Boosting Customer Satisfaction: Insights from Don Andres

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another volley rally. Today I have Don Andres with me. Don, how are you doing today?

Great. Great. Jake, thanks for the invite. Excited to be here.

Awesome. Well, we're excited to have you. You have a lot of good insights to share. Don is the author of why Auto Serves Departments Fail to Grow. He entered the Automotive Industry in 1979. He, he's worked in roles of general manager, fixed ops director, service manager. He's worked with a lot of, in a lot of very large dealer groups, a lot of the top 50 dealer groups. Don is going to talk to us today about a lot of the things that your agents should be aware of or on the phone. And Don now owns a successful automotive service consulting business called Auto and SCT Consulting and Training. And yeah, so Don, let's dive right into this. What is one of the common stress points that both Service B2C agents and Service advisors can struggle with when engaging with customers on the phone?

Yeah, it's always challenging with especially BDC agents, which, by the way, you know, in our, when I was writing service, we wished we had a bdc, right? We had the phones ringing, we had customers coming in. So we value BDCs a lot when it comes to that. But you know, the big issue that I think customers have, they just want to get on and off the phone, right? They want their date and time and get off the phone. And the truth of it is we want valuable information on that phone call so that we can actually start to work around their schedule and allow that to make sense when they come in. One of the frustrating things I think that happens with customers is they end up with a date and time that doesn't make sense to them. And the end result is they come in on their time. We see this a lot where a BDC agent has done a great job of understanding what they're coming in for, whether it's just maintenance, oil change, or whether they're coming in with a real concern like a check engine light. But we gave them a date and time that was open on the schedule on a day they chose to come in, but it didn't necessarily work with them. And so invariably they're showing up at a time that worked for them. They had to get to work by 9. So there they are at 8:15 in the morning with a 9:30 appointment time.

Yeah, it's, it's almost like people, you know, they want to be on their own schedule, but they also tend to think last minute with some of this stuff, don't they?

Really do especially not so much emergencies like a check in July or something of that nature. But clearly with maintenance, which is what, maybe 50, 60% of the business that comes in on a daily basis, it tends to be maintenance. And people tend to think last minute, I'm leaving to go out of town, oh my gosh, I got to get my oil changed. So whether they just go, we've all been there. Yeah, I have been there. I mean I've gotten in my wife's car and go, honey, you really have this many miles on your car. We're overdue for an oil change. So yeah, in that respect, they sometimes will go online to the scheduler and just click the next available slot. But in most cases they call and, and so now we're, we're trying to work them in because they put the US in that position. But invariably this is what ultimately creates some of the stress and the chaos in the service drive with service advisors. So they love BDC agents, but now suddenly they're like, really? Did the BDC load us up with this much work this morning on customers coming in? And it's not, it's just that the customer is coming in on their time as opposed to what they were scheduled for.

So then if the customer tends to be rushed, how does that affect the agents and the, and the advisors? Does that make them go faster too?

Yeah. So it's really an interesting scenario when you and I talk often about service managers watching their service drive in the morning. Many managers want to jump in and help, whether helping valet cars, whether they're even greeting customers. But sometimes you just stand and watch. What ultimately happens is that a customer gets greeted and they asked, did we have you scheduled today? Oh yeah. And they give them their name and they go, wait a minute, I have you at 9:30. And I go, yeah, I got to be work at 9 so I'm a little early. And in their minds they're kind of oblivious to that. But now the writer knows. Well my real 815 is somewhere in line. So I don't necessarily like you that much in this moment. Right. So I go fast, fast. I moved through the write up process and get them on their way. The customer is oblivious to it. They, they appreciate that and, and they got on their way to work and now the writer, you know, didn't really connect with the customer, didn't really engage, didn't talk about what's going to happen today. They just moved through it that pace. Right now they go to the real 8:15 and go hide. We have you Scheduled today? Yeah. Why did I make an appointment if I'm just gonna have to wait? I gotta get to work. No problem. The writer says I'll go ahead and go fast. But now it's reversed. The customer doesn't necessarily connect with the writer. Why? They're already a little frustrated. So now the writer goes just as fast, doesn't spend too much time. Engagement. And the end result is later in the day when we're really calling for that additional needed services to be authorized that we discovered on a multi point inspection. We haven't really connected with the customer. They're not really sure who you are. And so that engagement causes more no's and more declined services. And all because of something as innocent as just going too fast in that morning write up.

I think a lot of times, and I hate to say this, and you're going to know exactly what I'm saying. I think a lot of times too people go into the dealership expecting to be frustrated, don't you think?

Yeah, yeah. I mean they hang on to bad experiences a long time. Now what's interesting about that is you get an opportunity to surprise them, right. So if you're a dealership and there are dealerships out there that take a high level of preparation before the door opens up. So they're going to take those appointments from the day before, they're going to look at those, create a pre work order, they're going to look at the history and see what the customer is in for before. Were there some services authorized? Did they do the work, did they decline the work? And they're going to prepare for that conversation and they're also going to know how the car is going to move through the shop that day. So now when you're greeting somebody that's just expecting another write up and you go, hey, thanks for being on time today, we're totally prepared for you. Here's what's going to happen today. And they pause and their shoulders drop and they go wow. Especially if you greet them with, you know, their name. Mrs. Smith, thanks for being here today. My name's Don, we talked on the phone. I'm totally prepared for you today. Let's review what you're coming in for and then I have a couple of conversations. Want to talk to you about, I want to do a walk around with you. And then by the way, here's my anticipated time for your vehicle to be completed today. They're not hard to shock and awe because of so many previous disengagement conversations. So once the Dealership figures it out, puts a process in place. Almost immediately, they start to have really positive customer satisfaction ratings and more importantly, even customer engagement. They're just pleasantly surprised.

People want to be, people want to be happy. You know, we just need to take away some of the frustrations that they, that they feel when, when they go to the dealership and also when they call into the dealership. So I guess, you know, what does an agent need to be focused on during the call to help prevent some of that stress and chaos when they're, when they're scheduling the calls?

Yeah, that's a great point. So in my training with bdc, agents and I get asked, come into dealerships and, and work in the service department and then also work with the bdc. And so there's a couple of things that I typically are going to talk about we want to get accomplished on the call. One, we do not want to start off with a date and time. The customer wants to get that date and time and get off the phone. So we want to know that that's the last thing in the conversation we want to talk about. So things like, when would you like to come in? What's good for you? Are typically phrases we wouldn't want to start with or have early in that conversation. Instead, we really want to verify who we're talking to. Have they been in for service before? Verify a couple of the most important things that, which vehicles are coming in for, and then talk about the prime concern. Now, if it's just an oil change, great. But if it gets into any type of diagnosis and they say, I got a check engine light, I got a noise in the front end, we want to take a moment to go. Let's, if you don't mind, let's talk about that check engine light for just a moment. Is it staying on? Did it come on and now is off. Is it flashing? So we want to get a little bit of that information. If it's a noise, you might say noises are sometimes tough to diagnose. If you don't mind, what's the best way for me to duplicate that noise so that the technician can hear it and then make the, the necessary repair? So something as innocent as those conversations allows the quality of that prime concern to be written up. And then we want to make that really important thing. Hey, it's a big deal to us that you're not late to work just to bring your vehicle in for service. So if you don't mind me asking, what time do you start work in the morning? Oh, I started at 9 o'. Clock. Great. How far is work from the dealership? I don't know. You're about 15 minutes. Well, now I'm going to do the math and I'm going to know that I need to spend 15 minutes with him as well. So I'm going to make sure I'm looking for 8:15 and 8:30. I might even go as far as to say where. Is somebody following you down or were you taking advantage of our complimentary shuttle? What were your plans today? No, I'm going to have somebody follow me down. These are all things that are natural, easy conversations over the phone that puts the service department in a great position to be successful. We now know that they want to take advantage of the shuttle. We know they're about 15 minutes away. We know we want to spend 15 minutes. And so I'm going to be now offering a time that makes sense to them and it may not necessarily be the day they were looking for. They, they might want to come in tomorrow. But I don't have an 8:15 and 8:30. But I do have one on Thursday. I do have one on Friday. So I may say I do have an 8:15 on Thursday or an 8:30 on Friday. What would you prefer? So I've done the math in my mind based on really important criteria and that is working around their busy schedule. So it becomes pretty powerful. It allows then for everybody to be wide open. We know they're taking a shuttle, so now we get to even prepare for that as well. And by the way, when you ask what time you start work in the morning, Jake, you learn a lot about somebody. You learn they're retired. You learn they're a stay at home mom, but they have children, they got to get on the bus and off to school. You learn that they are an afternoon shift. You learn all sorts of things. And now you start to realize if somebody starts at 6 in the morning, you go, well we don't open till 7:30. Let me ask, what time do you get off? I get off at 3:30. How far is work from dealership? I don't need about 40 minutes. Well, I do have, and now I've done the math. I do have an appointment at 4:45 or at 4:00 or something of that nature. 4:15. And it might be much easier for to drop the vehicle off after work and then you can plan out your morning. You don't have to interrupt your morning just to bring your car in for service. These are conversations that BDC agents are now having that they're working around the customer's life. By the way, many customers will pause and go. Nobody ever has cared about that before. Well, it's a big deal to us personally here at Blank Motors. So, so, so these are, I think, training initiatives on the BDC side that now puts that writer into a really, really positive situation. They're coming in on the right time because it worked for them. Does that make sense?

Oh, it totally does. And one of the things that Scott, you know, Scott Davis with Volley often says is service is a guaranteed transaction. They have to go somewhere. So let's make them enjoy doing business with you. Right?

Yeah, yeah. And it's not hard. I mean there are so many great initiatives happening out there now. Pickup and delivery is amazing and there's now companies that you can hire. So you're not having to necessarily hire people, just do pickup and delivery. You're. There's companies that will do that for you and that's incredibly powerful. Obviously, mobile service has really taken a foothold, especially on the Ford dealerships that really made that initiative happen. And these are, these are things that are working around customers lives. But I still say, you know, those people that are coming to the store that we want to have time to engage with, the valuing the phone call becomes incredibly powerful.

Absolutely. Well, thanks so much. I mean, honestly, that was probably more than we initially bit off with, you know, some of these, you know, what are, what are some of the keys to keep in mind on the call and when you're writing up these appointments. But there's a lot that we could talk about and I'm sure that we're going to bring you back for another, another session here at some point. But if anyone wants to get a hold of you, they want some more advice. Want to pick your brain. How, what would be the, what would be the best way to get you?

Sure. My, my website's easy and it's auto sct consulting.com auto sct consulting.com and my contact information, my cell phone's right there. You can certainly reach out and call and I'll always spend time on the phone working through are struggling with doesn't always have to be a service visit. I can literally just talk on the phone as well.

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Don for taking the time. We really appreciate it. And for anyone tuning in, let us know in the comments if you have any questions or if there's anything else that you'd like us to ask. Don. And besides that, hope you all have a fantastic day.

Thanks again for the invite, Jake. Appreciate it.