LOSS: Dealerships missing out on £50,000
Excluding accident aftercare in new employee training means one in six dealers are potentially missing out on £50,000 more revenue every year.
Research conducted by Accident Exchange found 41% of dealers have appointed new front-of-showroom receptionists since September – but 16.7% failed to train them in accident aftercare.
This means in the last nine months, such dealers may have missed out on up to £38,000 extra revenue.
Of dealers surveyed, 58% changed Service Advisors in the last year, with 25% employing new Service Managers.
Half had replaced at least one member of the sales team within the same period, meaning the total figure in lost business could be even higher.
Liz Fisher, Sales Development Director at Accident Exchange, said: “With the average cost of repair for fault and non-fault accidents currently standing at £2,117, every customer call mishandled by the receptionist is costly to the business.
“Where and how receptionists deal with that first call can determine a whole chain of events, resulting in either retaining or losing the repair business – it is an essential function, which generates valuable revenue.”
Data shows the average dealer receives around 16-18 calls a month from customers involved in accidents.
Ms Fisher claimed those who proactively promote accident aftercare could see enquires leap to above 40.
She added the misdirected call-handling remains the largest failure of dealers to retain customer remedial work in the aftermath of an accident.
Accident Exchange recently launched a ‘soft-transfer’ system in over 300 of their customer sites, minimising the risk of intervention from an outside party by safeguarding the work.
The system redirects callers to Accident Exchange’s fully-trained, specialist aftercare team, where they are categorised and managed according to their responses.
Image courtesy of spratmackrel, with thanks.
