The Neanderthal CRM

Many, many moons ago I was a brand new agent at the Western Southern Life Insurance Agency.  I was given a debit book (book of customers whose premiums were collected by the agent), piles of marketing material, business cards, and a cool little desk that opened like the ones I had in elementary school.  I was also given a stack of 3x5 index cards with pre-printed fields on them complete with a metal box whose dividers allowed you to file the cards according to who was to be called throughout the month.  In order to be effective, Western Southern wanted me to have a plan for regular customer engagement.

Customer relations tools are not new.  They have been around for decades.  Almost without fail new managers stepping into their new position would put in place the CRM strategy and tools he/she used successfully as a salesperson.  For automotive managers, this invariably involved some sort of desk log that everyone was responsible for filling out whenever they had an "up".  The manager could then flip through the pages in meetings asking each salesperson the status of any given unsold customer.

Enter CRM software.  Software brought to the industry the automation of the 3x5 index cards, sales activity sheets, and the sacrosanct desk log.  Calendars within the database kept salespeople from missing important calls should they have forgotten to shuffle their cards properly. In addition to automated customer and prospect contacts, CRM software gave the automobile sales manager a whole new level of control.

Instead of simply tracking the most recent entries on the desk log, CRM software allowed managers to track the follow up activity of their sales staffs. For those for whom complete control was the source and summit of their management strategy, electronic CRM's offered the opiate known as the "lock out".  Salespersons who were not consistent or timely in their follow up could be locked out of certain customer files or from working with new customers altogether until they approached their manager for electronic absolution.

Today CRM use should no longer be about control but about producing detailed, reliable data that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a business development or sales staff.  Unfortunately, the many resulting automotive CRM software platforms today appear to be based on the desk log model and sort prospects and customers according to three basic archetypes:  Internet, Phone, and Walk In.  They measure activity by tabulating the volume of calls, emails, letters, or customer visits.  While no shortage of new tech features have been added to help the competing CRMs differentiate themselves from their competitors, scant attentions seems to have be given to the restructuring of CRM software platforms to allow these types of activities to be further categorized. 

Dealers are increasingly being challenged by their OEM's to measure multiple key performance indicators (KPI).  Any serious dealer monitors how many calls the sales or business development staff has made and measures the number of resulting appointments, but knowing the conversion ratio of all sales calls does not tell the full story.  Were those outbound calls to those who submitted an information request via email?  Were those returned calls to prospects who visited yet did not purchase?  Were they marketing calls to follow up on equity or lease retention offers, or perhaps they were calls to owners as part of a sold follow up process?

If CRM software only considers a phone call a phone call (or an email an email, etc.), the only way to measure trending successes or struggles is to again keep paper activity logs that are manually tabulated -- the very thing software CRMs were created to replace.  Dealers need reliable data to let them know that while they are strong in first outbound calls to email prospects, for example, their appointment setting prowess with unsold showroom traffic is struggling.  This is the sort of data that empowers management to use targeted training in those areas that are of the greatest concern first.

One cannot blame the CRMs, by the way, for the slow evolution of detailed KPI cataloging.  When the majority of your target consumers still seek reporting metrics that convert easily into "gotcha" moments used to assign blame, it is difficult them to appreciate the value of new, more specific KPI capture.  To remain competitive, the CRM industry has had to develop shiny new objects like web cam integration, gauge styled graphics, and social media lookup icons to throw into the cage to keep the gorillas excited.

The tipping point is approaching, though, when a substantial number of dealers will need the ability to effectively and efficiently capture those KPIs that will allow them to most effectively analyze their conversion success.  Those CRM vendors who have tested, reliable, and easy to use platforms in place to meet these demands will obviously be at a decided advantage.

So, too, must your CRM Software Evolve!

Texting: Who Controls the Conversation?

The latest craze to have hit automotive sales where customer engagement is concerned has been texting.  You can scarcely scan any industry blog/newsletter headlines or attend any best practices seminar without the writer or speaker reminding you that everyone is texting these days and therefore you must text your customers.

Just a second, my salesman found a convertible with leather!

When texting first hit the scene, early adapters took to texting like a middle school kid at Christmas opening up their first iPhone.  To compare the volume of texts initially to the carpet bombing of Dresden would not be a bad analogy.  Like the poor folks in Dresden, some customers grew weary quickly of their new BFF in the car business.  Savvy lawyers quickly noticed the tort potential presented by a dealer or online marketer who pushed poor Ms. McGillicuddy past her text message allowance resulting in her phone bill going up.

Quick! Text everyone that we are making Deals! Deals! Deals!

While the texting frenzy has tamed itself a bit one cannot argue that it is, in fact, an effective and even desired medium of communication.  The issue now becomes one of data management and control.  To properly manage text you should make certain that the texting occurs through a vendor tool for texting or a CRM and not through the individual phones of your staff.  The way in which your sales staff texts their prospects and customers will determine whether you have control of the conversation, liability for the contents of the conversations, and finally the means to determine whether or not the exchange is consistent with your dealership's best practices.

Allowing salespeople and BDC reps to text using their personal cell phones does make texting convenient for your staff.  They are also more likely to respond immediately to a customer message.  While this is a powerful benefit and a strong argument for allowing the staff to text from their own devices,  you are letting them contain and control their conversation with your customer or prospect. A sales manager cannot demand to see someone personal cell phone, nor is it likely your staff will welcome them combing through text message logs to find customer conversations that they can review. They effectively own and control those records.  If several employees are texting a customer at the same time (salesperson, BDC, manager, service writer, etc.), there is no coordination of messaging.  They may even be contradicting one another inadvertently.  An employee whose phone gets lost or damaged results in you losing all record of what was said to a customer and when.  Likewise, if they leave or are let go, with them go your contact records.  

Another risk inherent in letting the staff use their personal devices is in liability.  Customers may have shared social security numbers, bank account numbers, or other sensitive data reasonably assuming that they are sharing it with your dealership.  What if this information is compromised through a stolen phone or the carelessness of an employee?  Not knowing what information is being exchanged and having no provisions for securing the data that the consumer may have assumed that you are responsible for only invites new liability.  Remember, those lawyers that are getting fewer chances to sue for texting without permissions or opt outs will welcome new reasons to file more suits these days!

Sooo, who can I sue today?

It is poor management that does not frequently monitor phone calls and emails to customers for the purposes of identifying both training needs and exceptional performance.  With an increasing number of customers communicating via text the importance of monitoring these exchanges is increasing daily. What if a member of your staff is promising perks to make a sale that are not in compliance with company policy?  What if they are being outright deceitful?  What is a salesperson is making unintentional mistakes because of product knowledge deficits?  With no control of the communication mechanism you have next to no provisions for reviewing and guiding these conversations.

So she texted me some questions and guess what I did?

I knew a sales manager who was a phenomenal networker and who enjoyed a sizable customer database from having been at the same location for all of his career.  He was forever calling and texting customers from his cell phone.  While he is hardly a liability in regards to professional or ethical conduct and is unlikely to suddenly pull up his stakes and leave, the reality is that he completely owns and controls those conversations.  Even if he welcomed the request to share his message log with the dealership there is no simple or effective means to transfer all that data.  The reality is that were tragedy or illness to strike the dealer would have, for all intents and purposes, no access at all to the most important records for his customer database!

I'm fine. Let me text my customers. What could possibly happen?

There are an increasing number of vendors who offer quality texting solutions to sales organizations.  Make sure that the one you choose is very convenient, integrates as seamlessly as possible with your CRM software, and that management maintains full control over the content of the records.  Once you've selected your texting software comes the herculean task of making your sales staff migrate their customer texting to the new system and agree to stop using personal devices all together.  It won't be easy - at all - but clearly is in the absolute best interests of your organization.