Is anyone using cell phone texting with their service departments?

[Steve Finell]

I will admit - I am biased. My bias is for the company which employs me, my coworkers, staff and collective results. XTime has, at least in our case, demonstrated a lack of responsiveness. Issues I've raised months ago are still not fully addressed. I'm glad you mentioned your use of campaigns, Megan. And, also glad your work. Mine seldom work as intended. The RO exclusion/inclusion fields are not always effective for us - generally including records we don't want and excluding too many records we do want. Only recently have they made corrections to "no show" campaign functionality built into XTime (I've had the "no show" issue for 10 months). A fix after 10 months is not, in my opinion, responsive. Our XTime server, not our internet connection, has been entirely unavailable for as much as 6 hours in one week! That's 10% of our availability! Due to the frequency of the outages, and the fact they are all related to the same cause (insufficient server redundancy), my faith in XTime's ability to resolve a preventable failure is, I believe, understandably impaired, to say the least.

Do I want to switch scheduling platforms? NO! I continue to work with the folks at XTime and hope (beyond hope) they are able to deliver reliable functionality before I have no choice but to switch.

There was a time XTime went to extremes to make certain we were satisfied customers however, it seems, that time has passed.

We continually develop our own work-arounds for XTime's shortcomings. Specifically, 'Early Bird/After Hours' drop offs. How do you address this? Most scheduling platforms have this completely worked out. It's a simple check box with a modified scheduling algorithm. I've been asking XTime for this since February, 2007. As well, Xtime's ability to present the first available reservation time rather than showing me nothing is available next week (requiring I click to search the next week). TimeHighway has both of these issues completely worked out. Plus some very cool features XTime may not even have considered.

In summary, YES I have a bias which serves the best interests of our customers, my staff and my employer. I am also committed to XTime and helping them help me. I hope to not have to switch but, would only if I felt I was no longer able to adequately serve my customers in XTime's environment. To remain the leader they must stay ahead of their competition, rather than play catch-up. If I am to be the leader, I must do the same.

It is nice to hear from someone so pleased with XTime. I wished it worked as well for me.

 

[Steve Finell]

And, as to our VW Service Director's satisfaction with XTime I can only say that his satisfaction has more to do with our call center handling his shop's reservations, ability to generate additional business for him on the fly and resolve customer issues before they become issues. He's a great guy but, between you and I... I doubt he's spent more than 15 minutes in XTime in the six months his store has been a part of our program. I wonder if he remembers his password. He doesn't need to - he has our SCCC.

 

[Steve Finell]

This single largest flaw with XTime's SMS feature is that it cannot discern between a "waiter" appointment and any other. Given the delay in transmitting a "Your Service is Complete" message, I don't want my waiting customers receiving this notification an hour after they've already pulled out of my service drive. Make me look foolish - or inept, to say the least. Xtime was not previously aware of this potential issue but, is now working to resolve it. They must be able to offer the "Your Service is Complete" message to a selectable range of appointment types (excluding waiters) for it to work suitably.

Once XTime provides me with real-time integration with my DMS, this should be workable.

 

[Steve Finell]

UPDATE: I have been using XTime's text messaging feature, on a limited basis, for two months now. The problem I experience is NOT with XTime so much as with the cell phone carriers. AT&T is the worst - sometimes delaying delivery of a "Your Service is Complete!" message for several hours. In one case, customer picked up her vehicle at 2:30pm and didn't receive the "Your Service is Complete!" message until 9pm that evening. IMO, this defeats the purpose of sending the text messages.

 

[mattwatson81]

UPDATE: I have been using XTime's text messaging feature, on a limited basis, for two months now. The problem I experience is NOT with XTime so much as with the cell phone carriers. AT&T is the worst - sometimes delaying delivery of a "Your Service is Complete!" message for several hours. In one case, customer picked up her vehicle at 2:30pm and didn't receive the "Your Service is Complete!" message until 9pm that evening. IMO, this defeats the purpose of sending the text messages.

Maybe they are sending the text messages via email instead of actual texts? We used to send them via email and had lots of problems. You can email [email protected] for example and send emails to phones but it isn't the same as actual texts.

Although I have also seen problems sending my wife texts and it being delayed. But I always blame stupid Sprint on that one.

 

[JohnScott]

I asked today if we could do that where I worked and the answer I got was no. When I pressed further asking why we dont use text messaging or have live chat interaction with customers when they're making appointments I was told that "people would abuse it, and start chatting with each other". He seemed quite satisfied with the auto chat responses, "if the appointment time isnt available , it tells them!" Yes, but does it tell them that if they made it for 1pm there would be a short wait, and if they take the 9:15 there are already several cars ahead of them and that their wait may be # hours long?

Abuse it?
As if people aren't sitting around chatting/texting on their phones.

 

[benja1greer]

I asked today if we could do that where I worked and the answer I got was no. When I pressed further asking why we dont use text messaging or have live chat interaction with customers when they're making appointments I was told that "people would abuse it, and start chatting with each other". He seemed quite satisfied with the auto chat responses, "if the appointment time isnt available , it tells them!" Yes, but does it tell them that if they made it for 1pm there would be a short wait, and if they take the 9:15 there are already several cars ahead of them and that their wait may be # hours long?

Abuse it?
As if people aren't sitting around chatting/texting on their phones.

Better..identify cell phone number and just send them texts offering for them to opt-in to receive the alerts.

 

[Christine Speedy]

We have dealers using text but not in the way described.
When the car is dropped off the service advisor asks how they'd like to be notified, and may offer the option to pay prior to pick up, such as for an after hours need, or if someone different is paying the bill (child/ parent). Once the work is done, the service advisor uses our SaaS payment solution to text or email the invoice. The customer then clicks and pays online.
Extra benefits:
- the text or email can be forwarded to another party to pay; multiple parties can pay part of a bill, if the dealer allows.
- if the bill is paid, the dealer can make arrangements for key pick up after hours
There are no scheduling features, but it's another tool d can use on a regular basis to minimize pick up time, or on an as needed basis for special circumstances.

 

[craigh]

We recently looked at some options for this, but what we wanted wasn't really available so we're sort of pulling it together.
Essentially what we want is:
1. Ability to have a customer provide a cell number at the service desk when they drop off their vehicle
2. Tie this number to their DMS / ID so we can save it for later
3. Allow them to also opt into service reminders and dealership communications
4. Text the customer when their car is ready and then the advisor will also schedule the next tweet manually for when the car needs to come in again

We didn't want to automate anything, because the risks are too high (read: Papa John's lawsuit et al), and we also didn't want to have to worry about anyone other than the individual service advisors being able to send this out.

I'm just scared about the sales guys getting ahold of it.

 

[trstrickland]

I actually sold this service for a while and if dealers are not using it they are NUTS! on the sales side when you advertise a car on Craigslist or or magazine you can have the customer type in a code to see more pics and info on the vehicle. at that time as a salesperson you will have the customers cell number. so you can text them back and ask them if they have any questions on that vehicle or if they would like to schedule a test drive. think about if you have been selling cars since the late 80's like I have...wouldnt you love to have had all the customers phone numbers that ever looked at an ad you placed while sitting at home on the couch?? obviously you wont sell them all but what if you just sold 10%?? service can have their own acct as well as parts dept. the customer must always opt in and can opt out just as quick. you dont want to slam your customers with several text messages per week. I would say no more than 4 a month. if you spam them they will opt out! its a great program!