Accelerate aftersales: insights to optimise efficiency

In today’s rapidly changing marketplace it may be time for some fresh thinking to energise your aftersales approach. Read on for our best practice tips to help optimise performance and efficiency.

Understand the current reality 

The essential first step for an aftersales team to improve its performance is understanding how good it is currently. This is where RTC Insights benchmarking, and its breadth of data, is invaluable.

RTC Insights tracks and analyses data across all retailer departments, including aftersales. What is evident from the analysis we see is that the success of top performers in aftersales is never reliant on one single factor; it is about optimising all of the moving parts in the process—marginal gain opportunities are often available everywhere to improve aftersales efficiency and customer engagement.

The knowledge delivered by benchmarking enables retailers to see where performance can be enhanced with training and greater management focus, or by considering new approaches or technologies. Additionally, and often crucially, retailers recognise the potential of refining their KPIs to increase accountability.

eVHCs – an opportunity for improvement

One immediate area in which to realise the potential of marginal gains, based on current data, is eVHCs.

Data from RTC Aftersales eVHC product reveals that the average value of Red and Amber work identified by eVHCs continues to rise, following a long-term trend identified by the business. Looking at data from January 2024, Red work identified rose 14.54% year on year to £301.24 per job. Much higher than inflation. It indicates that more or higher-value faults are being identified, something which could be linked to the ageing parc that has emerged over recent years.

Sadly, conversions of this Red work fell by 3.7% to 46.4% from 48.2% in January 2023. It means that over half of identified Red work is available to be converted to workshop activity. This overall market conversion position needs to be assessed at a local level, but the sheer scale of the overall market position will mean that most retailers will find themselves looking at a significant opportunity for improvement.

The six steps in optimising eVHCs are;

Step 1: The optimal time to complete an eVHC

Step 2: Recording eVHC report outcomes

Step 3: Getting the right person for the right job

Step 4: Authenticity – being accurate and clear

Step 5: Engaging with customer openly about repairs

Step 6: Committing to continuous improvement

Optimising the eVHC process

Analysis from RTC indicates that to complete a full eVHC check efficiently and accurately takes fifteen minutes. Taking longer does not identify additional problems with a car to be addressed. On the other hand, completing a check too quickly risks missing safety/reliability issues that the customer needs to be aware exist.

The time to complete an eVHC is an important metric that workshop managers can use to enhance productivity.

Recording outcomes

Productivity gains are available for retailers that understand their own conversion levels and record accurately why customers opt not to have identified work undertaken. Essentially, this data analysis helps retailers to understand performance opportunity gaps, and the customer issues, or concerns that need to be addressed, enabling the business to enhance conversions.

Recent research suggests that cost and a lack of understanding about the need for a repair are likely to be issues. Another factor could be staffing or a skills shortage, wherein the aftersales team’s technicians are not being allocated to work that reflects their expertise, or conversion of available work is not being pursued because the resources are being focused only on high value work.

The right person on the job

Correct job allocation is crucial to aftersales productivity. RTC Insights data reveals that workshops that utilise 90-100% of technicians’ time effectively generate, on average, £35,000 per year more revenue from Red and Amber work when compared to workshops utilising only 50-75% of technicians’ time well.

Success in utilisation is a two-step process: Generating leads to keep technicians busy and ensuring the most appropriate team member completes booked jobs to maximise productivity. Where this job allocation by skill level is implemented, it can be appropriate to recruit the right resource for lower value work to increase overall conversions, for example, recruiting a dedicated tyre specialist can free other technicians to focus on complex, often higher-value work.

The right person for the job will enhance workshop management and efficiency.

Authenticity

Communicating Red work issues to customers is most effective when it puts their needs first. Safety, car reliability and the potential enhancement of a car’s value are all worthy of discussion. Additionally, explaining the importance of addressing identified Red work to manufacturer standard to support a car’s warranty and any finance terms and conditions, should not be overlooked. They are conditions that the customer may not know exist; ensuring they are aware of such a position enables them to make an informed decision.

Utilising personalised video to build trust and show the work required whilst using simple, easy to understand language will enhance the retailers’ authenticity.

Making eVHCs more engaging for customers

Building on the principle of authenticity and supporting informed customer decision making, improving customer engagement in the eVHC process is crucial. It starts by alerting them to the check at the service desk check-in. Letting the customer know that a full safety check will be completed on their car removes or mitigates the ‘cost shock’ if an issue is identified.

A proven tool for enhancing customer engagement whether there are any problems identified or not is video.

Data from retailers using CitNOW Workshop’s video capability to bring identified faults to life reveals that using video to explain the need to act on Red work outperforms static images or no media by 11%. Average Red work conversion rates increased from 45% to 50%.

A technician’s personalised video brings faults to life and addresses any questions, confusion, or misgivings a customer may have about the accuracy of an identified dangerous situation.

Our data reveals that 68% of work is authorised in under 30 minutes when sent with a video, so not only does the video visually highlight the condition of the vehicle it can speed up authorisation of work which will make for a more efficient workshop.

Next step to improvement

For retailers on their eVHC optimisation journey, embedding a continuous improvement approach is essential. For others, it starts with assessing current performance levels.

Discover more about how CitNOW Workshop’s video capability and RTC Insights’ benchmarking service can help you optimise efficiency in your aftersales process.

Meeting the ZEV Targets in 2024

Recently, there has been a lot of industry discussion around the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and the implications for OEMs who do not meet the targets. We understand the challenge facing OEMs and their retail networks to deliver on the target and avoid fines and the team across CitNOW Group has been putting some thought into how we can help retailers promote BEVs and close more customers.

Building customer confidence, robust processes, and quality data can deliver a compelling support proposition. This is first of a series of articles showcasing ideas and support CitNOW Group can provide.

Building customer confidence in BEVs

According to one of the UK’s most recognisable car sales websites, there is plenty of consumer interest in BEVs, but this is not yet converting into sales. Similarly, another prominent site suggests that buyers take over a week longer to research a BEV purchase than an ICE car before making a buying decision. Potential buyers, it appears, need that extra time to find the information they need to address the emotional and logical information they need to move from interest to action.

It is where virtual, retailer branded sales support can help bridge the confidence gap, helping their customers, themselves and their OEM partners.

Utilising video

It is easy to forget the rapid learning curve that a new BEV owner faces. Many centre on charging, but even a simple ‘how do I know when my car has started because there is no sound’ represents an opportunity to help. Walk in those people’s shoes, some of whom may be too embarrassed by the simplicity of their knowledge gap, and address their concerns in carefully considered, personable videos. With CitNOW’s proven video capability, creating a professional-looking and compelling video is easy.

Personal videos

If you are already familiar with CitNOW Sales in your showroom, you will know the power of video to deliver detailed and accessible information. Utilise CitNOW Sales to respond to enquiries and spend some time addressing some of the most common concerns surrounding BEVs whilst presenting the vehicle they are interested in. Consider the language you use, keeping it jargon free and simple will significantly enhance the customer experience and help them to feel more comfortable with this new power train. We have some excellent video tips available.

Video purpose

CitNOW Sales includes the ability to create different video purposes. Create a video purpose specific to BEVs and you could benefit from an email template that focuses on addressing the benefits of a BEV and dispels some of the myths.

CitNOW Sales also offers the ability to utilise the pre- or post-roll of the video – essentially the automatically applied beginning or end to a personalised video. This can be an effective option when communicating with a customer on a brand-new model you don’t yet have in stock by stitching together brand images to keep the anticipation of the model fresh and visual with the customer.

In summary

By adding this level of educational content and reassurance to video, retailers can make themselves stand out from the crowd, position themselves as subject experts, reduce customer concerns, building compelling value in their knowledge, empathy and ethos, and most importantly trust.

Next in this ZEV retailer and OEM support series will be the how sales and enquiry management can be used as a sales toolkit to help retailers embrace the ZEV challenge positively.

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Enhancing Customer Engagement & Retailer Efficiency

In the run-up to this year’s National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention in Las Vegas, S&P Global’s event preview noted that ‘First party customer engagement is now marketing’s biggest competitive arena,’ at CitNOW Group, we agree. However, we believe better customer engagement can be linked and enhanced with improvements in efficiency.

Sales and marketing processes centred on meeting customers’ needs can be a win-win for retailers and customers.

Creating compelling online impressions efficiently 

New research by ICDP has added some additional insights to the well-established recognition that most people start their car buying journey online.

According to ICDP’s research, over 55% of car buyers decided on their chosen make and model before visiting a showroom, and less than 15% changed their mind subsequently. The confidence and precision that car buyers can achieve in their decision-making, courtesy of digital tools, is significant. While there is no single route to how initial engagement occurs, three common factors dominate the awareness stage;

• Which vehicles to consider
• Affordability including part-exchange value
• Retailer choice

For the customer, this stage is all about research; for the retailer, it is about ensuring they can meet the customer’s research needs and provide a compelling, positive experience. In today’s multi-channel environment, it is also about optimising visibility to the customer, which, in CitNOW Group’s case, means as well as providing effective, engaging communication channels and innovative technology, seamless integrations with manufacturers and third-party integrations with sales platforms such as Auto Trader are key.

A primary customer requirement when searching for a car online is imagery. Research published last year found that 90% of buyers expect detailed images of the vehicle they hope to buy. It isn’t just the existence or volume of images (no less than 20, according to Auto Trader) that matters; the image quality plays a vital role in their decision and negotiation tactics.

The importance of quality makes a difference in photography and video, and not every retailer has the time, location or sometimes weather to get those ideal images, or spend the time doing it. Auto Imaging, from CitNOW Group, helps retailers to take the perfect portfolio of internal and external images with AI-driven quality control that allows the person taking a photograph to easily get it right; automatic background replacement (aBGR) and full retailer branding are other compelling parts of the package.  Some Auto Imaging customers have seen a more than 50% decrease of days in stock after utilising its aBGR feature.  

Given that 97% of people say the quality of images makes a difference in their car buying decision, Auto Imaging is proving to be indispensable to many UK retailers; add in that images can be uploaded onto car sales aggregators immediately with automated workflows, which require less human intervention, and the net result is a better customer experience and more efficient internal process.  

Take the dealership to the customer digitally

Once the customer has initially engaged it’s about transforming their experience and building a rapport with them immediately. CitNOW Sales, enables the sales team to record personalised videos to take the vehicle to the interested customer before setting foot inside the dealership. Designed for use by sales executives, it provides an easy-to-use way to shoot, edit and send personalised retailer-branded videos of a car, van or motorbike in response to a customer enquiry.

In addition to the capabilities of the CitNOW Sales application itself, there is a potential efficiency gain to be made through it’s integrations. CitNOW’s partnership with Salesforce, for example, enables CitNOW Sales video functionality and reporting to be accessible from within Salesforce Automotive Cloud while its integration with Dealerweb Showroom aids retailers to streamline the management of their customer data, enhancing the customer journey and improving conversion rates. Both ensure information about customer engagement, from initial enquiries to video watch notifications and historical activity, are shared enabling a more efficient lead and sales management process.

The importance of the online experience

Curating the customer’s awareness, consideration and decision-making journey online, CitNOW Group’s sales management product, Dealerweb Showroom, continues to prove its value.

Dealerweb Showroom was conceived with sales management efficiency at its core. It is a central hub for all sales operations with its easy-to-use, intuitive interface enabling sales departments to manage leads, create and build customer offers more effectively.

The platform also benefits from integrations with other CitNOW Group products, such as CitNOW Sales and CitNOW Appraise, and many other well-regarded automotive suppliers, including, lead generators, the major DMS platforms, F&I providers, and compliance and marketing experts. By bringing multiple technologies together, retailers can facilitate the customer’s awareness stage, lead them through the subsequent consideration and final decision-making stages in a structured manner that creates a positive customer journey, whilst internally reducing the potential for errors and creating a more efficient sales operation.

Built in reporting means Sales Managers can have their finger on the pulse of every part of their sales pipeline in a few short clicks. Add RTC Insights into the mix and you can analyse all your dealership data at the click of a button.

Don’t overlook the partexchange opportunity

A final best practice thought for this post – the part exchange opportunity.

According to recent research from ICDP, 45% of people would prefer a part-exchange process that is entirely online and through a simple email link to a customer; CitNOW Appraise is the ideal tool. It enables the customer to video their car following an easy-to-use guided journey. It allows the customer to feel engaged and in control and can be confident that they have brought their current car to life for a retailer to appraise and value.

Since the value of a part exchange is often such a central lever to the car buying process, this simple and practical application is a perfect trust and relationship builder. It can also be a double win; access to quality stock and a compelling reason for a customer to go from online to instore!

In a motor retailing world where engagement and efficiency matter increasingly, there are a number of ways in which technology can beneficial. Explore how CitNOW Group’s ecosystem of solutions can help you.