Always look outward

Do your dealership processes support the customer experience?

In previous issues I have mentioned the importance of critically assessing your internal processes to ensure they are compatible with offering an exceptional customer experience.

The new year is a great time to review performance, processes and set new goals. In this column, we’ll dive a little deeper into what a process audit should look like, and what should be considered in order to maximize success.

Identify areas of opportunity

The first step is to review the performance of each department, along with the feedback you have received from your staff and your customers. Critically review your CSI scores and comments, talk to your team about their perceptions of the year gone by, ask for their honest feedback on your current process and their ideas for improvement.

By soliciting feedback from your team and involving them in the audit process, not only will you likely see increased morale, but your team will develop a feeling of ‘ownership’ over the revamped processes — this will have a significantly positive impact when implementing the changes.

Once you have identified your areas for opportunity, assess the related processes while considering the Three C’s:

Culture

Does the process support a healthy culture for your team? When creating internal processes, it can be easy to focus so much on the details of each step that employees do not feel like they have autonomy in their role. The benefits of increased autonomy are vast, including increased productivity, boosted creativity, better time management, greater accountability, and higher retention rates.

Customer

Does your process align with your customers needs and expectations? Too often we create our internal processes without paying much attention to how that would be received by our customers.

Sure, a process may save us some time further down the line, or enable us to achieve our internal goals but if it is negatively impacting our customer experience it needs to be updated.

Research shows that customers want transparency in communication, their time to be respected, and to feel valued by their dealership. Are your internal processes crafted to ensure these needs are met?

Company

Of course, our processes need to be designed to efficiently meet our company goals and support growth. The goal of the audit is to identify opportunities for change that will continue to support our goals but in a customer, and culture friendly way. Let me give you an example.

The trade appraisal process

According to CDK Global (Ease of Purchase Scorecard, November 2023), 51 per cent of customers said agreeing to a trade value was difficult. Consider the typical appraisal process: salesperson obtains basic vehicle information — gives the keys to the Used Car Manager who appraises the car — salesperson delivers the trade value with the first set of numbers.

Now consider the customer perception of this process. It would likely be something along the lines of: “I don’t know exactly what they do, but I waited too long just to be told by some manager I didn’t meet that my car is worth significantly less than I expected. Now I have to face an awkward negotiation process. This sucks.”

But, what if the Used Car Manager introduced themselves to the customer? What if they explained the appraisal process — including how long it will take and how they use several sources of real time data to determine the best current market value?

What if they invited the customer to join them on the test drive so they could ask them questions about the vehicle and their ownership experience? Would this help uncover some expectations prior to delivering the trade value? Would the customer realign their expectations once they see the Used Car Manager do a thorough appraisal? Would this make the negotiation process smoother and more efficient? Quite possibly.

Beyond customer experience, a revamped appraisal process such as this will also positively impact our other factors:

  • Culture: It will provide support to the salesperson in handling the delivery of the trade value, making their job easier.
  • Company: It will allow the dealer to secure more trades at the right price having a positive impact on the profitability of their Used Car Department.

A successful process audit will create valuable best practices by making changes that support the Three C’s.

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