Fixed Ops Magazine - 2022 Vol19 05 - 34

GET HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT
Your CRM can do a lot of the heavy-lifting of communicating
with customers, but follow-up is key and that
can be tough with limited staff. Start thinking about
how to create greater connectivity between your service
center and your customers by outsourcing some
of the work. A dealership-focused external BDC is a
good choice if you need help following-up with marketing
campaigns as most will scale up or down depending
on your needs.
You also need to focus on your phone systems and
specifically how calls into your service department are
handled. Many dealerships are shocked to discover a
dropped or mishandled call rate as high as 30 percent.
The industry standard is ten percent or less. If you are
sending marketing campaigns but then failing to answer
customer inquiries, you're wasting money. The
question to consider is if you have enough phone coverage.
If not, is it time to consider outsourcing inbound
calls as well.
" EARN WHILE YOU LEARN "
PARTNERSHIPS
There is no point in driving traffic to your bays if you
don't have the techs to do the work. Along with strategies
to acquire customers, some forward-thinking
dealerships are putting strategies in place to acquire
techs. This involves working with local high schools
and community colleges to build a direct pathway to
train and hire students. It's a model for " earn while you
learn " partnerships that train techs and pay them to
get on-the-job training while earning credentials.
This is working for West Herr Auto Group and Northtown
Auto Cos., in upstate New York. The dealers partnered
with SUNY Erie Community College to graduate
students directly into jobs. Since 2019, the program
has graduated over 24 students who all went to work
full time for West Herr. Yes, this type of program requires
an investment, but you can start small. Every
high school has career counselors. Start there by offering
paid internships to students interested in the auto
field. Our industry is way behind the eight ball when
it comes to recruiting younger people into the profession.
Everyone benefits when you gain a qualified
34
tech and a young person gains a stable, well-paying
profession.
SUMMARY
A slump in service sales over the next couple years is
a very real threat once inventory levels rebound. Now
is the time to increase customer loyalty and ROs with
targeted marketing and exceptional service, while also
strategizing new ways to train and recruit techs so you
can service new business coming your way.
Dan Dulik leads Product
Marketing for the Variable
Operations portfolio
at CDK Global, which
includes Elead CRM, F&I
and Dealer to Dealer
solutions. Dan's team is
responsible for the voice
of the customer, product
launch - including pricing,
packaging, positioning and sales enablement as well
as driving demand and customer retention via creative
integrated marketing programs.
Fixed Ops Magazine - 2022 Vol19 05

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