Contact Information:
Neal East
Xtime Inc.
(650) 508-4300
neal@xtime.com
System improves customer satisfaction while boosting profits
San Mateo, CA - June 28, 2005 - Xtime, Inc., the leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for automotive service operations, today announced the availability of a new solution that streamlines service department operations, driving increased customer-paid service revenues while also vastly improving vehicle owner satisfaction.
“Auto manufacturers and dealerships have spent a lot of money on customer relationship management for vehicle buyers,” said John Stewart Lee, CEO and founder of Xtime. “While the customer relationship is initiated with a vehicle purchase, it is won or lost in the service department. The industry is coming to realize that there is tremendous opportunity to improve the customer relationship through the service department. Xtime's Service CRM solution goes after that opportunity.”
Xtime’s Service CRM solution is based on a web application that automates many of the key functions within fixed operations, freeing service advisors to spend more time working with customers, performing walk-arounds, up-selling and completing call backs. Most service departments do a mediocre job at customer relationship management: a typical domestic dealership converts fewer than 25% of its new car customers for non-warranty service. Convenience and trust are consistently cited as the top reasons why this is the case—not surprising when the typical hold-time for making an auto service appointment is five minutes. Customers also suffer from long lines at the dealership to drop off or pick up their vehicles, inaccurate delivery commitments, inconsistent and confusing pricing menus, and more.
Such statistics are surprising given the critical importance of service and parts in today’s industry. For a typical dealership, service and parts generate the highest profit margins, and often the bulk of a dealership’s overall profit. Industry research clearly shows that paying service customers are twice as likely to buy their next car from the same dealership versus customers that don’t get serviced at the dealership. Delivering superior customer relationship management in the service department is a unique challenge that demands unique solutions.
Service CRM: higher customer satisfaction and increased service revenues
Xtime’s Service CRM solution enables auto dealership service departments to achieve two primary goals. Xtime increases customers’ overall satisfaction with their service experience in terms of convenience, value and trust. At the same time, dealerships boost service department revenues through increased customer patronage and loyalty, higher value per service appointment, and improved resource utilization.
Dealerships identify their top prospects and deliver precisely targeted service offers.
Xtime enables the dealership to identify the service customers it wants to reach, organizing customers by key factors such as first appointments, previous no-shows or cancellations, etc. In addition, customers making appointments online can be delivered specific promotions and incentives in real-time as they make their appointments.
Service departments deliver exceptional customer service.
For each appointment, Xtime automatically assigns appointment times, so that each customer is always greeted by an advisor with sufficient time to deliver excellent face-to-face service and perform a thorough vehicle walk-around. This makes the service experience more convenient for customers, while resulting in higher dollars per repair order for the dealership. Furthermore, Xtime provides the industry's most intelligent shop-loading and capacity-management solution, so that every appointment made – whether over the phone or Internet – is automatically checked to ensure that requested services will be promptly delivered. Unlike traditional dealer software, Xtime's web interfaces don't require specialized training. Any dealership staff – not just busy service advisors – can book appointments and answer questions regarding service price and availability, thereby reducing hold-times.
Vehicle owners enjoy automated booking of their service appointments.
Xtime's intelligent shop capacity management allows dealerships to deliver the only true online, real-time, self-service scheduling interface for service appointments – a 24x7 “virtual service advisor.” Customers get vehicle-specific pricing, descriptions and promotion information, and they receive real-time commitments on price, promotions, appointment date/time and availability. Convenient appointment confirmations and reminders are automatically sent by e-mail, improving customer service while reducing no-shows and cancellations.
Service managers control shop resources better, maximizing capacity utilization.
Xtime gives service staff powerful ledger views of shop capacity and commitments. The comprehensive, color-coded ledger gives the service manager a real-time, at-a-glance overview of shop operations, including the shop’s key performance indicators and metrics. For every appointment in the system, a single click brings up all relevant customer and vehicle information. If shop capacity is underutilized, the service manager can create and distribute special promotional offers to fill available capacity.
Xtime provides dealerships Service CRM capabilities through a combination of an innovative online software solution and a world-class service delivery business process. Xtime offers a combination of management consulting, training and advanced software solutions to implement these processes at the dealership, dealership group, and OEM.
Xtime’s Service CRM isn’t just an idea. Over 200 dealerships have enrolled for Xtime service CRM. John Williams, Service Director at Jolly John Auto City in Saco, Maine reports, “By freeing up my service advisors, Xtime has increased my average dollar per repair order by 30%. At the same time, it eliminates the need for administrators and, most importantly, increased my sales to service conversion to 70%.”
About Xtime Inc.
Founded in 1999, Xtime is the leading provider of scheduling solutions, providing electronic scheduling, resource optimization and demand management for service providers in the automotive, aviation and financial services industries. Xtime's solutions increase customer satisfaction with convenient, 24x7 self-scheduling and customer-focused marketing features. Xtime’s solutions increase service business revenues by increasing the return on a service organization’s existing capacity. Privately held, Xtime's investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Innovacom, the venture capital arm of France Telecom. Xtime is based in San Mateo, California, and can be reached at 650-653-4000, or www.xtime.com.
