A well-managed BDC can significantly impact sales, raise service profits, and increase retention, but achieving success in this field requires three key ingredients: Focus, People, and Consistency. Without these elements working in tandem, even the most intuitive technology with the best team, delivered at the right time will fail.
Focus – Are you Singularly Focused on the Success of this Program?
One of the primary keys to any successful undertaking in automotive is maintaining a strong focus; both internal and external. Internally, your team should have a clear understanding of their goals, objectives, and performance metrics. They should be aligned with the dealership’s overall business strategy and strive to enhance it. This requires a deep understanding of the dealership’s products, target market, and customer needs.
Externally, the BDC and team should be customer-centric. Understanding the customer’s journey, preferences, and pain points enables the team to deliver exceptional service. By focusing on the customer experience, your team builds trust, enhances loyalty, and increases sales conversion rates.
Resources/People – Do you have the right people, in the right seats, at the right time?
You can have a singular focus on making a process successful, for instance, increasing CSI scores, but hiring, training, and retaining the right individuals to do so is crucial. If you don’t have the right people, in the right seats, at the right time, there will not be the support needed to build out your goals.
Investing in ongoing training and development programs is essential to keep your team up to date with industry advancements, technology, and customer engagement strategies. Regular coaching and feedback sessions can help identify areas for improvement and enhance the team’s overall performance.
In addition to training and development of your team, don’t forget to build out enough time to have them implement the new solution or process. You need both for success.
Consistency – Do you, and your team, do it the same way, every day?
Consistency in processes, messaging, and service delivery is crucial for building trust and credibility with customers. By maintaining consistency, customers know what to expect from the dealership and your team, this, in turn, enhances their confidence in your team, and over time, cements their brand loyalty.
Consistency in data management and analysis is equally important. DMS and CRM tools need to be used effectively to track interactions, capture relevant data, and identify trends and patterns. This data-driven approach enables your team to make informed decisions and continuously improve their performance.
But don’t we have technology to run and optimize these things? Yes. But I believe that technology is not the solution, but rather the enabler of the above three. The answer is High Tech with High Touch!
You can have 100% focus on implementing a new AI solution that will help you communicate quickly with service customers, but without the resources to implement the solution, it will fail. Why? High Tech without High Touch, requiring a blended approach to reach every customer. Similarly, you can staff up and ensure your team has the hours to create a new pick-up and delivery program, but without consistent scheduling processes, it will also fail. It’s only when you have all three of the above working together that the technology needed to run the solution will work properly and help create efficiencies.
Today’s dealerships have more solutions at their fingertips than ever before. Evolving customer-centric programs like mobile scheduling, pickup and delivery and AI-based retention programs are flourishing. It’s an exciting time to be in our industry but can also feel fragmented if we don’t stay focused, ensure our resources are blended and align, while creating a consistent process and experience every time.
