Service Transaction Guide

Follow Up

Core Values

Follow up is the “bow” that tops the Kia service experience. It is the finishing touch on a job
well done and the final opportunity to make a good impression. The goal of follow up, then,
is to build customer loyalty, reassure your customers that they made the right decision in
choosing your dealership, to remind them of their next service, and to help build service
customers for life.
Here are the core values of Follow Up:
• Every customer is contacted – by telephone – after a service visit.

• For follow up to be effective, the customer must be asked about:
– Quality and completeness of the work performed
– How the employees treated the customer
– The value of the service performed relative to the price paid
– How well the dealership stands behind its work

• For best results, these calls are conducted by a Customer Specialist, not the Service
Advisors, to ensure consistency and impartiality.

• Customer comments are recorded, summarized and reviewed by the Service Manager.
• Based on those results, changes are made to the Service Department to improve the

process. (Customer recommendations are incorporated into the process redesign.)
• Customers receive reminder calls when special ordered parts arrive, if the customer has

declined work, and/or to remind the customer of routine maintenance needs.

Advantages

• Service customers learn that your Service Department is personally interested in their
satisfaction and their business.

• Customers enjoy doing business with companies where they are treated in a professional
manner, which helps generate repeat service business and vehicle sales.

• Follow up reassures the customer that they made the right decision obtaining service from
your dealership.

• Customer problems are quickly identified so they can be resolved quickly and thoroughly.
• Increases customer satisfaction results and service retention.
• Relieves the customer of the burden of knowing when to bring their Kia back for service.
• Allows you to collect invaluable customer impressions to help fine-tune your

service operation.
• You can measure the effects of actions aimed at improving customer satisfaction.

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Tasks

Kia has divided the follow up process into the following tasks:
• Preparing and planning for customer satisfaction follow up
• Conducting the customer satisfaction follow up
• Summarizing and analyzing the customer responses
• Service reminder/special parts ordering follow up

Telephone vs. Mail

Telephone follow up is the best way to contact service customers. It provides immediate
feedback and is more personal then mail. While mail offers the flexibility to use a broader
range of comments, it does not provide the personal touch or open dialogue necessary to
generate a better customer response. Too busy to make the call, there are plenty of outside
companies that specialize in contacting automotive customers. You would be surprised at
how cost effective it is.

Preparing and Planning (Customer Satisfaction Follow Up)

In the past, there have been many techniques used to communicate with customers after
the service visit. Today’s customer expects to be contacted after the service visit and a
telephone follow up system is the most effective and timely method to get the job done. In
order to have a successful follow up system you must have a good information gathering
system and a review process that properly evaluates the customer experience.

Identifying Follow Up Customers and Gathering Information

It’s important to call all customers and reassure them that they made the right choice in
selecting you as their service provider. You need to contact all customers because no
business can afford to have a problem go unresolved and have a customer broadcast their
disappointment. Most dissatisfied customers will not complain unless they are asked; they
will just go to another dealership.

Performance • The Service Advisor or Cashier informs the customer about the follow up call and asks for
Benchmark
the best time to be contacted.

• Every customer is contacted after each service visit.

• The call time and preferred phone number are documented on the Repair Order for the
Follow Up Specialist or Service Manager.

• Customer contact information is transferred from the Repair Order Log to the Follow Up
Tracking Sheet.

Performance • Copies are made of all the previous day’s Repair Orders. This provides the Follow Up
Benchmark

Specialist with the necessary back up information in the event a complaint is made.

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Follow Up

Step #1: Creating the Customer Follow Up and Script

The telephone follow up is your dealership’s tool for evaluating the customer’s impression of
your service operations. In addition, it will provide an early warning of unidentified problems
and the benefit of daily communication. Your contact can be tailored to your own business
needs; however, be sure to incorporate the following areas:
• Quality and completeness of the work performed
• How the employees treated the customer
• The value of the service performed relative to the price paid
• How well the dealership stands behind its work

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• If necessary, create a call script for the Follow Up Specialist to use when the call is made.
Here is a sample script for your review

Identify the Customer Hello, may I speak with
Mr/Mrs/Ms.________________________.

Introduce yourself M ________________________, my name is

________________________ from

________________________ Kia.

Call objective Your satisfaction is very important to us and I’m

calling to ask you a few questions regarding your

most recent service on ________________________(date).

Contract for time The follow up should take approximate 2 minutes, is

this a good time?

Explain Follow Up Process I have five questions I would like to ask you. On a scale

of 1 –5 with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.

How would you rate ...
Ask the questions and document their responses.

Step #2: Determine Who Should Make the Calls

A dedicated Follow Up Specialist or Service Manager should make the customer satisfaction
follow up calls. Some dealerships, trying to control costs, have Service Advisors make the
calls in their “spare” time. This is not a good idea, because customers do not like to give
honest feedback to the person they dealt with.

Performance • Customer satisfaction follow up should be assigned to either a Follow Up Specialist or the
Benchmark Service Manager not the Service Advisor who was involved in the transaction. Consistent

results are key to process improvement activities.

• Be prepared: Have a copy of the Repair Order and Technician’s notes available

Management Note: In the event a Follow Up Specialist is considered, make spot checks to
observe the person’s interview techniques and verify the validity of conclusions drawn.
Review the notes made on the Follow Up Tracking Log.

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Follow Up

Conduct the Follow Up

The follow up should be used to evaluate your customer’s impression of their service
experience. Too often, the follow up call consists of simply asking the customer “Did you like
our service?” or “Can you give us 10’s on the upcoming customer satisfaction follow up.”
While these questions may offer some comfort, they will do nothing to improve operations
and build long lasting customer loyalty.
In order for follow up to be effective, it must be specific. Ask questions about key parts of
the entire service experience and include both warranty and pay customers.
• The Follow Up Specialist should have copies of the Repair Orders, the Follow Up Log, and

the phone script. The contact should follow this format:
• Specialists introduce themselves as the dealership’s customer satisfaction

representative.
• State the purpose of the call – following up on their recent service visit.
• Ask if this is a convenient time to answer a few questions.
• If it is not a convenient time, schedule a better time to call.
• Provide the rating scale and proceed with the call.
• Service customers should be contacted within three business days of the service visit
to ensure customers are satisfied with their service experience while it is still fresh in
their mind.
• Be sure to understand the nature of the repair and determine if the vehicle was a

comeback before calling.
• Enter the Repair Order number and the customer’s name on the Follow Up Tracking Log

and begin the follow up process. Questions should be asked objectively so you do not
lead the customer in any way.
• Record the customer responses accurately on a follow up tracking log.
• Be sure to note any complaints or comments within the comment section on the report.

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Interpreting the Customer Comments
Satisfied Customer

Congratulations. Your hard work and dedication to customer satisfaction has paid off. These
customers represent the future of your business and their feedback should reinforce your
efforts to provide complete satisfaction. These are the customers that will most likely return
to your dealer for service. Therefore, if any suggestions were offered during the follow up
process, be sure to document them and present them for management review.

• If the customer is satisfied with the service, advise him or her of their next scheduled
maintenance and thank them for their service.

Dissatisfied Customer

Remember, one of your reasons for conducting the follow up is to resolve unidentified
problems before they cause long term damage to your dealer reputation. Now is your
opportunity to identify the cause of the problem and assure the customer that you will
attempt to improve the situation.

• Don’t try to solve any problems during the call.

• Determine the nature of their complaint and apologize for the situation and tell them

Performance

Benchmark that you will personally forward their concern to the appropriate manager to handle their
concern. (Notify the Service Manager immediately upon completing the follow up.)

• Document the customer concerns and complete the Follow Up Tracking Log.

• Refer all tracking documentation to the appropriate Service Management.

Summarize the Input (Appraisal Specialist)

After the call, the specialist should take a minute to summarize the customer’s responses.
These summaries help identify any patterns – both good and bad. With this information, you
can take action with specific parts of your service process to get at the root of the problem.
After taking action, customer responses to future follow ups will tell you whether the
problem has been corrected.

This activity should be completed by the Customer Specialist:

1. After completing all of the calls for the day:

• Add up the number of contacts (not calls) and enter the total on the form.

• Add up the values in each response category column and, on the last form used,
enter the totals. Divide each column total by the total number of contacts and
multiply the result by 100. Enter this percentage under each column on the line
“% of Total Contacts.”

Column total X 100 = percentage score

Number of contacts

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Follow Up

• Transfer the daily totals to the monthly summary, and then give the day’s
tracking forms to the Service Manager.

• On the first day of each month, take a blank Service Telephone Follow Up and
write “Monthly Summary” at the top.

• Make a copy of the completed Monthly Summary: give the original to the
Service Manager and the copy to the dealer or General Manager. The monthly
summaries provide valuable tools for analyzing trends in customer satisfaction.

Using Tracking Summary Data (Service Manager)

The purpose of the follow up is to learn how customers feel about your Service Department.
Because customer feedback will often be the basis for making changes, any biased
interpretations may lead to unnecessary and counterproductive changes.
Listen to calls to monitor the performance of the specialists. Then coach them to refine
their technique.
• Only when you and your specialist(s) are comfortable with the interview process and with

categorizing responses consistently, should you begin tracking trends.
Every day, the Service Manager should get a copy of the Daily Follow Up Summary. If there
are any complaints, a copy of the Repair Order related to the complaint should be attached
to the summary.
Here are guidelines how to read this data:
1. Scan the comments looking over any Repair Orders related to contacts needing further

follow up. When there is an issue that requires further follow up, check with the Service
Advisor to discuss steps to be taken or to verify that the matter has been addressed.
2. Look for particularly outstanding comments, too. Use positive comments as the basis for
informal employee recognition.
3. As you get to know and expect a particular level of performance in each category, check
significant negative variations right away. These downward swings may represent problem
areas that, if left unattended, could damage the Service Department’s reputation.
4. Review the month’s customer satisfaction performance several times each month by
running a preliminary summary report. This will help identify trends so you have an
accurate reading on where the department is in relation to customer satisfaction with
service processes.

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Evaluating the monthly performance:

Comparing summary results from month to month, you can track the Service Department’s
progress toward meeting customer satisfaction and loyalty goals. The following steps are for
the Service Manager when using the trend analysis report.

1. When you receive the monthly summary, verify that the percentages of total contacts have
been calculated and recorded.

2. On the Customer Satisfaction Trend Analysis form, enter the percentages from the
monthly summary in the column for the current month.

3. Each month, compare the latest monthly percentages with earlier ones for each response
category to note the performance trend.

4. When you see positive trends, let employees know they’re doing a good job.

For negative trends, meet with employees to discuss customer responses. Work together to
develop procedural changes and appropriate action plans to implement changes to reverse
the trend.

Following Up on Special Order Parts

Effective customer follow up also involves contacting the customer to alert them that a
special order part has arrived. Service Advisors should be responsible to track special orders
actively for his or her customers. These steps refer to keeping track of special order parts for
customers regardless of what follow up tool is used:

Performance 1. The Service Department should have a recommended process to track and contact
Benchmark

customers for special order parts.

2. When a repair cannot be completed because of lack of parts, use a Customer Information
Card (CIC) to monitor the parts order. If you have computer support for this activity,
prepare a contact record to monitor the order. Fill in the following information:

• Enter customer and vehicle information in the spaces provided.

• Enter the Repair Order date.

3. If the follow up date arrives and you haven’t heard whether the part has arrived, contact
the Parts Department. If they confirm that the part hasn’t arrived:

• Find out the status and update your reminder, recording the new estimated time of
arrival for the part.

• Contact the customer and provide a status of the order. Be sure to make a record of
your contact with the customer.

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Follow Up

4. When you learn that the part is in stock, or that it has been shipped and you have a
reliable arrival date, call the customer to make a reservation for installation.
• Record the reservation on the reservation form, or computer, just like any other job.

5. If the customer doesn’t arrive for the reservation, contact the customer as you would any
other “no-show.”
• If the customer doesn’t keep a second reservation, contact the customer and tactfully
explain that the part cannot be reserved indefinitely. (Note: Dealership policies on
special order parts vary widely. Providing three opportunities to claim a part is a
guideline only.)

Resources

People

Customer Satisfaction Appraisal Specialist
Qualifications:
• Administrative and organizational skills
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Understanding of computers and databases
• Attention to detail – ability to manage a large volume of information without losing focus
• Confident decision maker
• Problem-solving ability
• Can work under pressure
Special Skills or Knowledge:
• A clear, pleasant voice
• Ability to ask clarifying questions
• Can interpret customer comments
• Consistent when working with the public
• Project courtesy, warmth, and empathy
• A customer relations background is a plus
Number required: one per 60 – 80 calls per day

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Equipment And Materials

Typical workstation furniture and accessories, including:
• Computer terminal
• Access to printer
• Telephone with intercom
• Calculator
• Access to copier and fax machine
• Preprinted forms, appropriate for task
• File cabinets and storage
• Repair Orders
• On-site service schedule
• Pick-up and delivery schedule
• Service capacity report

Information

Customer satisfaction follow up:
• Designated copies of Repair Orders or invoices
• Service history files
• Service appointment schedule
Service reminder follow up:
• Follow up reminder from manual or computerized system
• Vehicle history files
• Service appointment schedule
• Service capacity
• Time and price guidelines
• Service Manual guidelines

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Follow Up

Computer Support

System access to:
• Labor capacity by skill group and date
• Capacity of labor, workstalls, specialized equipment, and on-site equipment
• Repair times based on historical average
• Resources allocated for future scheduling periods
• Repair Orders
• Vehicle history
• Customer data files
• Follow up reminder system
Data flow:
• In: Resource capacity, Repair Order information, service reminders
• Out: Updated resource capacity, records, appointments, and customer satisfaction reports

and summaries
User identity:
• Primary: Customer Satisfaction Appraisal Specialist
• Other: Service Manager, Service Advisor
Output type:
• Screen display
• Repair Order hard copies and printed reports
• Data records

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Process Improvement Suggestions

1. In addition to the daily follow up, monitor the follow up tracking performance on a weekly
basis and hold weekly meetings to provide ongoing support and share feedback from the
follow ups and resolve issues.

2. Service Managers should make all the follow up calls when a customer has to return to
your Service Department. This way the customers who have experienced a comeback feel
as though the dealer is willing to “go the extra mile” by giving that personalized treatment.

3. Prioritize customers to be contacted – place the highest priority on comeback and repair
customers, since they came in to “fix” a problem.

4. If after four tries your specialist is unable to reach the customer by telephone, send a post
card. In addition to thanking the customer for the business, the card should mention the
brief appraisal and invite the customer to call you if he or she would like to participate.

Your own process improvement tip:

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Follow Up Never Seldom Occasionally Often ALWAYS

Best Practice Checklist JJ J JJ

Quality Assurance Never Seldom Occasionally Often ALWAYS

1. Every customer is contacted by JJ J JJ
telephone after a service visit.
Never Seldom Occasionally Often ALWAYS
2. Contact results are recorded,
summarized, and reviewed JJ J JJ
by management.
Never Seldom Occasionally Often ALWAYS
3. A follow up system is used to
support the delivery process and JJ J JJ
provide proactive information.

4. When the delivery is conducted
with a customer on-site, the Service
Advisor escorts the customer to
the Cashier.

Scoring

Never = 1 Seldom = 2 Occasionally = 3 Often = 4 Always = 5

16-20 Expert
The dealership and its personnel are knowledgeable and certified performers

11-15 Professional
The dealership and its personnel are well-informed and practiced performers

6-10 Competent/Skilled
The dealership and its personnel are capable performers that need practice

0-5 Amateur
The dealership and its personnel are untrained and uninformed performers

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Notes

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Follow Up

Notes

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©2006 Kia Motors America • Part Number UN060-KU-006