How Volie Helps Gaudin Ford and Ford Country Reach Their Goals

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another volley rally. Very excited to. To do this one. Today we have Wesley, Greg, and Tom Murphy with God in Ford, in Ford Country. Thanks, guys, so much for joining me today.

Thank you.

Absolutely. So, Wesley and Tom, before we dive into the questions about, you know, working with Volley, can you guys just. What do you guys do with the stores for everyone?

Tom, you want to take it first?

Yes. I'm the remote services and BDC manager at Ford Country.

Awesome. Wesley.

Yes. I'm Wesley Gregg, the general manager of both Ford country and God and Ford here in Southern Nevada, Las Vegas.

Awesome. Well, really, really appreciate you guys taking the time here. So diving into this, Wesley, one of your goals here was to gain visibility into the bdc. I know talking with Scott Davis from the volley team, you and him, and had a couple of conversations about that. Can you talk about that motivation and you know how that's worked for you?

Yeah, no, Scott and I had a great conversation, and he just has a tremendous grasp of operations within a dealership. And so when I heard you built this software, I think I found him at NADA last year, if I recall. Right. In 2023. And. And I was expressing to him our BDC and our service department, they do such a tremendous job back there, but I feel like I wasn't supporting them enough that they didn't have the right technologies to be able to be really efficient in their jobs. And I couldn't figure out if we needed more people or less people. And that's when he kind of walked me through Bali and all that. It's offerings to the store. So we can better monitor this. And really, when you look at it scale, I mean, you're talking like, you know, was about 8,500 phone calls coming into our service centers every single month or generating, you know, 14, 1500 appointments a month. But we don't have really good line of sight and we didn't have really good understanding of the data that it's throwing off. And so volley really provided a nice solution for us to better manage that portion of our business.

What has been. Oh, sorry.

No, nothing.

Oh. So can you talk a little bit about how volley has helped you? In particular, how have you, as the gm, been able to gain that visibility?

Yeah. So through the reporting dashboard and the reports that we get, we're able to better understand call volumes, call flows, which helps us to manage our staffing, you know, when that. When we should be staffing heavy, when we should go lighter. We're also experimenting now with a combined of two Stores utilizing Volley seamlessly to manage those kind of ebb and flow of the phone calls. So that's one really big area. And then of course, another big area is the OEM and their requirements upon the dealership. Right. So you have NPS scores or CSI scores, which are absolutely critical. And so if you think about volleyball, it helps and aids us in that first touch point with that customer when they're calling in to inquire about a service within our organization. So csi, Net Promoter scores a massive area. We think we can get some lift there to better, you know, help facilitate those scores that we desperately need. Obviously, the other one is Ford and most manufacturers at this point are going, going to some sort of like remote pickup and service in the service department. So. Meaning that we'll go to someone's house, pick up their vehicle and bring it back, or we'll deploy a service unit out to their home or place of business. And most of that is being facilitated by a phone call initially. So we've got to be really organized and very meticulous about how we're managing those calls and scheduling. And that's where Tom, who's joined us today as well, that's his bread and butter. That's what he does every single day. So between csi, between the new requirements of us for pickup and delivery, mobile services, Volley is just instrumental in all of that and helping us reach our goals that we've set in the store and then the requirements the manufacturer is also putting on us.

So then for you, as the gm, just to say that Back Volley is helping you have the visibility for not just the init, the metrics that you want to track at the stores, but also to help you hit those, those requirements for the Ford initiatives that you have put upon you.

Yeah, and those Ford requirements, I mean, they're elevating. Right. So they start us out at a base level and a percentage of our ROS need to be mobile service. So it's either pickup and delivery or deploying a vehicle out to them. And, you know, it's tied to our operation and has financial impact. It's real. And the requirement continues to grow, you know, as the, as four seats fit, they move that metric and that requirement up. So if we don't have good line of sight. Yeah, we're not, we're just not going to hit it with a lot of confidence.

Tom, this is probably more geared towards you, but how is your experience with. With. How was your experience with the Volley onboarding?

It was great. They came out and they sat with Us and they sat with each one of our people and, and basically taught them. I paid attention and got in there and was able to crunch numbers and timeframes where I needed my staffing most. And even if you, let's say a call slips through the cracks, we're able to go back and reach out to those customers and not have them feel like they've been forgotten, which we didn't have with our old system. So that was part of it as well. Another part of it is, was getting the, getting the calls and because we get a lot of calls and between the two stores and so being able to manage that volume was super important.

So after the onboarding, do you feel that that volley is still going well for you on your day today?

Absolutely, absolutely. Being able to look and pick apart a day at a time, a week at a time, a month at a time. Being able to see how many people we reached out to, how many people reached out to us. Being able to see when we go in and we look up a customer, I'm able to see just, you know, how many times have we called them, how many times have they called into us, what is it they're looking for, whether it be by email or SMS or, or just a cold call in general. And the fact that I can feed in connected services, meaning where the vehicle's connected to a Ford database and we can see real time, are they due for an oil change or do they have a recall connected to their car? I'm able to upload that into Volley and it will feed it to our agents. So it's, it's, it's made a big impact, I think for sure.

Tom, this wasn't, this wasn't on the list I sent you ahead of time, so I'm going to put you on the spot. But just you made me think of it. What is the, if you had to just say, what would be the one thing that you would tell a BDC manager at another Ford store who hasn't heard of this, hasn't looked at it before, what should they be thinking about?

Well, I think that it's more of a streamline approach to handling your customers and it's kind of like a one stop shop. Almost everything's coming through the system and you're able to look at it in a small scope or a big scope. You know, you can, you can, there's accountability, you can break it down to an individual agent or the whole bdc. So I think there's a lot of parameters that it has that's helpful when you're managing a bdc for sure.

How do your agents enjoy using volley day to day?

I think it's a lot better because unfortunately, you know, sometimes you have people that are trying to get in touch with us and there's a way I can go in and I can listen to the calls and go over it with them and then we can better come up with how we can work through the call better to make the end result where the customer's happy. You know, the end goal is to make the customer happy and keep them coming back. So I'm able to take those recorded calls and use them for training, which is huge because then they can hear themselves. I mean, sometimes, you know, not everybody wakes up on the right side of the bed and you may not even realize that you're conveying that to the customer. So by being able to have them hear themselves and do training with that is a big part. We didn't have that before in this format and it's big, I think, for sure.

So your agents enjoy that visibility and being able to kind of coach themselves then.

It was a little awkward at first, you know, because nobody likes hearing themselves record it. But yeah, actually it turns out to be a good thing. They're enjoying it.

Awesome. Love to hear that.

Yeah, well, on that kind of that same concept and idea about our agents and them using this technology. I've been in the business quite a while and running two very large Ford stores. When I started to look around, actually you started to realize that there's areas that you invest in constantly, but the area that we didn't. I'm sure there's a lot of dealers like ours who just don't make that financial investment into this particular business unit. But yet it's one of the highest touch points in our organization. So, you know, Volley really changed us in a lot of ways in the sense that we made an investment with the software, but it didn't stop there. So all of a sudden we need, you know, it behooved us not to get better computers. And as you see, Tom's wearing a, you know, a headset. And so it's like there's this huge leap from like what we were doing to like a real modern day system. And then providing a modern day system brings comfort, reliability and security within our team. Okay, then what does that do? Well, that translates to the customer, as Tom was saying, but all of a sudden they're comfortable in their environment, they're comfortable with the technology in front of them. It's Feeding them information about the customer so they don't have to ask as many questions and they can talk with a lot more confidence. So we went from like, kind of what was a BDC on a budget to, you know, from a professional consumer to a BDC that's like, top notch. Like, I mean, we. This is scalable too, so we can really grow this thing further. Just what thought I'd add in on there because it's really important in terms of investment and capital and where you place it as it relates to customer touch points. So one of the big takeaways for me there.

Yeah, I think that's a great perspective with, you know, given your position with the stores as general manager, is making sure that this department is running well, not just for your agents, but for the customers too. Right. You know, making sure that everyone has what they need to get the service they need, and the agents have what they need to be successful. And Tom has the tools. I mean, I think that's a great perspective. Guys, thanks so much for taking the time that was. That was the list here. Really, really appreciate you guys jumping on to go through. Through this and. And share your experience.

Yeah, thanks, Jake, for the time, as always. Volley's just awesome. Appreciate it, Tom. Great job, buddy.

Sir. No, I wasn't nervous at all.

Yeah, that was greater than me and I do this all the time.

Okay. You both did great, so I'm sure everyone will love it. Guys, thanks so much for tuning in. Let us know if you have any questions and have a fantastic day.

You too, sir.

For your agents, but for the customers too, right? You know, making sure that everyone has what they need to get the service they need, and the agents have what they need to be successful. And Tom has the tools. I mean, I think that's a great perspective. Guys, thanks so much for taking the time that was. That was the list here. Really, really appreciate you guys jumping on to go through, through this and. And share your experience.

Yeah, thanks, Jake, for the time, as always. Bali's just awesome. Appreciate it, Tom. Great job, buddy.

Thank you, sir. No, I wasn't nervous at all.

Yeah, that was great. And I do this all the time.

You both did great, so I'm sure everyone will love it. Guys, thanks so much for tuning in. Let us know if you have any questions and have a fantastic day.

You too, sir.