Automotive News Canada - October 2021 - F19

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
ery time, you stand no chance of booking an appointment.
" Even if half of them are no-shows, you still have more customers
than you would've had otherwise, " he notes.
Nice digs
Another critical component: a stand alone BDC offi ce that opened in
December 2019 in a historic building in Salisbury - a big improvement
over the typical spartan dealership back room. Th e group spent
about $100,000 on renovations and received grants from the state and
the city of Salisbury, Raymond says.
says.
" It's much better than a windowless room that feels like a jail cell, " he
" BDC employees are our fi rst line of defense in selling and servicing
"
cars ... so we need to treat them like a million bucks. "
Brendan Harrington, general manager of Capistrano Valley Toyota in
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.,
owned by Oremor Automotive
Group, says a stand alone
call
" If your BDC
employees do a
bad job, customers
will go elsewhere.
It's almost comical
how much BDCs
are underutilized
and haphazardly
put together and
managed. "
MATT RAYMOND,
director of digital operations,
Team Automotive Group
center
equipped with
creature comforts helped him
build a successful BDC for fi ve
Penske Automotive dealerships
in California and Texas
several years ago.
" Perks like that really improve
employee morale and
retention, " says Harrington,
former COO at Penske. " You
need to keep employees happy
about doing a job that, at
times, can be very challenging. "
Knowledge
is power
One common headache for
service BDCs is repair questions
that harried agents can't
answer. Th is is exacerbated if
they cover multiple brands.
To avoid constantly peppering equally hard-pressed service advisers
with questions, Harrington uses a large whiteboard or Google Docs to
post questions and answers.
" Odds are, other agents get the same questions, so this is a great resource, "
he says.
Harrington also assigned up-and-coming service advisers to six- or
12-month stints in the BDC to help answer agents' repair questions
and learn fi rsthand how a BDC works. Th is is more eff ective than
agents making " cold " phone call transfers to swamped service advisers.
" It
takes the stress off your personnel and makes an otherwise ineffi -
cient process more effi cient, " he explains.
" Some people think it's crazy to remove someone from the service
lane who's driving revenue and put them in a place where they're a
'dead' expense. But it's actually a smart move. "
In addition, creating well-defi ned BDC career paths can decrease
turnover, a big problem for the centers . Harrington says an academy-style
training mentality that emphasizes progress toward specifi c
goals makes employees feel like they're working toward something,
such as a promotion to service adviser.
" More call center employees tend to be women, so this also is a great
How to boost BDC performance
 Set up simple, consistent and structured sales processes.
 Always seal the deal - ask customers to make a service
appointment.
 Post answers to repair questions and create an accessible
archive for agents.
 Assign a high-performing sales adviser to a BDC stint.
 Develop comprehensive training programs.
 Build turnover-reducing career paths for agents.
 Create a comfortable work area.
 Persistently offer former customers discounted promo offers.
 Hold agents accountable, and coach them when they make
mistakes.
Source: BDC managers and experts
way to get women - who are great service writers - into the service
lane, " he adds.
More training, more revenue
At Scott Clark Auto Group in North Carolina, Service BDC Manager
Elizabeth Martin oversees about a dozen agents who cover three stores.
Th anks to training that fi ne-tuned processes and
phone call scripts, service revenue from outbound-call
campaigns - focused on open vehicle recalls,
customers who declined recommended service
and scheduled maintenance reminders, among other
things - generated $1.7 million in customer-pay revenue
from January through July this year. Th at's a 20
percent increase compared with the $1.4 million generated
during the same period in 2020.
Furthermore, the average repair order rose about 12
Martin: General
lack of training
percent, from $243 to $271, she says.
" Th ere generally isn't enough training for BDC employees, "
Martin says. " I also feel that many managers don't hold reps accountable,
which makes it hard for BDCs to show improvement. "
In the end, Raymond says, happy employees create happy customers.
But too many BDCs under achieve in that regard.
" If your BDC employees do a bad job, customers will go elsewhere, " he
says. " It's almost comical how much BDCs are under utilized and haphazardly
put together and managed. " 
OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 19
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Automotive News Canada - October 2021

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