Spotting Customer Opportunities

A strong communications system can make all the difference between a sale and a lost opportunity at a car dealership. No matter if it's answering customer inquiries or sending reminders and sales quotes - automobile dealers need to be quick on their feet when it comes to engaging with both potential buyers and existing customers having their car serviced.

High competition in the industry makes a fast response and resolution key differentiators. Customer expectations are at an all-time high. Delivering exceptional buying and car-service experiences is key to meeting them - and both are driven by how well your sales reps and service technicians communicate with prospective and existing customers.

Missed Calls = Missed Opportunities

In the digital age, most automotive consumers begin their purchasing journey online - and dealerships spend vast sums creating marketing and ad campaigns to generate leads. However, due to the complex nature of automotive purchases, most new and used vehicle shoppers (61%) prefer to speak to a live agent to get their questions answered once they've completed their online research. Combined with the fact that car dealerships are often multi-location, call volumes can be huge.

Standard phone systems are simply not equipped to cope with such volumes, and so cannot deliver the communications capabilities the current market demands.

When your dealership is receiving more calls than your phone system can handle, the fact is you're delivering a poor customer experience, missing sales opportunities and losing business to your competitors. Put simply, with limited features and high operating costs, legacy phone systems are hopelessly outdated - and are costing you in more ways than one.

Indeed, according to figures from telephone performance analysis company CallSource - cited in V12 - while inbound calls to car dealerships have been on the rise, the majority of dealers (60%) are not confident they are managing them effectively. In fact, 32% of dealers believe they are losing 5% of calls to competitors, 31% that they are losing 30%, another 31% believe they are losing 20% of calls, and 6% believe they are losing at least 50% of calls to competition.

As David Greene, VP CallSource Auto Division, puts it: "For every four sales appointments set, a dealer typically converts at least one into a sale, averaging about $2,200 in bottom-line profit for a new car sale. This means for every four or five mishandled incoming calls, a dealer is potentially losing not only $2,200 in profit but also forfeiting the marketing spend that went into driving that customer to their phones in the first place. "

By investing in a robust Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution, car dealerships can create seamless and efficient communications across all customer and business channels, helping them deliver exceptional customer service, stop missing calls, and boost their bottom line.

Customer Service in the Car Dealership Industry - An Opportunity for Competitive Advantage

As reported by Deloitte in its Automotive Customer Service report, consumers see buying a car as a painful task. In fact, Deloitte's research shows that most US consumers do not have a positive attitude toward car dealers.

Much of the problem comes down to the experience car dealerships offer across buying and servicing - making both an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage for dealers that take action. In fact, according to figures compiled by V12, 54% of consumers would buy from a dealership that provides better experiences - even if it didn't offer the lowest price - and 72% would visit dealerships more often if the experience was improved.

This is where loyalty is built. According to McKinsey, consumers spend about 15 hours buying a car and as much as 50 hours having it serviced during the time of ownership. As such, it's no coincidence that customers consider the service experience even more influential than the last buying experience when purchasing their next car.

McKinsey's report reveals that the most common pain points in the current service process include appointment making (which can require several phone calls) and lack of transparency and communication regarding service completion status, pickup availability and expected cost.

Such inefficiencies create obstacles that can put off customers from booking car services entirely - and this has a knock-on effect on future sales. Indeed, according to the Cox Automotive Consumer Service Experience Study, 70% of consumers who purchase a car from a dealer do not return for a service in the following year, which is equivalent to $266 billion in annual lost revenue across all franchise dealers, or $15.9 million per franchise dealer. In addition, 74% of those who return for a service within twelve months say they would also return to the same dealer of purchase for their next vehicle - compared to just 35% of those who do not return within twelve months.

To achieve growth and success, the buying and service experience must be streamlined - and facilitating better communications with the customer is the most important factor to stop them heading to a competitor to book their next service or make their next purchase.

Indeed, with consumers willing to spend more for experience, dealers that can solve the most common communication pain points for their customers and provide a positive, seamless dealership and service lane experience can increase the lifetime value of customers through repeat business.

How Hosted PBX UCaaS Solutions Empower Auto Dealers to Provide a Top-Notch Customer Service and Increase Their Bottom Line

Hosted PBX technology with integrated UCaaS tools allows car dealers to optimize their communication methods to not only deliver exceptional customer service and support, but boost employee productivity as well.

With a host of call management features, dealerships can empower their employees to communicate with customers, colleagues, partners and suppliers in an extremely efficient way, unlocking opportunities to refine experiences and increase satisfaction among existing customers and prospects.

Here's how a modern cloud-based telephony system can help car dealerships win more business and cut costs.

Easy Call Routing and Transfer to Appropriate Customer Representatives

Too many phone calls result in missed sales opportunities and dissatisfactory customer service as customers have to wait or call back later. Transitioning from a legacy PBX network to a robust cloud-hosted UCaaS solution can solve these problems for car dealerships, translating directly into improved customer experience and satisfaction.

Powerful call management features mean incoming calls can be routed to different extensions - including mobile devices and home phones - so that salespeople and service technicians can easily respond to important customer calls or inquiries no matter where they are. For example, if a sales rep has left for the day or is out doing a test drive and there's a customer who needs attention, the call can be easily transferred to the rep's cell phone or home phone so the customer does not have to wait to speak to the right person.

To further keep your car dealership organized - especially during times of high call volume - call queues can be created to keep customers in a virtual line. Welcome messages can be played, letting the caller know someone will be with them momentarily so they don't hang up. Music can be uploaded for customers to listen to while on hold - likewise promotional messages and business announcements. To ensure they get routed to the right department, callers can be prompted, for example, to press 1 for sales, 2 for service, 3 for support, etc. All these features translate to a better customer experience and enhanced brand image.

Automated Reminder Follow Ups

Rapid response is key to increasing car sales. Leads can go cold quickly, and consumers will be quick to look to a competitor if sales reps aren't responsive enough. Of course, sales are rarely made with a single call - multiple follow ups are required.

With a hosted PBX system, automated reminders are sent to sales agents to remind them to follow up on a lead. This feature is also available to service operators, who can use it to remind existing customers that their service is due, or to inform them that the service is complete and the car is ready for pickup.

Integration with CRM to Personalize Communications

UCaaS platforms are hosted in the cloud and able to integrate with third-party software solutions and business systems. To grant car dealers immediate access to valuable information during sales calls, your hosted PBX system can be integrated with CRM solutions, meaning agents can personalize their service and support based on specific customers' needs, requirements, and where they are in the sales funnel.

While on the call, the agent can make notes, update customer information, and create follow up reminders by adding email notifications or new tasks to the account record - all of which gets automatically uploaded to the cloud for future reference. Call activity reports are also recorded, which can be analyzed to gain deeper insights into agent performance and time spent on the phone, or to develop better strategies to foster stronger relationships with customers and drive sales.

Videoconferencing

With COVID concerns today, customers may be reluctant to visit a car dealership in person - or at least want to minimize their time spent there. With UCaaS, videoconferencing allows dealerships to create a personalized virtual shopping experience for customers - showing them around a car's interior and exterior, demonstrating dashboard features, and so on - which customers can enjoy from the com+fort and safety of their own home. Important deals can be discussed, financing meetings be conducted, and service concerns relayed - all in a virtual setting.

Internally, executives can take advantage of videoconferencing to host meetings - during which they can share their computer screen with everyone attending - and one-to-one video calls enable workers to interact and collaborate with their colleagues without being limited by geographical boundaries.

Text Messaging and Live Chat

UCaaS platforms also come with business messaging solutions, providing even more possibilities for customer communication and interaction. Live Chat features enable live customer conversations from your company's website or employees' mobile devices, allowing you to provide quick answers to customer inquires.

You can also send and receive text (SMS) and media messages (MMS) directly to customers with your business phone number. Recent research has found that US consumers prefer companies that offer text messaging as a communication channel - almost two-thirds (63%) say they would switch to a company that offered text messaging as a means of contact.

Text messaging is a great way to differentiate your dealership from the competition. Customers can send a simple text to request an appointment, for example, or service technicians can text customers when their car is ready for pickup.

Seamlessly Manage Multi-Location Car Dealerships

For multi-site management, dealers with multiple locations can consolidate them all under one single system when switching to hosted PBX. All of your extensions - including mobile users with their cell phones - become part of the same phone system and can access all its features.

Not only does this make it easy to transfer calls from one location to another, but administrators and coordinators can monitor the activity on every extension throughout the organization in real time, company-wide alerts and announcements can be easily issued to the entire workforce, and all information is stored, managed and accessible from one centralized location. Voice, multimedia, documents, CRM Data and more are all unified on the same platform and available to all employees in every location.

Save Costs

Switching to a hosted PBX system with unified communications provides a huge cost savings for car dealerships. By moving communications to the cloud, car dealers can eliminate on-premise infrastructure at all locations - along with the maintenance and labor costs that go along with it.

In addition, since the system operates over an IP network rather than a circuit-switch line, dealerships don't have to pay expensive per-minute calling rates - so the cost of outgoing and incoming calls reduces dramatically. In fact, calls within the organization itself are typically free, and the routing of voice data over the internet means dealerships can make and receive international and long-distance calls at a fraction of the cost of a traditional phone system.

A hosted phone system also scales easily and cost-effectively. With a traditional system, whenever you need more phones, new telephone lines are required, meaning dealerships have to purchase equipment, pay for the installation and deal with office disruption as the wires are installed. With hosted PBX, on the other hand, scaling up or down takes a matter of minutes - you can add more phones, extensions and mobile connections as and when required without ever incurring extra costs for additional hardware or infrastructure.