Volume 29: What to do about declined services?

We’ve been with Xtime Schedule for about three years now. The initial reason we implemented Xtime was that we wanted a more advanced way to schedule appointments. It initially was really for our call center, which books appointments, as well as for our service advisors. It was nice to sync all of our scheduling solutions into one. Before, we had [multiple systems] and now we just have Xtime—we don’t have to switch back and forth between platforms and it’s very streamlined.

Before coming to Xtime, we had all these different tracking systems for appointments, vehicle history and recommendations. We used to have all these different programs to do one task, whereas with Xtime, we have one service platform.

We added Engage because [the previous service manager] could see value in upselling with the tablets. You can put all your notes in, customers can see pricing, they can sign right there in the service drive—it is all very beneficial because we’re a dealership that has space/size challenges. We can handle the rush and then go back to our desks and finish up there when the crowd thins.

Invite came up because we were trying to find a way to track declined work and bring those customers back. We have a designated employee in our dealership that utilizes Invite to reach out to all of our customers with declined work. It’s all collaborated together and right there for her to use.

With Inspect, I like that every bit of information is there all the time. We can see what the customer needed and the multi-point inspection, what the tech additionally recommended, you can review the entire history of that customer no matter how much time has passed. We can pull the details anytime!

Everyone can do their job better, more efficiently, because they’re working together. Everything is so quick and easy with Inspect. In fact, we saw about $586 in recommended services per inspection in the past year.

Fifty-nine percent of additional service recommendations come from our inspections. We can see what the customer needed, what the tech recommended, and it all stays right there no matter how much time has passed since an appointment. We can pull it anytime.

[Our Managed Services contact,] Erin, is awesome. Just today I emailed her and asked what we could do since our numbers were a little low. She actually had a plan she was already working on and getting ready to send out. Anytime I have a question or idea, we work on a strategy to get our customers back into the dealership and get the email campaigns out right away.

Prior to Xtime, we did everything by hand, on paper, with technicians and advisors running around like crazy. With Xtime, our utilization is now at 99 percent. With Inspect, it was an easy transition. Xtime makes it easy for us to be accountable. We can see in the dashboard what is needed, and who is or isn’t doing what. It keeps us on our toes so that everyone can do their jobs effectively.

Customers are coming in and we’re retaining them. We’re seeing a show rate of 87.8 percent. Xtime has contributed to our success in the program—how its operation streamlines everything. On the marketing side, if we want to incentivize customers for specific deals—say, Calgary Stampede or back-to-school—we send it out and get responses from customers right away. It’s so easy!

More than 17 percent of our customers are scheduling online. Our customers especially like that they can book appointments quick and easy. People respond well to the ease of access and transparency of pricing.

You have to grow with the new options available to our always growing technology-savvy consumers. Sometimes we get stuck in the old way of doing things, we think it still works, but it isn’t always necessarily the best process now. You have to keep up with technology—don’t stay in your safety zone. Push yourself and the results will be worth it.