keep the Inbound call short and sweet: An incoming call to book an appointment is not the place to be dispatching a repair order. What do I mean by that? I will explain, but first let me start with Service CRMs. Today, where a web-based scheduling CRM has brought many advances in internal service reporting and ease for customers to book an online appointment, these advances are not without their collateral damage. Shorter call times it seems has been the main casualty here. One of the unintended consequences that has emerged from these modern tools, is that the dealerships which employ these Schedulers are increasingly dealing with longer call times and more complex business rules which must be executed by the BDC agents during the call. We have seen a correlation between the increased dealer usage of Service CRM features and longer call times. Let’s remember that Service BDCs are there primarily to catch the call and book an appointment, not necessarily to dispatch the repair order to the correct shop or the drive. We do understand that some of these policies may not be in direct control of the dealership themselves and may have been mandated by the OEMs, but keeping things extraordinarily simple will work wonders for not only your CSI rankings but will keep your Service BDC humming just at the right rate. Catch the call, book the appointment and move onto the next one!
3. Relentless Training:  Launching a Service BDC is just half the battle. This is not a one and done enterprise. To achieve continued success, it will be incumbent upon management to be relentless and consistent with both their training message and methods. The key here is in addition to product knowledge, one must also laser focus in on call handling skills as well. For instance specific training in areas of how to properly greet customers on the phone and speak with proper tone and voice expressions is a must. First impression is the lasting one and nowhere else it rings truer than on answering a service call. Training on how to overcome customer objections on recommended maintenance packages and how to subdue an irate customer with empathetic words and phrases is mission critical. In addition to the areas mentioned above, it will be contingent upon dealer management to keep agents motivated throughout. Equipping Service BDC agents with the right training and tools will foster self-confidence and a firm buy-in in the process and the entire purpose.
4. Planting the ‘Maintenance’ Seeds: Although there are many services and repairs that require a proper technician multipoint inspection, nevertheless there remain a set of preventive maintenances which can easily be mentioned during an appointment call. For example with a second instance of an oil & filter change it may be advisable to rotate the tires based on vehicle history. Why not quickly offer that on the call? Or why not offer balance and rotate tires with the first brake pads replacement? Wheel alignment checks could also be included to this list. Again all we are doing is educating the customer on the call and setting them up for a more fruitful discussion on the drive with their service advisor. However first and foremost thing to keep in mind here is that it is always a soft-sell approach not a hard one. Let’s even take it a step further and call it a quick customer education opportunity. Planting the seed for what the vehicle may need in addition to just an oil change when reinforced by the service advisor on the drive will validate the need and increase your service penetration rates.  
5. Measuring Both the Good & the Bad: With onsite dealership-based Service BDCs, dealers must understand that they have now added a whole separate department which requires active management. From making sure to hire right, to right training and then on to executing an effective appointment booking strategy, all these efforts will require that every instance of call event is properly tracked and analyzed for departmental fine tuning and agent performance. There will also be times when customers may need to escalate an issue to upper management, so it will be imperative that the underlined communication system utilized must allow for call metrics measurement and call recordings. Total calls to total talk time must be tracked. Average call time and peak call times must also be analyzed for proper resource optimization. A robust auditing of calls when required will go a long way towards resolving conflicts and provide management with coaching opportunities. Be diligent and fair with your measurement strategy but most importantly be thorough. There is no need to hide the flaws and inefficiencies in the system for any reason, because these flaws will help you design a better Service BDC for both the near and long run. Weekly reporting in call metrics must be shared across the organization and a proper ROI report must be generated to validate the expenses of the Service BDC to make it feasible. The Service BDC typically must be responsible for a healthy majority of your booked appointments and those appointments must be tied to resulting repair orders. An accurate insight into exactly the revenue your Service BDC generates for the dealership will help towards allocating additional funding for growth purposes. This powerful axiom: What you cannot measure, you cannot improve will be spot on with your Service BDC initiative.

In the end remember the call volume of Service BDCs versus Sales BDCs is like day and night, so the assumptions that, if we can run a Sales BDC we can run a Service BDC also, will not necessarily always hold true. With Service you are asking customers to spend money they rather not so the bar on the type of customer experience is completely different. The strategies which may work on the Sales side may not work at all on the Service side. Keep an open mind and get ready to roll up your sleeves and put on some overalls and off you go. Good Luck!

Joe Tareen (Technical Analyst at http://www.Traver Connect.com)

I am ruminating: If new car dealerships are to re-invent their business model to adjust to the impending sea changes in the industry, it must start with completely re-thinking the DMS technology and specifically the third-party vendor eco-system. As value creation gets redefined by market dynamics, it is imperative that dealer data is no longer viewed as a trade-secret and readily shared across the dealer-vendor eco system with absolute minimum cost if no cost at all to all parties.

Easy and robust data accessibility features across platforms with maximum built in security algorithms should be the fundamental hallmark of this newly envisioned DMS. Also, it is imperative to mention here that robust data accessibility is not just an issue for third party technology vendors but also for dealers themselves, who often find themselves unable to access their own transactional data due to opaque nature of existing DMS technology creating road blocks or delaying speedy decision-making capabilities. Market innovation is also hampered. Now, I certainly don't want to lay the blame solely on the DMS companies, they do the best they can with what they must work with, which is modern day applications built upon at least a forty-year-old database system. Nevertheless, the time has come and we must usher in a new paradigm shift in how we view what a DMS is altogether and how it should behave with others.

In my view a DMS should be an open and yet very secure platform that synergistically allows for management of all digital and physical assets without leaving a heavy cost or maintenance footprint. Here are a set of principles on which I believe this newly re-imagined DMS should be built upon:

1.     DMS elasticity: DMS technology limitations or cost should never be a consideration for a dealer to expand departmental capabilities, employ the latest technology innovations, create newer revenue channels or enter into new markets. DMS should be completely invisible to these considerations.

2.     Data provenance: Every single data value should be tracked to its origin throughout the internal or external solution systems. The new DMS controlled wholly by the dealer becomes the shared key generator of all data assets including ones commonly shared with all third-party vendors. No more data attribution challenges. Every digital or physical asset is assigned a unique key shared across all internal or third-party platforms and ROI performance is calculated and shared in real-time by all parties simultaneously. The dealer of tomorrow will solely be in the business of "asset risk/management and customer management/retention business". Please see this presentation: Don Flow speaking at Automotive News, Retail Forum : Chicago October 17

3.     Distributed Computing Methodology: The dealer should be the sole decision maker regarding the DMS infrastructure topology. Dealer’s DMS could be hosted on-premise, off premise, on the cloud or in a truly distributed computing method utilizing existing hardware assets. Dealer gets complete control. No wastage of existing resources. Never pay for what is not being used.

4.     Analytics or Business Intelligence (BI) Ready: The underlying database should be equipped to handle both transactional and analytical interactions in real-time by employing data stream capabilities. The DMS becomes the dealer hub for inbound Big Data streams joining in real-time with its own localized transactional records thereby creating highly contextualized analyses for the end user. A confluential big picture versus small picture view enables right decisions at the right time.

5.     Open Source: The newly envision DMS must be completely open source from its DNA so any market innovator can enhance and offer new solutions benefiting the dealer and the entire supply chain marketplace. This will put the dealer in the pilot seat of what features and capabilities they want to invest in and which ones they want to forego.

6.     Distributed Ledger Based Third Party Integration Eco-System: Yes, you heard it right. I am proposing a DMS that employs private blockchain technology as a layer to create a third-party integration eco-system in which all internal and external solutions are working on the same shared key data elements. No more inserting or extracting data out of DMS systems. Blockchain allows each third-party vendor to contribute their own node to the blockchain network and host a distributed ledger of dealer data shared via a permissioned protocol thereby eliminating the need to update, insert or query DMS systems directly. Now data can be created and managed jointly without employing any system intrusive techniques. Blockchain data can only be viewed or managed by participating systems that possess the correct key. Data privacy and security are built in to blockchain technology. Hacking and altering blockchain data is next to impossible due to its multi-nodal distributive change authorization nature. Ethereum blockchain technology platform is an excellent option on which all third-party technology vendors would build their own value add applications. Ethereum platform based integration layer also enables dealers and third-party vendors to implement smart contract capabilities for future e-commerce purposes. Think about a possibility of any third-party retailer or a service provider transacting with dealer assets 24/7.

7.     Open Source DMS App Store: Principles, infrastructure and technology proposed above now for the first time will truly allow a vibrant and a decentralized DMS app store to flourish where dealers find themselves in complete control of which required features and widgets they want to implement without having to pay for the ones of no use. This will provide an unprecedented control over their own technology and digital marketing budgets and enable dealers to only train their personnel on features which are mission critical to their own operations or expansion initiatives. The DMS out of the box will come with most basic features and dealers can expand there onwards. An app store will also change the way third party technology vendors charge dealers. If an application is no longer desirable, it can be uninstalled within minutes without losing all the relevant data because that value add data is still accessible to the DMS via the distributed ledger system. The cost of integrating or switching vendors will be negligible provided third party vendors are participating in hosting their own blockchain nodes for distributed ledger services which will hold commonly shared and cryptographically secured dealer data. This will no-doubt require an industry wide cooperation and perhaps even a consortium. Let these innovations usher in a new era. "I have a dream!"

Please feel free to add to these set of principles.

Time has come for OEMs and dealerships to move beyond a mere Service BDC and into a more unified digital multi-channel customer care center. According to a recent retail automotive study 73% of customers prefer a digital form of communication such as website, email, SMS, and social media during their vehicle ownership life-cycle. That is a vast majority of customers hinting to dealerships and OEMs alike that if you want our continued business meet us at our preferred communication channel. That's where we are!

 The automotive new world order will be every bit about customer preferences as  it will be about a dealership’s ability to cater to those preferences and in the process operating a productive and a profitable enterprise. In today’s dealership based service departments, customer interactions are primarily voice only, whether outbound or inbound. This method of communication has served the dealership well however has come with its own set of challenges. 

Consider this fact: “About two out of every three callers reaching your dealership will ask to speak with someone in Service or Parts. Unfortunately, 20 percent of these callers will never reach the department or agent they need to assist them with their needs.” (Best Practices in Fixed Ops — Implementing Call Monitoring: Peter Falkowski). The amount of phone call activity generated through dealership service departments can be mind boggling at times and not all calls are directly related to a service visit for maintenance or repair. Many customers will simply call to ask a technical or a feature related question. Many customers will call to ask for pricing and many will simply call to check up on their in-service vehicle status. Lack of categorization and improper handling of these calls are a direct reflection upon a brand and a failure in this department can have far reaching consequences to the long term health of a dealership.

With increased product quality gains across all OEMs and similar types of in-car feature availability across many models and makes, customer experience has become the key brand differentiator, hence the key to success. Customer experience is not a monolithic concept but an aggregate of many highly specialized interactions for each situation and specific to each customer. Are today’s dealerships equipped to handle these specialized customer interactions? Does today’s dealership have the appropriate tools and resources to manage the ever so increasing service call volumes that may not always be about a service visit?

Customer retention is no longer only about taking phone calls and appointment scheduling away from service advisors and putting it into the hand of a dedicated Service BDC team. Customer retention is also no longer just about providing coffee and pop corns to waiters or aggressively reaching out to car owners for due service notifications. Customer retention is about creating a culture and a process where every one of your customer relies on your dealership to answer any automotive related question and dare not think of going to a second source. Customer retention is about employing such technologies for your contact center that your customers can engage your BDC agents via their own prefer channels anywhere in the world and for whatever their needs may be. Customer retention is about deploying information management systems that are truly collaborative and encourage the entire dealership staff to contribute with answers and content that are digitally shareable with customers across devices.

Imagine a customer engaging your Service BDC agents via your Facebook page to book an appointment because they just saw an oil change special appear in their newsfeed and they want to avail it right away. Imagine customers clicking on a link inside their service notification email to immediately chat with your Service BDC and schedule an appointment. Imagine customers using email, posts on social media and engaging your Service BDC via chat to ask questions about new car features. Now imagine if there was a one single system that could enable your Service BDC to orderly do all that plus the ability to take inbound calls as well as make outbound campaign calls, thus exponentially increasing agent productivity and ROI. You don't have to, there is one.

Your Service BDC can no longer afford to be one dimensional in today’s multichannel universe. Voice calls whether inbound or outbound cannot be the only solution moving into the future. Voice only allows for a single stream of conversation at a time between a customer and a Service BDC agent. This ties up a resource pool that is finite. If and when incoming customer calls arrive in waves as they tend to do for service, then the call abandon rate goes through the roof and a dealership ends up with at best an irate and at worse a lost customer.

 If a Service BDC is to be the nerve center of your customer retention efforts, then you have no choice but to digitize the customer experience.  The biggest benefit of conditioning your customers to engage your service department via digital channels (which by the way is what they prefer) is the ability of your agent to interact with multiple customer requests at the same time. This efficiency gain will drastically reduce your cost per call and increase your agent productivity substantially. All this leads to a happy customer and a happy customer leads to increased and guaranteed revenue well into the future. Look at it as an insurance policy for sustained success in economic down times.

With increased usage of smart-phone devices and proliferation of the internet, traditional communication methods are being abandoned for new ones.  Customers are increasingly turning to digital resources to ask service related questions. They are increasingly posting these questions and concerns on social media, on forums and other sites. If someone is missing from this conversation, it is the dealership staff.

Although most dealerships will employ some sort of a reputation management solution, it is often too late to salvage a relationship if a customer has to vent out in public about their dissatisfaction with your dealership or staff. Reputation management companies are often not empowered enough to immediately solve customer complaints and are put in place to attack the symptom with a band aid not cure the actual disease. If an auto dealership turns their Service BDC into a fully fledged multichannel customer care center, which is ready to assist all customers in real-time then perhaps there won’t be a need for customers to write bad reviews on public site in the first place. However  transitioning to this promise land will require a complete mindset change, technology; well that is the easy part.

So Behold! The best customer retention strategy for the automotive new world order is about engaging customers on their own preferred communication channels and being present and ready to assist with all of their vehicle ownership needs. Hello Customer Care Centers, goodbye Service BDCs!

What do service customers want from car dealerships? I asked myself and the introspection resulted in series of thoughts below:

1. Service customers want their questions answered.
2. Service customers want their problems solved.
3. Service customers want convenience above all.

In other words service customers want car dealerships to meet their expectations and meet them at customers’ own terms.

Today’s retail automotive space has become a highly competitive marketplace. Every single sales or service transaction has to be earned and a new car dealership must clearly differentiate itself from the rest of the competition. With proliferation of companies like TrueCar and RepairPal the industry has finally opened up to the fact that price competitiveness alone cannot be the only differentiator. Commoditizing a new car purchase or commoditizing maintenance and repair sales is not only bad for business but in the long term the quality of the end product delivered to consumers also suffers.

OEMs and New Car dealerships must innovate and focus on making the customer experience the hallmark of their business goals. If you take care of customers and make them feel special the money will follow. It will not happen overnight and that is why it requires a long term commitment to customer experience excellence. It will take buy in from every single level of the organization from top to bottom. From OEM executives to dealer principals to general managers and all the way down to the service porters, every single player should be executing from the same playbook. The new mission statement for each dealership should be to not just meet but exceed customer expectations. It won’t be as easy as walk in a park on a breezy autumn afternoon, but with iterative, steady and progressive steps one can set new car dealerships sailing in the right direction.

Thomas A. Edison once said “opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”.  So here is the opportunity, let’s dress up in overalls and get to doing the hard work that is necessary to achieve customer experience excellence. Let’s start with Fixed Operations which I believe is the center piece of customer retention efforts hence customer experience excellence is paramount here.

So let me flip the proverbial script and turn to you now and I ask: What concrete specific steps would you take if you were given the opportunity to not just meet but exceed customer expectations for a new car service department? I urge you to contribute even if you have just a single word to say.