Challenge:
When Brad Garrett, Parts and Service Director for CardinaleWay Mazda, arrived at the store, he found that the dealership had service scheduling problems due to using multiple software tools for setting appointments. The BDC and Service teams were inputting service appointments into three different software solutions - the CRM, DMS and a Service Scheduler.  As a result, double bookings and long wait times for appointments were frustrating both customers and staff. The challenge was creating a clean system for setting up all appointments for STELLA to utilize.

Solution:
Brad shut down every avenue of scheduling appointments except the Service Scheduler which allowed STELLA to have a clean picture of the shop load. According to Brad, “Terin Burks, my STELLA Sales Director, did a great job understanding my requirements for appointments and working with the team to program the system to follow those requirements.”  As a part of his transition process Brad called STELLA frequently to check when the system would schedule the next appointment. If it didn't match his shop load, he would call Terin to troubleshoot the new scheduler set up. He also listened to every phone call to see how the client would be routed. Concerns were addressed quickly and resolved. Brad hasn't listened to a call or had a problem since the first month of implementation. Once the new process was established, Brad was able to forget about it and focus on other issues.

Result:
The dealership’s appointment show rate is high. STELLA helps the service drive remain booked from morning to night. The BDC team places a reminder call the day before every appointment. And, importantly, the Advisors are no longer able to turn down appointments, like the 4:30pm oil change or Saturday morning tire rotation. STELLA books appointments every 15 minutes right up till 5:15 pm based on Brad’s initial setup.  STELLA also allows the service department to receive appointments during non-working hours – from phone calls from those people that do not like to use the Online Scheduler.

Their  "ease of making an appointment " score is high and the dealership has not seen a survey complaint about trying and failing to talk to a live person. STELLA  has freed up the advisors and BDC to make outgoing calls which is where the money is made.