Stop Making Your BDC Staff Do It All

Stop Making Your BDC Staff Do It All

Learn how to elevate employee satisfaction and output by lifting the burden of time-consuming transactions.

Process implementation and consistency within dealership Business Development Centers (BDC) doesn’t have the best track record. Though many dealerships have processes in place for service BDCs, they are hard to manage and maintain. 

Traditionally, a dealership BDC trains employees to handle both outbound and inbound calls for the store. In the case of the service BDC, that effort is focused on setting service appointments, alerting customers to vehicle recalls, ordering parts and conducting follow ups, just to name a few. These are all individually time-consuming tasks, so it’s no surprise that new and used car dealerships have opted for extra help via automated phone systems. 

With automated systems, the options are preset: “Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Service,” etc., which, in theory, seems like it would help. But what about customers that call with questions that don’t fit nicely into one of those options? That customer gets rerouted until he or she either hangs up and goes to another store — or sends an incredibly frustrated email, posts a negative review about the store’s “customer service” or, perhaps, does all of the above. 

Even dealerships with audio interactive voice response (IVR) systems experience this problem. If a customer can’t get through the yes or no voice prompts in a timely fashion to reach a live support representative, that customer is gone. Additionally, since customer data isn’t captured in these systems, there’s no history of the customer’s concerns for an actual BDC rep to address. 

From the customers’ standpoint, the dealership’s phone system should route them to the right person or department. The problem is that purely automated systems don’t do that. Instead, customers experience inconsistent options, longer hold times, awkward pauses and a general lack of professionalism. During a recent mystery shop experience, an 18-store dealer group with a centralized BDC of just under 20 representatives had an average customer wait time of over three minutes — just to answer the phone! 

While your people are, and should be, your highest priority, simply hiring additional BDC staff isn’t the solution. Spending the time and money to hire, train and manage additional staff doesn’t make sense if their tasks aren’t better defined. Ever heard the expression, “jack of all trades, master of none”? Well, that’s what your BDC becomes, no matter how much staff you put in there.

The solution is two-fold. First, your BDC staff simply cannot do it all. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to handle every inbound call, and make revenue-driving outbound calls, follow up with every customer, alert customers to vehicle recalls, schedule service appointments and check on inventory. This creates a never-ending cycle of underperformance for employees, which only fuels their desire to leave your store and work for someone else. If you haven’t mystery-shopped your store in a while, I highly recommend doing it. You’ll be able to experience the exasperation of your employees firsthand. 

Second, as this may come as a surprise, your BDC staff doesn’t have to do it all. Take your service BDC for example. Would you rather have your staff handling in-bound service scheduling or outbound vehicle recall conversations? Would you like your staff confirming preset appointments or contacting customers about available vehicle parts that are in inventory?

The mundane, repetitive tasks, such as service appointment reminders or service scheduling, can be easily handled via conversation artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In addition to answering the call in one ring, the use of dynamic dialog AI, not automated systems, doesn’t limit customers’ options. Rather than being frustrated, customers have productive conversations with natural language AI technology, while your focused and trained BDC staff is targeting more important tasks for your store. 

Rather than generalists, your employees become specialists, elevating not only employee satisfaction but output as well. By lifting the burden of time-consuming, but simple and repetitive, transactions from your BDC representatives, dealerships can flourish with productive employees and happier customers. 

You May Also Like

Unlocking the Value of Your Data. Don’t Let it Go to Waste.

Explore expert Bobby Gaudreau’s insights on overcoming data challenges in auto dealerships, focusing on CRM and DMS optimization for marketing success.

Unlocking the Value of Your Data. Don't Let it Go to Waste.

The effective utilization of data is essential for driving successful automotive marketing strategies and fostering strong customer engagement. However, many dealerships encounter a significant challenge: their marketing campaigns often fall short due to disorganized and incomplete customer data.

Traditional Dealer Management Systems (DMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, while vital, are not inherently designed as marketing systems. They lack the necessary functionalities for easy list generation and segmentation, and are not equipped to share, understand or react in real-time to information. This limitation is especially evident when dealing with records that include customer interactions and behaviors, which are crucial for integrating with a marketing system. This gap in capability is where Customer Data Platforms (CDP) become crucial.

The Road to Success: Car Sales Training to Ignite Your Career

What can you do to overcome customer objections and close more deals?

sales training
Leading the Race: The Imperative of Being First

An extension of reconditioning software, the DVP is a versatile customer-facing digital evidence manual or portfolio that warmly welcomes customers and presents your vehicles concisely and professionally.

Leading the Race: The Imperative of Being First - Velocity Automotive
Identifying Gaps in Digital Retailing Solutions & 5 Easy Fixes

Inconsistencies slow the purchase process, erode consumer trust and eliminate the willingness to purchase.

Identifying Gaps in Digital Retailing Solutions & 5 Easy Fixes
The SMS Paradigm: Reshaping Customer Engagement in the Automotive Industry

By reaching out through SMS, we have tapped into the potential of a less invasive, yet highly effective, method of communication.

The SMS Paradigm: Reshaping Customer Engagement in the Automotive Industry

Other Posts

Ashlee Church: #NotLikeTheOtherGuys

This dealer is following her arrow and bringing change to the auto dealer industry.

Vehicle Care RockStar Ashlee Church
Used Car Sourcing and Predictable Appraisal Accuracy

Trade-ins remain essential, so when their owners walk through the door, give them the fairest offer you can — and be sure the spread you need isn’t diluted by appraisal oversights.

Used Car Sourcing and Predictable Appraisal Accuracy
You Want Me to Pay for WHAT?!

Arming yourself with this firsthand knowledge will let you make informed decisions and allocate your budget toward increased profitability in ways you simply cannot hope to when you’re playing telephone with your manager charged with executing on marketing.

Wikimotive, trade shows, marketing,
Volie Inc. Integrates BDC Software with STELLA Automotive AI

This integration enhances dealership operation, reduces costs and improves customer service scores, the company said.