Communicate Surprisingly, the survey found that communicating with customers keeps them happy. Customer satisfaction improves if service departments are proactive about communication and send texts or emails about unresolved problems. If a dealership problem affects customers, consider being preemptive about it and reassure them that you are working hard to resolve the issues. Increase Productivity Finding technicians without enough to go around can take some creativity. Focus on the following: treat techs well, consider hiring more diversely, and take an interest in programs at local schools. Do what you can to create a pipeline, hire more women and minorities, mentor young techs and help create satisfying career paths for them. Master techs are great, but you don’t need a master tech for every job. Instead, hire “B” and “C” level techs to handle repairs and maintenance. You can increase the work capacity that your service shop has by hiring just one tech. In turn, having one more tech reduces the customer wait time and can generally increase gross profit by about $10,000 per month. Even if you focus on hiring less-experienced techs, they will, in most cases, improve their skills over time. Schedule Appointments Get customers into the shop as soon as possible by scheduling an appointment for them when they call. For the dealership to be as competitive as possible, the appointment must be that day or the next. Until a tech looks at the problem, you can’t expect to provide them with an accurate diagnosis. And, if customers can’t get their vehicle into the shop immediately, they may call the aftermarket competition. Therefore, whoever handles calls — a service adviser, an appointment coordinator or someone else — should have only one primary assignment: scheduling appointments. Make Communicating Easier Many technology channels have made it much easier to communicate with customers than ever before. Set things up so people can make appointments online or through an app. Ease payments by putting that online, too. Send text messages and videos about repair work. People like getting a video or photo that shows them repair work to be done, and when you send some photographic evidence to them, they are three times more likely to agree to the work. Use Valets or Send Technicians People have always liked personalized service. Be willing to send a valet to collect a vehicle. Alternatively, send a technician to the vehicle’s location. Owners who use valet or mobile service rated their overall higher in customer satisfaction. Call No-Shows No-shows are a fact of life. People get busy, and they forget what they’ve scheduled. However, there’s a lot you can do to reduce the number of no-shows. Send a confirmation text when someone makes an appointment and a final one on or before the appointment day. If a customer doesn’t show up despite the text messages, have someone call them to reschedule. Follow Up on Special Order Parts Sometimes repairs can’t be made until an ordered part arrives. You may send the customer a postcard to let them know the part came in, but don’t stop there. Someone from the dealership should also call the customer to make an appointment. Too many dealerships don’t follow up with customers about parts orders. As a result, they sometimes have a large inventory of never-installed obsolete parts. Try to get the parts installed on the vehicles that prompted the order as much as possible. Make Routine Service Appointments When customers come in for an appointment, you ideally want them to return later for routine maintenance. Talk with customers about the next required maintenance and give them the option of making their next service appointment before they leave. The appointment can be time- or mileage-based. If you implement these strategies, the repair order count may increase by at least 10%. If the service department normally performs 400 repairs a month, after hiring a new tech and increasing the dealership’s focus on following up, the number could increase to 440. In a year, the extra 40 repairs per month could add up to 480 repairs. And the extra money will head straight to your bottom line. Never underestimate the power of keeping customers happy. Continued from page 16 18 UTAH AUTO DEALER
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