You do not know how many customers you are missing. That is the problem.
An unanswered call leaves no trace. There is no notification, nothing in a system and nobody feels responsible. It is the only gap in your business whose size you do not know, and usually the first one we close.
The quietest cost you have.
At a quarter past nine the phone rings while your front desk is helping someone and the second line is going too. The caller waits, hangs up and calls the next garage. At your end nothing has happened: no missed call in view, no name, no number, no record.
Half an hour of break, a busy morning and a Saturday added together comes to ten to twenty calls a week in most workshops. Ask your front desk and you get an estimate. Ask your phone system and you usually get nothing.
What you cannot see, you cannot solve. That is why this starts with making it visible.
- A caller who does not get through rarely calls a second time.
- You do not know whether it is five or fifty a week.
- Your front desk feels guilty about something it can do nothing about.
What the system does.
From a call nobody answered to a conversation that does carry on.
-
01
The missed call is noticed
A call that was not picked up, that waited too long on hold or that came in outside opening hours is recorded with time and number.
-
02
A message within a minute
Not an hour later and not the next morning. Within a minute the caller gets a message: we saw that you called, what can we help with.
-
03
The conversation continues on WhatsApp
Most people answer there faster than they call back. They can do it while waiting for the bus or between two jobs.
-
04
The enquiry gets worked out
What it is for, which car, how urgent. The same questions your front desk would ask, with the registration as the starting point.
-
05
An appointment or a call-back slot
If it can be scheduled, that happens straight away. If a person is needed, a call-back slot is set with the reason attached.
-
06
The counter runs
How many calls were missed, how many replied and how many became appointments. For the first time a number instead of a feeling.
A conversation that comes out of this.
An example, not a recording of a customer. You set the tone yourself, this one is ours.
The gap you can measure straight away.
A number where you had none
After two weeks you know how many calls really went unanswered. That figure alone is worth the conversation.
Work that would otherwise have gone next door
A caller who does not get through is not a postponed customer, he is someone else's customer. This is the fastest part to win back.
Evenings and Saturdays count
Well over a third of the week falls outside your opening hours. Now something happens there instead of nothing.
Calm at the front desk
Your front desk no longer has to keep half an eye on the second line while helping a customer.
Not a loose little helper.
This is the workflow we usually start with, precisely because it makes the size of the problem visible. After that, the conversation about the rest is a lot shorter.
- CaptureThe call nobody answered becomes a conversation after all.
- UnderstandRegistration and type of enquiry, before an appointment is made.
- ActSchedule or hand over with a call-back slot.
- MeasureMissed, answered, booked. The number that was not there.
- Workshop schedulingPuts the recovered customer in the right slot.
- Courtesy carAnswers the courtesy car question that usually follows straight away.
- Parts enquiriesFinds out whether the part is there before a date is promised.
What this agent does not do.
- He does not call back. The conversation continues by message, unless you call back.
- He does not approach numbers that did not call themselves.
- With an unknown or withheld number he cannot send anything.
- An angry caller goes straight to a person, not to a second message.
Measure for two weeks. Then you know how big it is.
Twenty minutes on your own numbers. We show what this workflow would do at your place, or why you are better off starting with another one.
Book a demo