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Service Customer Care Center

Who schedules Service Reservations at your dealership?

  • Operator/Admin

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • Service Advisor

    Votes: 6 42.9%
  • BDC Representative

    Votes: 4 28.6%
  • Call Center (3rd Party)

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • No One - Just Come On In!

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • Total voters
    14
My apologies to all for not having kept up with this thread.

At Checkered Flag, with which I am no longer affiliated, the Service Customer Care Center, plus two off-site (out of the call center) operators, answered all inbound calls to the organization - in 2009 alone, the volume was staggering. With "right-sizing" throughout the organization, there would be no way for service advisors to adequately handle the volume of calls they received. Thus, the BDC.

As to upselling, yes, the service coordinators were responsible for upselling. But, not in the same sense as the advisor. It's one thing to suggest additional services based on mileage, over the phone, and another to upsell repairs and maintenance while you're "touching" the vehicle. This affords a service department two opportunities to upsell two groups of services/repairs.

Service advisors MUST stay in constant contact with customers - while the vehicle is in for service. In most other cases, it's more appropriate to have the BDC serve as the telephone interface with the customer.
 
Re: your BDC, what software do you use to schedule appointments? We are creating a BDC to schedule service appointments for 8 dealerships and looking into software. We have seen XTime, but are there any alternatives you could recommend?

We currently use TimeHighway on our websites and in our call center to book service appointments. These appointments push to the DMS.
 

✨ AI Highlights

Steve Finell initiates discussion about the missed opportunity of follow-up service on vehicles after expensive diagnostic tools like Argis are implemented, prompting conversation about whether service advisors should handle this or if a dedicated BDC (Business Development Center) should manage appointment setting and post-service follow-up calls. Alex Snyder shares that his dealership uses a BDC call center to handle incoming calls and follow-up after service work closes, while service advisors retain the option to follow up themselves if they prefer, with the key insight that dedicating staff to this function allows advisors to focus on their core responsibilities while still maintaining relationship-building opportunities.

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