Think about running a CCC / BDC based on KPIs

With our knowledge and experience from the #DCDW Virtual BDC, we regularly exchange ideas with dealers who have their own Customer Contact Center (CCC) or Business Development Center (BDC). These are almost always professional and passionate dealers who want to get the most out of their chances and choose to relieve their receptionists at the counter. A CCC / BDC is also often used for the qualification of online leads, although you may wonder whether that is a good choice. But, apart from that discussion, how do you know as a dealer whether your CCC / BDC is a cost item or something you make more money with? Do you generate more or less revenue thanks to your CCC / BDC? Let us ask ourselves three critical questions that you, as a CCC / BDC employee, must have an answer to and we also explain why you need to make a report every week to see if you met all your CCC / BDC KPIs.

Capacity

The first question that we will answer is how many hours your CCC / BDC is available in the coming period, taking days off, holidays and other days off in account. If you have mapped this, then you know how many hours you can use the coming week for calling, for example, the customers from your MOT database. How many calls can you make per hour and how many effective calls does this bring you? Now make a printout of your database and you will see, for example, that most cars of your customers are due for a new MOT in the month of June. That means calling and making appointments, but does the capacity of your CCC / BDC fit during that period? Or will you have to provide for some extra hours? Similarly, you have to take into account marketing campaigns from your importer. If you know that there will be an action in the month of May, with a direct mail campaign, will this fit your schedule and capacity in that period or will you report in the middle of the campaign that your CCC / BDC can’t handle it? Conclusion: good planning for the deployment of your CCC / BDC is crucial.

Productivity

You now have the capacity of your CCC / BDC in the picture, so the next question you need to ask yourself is whether the productivity is right for what you expect. How many calls do we make in the hour, and what is the ideal number for me? Suppose you have a hundred hours in a week, and you have to call a thousand MOT leads, then you know that ten customers have to be called per hour. If your CCC / BDC just starts making calls and see what the result is, then that has nothing to do with effectively running this department. You should not only ensure that you know in advance what the capacity is, but also what productivity you need to achieve in order to be effective. In the case of that MOT appointment: suppose that it can cost a maximum of ten euros and you know your capacity and productivity, then you can easily calculate whether your CCC / BDC is effective (read: whether it costs or yields money).
We still encounter a lot of dealers who find out how much money it actually costs to make MOT appointments by studying our reports. Because if the productivity is not right, you could pay fifty euros to bring in a customer.

Efficiency

A CCC / BDC costs money. Office space, people, telephone and automation costs, to name a few, even though it may be things you already had, it costs money in any case. Now calculate on the basis of the real purchase value what the cost per hour is of your employees who will call. 30 euros, 35 euros? You have to have this KPI in view to see if you can make that MOT-appointment for a decent amount at all. I sometimes come across dealers who, after having seen these costs, have been shocked to death of fifty or sixty euros per MOT appointment, because the costs simply do not outweigh the effectiveness.

Tool

Especially for dealerships, we have developed a reporting tool that every CCC / BDC manager can use to calculate effectiveness based on data. This on the basis of productivity so that it is immediately clear whether the CCC / BDC achieves efficiency or whether it has become a cost item. If you, as a dealer, want to get away from the daily discussions and risks that accompany your own FTEs in a CCC, then think about outsourcing. It is cheaper, even though this may not seem more effective at first, and more effectively (because of more conversions) and especially 52 weeks per year. If you would like to receive our report, please mail to paul@dcdw.nl.

About Paul de Vries

Paul de Vries became a Key Automotive Spokesperson at eBay (Marktplaats) after selling Nieuweautokopen.nl to eBay back in 2015. Paul is the founder and CEO of the #DCDW Academy and the presenter of the #DCDW Podcast. He is also a by dealers and importers frequently asked speaker in the online automotive industry. Paul is the winner of the prestigious Lighthouse Award 2016 in the U.S.! `Lead the Way op de digitale snelweg’ is Paul’s new book, which can be used as a guide in the online automotive industry. More information is available at: DCDW.nl.