F&I and Showroom, July 2017

www fi magazine com 31 F I and Showroom July 2017 department heads make changes to call flow like creating new numbers without senior management approval Call flows should also be designed to keep the customer experience first and foremost in mind What may seem intuitive and convenient to a manager may not be a sound practice PROBLEM NO 2 MISSED AND MISHANDLED SALES CALLS Most dealerships realize how important it is to get sales calls answered and have a process to do so Some dealers have all sales calls ring into a business development center Some have a single phone number that rings at a central desk so that anyone can pick up Most salespeople have their own extension with a voice mailbox One problem with these scenarios is missed calls from customers According to a 2016 report from call managing solutions provider CallRevu 32 of incoming calls to sales departments never get connected with an agent To combat this many salespeople give their personal cell phone numbers to customers which creates a whole new set of issues Im guessing that salespeople conduct more than half their business using their personal device But if your salespeople are exchanging cell numbers with your customers your customers belong to them and not to your dealership Additionally their communications could be noncompliant and you would never know it Besides you spend a lot of marketing dollars to bring those customers into your dealership Dont you think they should belong to you If one of your salespeople goes to work for your competitor do you really want your former employee to have a list of stored customer contacts in his or her cell phone Fortunately there is a simple solution that allows your salespeople to still use their personal cell phones at work while ensuring that all customers still belong to your dealership SOLUTION SINGLE NUMBER NUMBER Most modern VoIP phone systems such as Shoretel or Cisco have a feature called single number reach SNR This feature assigns a single phone number to every employee When a customer calls the employees number the employees phone rings regardless of where the employee is and what device he or she is using If the employee is out on the lot with a cell phone his or her cell phone rings If the employee is sitting at his desk the desk phone rings If the employee is unavailable that phone number is assigned to someone else temporarily so the call can be handled When that employee leaves his or her phone number gets reassigned to the new salesperson This ability to route calls to different devices greatly reduces the incidences of missed calls Most importantly SNRs ensure that all calls to your salespeople get routed through your phone system and stored in your CRM not on your sales teams personal devices As the world continues to go mobile dealers should be prepared for call volume to increase Improving phone processes is critical but so is making sure your current phone system offers the technical capabilities for these efforts ABOUT THE AUTHOR Erik Nachbahr is the founder of Helion Automotive Technologies and has expertise in transforming dealer networks into vehicles for mission critical applications Email him at erik nachbahr@ bobit com GETTYIMAGES COM BRIANAJACKSON Missed Sales