Five steps to a high five

"Pat Deery taught me how to sell cars with his right hand," Travis Explains. "He would say with each finger, 1 (pointer)- meet and greet, 2(middle)- needs assessment, 3(ring)- Close, 4(pinky)- Deliver, 5(thumb)-Follow Up." Dealership Managed Services is not much different. There is still the meet and greet, understanding a particular need, contract resulting in a goal, executing a proper strategy, and learning from the process. Every communication will have a documented 5-step action from initial contact to quick support calls.

The entire process needs to be complete for a positive relationship and skills for the users to grow their technical knowledge. When steps start losing their human touch with phone apps, you skip the introduction and are only doing step 2 (please refer to the finger.) A great company knows your caller ID, has a relationship with your people, and still meets and greets like a human.

After your expensive IT Services Management Company receives their message from your staff? Is there a needs assessment or a needs assumption? In the car business, we do a trial close. "If I can save you thousands on taxes today, can I ask you to buy the car today?" The same goes for DealerNerd. "If I can get the second screen to work properly, will that help you today?" Many IT problems happen when miscommunication occurs. Something is fixed or closed before understanding the whole case or story.

Watching a rookie close a car deal is fun when you have time to enjoy the nervous wreck rookie sweating while asking for a six-figure vehicle. Rookie Salespeople are very timid by nature and turn into happy, enthusiastic individuals when the customer signs on the dotted line. The work does not stop there. The salesperson needs to get the car cleanup up, gather details for finance, and alert his manager. Steps are forgotten, and a lousy survey may result if they are not appropriately managed. It is their first sale, after all. The same goes for each resolution passing through the ticket system. Managers need to inspect the proper procedures and best practices. Who is checking up on your tickets?

The final one is where the dealership makes its most money. At least if the FTC stays out of the dealership business. It's the follow-up. After everything is in process and moving, there may be a jam in finance. This is a perfect time to discuss after-market products. The same goes for the 30-day follow-up. Who is following up with your managers to reduce IT phone calls? Each phone call not only costs you silly amounts of money per call based upon a subscription fee but also labor and lost opportunity. Your typical Managed service provider is incentivized to increase ticket counts and hide the time it takes to fix a ticket. They will advertise phone hold time and customer counts to impress. But! How much money are they costing you? Does your IT company deserve a high five? Are they giving each other a high five when you pay the bill? Contact us and we will find out.