The dealerships with the highest performing BDCs have two things in common. One, they record both incoming and outgoing calls. Two, they use those calls, in addition to other pertinent data used in call measurement, to improve the quality of ongoing training and customer service in their stores. These dealers understand the role that call measurement plays in their success.

Why do you need call measurement at all? The biggest reason is accountability. Accountability breeds success. But what type of call measurement do you need? Most dealerships have call recording for inbound calls via 800 numbers. The service may be provided by the dealer website provider, individual lead providers (or advertising sources), vendors who manage dealer ad sources, and now many CRM companies.

“What many dealerships lack is the recording of outbound calls made by the sales and BDC staff.”

If you are recording your outbound calls, you are amongst the forerunners in the industry who realize that the call management of outbound calls is just as important as the management of inbound calls. When you record outgoing calls, you set an expectation for your team that you will be inspecting their performance for the results you expect.

Many dealers believe call recording is important primarily to have a record of what is said to the customer pre-visit, so that, when the customer comes in for a showroom visit, any claims from the customer of “credit approval”, price negotiations, or other details pertaining to their call can be proven or dispelled with the recording.

In actuality, there are several more important reasons to use call management and record your calls.

They are:

•  As a training tool for the entire staff. Recording calls can help structure training, specifically role play exercises to improve phone skills.
• To ensure that call guides and word tracks are retained and used consistently as they were taught.
•  To isolate any challenges that may be experienced by staff members and address them to optimize performance on the phone.
•  To capture missed calls, voice mails, and hang ups from various advertising sources so that each opportunity can be taken advantage of, and that nothing falls through the cracks.
• As an objective tool for evaluating the performance of your phone staff.
• To document and follow up on any unfavorable customer experiences either pre-visit, while at the dealership, or post-visit follow up (or lack thereof).
• To chart different analytics that call recording services provide, including:
• Traffic patterns, peak times during the day so that staffing is adequate.
• Where the calls are coming from (area codes, zip codes) to understand how far the different advertising sources reach out and capture potential customers.
• Conversion rates: calls to appointments, appointments set to shows, etc.
• To chart the level of success that different advertising sources have by documenting reactions to the campaigns, and caller concerns.

Call measurement is one of the best ways to conclusively see the return on your investment in training and advertising.

If the performance of your sales or BDC staff is not producing the results you expect on the phone, call measurement could be the missing link. Talk to your CRM provider or outside vendor and get call measurement in place. The value of your decision will be evident almost immediately.

After you make the decision to invest in call measurement, train your staff on the software. Give access both to the employees making/taking calls for self-analysis, and the managers that oversee them to ensure the highest level of customer care. Set daily reports to go out so you can monitor the activity of calls. Then, sit back and watch your staff improve their phone skills, your showroom traffic rise, and your sales increase!