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Welcome back to DGA’s BDC DIAG ….where we explore what works and then what works even better to expand your customer base. Let’s start today with some frank talk. I’m not in the mood to beat around the bush.
We’re in a numbers game my friends. With an unlimited budget you’d put a dozen more people on outbound sales. This is where technology changes the narrative. What if I told you, you could double or triple your output at the same time you streamline staff, keeping your best business development reps and giving them the “smart” tools they need to shine? A quick review of web to campaign outlines all the “human” steps necessary to integrate a new prospect into a campaign:
Makes me tired just to think about the sweat and labor it used to take to set up campaign prospects. Imagine my relief when I was introduced to “web to campaign,” a smart function that takes all of those steps for me. All I need to do is turn on the charm. Let the computers do what they do best and leave the human interaction to the experts. Setting this up is as easy as copying your phone system’s FTP email address on all leads, and setting the campaign as top priority in your phone system. This will automatically give your new internet leads priority over all other outbound campaigns. Check back in a couple of days to check out our BDC playlist. I don’t know about you, but my teenage daughter’s playlist is relentless. She inspired me, and I’d like to share the results with you. For us at DGA, it’s become the heartbeat of outbound sales and it works, through sheer persistence and consistency. Nicholas R. Lawrenson Chief Operating Officer O: (239) 221-5230 M: (443) 864-7834 [email protected] www.DGAauto.com
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Welcome to DGA’s BDC DIAG ….where we explore what works and then what works even better to expand your customer base. It’s Wednesday, November 25th. Today I’m thinking about bottom line strategies and of course Turkey….
I have to say I’m getting sold on preview dialing. The numbers are impressive - an average 30% increase in sales, and 40% savings in operations. Here’s the real shocker: dials per hour are doubled. Yes. Doubled. Preview dialing typically creates a pace of 50 DPH - fully 2-3 times faster than manual dialing! Our phone calls start with automatic dialing and end with an agent prepared with information on the customer or prospect. It is the very best human-tech interface we’ve found in the market. It works if your CRM system is in good shape. That’s the topic of another blog. Dealers tell me that one of their favorite features is that preview dialing keeps them in control of the contact cycle, rather than relying on business development representatives to make those important decisions. Later this week we’ll be exploring web-to-campaign strategies, another human-tech victory. Spoiler alert: Web-to-campaign actually takes an internet lead from its lead source, emails the lead to the campaign, and prompts an immediate contact that takes priority over all other outbound contacts. Yes. It does. Nicholas R. Lawrenson Chief Operating Officer O: (239) 221-5230 M: (443) 864-7834 [email protected] www.DGAauto.com Wards Auto provides great insight on how to avoid BDC Pitfalls. Check out the excerpt below and let us know your best ways to avoid BDC pitfalls.
"BDCs are not new to the automotive retail industry. But in recent years, consultants, vendors and auto makers have been pitching the concept. A BDC simply is a separate telemarketing department in the dealership set up to make outbound phone calls to potential customers, as well as handle inbound calls for sales appointments. Most dealers agree their showroom sales people's phone skills can be terrifying. They may be great in face-to-face meetings. But it's a different matter when getting them to answer calls correctly as well as making follow-up calls to customers. The idea behind a BDC is to hire people with phone skills, give them scripts and watch the money roll in..." To read more visit the following link: https://www.wardsauto.com/news-analysis/beware-bdc-pitfalls Check out a great article On The Importance of An Automotive Call Center:
or The Article Excerpt Below From Ask The Manager: MUST #3: BDCS MUST BE MANAGED LIKE CALL CENTERS Many dealers I know created their BDCs by staffing them with a few of their existing floor salespeople and then paying them like floor salespeople (generally on the sold units). Their argument was simply that they needed knowledgeable people to be able to answer customer questions and that they only felt they should pay when this department sold a car. Wrong and wrong. The truth is that your BDC is more like a bank call center than it is a traditional sales team. You don’t need seasoned salespeople to be successful and you should never expect them to sell anything. Their job is to set appointments that show, period. When you compensate a BDC agent on a sold unit you are encouraging them to start “selling” on the phone – something that is not just a bad idea, but also counterproductive. You’ll end up selling fewer units to appointments this way, because your BDC team ends up over-qualifying every prospect. Moreover, when you employ “car guys” in this role, you often get a group that spends too much time answering questions and almost no time setting appointments that show. Like a bank call center, your BDC should be driven by metrics and talk tracks, not selling and product knowledge. In fact, the less product knowledge a BDC agent has the better – it means they can only stick to the approved talk tracks and will spend all of their time setting appointments that show and buy." About The Author: Steve Stauning, creator of The Appointment Culture and an expert in The Customer Experience, is the host of Undeniable Advantage Live!, a monthly live video webcast and customer service training provider hosted at UndeniableAdvantage.com. He is also an extremely popular keynote speaker, writer, and industry consultant. Learn more about Steve at SteveStauning.com.  DGA/Xtime Partnership & Shop Loading 101 DGA has shared over 300 clients with Xtime since 2008 when we launched our Virtual BDC service-Inbound Reservation Center. We have found that dealers do not fully optimize the capabilities of Xtime’s shop-loading. Shop loading & capacities are two words foreign to MAJORITY of dealers. With proper shop loading, a dealership can maximize the number of appointments each day, limit waiters in the morning, and evenly distribute the work from morning to afternoon. This increases the time your Advisors have with the customers, gives your technicians more time with the cars, and will boost your RO count. I’ve met with many Fixed Operations Managers that believe their customers only want morning appointments or believe they have 70% walk-in customers, and this is usually not true. This is an excuse given by Advisors that schedule their own appointments. Customers will allow you to manipulate your shop loading if you simply tell them your first available appointment is in the afternoon rather than the morning.  Most aggressive dealers will over load the mornings and will run out of work in the afternoons. In the example below, the dealership books one appointment every 15 minutes for each advisor and books 4 waiters every 15 minutes. 90 minutes into this Saturday, the dealerships will have 36 appointments and up to 24 waiters, and this doesn’t include walk-ins. Saturday mornings are notorious for walk-ins, so let’s factor in at least 10 more walk in customers before 9:30 am. Now the dealer has 46 cars, at least 30 waiters, and the dealership wants to complete 100 cars on Saturday. 46% of this dealers RO goal is already in the service department, and we’re 15% through the day.
 DGA limits the first 2-4 time slots to allow for walk-in traffic to arrive without creating a traffic jam in the service drive. DGA drastically limits the waiters in the morning to naturally fill the morning appointment times with drop off appointments. (BDC DIAG NOTE: Customers will book drop off appointments and wait, but this is a numbers game. We’re looking for optimized efficiency, not perfection.) DGA will drastically increase waiters after 1:30 pm to overload the afternoon with quicker maintenance items leaving the morning for major maintenance, brake work, and repairs. 90 minutes into this Saturday with DGA’s shop loading expertise, this dealer has 24% of their daily goal in appointments 15% into the day, and only 14 waiters.
 This example is a more balanced day. It’s more efficient for the dealership and the customer experience is improved. A dealer should never fear losing their customer because they guide them into an afternoon appointment rather than a morning appointment. Furthermore, DGA’s shop loading will allow for you to squeeze emergency situations into the schedule when they occur. Try squeezing a customer into example 1, and you will end up losing several customers rather than the one. At DGA, we love the auto industry. We enjoy sharing our years of experience, and we’re extremely proud to have booked over 4 million appointments. Please contact us directly to learn how we can help you! www.dgaauto.com/demo Thank you! Nicholas Lawrenson COO DGA www.DGAauto.com  Every year Mercedes Benz makes changes to their survey process to build brand loyalty by having their dealers take actions to chase scores. Mercedes has completed extensive research to figure out what types of customer experiences translates into customer advocacy.
The first step to achieving consistently excellent CER is knowing and understanding what you’re being graded on. Advisors should act as though they are Account Executives. Every detail of the service should be planned, executed, double checked, and properly explained prior to delivery. Services Advisors need to have sales skills, communication skills, organization, and the ability to be consistent day in and day out. Consider the areas Mercedes has chosen to focus on in 2017 such as:
What can using a 3rd party vendor for CSI Follow-up do for you? Great Advisors can get you there, but it’s very difficult to maintain a great staff all the time. It’s easy for Advisors to become complacent when things are going well for too long! An effective follow-up system is the key to identifying when your Advisors make mistakes. A 3rd party follow-up vendor such as DGA will also provide an immediate impact with your completely satisfied customers, problematic customers, and the ones that are in between. DGA’s follow-up system is key in identifying problematic customers so that you can address the issues prior to the customer receiving the Mercedes Benz survey. Our service will also identify your completely satisfied customers and educate them about the survey process, so they will return the manufacturer’s survey. What makes DGA the Premier Option for CSI Follow-up? Data Accurate data is vital to ensure you are contacting the right customers in a timely manner. Madelia only pulls one phone number. Dealers that plan to use Madelia for their call list should make sure that the cell phone numbers are populating in the home number field to achieve high contact rates. Dealers should also rely on the DMS or a 3rd party software to access additional phone numbers and email addresses since Madelia only provides one phone number & one email. Building Dealer Loyalty into the Script & Extensive Training The script should sound natural and build dealer loyalty. There is nothing worse than receiving a follow-up call from someone who sounds like they are reading. This comes across as very disingenuous! Follow-up representatives need to understand the survey process, survey timeline, and know what the weighted questions are. Always use the Service Manager & Advisor’s name serval times during your follow up call. You want the customer to make a connection with their Advisor, Service Manager, and your dealership so they are more likely to return a perfect survey. Mercedes knows that score chasing will often result in better processes. Timeliness of Follow-up Call Mercedes Benz surveys their customers 10 days after service. This gives dealers plenty of time to follow-up with all of their customers, identify issues with customers, and fix any issues prior to the customer receiving a survey from Mercedes. Start the follow-up process 24 hours after the record populates in Madelia. 4 attempts seems to be the perfect amount to reach a high percentage of customers without upsetting them by making too many attempts. Customer Concern Resolution Most dealers will find that 10-15% of their customers have issues that are identified during the follow-up call. Most customer issues can be quickly turned into perfect surveys if they are handled quickly and correctly. Often an issue that is fixed quickly and correctly can create a loyal customer quicker than a customer that had no issue at all. Advisor Reporting Dealers focus on the weighted questions during the follow-up call. Track your customer’s perception of your Advisors. The quantity of the data generated from the follow-up call is more extensive than the data dealers are receiving from the Mercedes Benz survey. Dealers will find out quicker what needs to be fixed internally by tracking the data from the follow-up rather than waiting to see what Mercedes Benz reporting states. I’m a Partner and Chief Operating Officer of DGA with 15 years’ experience from the vendor side of the auto industry. DGA is an automotive-only call center vendor that specializes in Virtual BDC services. We offer full service inbound appointment scheduling, CSI follow-up, and various types of outbound lead generation. We love the auto industry and are eager to help our clients achieve success in any way that we can. Nicholas Lawrenson COO DGA www.DGAauto.com  #WeAreDGA is a new blog segment dedicated to our employees. This segment is part of DGA's commitment to cultivating a collaborative work environment through increased employee engagement. Be on the lookout for our #WeAreDGA blog segments as additional content will be coming soon!
 Monday's inbound call volume is the key indicator for determining how busy your week will be in the service drive. Monday accounts for 27% of your week's phone traffic for service appointment scheduling. By using Monday's call volume as your gauge, you can accurately project your weekly appointments, and then quickly determine your week's outbound scheduling needs. Through outbound prospecting calls, It's realistic to add 5 appointments per day with a well-equipped BDC, but adding 10-15 appointments per day requires more staffing and more time. Using DGA gives you the ability to scale on-demand and ramp up your BDC needs without changing your current staffing levels. This is yet another reason why outsourcing your BDC makes life better in the service drive!
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