Many dealers and managers outside of the service department don’t realize how incredibly busy a service advisor (SA) is throughout their day. Keep in mind that these are front-line employees dealing directly with your customers. They have an extremely important role in the dealership. In fact, it could be argued that a SA has more influence on a dealership’s livelihood when it comes to customer retention and loyalty than any other position in the dealership. A single SA sees many more customers in a day than any salesperson.

Don’t believe me about how busy these guys and gals are? Try calling a SA between 4 and 6 pm (their peak time for delivery of cars) for assistance. You will likely go straight to voicemail. If you do reach them they’ll tell you they’ll call you right back – and you will have to wait a while for that return call. This is happening more often than most dealers realize. As a mystery shopping exercise, I would recommend that the GMs or principals of the dealership call their own main 800# between 4 and 6 pm, act like a customer trying to get hold of their SA, and see how hard it is. Start a stopwatch and do the exercise 10 times. If you do get connected to your SA directly, count it is a success.  

When we analyzed recordings of the main number, here are some statistics that surprised us.  It took an average of 3 minutes to get to a human or voicemail and the customer got the correct SA only 1 out of 10 times. Now put on the “shoes of the customer” who sees you once every 8-10 months, is this what you want happening?

I believe this has a lot to do with the general trend of automation. As OEMs push more and more responsibilities off onto the dealer, the service advisor has become overloaded and it’s time to reduce the noise.

I actually counted the # of tasks that a SA is responsible for at the dealership and I stopped counting at 15 ….:

1. Greeting customers upon arrival.

2. Performing a visual inspection of the vehicle for dings/dents upon intake.

3. Consulting with the customer about vehicle ailments and creating a repair order.

4. Dispatching the work to technicians.

5. Contacting the customer with the diagnosis and/or any additional service recommendations and maintaining contact regarding vehicle status.

6. Checking with the parts department for parts availability on the repair order.

7. Checking for any open recalls and/or TSBs for each vehicle.

8. Checking to see if vehicle is in warranty.

9. Looking at the vehicle’s history for any prior repairs that may affect the current problem.

10. Greeting tow truck drivers and liaising with shuttle drivers.

11. Handling calls and answering questions from customers and others with general questions about vehicle service.

12. Submitting factory and extended warranty claims.

13. Arranging for pickup and delivery of customers and/or vehicles.

14. Coordinating with the loaner desk to make sure loaners are available.

15. Staying up to date/certified on any OEM software and OEM certifications.

And this list doesn’t include all the additional internal forms they need to fill out and the training they need to complete to remain compliant with regulatory rules. It’s exhausting and its day in and day out.

The customer tends to get lost in all this noise. It’s similar to the medical profession today as things get more and more automated and digitized. There used to be an art to diagnosing and dealing with the patient. My uncle is a doctor and back in the day you would get a full physical exam which included tapping different parts of your body, listening on the stethoscope for clues to illnesses. Today your doctor will wheel in a computer and spend the bulk of his time entering data into a computer. The modern doctors have become dignified digital clerks!!  Do you want this to happen to your SAs?

This art of personalization has been lost in vehicle service too. If you would like your service department to be effective and provide a great customer experience, find a way to reduce the noise in your service advisors’ daily lives. Take some time to truly study the service department and I am sure you can find some ways to help increase efficiency so there is less noise and forms for the service advisors to fill-out. This will then help increase customer interactions and provide a better customer experience which leads to increased CSI and profitability. And then everyone wins.

I was on a trip to New York and met up with a friend of mine (full disclosure: also a happy customer) Richard Hesse, the Dealer Principal at Mercedes-Benz of Nanuet. He has a simple mantra: “It's not business; it’s personal” -- and he means it.  I borrowed a car from him while I was in the NY area and had a minor issue come up with the toll pass at the booth.  I called the store and his receptionist picked up.  She was very courteous, heard me out, and said she would call me back.  Amazingly, she called me back and, to my surprise, solved the problem right away.  She had to find the loaner supervisor, get the answer for me, and return to her desk so she could call me back.  This lady manifested Rich’s mantra -- “It's not business; it’s personal.”

Dealerships are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves, attract new customers, and retain the ones they have. Some dealerships even spend millions of dollars installing luxury amenities such as movie theaters, coffee bars, and beauty salons in an effort to create a great customer experience and, thereby, engender customer loyalty. But are such things necessary?

The problem is that no amenity or luxury will make the customer experience great if the fundamentals of good service don’t come first. Customer expectations are simple: (1) The dealership should have a welcoming environment and be clean; (2) The staff should be attentive and responsive to the customer; and (3) the car needs to be fixed right the first time.

The service must be prompt and address the customer’s precise needs and wants. In essence, your dealership should satisfy the need that brought the customer to the dealership while providing a welcoming environment that makes the customer want to return. These are the fundamentals of good service that will make your customer willing to travel to your dealership.

Every other luxury or amenity you may choose to provide is the icing on the cake.

Make each experience great and the customer will come back. They may even recommend you to a friend or two.

The famous Albert Mehrabian developed a communication model in which he demonstrated that only 7% of what we communicate consists of the literal content of the message. The use of one’s voice, such as tone, intonation, and volume, makes up 38% of the message and as much as 55% of communication consists of non-verbal factors such as body language.

I’m sure you can think of a phrase that could mean totally different things should the emphasis be placed differently. That’s why great salespeople excel when the customer is in front of them. They know to mimic customer behavior and use these non-verbal communicators to their advantage and to emphasize and sell. And it works.

Today we live in a new society filled with digital communications – emails, chat, and text, to name a few. The problem is that the more non-verbal communication you utilize, the less effective the communication becomes. Yet we continue to try to communicate with our customers via solutions that, while they may be convenient, are less effective and can lead to misunderstandings.

A big trend currently favored in the automotive industry is texting. While it is very effective for short messages that need quick answers, salespeople who rely on texting to sell cars will find it difficult, or almost impossible, to accomplish what could be done with the customer in front of them or on the phone. And this includes service advisors delivering service recommendations. Yes, I am a huge supporter of texting to improve communications with customers under some circumstances – it is a great way to get hold of the customer and send them a link to the recommendations so you are not playing constant phone tag. But if it is a repair that needs explaining, I can guarantee that the customer is going to have questions and will want to discuss it on the phone.

So let us examine a quick interaction for a service repair, one attempted solely with text and another with a combination of text and voice calls.

Advisor - Text: “Our technician has found some issues with your car, I am sending you an estimate below:
1. Battery failed battery test - Replace Battery - $299.50
2. Remove air cleaner and coil packs replace spark plugs - $214.25
That would be $513.75 in addition to your A service which would be a total of $889.92”

 Customer - Text: “Whoa, hold on there?  Why so much?  What is a coil pack? My car was working when I got there, why a new battery?

VERSUS

Advisor - Text: “Our technician has found some issues with your car, when might I call you?

Customer Calls: The Service Advisor talks to the customer and explains that they put the car through multiple tests and the battery test had failed and if the battery was not replaced, then the car might stall on the freeway or may not start in the parking lot, also explains why the spark plugs need replacement etc. Lets the customer know that he will summarize this and send it back to the customer along with the discount that they agreed on.

 Advisor Text: I am sending you the prices as we agreed:
1. Battery failed battery test - Replace Battery - $299.50
2. Remove air cleaner and coil packs replace spark plugs - $214.25
That would be $513.75 in addition to your A service which would be a total of $889.92.  Your discount is $89.92 and we will be doing this for $800 even”

Customer Text: Sure go ahead

While the interaction above is representative of an example that I found in our communications database, the numbers have been altered to protect any proprietary information.  The combination of multiple channels of communications is extremely effective, especially when you have to justify an expense that the customer was not expecting.  

I am a huge advocate of texting and other modern methods of communication to help better service the customer and keep them in the loop on such things as the progress of their vehicle during service, changing appointment times, etc. However, it is not the be all and end all of communication.

Tech giant Apple recognized this problem when it rolled out audio text capabilities. Emojis have become modern versions of hieroglyphics in an attempt to add expressiveness, emphasis, and interpretation to text messages. But they aren’t perfect and an emoji certainly wouldn’t stand up in court as issuing consent, understanding or agreement.

When considering how best to communicate, it is important to factor in which channel is most appropriate and will be the most effective. Every channel of communication has certain advantages but some are simply more effective and reliable than others depending upon the reason for communicating. The magic phrase in my mind is:

When might I call you?

Take a look at how you are communicating with your customers and be sure to choose the right channel for the right circumstance. This increases the probability that your customers will interact with you with full comprehension and without misinterpretation. And that means happy and loyal customers, improved CSI and increased Gross Profits.

Not too long ago your service department could rely on seeing customers fairly frequently, but as vehicles have increased in quality, so have the OEM’s suggested service intervals – some are now as much as 15,000 miles between oil changes.

To put this into perspective, in the past, if a customer drove 15,000 miles annually they would visit the dealership on average five times per year. The dealership had five opportunities to recommend additional services and build relationships with the customer. You no longer can count on having as many opportunities to wow customers or pick up additional service business.

So, what do many dealers do? Increase messaging and inundate customers with phone calls, emails, texts and direct mail.

There seems to be a futile focus on trying to bring the customer back after he or she has left the dealership. What this means is that the dealer feels obligated to bombard the consumer with messages via email, direct mail, and phone calls...all of which seem to guarantee just one thing ...that the customer is going to ignore you!

With diminished opportunities, consider reviewing your messaging and be more careful and strategic about the messages you send. While getting the initial visit may have been easy, keeping the customer is becoming more and more difficult as they become used to increased vehicle reliability along with greater competition from other independent service centers in the marketplace, enticing them away with offers of lower prices and greater convenience.

While increased vehicle reliability may decrease opportunities, the wise dealer can capitalize on this by being ready to service their customers when they demand it. And, if you provide ways for the customer to interact with your dealership by their preferred method – be it text, phone, chat or email -- you can still achieve loyalty and increased customer retention.

Customers must know that your dealership is available to them when they need it and will assist them with their vehicle needs at their convenience – not the dealership’s. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like telling a customer you can’t service their car when they want it serviced.

Partnership enhances customer interaction with auto dealer service customers, boosting sales and retention

 LONG BEACH, Calif., and ATLANTA, GA -- November 22, 2016 -- myKaarma, the cloud based conversational commerce software that’s revolutionizing the auto service industry and MDL autoMation (MDL – formerly MyDealerLot), a leader in RFID and License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology, today announced a partnership and integration to help streamline and improve the auto service customer’s experience. The integration pairs myKaarma’s internal and customer-facing messaging with MDL’s automated arrival technology to help auto dealers further improve communication and interaction with service customers.

“MDL continues to partner with leading companies that provide high-value technologies to auto dealer sales and service operations. Our integration with myKaarma uses our award-winning Service Drive Concierge™ platform to message a variety of events (customer arrival, vehicle wash, loaner returns) using RFID or License Plate Recognition Technology directly to myKaarma to enhance the service customer’s experience to increase sales and retention,” said George Cresto, MDL Founder and CEO.

As soon as a customer pulls into the service drive MDL transmits the VIN to the myKaarma system and a message is immediately sent to the assigned service advisor, notifying them that a customer has arrived. If desired, a message can also be texted to the customer welcoming them to the dealership. myKaarma can also send a message to the customer when their vehicle is completed in the car wash. Additionally, a message can be sent to the service department when a customer returns with their loaner. This improves communication and interaction with service customers as well as the overall speed and efficiency of the service transaction, resulting in happier customers.

“Responsiveness, helpfulness and engagement are more important than ever in retaining today’s customers. If it is not a fast, pleasant and easy experience for service customers when interacting with your dealership, the customer will go elsewhere,” said Ujj Nath, CEO of myKaarma. “We designed our platform to be the cleanest channel that connects customers with the dealer. Our integration with MDL further improves how dealers can interact with and maintain good communication with their customers, ensuring improved CSI and higher profits, Nath added.

For more information, or to schedule a product demonstration, visit www.mdlautomation.com or www.mykaarma.com

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About MDL autoMation: (MDL)

Formerly known as MyDealerLot, MDL is the country's leader in providing process improvement through Instant Guest Recognition & Messaging using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies and now LPR technologies. MDL systems are installed in leading U.S. dealerships enabling a 'Ritz Carlton' level of service, increased customer retention, improved CSI, and sales opportunities. MDL's Bluetooth beacon solution Bloodhound™ and RFID Zonal Tracking enable complete asset tracking of both Service and Inventory vehicles. MDL's web-based Dispatch Master effectively manages the movement operation of guest or inventory vehicles. See www.mdlautomation.com for more information.

MDL Media Contact:

Jennifer Breza
jbreza@mdlautomation.com
888-635-7343

About myKaarma:

myKaarma is a conversational commerce software company for automotive dealerships that focuses on enhancing the retail service department experience. myKaarma's platform gives dealers the ability to offer their customers 21st Century technology  through digital conversations and smart payment systems. myKaarma was named as an official communications and payments partner for Mercedes-Benz USA.

myKaarma Media Contact:
Thomas Ross 
tom.ross@mykaarma.com

562.349.1356