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Total Customer Service

Integrated PFW Products Power All Departments

PFW Password - WINTER 2006In order to be fully addressed, customer service must be considered from all of the perspectives with which customers approach your business (for more on the hazards of ignoring this philosophy, see the article “The Ambush” on page 8). This principle helps define the comprehensive nature of PFW IntelliDealer.

PFW IntelliDealer Integration
Designed to help you with your unique customer-service needs, PFW IntelliDealer is an integrated business system that provides your various departments with a “common ground” that works effectively behind the scenes. Consequently, customers see your dealership as a unified and strong customer-service-excellent entity. IntelliDealer offers you single-entry flexibility and efficiency, and an integration that deepens your customer understanding. When dealerships can deepen their “corporate memory”, which Wikipedia defines as “the total body of data, information and knowledge required to deliver the strategic aims and objectives of an organization”, they can create a distinctive brandand can, in the eyes of their customers, differentiate themselves from their competitors.

This requires that a comprehensive and integrated system be available to lever transaction history, access customer patterns and preferences, perform data categorization as a means to select information, and generally manage both internal and external business activities. With such a system, business is conducted more smoothly and forms a solid basis from which to operate and ultimately profit. PFW IntelliDealer matches this requirement and, as shown below, contains the dealership-specific tools to take corporate memory and convert it into remarkable customer service—company-wide. Total customer service starts with your front-line employees, but doesn’t stop there. Consider the following areas:

Reception
The “first touch” for customers seeking direction and support.This is an often-overlooked part of your customer-service effort, but first impressions are indeed critical. Your front-line personnel need to represent your company in a consistent, systematic, professional and efficient manner, contribute to the building of rapport, respond to customer complaints effectively, and properly channel phone and walkup traffic—all of which are integral to customer loyalty and your “customer service brand”.

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: Dealers can choose to provide reception with IntelliDealer’s Customer Portal so that they can benefit from, and even contribute to, IntelliDealer’s integrated database. Customers receive warmer, more personal service, are directed more efficiently, and their noteworthy interactions can be recorded by reception for subsequent use by authorized users throughout the dealership. When calling back, customers will appreciate the fact that they don’t have to repeatedly explain their situation.

Finance and Administration
As well as dealing with internal affairs, this area also needs to guarantee good relationships with suppliers and customers. Dealerships need to nurture vendor relationships, as good relations in this area do indeed impact customers. Internal co-ordination means that customers receive orders on time, enjoy better pricing, and are able to choose from a wider variety of the latest products. As well, when a department efficiently and professionally manages customer accounts, for example leasing and financing, the perception is that the dealership is organized, competent and strong—in all capacities.

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: In addition to benefiting from Financial Management’s integration with the general ledger and its single-entry, automatic transaction capability, A/P and A/R staff have many IntelliDealer tools at their disposal. They can use the integrated Vendor Profile to oversee purchase and payment terms and view distribution information, capitalize on the Customer Profile to pick up and record notes, manage shipping, contact, and payment details, employ A/R Outstanding to view account aging details, manage internal processes with Invoice History, perform Month End, and run powerful reports with Customer Reports, A/P Reports,andFinancial Reporting.

Parts
The Parts counter is typically viewed as a no-nonsense, “production” area, but customer service is crucial, in light of the competition from non-OEM sources. Today’s customer wants efficient service, but that doesn’t mean a gruff, minimalist interaction. Parts staff should be aided by accurate inventory information, be able to capitalize on relevant OEM promotions and quality assurances, and should possess the requisite product knowledge that may generate additional revenues. Leon Cormier of ALPA Equipment in Balmoral, New Brunswick, says that his company “…gives suggestions on why something is going wrong with a machine, so we sell customers parts that they might be buying elsewhere.”

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: Parts lets you perform inter-branch sourcing and manage parts inventory information, so that customers are furnished with the parts they need, when they need them. And in order to ensure the accuracy that customers expect, the system creates associations between parts and the machines for which they were intended. Also possible is the application of time-limited manufacturer promotion pricing. The backbone of Parts is the Parts Profile, which gives your staff a clear picture of specifications, purchasers and transactions. Ultimately, customers are impressed with prompt, informed and personal service—and become repeat customers.

Service
The “classic” customer service environment: potential margins here are huge.
This is “showdown” territory: those that can succeed in this highly competitive area can capitalize on the available margins that are estimated at anywhere from 60-70 percent (see the Winter, 2003, issue of the PFW Password). The stakes are so high here that customer service must—arguably more so than anywhere else—be honed, and viewed as professional. Service excellence means conducting meticulous inspections, implementing intelligent flat rating, performing effective shop floor scheduling, and offering skilled labor that is informed by rigorous product training. Customers will be the beneficiaries of service departments who thoroughly inspect machines and their components before starting service, provide clear communication regarding labor rates and completion dates, ensure that work orders are closed and invoiced in a timely fashion, create accurate quotes, and make prompt follow-up calls to customers. Ultimately, the service department can answer the key questions: “How much will this service cost?”, and “When will the job be done?”

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: The Supervisor feature lets service managers optimize their human and facility resources, which impacts customers in a direct and beneficial way. IntelliTech provides service technicians and their supervisors with the co-ordination tools they need to streamline processes, and allows them to more effectively perform their jobs. As well, dealers can upsell post-warranty service agreements in order to increase revenues.

Sales
Obtaining new business and expanding existing accounts is of dire importance. Sales staff that provide superior customer service can function as massive levers. Believe it or not, salespeople do not always practice superior customer service! Yes, even though these staff members are, to varying degrees, dependent on commissions, they can be negligent in the way they approach customers. Whether the problem is focussing on the sale and not the customer; short-sightedness, where a lack of long-term perspective stops “gateway” selling from blossoming; or customer oversights caused by a lack of customer service knowledge, salespeople can empower themselves, and the sales process, with the right tools.

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: IntelliDealer promotes your sales staff’s customer knowledge. By gleaning customer information from the Customer Profile—deepened by multi-department input—and then combining that intelligence with the CRM tools available—for example, Call Scheduling and Marketing Campaigns—as well as analysis tools like Purchase History, salespeople can benefit from the all-important principle of timing: being in the right place at the right time—and with the right product. The result is true “customer care” where the customer experience is boosted—along with commissions.

Marketing
Promotions and campaigns are boosted when based on solid customer service principles.
Creating promotional materials that really speak to customers is critical. “Switched on” customers, as a result of effective marketing, are more likely to view your company positively, and are more likely to upgrade their existing products and services.

PFW IntelliDealer Implementation: Marketing Campaigns allows you to target the customers you want, in the way they need to be approached. For example, create a campaign directed at those customers who own a unit to which a manufacturer promotion applies, those whose accounts receivable have exceeded a set limit, or easily capture a campaign list of customers who were coded with a specific telephone call record, for example, “Lost Sales”. As well, with Customer Profile—accessible system-wide—customer calls can be coded, deepening a company’s understanding of its customers.

The “e-Dealership”
The online extension of your dealership should mirror your in-store customer service standards. Even though customers are accessing your services remotely, it doesn’t mean a substandard level of service is acceptable. The goal here should be to extend your seamless customer-service blanket, in order to cover the whole dealership, and provide customers with a consistent, high-quality transaction.

PFW Implementation: PFW eServices, where dealership customers can access their account and invoice status as well as their service contracts, in order to update machine hours, schedule recommended service, and send e-mails to specific dealership departments. With eServices, your customers help themselves, and you, by continually updating their customer profile. eServices allows you to “extend” your products beyond the dealership where, for example, parts and equipment graphics give customers a clear and complete picture of your offerings—even when your dealership’s doors are closed.

Conclusion
As has been illustrated, the tools are available to complement your customer service effort; all it takes is your initiative and foresight. Superior customer service is about going above and beyond what you’ve confirmed your customer expects, but those expectations must be determined. Koenig Equipment’s Ray Koenig points out that, “It’s good to be able to get psychographic and demographic information about our customers. PFW IntelliDealer makes it easier to get information, and the ability to pull up information and drill down into it is huge.”