Dave Baiocchi

The Service CX

Posted on May 20, 2021 in Featured, Features

Last month I started a series on the customer experience (the CX).  To refresh your memory (or if you missed the last issue), the importance of the CX in recent years has grown significantly.  Communication methods, advertising platforms, social media, and evolving customer demands put the CX front and center.   I explained last month that controlling and actively managing the customer experience is driven by the needs of our marketplace.  Customers want more from us than a simple equipment transaction.  They want us to create an environment where material handling is seamless, efficient, and scalable.  They want partners in the process, not simply equipment vendors.  Ensuring customer satisfaction as a partner…. rather than a supplier, requires a broader focus and a more careful analysis of every customer encounter.

Managing the CX begins by envisioning the optimum model for customer interaction.  This model may look different in every department. Every employee must be educated as to what customer interactions should look, sound, and feel like.  Customer Service (like everything else) needs to be defined.  It also needs to be measured with verifiable metrics and performance standards that are understood and adhered to.

As we touched on last month, the CX no longer only engages customers simply with products but seeks to forge emotional connections with them.  This hierarchy of connection starts with providing data, then moves into actively resolving primary needs, then expands to continuously resolving ongoing issues.  The manner in which we do this is designed to engender customer confidence on a long-term basis.  It’s not simply an ideology or a theory.  It’s a STRATEGY.  This month I want to discuss CX functionality in the service department.  Many dealers still do not understand the enormous impact that service department interactions have on long-term customer relationships.

A service manager I worked with long ago was fond of saying:  “The sales department is good at making the promises that the service department has to keep.”

I can’t disagree with that. Service truly is where the rubber meets the road.   Keeping those promises is predicated on executing your unique CX using the right tools, the right people, the right inventory, the right training, and the right attitude.  There are a lot of moving pieces here.   Let’s investigate 2 of the most important tools and processes that need to be working at peak efficiency in order to craft and maintain the CX that we want the service department to generate.

Data tools

Legacy business systems are cumbersome and limiting, but many dealers still depend on them to conduct business.  I get it.  As a dealer principal, it’s daunting enough to take on the expense of the system alone, not to mention the disruption to your business processes, financial reporting, templates, training, and “learn by error” realities that are baked into a change of this magnitude.  Many legacy systems still in use today were designed primarily for accounting (A/R, A/P, inventory, payroll, and financial reporting).  Modules were later developed or augmented to accommodate customer service and scheduling, but these were adjunct processes, not the primary aim of the systems.

Newer systems (post-2010) are much better at integrating both CRM and real-time service functionality into a broad-based intuitive platform.  The future (and our CX) may require us to double down on mobile devices that allow wireless (same day) billing, interactive van inventories, GPS-based travel time calculations, and the ever-expanding data dump created by telemetry devices.  These devices will be standard equipment soon enough, and our digital platform has to be robust enough to manage this data.

The agility with which your system can organize, categorize and report meaningful data is inextricably linked to your Service CX.  Without data…at your fingertips, you will not be able to manage the CX the way you want to.

Not only does your system have to have the capacity to manipulate the data, but your PEOPLE also have to know how to access it, and use it to meet the requirements of the CX.   My July article will perform a deeper investigation into why our industry continues to have deficiencies in this area.  Suffice it to say that the way we store, retrieve, use, and report data, needs further investment and planning.  Equally important, (and insufficient) is the way in which we use that data to serve the customer.  Read my July article next month for more on this.

Dispatch effectiveness

I’ve held an opinion for a long time, and at the risk of angering those who disagree, I want to share it.  My opinion is that the field service dispatcher is the most important customer service employee at the dealership.  In light of managing the service CX, dispatchers (as a whole) are the most under-rated, and under-appreciated customer service professionals in the industry.

Why is this?

One of the reasons is that a dealer many times is hiring one skill set when they need another.  Look at some of the examples of job postings for dispatchers.  The skills desired are a laundry list of administrative functions.

• Heavy phones
• 10 Key by touch
• Intermediate Microsoft Excel
• Keyboard at 50 WPM

The issue here is that the dispatch position is lumped in with the general service administration team, but the ACTUAL skills needed to perform customer contact (in concert with your CX) are much different. The actual list should include:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• High emotional intelligence
• Multiple task handling
• Rudimentary mechanical knowledge
• Familiarity with local geography and traffic patterns
• High Assertiveness
• High Customer Empathy

I always refer to the dispatcher as “the tip of the spear”, because they are.  They will interface with many more customers than your best salesman will over the course of a year.  The interaction most always starts with chaos.  The customer rarely calls the dispatch desk with good news.  They want somebody NOW, they want to be HEARD, and they want to know that we care about getting them what they need when they need it.

The dispatcher must be skilled in both reassuring the customer, (empathy) while securing accurate data so that they can assign the right technician, with the right parts, and the right skills.  Having a dispatcher that can effectively “triage” a unit over the phone is also critical.  Questions like:

• Is the fuel valve open?
• Can you tell me which hose is leaking?
• What color is the fluid?
• Can you text me a photo of the “insert component here”?

All of these questions help to assure the customer that we are paying attention and want to get it right the first time.

Long-term CX efficiency starts at the dispatch desk.  Just do a raw count of daily phone interactions if you don’t believe me.  If your dispatcher doesn’t have the data, training, resources, and cooperation from the rest of the support team, the Service CX will miss its mark every time.

About the Author:

Dave Baiocchi is the president of Resonant Dealer Services LLC.  He has spent 39 years in the equipment business as a sales manager, aftermarket director, and dealer principal.  Dave now consults with dealerships nationwide to establish and enhance best practices, especially in the area of aftermarket development and performance.  E-mail [email protected] to contact Dave.