-BDC (Business Development Center)-
This department creates and manages the business opportunities that come in and proactively go out from the dealership.

Business Development can exist in the Sales and Service Opportunities of the dealership. While so much is always emphasized on the Sales BDC side of the dealership world, the Service BDC has been existing quietly in the background of some stores with minimal attention while many other stores have yet to enter into the Service BDC arena.

As I have had tremendous experience and success in the Sales Showroom & Sales BDC side of the dealership world, 2 years ago I reunited back together with the Penske Automotive Group in Jersey City New Jersey as the Director of Business Development for both the Sales and Service BDC Departments of Hudson Toyota, Hudson Chrysler Jeep Dodge and Hudson Nissan. With this move I wanted to deepen my understanding as a whole of the entire workings of the dealership having access now into the Fixed Operations side of the industry. While I was there, Hudson Toyota was the #1 Volume Dealership in the New York Region for Toyota in 2015 & 2016 and the most profitable Toyota store in the Penske Automotive Group worldwide. Our Service BDC handled the service centers of the 3 stores and we were able to create a process and team that successfully bridged the experience with the dealership and the customer before the customer came to the store. Penske offered me a baptism into this role through education, training and support allowing me to grow tremendously in the past 2 years in understanding the purpose and importance of the Service BDC role in a dealership.

In short, the ultimate and main purpose of the Service BDC is to facilitate a team of customer service professionals to handle first time and return service customers with a world class experience over the phone. Sounds easy enough right? Although that is a simple statement, the role and existence of this department along with the people that make it work, is tremendously vital to the overall success and satisfaction of the dealerships client base.

-The Owner of The Dealership-
How would you act towards the owner of the dealership if he or she called in and wanted to set up an appointment for service?

Would you treat them with respect?
Would you stay as friendly and professional as possible?
Will you speak and communicate clearly?
Will you raise your voice in frustration and cut them off to hurry them up because you’re busy?
Will you slam the phone down after they hang up and begin talking bad about them to other co-workers?

The answers to these questions are pretty obvious and for the most part a dealer employee would do whatever they can to serve the owner as quickly, efficiently and most professionally as possible.

While I was with Penske, we were having an MOR meeting. It’s a Monthly Operating Report Meeting each month to assess, evaluate and review the stores performance in all areas and departments of the dealership. While we were discussing some items, the Area Vice President asked the Service manager to have his vehicle get an oil change. He handed him the keys and someone picked them up and took it to get everything done while we continued our meeting. Just about 45 minutes later someone comes in with his keys and says, “Here you go.” The AVP said, “If we could only be that fast with our customers we’d reduce many of the time complaints we get.”

Why was the AVP able to get his vehicle done so fast? Because it’s the AVP! He’s the main man of the campus. Everyone was aware of it and made sure they impressed the AVP in how good we can serve him. I have a feeling he got pushed through as quickly and efficiently as possible because of whose vehicle it was.

What would happen if we treated every customer with the same treatment? If everyone was handled with the efficiency and care that we would give the owner, then we would be able to avoid many of the headaches and complaints we experience.

-The Customer Experience-
In the service and sales experience that every customer has, they will most likely have an opportunity to share their experience with friends, families, Facebook, social media platforms, the sales person, management and the manufacturer through surveys and reviews.

Everyone loves to see and hear the great and good experiences. We enjoy the compliments and praise for providing an exceptional and uniquely pleasant experience to any customer, right? However, when we get that negative survey, the feelings change! The survey becomes a stupid thing. The experience usually involves a customer who is either “Crazy” or “Impossible to Please!”

However, these surveys and experiences that are expressed are valuable training opportunities if we harness them properly. The times that someone praises a team member or members, bring it to their attention and congratulate them for a job well done. Also, when we receive a “Bad” survey, address the team member or members in the same manner and use this experience as a coaching and training opportunity. Investigate all sides of the experience and story and see where the problems lie. Also, look for solutions throughout the experience to be aware of and notice in similar situations down the line to avoid repeating them and improve on the outcomes.

Always use every opportunity as a teacher in how you can improve, grow and do better next time around. We may not be able to make everyone act or respond a certain way we’d like but we can do our very best to change, adjust and better our actions and responses moving forward!

Ask yourself these questions when going over these experiences.

• Where is the problem within this experience?
• How can “I” resolve this problem?
• How can “We” resolve this problem?
• What steps can be taken to avoid this problem from occurring again?
• Regardless of what anyone else did or did not do, what did I do to contribute to make this better or worse at the time?
• What training can be done to make others aware of this issue or similar issues so they can also identify, recognize clues and act before it happens again?

-The Customer Experience Culture-
We have to remember that if it weren’t for the customer we would not have a job. If we answer the phones with an attitude that the customer is bothering me, then we are confused. The reason for our coming to work every day is to serve our customers. We come to work in our positions everyday so we can help our customers solve problems, answer questions, set our customers up with appointments and to help them in whatever their need is.

Now, we work with people that we may like, love, dislike, tolerate and maybe even can’t stand, but regardless of how we feel about the people we work with, we have a responsibility to serve our customers. Our attitudes and understanding of why we do what we do makes a huge difference in the actions and reactions that we express on a daily basis.

The way we talk, the tone in our voice, the posture in our seats, the perspective of that day all contributes to the overall experience we provide to the customer and within the room and area of influence that we have.

The conversations that we have over the phone are the first impressions of the experience they expect to have. Are we helping create a positive experience or negative experience? The way the phone call is handled sets the stage. The customers may not remember everything that we say to them. However, they will remember how we made them feel. When they associate the memory of that call to the appointment that they are going to have, every feeling experienced before that moment is brought back to remembrance. This is why when we think about things we’ve experienced in life, we remember the feeling that was associated with that experience and thought.

Ultimately, everything results in an experience. Every interaction we have creates an experience. The experience creates a feeling and a feeling creates a response whether negative or positive. Right now, this session is creating an experience. Our interaction is creating an experience. The experience is creating a feeling and the feeling is creating either a negative or positive response in your body and mind.

Every experience is connected to a feeling. Every memory of that experience also is tied to that emotional feeling as well.

For example:

• Have you ever experienced a vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles before? 
• Have you ever experienced going to a car dealership to buy a car before? 
• Have you ever experienced going to a live NFL Football game before?
• Have you ever experienced the birth of a child? 
• Your Wedding Day?
• A loved one’s funeral?
• Winning a game or team sport growing up?
• A car accident?
• A special moment with a loved one?

Everything mentioned created a memory and with that memory came an experience which created a feeling associated with that experience.

When people think about going to a car dealership for a sales experience or service experience, many times their past experiences are what cause the feelings they have and filters their perception towards their current and future experiences.

The Service BDC is a place that creates an environment that welcomes customer interaction while aiming to provide an exceptional experience. This is why it is important to facilitate a team to handle these calls in a way that is welcoming, professional and efficient.

-Call a Dealership For a Service Appointment-
One final thought and that is this. Call some dealerships other than the one you work for and set an appointment for service. See how they are handling return customers and first time customers who want to get their vehicle serviced.

Contact me to help you set up a plan and strategy to get your Service BDC moving or if you don’t have a Service BDC contact me to go over how to get yours set up. www.josephacala.com josephacalajr@gmail.com (848)-248-0730.