Customer satisfaction in the car service industry has always been paramount. Studies show that it costs up to seven times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one, underscoring the importance of customer loyalty. But increased competition and more cars on the road puts a strain on your automotive dealership’s service department. Missed calls, long wait times, and delayed operations lead to disgruntled customers — a reality few service departments can afford when striving for customer retention. So how can you keep customers happy and loyal to your dealership’s service department?
Boost your automotive service center standards with GoTo Connect — an all-in-one communication, collaboration, and customer experience (CX) platform. By utilizing features like unlimited call routing, centralized messaging, and a visual dial plan editor, your dealership's service department can ensure efficient and personalized customer interactions — every time. You’ll not only enhance customer satisfaction but also build loyalty, turning customers into passionate advocates for your automotive dealership.
Here are 3 ways GoTo Connect’s comprehensive CX platform can drive customer loyalty to your dealership service center:
1. Replace outdated systems to keep up with customer demands
In the last ten years, technological advances have drastically transformed the automotive industry. The service department has not been immune to such advances and customer demands are constantly rising. Your legacy system is probably not designed to handle the demands of modern service operations. Outdated systems often operate in silos, are difficult to maintain, and struggle to keep pace with evolving car owners' expectations and technological advances.
Switching to a cloud-based solution can be a game-changer for automotive dealerships on outdated systems. A consolidated system brings together various communication channels (phone, email, chat, social media) into a single, unified platform.
Centralizing customer interactions aggregates data from popular dealer management systems (DMS) — including Momentum, Car Wars, Purple Cloud, Communify, Tekion, VinSolutions, and more — to provide a comprehensive customer view. And unlike legacy systems, GoTo Connect is cloud-based, offering scalability to handle fluctuating call volumes and business growth.
Instead of juggling multiple tools, you can now consolidate into one comprehensive platform for increased efficiency and cost savings.
“Unifying everything into one solution has been amazing. Texting, faxing, recording, and reporting from one central location is a huge upside. I was able to cancel 6 or 7 different products once we made the switch.”
- Todd Hawkins, IT Manager, BMW of Murray
2. Personalize customer communications and experience
Automotive service centers have seen a dip in customer satisfaction. And it’s no wonder: between high call volume, multiple communication channels, and an increase in service appointments, it’s near impossible to keep everyone happy.
A unified communications system can help drive exceptional customer experiences in the following ways:
- Efficiently route incoming calls to the appropriate service advisor, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction with Automated Call Distribution.
- Allow customers to self-serve by scheduling appointments, checking service status, and requesting general information, with Interactive Voice Responses.
- Document customer interactions for quality assurance and training with call recordings and AI-generated transcripts.
- Enable text notifications to remind customers about their upcoming appointments and notify them of service updates and completed repairs.
“An exceptional customer experience was something we lacked with our old phone system. GoTo Connect’s call queues feature has allowed us to give customers a greatly improved experience. Even when our service department is extremely busy requiring our customers to be on hold, we’re now able to customize the on-hold music, play an advertisement, announce expected wait times and give customers the option of leaving a voicemail or being transferred to the front desk. Now, we’re seeing customers wait to get their calls answered, because we’re giving them something more than just ringing in their ear,”
- Daniel Matthey, Larry H. Miller Dealerships & GoTo Customer
3. Rev up service department operations
Outdated systems — coupled with poor communication and information silos — often hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of service departments. These challenges manifest in various forms, such as delayed service times, increased customer complaints, and decreased technician productivity.
By providing a centralized, user-friendly platform that fosters seamless communication across departments, GoTo addresses these pain points and helps service departments operate more smoothly and efficiently.
You’ll be able to:
- Integrate phone systems with your DMS, providing agents with customer information and service history at their fingertips.
- Facilitate seamless communication between service advisors, technicians, and parts departments, improving coordination and collaboration with one unified communication platform.
- Enable efficient communication and collaboration within the service team, such as team messaging, with GoTo’s collaboration tools.
“Staying on top of constantly evolving technology is challenging, especially for a technician in a workshop who’s busy working on cars all day and doesn’t have much time for regular training. We needed a way to provide real-time, instant support to our in-shop teams, quickly addressing complex cases and solving problems...GoTo gives us all the tools we need to help the customer fully understand the situation and hopefully exceed their expectations, preventing things from escalating,”
- Spokesperson, Head of Technical Operations & GoTo Customer
With GoTo Connect, automotive dealerships can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their service departments. Through improved communication, streamlined workflows, and enhanced customer experience, automotive dealerships can boost customer satisfaction, increase technician productivity, and ultimately drive revenue.
See how GoTo Connect’s comprehensive platform can help your dealership service center optimize operations and drive sustainable growth.