[August 14, 2006]

AutoSurvey Announces CRM, Call Center Tool For Auto Dealers

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

AutoSurvey, an e-mail and call center survey system that provides customer feedback in real time, has announced the launch of its latest version built entirely on Microsoft (News - Alert).NET technology.

Company officials say it enables the instant capture of customer feedback and resolution of any service issues before they escalate out of control.

"AutoSurvey really is a complete CRM system for the customer satisfaction end of things. The key is that as soon as there is a service issue the system alerts all parties that should be involved. By the time of our weekly meeting, not only do we no longer spend time compiling reports, but we further save time as employees have already been alerted about most issues."

The AutoSurvey system has a system of checks and balances built in which "helps us ensure that customer issues are priority," according to Stephen Neu, Director of Business Development at Reedman Toll Auto World, one of the largest volume dealerships in the U.S.

It's not simply cosmetic, either: According to recent industry studies, customer satisfaction with dealership service affects the bottom line for dealers. A CSI score gain of 10 points can add as much as $300 per customer annually.

The auto industry is taking note of the power of CRM. Industry observer Louis Columbus wrote recently about the J.D. Power study of auto customer satisfaction, looking at the pattern of "time urgency on the part of various demographic groups as it relates to service usage and retention of customers," or Service Usage and Retention Study (SURS), in Columbus's words studying "the impact of timeliness of response on the all-important Customer Satisfaction Index and Service Satisfaction Index."

These are two of the most important measures of performance in the auto industry, as Columbus correctl points out, and "J.D. Power has successfully showed their correlation to sales performance. Fifty-one percent of any manufacturer's SURS score is based on time-dependent attributes of performance. What is striking is that many auto manufacturers, even the successful ones, are not building their CRM strategies to capitalize on the time urgency their customers feel."

"The million dollar question for the dealer is; 'how much did I not make because of some dealership issue or customer upset that went unhandled,'" said Jason Tryfon, AutoSurvey President. "In many dealerships the dealer never sees vital information on customer service issues as it gets trapped at the service or sales level."

It's a demographic thing, as Columbus shows: "The results of the J.D. Power SURS analysis show that 69 percent of post baby-boomers (55+ in age) are OK with service personnel in dealerships taking 5 minutes or more to acknowledge and try to help them, while only 64 percent of baby boomers are. Yet the telling sign from the study is that only 59 percent of Gen-X age consumers feel the same way."

As Columbus points out, "what these results show is that the way time is perceived by customers varies quite a bit from segment to segment… CRM as a strategy needs to reflect the fact that the perception of time itself varies significantly between customer bases." Oh, and as he helpfully adds, "If you ever want to get the attention of a car salesperson, talk about how you plan to give them a glowing CSI if you get the deal you want."

Using Microsoft.NET as a platform, AutoSurvey's product is supposed to "monitor all aspects of dealership client satisfaction through its front end applications, back end service module, and issue management system," according to company officials. AutoSurvey is based on an Application Service Provider model, and integrates with over 45 Dealer Management Systems.

The ability to follow-up and resolve customer concerns is considered a strong selling point for the AutoSurvey product. With AutoSurvey, dealers can e-mail or call the customer back to let them know their feedback has been received, assign the issue to staff within the dealership, track staff and customer comments and measure the resolution cost when issues are closed.

The system "captures the small sparks of customer defection the minute they ignite," according to the more metaphorical company officials at AutoSurvey.

Stephen Neu says high manufacturer CSI scores and surveys can be difficult to obtain for high volume dealerships and "unless they find a better way to interact with customers," it can cost dearly: "While overall we have a greater number of satisfied customers, the low percentage we don't satisfy can hurt us many times more than the average size dealership, not just in customer defection but in manufacturer incentives and straight on financial rewards."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

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