SERVICE DEPARTMENT PAIN POINTS SOLVED · 2016. 12. 3. · 3 SERVICE DEPARTMENT PAIN POINTS SOLVED...

3SERVICE DEPARTMENT

PAIN POINTS

SOLVED

HOW FAULTY IT INFRASTRUCTURES ARE CAUSING AUTO

DEALERSHIPS TO :

1. Lose Revenue

2. Lose Customers

3. Lose Employee Buy-In

3 SERVICE DEPARTMENT PAIN POINTS SOLVED

Chip King, CallRevu

Bill Wittenmyer, ELEAD1ONE

Ujj Nath, myKaarma

Michael Roppo, WithumSmith+Brown

Jeff Cowan, ProTalk

Featuring insights from industry experts!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction pg. 4

Pain Point #1: Loss of Revenue pg. 5

Pain Point #2: Loss of Customers pg. 8

Pain Point #3: Loss of Employee Buy-In pg. 12

Recommendations

Internet pg. 13

WiFi pg. 14

Network Switches pg. 15

Call Flow pg. 16

Conclusion pg. 17

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INTRODUCTION

To stay competitive, service departments everywhere are implementing new technologies that promise to boost shop efficiency, improve the customer experience and increase profits.

Unfortunately, many dealers implement these technologies without first addressing whether their information technology (IT) infrastructure can support the additional data requirements.

In today's service department, massive amounts of bandwidth are required for:

• Mobile tablet applications• Third-party, cloud-based service applications• Vehicle computer system updates• Employee and customer cell phones• Smart appliances

Most dealerships do not have adequate Internet and/or WiFi speeds to accommodate the growing demand for data. Three common pain points that service departments experience due to inadequate IT infrastructures include:

Loss of Revenue. Time is money. Slow networks have a direct and negative impact on service department productivity.

Loss of Customers. If customer retention is important, providing a friendly, efficient customer experience is necessary. Most applications designed to improve the customer experience require bandwidth, and lots of it.

Loss of Employee Buy-In for New Technologies. An inadequate IT infrastructure causes applications to run slowly, frustrating employees.

Don't get beat by the competition because technology is slowing you down! This eBook provides specific recommendations on how to improve your IT infrastructure so it supports today's data requirements.

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PAIN POINT 1 – LOSS OF REVENUE

To increase shop productivity, many service managers are turning to new and sophisticated third-party applications. To be effective these applications must have a reliable IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, this prerequisite is often overlooked.

Michael Roppo is the Director of Fixed Operations for WithumSmith+Brown, and an experienced fixed ops trainer. "One of the biggest things I see in dealerships are slowdowns and occasionally, intermittent network shutdowns," said Roppo. "These problems are mainly caused by inadequate Internet speeds and WiFi access points."

Roppo notes that although many dealers realize IT is important, many don't realize the extent of its impact. "Dealers often don't understand all the capabilities and sheer power of IT and how it can be used to support their business and improve results across the board," he said.

Bill Wittenmyer, a Partner with ELEAD1ONE, agrees. "You walk into some dealerships and there are pieces of IT equipment lying around like boat anchors," he said. ELEAD1ONE is a leading developer of CRM, BDC and marketing solutions for auto dealers. "If they have WiFi it's extremelylimited. Maybe it's in the guest lounge, but I don't see it too often in the service lane. And many of the PCs the employees use are antiquated," said Wittenmyer.

Today the majority of DMS systems, third-party software vendors and manufacturers' application platforms are cloud-based. This transfer of data both to and from the cloud requires large amounts of bandwidth.

“Some dealers are still using

consumer grade Internet,

believe it or not…"

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Ujj Nath is CEO of myKaarma, developer of a customer interaction management solution for service departments. The biggest problem Nath has observed at his clients' dealerships is slow Internet connectivity. "We've had dealerships purchase our solution, then threaten to cancel because they say it doesn't work properly," he said.

Upon investigation of these complaints, myKaarmatypically identifies inadequate Internet connectivity as the primary problem. "Some dealers are still using consumer grade Internet, believe it or not," said Nath. "When you have a 20 MB connection with 50 devices piggybacking on it, nothing's going to work."

Nath emphasizes how this can negatively impact revenue. "Everything depends on the Internet now. Dealers cannot afford to have it go down. Even credit card terminals today work off the Internet. If those go down you can't accept any payments. If a dealership doesn't have high-speed enterprise grade Internet, it's a major competitive disadvantage in my mind."

Nath shares an example of how a solid IT infrastructure can positively impact revenue. One of myKaarma's customers, a dealership in Florida, experienced a power outage due to hurricane-force winds. The phone system was down for two days as a result.

"Normally this would be a disaster for the service department, but fortunately this dealership had very good Internet," said Nath. "They could still text the customers. They communicated what was happening and continued doing business as normal."

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ELEAD1ONE also provides clients with minimum IT requirements before migration. "We had a fairly large group of 80 stores transfer to us a few years ago," said Wittenmyer. "They had to spend half a million dollars in upgrades because their system was so antiquated."

Roppo advocates dealership-wide education of the importance of IT infrastructure, so everyone can help identify problems when they occur.

"I always say the financial statement is the too-late statement," he said. "Dealers need to be more proactive in figuring out what's impeding the improvement of critical performance indicators. In many cases it's the IT; in many cases it's lack of training for people and processes, and sometimes it's both."

Roppo points out that on average, dealers use 18 percent of their IT support on a DMS. "With all the new technology out there, an ongoing training initiative becomes very important."

IS YOUR SERVICE DEPARTMENT READY?

These updates are typically performed

while the vehicle is in a service bay. This

practice is inefficient. Why use up valuable

time and space performing updates in

a service bay?

Enabling WiFi access on the lot allows

technicians to park vehicles outside while

performing vehicle system updates. This frees up the service

bays, increasing shop productivity.

The average software update can take from 30 to 60 minutes. The

time it takes to perform an update is directly dependent on

Internet speed and WiFi bandwidth.

In the next five years the practice of updating a car's software will grow at least tenfold, according to IHS Automotive. Over-the-air software updates are used for maps, apps, infotainment, telematics and electronic control units (ECU). Is your service department ready to accommodate a tenfold increase?

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PAIN POINT 2 – LOSS OF CUSTOMERS

Everyone agrees: customer retention is critical for long-term revenue growth and competitive advantage. What makes customers return to dealerships for service?

• Competitive pricing (driven by shop efficiencies)• Liking and trusting the employees• Convenience, speed and transparency

People and process training can help with customer retention, but to stay competitive dealers need to invest in new technologies. It starts with the moment the customer tries to contact the service department.

Disappearing Leads

CallRevu recently analyzed data from 960,066 calls into dealership service departments and found the following:

• 23% of incoming calls never connected with an agent• 45% of all attempted calls resulted in an appointment• 74% of connected calls resulted in a price inquiry, inventory inquiry or appointment• 18% of service calls are status checks on vehicles

That's 220,815 calls that never connected with a human being! If those callers had connected, 74% of those calls may have resulted in additional revenue.

When dealers realize they are losing this many phone leads, they often blame it on people or processes. Sometimes that is the cause, but calls that never connect with a human being often have nothing to do with process, and everything to do with a phone systems' call flow.

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A call flow defines rules such as how many times a phone extension rings, where the call gets routed if nobody answers, what happens to calls after hours and more.

Call flows are set up when the phone system is installed. An inefficient call flow emerges over time due to the following reasons:

• Employee turnover, extensions change, call groups changes

• New managers create new call flows, create loops or black holes

• Lack of training for receptionists on call routing • No tracking or management of incoming calls; what

doesn't get measured doesn't get done

Chip King is Founder and CEO of CallRevu, a leading provider of call tracking and call management tools for auto dealers. "Most customers would rather go to the dentist than call a dealership," said King. "Press one for this, two for that, get transferred three times, get placed on hold. The caller's journey in the service department dictates the likelihood of buying from there again. Dealers that can change this experience will easily gain customers from other dealerships."

King points to the 18 percent of inbound service calls that are status checks as one area where there's room for improvement. "These calls should never have to happen. Dealers need to have an outbound system, so every time a service ticket is closed the customer is updated on the status of their car."

Connecting phone leads with staff that can help them is the first step to customer retention. Once they're connected, IT can help service departments keep customers with automation and the ability to communicate with customers via methods they prefer.

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Jeff Cowan is a nationally recognized trainer and founder of PRO TALK Automotive Service Training. "More and more customers today prefer to text or email to get information. Most dealers are aware of this but even if they purchase a solution that allows them to communicate this way, they don't use it or it gets misused."

Cowan says the average dealer is five years behind where they need to be to meet customer expectations. "This is definitely an area where IT can help fill the bill," he said.

The Service Lane Experience

The next opportunity for transforming the customer experience is in the service lane. Are your customers still being greeted by an advisor using a clipboard?

Imagine that you are a loyal customer of your dealership. You are greeted by an advisor who has no clue who you are, so you are required to give your name and phone number. No recognition or appreciation is shown for the fact that you are a repeat customer. Then the advisor spends 10 minutes of your valuable time jotting down information. Then you have to wait for an estimate. Dropping off your car takes 15 minutes to half an hour!

THIS LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IS UNACCEPTABLE IF YOU WANT YOUR DEALERSHIP TO STAY COMPETATIVE

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Mobile tablet applications and new service drive technologies speed up this process for the consumer, while increasing transparency and trust.

"There are some great technologies that help to create a friendly, welcoming environment," said Cowan. "For instance, it's possible to scan a vehicle license plate as the car approaches, so by the time a customer pulls into the service lane the advisor has that person's name and history on their mobile tablet screen. Who doesn't like to be greeted by their name with a friendly smile?"

Wittenmyer points out that service generates seven to 10 times more consumer transactions per month than sales. "If dealers want to retain customers, they need to create a retail experience that attracts the same customers who are used to ordering everything online and texting to communicate," he said. "To stay competitive, dealers need to examine their service lane processes and leverage both technology and customer data."

TECH TIPS FOR IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

• Commit to automating as many processes as possible

• Mobile tablet adoption is no longer an option!

• Do your homework

• Pick the right technology for your dealership

• Ensure you have the IT backbone to support it

• Mandate usage

• Train if necessary

• Demand accountability

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PAIN POINT 3 – LOSS OF EMPLOYEE BUY-IN

Has your dealership ever purchased a new technology, only to have it rejected by employees? Unfortunately this is an all too common occurrence.

Mandating the technology and training can only go so far. If a service advisor encounters spinning wheels on his mobile tablet while checking someone in, he's not going to use it.

Once you lose employee buy-in, it's tough to get it back.

"Within six months most of the technology that's brought into the service side is not being used," said Jeff Cowan with ProTalk. "Chrysler brought out a marvelous write-up system for tablets but not all stores are using it. Same with GM's multi-point inspection software. These programs are proven to work, proven to increase upsells. But if people don't like the technology, it's dead in the water."

Ujj Nath has attempted to solve the employee buy-in problem with a provisioning phase. "After a contract is signed it takes four to six weeks to get up and running," said Nath. "One of the things we do during that time is to ensure the dealer has adequate connectivity, especially WiFi."

"There are many reasons why employees don't want to use new technologies," said Cowan. He lists the following six reasons why employees don't buy in:

• IT infrastructure is not adequate to support the application• Application design is too complicated• Application requires two to three vendors systems' to work together to be effective• Training is poor so people don't understand how to use it• Employees don't want to change• Employees are not held accountable when they don't use it

"Dealers need to address all of these potential roadblocks before they make a decision to buy something," said Cowan. "These can all be overcome, but if you have two or three of these reasons going on at the same time, you will lose employee buy-in and you've just wasted a ton of money."

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RECOMMENDATIONS

✔ Supercharge productivity✔ Improve the customer experience✔ Ensure employee buy-in

The following IT standards are the minimum required recommendations for today's auto dealership's service department. Each store's individual needs will vary based on square footage, number of employees, number of devices and number of service bays.

INTERNET

Until recently, a Small Office/Home Office Internet connection may have been sufficient for most dealerships. Not any more.

Today's dealership requires an enterprise level Internet connection. Typically this is provided by fiber optics, which delivers data at speeds ten to 100 times faster than SOHO Internet service.

Many dealers think fiber optics is too expensive, but thanks to recent deregulation and increased competition, the cost of fiber optics has dropped dramatically. In many areas a carrier can bring fiber optics right into your server room for under $1,000 per month.

Resiliency is also important. Dealers should consider having two fiber optics connections from two separate service providers; or at the minimum a fiber optics connection from one provider and a T1 connection from another provider.

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WIRELESS (WiFi)

In order to understand how much wireless coverage your dealership needs, it's important to understand how much you have now. These definitions will help you determine where you are and how much you need to upgrade.

Level 1: Shop and GuestApproximately 25 percent of dealerships are at this level. Typically this means there are anywhere from one to six wireless nodes in the store. Perhaps there are two or three in service, maybe one in sales, and maybe one in the parts department. This level is not adequate if your dealership is using mobile tablet applications or cloud-based DMS and other third-party applications.

Level 2: Data ThroughoutApproximately 70 percent of dealerships are at this level. At this level wireless access is available throughout the entire dealership. This level of coverage typically doesn't extend to the lot, although there may be some access close to the building. Depending on the size of the dealership, this type of coverage requires from six to 20 wireless access nodes.

Level 3: VoiceThis level is basically Level 2 with the addition of roaming voice capability for wireless phones. However, most people now use mobile phones, so there is less demand for this level of coverage. Only three percent of dealerships are at this level.

Level 4: Location BasedNot many dealerships are at this level yet, but this is where the industry is headed. This level provides "Big Brother" capability, or extreme high-density wireless coverage. If you're considering any type of location-based software that tracks customer and/or employee movements out on the lot and through your store, this is the level of wireless you'll need.

This level provides coverage over the entire lot, all the way to the perimeter. Location-based wireless requires a minimum of 25 access nodes per store. At about $800 per access node, this level of coverage doesn't come cheap. The wireless access nodes you purchase today should last from three to five years.

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NETWORK SWITCHES

An estimated 40 percent of dealerships have upgraded their switches in the last several years. If your dealership hasn't yet, it probably should. Many people blame slow performance on Internet, WiFi or their PCs, when it's really their switches that are slowing things down.

Historically dealerships have used switches with 100 MB of throughput per switch. Today's data demands require switches with a minimum 1,000 MB of throughput per switch. A one Gigabyte switch costs from $2,500 to $5,000 and can accommodate approximately 50 devices.

A typical dealership with 80 to 100 employees may have hundreds of connected devices. Most dealerships will need from two or four Gigabyte switches to cover the entire store, but the good news is they should last about a decade.

Buy more wireless nodes than you think

you need. The number of 'connected devices'

has more than doubled in the last three years, and is expected to more

than double again in the next three years.

Before investing in new wireless, hire an

IT vendor to conduct a site survey of your store. This will give

you a "heat map" that shows where you have the strongest coverage

and where you need more.

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CALL FLOW

Twenty-three percent of inbound calls to the service department never get connected with a person who can help them. How many of these people do you think will call back?

Fortunately, fixing call flow is not that difficult. Steps to take include:

1) Schedule a meeting that includes managers from all departments to discuss the current call flow. What does it look like? Do you have a map? If not, create one so you can visually see the holes.

2) Design a call flow that is synergistic with your service processes. Don't let phone extensions ring more than four times. Avoid sending callers into voice mail. Create multi-line hunt groups to increase the chances of someone picking up.

If your dealership has a Unified Communications Platform (UCP), use a feature that will ring both a desk phone and cell phone at the same time. Create a process for assigning and re-assigning extensions when employees leave, as well as adding and deleting extensions.

It's important that the people involved with creating the call flow are familiar with dealership operations and processes. This is why managers must get involved.

3) Assign a keeper of the call flow. Someone has to be responsible for approving all requested changes to the call flow. If a new manager wants calls to be routed a certain way that does not fit in with the process, don't let it happen. Also, the keeper should conduct an annual review to keep the call flow clean.

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CONCLUSION

Service department profitability relies on automating processes and focusing on the customer experience. As dealers seek new applications and technologies to help them, it's important not to overlook IT requirements.

Your dealership's IT infrastructure is the backbone upon which your entire dealership runs. Ignoring it can reduce productivity, decrease customer retention and lose employee buy-in. Before investing in any new technology, be sure to ask the vendor what the IT requirements are for the system to work at maximum efficiency.

You may also want to consult an experienced IT vendor to conduct an assessment of your current infrastructure, to see if it's adequate for the applications you're currently running.

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Dealership employees supported

Number of years managing Auto Dealer IT Operations

Auto Dealerships, Body Shops and Heavy Truck Dealersunder support

OEMs represented across our client base

Days a week we are open for support including evenings and holidays

Decades of expertise with manufacturer interfacessuch as; CDK – Dealer Daily – NetStar – ISPI – More!

The Helion Value

It is Helion’s mission to be your IT provider of choice by designing and maintaining scalable

technology systems that allow you to focus on running your business.

Reliability: Less down time (More up time) keeps your entire team focused on selling and servicing vehicles.

Scalability: We will provide you the technology platform that is flexible to perform as you grow business

Productivity: We will provide increased productivity as there is a direct correlation between healthy technology systems and organizational efficiency gains.

Data Security: We implement the latest technology to ensure your systems are secure and compliant.

Best Practices: We will implement best practices to provide uniform results through our knowledge and technology. We will eliminate the hassle of multiple vendor relations, and will manage them for you.

heliontechnologies.com

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SERVICE DEPARTMENT PAIN POINTS SOLVED · 2016. 12. 3. · 3 SERVICE DEPARTMENT PAIN POINTS SOLVED...

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