No scheduling apps for sales? ‍

[willandre]

Why don't more sales teams use calendar invites or appointment scheduling in their sales processes?

Everyone uses some version of it for service (xtime, myKaarma, etc), but for some reason, appointment scheduling does not seem to have caught on at all on the sales side. Why is that?

With much of the ROI analysis and reporting anchoring on appointments, you'd think a meeting scheduling solution would be front and center in the sales journey.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the absence of a scheduling at a dealership might actually put a growing segment of buyers off of that store.

With even basic Google and Outlook calendar invites becoming part of the daily routine for so many working people, I'm genuinely curious as to why no stores seem to embrace them for sales.

(Or maybe they actually do and I just haven't seen it in 10+ years.)

 

[jscole86]

I think it is front and center at the majority of dealerships. Appointment schedules are generally handled through our CRM tools, and there is plenty of reporting on appointments. However, the legacy CRM systems don't have the functionality of automatically sending Outlook / Google Calendar invites to customers, as far as I know.

I do think the calendar invite would be a good feature and could act as additional 'reminder' step for the customer, and possibly increase show rates.

The reality is that the shopper will arrive when they can, regardless of what time you agree on. I would guess that most shoppers / customers don't view their appointment times as a firm appointments like doctors, dentists, etc. Service appointments are definitely more 'firm' than sales without a doubt, but ask your service advisors, most are either early or late.

 

[willandre]

The reality is that the shopper will arrive when they can, regardless of what time you agree on. I would guess that most shoppers / customers don't view their appointment times as a firm appointments like doctors, dentists, etc.

I think you're right and that (surprise, surprise) it's an antiquated model that dealers who want to stand out could challenge and win against.

E.g. "Your time matters to us..." etc and really mean it.

I don't have a dog in this fight, I'm just genuinely curious why a likely win-win isn't more widely adopted, especially considering it's been normalized in consumers.

 

[Carsten]

I agree a calendar needs to play a higher importance.

Jscole is right. Customers are horrible at keeping appointments.

BUT! If I scheduled an appointment at 2pm I expect to be in the doctors office by 2;15pm at the latest. IF I'm 15 minutes late, I get F'ed and get charged and loose the appointment. This must be a 2 way street. I'm so tired of getting screwed because the doctor is late because of another patitient, yada yada. IF you charge me, I don't care what you're excuse is. I will go find another service provider.

Sorry for the rant.

Anyways, if a customer schedules an appointment, why not prepare for them anyways? I hate showing up on time and the car is still not even rinsed off or gas put in. Why did you ask for an appointment, if you don't keep it?

 

[willandre]

I agree a calendar needs to play a higher importance.

Jscole is right. Customers are horrible at keeping appointments.

BUT! If I scheduled an appointment at 2pm I expect to be in the doctors office by 2;15pm at the latest. IF I'm 15 minutes late, I get F'ed and get charged and loose the appointment. This must be a 2 way street. I'm so tired of getting screwed because the doctor is late because of another patitient, yada yada. IF you charge me, I don't care what you're excuse is. I will go find another service provider.

Sorry for the rant.

Anyways, if a customer schedules an appointment, why not prepare for them anyways? I hate showing up on time and the car is still not even rinsed off or gas put in. Why did you ask for an appointment, if you don't keep it?

Yeah, I don't know why either side has accepted no showing as the norm.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

Everyone uses some version of it for service (xtime, myKaarma, etc), but for some reason, appointment scheduling does not seem to have caught on at all on the sales side. Why is that?

The sales department isn't scheduling and seeing 100 people a day. Most cases there is enough coverage on the sales floor to cover appointments and walk-in traffic so that customers aren't waiting to be shown a vehicle. Also in most CRM's you can Text / Email an sales appointment link and the customer can add the appointment to their calendar.

 

[jscole86]

Also in most CRM's you can Text / Email an sales appointment link and the customer can add the appointment to their calendar.

Anyone know how to do this in Vinsolutions? I didn't think this was possible in Vin.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Anyone know how to do this in Vinsolutions? I didn't think this was possible in Vin.

AddEvent

Dynamic and automated add-to-calendar links to your newsletters and websites.

www.addevent.com

 

[jscole86]

AddEvent

Dynamic and automated add-to-calendar links to your newsletters and websites.

www.addevent.com

Thank you, I'll see if this works.

Last time we tried adding a dynamic link like this, we ran into an issue where VinSolutions was encoding each URL with their own link structure, which ended up breaking the URL.
@Alex Snyder — didn't you run into the same issue with FrikinTech early on? How did you work around it?

 

[Chris Cachor]

You make a great point, and I think this will become a lot more important in the coming years as more of a "sales operations" tool. Right now the flow might be lead comes in, BDC schedules appointment, sales floor takes it. In the future, it might be more direct; lead comes in pre-qualified, with a timeframe, car(s) to view are selected, porters are dispatched to have vehicle ready and conditioned by appointment, customer info already in the system and numbers already prepared. Customers aren't coming in to look, they're coming in to close. The whole process can tighten, and allows more time for sales people to deliver a vehicle and improve customer sat scores.