Aftermarket Dave Baiocchi
Data tools and TRUST One of the things I repeatedly see in the dealerships I visit is the disconnect that the dealer has with their own road-based technicians. Technicians are such a vital link to the customer. An inherent level of trust is built over the years, and repeated successful repair visits over time only strengthen this valuable customer connection. The questions are: Do we see these relationships as assets? If so, what are we doing to leverage those assets and encourage a higher level of profitable and mutually beneficial encounters? When I refer to a “disconnect” I am referring to how our service culture many times limits the technician’s exposure to customer service tools, information, communication, and autonomous authority. We don’t think these barriers exist…but more often than not…they do. In our current marketplace, communication and access to data is the key to success. Successful dealerships have every customer-facing employee equipped with the tools to take care of it NOW. Are your “customer contact” employees able to say YES? Or do they have to say: • I don’t have the authority to do that • Let me ask my manager • I don’t have the parts onboard • I’m not really allowed to quote anything • Someone will have to call you back • I don’t have access to that information • We don’t do that in this department • I’m just a PM technician
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FORKLIFTS & TIRES 713.460.8197 • 800.687.3884 fax: 713.460.5941 www.forkliftsandtires.com 8
www.MHWmag.com
March 2021
Be honest. Our industry in many ways is still following a model of customer service that forces smart and capable employees to say NO instead of YES. How can we turn this around? There are two methods that we can use to quickly and efficiently improve our customer communication through our road techs. BOTH of them require us to change our current CULTURE, and TRUST our employees with data and authority we may not currently be comfortable with. The reason we are not comfortable is that former attempts to trust your staff may have resulted in uncontrolled and financially painful outcomes. To prevent this carnage from happening again, we wrest communications away from the front lines, (back to the management) and seek to funnel ALL communications through the management and administrative channels. This may feel right, this may feel safe, this may even feel efficient, but make no mistake…. these practices breed a culture that results in customers hearing all of the bullet points listed above. If we are going to try this again, let’s do so by preparing and implementing clearly understood procedures, governed by industry-tested and explicit SOP’s (standard operating procedures). The most successful road techs have WRITTEN SOP’s that allow them to know: • What they are approved to do. • What they are EQUIPPED to do. • Where to find data that is useful for customer service (schedules, pricing, parts). • How to manage customer expectations in regard to quoted services and timelines. So, if you are going to have a system in place that allows technicians to quote, close and complete work based on their own “van-based” resources and data, what tools and information will they need access to, in order to truly improve the customer experience? Here are some initial questions to consider. Maintenance Intervals Every OEM publishes a schedule of recommended maintenance that is required to keep the warranty valid and prevent the unit from experiencing significant repair. The “system maintenance” items included
