Failed Service Calls Make Everyone Unhappy
Picture it: a customer calls your dealership and says their car is making a “weird noise.” The advisor says “we can take a look on Thursday at 10,” and hangs up. No follow-up questions. No clarification. No attempt to understand the concern. Thursday comes, the RO gets written as “check noise,” the tech spends time chasing it, the customer waits longer than expected, and everyone walks away frustrated. This experience is common across dealerships, and demonstrates an issue with service calls.
Miscommunications and Lack of Diagnoses
The main problem across dozens of dealership assessments is the lack of precision at intake. Calls are rushed, and BDC representatives miss, forget, or misunderstand the customer’s concern. Misunderstandings between the representative and the customer become vague ROs. According to Chris Collins Inc., nearly 30% of all delays in dealership service departments were caused by communication failures. In addition, instead of diagnosing the problem over the phone, advisors default to scheduling to get the customer into the dealership. And if there was no focus on diagnosing over the phone, the problem will take longer to diagnose when the customer actually gets into the dealership.
Quantity Doesn’t Mean Quality
Dealerships focus on the amount of appointments set and speed of service calls, not the actual quality. BDC representatives are trained to get the customer into the dealership and let the techs figure out the rest. But if a service call goes too fast, the representative fails to get enough detail for the techs to work with. The phone call isn’t just a scheduling tool, it is the first part of the repair process.
The Service Call Framework
In order to perfect your dealership’s service calls, you need a concrete framework to train BDC representatives on. Start with a standardized opening as soon as the customer answers the phone, which should clarify the need to ask questions (“I’m going to ask a few questions so our technicians know what to look for…”). After each question, representatives should clarify why they’re asking, and maintain a conversational tone. As representatives ask questions, they should categorize the concern based on the customer’s answers (noise, vibration, warning light, driveability, etc). After all questions are answered, representatives should repeat a summary of the details back to the customer to make sure they don’t forget or misunderstand anything. When scheduling the customer, representatives should schedule based on the customer’s concern, making sure they get matched to a tech with an expertise in their concern, and the time blocks work. Representatives should handle objections with “why book” messaging, referencing the customer’s specific concern. On the manager’s end, when evaluating service calls, evaluate them based on the results that came from the calls, not just the amount of calls or if appointments were scheduled.
Cloninger Ford Case Study
Pinnacle Dealer Services examined Cloninger Ford’s call conversation statistics. Cloninger Ford was answering phones but not converting them, with outbound nearly dormant. For the full case study and more resources regarding the service department and call conversion, visit our website
Summary
If your service department feels overwhelmed, look at your phone calls. That’s where the real bottleneck usually starts.
