There are 4 points of customer contact that you have an opportunity to sell in Service. Many dealer’s current process, really has 1 or 2 points they sell on.
📝 Let’s first break down the contact points with a customer;
1️⃣ Book an appointment (administrative-like step) – via an Appointment Co-Ordinator
2️⃣ Write-up (a selling opportunity – most don’t use) – Advisor
3️⃣ After Multi-Point Inspection/Reviewing Customer Concern (where dealers do sell) – Advisor
4️⃣ Follow-Up Process – Post Visit – Appointment Co-Ordinator
▶️ Really, all points of contact are an opportunity to sell. Each contact point has to put the customer’s needs first, so you’re covering why they needed to come to the dealership in the first place.
📢 It’s also important to note that at every single contact point, we need to have the same messaging. From the appointment setting call, advisor at write-up, and the tech at quoting. If there is a disconnect, you create distrust.
💵 For the average dealer that does 500 Customer Pay work orders a month, can make pre-selling at Appointment Booking a new revenue stream, of +/- $1 million dollars in retail parts and labour sales. A lot depends on your process, tracking, pay plans, and management.
💳 Basically, selling in Service, tracking it, and creating a Sales Dept within your Service Dept is what you’re trying to accomplish.
👨💼 Naturally, customer service, putting customers’ needs first, and technical skills still need to be at the forefront of what Service does. But selling isn’t a bad word in Service, if we’re educating customers, and through that, we’re selling.
👨🎓 How we roll out selling in Service across all contact points is called “Educational-based Selling”. There are tons of books on this methodology, and it really works – especially in the Service Dept. We educate customers, they make an informed decision that suits them.
📝 So, here is what the 4 contact points should look like when you convert to a Sales Dept within the Service Dept;
1️⃣ Book Appt & Recommend & Selling Maintenance Items – Service BDC Agent (inbound& outbound).
➡️ Convert an Administrative type duty, to a Customer Sales Rep job function.
2️⃣ Pre-Selling at Write-up – Advisor
3️⃣ After Multi-Point Inspection/Reviewing Customer Concerns/ Recommendations based on Service Interval Chart Inserted
4️⃣ Declined Services Follow-Up Process – Post Visit – Service BDC Agent.
a. Convert Appointment Co-Ordinator to a Service BDC Agent – Selling via commissioned-based selling.
❗ For each step of the process, you need to track and set expectations for each employee. You can set commissions and pay plans, or if you’re just starting out, set up spiffs to get employees motivated to sell.
⚠️ If selling on Step 1 and 4 is new for you, then review an old post I had about setting up a Service BDC, from V1.0 to V4.0 – and what those look like.
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