I currently manage the dealership's sales BDC and have been doing so for quite some time. I was asked today to create a proposal of having a dedicated "Service BDC Person" to follow up on ROs for the Service department and Body shop in hopes to help raise our CSI scores. Our customer's biggest complaint right now is that no one is following up after the service is done. I asked what kind of volume we're dealing with and wasn't able to get a straight answer so I will be meeting with the Service Manager, Body Shop Manager and Dealer Principal tomorrow for a more clear answer as to how many ROs we're closing in a month. Any ideas on compensation? How many people I may need based on RO volume? Thanks in advance!
- May 1, 2005
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@Stevie how did your meeting go with the service department and did your BDC take over the service follow-up?
You mentioned that the biggest complaint is no one is following up after a performed service. So you have customers complaining because no one sent them an email or made a phone call after they were in for service? I'm somewhat surprised customers are complaining about this unless they have an ongoing issue and/or a part on order.
I'm also surprised your manufacture is allowing this. Maybe they are not, hence the reason for having your BDC perform the follow-up.
- Dec 2, 2009
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I would guess/assume that the dealership is getting poor scores for Follow-Up on their service surveys....
@Jeff Kershner thanks for your response! I've decided I'm going to add a person to my BDC to strictly handle service follow up. I met with the Service Manager and Body Shop Manager - I believe starting off I'll only need one person to handle this. The workload will be fairly small but I'm sure that will grow over time and I'll expand as necessary. I'm putting together a job description, process, and "script" right now and will meet with the owner next week to review. At the moment our goal is to increase the CSI scores for service and body shop. We're getting bad marks for not following up because on many of the OEM surveys it's a pretty straight forward question. We already have an automated email and text that goes out to the customer after the RO is closed thanking them for their business and letting them know about the survey but apparently that's not working as customers continue to mark "NO" when asked that question. So the thought is, let's be more personal. Hopefully this will not only increase our CSI scores but will also help us improve within the dealership by handling any complaints/issues up front rather than passing it to the customer service manager who passes it to the service manager who doesn't check their email for a few days and then it falls through the cracks and no improvements are made. My only hang up now is compensation. I can't justify a commission for this position so I think I'll do a flat hourly rate and treat this as a stepping stone position in the dealership. The owner asked that I do some research on what other dealers are paying for this position but I've not found any local dealers handling it this way. I've noticed several dealers have their service advisors or even their receptionist/cashier do the follow up. I have a pretty strong feeling this will grow in to much more (sales CSI calls and a full service bdc). We shall see!
- Dec 2, 2009
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Hi Stevie -- as this is a relatively unskilled, entry-level position, you need to determine your hiring competition. I.e., what kind of people do you want to attract? Bartender/Server-type? Walmart greeter-type? "Do you want fries with that?" type? Know what I mean? Most call centers are minimum-wage to slightly above.
You can then offer a little more than similar positions, or offer the same amount of money while selling the benefits of a nice desk, off your feet, room for growth, etc.
Good luck!
Totally get what you're saying and that's a great way to look at it! I'm think I'm looking for someone with customer service experience, confident on the phone, and someone who is empathetic towards the customer while also being loyal to the company. When it comes down to it I believe I'll be looking for the right personality. You're right - I don't want to find a candidate that would be perfect for the position and lose them to Walmart/McDonalds etc. because they pay $1.00 more or whatever the case may be. Thanks for the input!