Follow Up Service Calls

[ajholland]

My BDC handles the service follow up calls and we are having a tough time actually getting people on the phone. We have tried calling at different times of the day, but still aren't having much success. For those BDC Managers, what do you consider a successful rate of contact (actually speaking with the customer) and what schedule do your BDC reps follow to achieve that goal?

Also, are there any of you who have scrapped the follow up call in favor of an email follow up instead?

 

[john.quinn]

Hi AJ -- we scrapped calls in favor of email, say 4-5 years ago. If you are actually looking for feedback, CAUTION: you will not get much positive feedback via email. However, if people have something to complain about, they'll certainly let you know. I've also found that several of the OEM's with which we work have encountered similar results: very little engagement from email-only surveys/follow-up, and adversely affected CSI. We've slowly added back-in actual phone calls.

I can share with you a little trick we learned to increase our conversation rate: at the end of every voice mail, end it with: ".... and if I don't hear from you soon, I'll be sure to call back." Clients were MUCH more apt to take the call or call us back when they knew we would keep trying.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

This issue identifies another issue. Why aren't your service writers updating customer contact info in the system. They get the right number to call during the day.

I agree with JQ, e-mail instead of calling. I can also vouch for the message.

 

[ajholland]

The Service Advisors aren't getting bad numbers, we just get voicemail/answering machines non-stop. This may sound bad, but I am not as concerned with getting positive feedback...I want to find the customers that are unhappy so we can resolve the issue before they get the manufacturer's survey and we get burned on our CSI.

 

[john.quinn]

The Service Advisors aren't getting bad numbers, we just get voicemail/answering machines non-stop. This may sound bad, but I am not as concerned with getting positive feedback...I want to find the customers that are unhappy so we can resolve the issue before they get the manufacturer's survey and we get burned on our CSI.

You will get complaints via email, no doubt. Still, the BEST way to communicate is via the clients' wishes. If you have the ability, the Service Writers should ask how they would prefer to be contacted: Phone, Email, Text, Smoke Signal, Cattle Prod, etc.

Just be careful about the CSI thing if you choose to go whole-hog on email follow-up: many OEM's have a "Contacted After Service" question that will be negatively impacted with this approach -- as in, no matter what the content, that email simply will not register as a "contact" in the clients' minds a significant portion of the time without some serious process-enhancement communication in the lanes.

Good luck!

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

The Service Advisors aren't getting bad numbers, we just get voicemail/answering machines non-stop.

What I am saying is that most service advisers write the number on the RO and never put it in the system. I see this so often.

 

[ajholland]

Our Service Advisors have become much better over the last couple of months about getting the best number. I send a report each week to the Service Managers that shows each Advisor and how many bad numbers we had for their customers. As of right now we call every customer-warrant or customer pay. We may try emailing every customer and in addition calling warranty customers. The CSI is major priority with our calls.

What I am saying is that most service advisers write the number on the RO and never put it in the system. I see this so often.

 

[ArtMorris]

Like JQuinn we have pretty much abandoned our phone calls. Before I worked in the IT department we attempted to call every customer. When I came aboard I changed the process so that we tried emailing any customer who had a valid email address in the DMS and calling all of the rest of the customers. Eventually we found that the number of customers responding to our email was exceeding the number of customers we actually spoke with on the phone. At that point we stopped calling customers.

Unlike JQuinn, however, we receive LOTS of love from our customers through the automated system. Approximately 95% of our responses YTD have been favorable. Some of the responses are very brief (these are actual examples):

"Great Service as always."

But others are specific and detailed:

"The Bobby Rahal Service Team always treats me so well and does a great job with all our vehicles. I especially appreciate heading out to my parked vehicle which is not only clean on the outside, but clean on the inside as well. It's a wonderful feeling! Thank you!!"

These responses get automatically forwarded to the service manager at the relevant store, who then shares them with the relevant team members (i.e. the car wash porters for the above example). We also draw from these responses for the customer testimonials that we list on our websites (if the customer did not opt-out of sharing the comments). If the customer response indicates a problem then the service manager will try to contact the customer directly and work with them regarding their service issues.

 

[john.quinn]

Art -- I would bet dollars to donuts that your folks in the lane have a good process for "prepping" the clients for the arrival of your email. True?

 

[ArtMorris]

Art -- I would bet dollars to donuts that your folks in the lane have a good process for "prepping" the clients for the arrival of your email. True?

Believe it or not, no. The advisors know about the feedback system because they read the customer responses, but they aren't chatting with customers about it. The advisors *do* try to collect email addresses if the customer hasn't provided one (and when the customer asked 'Why?' the advisor would the follow-up), but by the time the customer is in the lane the appointment center has probably already collected the address.

I believe our high customer response rate is due to the simplicity of our follow-up. After a service visit the customer receives an email that contains a link to an individualized survey. However, the survey is extremely brief with only three questions on a 1-5 scale and one comment box where they can tell us anything they want. We have a response rate of 20%, for every five repair orders we write we receive one response. More than half of the responses are returned with no comments, only scores for the 3 questions. However, we still receive PLENTY of constructive feedback for us to review.