Tom Antonelli
Service Director
Reno, Nevada
The most obvious advantage of Xtime is that it frees up our service advisors and support staff to spend their time with customers on more important activities. Every dealer has a "phone problem." Half the time our guys spend on the phone is routine scheduling, and when customers get put on hold they often end up going somewhere else for service. We want our guys on the phone with customers, but we want them helping the customers with their service needs, not just taking appointments. Xtime lets customers schedule their own service appointments online. That means that our service advisors are spending more time with the customers, making sure that repairs have been done right, that the customer knows when their next service appointment is, the kind of work that we're supposed to be doing.
About 10% to 15% of our customers schedule their service appointments online right now, and we hope it will grow, because the customers that use Xtime really appreciate it. We added a recording to our hold message to let customers know that if they want to book an appointment online, they can do that right away instead of waiting for us to pick up their call. They can schedule their appointments even if the dealership is closed, or if they only get through to the night operator. Our night operator doesn't have access to the ADP system, but she can schedule an appointment with Xtime - or better yet show the customer that they can schedule their own service appointment through our Web site.
The Xtime service is extremely easy to use.Maybe I'm biased because we're in Southern California and it seems everybody here has a computer, but if you've ever ordered a book on Amazon, you can certainly schedule an appointment with Xtime. Anybody with a computer can do this. I have to be honest, one of the things that our customers like the most is the price discounts they get for scheduling their service online!
Our service advisors really like the system. I can't think of anything more that I could want from the Xtime system. It's completely integrated with our ADP system, so if you have VIP service coverage, or there's some warranty information in ADP for a vehicle, that all appears right on the Xtime screen for the service advisor. And the system allows you to block out any type of resource, based on your facilities, a service advisor's vacation, anything at all. There's no possibility of a customer scheduling an appointment that we can't deliver. The service advisors really like the green, yellow and red coding for appointment times, because we know that if a time block is red, you just find a different time for the appointment.
There simply is no downside to this service. More than any other joint venture or partnership I've seen with DaimlerChrysler, Xtime has the most potential to improve operations at a dealership at every level. It single-handedly addresses the most pain points at the best cost. Sure, it frees up your service advisors from taking appointments on the phone, but it also helps you to allocate service resources more efficiently. And customers love it. They don't have to be on hold for their service appointments, they save money, and they create a complete vehicle profile through the site so that they know their whole service history and what service they'll need next. And the cost is extremely reasonable. All you really have to invest is a few hours to get set up and spend some time to get your people familiar with the system, and you're done. The support has been excellent. There hasn't been a single problem that Xtime hasn't addressed immediately.
This is simply the best new service for dealers that I've seen in years. Every dealership should be using it.