Fixed Ops Roundtable Discussion: How to Score Agents?

Welcome back to the Fixed Ops Roundtable. We are joined now by an expert panel including Sarah Hoagie from Elite bdc, Scott Davis from a company called Volley that is hosting this panel. Kimberly Cobb from the Cooper Automotive Group in Oklahoma, and our friend ed Roberts, the COO of Bozard Ford Lincoln in St. Augustine, Florida. Everybody, welcome back to the Fixed Ops Roundtable.

Hey Ted, good to be here.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you for the invitation, Ted.

Everybody, I think we have an exciting topic today and again, thank you to Valley for hosting it. The number one BDC engine. The topic is what are the specific things you listen to on every call to score your agents. So I think it's a fascinating topic. And Kimberly, if you don't mind, I want to come to you first, kind of lead things off today as managers. Do you have a specific scorecard that you keep or you use to score the agents or is it not a scorecard and something more of a feeling?

Well, Ted, it's, it's something that's evolved over time. We started this fixed, centralized, fixed operations BDC about five years ago and it, it was just part of the process. And we're extremely process driven. And I have 10 things that I want touched on or covered or said or felt even in each phone call by the customers that is relayed by the BDC agent. I can go into them if you want me to.

You know what, I would. Yes, let's cover some of that low hanging fruit. Absolutely. Yes.

Okay. To me, an upbeat. The number one thing is the upbeat friendly greeting that has some enthusiasm behind it. The worst thing you can get, you know, is ABC Motors. This is Kim. How can I help you? You know, so I, I score that heavily. A positive confirmation after the customer states what it is they need to have done. And we use a lot of power words and phrases like absolutely, it's my pleasure, you've reached the exact right person to take care of that. Something that the customer doesn't hear anywhere else when they call for service or help or any kind of assistance. The third thing is we inquire if the caller has visited our dealership before and absolutely either thank them for their return business or thank them for choosing us. Then obviously to gather the customer information and then determine what service the customer would like to come in for after that's done to keep a relationship between the customer and the dealer. We try to get every customer back with their same advisor if there's been a change in staff or whatever. So we do determine the advisor that they worked with. On a previous visit or one that they prefer to work with, if there is one. One of the most important things we do after that is set a time frame expectation for that visit. Because what you don't want is somebody coming in for a, you know, main shop or some type of repair thinking they can wait on it for an hour and a half and they're going to be out the door. We try to make sure that the customers understand that their, quote, appointment is actually with their service advisor to check in and go over the needs that they're visiting for that day. It's not when the vehicle's going to go in the shop and things like that. When it comes to repair and maintenance and, you know, maintenance is a different ball game, but repair and diagnosis are definitely. You've got to set the time frame. We determine their transportation needs, whether they'll be waiting, they need to take advantage of our shuttle, or whether we have loaners or rentals available. Then they determine the appointment date and time. And then we recap these appointment things with the customer. And one thing that I am a stickler on is I. I like to have the customer's name used a minimum of two times in the appointment process, Whether it's first name, whether it's miss or mister. I want that used two to three times in that appointment process to make it personal. And you know, that that coincides with that power word in the beginning. And when they hang up, they're thinking, that was different. And that's what I want. I want them to come in thinking that was an awesome experience that I bet the rest is going to be too.

Kimberly, if I can ask as a follow up, how long did it take to develop this, these paraphrases, this list, and, and how do you teach that? How do you train that? Because, you know, I think, I think Sarah will agree that's something we'd want every dealer doing.

Absolutely. It did take a little bit, but honestly, Ted, I kind of did it right from the begin. It was something that I, you know, as a previous service manager for different brands myself, things that I had incorporated in my departments. And so I carried them over, but I kind of amped them up quite a bit that, that power word. We have lists and we'll even have games. You know, guys, here's three. Use these three today just to get them to step outside the norm. Because every now and then I'll hear all day long, of course, my pleasure. And I'm thinking, you know what, let's break it up a little and so we'll play a little game with it and they have fun. The customers, you know, get a kick out of it if somebody says incredible or something like that. So it did take a little bit to refine it and to train on it. Every one of my agents, they do, along with, you know, mirroring someone sitting and watching observation, they get one on one time with me. And I have a process manual that has every bit of information that they could possibly ever want or need at a fingertip. So. And these power words are in there. This process is in there. The way to, you know, avoid maybe a phone call that's not going as great as you would like it to be. You know how to handle that customer. So, you know, for me, everything is so process driven and it has worked really well.

Sarah, you work with a lot of dealerships, some of the best dealerships around the country. What are your thoughts on a scorecard?

I. I have, we have a scorecard. If I install a BDC or train an educated bdc, we always discuss what items need to be covered on a scorecard. And I love what Kim said because every single item that she pointed out, those are exactly what we look for when we are grading calls as well. So I'm going to take Ken's scorecard, but I'm going to add a couple items that we also do within our call center. So first of all, we mystery shop all of our agents. We don't really let them know when it's coming. It's very off the cuff. I will tell you. They're mystery shops for us. And, and Kim, maybe this is part of your compensation, but I look at it that you should be graded on in your performance or your, your bonus structure should be based on a mystery shop and what your calls sound like. That's the only way sometimes agents perform is if you make it part of their compensation. If not, they don't find it to be as important as you do. So if you want your goals to align with your agents, you need to make is structured with their compensation. So I, Kim, I love everything that you said. I'm like thumbs up because that's exactly what I'm looking for. I want someone enthusiastic. I want the dealers and the customers who are listening to the call say, wow, that's the place I want to go back for, for service. That's the way I want to feel when I'm calling into a business. I want to feel like I was well taken care of. And let's be really, really honest, I think a Lot has changed since COVID when it comes to taking care of people and being there for them. So for us, for our agents, there's a couple things that we look for. A. Is the call articulate? Are you articulate? Is there any background noise? And do you sound empathetic? Because let's be really honest, customers don't mind buying a car, but they certainly mind servicing it. And I'm a former BMW service manager. Those repair orders 15 years ago were $1,000 a car every time they came in. So we have to make sure that we sound empathetic to their needs. The other thing I noticed, I live in Orlando, but I have a 585 area code in my phone. What we have really noticed is many people throughout the country now are transient. They're not from their area, they're from another area. And none of us want to change our phone numbers. Right. So it's almost like changing your Social Security number at this point. So we make sure that we verify their first name, their last name, because last names are changing all the time. Some of us are using our middle name on social media because you've had some changes going on in your personal life. So we have to make sure we know their first name, their last name, the best phone number to reach them for service, updates for their car when it's in for service, as well as an email address and as well as their home address. The main reason why we all know for service csi, that the phone numbers and the email addresses change. No, none of us do that when we're afraid we're going to have a bad CSI score. Please. I was a former service manager, service adviser. I knew when I had to change contact information so I wouldn't get a bad CSI score. So we make sure that we. Ed's laughing. He's like, I know. I have no idea what she's talking about. We make sure we have all relevant contact information. We also take a look and go, is this going to need a part? There is nothing worse than someone who has already come in for diagnosis. But maybe we didn't order the part or they want a part, but we haven't diagnosed it yet. I don't want to bring a customer in who has already been in here last week and have them come back in, and then we don't have the part. That is just catastrophic for CSI and for a bad review. So we look and go, okay, if they're going to come in and do something for tires, do we need to order the tires or are they bringing the tires in and B, if not, do I have to do a warm transfer call to parts to get the parts ordered for tires. You can do preventative damage control here. So it's all about preventing and providing what you consider to be. We're not average bdc, we're elite. So we have to show that we are elite. Okay, no one wants average. So do they need to bring tires or do we need to order them for them? Most importantly, with a drop off, our perception of drop off is we're going to drop off the car and it's going to be dropped off for the whole day. I can't even tell you how many customers we now thank you for the tools of Ollie. Thank you for doing that for us, Scott. But if a customer chooses a drop off, we have a text message that goes out that says you'll be leaving the vehicle with us for the day. We will have it diagnosed after five and speak to your advisor about an update after that. That has put out so many fires because with Folly's help we can actually see if they opened up the text message. Super, super great because it prevents all of those fires. So we describe what a drop off is and that you'll be leaving it with us and we may just get through the diagnosis but you're leaving the car with us for the day. A drop off is not a waiter. So I'm, I laugh Kim because Kim's probably like, yep, I know exactly what that's like. And Ed's like, this is my everyday at work. So those are a couple things that we review. And then also some of the franchises out there offer valet services. So you have to make sure that if you offer valet services, do we know what address we're picking up the car at? Do we know where to go or who to get the keys from? We have some high end people out there. If a BMW, former BMW service manager, am I picking up your car from you, from your workplace, from your secretary? Where am I picking up the car? Most importantly, I want to make sure that they can assume control over the call and that they don't need to get in touch with another service advisor or service agent. That we're keeping everything with us as much as possible before we turn over that call. And if we do, it's a warm transfer. If you don't know what a warm transfer is, that means you're calling someone, making sure they're on the other end of the phone before you are just blind transferring the call over. And you don't even Know if somebody has picked up the phone yet. I always like to make sure, Ed, you might like this, that we, our goal is to make sure that we're increasing the labor hours per repair order. I'm a former service manager. I want to make sure that I, if I'm going to get them in, I'm going to get them in for everything while they're in. So did, did we check your car for a recall? Has all, have all recalls been done? And if there's anything that was declined in the past, is there an opportunity for me to add that in or. I know you're, you're booking for a 45,000 mile oil change, but you're really due for a service too. So why don't we schedule you for a higher maintenance while you're here? It's very hard to do that if the expectation, like Kim said, the expectation is that they came in for an hour. But if we have the opportunity to get them for two hours, do it while they're here and not after they've already arrived because the likelihood is very slim. Time is something that we all cannot put a dollar value on and we have to get them while we can for their time. And then just reviewing everything. I can't even tell you how many service customers we say, when you arrive, make sure you pull up to the door. I have found if you physically, mentally drive them to the service building, they are emotionally and mentally prepared as to what needs to happen. Especially in those northeastern stores where they're driving in the middle of winter in a snowstorm, if they know that they can pull right up to the garage and that they can pull right. And that's all set. And absolutely some of your states have inspections. Please, please make sure that if you do have a state inspection, we do add that on to the states that require inspections so that the customer doesn't need to come back next two weeks from now and get their state inspection covered. Get it all done in advance. So those are. So it's a lot, a lot of people say, well, that's about a five minute service call. Yes. If you have done your service call, you should be on the phone with the customer for five minutes because that's relationship selling.

I am taking a lot of notes. Sarah and Kimberly talk about a scorecard. This is great. Now, Ed, okay, I gotta come to you because you've got a very busy shop. You've got. I know you'll give me the exact number. It's over a hundred technicians now, plus you've got the 10 mobile units going up to what, 45, 46 units this spring and this year, Ed. And you're out there meeting customers on their terms. Ed, your thoughts on the scorecard and is it different at Bozard?

Well, I got to tell you that both of these gals are engaged. And you brought some A players here for this because, I mean, just listen to what Cam said a few minutes ago about using some power words and whatever else where that comes from. What tells me is they are listening to phone calls because you hear someone that's having fun doing those things, when they're having fun doing those things, those things come out naturally. And then when you can train that for others to do it, they start having fun. It becomes part of it. So I won't rehash all of what they talk about. And it's all very valid stuff and very good stuff, and I love hearing it. The. Some of the things that I won't talk about, that we do, in addition, just for efficiency, is we use our security cameras to put a television up in our BDC so they can look up and see if the advisor's on the phone, if they're with a customer, whatever the situation may be, so that they're not calling that customer or calling an advisor, trying to get them while they have somebody else there, or maybe they're not even at their desk. And it helps with that one transfer that Sarah talked about. And if. If we see that they're with someone, we don't want to interrupt that transaction, because that's a transaction happening in itself, and it's a live transaction happening in person. But this is the introduction to our store, so we want it to be as seamless as possible. And so having that information there for them to see it is key. And then Sarah talked about let them know where to go. We have three different service drives here, whether it's Lincoln, Ford, or it's Quick Lane, and that's education. And they could show up here because these places are intimidating. They don't come here all the time. They come here once, maybe twice a year. They need to know where to go. And it's a. It's a much smoother transaction when they come in educated and they're prep, and they know where to go. They know who they're asking for, and. And those things are instrumental, and those things stick. When you go back to what Kim said about making that connection, making it personal, when you make it personal, the caller gets more engaged, and you can make those things stick. So all those things that was talked about is key. I had all kinds of stuff written, written down and done a phenomenal job of hitting those things. And if, if you listen to calls, if you have a BDC and you listen to calls, these things will be highlighted. You will have calls that you could use as training tools of what to do. I don't recommend using the ones that don't go so well of what not to do because you're really bringing somebody else down there. But you can talk about that in a verbiage standpoint. You don't have to replay those. But the ones that go, great, that's a great accolade for the person that, that did that call and it shows the others what's possible. And so don't be afraid to use those things and use them as training tools. Outside of that one of them, I forget which one it was, was ask for the business. I think it was Sarah talked about if they had something that was recommended before, that's her opportunity. And hey, I noticed that we looked at your vehicle before. We're making, we're strengthening that connection. It may sound like we're asking for more money, but we're strengthening that connection because we're saying, hey, I know he was in last time. We, we told you getting close on tires. Have you done anything with that yet? If so, whatever it may be, it's about making that connection where they say, hey, they care about my well being. And when they do that, it's not selling them anything, it's helping them buy what they need.

Scott Davis, you put together a powerhouse panel. I don't recall a panel on BDC being anywhere near what you've assembled here today, Scott. So congratulations and what a great topic on the scorecard.

Yeah, these guys are incredible, right? You know they would be, but they're incredible.

Yeah, yeah. Amazing stuff. Now I would assume, Kimberly, you've got, you have used and used the volley platform and I'm going to ask Sarah the same question. I think I know the answer. But Kimberly, you're a client of volleyball.

I absolutely am and a very proud one. We had. I just finished my year over year numbers, you know, obviously, because last month we started a new year and wow, my increases were dramatic and it was one of those type of increases where I didn't just send that email out to a few of the key players, you know, the CEOs. I think everybody in my organization got a copy of what this fixed operations BDC was able to accomplish this year for them.

And Sarah, how do you know Volley. And how do you utilize Volley?

Volley was the third telephone system I had used in our call center. And I will be honest, it took me a year to make a decision which I. That's a long time for me. For someone that doesn't have any patience to. Scott knows me fairly well. He knows I have no patience. But I, after two frustrating telephone CRM systems, I really wanted something that was a high level amount of accountability, showed me everything I needed to know. Scheduled reports. To me, they care enough to have people who will walk you through and educate you with account managers, show you how to use the software, teach you how to set it up. Most importantly, the telephone system has yet to go down. And let's be honest, that is the livelihood of any business is making sure your telephone systems are always up. And kudos to you, Scott, because they have triple backup redundancy in place. And I have to give credit where credit's due because anytime we have asked for, hey, can, can we, can you do this for us or what do you think about this? Usually within a very short period of time, it is already taken care of. And between service and training, what I always say about telephone and CRM systems is if you want people to use it, you have to have good support and you have to have good education. And kudos to Scott because you have both.

Wow.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Kimberly. Let me jump ahead a little bit, Kimberly, if I can, you know, we talk about the scorecard. I took a lot of notes on what everybody is saying here. Amazing information. Kimberly, what are some of the things you listen for that indicate an agent may not be performing well on calls? What are some of the, the tells.

The telltale signs, you know, and I'm sure Sarah is going to agree with me. Hesitation, not feeling confidence in the. If the agent's not feeling confidence in the call, then, you know, they, they need a little help. Dead air, like dead air is the bane of my existence, that it just goes right through me.

I want to. I'm going to quote you on that. That's a great quote because I hate it.

A high amount of transfers. If, if I think Sarah mentioned it earlier, if those calls, we're there to keep those calls from going down there. So what we need to do is if somebody is transferring a lot, it means they're not really a hundred percent confident on how to handle certain aspects of the job. And so I need to work on that. Someone not following process. If I listen and you know, my little, my little 10 things, then we're going to have a talk and then the length of the call. If, if these calls are excessively long, if they're keeping a customer on hold, trying to get a hold of an advisor for something and not just understanding to take the lead themselves and say it appears everyone is with a customer. Let me take a message and we'll get back to you. Those are the things that let me know. Maybe that agent needs a little bit more one on one. Maybe that agent needs one of my rock stars to mentor them for a few weeks. And that is always a great idea. And you know what I will also do is pull them in and do a one on one with me. Hey, let's listen to some calls and we'll do it blind. I will not, you know, preach select phone calls. We'll do it completely blind. I'll let them choose them. Okay. Pick five of those. And when we do that together, it is such a gratifying experience for them to know that I'm in it with them. I'm not above telling them what to do. I'm here to do it with them and show them how to do.

Love it. Great checklist. Sarah, let me ask you the same question. Things that you listen for that indicate the agent is not performing well.

I have to give kudos to Kim. Excellent job. I do, I do want to do a couple different things. A, I just did an exercise with my entire call center today and I said, everybody close your eyes. I am going to put a stopwatch on. When you believe you have hit 30 seconds, I want you to raise your hand. You're going to have half of the class raise their hand. At 15 seconds, a couple hit the 30 second mark and a couple hit the 45 second mark at 30 seconds is where your customers are hanging up going, they forgot all about me and they're not coming back. The people who are picking up, they're. They were raising their hands before 30 seconds. That's because they have no patience. The people that have no patience are never going to make it to 30 seconds on hold. So you have to be cognizant of how long is the 30 second hold. The people that make it past like the 45 seconds, they have a ton of patience. That is 25% of our customers now. They're so used to getting everything that they need at their fingertips whenever they want. So, A, did you put your customer on hold for too long? B, when I meet like dealerships and I can see that they're trying to push a sales BDC agent into Service or a service BDC into sales. The first thing I say is, I don't mind you guys trying that, but let's be honest. How come your sales consultants are not in the service department booking repair orders, and how come your service advisors are not outselling cars? It's a very specific job, and you can try to have them do both. Some people really can do both. They deserve to be compensated for doing both. But you don't have sales consultants being service advisors for a reason. That's because it's a completely separate job. It's completely different. So those are. Those are some of the things that we take a look for. Like this is when you have not done a good job, you left someone on to hold for too long. I also have learned through training and education, if you're going to train somebody, have them learn how to do the computer portion of it separately and the telephone portion of it separately. So that would mean be on the phone, but we'll have a separate person or separate trainer do all the computer work. I want you to focus on the phone. Have somebody then flip, have them do all the computer work so they can learn the computer portion of it, but have them listen to the telephone call so that way they get to learn those two separate functions individually, and you'll have a much stronger agent.

Ed Roberts, Great information here.

It's, it's. It's good stuff. And, and one of the elements that we do, and all these guys are touching on stuff that, hey, if the audience takes half of this and goes back and does something with it, they'll. They'll grow from it. Our BDC manager is inside. We're in house BDC or BDC managers inside the bdc. And we're always listening to demeanor and tone and all those elements so that we don't get 10 calls down. And where we would miss those opportunities, because that's our introduction to our store, we were able to intervene in that instantly, maybe even in that same phone call or maybe call that customer back. And so there's opportunity to train often, early and often. And when you do those things, you intensify the level of what's in the room. And then if you are listening to calls, you have the opportunity to have the call of the month. And yes, it is random. You're not gonna listen to all of them, but it creates a little bit of a competitive atmosphere where they're chasing it. And when they're chasing it, that's. That's when we all win.

Scott, I think you'd agree that it's that, that body language and that tone of voice over the phone that are so much more important than just simply the words. It's not what you say, but it's, it's how you say it and all the things that we're hearing here today.

Yeah, I mean, no question. And we're working on a product to help programmatically score some calls so they can quickly listen to what they need to and, and save them time in there. And so we've listened to a lot of calls. I can tell you the tone really matters, the speed at which they're going. Are you slowing down enough just so you know you can listen? Those calls convert better. You know, we can tell I'll be redoing my 10 million call study on the next round table. But those really matter. I guess the last point, because I can't add anything that these guys are these three superstars already said it's really, really, really, really hard to listen to yourself on a phone call. And, and it's not meant to embarrass anyone or, or anything like that. If, if you're not regularly coaching your agents by listening to calls with them, you're, you're, you're not only you could be helping the dealer, but, but you could help these people. You know, Ed talked about how these are entry level jobs for, you know, that's, that's their way into the dealership. So by you not listening to these calls to help them be better at their job, you know, you're hurting them as well. It's so hard for people to hear themselves on the phone. It'll be hard for me to replay this recording after, after the show. I can't wait. But you need to take the time to do it. If you're not, you're, you're doing, you're doing better for the dealership and you're doing much better for the employee. So.

Well, everybody, I have to tell you that over the last two years, the phones are the number one topic at the Fixed ops roundtable. Number one far and away. We hear it all the time. And we have CEOs of companies who, I recall the CEO of an OEM on the show recently said, you know what? I went to call so and so dealership, one of their dealers. And we need someone to pick up the phone at that dealership. And it is so important. So Scott, tell us a little bit about Volley that you are the number one BDC engine continuing to grow, make great strides. How does our audience reach out to You, Scott, to learn more about Volley, the volley platform, because you've got some of the, not not just the greatest, but the latest out there in terms of resources to help dealers.

Yeah, thanks. Volley is BDC software for automotive dealers and of course automotive call centers that, that for those dealers who don't want to make those calls. Sales and service BDCs, it's an all in one solution where we manage the data, we help them campaign the data inside and out. So on an inbound call it'll pop who the customers, who the customer is which will, which will improve the experience. On an inbound call, when they're not an inbound call, it'll serve up the dealer or the, the dealer's customer who they're they most want them to call next. So it's an all in one solution. They can contact us at go to valley.com they can call me or email me scottally.com and that was just great to be on today, Ted. Thank you.

And you see all the information on the ticker down below here on, on their event today. So Scott, I want to thank you for hosting this panel. I know you're coming back to do that million call study, but Scott, I gotta tell you, you almost have to come back and do this panel part two again because this is that good. So let's do an extra, let's do an extra panel at that next event because we got to bring everybody back because this, this is some of the best that we've seen.

So yeah, no question. These guys are incredible.

I want to thank Sarah Hoagie. Sarah, great to have you on the.

Round table and hope to see you soon. I know, hope to meet you soon.

Yes, absolutely. And Kimberly Grubb from Cooper Automotive Group, thank you so much for all you do for our industry.

It's my pleasure.

Great work and great, great resources you're sharing. And Ed Roberts, you know, continuing to be better and better. So thank you for you do, my friend.

We learn together. Thank you guys for being on here.

Yeah, we do. And Scott Davis@valley.com Best in the industry. Everybody reach out to Scott and on behalf of the Fix Ops roundtable, everybody, thank you for all you do for our industry.

Thanks guys. See you.

Bye everybody.