Volume 23: Transparency in the Service Drive

Today’s consumers are hugely empowered with smarter purchasing decisions thanks to information right at their fingertips. Eight-six percent of Americans own smartphones, and when a customer whips out his or her phone to browse for information, dealership personnel should not be intimidated by this behavior. In fact, it’s precisely this kind of transparency that has also helped dealership service drives boost customer engagement and loyalty.

The key, however, is providing customers with the information they seek up front in order to drive loyalty from the very beginning.

Xtime helps dealerships provide customers with an exceptional ownership experience that rivals service platforms such as Amazon in order to deliver value, convenience and trust—the cornerstone of Xtime’s solutions. But the biggest challenge in today’s automotive service market is creating repeat business, according to Neal East, CEO of Xtime.

“The most critical element to loyalty is service retention due to the number of engagement opportunities from the time the customers arrive to the time they leave,” said East. “If you think about where the value lies in a service transaction, the three things that customers want to know are centered around what they need, where they can get it and how much it costs. If a dealership can answer these questions in a transparent and timely manner, repeat business will increase significantly.”

Transparency in the service drive has never been more important. According to recent Xtime data, 70% of dealership service customers find it extremely important to have cost estimates when they make appointments, and 40% of customers cited that knowledge of the service price up front is more important than the ability to choose the date and time of the appointment.*

The following graphs outline how today’s service drive customers view the importance of pricing menus.

For more information, please visit www.Xtime.com.

*Based on 668 responses

Heninger Scion Toyota in Calgary, Alberta, formed a partnership with Xtime in order to better connect with their customers and enhance the overall appointment scheduling experience. According to Fixed Operations Director Dave Verboom, the introduction of Xtime Schedule was imperative to their endeavors in creating a premium ownership experience. The partnership with Xtime has allowed Heninger Scion Toyota to provide its customers with convenient, multichannel appointment scheduling, consistent menu recommendations and pricing, recall integration and more.

With 100 percent utilization rate among Heninger Scion Toyota’s staff and service providers, Xtime has helped the dealership realize the following success from Q2 2015 to Q1 2016:

• 8.6pp higher retention from customers using appointment scheduling
• 18% and growing online/mobile appointment scheduling each month
• 15 new online/mobile customers in March 2016 alone
• Increase of $50/RO using Xtime (CP + W)

To read the full case study on Heninger Scion Toyota and learn more about their success with Xtime Schedule, please click here.

Subaru Canada, Inc. is pleased to announce its exclusive partnership with Xtime to create a connected solution to improve communication between Subaru Canada’s dealer network and Subaru owners for an enhanced service experience. The Xtime scheduling solution will integrate cloud-based software into Subaru service departments across Canada. Subaru Service Scheduler, powered by Xtime, provides Subaru dealers with a comprehensive set of tools to deliver a high-quality ownership experience that increases customer loyalty.

Xtime’s dedication to our partners’ success goes beyond simple product implementation. When all dealership personnel are in tune with the Xtime platform, the business just runs better. That’s why we offer Xtime University, a web-based learning platform providing training and certification on the Xtime solutions.

Xtime University was designed to provide all dealership personnel with resources and training support for all of our products. Daily online workshops offer live, role-based training for Xtime partners who are new to our products, as well as those who are experienced with them but want to continue to stay current with the technologies.

Since the release of Spectrum, Xtime has integrated the Xtime University sign-on with all user accounts so that all course attendees can simply use an existing Xtime username and password instead of having to request a separate one. This update makes it easier for dealership partners to gain access to the training platform and get what they need in one easy step.

“This update to the Xtime University platform was an important one because it streamlines the entire learning process,” said Andrew Merz, Training Manager at Xtime. “Xtime’s focus is always on our products and making sure our partners get the most out of them, so giving them access to Xtime University via the online product platform itself just makes sense.”

To better serve and educate our partners, Xtime University offers virtual classes with the same level of coaching and support that you’d find in a traditional training experience, but right at your fingertips when you need them. Our self-paced online training modules are a great supplement to the online classroom when you simply want to review the product information or do a refresher course on the solutions, while our hands-on interactive videos educate attendees on the elements of the Xtime solutions as it pertains to his or her specific job with two- to five-minute targeted videos.

On average, Xtime trains over 1,500 customers per month. In May 2016 alone, Xtime partners utilized Xtime University with a 62% completion rate (out of 1,103 registered participants) and 64.5% registration rate (out of 1,701 assigned—up 12.5% from the previous month).

The following report indicates an overall positive enrollment and completion rate for the Xtime University courses for YTD 2016:

Xtime also recently added several new resources for our partners in Australia, including Hands-on-Practices, several Australia-specific manuals and new localized versions in the English Help Library. A new course called Appointment Basics: Self-Paced Online (XT104WEN-AU) is also now available as an alternative to the Australian virtual instructor-led version of this course.

Additionally, a new French Configure Hands-on-Practices course, a French version of the Appointment Basics: Self-paced Online and a French-speaking instructor-led course were added to the offerings.

Since its inception, feedback for Xtime University has been overwhelmingly positive, with attendees praising the courses for their best-in-class online learning platform, the flexibility of the courses, clear and engaging video visuals and easy-to-follow instructions.

For more information, please visit www.xtime.com/xtime-university.