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Your service department’s focus has accelerated in the direction of a fully digital customer experience. Why? Because you are truly looking at the service lane through the lens of customer preference — how they prefer to do business and interact, and the influence of convenience on their decisions.  

David Foutz, Vice President of Sales at Xtime was asked to reflect on the state of fixed operations in a recent CBT News interview, “Fixed ops was in a really scary time for a few weeks as the pandemic started. We saw this leading indicator of [service] appointments fall through the floor, but we also saw them come back. Currently scheduled appointments are fluctuating but steady in terms of year-over-year and I think service departments are doing well.” He went on to say we can’t stop looking at customer preferences. We have to give customers choices and make it easy for them to get repairs and maintenance done.   

We need to create convenience and ease, digitally. Let’s talk through what that looks like so you can attract customers and build loyal advocates for your new auto repair software from Xtime. Together we can convert in-person conversation to an online differentiator for your service department.   

Grow by Meeting Your Customer Where They Are 

You are still auditioning for future business with every engagement, even if it’s digital. So, how exactly do you make a good impression? Signs point to convenience, digital interaction, and self-service as key factors to help you grow dollars per RO.

Late first quarter 2020, overall service repair order volume decreased, but the use of digital tools to limit face-to-face contact did not.  

According to Xtime data, in March 2020, utilization of online approvals increased by 40 percent compared with one year prior. Online quote approvals give service advisors the ability to share additional service recommendations digitally, improving communication and transparency even through social distancing.    

Additionally, percentages of customer responses, approved recommended services, and dollars per repair order were all higher than in March of 2019. In April 2020, the use of online approvals increased by 53 percent compared year-over-year and the average dollar amount recommended was also up 8 percent year-over-year. 

Now Imagine the impact of creating the digital experience your customer wants all the way from scheduling through service pickup, blurring the line between in-store and online? 

Make it a High-Touch Digital Experience  

High-touch in a mobile-first world means building relationships without close contact by providing five-star service. Think about the opportunities you have to promote trust and transparency without face-to-face discussion. You’re looking for chances to gracefully and seamlessly connect the digital experience to the in-store processes and create new ways to attract customers and build loyalty. They are present throughout the customer journey. Think about where you can insert these preferences:  

• Digital communication like text or email that includes rich media like pictures and video 

• A check-in process that requires no contact between your employee and the customer  
• Service status updates your customer can self-serve 
• Payment that requires no paper or plastic to change hands 
• Flexible options for repair payment  
• Choices like service pick-up and delivery for the ultimate convenience 

The connected, digital service visit provides the high-touch experience your customer wants and the advantage you need. In a Cox Automotive study, 54 percent of service customers said they were willing to pay more for service when the provider offered enhancements like online approvals and estimates, valet, and rideshare options. 

Service Pick-Up and Delivery 

Let’s look at some stats around one of those convenient, digitally-driven preferences. When David Foutz was interviewed CBT News, they discussed the latest Cox Automotive COVID-19 Impact Study which gave us some great insight into the performance and your customer’s predilection toward service pick-up and delivery (SPUD). 

David opened the interview stating, “Dealers started offering these [service pick-up and delivery] services as the pandemic hit. The latest data from our study last week shows that consumers that have experienced this service love it — 90 percent satisfaction rating among those who’ve tried it — and they’ve indicated that they are willing to pay more for this service going forward.”  

That insight helps us to understand the ultra-convenient options you’re creating have the potential to drive revenue for your dealership. However, David went on to share only about six percent of dealers are charging for this service today, with about 10 percent of independent shops charging for SPUD. David espoused, “There’s an opportunity for 90 plus percent of dealers, perhaps, to find new revenue.” 

More than half of the 1000 automotive customers who participated in the Impact Study stated they would be willing to pay $20 for SPUD. Even more interesting, 91 percent of customers who have tried SPUD say it’s key to where they’ll choose to service their car moving forward.  

David also shed light on the fact that SPUD can help fill the less desirable service appointment time slots. There is no reason a customer has to bring their car at 8 a.m. if they can have it picked up at 2 p.m. and returned to them without interrupting their schedule.  

Summary 

With declining repair order counts, increasing service-visit intervals and the unknowns 2020 has brought us, you can’t overlook customer preference. Give them convenience and service options to win ongoing loyalty. Your customers want an at-home service experience, and you can deliver that as you make more of the service visit accessible from their phones. Keep working toward a high-touch digital service experience that is seamless and digital and delivers on customer preference.

Get your copy of Fixed Ops: A Playbook to Move the Service Experience Forward, here.

Thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, dealers can now use customer data to improve the car sales process. AI gives dealers key insights into individual customer interests to better personalize the buying experience and to build a larger sales funnel. But because AI is relatively new to automotive retail, there is much to learn from other retail industries that have been successfully using this technology for several years.  

In this white paper, you’ll learn how retailers in a variety of industries are using AI to:  

• Personalize product offerings  
• Uncover buying signals  
• Improve customer satisfaction  
• Streamline the shopping and buying process  

Learn how your dealership could drive better results with AI.

Are you asking your staff and vendors the right questions about CRMs?

If you’re in the market (or even thinking about being in the market) for a new dealership CRM, you know there are lots of factors to consider. But understanding and evaluating all those factors is easier said than done. In the Key CRM Considerations guide, you’ll learn strategies for CRM evaluation that help ensure you find the tool that is right for your business.

The guide covers the importance of knowing your customers, your providers, and yourself when choosing a CRM, covering key considerations including: 

• Technology requirements and integrations 
• Process compatibility 
• Data and insights 
• Service and support

Get the guide to learn how to research the right CRM for your dealership.

With all of the unique challenges your dealership might be facing today, from reduced staff, to selling by appointment only, to being without a cleanup department, it can be really difficult to manage each day in the dealership and prioritize what is most important. 

With a few ideas, reports, and best practices gathered from the VinSolutions team and dealerships across the country, however, you can quickly identify and act upon your top opportunities. By prioritizing customers, responding appropriately, and optimizing your data for future success, you can spend time taking action that actually matters to your business – now and in the near future.  

Who are the #1 customers right now?  

One of the most productive tasks you can do for your sales team is to identify which leads are top priority right now. While fresh internet leads and those customers who have visited the showroom are certainly important, consider prioritizing a different group of customers: those who are responding to you.  

Customers who are actively engaging with you are much more likely to be ready to buy, so you must make sure you’re not letting these customers slip through the cracks. But if you’re working with a reduced staff, you might be missing valuable text messages and emails being sent to salespeople that aren’t working right now. It is important that you have a plan to monitor for these easy-to-miss messages.  

In VinSolutions Connect CRM, there is a report that will enable you to quickly and easily do just that. The Unanswered Email and Text Replies report automatically delivers you a list of unanswered communications, which you can prioritize based on the date the communication was received. In this report, you’ll also be able to see the age of the lead, which can help you quickly sort out who is most likely to be ready to buy based on how long ago they made their last purchase.  

Your goal should be to keep this report clean – to get this list to zero every day or maybe multiple times a day. If your customers are contacting you, they are likely contacting your competitors as well, so it is critical that you get back to them quickly. Set times for yourself to review this report daily, whether in the morning, in the evening before you go home or multiples times throughout the day. You can also schedule the report to be automatically delivered to staff you designate at times you designate. If you need help getting that set up, contact your Performance Manager.   

How should I respond to shoppers?  

With more and more of your customers shopping online, complimentary coffee and popcorn in your showroom are no longer the best ways to show your appreciation. That means that the way you respond to inquiries from customers is more important than ever.  

Even so, many dealers still default to cookie cutter responses to leads, such as, “Hi, my name is Kevin. When can you come in?” If your customer asked you if a vehicle had heated seats and remote start, they probably aren’t going to be very satisfied with that reply.  

You still need to win the race to respond to customers; speed is critical. But you can’t sacrifice speed for quality. Always take the time to read the lead and answer customers’ questions. Ignoring your customer’s questions doesn’t exactly send the message that you care. And on top of that, you’re wasting the precious advertising dollars you spent bringing those leads if you’re not going to respond in a way that a customer expects.  

What can I do now to set my dealership up for future success?  

Understandably, many customers want to wait to make a purchase until they can come into your dealership for a more traditional buying experience. It is important to give those customers confidence they are priority.  

You can do this by creating a special list of customers to contact when the dust settles. In the Customer Notes section of the Customer Dashboard in Connect CRM, you can label customers with tags (such as #priority) that you can quickly search. You can also make these notes using the Connect Mobile app.  

To get to your list of labeled customers, simply type the phrase you’re using to label customers in the Customer Notes field of the Advanced Search in the Customers menu. From there, you can select all the customers you’ve tagged as a priority and create tasks for a phone call or email right in the CRM – all with just a few clicks.  

You can then title the tasks in a way that lets your staff know the word track to use. You can even build a phone template, that includes a full script specific to the tag you’ve applied – whether it includes messaging about incentives, new delivery options or new hours. This is something else your Performance Manager can help you with if you need more ideas.  

For more information and to learn more about the Urgent Active Leads report, watch our on-demand webinar, Key CRM Actions to Maximize Current Leads.

For more information and to learn more about a new report, Urgent Active Leads,watchouron-demandwebinar,Key CRM Actions to Maximize Current Leads.

Watch Now

It’s time to go all-in. Have you been dabbling in creating a digital experience for your customer? Many dealers have. Your customer has been telling you for a while, they prefer digital interaction with the ability to self-serve. Your timeline to deliver that experience has been accelerated.  

Depending on where you are in the digital transformation, you may need to expand utilization of the tools you already have in place, or you may need to understand what is available to your dealership. In a recent Dealer Forward, Tully Williams, director of parts and service with the Niello Company shared, “In this digital age everybody has been using digital tools, but now it’s more important than ever to ask what can our software can do for us and maximize every opportunity.”  

Here’s a guide to providing a digital experience that gives your customer the opportunity to choose self-service throughout the service journey with Xtime.  

Scheduling an Appointment 

Back to the fundamentals. If you aren’t offering online scheduling and opening up your settings so your prospects and customer get the most choices, you need to make this priority number one. This is where digital interaction begins, and where your customers can see you’re providing them the opportunity to connect with you in a self-service manner, in which 67 percent prefer over speaking to a person. 

Make sure as soon as a visitor arrives at your website they see messaging that tells them you are open for business. It sounds simple, but it is so important. Let’s say you are craving your favorite dish from your go-to local restaurant today, what is the first thing you are going to do? Check their website to see if they are open. If they don’t say anything about their curbside pickup or delivery options, it’s not likely you’re going to pick up the phone and check.  

With Schedule, Xtime’s automotive scheduling software, give your customer the ability to book their own appointment, viewing all available options, including services they should consider based on vehicle mileage, service history, and previously declined services.  

Welcome Your Customer 

Prior to social distancing, the way your advisor welcomed the customer provided the backdrop to the entire service visit. Your advisor prepared to greet a customer by name armed with all the service history and previously declined services using Xtime Engage, and now you need to lean into the self-service feature in that product: Self Check-In.  

With 54 percent of your customers delaying service due to concern about contact with people outside of their homes, Self Check-In can help you alleviate the anxiety of face-to-face interaction with your employees or other customers. When they arrive, instead of coming inside or being greeted at their car, your customer can use their mobile device to initiate the check-in process for their service appointment and sign for services.  

Once your customer has safely deposited their keys, your advisor is then free to safely complete a walk-around without contact with your customer. When the customer initiates check-in on their mobile device, it provides efficiency and social distancing for your advisors too.  

Self Check-In requires no additional hardware to purchase and is available for no additional charge with Xtime Engage. 

Your Customer Still Wants to Watch Service Progress 

With less in-person interaction, you may need to up communication frequency to provide visibility and promote trust. Thankfully, this isn’t on your advisor to pick up the phone with every update. With Service Tracker, an add-on feature in Xtime Inspect, your customer can see real-time status updates.  

Service Tracker is a way to digitize the service experience, and let your customer self-serve their status updates. After check-in, your customer will receive a text message with a link to access Service Tracker. The link can also be found in any email they receive during the service visit. It’s an amazing tool to enhance the service experience, as well as free up your advisors from phone calls.   

Complete the Service Visit Online 

You’re connecting all of the service dots with a digital experience for your customer. Keep it going. With the Enhanced Multi-Media add-on to Inspect, you can send your customer video and pictures to help them decide on additional service recommendations, and they can approve them right from their phone.    

When it’s time to close out, they’ll be able to self-serve by paying from their mobile device as well. Send a link using Payment that allows your customer to click and pay safely and in a secure fashion.  

Xtime Payment is included at no additional cost to all dealers with Xtime Engage.   

Summary 

As your partner in providing the right approach to meet your customer’s preferences — self-service and digital — we want to help you complete the digital transformation. With tools that allow your customer to interact digitally, safely, and on their own terms, you’ll build consumer confidence and a superior customer experience.  

Visit our Business Continuity Hub for more tools and resources. 

We live in a digital-first world — and it’s no longer optional. You need to drive revenue. To do that today, you have to provide a safe, online experience for your customers and employees and completely reimagine your customer’s journey by providing self-service capabilities.  

Self-Service Preference

Put your customer hat on for a moment. You’ve grown accustomed to checking into flights on your phone, getting carry-out food or groceries delivered with a couple of clicks, and even ordering up a ride through an app. If you had to talk to someone each time you needed one of these services, would you still find them just as convenient?  

For the majority of us, the answer is no. In a recent survey, 67 percent confessed preference of self-service over speaking to a live representative. Let’s walk through the options you have to let your fixed ops customer self-serve. 

Scheduling an Appointment

Get it right from the get-go. Self-service should start before your customer arrives at your service department. Appointment booking is your opportunity to make a great first impression. 

Whether through your email and text marketing efforts or social media, make sure to provide a link that directs your customer to your website to schedule their appointment. 

Beyond the ability to book online, really think about the experience your customer needs for proper self-service. They will want choices, including multiple dates and time options. Also consider the information your customer needs to properly care for their vehicle. Provide their service history and any previously declined services alongside recommendations based on their vehicle’s mileage. 

Self Check-In

Part of the self-service appeal is the no-wait factor. When you couple that with the general anxiety your customer may have right now about coming into contact with others outside of their safe space — 54 percent delaying service for this reason — providing the opportunity to check-in for their service appointment from their own mobile device makes complete sense. 

Give your customer the ability to initiate check-in on their phone when they arrive and create a safe process and instructions for dropping off their keys. With this level of self service in place, your customer is not waiting for their advisor, and they can feel confident in their safety when the interaction at your dealership is with their own phone.

Track Service Progress

Your customer may prefer to take things into their own hands, but they still want to hear updates from you during the service visit. Luckily, this can be done digitally and even through self-service. You can use texting and email to send updates, but you may also consider using a tool that allows your customer to see where their car is throughout the service visit. Choose a service that gives your customer the ability to click and check progress as they like while their car is in your shop. 

Online Approvals and Payment

The goal is a seamless service experience that weaves in self-service options for your customer without ever feeling disconnected from the in-shop experience. With that in mind, you want to send the multipoint inspection and any ASRs through links in emails or texts. This way your customer can see what your tech sees through photos or video to help them make a decision. 

Once they’ve signed off, digitally, and service is complete, you can ask them to submit payment in a similar fashion. For your part, make sure it’s communicated to your customer that the online payment is secure. Not only have you provided the ability for them to connect with you in the self-service manner they prefer, you will have proven your determination to reduce in-person interaction and commitment to keeping your customer and your employees safe.

Summary

The majority of people today prefer self-service. Bring this ability to your dealership to show you care about the safety of your employees and customers as well as the desire your customer has to act in their own time and way. The new service visit journey means blurring the lines between online and in-store for your customers by giving them the opportunity to self-serve. 

Visit our Business Continuity Hub for more tools and resources.

Sources: Nuance Enterprise 

Cox Automotive COVID-19 Consumer Impact Study