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Glenn Hartley is Service and Parts Director for Nissan of Rivergate, a dealership just north of Nashville, TN. The service department handles 1,500 repair orders a month, of which 70 percent are customer-pay. The dealership installed Xtime in 2012 to improve service delivery to its customers.
Nissan of Rivergate generates 99 percent of its appointments through Xtime and enjoys an average 85 percent show rate. These customers spend on average $175 with the dealership.
“Not a bad RO figure, given most customers go to the Xtime automotive scheduling software initially just to book an oil change,” Hartley notes.
Typical three-month performance metrics for the dealership show it generated $287,269 in total repair order business using Xtime.
From our use of Xtime, our CSI and retention have improved and we’re now getting as much as 30 percent of our appointments a day from Xtime’s online appointment scheduling solution,” Hartley says.
Online service scheduling fits well with today’s consumer trend to view the details of their lives online. They pay bills, register cars, book vacations, and buy items from the comfort of their sofas, after the kids are in bed, all while watching Netflix. Dealerships that value their customer’s time and preferred buying style win their business.
“By giving customers opportunity to schedule their own service appointment, I have a 24-hour appointment scheduler working for me,” Hartley adds. “Using it, customers fill up our day and they often fill hours late in the day that advisors, if allowed to take appointment calls, might not book. Xtime takes human weakness out of the appointment equation.”
Online appointment booking through Xtime also affords dealerships these additional benefits:
The dealership no longer allows appointment bookings directly into its dealer management system. Booking into Xtime is easier, and faster, for both the service department and its customers. Xtime supports certified integrations with: ADP Elite, Reynolds & Reynolds ERA, DealerTrack/Arkona, AutoMate, DealerBuilt LightYear, Serti, and PBS Systems. Integrations are certified and support real-time, bi-directional data exchange.
Note these three-month results from use of Xtime at Nissan of Rivergate
84.8%
No. ROs: 160
Av. RO: $234
Total: $37, 453
85.7.0%
No. ROs: 270
Av. RO: $125
Total: $33,884
241 selected services
31 availability searches
123 bookings
5 cancellations
83.5.0%
No. ROs: 1,207
Av. RO: $178
Total: $215,932
Overall Show Rate = 84%
Total ROs = 1,637
Average RO value = $175
Total RO value = $287,269
Hartley says giving customer more control of the appointment process is smart management.
“If you don’t use an appointment system like this that gives customers specified days and hours available for them to book, you end up with customer coming in unplanned or individuals taking appointments that cause over- or under-bookings that throws off the workflow, which doesn’t make anyone happy,” Hartley notes.
He reports that customers responding to surveys consistently give the dealership high marks for convenience and satisfaction. “Our ratings for CSI and ‘ease of making an appointment’ are almost always rated 10s by our customers. You get scores like that when servicing with the dealership is convenient for them if not necessarily so for the dealership staff.”
A greeter board immediately welcomes service customers to Nissan of Rivergate. “It’s one of the first things customers comment about,” Hartley says.
The Xtime Appointment Board uses a large-screen monitor to greet customers. It also displays customers’ appointment status and other information, such as vehicle identification and assigned advisor. Hartley said customers now check the board for service status updates, reducing these questions being directed at advisors.
This greeter board is part of Hartley’s emphasis on marketing, which includes orienting customers to the importance and value of adhering to scheduled appointments.
“We always want customers to understand the benefits of making appointments, and customers are hearing us; our on-time percentage has increased significantly.”
