Make Fixed Operations Profitable with a Virtual Call Center

You can make your fixed operations more profitable with a virtual call center solution.  Virtual call center solutions are used to drive productivity to one of your dealership’s most important profit centers, your fixed operations.   A virtual call center solution can ensure that your parts and service operations never miss a sale and help improve customer experience and customer loyalty.  In this article we’ll focus on how to take full control of your parts departments by implementing a smarter way to connect with your customers, a cloud based call center.

Make Your Fixed Operations More Profitable with a Virtual Call Center

The automotive dealerships and equipment dealerships are all about customer service.  Creating and maintaining loyal customers is crucial to maximizing labor and parts sales.  Without the proper solutions, it is difficult to unlock that potential. Virtual call center solutions provide powerful tools that will get your customers to the showroom at a very low-cost and make your dealerships more competitive.

You can differentiate yourself from your competitors in your market by implementing a smarter way to interact and connect with your customers.  Below is a list of tips that are essential for building a successful virtual call center for your fixed operations.

What is a Virtual Call Center?

Virtual call center solutions are built with open-sourced technology and provide the same functionalities and features as proprietary call center platforms, at a fraction of the cost.  Organizations often utilize virtual call centers if their representatives are geographically dispersed, rather than situated in one building operated by the business.  Virtual call centers allow business to save money on the cost of equipment and also lower turnover rates, which are traditionally high for call centers.  If you are considering a virtual call center, here are some helpful tips to making it a success.

1. Gain Valuable Insight

In order to improve ongoing customer relations, it is important to implement both traditional methods and new technology. Virtual features such as call recording, allow you to log every communication with customers and gain company insight.  Every call is recorded with detailed call information such as date, time and duration of the call.  Drive more accountability seamlessly by tracking which individual customers or leads need follow-up.

Customer knowledge built can also be used to build more effective marketing campaigns or sales pitches.  For support calls, monitor agents to ensure your team is offering first-class support.  Calls can be monitored easily by accessing the online user portal via laptop or mobile phone.

2. Effective Scheduling

Effective scheduling is crucial for fixed operations departments to control cost, boost performance and raise agent retention rates.  Customers will no longer have long hold times to speak with the next available representative to answer their call.  IVR Auto Attendant is set up to speak to callers using voice responses, and selections are made via touch tone keypad on their phone.  Interactive voice response allows you to make more appointments, generate more revenue and higher retention. After customers set up appointments, additional services can be recommended to your customer by a staff member, adding to a method for increasing sales with every inspection.

3. Manage Your Calls

If you are managing a business with multiple employees in each parts and service department,  you most likely are experiencing an overwhelming amount of calls.  Separate the overflow of calls between branches, by setting up  Sequential Ringing so that calls never go unanswered.  You can set phones to ring simultaneously, or in a specific order that’s beneficial to your business.  If a specific salesman isn’t available, the call will be transferred to the next employee in the list.

This feature is triggered when an incoming call matches a specific rule, such as a certain time of day or date.  You can also choose the duration of the ring before the call is forwarded to the next device. This feature helps you connect to customers and save them from frequently reaching your inbox.

4. Mobility

Virtual call centers provide an opportunity for mobility that was never possible with on-premise solutions.  Time of day routing  allows you to forward calls to specific extensions depending on the time and date you choose.  Decide when and where a call should be forwarded in advance by changing your settings so that you never miss a another call.

Time of day routing allows you to make the most of your incoming calls and maximize sales.   Allow your dealership to focus on client satisfaction at the dealership, while VoIP features manage your inbound appointments, overflow calls, call routing and much more.

5. Scalability

Virtual call centers enable solutions to grow with business, without making an investment in more hardware. The scalable platform of virtual call center software, allows you to handle inbound and outbound, handling multichannel support to solve all of your contact center needs. You can rapidly scale up your call center operations without having to invest in new hardware or architecture.

6. Live Monitoring

For those looking to listen in on agents calls, live monitoring is a must have feature.  This will allow you to listen to calls remotely right when the call is taking place.  This feature is helpful for giving feedback to an agent immediately following a call.  Live monitoring helps supervisors pinpoint agent trouble spots and offer advice in real-time.  By listening to calls, management can determine what types of training their agents, team or department need to focus on.

7. Up-to-Date Reports

Keep track of important business with virtual call center solutions. Agent reports give you valuable information about each of your calls and agents. You can monitor how many calls a specific agent takes, how long each call last and a variety of other statistics that will help you analyze both your inbound and outbound calls.  Virtual call center reports can help you effectively monitor your staff as well as improve your customers’ experience.

8. Add Credibility

Including a toll-free number on your website, advertising, marketing and social media channels adds credibility and increases the likelihood that a customer will purchase your product or services. By providing customers with a toll-free number, you can enhance the image of a successful and reliable business.  Not only does it show your customers that you are accessible, but that you will go the extra step to have open communication.

9. Establish a Plan

The more you plan, the less you will encounter mistakes.  Sure, sometimes you’ll get off course or move backward a bit, but the typical trajectory is to stride for success.  Firms that don’t define their goals, whether it be to save money, improve customer service, or all of the above, often run into trouble. Once you determine your goals, you will want to establish a clear patch of how to achieve them.  Setting a plan to reach your goals and objectives is critical to gauging your future success.

10. Evaluate Your Success

After you have utilized your virtual call center for a period of months, it is important to go back and evaluate.  Tune-in to the prior goals you established to see what you have accomplished and what wrinkles should be smoothed out.  By evaluating your virtual call center frequently, you can determine the best ways to optimize your performance and reach your longterm goals.