Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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dealership spotlight / bdc Kukolja said it is also impor- tant to make sure every effort is being made to reach a lead, which means not only calling regularly but trying to reach the customer at different times of the day. Leads are called every day for 30 days or until the BDC coordinator receives a response; after 30 days, leads are called once every two days. She recently encountered a problem with leads being called every day at the same time. In most cases, she said, "They just called in the mornings. They called every single day for a month … We weren't seeing results." To address this issue and "make sure that we're [trying to reach customers] at every possible time throughout the day," Kukolja said "what I've started doing every week is I go through their [leads] and let them know, 'Hey, your cus- tomers that are 45 to 60 days old haven't been called be- tween 6 and 8 p.m. in a week. Make sure to call those on your next night.'" If the issue has not been addressed after a couple of notices, she said, "I send them an e-mail stating that if customers haven't been called in a certain amount of time, based on the lead date, they will get assigned to an- other BDC rep … and it has been working phenomenally. Now, everybody is doing their night calls." While the BDC's performance has been improved by moni- toring results and holding staff accountable, Kukolja said the pay plan provides additional incentive for the BDC representatives to improve performance. In addition to a flat weekly amount, BDC reps get an extra $1 for every appointment they set, $15 for every set appoint- ment that shows and $25 for every customer who actually purchases. In addition to that plan, she stated, "A few months ago, to kind of try to motivate them and step it up to the next level, we came up with a little bonus system." She figures the bonuses by looking at the total number of leads for the month along with the number of appointments set, the number that showed and the number that sold. "If they're over an average of 45 to 55 percent set-to-show, they earn a little bonus … anywhere from $50 to $300 … Whoever has the best percentage for the month ob- viously gets the highest bonus. Whoever has the most calls for the month gets a little bonus—different things like that," she explained. So far, this has been working extremely well. "The last two months we've sold over 100 cars each month," she said. "We've sold 100 [in a month] before, several times. However … that's the first time since we've had the BDC that [it] happened back-to-back." Training continues to be a priority for the BDC, even more than a year-and-a-half later. The BDC representatives train remotely with the Dealer Synergy team every other week and work on "any issues they're having—objections, rebuttals, role-playing and so forth. And then [Dealer Synergy] came out a few times within the last year-and- a-half, as well, for some training here at the dealer- ship." Kukolja added that she is hoping to obtain additional training for the BDC staff to improve their product knowledge. "We know enough to have a quick conversation," she stated, but added they don't have a great deal of detailed product information, which she believes could help the BDC representatives do even more to take care of customers and answer their questions. 31