Theófilos R. Kokkotas, Director Business Development, in conversation on the subject of "Simply digitizing car dealership processes".
The digitization and automation of communication and operational processes is currently one of the most exciting and important IT challenges facing car dealerships. Many dealerships still have long and labor-intensive process chains that often run "analogously" and therefore everything takes a lot of time. The challenge is to optimize these processes in such a way that the internal communication in a dealership is digitized and customers or potential customers are offered added value.
In order to digitize the communication processes, estos with its
unified communications & CTI software suite ProCall Enterprise
offers a solution that digitizes and efficiently streamlines company communication processes. The added value of this digitization is measurable and, with efficient use, brings cross-selling and upselling potential.Susanna: Theófilos, you talk to many car dealerships. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing such businesses?
Theófilos: Recently, an IT manager called me from a large car dealership with the following challenge: The managing director wanted a new, integrated communication solution, because too many telephone calls were being lost in daily operation. These callers were never called back because there was no overview of the calls missed. Often, employees in the dealership could not locate certain colleagues requested by the customer. Many customers complained about this and frequently took their business to other competitors. All in all, it was a very unsatisfactory situation, both for the employees and the customers.
Susanna: How did you advise him and how did you come up with the new solution?
Theófilos: First, we did a joint inventory. We successively worked through the following questions: How many locations did the dealership have? What technical infrastructure was available? What telephone systems were currently used? After clarifying the status quo, we talked about other topics which, from the point of view of the managing director, were important and necessary in order to make the information and communication processes of the dealership sustainable for the future.
Since it was a larger dealership with several locations and the telephony was centrally managed, we took-on this challenge together with a partner and presented a complete technical solution to the company, including considering overflow scenarios, that is: what lines would be used for forwarding incoming callers if the primary colleagues responsible were all engaged in conversations at the same time.
Susanna: What challenges have been overcome with this technical solution?
Theófilos: Well, every customer can now be personally greeted by name when they call, insofar as the customer’s data is stored in the CRM. Even before the call is accepted, colleagues at the switchboard already know whether it is a private or business customer. The vehicle license plate as well as the type of car the customer drives is also known. Furthermore, no call is lost. Overflow scenarios are created and employees now know more quickly where every other colleague is currently located thanks to presence management and calendar integration. This applies also for companies in multiple locations. Internal communication has been made more efficient by bundling all commonly used communication channels such as telephone, e-mail and chat into one application. So, for example, an employee can quickly converse with a colleague via video chat consultation. Management is now in a position to have an overview over the entire telephone volume. They know exactly which customer was spoken to and when. In particular, it was interesting for management to see that the business customer department (new car sales) was also very active at the POS (Point of sale).
Susanna: Was the technical handling of the project done by an estos partner?
Theófilos: Yes, one of our expert partners has taken over the consulting, installation and technical implementation, among other things, of the connection of ProCall Enterprise to the customer database of the car manufacturer.
Susanna: Which products were used?
Theófilos:
ProCall Enterprise
, to improve the internal and external communication with many features. ECSTA-Series, to enable communication between the PC and telephone system. MetaDirectory, to bring together the existing contact data from CRM, ERP and special industry programs so that they are already displayed before the call begins. Lastly, ProCall Analytics was also used to enable evaluation of the call volume.Susanna: Why do you think that our software is so popular, especially in the sphere of car dealerships?
Theófilos: Through our many discussions with car dealerships, I know that the industry is in strong transition. The automotive industry faces numerous challenges due to the digital transformation. Car dealers are confronted with a changing buying behavior and the increasing desire for individualization. As part of these changes, the IT/network technology and TC are also gaining in importance. Software from estos helps car dealers digitalize their communications and provide customers with an enhanced personal customer service. The competition is huge. Car dealerships that are already plotting the course for the communication of tomorrow, will "drive forward" in the long term better than those who do not meet the changing requirements.
Susanna: What can you recommend to car dealerships who want to get more information about the solutions estos can offer them without any obligation?
First of all, we provide comprehensive information on communication solutions for car dealerships on this landing page. I invite every interested person from a car dealership to personally contact me. Of course, I would also like to invite them to our free webinars designed especially for the needs of car dealerships.
Do you have any further questions for Theófilos Kokkotas?
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