Would a Virtual BDC be cost efficient for your dealership? It’s no secret that ROI is crucial. The cost of a Virtual BDC should not be any more than paying a part-time receptionist and a full time BDC agent. A Virtual BDC can be used to handle your inbound calls or for outbound campaigns.

Using a Virtual BDC will more than double your sales appointments set by handling the initial inbound sales calls for the. Only 30% of sales calls turn into an appointment on average but with a Virtual BDC, you would see that increase to upwards of 70%. Seems like a no brainer, right? Missing phone calls or not handling them properly portrays poor customer service and results in lost business for the dealership.

How does the cost compare? Having a Virtual BDC would ultimately provide substantial savings when compared to a fully staffed in-house BDC. The Virtual BDC agents essentially do the job of 3 people for the cost of one. The BDC Agents are dedicated to the dealership’s success. Thus, maximizing conversions and appointment traffic.

Do you know the difference between an “outsourced” BDC and a “virtual” BDC? A lot of people get the two confused.

               In most instances, outsourced BDC’s are designed to replace your in-house BDC and then will implement their own process. The Virtual BDC is not intended to do that. The goal is to help lighten the load for your team, making it a seamless process. Do not change any procedures that you have in place already, just work on improving the one item that is most crucial- the initial inbound call!

               A Virtual BDC can be used for coverage; after hours and weekends if needed. Also, could be used permanently or just while working with your in-house staff, training them how to be more efficient on the phone. The goal is to eliminate some of the burden and make your team stronger!

Maintaining your social presence is key during times like these. 

More important now than ever, is to make sure to keep your brand positive, thoughtful, and generous. "Familiar Favorites" are what you should focus on. 

Stay on top of what's happening:

-What posts have mattered most to your customers? How have they changed?

-How can we connect with our customers? 

-How can we keep our content appropriate with new and emerging trends?

Use real stories to connect with people. Use your employees and their families. People love people. Collaborate and acknowledge local businesses. 

The Benefits of Twitter in the Automotive Industry

Most dealers forget about this platform, and while it might not be the easiest to figure out for a lot of salespeople, it's very beneficial.

I haven't come accross one OEM that doesn't make announcements on Twitter. Whether it be new line-up, changes, or pictures of consumers. It is all factual and information based. It's a great way to start conversations with future and present customers. 

To Conumers, research is imperative. According to a study that Twitter did last year, 83% of new car shoppers said that Twitter influenced their decision-making process. We all know that most potential car buyers research across the web before making a decision. In most cases, it is new car buyers that will see the information they want on Twitter, but used car buyers shop the web even more.

Twitter started the #hashtag trend. With Twitter, you can use hashtags anywhere in your Tweet. Using relevant keywords and/or phrases result in your Tweets being viewed more easily by potential consumers. Posting real situations/people tends to get more results (shares, likes, comments). For example, Dodge recently posted (one day ago) a picture of a nurse with her new Dodge Charger and it's had 7,625 views! I'd re-tweet that!

Food for Thought:

Toyota USA has 798K Followers

Ford Motor Company 1.2M Followers

GMC 998K Followers

Jeep 1M Followers

Volvo Cars USA 240K Followers

Dodge 934K Followers

During these tough times, it's not easy to keep the morale up with your team and amongst others in the dealership. The dealership life requires high self-motivation and persistence and a lot of us seem to have lost that lately. It's only human to feel stress, fear, and demotivation. Thus causing such a slump. 

Small gestures go a long way. Get to know your people and make examples out of each of their strengths. Whether it be someone that's great at walk around videos, or an individual that exceeds their number of phone calls. Recognize individuals publicly, especially within the dealership. Even saying "Thank You" could change someone's mood. 

Most people think that pay is the only way to praise your employees. Now is a time where the focus needs to be shifted. Try to have fun; scavenger hunts, bingo cards, and cookouts are excellent ways to bring your team closer together and to take advantage of the down-time we are all experiencing. Getting involved in the community is another way to boost morale, a little positive reminder that people still care. Be open to suggestions from your team and other staff members. Take turns leading team meetings. With sales being lower than usual, have your people set their own personal goals and encourage them to achieve them. 

We will all bounce back from this and hopefully learn more about each other. Keep your head up and stay generous. 

Are sales managers the only ones who should be able to desk deals and provide pricing? 

Being a dealership with multiple brands, this becomes an issue due to the BDC needing pricing, as well as the salespeople. It always seems like such a hassle to get the information when we're busy or there's only one sales manager on duty. 

Our luxury brand doesn't get quite as busy as the others so there is only one sales manager, one salesperson, and one BDC person trained. It becomes difficult to cover all shifts and to get pricing for a customer when the manager is off or with someone. The salespeople, of course, do not have access to giving sales quotes.

To remedy these issues, we have trained one BDC person and the one salesperson for our luxury brand on desking the deals. We have had a lot of internal controversy over this, specifically with the BDC person having this ability. The sales managers seem to think that they should be the only ones giving out pricing sheets that are presented to the customers. However, it has helped in many instances when they are backed up. It's never good customer service to make a customer wait hours or sometimes until the next day to receive pricing. By this time, they've already gotten pricing from other dealerships and have probably made their decision on who they are going to purchase from. 

Being that one BDC person trained on our luxury brand and having the ability to provide pricing for my customers and my team, it has been tremendously beneficial and time-saving. It also gives us, in the BDC the ability to provide better customer service and a faster response rate. 

How important do you think it is to have others trained to do this? Maybe it would be beneficial for your dealership?

Does your dealership use Instagram for social media? Do they encourage the salespeople to use it as well? A lot of salespeople do not have the first clue about how to start this process. Other than just downloading the app. It's understandably frustrating when you post pictures often and your following doesn't increase.  

To start, you want to make sure that you gain the following of local businesses and even other salespeople and dealerships in the area. To do this, you can search for the hashtag and name of your city and/or county (ex. #orlando), and follow users that have used this hashtag. If you are brand specific, you can also search the hashtag+your brand (ex. #mitsubishi). This may not get you all local followers but it is a good way to build them. I recommend staying away from following private profiles and profiles without pictures, as these are less likely to follow you in return. It's also good to make sure to follow users who like photos that you post. 

Don't forget to invite your friends and family to follow you on Instagram, as well as your previous customers. A good way to reach your previous customers would be with an email blast or a Facebook post, on both your personal and business pages if you have them!

Instagram does put a limit on the number of other users you can follow/unfollow in a specific time period. The more established your account, the more you'll be able to follow per day. With most newer accounts, the limit is 100. 

You will want to avoid looking like a spam profile. If you are following 3k users and only have 200 followers, this can look suspicious to other users. There are apps that can be downloaded to weed out the users that have not followed you in return. Some of the apps that I have used are "Unfollowers" and "Follow Cop". 

This whole process can be very time consuming and seem monotomous but will get easier and easier as your following increases. Just remember to keep engaging your followers by posting pictures and stories!