The following is the first of a three-part blog series from Frank Tamburrini, president and general manager at Integrated Dealer Systems. Part two is here and part three will run Wednesday.
Every service team inevitably runs into bottlenecks that slow things down – which can lead to wasted time and customer expectations not being met.
At IDS, we’ve worked with hundreds of RV dealership owners and GMs over the last 30-plus years, helping them fix service department bottlenecks.
The secret to some of the most efficient dealership service departments out there?
They’ve automated the most time-consuming, headache-inducing parts of their service department processes.
In this three-part blog series, I’ll share what the nine more common service department bottlenecks are and how you can fix them with automation – so your team can turn out more units faster, and to a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Service Bottleneck: Back-and-Forth Communication Between Team Members and Departments
Each department has its own set of priorities and challenges, which can make it hard to keep everyone on the same page. But you can avoid tunnel-vision on your team by making information like tasks, appointments, customer details, and more readily available for everyone, across your dealership.
Automate It!
I’ve got to tell you upfront that to be able to automate processes, you will need a dealership management system.
Instead of piecing together processes using different software and tracking systems, an integrated dealership management system (DMS) creates one single source of truth for all requests coming in.
For example, your sales reps can input customer details to give your service team more context for a work order. Meanwhile, your service writers and technicians can log details about customers and work orders, to give your sales team more context for how to engage with those customers in the future.
Service Bottleneck: Communications with Customers
Communication is the foundation of any strong relationship, and the same applies to your customers. According to Don Miller, Data Consultant at Constellation Dealership Software, dealerships that maintained good communications with their customer base were the most successful in 2020.
Customers expect you to stay in communication with them throughout the service job process. The problem is, many dealerships still rely on tracking the process in a spreadsheet or some other piecemeal system, which allows communication to fall through the cracks.
Automate It!
To ensure that your team maintains regular and ongoing communication with your customers throughout the service job process, automate email and text communications.
For example, set automated triggers to send your customer an update on the status of their work order, so they’re not waiting around wondering when their unit will be available for pickup, and when a customer’s unit is due for servicing, to encourage repeat business.
Service Bottleneck: Task Tracking and Management
As your business continues to grow, you may find that relying on sticky-notes and paper to-do lists won’t cut it anymore.
It’s a whole lot easier to stay on top of tasks when they’re all in one place and their details are accurate. Organizing your service department’s tasks and automating how tasks are tracked will make it easier for your technicians to stay on top of multiple jobs – leading to better customer service and a much happier service department overall.
Automate It!
Save time inputting jobs by creating templated jobs based on your team’s most common tasks. Then, set custom notifications for your technicians based on triggers, like when a work order status has changed, or when a special parts order has been added. Color coding your work order statuses can also make it a lot easier for your team to find the information they need.
Ready to Unblock More Bottlenecks in your Service Department?
I hope this gave you some ideas for how you can streamline your service department communications. Stay tuned, because in part two I’m going to talk about something none of us want to deal with: data entry.
Frank Tamburrini is the president and general manager of Integrated Dealer Systems, a leading RV dealership software provider. He has over 20 years of experience helping customers in different industries improve their customer experience and operations through technology but is a firm believer that technology is only part of the solution; it’s the people using the technology, the commitment for continual improvement and being data-driven that makes the real difference.
Part two of the series is here and part three will run Wednesday.