By Billy Norred - AutoCSI.com
What to Expect!
This document intends to show you how to develop a sustainable customer-centric dealership with the many benefits that will come with it.
In many dealerships, everyone has a full-time job. Upon arrival for the day, everybody is stretched thin without stacking on more tasks and responsibilities. So, the thought of starting a project such as setting up an improvement task team that would redevelop the systems and processes may sound daunting. I can hear it now… “How can I do that?” You ask. “I don’t have any time left at the end of each day, and I know my staff would push back if I had asked them to do more.”
In this paper, you will find the easiest and most efficient way to create a more customer-centric environment that will improve your profits, customer and employee satisfaction.
It is a bit of a paradigm shift to believe we can do more, things will be smoother, and if we developed the right processes, follow them to the best of our ability, we would be more efficient on our workday. Putting out far fewer fires will allow for more available time in your day.
Since 1995 AutoCSI has been in and assisted hundreds of dealerships in improving how they conduct business in both sales and service. This document is the first in a series and will focus on the service side as I believe that this is where customer retention and the “customer for life” is won or lost.
In today’s business environment, we struggle and pay higher advertising costs to get additional customers when we could take better care of the guests daily.
The rewards will pay us back over and over with retention and an increase in what the customer will spend because they trust your staff more.
AutoCSI’s analysis process is “Real-Time 360©”, a research tool that is a combination of using the:
· Voice of the Customer (VoC)
· Voice of the Employee (VoE)
· Past surveys
· Interviews
· Follow-up logs and notes in CRM
Having all the tools at your disposal to better understand your improvement opportunities is the goal ahead.
Bill Norred - BIO
For the last 25 of 43 years in the automotive business Billy has been assisting the automotive manufacturers, their suppliers, dealer groups and individual dealers with the design, development and the implementation of business improved processes and programs. These programs have successfully increased business efficiencies, profits, and the customer’s experience.
He has been a lead subject matter expert (SME) for many companies such as JD Power and Associates, BI Worldwide, Ford (US and Canada), Lincoln-Mercury, Nissan, Mazda, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Acura. While at the Lexus Division of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, he was instrumental in designing the Lexus sales processes. Besides, he was involved with new product launches, curriculum development and rollout, training, customer satisfaction training programs, development, and implementation.
The analysis of a business and developing a quality sustainable dealership team has been the cornerstone of Mr. Norred’s success. But, the online analysis and in-dealership improvement of the day-to-day operation has been his passion.
The analysis and development arm has had great success in CSI Improvement and ultimately an incredible increase in the dealership’s profits:
· Power Toyota Cerritos (top 10 largest dealers in the US) – 1197 out of 1207 Toyota dealers (bottom 1%) took dealership to green (top 50%) on a monthly CSI basis in 2 survey months and fully green on a 12-month basis in 11 months. I was raising the store $400k in service sales.
· Fremont Toyota – 58th of 58 dealers in the NorCal region went green and moved upward to the 17th position in just 2 survey months.
· Galpin Ford (largest Ford dealer in the world) – Taking Galpin Ford from 34 in service VoC to the top in service in just 90-days.
· Rich Ford – Raised VoC points by 12 points in 3 survey months while increasing profits by 8.5%. The average dealer moves VOC 1 to 3 points per year.
· All the process improvements moved the score organically, and nothing was done to coach the customer or fix the survey.
Testimonials:
Mike Cuffe – Director of Training at JD Power & Associates
“To date, no other initiative JD Power and Associates has had the impact that these programs had on moving CSI. Your contributions in the design, development and training of our tools and auditors were instrumental in the overall success of the program. You deserve a lot of the credit for our success, and I could not have done it without you.”
Bert Boeckmann, President of Galpin Ford
“Bill and his company, AutoCSI, have assisted us in other ways that many other firms have fallen short of our expectations. What we like most about Bill and AutoCSI is that he has the ability to work with our people to understand them and put the processes in place for our customers and us. It's not a cookie-cutter solution.”
Anthony Woods, General Manager, Power Toyota Cerritos
"No other company has done for us what AutoCSI has achieved. We had another company in here for eighteen months that couldn't accomplish what Billy did in just 60 days."
Jim Studak – VP, BI Worldwide, Automotive Division “Billy is one of our most valued business partners. I have worked with him
on multiple projects across a wide range of retail challenges, and I am continually impressed with the depth and breadth of his retail and business acumen. Billy also has a passion for innovation and has cleverly positioned himself on the "cutting edge" of technology. As a result, we have been able to provide our clients with innovative technology solutions that drive and enable performance. Perhaps most importantly, Billy has an understanding of what works -- and how to implement solutions across a wide range of retail cultures.”
Where Do I Begin?
The first step to setting up a great customer-centric dealership begins by analyzing your service department to find out what is currently occurring and what can be done to improve it. Let’s begin with “Listening and Observation,” the first of six steps. This step is so important to get the information needed in step two, “Understanding the Downfalls,” so don’t skip or take it lightly:
1. Surveys: Reading the last 120 days of negative surveys and documenting the issues that created poor customer experience. This step will highlight any issues that are repeating themselves.
2. Reading Google Posts from Customers: Reading the posts will let you know the customers' thoughts that they will not say to your face. A valuable tool if used correctly.
3. Voice of the Customer (VoC): Taking the time to talk to your customers in the lounge, waiting for a shuttle, before or after paying at the cashier, and waiting for their vehicle after the service is complete.
4. Voice of the Employee (VoE): Asking your employee’s what could be done to make the processes work more efficiently and better assist the customer and help them with their job. Talk to everyone: porters, car wash personnel, techs, parts front and back counter staff, shuttle drivers, cashiers, and advisors to find out the processes from their perspective.
5. Observation: Watch the service drive, dispatch, MPI, status call, repair, wash, cashiering, and delivery porters. This visual will paint a picture that allows you to see if what you believe is truly happening and is getting done in the fashion it was designed to do or NOT!
6. Follow-up Staff: Talking to those who do your follow-up is combining VoC and VoE. This follow-up staff will add to understanding what the customers think and possibly find customers that you can speak to that will have the feedback needed to develop your dealership's improvement plan.
When listening to the customer, the Voice of the Customer (VoC) has been used since 1968 successfully by JD Power and Associates to get a detailed understanding of the customer's wants, needs, and requirements. This is a common language for the team as we advance as the key input for setting appropriate design specifications for the new product and a genuinely helpful springboard for process innovation.
After doing all the research in the Listening and Observation step, you will have obtained a good understanding of the dealership’s downfalls. You are now ready to improve your customer experience with your process development team.
Not all the findings need a change. Many just minor tweaks and adjustments. It would help if you looked at the entire process when determining what to do. Examine the problem or complaint and how it occurred, then look and see if there is any impact on your organization's processes. To change this one piece of the process might affect something else. Next, view the efficiencies and impact on creating a change or slight adjustment to the process.
You are asking yourself, “How does this affect change in my Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).”
Making Your Decisions
Engaged customers are those that have been “Wowed,” and adopting processes that create customer engagement will strengthen the relationship you have with your customers. We need to engage customers in the retention and referrals that build a business. A business continues to get stronger without advertising to attract new customers when it has strong customer retention. It’s cheaper to keep your current customers than going after new ones! Happy customers spend more.
Satisfying customers is not enough - it has never been. Why do customers who appear to be satisfied or tell us they're satisfied and then defect to the competition?
A growing body of research on customer decision-making and loyalty supports our solid point of view. Your “Wowed” customers are your most profitable customers. They spend more, come in for service more often, buy more of what you offer, and most importantly, they are your best marketing engine for referrals and advocacy. It seems like more common sense than a business process. But, don’t we already know that?
Please test this out against your personal experience of being a customer. What brands do you love? What products do you repeatedly purchase over many years? Which service providers do you recommend to others? What businesses do you trust? What brands, products, and services do you feel are perfect for you? What brands, products, or services do you experience and feel you can’t live without?
Looking at all steps of your service process…
· Appointments – First appointments, call-in, on-line and appointment reminders
· Service Drive – Night drops, arrivals, walk around, listening and understanding needs, write-up, description of what is to be done and promise time, and updating customer contact information.
· Shuttle, Rental Car, or Loaner – Sometimes, you can give free services like this, and it can disrupt the entire program. Try riding in your service shuttle and then a well-respected dealerships shuttle service in your area to see what the difference is and how you compare. This is a great way to see what is happening or maybe should be happening. The question here is, do you want to be the same or better? Remember, you need to Wow the customer to get long-term retention.
· Dispatch and Tech Processes – Is the Multi-Point Inspection getting done promptly? Is the information getting back to the advisor as soon as it is completed? This is not only for showing the issues. It also lets the customer know that your team is working on the vehicle but getting up-sell in a time frame that you have time to get it done for the customer within the promised time and not carrying this RO over to another day.
· Status Call – A proper, well-timed, and nicely laid out status call or text message can make the “WOW Experience” for the customer. It may seem simple, but this is not to be underestimated as to the importance.
· Wash – Are the washes getting done on time? Is a car getting washed or pulled inside if the customer is picking it up in the morning? Again, a simple task and may crush the entire experience. It may seem trivial, but it is essential to the customer regardless of customer pay or warranty.
· Customer Arrival for Pick Up and Active Delivery – The arrival and delivery process. Are our porters prepared for the afternoon and evening rush? Do our advisors have the proper paperwork ready? Does the advisor know what was done to provide an excellent explanation without reading it like they are looking at it for the first time? Also, do they know when the customer’s next service is to let them know when and what to expect and possibly set an appointment?
Do you have a written process that each of your staff members knows what their place is in getting the process done?
Many times is not that your processes are bad it’s that they are not being performed the way you intended for them to be completed.
A written process is an understood process.
Laying Out the Processes
Before you begin to layout the process(es), you need buy-in from the dealership staff. Setting up a “Development Team” that will serve as a task force will assist in providing the input of how each element will affect their job and the current processes. Each person on the team will champion the improvements that will occur. Choose one of the team members, a respected individual, to be the “Champion” of the task force.
Setting up and laying out the processes should be done by a team made from all levels. From the porters up to the director, sometimes the process is best produced by those that are knee-deep every day. Let them provide the input as the manager facilitates and documents the discussion.
Setting up the current processes using “Post-It Notes” to lay it out as each Post-It is a step, and they are easily moved around. No step is too small; include everything as it is currently happening. To best understand what to change, you must first lay out what you do now.
Do this on each step of the process, then ask your staff that performs the action, “how can this part of the process be improved?” Look at the VoC notes from your previous conversations with customers and survey analysis.
Each step can be broken down into both the action and the word tracks. When writing out a process for the first time, put everything you can think of in it. It can always be adjusted later.
Training
Once a process is laid out, and all areas of observation, VoC, and VoE inputs have been considered, it is time to begin laying out a training session.
The training should be put into a document that any manager can look at and present processes or groups of processes to new hires and low-performing employees. Understanding that the process training piece is a living document, therefore the training doc will need to be adjusted as time goes on, as technology and other tools in our business environment change, our processes, and training needs.
The training sessions should range from 20-30 minutes. Our employee’s attention span is not any longer than that, so each process should be broken into the appropriate time frames—the importance of length when it comes to training sessions.
As a leader, you can be tempted to cram your training sessions full. But in this case, retention and quality are better than quantity. You know your team and what they will benefit from this redevelopment – but too much at once could be detrimental to the overall goal.
Shorter training sessions are better for knowledge retention; they also have some other great benefits too. My knowledge of this process came from the Director of Training at JD Power and Associates, then later Farmers Insurance, Mike Cuffe. The information below was gathered from Excel Communications.
· Short-term training sessions – or ‘microlearning’ are sometimes referred to as increasing in popularity, as more people are becoming aware of its many advantages. Let me share some of the main reasons this training works, starting with some science.
· Shorter time of the sessions allows the new information to ‘sink in’ between and after the training sessions – the study uses slightly more scientific language than I’ve used here but then again, I’m not a scientist!
· Anyway, the fact remains that we know short training sessions can be effective, and we’ve got science to back us up too, which is always nice.
· Another reason that short training sessions improve knowledge retention is that they are a concentrated form of learning.
· In the past, learning programs have been delivered in a way that they might cover several different topics over a few hours or a day – the training day, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with.
· But delivering information over a long period can dilute the training message.
· The simple fact of the time constraints you have with shorter sessions requires that the training message is concise and, altogether, more impactful because of this. Individuals can recall their training much easier when it hasn’t been presented in an overwhelming stream of information. Keep the message of your training brief, and you will get faster results.
A critical thought to remember is that new hires shouldn’t learn by just watching each other, you should have a training session and a mentoring program set up for new hires. Success begins – Day 1!
Observations:
Observations and analysis to ensure the process changes are being followed, not just business as usual. This stage ensures everybody is on board and not just giving lip service. 90-days is the proper timeframe to ensure that this has been established as an effective process and everyone is firing on all cylinders.
Adjust as needed to fine-tune each new process developed.
Continued Observations – Kaizen
Continuous improvement is the name of the game, not to mention that you always need to verify the job is getting done as intended as written in the process at a minimum.
Keeping the systems and processes in check. You need to keep an eye on your 24 to 48-hour follow-up calls, surveys, customer comments on surveys, Google and Yelp while continuously talking to your staff asking how the processes are working.
Now that you have everything working well, here are things that you can do that will make the customers' experience better or allow you to become familiar with any shortcomings as they occur. Keeping a transparent feel to your operation will always make the customer feel more at home.
Tools To Use For A Customer-Centric Environment
Service Customer Status Via Texting
The My Kaarma Texting program integrates with your DMS for scheduling appointments, customer contact, vehicle repair status, upsell, invoice viewing, and final payment before the customer arrives. The customer will answer a text much faster and more often than a phone call, and this allows the technicians to be more productive by turning in more hours, the frustration is less for the advisor leaving messages and the customer returning the call and going through the phone menu and transfers only to get a voice mail. In this program, all texts and calls are routed to the device the advisor is at, cell phone, computer, or landline extension (without a phone menu or transfer)
All calls are recorded for review, and the upsell approvals are logged for proof.
OEM’s like Mercedes-Benz, USA has rolled it out nationwide for those dealers that want to participate.
For more information, go to … http://mykaarma.com/
Real-Time Customer Information
Having an exit interview is always the best way to see if we have done our job, although customers are inclined not to tell us face-to-face then blast us on the survey.
A follow-up communication that will invite the customer to answer one question “How did we do?”. If the score is not what we are looking for, we ask them to share their thoughts. The process is fast and effective and gives your staff the tools to react quickly and assist the customer before it becomes an issue that could affect your dealership thousands and even tens of thousands in OEM CSI incentives. Results are available to you in real-time. This is for both Sales and Service. Same goes for the Unsold Sales Customer – 5 customers come but only one buys. Selling just 1 of those 4 would double your sales. AutoCSI’s Unsold Customer Follow-up will get
For more information - https://www.autocsi.com/products
Managing Your Rental and Loaner Fleet
This is a touchy subject because of the high cost of these fleets!
ARS – Automotive Rental Systems helps you do a better job and lowers your costs while making your customers happy. This software manages your fleet while letting your team know when each vehicle needs service, as well as those pesky recalls. If your OEM doesn’t require you to use their software, then you should look at ARS. https://www.arsloaner.com/
All dealers are looking to cut costs and make more money in service while looking after our customers and our dealership inventory. Recall Masters can assist in helping you do that by informing your customers or owners in your PMA that don’t currently come to your dealership for service. They cannot turn down a free service. This free to service may lead to upsell or a newer vehicle from the Sales department. The need for free recall work on vehicles in your PMA and those you have in inventory is a great money maker. The ROI you will realize is 5:1 or more. Many dealers are achieving a 10:1 or more return on the money invested. https://www.recallmasters.com/
Call Center
Having a call center call for your customers, you will get real-time feedback with higher connect rates, more honest answers, and reporting directly to you and the advisor involved. I like to call it “driving comprehension.” This allows you to understand the customer's preferences and motivations to make more informed decisions. Don wants a call center to follow up on AutoCSI’s Real-Time Surveys.
Improve customer interactions - Like the most successful organizations, yours should have a quality management (QM) program to ensure your agents follow proper procedures. Adding a system for gathering regular, consistent customer feedback helps ensure your QM program aligns with customer desires/preferences, leading to improved customer interactions. A call center or real-time surveys can only improve it through a more professional system.
Identify potential threats and new business opportunities - You may not always like what your customers have to say, but their feedback is critical to determining where potential threats exist. Whether it's feedback on your organization – or your competition – this information helps to ensure your company is well-positioned.
Likewise, customer feedback can help you identify new business opportunities, as well as:
· Aiding in customer acquisition, retention, and growth.
· Identifying potential up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.
· Allowing you to respond to underserved customer needs more quickly.
Drill down and see what an Advisor needs improvement on quickly using the Voice of the Customer (VoC) so that you can make the needed adjustments to continue your customer-friendly environment.
Customer Feedback Solution - A comprehensive, easy-to-implement survey solution that makes customer feedback collection and analysis easy. Our survey solution provides:
· Flexible delivery options, including web/email or IVR surveys.
· Web-based reporting.
· Advanced logic, allowing customer responses to determine the course of the survey.
· Permission-based access, ensuring the privacy of data.
If your dealership doesn’t have a BDC making the needed calls, you can AutoCSI’s e-Follow-up system. This quick and inexpensive solution will get you great results. Do this for Unsold Sales Customer or Post Sales and Service Customers.
For more information - https://www.autocsi.com/products
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of information.”
Bill Gates, No Introduction Required
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