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Steve Finell

Refresh Team
Apr 7, 2009
18
0
First Name
Steve
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who uses XTime in their dealership for service scheduling. I'd like to know what you like about XTime and, what you don't.

I'll start off by giving a few, just a few, of my many opinions about Xtime - good and bad.

To begin with, I fully acknowledge XTime as the leader in service CRM software. The GUI is easy to work with, all day, day in and day out. The Daily Ledger is a very strong feature, especially since the enhancements which make is less cumbersome to use (one click access to all appointment details).

What I don't "get" are some of the other features that just don't work. Campaigns. I would love to have the ability to build an outbound call campaign to contact several hundred customers quickly to promote a $20 oil change to fill up a weak schedule tomorrow. This feature in XTime is marginal at best. I don't use it much.

Too much of XTime is "shoot from the hip" in execution. I'm far too precise a customer hunter to be thrilled with it.

I've worked with a lot of software in a variety of customer service environments. This playing field that is automotive service CRM I compare to the days of Atari video games - the beginning.

I fully acknowledge XTime as the market leader. I'll save a lot for other threads. i just want to throw some thoughts out there and see what bounces back in the form of added comments by others.

Bring it!
 
Steve - I agree with you wholeheartedly about X Time. I have it for all of my stores. I really think this is the future of service appointments (although we have gravitated toward encouraging people to come in with no appointment and wait for there car and that has been really successful). Overall the customer interface is great. The daily appointment ledger email i get is great for helping me see how busy we will be for the day. I haven't used X Time for campaigns so i can't really comment there. My biggest problem with campaigns in general is that i have multiple sources for information: my CRM, the manufacturer, Compuspections (State Inspection System in PA), X Time, etc. Having one source to go off of is the biggest challenge on campaigns.

Back to X Time, my biggest gripe is new account creation. If you don't create the account for the customer and they end up doing it themselves, it will cause a duplicate in R&R. If the customer doesn't enter their info into X Time exactly as it appears in the DMS, a duplicate is created. Therefore, if a customer leaves out a middle initial, a dup is created. That is whats most frustrating for us. If you've read my other posts, you'll find I hate duplicates!

There is a ton of potential for X Time. I look forward to learning from you and others on here because i really believe in the technology even though it is very early on.

Andy
 
The problem with this is probably their DMS integration. They probably aren't using the Reynolds Certified Interface and creating a mechanism for you to match customers to prevent dupes.

We have the same problems when we push deals to Reynolds from our desking module because we don't use RCI. But with our Arkona integration we are able to provide dupe prevention mechanisms.

This is why Arkona is a rising star. Very easy to integrate with and the integration is very inexpensive and turnkey. I can't say the same for all other DMS companies.

There is a ton of potential for X Time. I look forward to learning from you and others on here because i really believe in the technology even though it is very early on.

Andy
 
Ah, duplicates! A huge problem in XTime. I wished it was as simple as the interface (ADP, R&R) however, the problem seems to be inherent to the program, not integration. The problem exists as XTime doesn't attempt to locate a potential duplicate record. It will search on name, phone, email, VIN, customer number but, if the search string doesn't match an existing record exactly - DUPE! Whether the record is customer-added or internally-added, dupes in XTime aren't stoppable - at this point. They tell me it's on their list of future enhancements. Hopefully, I'll see it prior to my retirement.

What I have found to be the best way to search for an existing customer is phone number. Enter areacode and number, no punctuation or spaces. XTime will search all three phone number fields and there is much less chance of creating a dupe.

As to a plethora of appointment lead sources, I have a team of Service Coordinators who earn commission for every appointment show they set up. I distribute the various leads equitably and the appointments are set up very quickly with no procrastination. While a purely automated appointment or lead entry would make more sense, save money and reduce human-error, the disparate sources will never, I fear, play in the same sandbox.

Thanks for the great input!
 
Mr. Finell, we use the campaign process in Xtime daily and have set system to identify customers requiring everything from base oil changes to 30, 60, 90 K service's 1st service, and OP code specific service requirements we have recently set up campaigns to identify time based promos for new Honda, Acura and Toyota owners. We find that customers appreciate the email and calls generated by the system and the accuracy of the mileage and driving habits of the system are spot on. Campaigns increased our appointment volume 22% in the 1st quarter of 2009.

Xtime increased our customer online scheduling producing upwards to 35% of our total daily appointments, our call center could not operate without the process. I too get annoyed with duplicate appointments but they are insignificant compared to the benefits provided.

Our dealer group operates a regional call center for 20 locations, and no other scheduling system we reviewed offer anywhere near the capabilities Xtime does, no wonder our OEM's BMW, Lexus, Nissan, VW and Toyota selected Xtime as their vendor, we also represent Honda, Acura.

Call someone at Xtime to get campaigns rolling the juice is worth the squeeze!
 
Re: XTime - Campaigns

Megan:

I have squeezed XTime's fruit several times each month with respect to campaigns. They haven't worked entirely in the year I've been using them. The inclusion/exclusion criteria is not reliable, among others. I create no fewer than 10 campaigns each month. Roughly 1/3 of the resulting records (tasks) are inaccurate. While the remaining 2/3 of the resulting tasks do represent additional opportunity to bring in additional business, the inaccurately selected 1/3 shouldn't have been selected or contacted to begin with.

With that said, I can build a campaign of 2,000 customers I'd like to call (forget email - another discussion) to sell them a heavily discounted service and a complimentary multi-point instpection. My criteria will include: up to xx year old vehicles; with between xxxxx and xxxxx miles; which have had an RO generated within the past xx months but, NOT within the past xxmonths. Now, please keep in mind, I've built exactly this campaign for several of our stores.

Typical results, once all tasks have been completed:
2.3% new appointments
32% verified as having had service completed within past 6 months

So, for the 2.3% who make an appointment and come in for the service I've recommended, I'm a nice guy for having reminded them something was due.

But, for the 32% who had their vehicle in for service with me, I look like I'm trying to separate them from a little more of their money. Yeah, I don't want to be that guy and I don't want to compromise my group's reputation.

I long for the day XTime gets campaigns right. More about what I think will happen shortly.
 
Re: XTime - Renewed Committment or Bright Shiny Object?

Last week, Tom Tish (XTime VP - Consulting) visited with me for a couple of days. His mission, it seems, was to identify whether our frustration with XTime had more to do with XTime failures or "training opportunities."

While I will admit I don't know every nuance of XTime's programming logic or available feature tweak, I was very pleased to witness his expressions as he saw with his own eyes some of the program failures I live with every day - duplicate customers, failures of the online scheduling system, campaign failures; features that make no sense as they are; features which make total sense which don't exist in XTime. And, more importantly, how a dealership group BDC with 40,000 inbound service calls monthly uses their product.

He left with several pages of task list items for his people to get to work on. And, my committment to work with XTime to resolve what doesn't work and make happen what needs to work.

XTime's focus, it seems has been on the feature requests for larger dealer groups. My group had fallen into a lesser priority hole. I sense a change in XTime's committment to help us help them develop a more substantial, reliable and useable product - for us and for their subscriber base.

Real-time integration with our DMS (ADP) is being implemented. Enhancements to record validation (to avoid duplicates). Eliminating false "no shows" through more accurate validation between DMS data, ROs and XTime appointments. ACCURATE campaign exclusion/inclusion criteria. And, last but certainly not least, fixing features already in play so that resulting statistics are accurate.

After reviewing several other scheduling (dare I say "Service CRM") programs, I am absolutely convinced XTime represents the best solution currently in play. Others are however, not far behind.

If XTime remains committed to providing the product and functionality we've been paying for for 3 years now, fixes the major bugs and truly does what it says it will do, we all win. In doing so, XTime will raise the bar even higher - creating more competitive opportunities and better results for its subscriber base.

If, on the other hand, substantial improvements aren't made in a relatively short period of time, and I continue to feel stuck with a program that doesn't deliver all it says it does - then, another choice will be made.

While XTime does a fabulous job of marketing itself, directly and through the recommendations of long standing customers such as my dealership group, it has yet to prove (to me) it is able to truly deliver.
 
Mr. Finell, we use the campaign process in Xtime daily and have set system to identify customers requiring everything from base oil changes to 30, 60, 90 K service's 1st service, and OP code specific service requirements we have recently set up campaigns to identify time based promos for new Honda, Acura and Toyota owners. We find that customers appreciate the email and calls generated by the system and the accuracy of the mileage and driving habits of the system are spot on. Campaigns increased our appointment volume 22% in the 1st quarter of 2009.

Xtime increased our customer online scheduling producing upwards to 35% of our total daily appointments, our call center could not operate without the process. I too get annoyed with duplicate appointments but they are insignificant compared to the benefits provided.

First let me introduce myself, my name is John, and Im new here, and not currently working in a service department. So please excuse my ignorance if I say something stupid.

Im curious, I can understand the customer appreciating an email, but I am surprised that you received a good response to what I am assuming are Robo calls petitioning customers for service? Especially with the recent rash of "warranty" scams that people have been receiving at home and on their cell phones.

Am I correct in assuming these are Robo calls? or are you having your service personnel make the calls? Im simply amazed that the caller listens past the first few seconds.

I probably dont know enough about the system, well to be honest I dont know anything about the system.
 
John, our outbound calls are not robo calls our staff make the calls from list generated with Xtime's campaign section allowing appointments to be scheduled upon contact with customers. I agree that robo calls are annoying and self defeating, that's why we never considered using call command or other reminder services using automated calls
 
XTime Campaigns

We, too, use XTime Campaigns - now that they are more functional. There was a time when the results seemed random, as if the inclusion criteria wasn't respected. XTime has, largely, corrected the problems. We, too, use XTime for specific, ongoing campaigns. Calls are loaded daily and made (by humans, manually) in between inbound calls in our blended call center. The success of our campaign calls rest squarely on the professionalism and manner of the person making the calls. I do have some who are not assigned any outbound calls as their abilities/skills are more compatible with inbound calls.

XTime Campaigns are calling lists and little else. There is, today, no way to make notes attached to the call or campaign or log the results of a call other than in making an appointment. Up until the last release, there wasn't a direct link moving the appointment setter from the campaign script to the appointment screen. This is now fixed.

XTime is beginning to understand the more advanced functional requirements of a heavy-volume call center (we will handle in excess of 1 million calls in 2009). While much development remains to be done, XTime's campaigns enable filling a shop during slower periods.