Route 22 Auto Dealerships Get a New ViewPoint on Sales

Route 22 Auto Dealerships, part of Bay Ridge Automotive Group

Background

The Route 22 Auto Dealerships, a group of five auto centers in north-central New Jersey along the Route 22 corridor, is part of a larger consortium known as Bay Ridge Automotive Group and includes multiple Honda showrooms, a Toyota, and a Nissan dealership. Each location has at least 30 users per phone system, with several dealerships reaching 70 users per building. To better service the communications and business needs of its dealerships, the group looked to add operational capabilities and reduce costs through a number of new technologies, including switching from its legacy Primary Rate Interface (PRI) system to an IP-based telecommunications infrastructure.

As with many large auto groups, to more economically accommodate frequent personnel changes and the resulting moves, adds and changes, Route 22 Auto required a streamlined and consistent system with intuitive administrative and user interfaces, as well as an SIP Trunking interface to reduce monthly voice and data charges and lower its overall operational costs.

The group also needed a new communications system to manage the heavy call flow in its busy Business Development Centers (BDCs). It also sought a lower-cost alternative to the call-based marketing company that recorded only incoming communications for the dealership’s outsourced toll-free number.

On the sales side, management noticed that pre-sales calls typically received more attention than post-sales calls — another overall industry trend. The dealerships used CRM software including Dealer Socket and Higher Gear, but management had no access to its employees’ individual records. Route 22 Auto wanted the ability to track follow-up communications by its salespeople — including voice mail — to make sure all communications were handled in a timely manner.

Solution

Route 22 Auto found a simple solution to negate its pain points with the Wave IP unified communications system from Vertical Communications.

“Vertical’s Wave IP solution is an ideal platform for dealing with these complex issues,” explained Damon Finaldi, principal of Tele-Data, a Vertical partner specializing in the specific needs of the automotive industry. Its flexibility, scalability, and comprehensive feature set really resonate with this market. We devised a customized, high-performance solution with Wave IP at the core that allows us to future-proof the dealerships’ telecommunications, making it easy for them to add applications.”

With Wave IP, administrators throughout Route 22 Auto’s dealerships are now able to cost-effectively manage their communications needs. Moves, additions and changes among employees are now a simple process through a central interface, eliminating the significant expenses that dealerships experienced whenever they needed to process an employee status change.

The dealerships are also able to leverage the economic benefits of SIP Trunking, eliminating the massive toll charges that were common with Route 22 Auto’s legacy communications system. In addition, Tele-Data was able to integrate the Wave system with the dealerships’ existing Dealer Socket and Higher Gear CRM packages, so when a sales call is initiated, the system automatically generates a new alert noting the time and duration of the call. And with Wave IP’s ViewPoint unified communications management tool, dealership management can view the entire sales team’s call logs simultaneously from a central interface.

“Management loves this feature of ViewPoint,” stated Joe Gorr, general manager at Route 22 Nissan, one of the group’s larger dealerships, with some 70 users. “Wave IP is a smart system, and it gives us a number of managerial capabilities we previously lacked. There’s no faking it when it comes to customer service. We see who’s being responsive and who’s not. We can now make sure the sales staff satisfies its customers on a long-term basis, not just when they drive off the lot.”

Results

With the Wave IP platform, Tele-Data was able to save the Route 22 Auto group approximately $500 per month per site in fees by switching from a PRI system to an IP-based communications system. The company’s executives now have an accurate overview of call records across each dealership. In fact, in at least one location, contact records of the entire sales team are displayed together on a flat screen monitor, so the staff can compare performances. Tele-Data Solutions also implemented Wave IP’s advanced Call Recording application, which accurately documents both incoming and outgoing calls. And in the busy BDCs, management can monitor call volume and responsiveness in real-time via an intuitive, consolidated dashboard, allowing the group to identify high-volume call times and adjust staffing accordingly.

“We’re thrilled with the capabilities that Vertical’s Wave IP has provided, and the many insights it has given us into our business,” said Ignazio Giuffre, owner at Bay Ridge Automotive Group. “As we continue to roll this technology out to our other dealerships, we anticipate that these profound benefits will only multiply.”