Each customer that has their vehicle serviced at a dealership does so with a set of unique anxieties and preconceived notions about the experience.
It may be a simple warranty appointment or a service interval check-up. It could also be something more serious. No matter what it is, each person brings a set of assumptions. As e-commerce channels such as Amazon have re-framed the consumer experience, those assumptions have evolved into heightened expectations around transparency, convenience and communication.
Exceeding expectations in a profitable and efficient way requires technology. That’s a simple fact. For Dealer-FX, getting to the heart of the matter is what Digital MPI is meant to do. It’s designed to be a fast and convenient way to get approvals on service recommendations. By reducing the time it takes to get a response from the customer and decreasing phone calls back and forth, Digital MPI improves department efficiency and vehicle throughput, saving technicians and advisors time.
1. What’s the Value of this Technology — and What is the Single Greatest Benefit?
Simple: Giving Service Advisors the ability to communicate with customers over text or email, through a connected platform that syncs data to communications. In addition, Digital MPI combines three key functions and features:
- Efficiency: Digital MPI puts vital information in the hands of Service Advisors and their customers when they need it, and how they want it. That increases revenue and improves capacity.
- Communication: Digital MPI opens up a text channel between advisor and customer that’s comfortable and transparent for all. It’s a vital component to building loyalty from the service drive.
- Integration: Efficiency gains and incremental service revenue increases add up when it’s an organic part of the service process. That takes integration with data solutions and workflow systems. Digital MPI is designed with that integration in mind.
The bottom line? Selling additional work from technician inspections is key to dealer profitability. Analysis shows that of dealers who are the most successful selling work from MPIs, one action most shared in common was high DMPI utilization.
The value of the technology extends also includes efficiency gains. Simply getting customer approvals faster (think phone tag) reduces a major bottleneck that kills service department productivity. Delayed approvals require technicians to unhook equipment and unload vehicles from lifts, then park them in the lot before loading another vehicle on the lift. Each swap can take 10-20 minutes of a technician’s time — and 18 days of technician productivity per year for the dealer.
2. How Does Digital MPI Work?
Service Advisors using the Service Dashboard receive a completed MPI report with recommendations and send it to the customer via a short link embedded in an email or text. Tapping the link opens a unique mobile website detailing the report and recommendations. The DMPI report goes over any concerns the customer originally came in for, outlines any concerns needing immediate or future attention and notes all items the technician checked as still in good condition.
All recommended items include price estimates and can be approved with a single touch. Customers can also access helpful explanatory information with photos about each recommended service. The customer can review, decline or authorize the repairs in a matter of minutes with minimal personal interruption. Once approvals are complete, the customer is given a total estimate for their service visit, including items that were previously approved, as well as an updated promise time. Using text and email to get customer approvals is less intrusive and can be performed more easily, eliminating voice mails and resulting in shorter approval cycles.
3. Can it Improve my CSI score?
According to the J.D. Power 2019 Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, there’s a 75-point difference between customers who have an all-digital experience and those who have an all-analog experience. That makes using digital tools to communicate vital to good CSI.
Add to that a dedicated approach to customer service that fuses human relationships with the efficiency of technology. In essence, technology empowers human interaction, and optimizes the experience. In this way, and because Digital MPI has such a strong consumer-facing value, it’s easy to see how utilizing Digital MPIs could contribute to positive CSI scores. The technology provides dealers and their customers a win-win: customers appreciate the speed and efficiency it brings, while dealers appreciate the value of added capacity and happy service customers. It’s all a part of creating a frictionless service experience that infuses human relationships with technology efficiencies.
…And One Special Feature
Digital MPI is built on a solid foundation of data. It uses certified, bi-directional integration with DMS software and leading third parties, and shares data across all ONE Platform solutions. This provides complete transparency, establishes accuracy and includes complete store integration. In that way, it’s built to exceed customer expectations.
What’s Next?
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