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How to Improve Customer Service: 6 Quick Tips to Try Today

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Having an excellent customer service team goes beyond having good people skills. It means using the right strategies, tracking the proper metrics, attaining measurable goals, and of course, satisfying the customer. 

If you are in a position where you want to improve upon your customer service, here are a few quick tips you can apply to your team to help them succeed and get more positive feedback from customers. 

Provide Product & Service Training to Employees

How knowledgable your customer service agents are about the product or service the company provides can make or break an interaction with a customer. For online retail or eCommerce businesses, it’s important to have consistent product knowledge training via seminars or online quizzes, especially when a new product launches. 

This is just as important in industries that provide singular services that don’t change often. There is always something more to learn or improve. Have your employees watch webinars with a quiz to follow that tests their knowledge of the business and what services they provide to customers. The more they know, the more they can be of assistance. 

Keep Your Customer Interactions New and Fresh

If you answer every phone call the same, it can get dull and boring for both you and your customers. “Hello, this is so-and-so at blah-blah company, how can I help you?” How quickly will it take for that to get old, and lack any emotion behind it? 

If you make an effort to switch things up every few calls—with different intros that sound more natural, like you’re talking to a close friend—you may find yourself more relaxed. If you feel relaxed, your customers may feel more comfortable and at ease. Plus, it can keep you alert and energetic if you switch it up with new, fresh ideas of how to introduce yourself and your company. Maybe a fun tagline or signature phrase for the business can make the customers laugh and start off on the right foot. 

Add a Personal Touch to Every Phone Call

Conducting customer service over the phone or chat lacks one crucial aspect, which is that face to face interaction. This means customer service agents must put in extra effort to showcase their personality over the phone. It can help to add a personal touch to the phone calls, to make the customer feel heard and appreciated. 

Call them by their first name, bring up their account, and mention prior interactions with them to make them feel like you know or remember them. Refer to them by their first name throughout the call, so they know you are hearing them and care about them. 

Introduce Loyalty Programs or Rewards

For loyal customers, offer them a special reward or discount for being such a dedicated customer. For those customers who are new or second comers, offering a loyalty program early on can help to solidify their loyalty to your business, but also give them an essential role as your customer. 

Offering callers a reward of joining your loyalty program, or getting an exclusive discount may make them happy to call for any issues or feedback again in the future. They know they can rely on you, trust you, and are cared for when they call your customer service. 

Respond to Your Social Media Comments!

One avenue of communication to customers that falls flat is responding to customers via your social media channels. A lot of people feel comfortable leaving comments or sending messages via Facebook or Instagram with issues or thoughts they have about the service they’ve received.

It’s imperative to pay attention to these customers because this is also being viewed by every other person who follows your company’s social channels. If a customer asks a question in the comments that goes unanswered, that can reflect poorly on your business. But if you are actively liking, thanking, and commenting back to those questions and comments, you not only help that customer feel good, but you are helping other customers who see that and may have had the same experience. You’ve now killed multiple birds with one stone, and responding to those social media interactions adds a personal touch to your business and customer service team. 

Make it Easy for Customers to Give Valuable Feedback.

Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and customer effort scores are essential to providing crucial feedback directly from customers to your business, that can help you improve processes and how you handle future customer interactions. As you exit a call, email, or chat with a customer, you have a prime opportunity to ask them politely for feedback. 

The easier you make it to give feedback, the more likely they may take that action. When it comes to leaving Google or Yelp reviews, that may have to be a simple ask, especially if the interaction went really well with them. Kindly say, “If you had a good experience today, we would love it if you were willing to take the time to leave us a review. The link is…” 

Meanwhile, you can always send customer effort scores, with a simple link sent to the customer where they can answer a one to two-word survey where they rate their experience. This data is incredibly helpful when it comes to improving your customer service since you get to hear both the good and the bad, directly from the source. 

Following these six tips, plus having a positive attitude, continuing education for your team, and seamless communication within your business, you can easily take the step to improve your customer service. Just because you don’t receive any poor feedback, or have any upset customers, doesn’t mean you don’t need to improve upon your customer service. There is always something you can do to increase your effort and continue to provide the best, most helpful service to your customers. For more information on customer service support and techniques, give us a call!

How to Deal With Angry Customers And Diffuse The Situation

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One thing is inevitable if you work in customer service—you’re going to come across an angry customer at some point. What isn’t certain is how that customer is going to feel by the end of the phone call.

However, how you, as the customer service agent, handle the situation can determine their fate.  By the end of the conversation, a good customer service agent will diffuse the situation and leave the customer feeling better than when they started. To help your team, here are a few things your team can try when dealing with angry customers. 

Maintain Composure and Stay Calm

First things first, when you answer the phone to an irate, angry customer, stay calm and maintain your composure. Reacting with emotion can only escalate the situation, and can even make it more difficult for you to focus on helping the customer. 

And always remember you can’t take it personal if they don’t know you personally. So getting equally heated will only prolong the situation and can make your job as the helper more stressful than it ever has to be. 

Practice Active or Reflective Listening

Active listening means genuinely listening to what the customer is saying, through their anger or dismay. Reflective listening helps even more—rather than saying “I understand, but let me say this…, repeat back what the customer said and relate it to how you will reach a resolution. 

Understand that some people may contact you already expecting to be treated poorly, or they’ve already attempted to call other customer service numbers to no avail. They also may feel very emotional when having to confront people, so if you can be sensitive to the reasons they may be angry, it can help them feel heard and understood. 

Utilize the Resources in Front of You

When a customer calls and their emotions have already escalated the conversation, you have a few things at your disposal to help immediately. One tactic is putting the customer on hold. This can give them a moment to calm down, and you can take a moment to gather yourself as well to approach the situation from the right angle. 

Customers may also appreciate screen sharing if they are on their computer. They’ll be able to see what you are doing to solve their problem, and they can see for themselves your effort to help them.

Lastly, customers may appreciate a second opinion. Reaching out to your colleagues for support on the problem can help to calm down the customer and show them your team is making a joint effort to help them. 

Thank Them for Bringing the Issue to Your Attention

An angry customer may find some ease in that what they are bringing up can actually help future customers get help faster and more efficiently. Maybe the reason they are feeling hopeless about it is that they have a uniquely complicated issue, and no one has been able to be resolved quickly. 

But, if they know that they did the right thing calling you to call out the issue, it may ease their frustration, knowing they were one of the first people to have the issue. If they calm down and you can get some valuable feedback and information from them to help others, they could receive an incentive for helping to improve your process. Calling out new issues means other customers may not have to deal with the same problem, and if they do, you will know precisely how to handle it. It’s a win-win!

Break Up the Customer’s Issue Into Smaller, More Manageable Issues

The angry customer called for one reason, and one reason only—to find a solid resolution to their problem. Maybe the problem they have is more complicated than a simple 1 to 1 resolution. 

It is your job as the representative to walk the customer through each step, in detail, of how you plan to fix their issue. By doing so, you will alleviate the problem and help them avoid it in the future. Everyone just wants to feel supported and know that you know what you’re doing in your role as the customer service agent. 

It can be very easy to tell the customer that you will fix the problem for them immediately. But that may not be enough, and may not sound sincere. Sincerity can shine through when you can show some transparency in the work you are doing. Set by example and go through the steps you are putting in place to fix the problem in a professional, well thought out plan. 

At Customer Traac, we have heard it all. And, we make it our mission to always leave our customers and clients satisfied with the help we’ve provided—this includes angry, upset customers. We are masters at diffusing the situation and empathize with our fellow customer service agents who must do the same. For more information on how we can support your dealership in handling these unfortunate customers, give us a call at (763) 553-2989.

Organizational Strategies to Help Your Dealership Thrive

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Organizational strategies are the actions companies intend to make to achieve their overall company goals. A car dealership’s success relies heavily on their strategic planning and execution. 

To help your dealership thrive, you should implement l these critical organizational strategies within your business, including solidifying excellent communication, processes, and accountability practices within your dealership. 

Keep Communication Clear and Concise

We will say it again and again, but communication is key to keeping a business surviving and thriving. In your dealership, many of the moving pieces can collapse when the right people are not communicating with each other. 

Harnessing the power of clear, concise communication goes beyond just organizational strategy best practices. It can empower and encourage employees, as they are included in high-level communication and actions. If they feel like they are vital to the discussion, they may be more inclined to go that extra mile for your business. 

In your dealership, your hierarchy may look something like this: Owner or CEO, Lot Manager, Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, Service Technicians, Salespeople, Receptionists, Property Maintenance, and other various positions. There are a lot of different levels of positions, but the end goal is the same—to satisfy the customer.

Every job has its responsibility to reach that end goal, but if there is no communication, then there can be breaks in the process, and a lack of cohesiveness.Having teamwide meetings and building out proper communication channels will bring satisfied customers, thanks to everyone working together. 

Write a Proper Mission Statement

One way to solidify your business strategy is to create a well-rounded mission statement that is representative of your organization’s values. A good mission statement should be able to apply to any of the work you do within the organization. 

A  thorough mission statement will represent your company, solidify your action plan, and hold everyone accountable to the business standards. Reading your mission statement aloud every week can help boost morale, bring encouragement to the team, and set the week off on the right foot. It is never too much to remind yourselves what your mission and goals are each week. 

It’s also ok to change your mission statement. If you get to a point in your business where you are reading your mission aloud, and it doesn’t mesh with the organization anymore—change it! Even better, open up the platform to your employees and managers to give their input on how they feel they want to represent themselves as a whole. 

Keep Processes Consistent and Up to Date

Things move very quickly in the realm of marketing and sales, especially in the car industry. There will always be a new design, a new feature, and new customer needs. If your dealership doesn’t keep up with the trends, they may not be successful using out-dated methods and sales techniques.

To keep processes up to date, make sure that when errors occur—or people find they are doing redundant or repetitive work—that they revisit that process and find out where those misses are happening. This goes along with accountability, which we will talk about next, and holding people responsible for their procedures. 

A critical factor in this is making sure employees know they have that power to make systems even better. Because they are the ones doing the work, your employees can see up close where any inefficiencies are. Therefore, they are one of the best resources for making improvements.,

It’s important to note as well that people may do things in different ways, so by collaborating with fellow employees and peers can make processes even more consistent and efficient across the board. Being sensitive to what works for various positions and different types of people can help to build out consistent processes that work for everyone. 

Maintain Accountability Across all Positions

Accountability in the workplace is vital to ensuring everyone has a responsibility within the business. In line with transparent communication, holding everyone accountable keeps them included in the business practices, and they know that what they do matters. 

An excellent article by Forbes goes through why accountability is so essential for achieving success. One of the best points that most relates to a dealership landscape is that accountability empowers the team. Employees who are held accountable and this goes for all the managers and executives as well, gain a sense of ownership and leadership within the dealership. Everyone can lead each other by example and own up to both mistakes and triumphs. In turn, this can help improve workflows, processes, and inspire new techniques on how to get the job done. 

Customer Traac jumps in to help dealerships close the gap on communicating with customers in regards to customer service, appointment scheduling, and other issues. We help to create a seamless transition between the dealerships and their various teams to ensure the customer gets exactly what they need, without jumping through any hoops. If you believe your dealership could use help in supporting your customers, give us a call!

Customer Service Training: How to Impress Customers With Your Call Center Employees

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Recently, we talked about what to look for when hiring a call center employee. But what about after they’re hired? That’s when the real work begins. 

You’ve found your key player after a diligent search, and now it’s time to train them. If you hired well, this person possesses the essential attributes needed to handle their calls, but now you can teach them how to really impress a customer. 

Whether you are newly onboarding or continuing education, there are a few ways to help your employees go above and beyond to wow your customers.

Customer Service Training and Onboarding

With some call centers and customer support lines, you may have your new hires hit the ground running and start on calls in the first week without much training. However, we recommend taking a few steps before they ever get on the line with a customer. 

First, get your new employees well acquainted with your system and procedures using hands-on training, webinars, and by shadowing other employees. They should devote a week’s worth of training before they get on the phone with customers. Some may have prior experience and find it really easy to jump in right away, but it doesn’t mean they are familiar with your internal processes. 

Once onboarding processes are complete, you can begin to transition your new employee into their full-fledged role. One good way to complete their training and onboarding is to ask for a survey and any notes on how they thought it went. Every new hire can be an opportunity to improve upon your process. You can answer their questions or struggles with the process and implement them into the onboarding for the next new hire. 

Ongoing Education for Call Center Employees

Any employee in any industry should be able to receive ongoing education throughout their role. Ongoing training is a valuable investment to offer employees if you want your business to succeed,  especially with your customers. 

Customer service, specifically, requires continual education and an ever-moving training program to keep up with the changing market. Customers’ demands change all the time as new products, technologies, and conveniences become available; the more they want, and the more they expect to receive. 

If you invest in your employees, you are investing in your customers. An employee that just finished a 10-hour ongoing training in customer behaviors in 2020 is going to be able to be steps ahead of the customer on the phone, as well as competitive call centers who are falling behind sticking to their same regimen. A call center employee that is aware of industry trends, customer expectations, and market demand can impress customers by being overly prepared for what they may throw at them. The more they know, the more they can help. 

Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Surprising your customers with discounts and added bonuses is a great way to impress them on any call—both inbound and outbound. 

A customer who has been diligent about payments, service repairs, or trade-ins could be a great example of one that could be rewarded with an offer. This can be part of your outbound marketing within your call center or business development center. Call those customers and impress them with your diligence and care for their service to your business. That, in itself, solidifies your relationship with those customers.

Take inbound calls, for example. Customers who call to schedule a service appointment without you having to offer could be treated to a nice discount or cashback reward. Those customers will be so happy that they took that step to call you and get rewarded for taking good care of their vehicle. 

Offer discounts and incentives to random customers during a marketing spritz that will impress them enough to leave good feedback and become a return customer. These methods not only help your call center employees feel confident and thrive in their roles, but it keeps recurring business and brings you to your end goal—a satisfied customer.

Setting your call center employees up for success means you will set your customers up for success. With solid onboarding processes, training materials and programs, and diligent ongoing education—you will be able to continually surprise and impress your customers time and time again. At Customer Traac, we know the value that comes with going that little extra mile to wow your customers, and we would love to chat with you on how you and your team can do the same. We’re here to help! Contact us today.

Call Quality Monitoring: How to Maintain and Improve the Quality of Your Calls

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With other methods of customer service becoming more prevalent, such as email and texting, it’s more important than ever to make sure your customer service calls are of the best quality.

Calls have an opportunity to be ultimately more personal and catered to the customer than a text or email can. The tone of voice and delivery are two key components that phone calls can portray better than any other communication. Call quality best practices include several ways to monitor and improve upon call quality, from scripting to analyzing crucial feedback data.   

Utilize Call Recording Tools

Many call centers and customer service departments will record calls to analyze them and use what they hear to improve future interactions. Recording calls have many benefits beyond just using the information to improve on future calls. Call recording can help track call metrics, duration of the call, customer retention, and even create some friendly competition amongst the team by posting live call metrics. 

Some common call recording tools used by call centers include Talkdesk, Calabrio, Oreka, and Aircall. These cloud-based systems assist in call monitoring, gathering call metadata, and other business strategies for call centers, big or small. If your company doesn’t already utilize a call recording system, implementing one can be the best thing for you, and it can do half the work for you!

Analyze Your Customer Feedback

Reviews, emails, and other forms of customer feedback are right from the source and should be utilized to the fullest to fully cater to the right audiences. If customers are sharing a similar bad experience, chances are even more people who do not voice their opinion are dealing with the same thing. You want to improve on that and help resolve common issues before they happen to others. 

To receive even more relevant feedback, encourage your agents to kindly ask for reviews and feedback directly after a call. This way, it can be fresh in the customer’s mind, and they can leave the most accurate feedback. Or, provide them with the link and a way to give feedback in their own time. 

Track the Right Metrics and KPIs

Only track the right metrics that benefit your business and add value to your time and money. There’s no need to track unnecessary data if it won’t be useful in determining call quality. If you’re strictly looking to maintain or improve the quality of your calls, there are a few metrics you can set aside for now, as they may not be as beneficial to analyzing call quality. 

These metrics include cost per call or agent turnover. Cost per call may only be necessary for more sales-oriented call centers. Cost per call measures just that, how much it costs per call. This includes the agent salary and the time spent on the phone call. This is a useful business metric to determine profitability, but for call quality, it may not be as important. 

Agent turnover measures how many agents leave their roles, and the company has to hire someone new. Hiring and training new employees is time and cost-intensive. And although it could affect call quality due to having to train new employees, it may not have a direct link to present call quality and how to improve it. 

Lock in Best Practices to Maintain Consistency

Make sure your team implements best practices across the board, so there is consistency maintained no matter what. Many of these items we are listing are call quality best practices and should be implemented within your workflow, plus any others you find would suit your business. 

Consistency is key in being able to maintain and especially improve the quality of your calls. By being consistent, you can get the entire team on the same level and experiencing the same things—and then you can all make the same adjustments as a unit. There are obviously going to be varying degrees of talent because people are different and bring their own unique skills. But, having consistency in the practices can help lift up those struggling and create cohesion in the team. Customers should be able to have a great experience no matter who answers their call because your staff has trained against the same techniques and practices. 

Script Out Your Calls

Some people may find this silly, or be reluctant to follow a script, but it can do wonders in terms of boosting customer satisfaction. If every call center employee can follow the same guidelines, and the same script, it can be much easier to remain consistent in all possible situations. 

A script doesn’t have to be as detailed as writing out every single line. That can put more pressure on the agent when they think they need to read or memorize every line. They may end up feeling and sounding robotic, which may make them feel like they’re a recording that takes away from the humanized connection they can make with a customer. 

A handy outline, however, can do wonders when it comes to responding on the fly with a customer. You can build it out as sort of a choose-your-own-adventure style. If they say this, then you say that, for example. A few simple phrases written out can help alleviate the stress an agent may feel when dealing with a customer, especially if they are unhappy and begin to get upset. Responding poorly can only make the conversation awkward if it gets derailed because emotions get the best of them. 

Continuing Education for Employees

Times change, people change, and their expectations of customer service change. More technology brings more criticism and a keener eye (or ear in this case) on the level of service they receive from call centers and customer service agents. 

Employees may be more engaged if they are offered opportunities to continue their education because it shows the company cares about their wellbeing and their future with or without the company. Everyone wants to learn more and get better at what they do. Supplying your team with the right tools can make all the difference in their mood, behavior, and how they interact with customers. 

If you want to boost profitability, employee morale, and customer satisfaction, think about looking at your call quality. If you implement some of these best practices within your call center, you may be surprised to find how much you can improve upon your existing processes for the better. If you are looking for more information on how a call center focuses on call quality monitoring, give Customer Traac a call at 763-553-2989.

What to Look for When Hiring a Call Center Employee

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When you’re looking to hire a new call center employee, there are key factors to look for during the interview process that can make a good call center employee.

During the interview, keep a close eye on their mannerisms, responses, and how they handle themselves. Watch out for these key characteristics. 

They are Quick to the Draw

When you ask the prospect some off the wall questions, do they respond quickly and with an intelligent answer? It’s important to get a feel for how they may react to one-off questions from customers. 

There is great skill in being able to react quickly and efficiently in high-stress, time-sensitive situations. The interview is a prime time to test out their ability to respond intelligently to varying questions and situations. 

They are Committed to Growth

A good employee is one that is inclined to learn and grow. They know that being a good employee doesn’t just mean knowing one skill. It requires constant growth and a desire to learn more and get better. 

During the interview, notice if they light up when given the opportunity to commit to ongoing education and training as a part of their role. Those employees who show an interest in future roles like management are going to be dedicated to their role and committed to furthering their careers within your company and beyond. 

They Listen Well and Easily Absorb Information

Part of being a good call center employee is being able to actively listen in order to respond with the right course of action to help a customer. Customers lose confidence in the customer service agent if they have to repeat themselves more than once. 

A great quality to look for is if they reiterate back what was asked as they answer the question. This is a great technique people can use to remember what was asked of them. If they ask ‘what?’ or ask you to repeat a question more than once, it might be a red flag they aren’t listening. But, it may just be nerves, so give them a little cushion. 

They Show Good Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman, who wrote the book on Emotional Intelligence, calls out five factors that an emotionally intelligent person will possess. The five characteristics of emotional intelligence include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. 

Outside of emotional intelligence, those all seem like critical characteristics that any call center employee must have in order to be successful. By bundling them up under the guise of emotional intelligence, it can help you to find the perfect candidate that possesses all five. They will not only be a good employee but a well-rounded person that would make an incredible addition to any team. 

Use your best judgment to read them during the interview to determine if they possess any or all of these traits, which can be hard in a small time frame. But, if you chose right, the pay off will be significant as they reveal how emotionally intelligent they are. These are the right people to have in leadership down the road. 

They’re Efficient in Conversation

Does the interview flow well? Do you and the prospective employee engage in a pleasant conversation outside of the interview Q and A? If so, you may have found someone who can have conversations with ease. They can get to the point quickly, and throw in some anecdotes easily without derailing the conversation. Good conversation flow is major in customer service to avoid any awkward silences or talking over one another. 

They are Patient and Don’t Interrupt

This goes hand in hand with being a good listener, but patience is a virtue, as they say. Being patient goes beyond just allowing the customer to speak without interruption. It involves holding composure in a stressful setting, especially with an angry customer. 

Being patient and not interrupting during the interview can be a key indicator that they won’t have any issue dealing with impatient, upset customers over the phone. This is very important to uphold high customer satisfaction rates. 

They Have Related Experience

Being a good call center employee does not necessarily require years of experience working in the field. Relevant or related experience can be just as valuable. Anyone who has worked in an office setting—with varying degrees of people of different backgrounds and working styles—can easily say they’ve encountered situations where they had to communicate in tough situations. 

Those who have worked in retail or reception often possess the ability to handle customers of all calibers and communication styles. This relevant experience can actually bring a refreshing perspective to their role as a call center employee. Keep those related experiences in mind when reviewing their resume. 

They Possess the Power of Persuasion

Have you ever heard of the age-old sales trick of “sell me this pen”? Maybe you saw it in the infamous Wolf of Wall Street movie scene based on Jordan Belfort’s rise to Wall Street fame, or perhaps you’ve heard it in Sales 101. Either way, even if you don’t use that exact tactic, you can play off of it and see how your interviewee does or does not display persuasive language. 

Even though a call center employee is not a salesperson, they should still be able to speak persuasively when helping a customer reach an answer to their problem, and it can come in handy for getting reviews. If you get to the point in the interview process where they are talking about future goals, salary, or benefits, keep a watchful eye on how confident they are and how they sound. If they persuade you, you may have a winner. 

When you’re building your customer service department, hiring a business development center, or looking for customer-facing roles in your company, these are all great characteristics to watch for. At Customer Traac we take great pride in our employees, and we also support them in building off of the traits they have and growing as individuals and employees. Check out our other tips on essential skills every customer service representative should have to succeed.

What Does it Take to Build an Automotive BDC Department?

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A lot goes into building out a proper business development center. There are five key factors we believe an automotive BDC must have to ultimately be effective. Whether you are building your BDC in-house at your dealership or hiring an outsourced company, make sure it has the following traits.

A Passionate, Driven Leader

A good BDC will have a manager or supervisor lead who is driven and passionate and prepared to continually raise the bar. Managers in a business development center need to have an upbeat, outgoing personality. They are still going to be conversing with customers and need to be the face of the team, inspiring others to have that same vigor and character when dealing with customers.

Many BDCs may take this as an opportunity to look internally for those experienced and excited to step up into a position. The best person for the job may be hired from within because they already possess most of the traits a good manager will need to succeed. They have the background, they know the business, and employees who have the experience and drive to grow can be incredible candidates for a leadership position.

Sets and Meets High Expectations

In the ever-changing market that is the auto industry, expectations should continue to rise as consumer behaviors change. In a time where shopping is done primarily online for many people, the auto industry remains one that requires consumers to be present in the buying process. They may shop around online, and that means business development centers need to have all-hands-on-deck at all times.

By continuing to set the highest expectations based on consumer trends and desires, the BDC can remain above the curve. It’s always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. By setting the bar high from the start, that mentality is already set to exceed the customers’ expectations. These should be well researched and planned each quarter to keep up and get ahead on industry trends.

Makes Ongoing Training and Education a Top Priority

In line with keeping up with industry trends, a BDC needs to continually move and grow to always be better and ahead of the curve. It is unlikely that a customer service team will go through training upon hire, and that will last them throughout their time within the organization.

Teams who put continuing education at the forefront of their operations will find better metrics, a more engaged team, and be more refined and prepared to handle any customer inquiry. Stating early on that your BDC focuses on training and education with their employees can always be a way to find the best people for the job. Those who love to learn, grow, and have a clear career path will be more likely to engage within a role that continues to move and change with them. Supporting employees by giving them the tools to be better and more successful will benefit the entire team and business.

Tracks Internal Metrics on Top of Dealership Metrics

Business development centers differ from call centers in that they also offer outbound marketing activities and marketing strategies. This makes it incredibly important to track their internal metrics to determine how and where to make improvements that impact their business, as well as the dealership’s business.

The auto dealership is measuring its key metrics to determine success. They track things like gross return on investment (GROI), the ratio of used to new inventory, and website traffic. These may measure their successes, but the auto business development center should track their internal metrics to determine their success.

We’ve talked in the past about some vital call center metrics that are good to track. They include call wait times, abandonment rate, call handling time, and customer satisfaction. However, automotive BDCs can measure their performance by tracking conversion rate, contact rate, and customer acquisition.

Conversion rate can tell them how many contacts turned into service appointments and sales calls. The results of the conversion rate can help determine new strategies on the phone or email that can get more customers scheduling service appointments.

Contact rate measures how many times it took to contact a customer back, based on the information they left when filling out a contact form. The advantage of measuring the contact rate can help the dealership make adjustments to how they manage sales leads and contact forms.

Knows the Value of Utilizing Customer Feedback

Lastly, for a BDC to continue to make all of these improvements and grow as a business. The best feedback you can get is straight from the customers. Agents should know how to best request a customer leave feedback. This can be in the form of anonymous surveys, a quick survey over the phone or nicely ask them to leave a review on Yelp or Google if they feel inclined.

By reading through customer feedback, it can be the best way to know how to cater to the right audiences. If one customer has an issue, it is likely others feel the same way or will have the same way, so a good BDC is answering those questions directly can help more than just that one customer.

Building an automotive business development center that genuinely excels at improving sales, profits, and overall customer satisfaction at the dealership takes a lot. It’s essential to find the right people who are as driven as the sales and service team at getting customers through the door and leave happier than before. Outsourcing to a BDC like Customer Traac takes the pain out of building this team inhouse. Customer Traac takes care of hiring, firing, and alleviates the stress of the dealership team, having to handle calls and marketing strategy. We highly recommend hiring a professional, so to learn more about what hiring a BDC entails, call us at 763-553-2989.

Nissan Store Case Study: Get Off The Phone & Take A Knee

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For over two decades, Customer Traac has helped hundreds of automotive dealerships across the nation improve their profitability, performance, and call volume management. We knew that there was a need for outsourced business development centers in the automotive industry, and we worked hard to fill that gap and make our mark.

Why Should Businesses Consider Using a Professional Automotive Call Center?

Over the years, nothing has made us happier than hearing a satisfied client rave about what outsourcing their BDC has done for them and their business. Time is money, and profitability can soar when the proper time and resources are allocated appropriately. Sometimes that means allocating to a professional automotive call center.

Reluctant business owners may live in denial for too long, drowning under high call volumes, and an overwhelmed staff. We are happy to share this testimonial from a Loyalty Manager from a Nissan Dealership. The Manager talks about how this team found success after they let go of the reins, and trusted their professional automotive call center.

As the Owner Loyalty Manager for a busy Nissan store, I spent most of my time in the Service Drive talking to customers and trying to build a bridge between Service and Sales. Obviously, the first step on that bridge was the customer being very satisfied with the Service experience.

To that end, I would talk to many people in the waiting room and others, standing arms folded in the bay area, and I’d talk to them about how they were experiencing our store. A theme presented itself and it’s one that so many other dealerships can relate to.

Advisors were so busy stuck to their stools taking incoming phone calls that they were largely being ignored unless rushed moments of bad news, delays and weak attempts at upselling came at them. They didn’t feel well communicated to about what was going on with their cars, what it might cost, how long they’d have to wait… and on and on the complaints went.

We began to see this pattern as ON THE PHONE = ON A BAD PATH. As we looked into the options that might fix the problem, we landed on the 3rd Party BDC solution. I mean if the pattern is best described as we did, then the solution should be as easy as OFF THE PHONE = OFF THE BAD PATH.

Of course, we looked into the idea of setting up internal appointment setters. Maybe we could shift some roles around. No… everyone was too busy as it was. Maybe we hire people specifically for the task. Our investigation determined that it would cost twice as much considering salaries, benefits, floor space and that didn’t even take into consideration the hiring, firing, rehiring, sick days and training it would take to manage an internal call center.

So we decided to work with a professional automotive call center. We let them do their training and quality control. We let them hire and fire and we let them…help us.

Now I have Service Advisors who are free to serve those in the drive. We established a program where they go into the waiting room with their iPad and get on one knee and talk to a customer about what’s going on. They go into the waiting room several times to update and upsell. Dollars per RO have increased and CSI has gone up as well.

We went from ON THE PHONE to ON A KNEE…it made a transformative difference.

What a fantastic success story! When companies are willing to “take a knee” like this Manager and his team and trust that the professional call center can manage the work, it can save an exponential amount of time.

When workers are held up with phone calls, emails, and customer inquiries, they can’t produce the level or value of service needed to boost business. Not to mention the adverse effects an overworked team can have on customer satisfaction.

How Long Are Customers Willing to Be Put on Hold?

It may come as no surprise that customers are unwilling to hold on the phone for too long. A customer service experience survey conducted by Aircall showed the amount of time the average online shopper would wait for customer service over the phone, email, or chat.

Phone queue times were definitely the area that people are least willing to wait for service. 89% of customers would wait under 5 minutes for an agent on the phone, 60% would wait under 2 minutes, and a mere 29% would be willing to wait a minute or less to get a live agent on the line. Yikes!

Outsourcing customer service is the best move a dealership can make if they want to improve sales and profitability. By allowing the professionals to handle all customer business, from hiring and firing to training and quality control, the team at the Nissan dealership could take a breath and do their jobs even better. Customer Traac has a proven track record of helping dealerships boost sales, increase efficiency, and also save on labor costs. To learn more about how we continue to help our clients boost sales and profitability, click here.