In today’s business environment, a good customer contact center is often needed to provide fast, efficient and accurate services to clientele. Companies, who want to give prompt responses to clients’ inquiries, whether online, by phone or in person, may establish such a center and hire the needed agents to make sure clients’ expectations are being met. Establishing a dedicated contact center relieves other staff members from having to juggle many different tasks.
Having on board representatives can enhance callers’ experience and facilitate good customer relationship management (CRM), and call volume (inbound/outbound) can be handled seamlessly to resolve customers’ problems and concerns.
One company that has recently regained control of its operations is Metro Honda (News - Alert) and Metro Acura in Montclair, Calif. These auto dealerships (located on the same road, Autoplex St.) had considered hiring agents to handle all inbound service appointment calls, and some outbound calls, revealed an Automotive Newspost on Monday.
Jeff Proctor, the stores' general manager, is a determined boss who is constantly working towards boosting profits. This dedication has paid off as Metro Honda and Metro Acura together now sell more vehicles, and take care of more client service appointments, thanks to having established a call center.
“By creating the call center, Proctor took service scheduling away from service advisers. They are often reluctant to book small jobs, such as oil changes and tire rotations…,” the post tells.
In the center's first 12 months, total service appointments grew 10 percent, and revenue increased five percent for Metro Honda and Metro Acura combined.
Proctor conveys that the setup of the call center, which launched in mid-2012, definitely paid off, contributing to keeping the service bays packed. He adds they could not have the same success today without this team of employees that provides great customer service on a daily basis from the call center.
The idea of a dedicated contact center was given to Proctor by a situation he witnessed. He heard a service adviser telling a client there were no appointments available and actually giving the phone number of a competitor; Proctor affirms that this will no longer happen. The service adviser was fired, but to avoid it from happening again, Proctor established the call center, formally dubbed the Client Care Center, and hired three employees to staff it, the post informs. This explains why he says there is now plenty of service availability to accommodate customers today.
Proctor tells that when he told his eight service advisers about his plan for a call center, initially, he experienced stiff resistance. He explained to them that it would be to their advantage as “they'll be able to spend more time with the customer and upsell them with the services they need instead of having to deal with the interruptions of answering the phone." After having the call center, his service department started experiencing a rise in customer-pay repair work and seeing more service volume, Proctor says; it was at that time, that the eight service advisers got on board.
Having dealership service advisers relinquish their duties to three new hired staff was seen, at first, as something that would affect their pay; that’s why they resisted the change; however, this is no longer an issue, Proctor believes. At the dealerships call center, one finds the employed agents (staffers) carrying out scheduling duties, in addition to calling new-car owners to set up appointments for their initial maintenance service, and take all inbound calls in setting service dates if the vehicle requires diagnostic work.
Overall, Proctor's vision for the call center has turned out to be a positive experience for the entire team, and has driven higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Edited by Adam Brandt