[Webinar Transcript, January 2022]

Ben Leighton:

My name's Ben, thanks for joining us on the webinar today. We're going to talk to you about How to Get Off to a Good Start in Your Service Department in the New Year. We're going to talk a little bit about Kenect first for maybe about five minutes. And then, we'll into the meat of the webinar, it should take about 20 minutes overall, not too long.

If you have any questions throughout this webinar, feel free to ask them over on the panel there, just type them in as they come up. And I'll get to them as we go through the webinar and for sure at the end, when there's more time. So free to do that, and let's get started here.

Who Is Kenect?

So first off, who is Kenect? We are based in the Silicon Slopes of Utah. We are a text messaging platform for dealers throughout North America. We were founded by dealers and built for dealers. So we help you communicate more efficiently, generate new leads and collect payments via text message. We also help you drive online reviews.

How do we do it? Two-way text messaging for your dealership. Stop giving out your personal cell number. This two-way text messaging platform is used through your business line, your existing business line. We contact your carrier and set it all up for you, so you don't have to do anything. We generate web leads straight from your website. We collect payments via text messaging, and we generate online review reputation management.

Why text messaging? Well, your customers prefer it. 89% of customers would prefer to interact with businesses via text message rather than a phone call. And 98% of all text messages are open, with 95% read within 30 minutes. That's a huge read rate. And that's a huge difference in time. If you're going to call somebody, leave a voicemail, hopefully get back to you in about an hour, maybe a couple hours, maybe a couple days. This shows you that the read rate for text messages here is about three minutes, and just think about your own cell phone, if you have a text message that comes through, you're probably going to respond to it right away, or at least in the next few minutes because it's right there on your phone, it comes up, it pops up and the urgency is there.

96% of customers find phone calls to be disruptive. And 78% of US consumers say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them for important service updates and purchases. And this is just a quote from one of the dealers that we use. "We used to call customers, but 75% of the time they wouldn't answer. So now we text them with Kenect and they immediately text us back." So, the response time is faster.

This makes sure that you get a response from customers because sometimes you don't, especially when you leave voicemail, sometimes you have to call them a few times. And this way, text messaging, sure, you may have to text them a few times, but the time it takes for you to do it is minimal. It's only a few minutes.

This is what the texting inbox looks like, set up similar to like an email, but you can see who you have responded to, which customers have texted in, and you haven't gotten back to them yet, which employees have responded to which customers, what you've sent to each customer, what time, when that last response was, or when the first text came in. So, it's all set up for you here so you can set up in this platform to make sure that you keep customers happy and that you know where you land with each customer in the process of what they want to make sure that you are staying on top of things.

Mobile app, it looks similar. This is free in the app store, but it looks similar to an email where you open it up and you can see texts that you've gotten from customers, people that have chimed in, want leads, anything like that. And then, you can also send quick replies, send photos, use your camera, do video chats. Or you could schedule a message say like you want to make sure that you message them in the morning and you're not going to be there, you're not sure you're going to be right there. You can schedule a message for each customer so that you can have it pop up at 8:00 AM. And then, they know when their equipment's ready for pickup, or when you're ready to talk to them about that piece of equipment they want to buy.

The top seven ways dealers use Kenect: scheduling appointments, setting up automated reminders, and sending status updates, especially for service when you're in your service department. Sending quick information like hours, maps, or machines ready for pickup. Send targeted warranty reminders and schedule maintenance notices. Similar to the automated ones, you can set up warranty reminders to just send into their inbox. You can just send them on out without actually having to be there. And you're blanketing that out there so that you're keeping revenue flowing. Collect payments via text messaging, attach and send photos, videos, and invoices. Generate online reviews with Google and Facebook. And then, capture leads through Facebook, Instagram and your website.

Inventory Issues.

Today, I'm going to talk about keeping up service bay inventory and wanting to make sure that you're staying up-to-date as you head into 2022. Some of the challenges we're dealing with here is inventory struggles. And so, you want to make sure you're on top of this. Container ships not being offloaded fast enough is causing a backlog in the supply chain. The pandemic has made the supply and demand pretty volatile. And the supply chain is having a tough time adjusting to demand. The holidays did not help, but that's not the main issue.

The problem is here, we all felt it, where you're ordering things, thinking things are going to get back to normal. But you never know when the pandemic was going to be lifted so, you probably ordered a little more than you thought you needed to. So did everyone else. All these orders came in the fall or late summer, and they all came at the same time causing this backlog. Factories, weren't ready for the mad rush, and they don't have the workers to meet the demand that's coming. So, that's what's happening, the backlog is causing a ripple effect that's now bleeding into 2022.

No one really knows when the shortages will end, but there's a good reason to suspect that it will end well into 2022, maybe longer. And then, this is from The New York Times, "A lot of companies ordered early, which is exacerbating the shortage, sending more surges of goods towards ports and warehouses."

What can you do about inventory issues?

This is a struggle that we need to make sure you're addressing. But you can gain information every time you make an order and how long it takes. That's a learning experience because this is all new territory. We're trying to figure out how long things take, and how long each order takes to get there? Chances are the lag time's getting shorter and shorter as it goes because the companies are catching up just a little bit, but there's probably still bit of a lag time.

You can track all this, write it down in a notebook, write it down in a spreadsheet, and make sure you keep track of when things come in, so that you're not surprised the next time. Or you can say, "Hey, this took forever to come in (the first time), but this last time it took a week shorter." So you can see the trend, if it's going better or worse. So, you're making sure that you're staying on top of the inventory struggles.

Texting platform

It's more important than ever to ensure your service and parts are running smoothly. Set up a system to ensure speed and accuracy between employees and customers. And saving time will save you money. Text, don't call. We want to make sure that you're setting up an automated system that helps employees and customers, and texting, obviously, is the best way to do that.

Set up a system that allows employees to talk to customers easily and to get responses back quickly. And then, the customers also know what to expect from you because if you're responding to them quickly, if it's good or bad news. "Sorry, it's going to take another week, or your equipment is ready for pick up," that kind of thing. You're keeping them up-to-date, you're keeping them in the loop and you're giving the employees the tools that they need to respond to customers efficiently and quickly, rather than calling several times, leaving several voicemails, and hoping that they get back to you in the next hour or two, or maybe a day or two. So, make sure that you're setting up this platform.

And why texting? We've seen a 55% increase in text messaging per dealer year over year. And dealers are now completing entire transactions via text, and that's sales and service, and that's all new. And you can see that the trend was heading upwards before the pandemic, and it's still trending upwards after the pandemic. So, there was a huge spike, but we see this trend is not going away. A lot of people thought this would be a flash in the pan from the pandemic, but once people started using it, they realized, "Hey, this is an easy way, a simple and convenient way to get what we want, and to make sure that we're limiting our in-person interactions."

You can have dealers send videos of what's going on. We've seen an 80 plus percent increase in MMS messaging per dealer year over year. When pictures are sent back and forth, it usually indicates a service upsell, or serious sales engagement.

Let's say, you are having inventory struggles, which a lot of people are dealing with, and you said (to the customer), "Hey, we can get this part in, in two weeks. However, we have a more expensive part sitting on the shelf right now. Same thing, just a little more expensive, and we can put it in right away." Chances are customers are going to say, "Sure, go ahead, put it in," because they want that simplicity and convenience. They were looking for you to deliver what you offer. So, that helps you with service up sales and sales engagements so that you can make sure that you are maximizing the inventory that you do have to make sure customers get what they want.

Customer and employee communication

Communication is very key in this, especially as we head into 2022. You want to make sure that you're over communicating, being proactive. There's some specific ideas that you can help to increase revenue in your service department. You could text everyone who's bought from you in the last three or four years through an automated text. This is something that's easy and simple for you to do without actually having to worry about staffing issues, or inventory issues. You can set your employees up for success by just saying, "Hey, let's spend a couple minutes putting in an automated system and identifying who bought from us the last three or four years, and who needs to come in for service." So, you can send an automated text, and then they'll send it back into that platform that I showed you. Simple, quick, easy.

Be transparent about how long things will take. This is a huge deal, especially during inventory and staffing issues. Everybody's dealing with this right now, and you want to be transparent. Customers want to know, they want to be a part of the process. It's really simple and easy.

When it comes to sales and service dealers sometimes struggle setting communication boundaries. Some give out their personal cell number, very few set boundaries and expectations with communication. This goes for employees too, especially in sales when you're trying to close that deal, you're giving out your personal information and that helps to a point, but it doesn't help at 2:00 AM when they're texting you and saying, "Hey, what about this? Hey, what about that?" You want to make sure that you're setting boundaries. Stop giving out your personal cell number period. Stop taking customer calls after hours. And balance responsiveness with boundaries.

You want to make sure that you are not taking these calls, but the customer is still getting a response. So, setting up a platform where you have automated texts.

They're texting at 2:00 AM and they say, "I want more information about X." You say, "Well, thank you for texting. Nobody's in the office right now, but we'll get back to you when we open at six." Just making sure that they get a response of some kind so that they feel like they're still a part of the team. Like you still want their business.

It's important to create a plan, set expectations about communications with employees and customers, try developing solutions like standardizing workloads, push back deadlines that aren't urgent, and automate certain tasks.

And text versus call, always text versus call. It saves time, it limits the employee's time having to be on the phone. Calling is a little more complicated. Maybe you're talking to somebody, maybe you're leaving a voicemail, but you're always constantly on the phone. And if it goes to voicemail that time is added up. That's a lot of time that your employee is spending on the phone. So limit that, make sure that you're maximizing the time from your workforce.

Text-to-Pay.

Setting up automated tasks. One of the biggest ones is text-to-pay. Why use text to pay? Because it collects deposits and payments via text messaging from sales and service customers. You can collect service tickets on special order parts with a 98% open rate like we talked about. Allow for the after-hours pickups and remote drop offs by collecting prepayments. You can increase over the phone sales and offer curbside pickup, get paid faster and reduced accounts receivable. With next day funding that's 100% secure.

So, why text to pay? Because we've seen the growth, and we've seen the trend, and the trend is going up. Four times year over year growth per location. Some dealers are actually running 80% of service and parts payments through text to pay. And it all boils down to simplicity and convenience. That's what customers are looking for. They were looking for it before the pandemic, and they're definitely looking for it now. With everybody sitting inside, this is what customers are looking for, they want to make sure that they are staying safe, but also getting what they want.

How does it work? This is what it looks like. You have this little dollar sign down there, and you click on it and it gives them a link. No need to call, just make a deposit, here's the link. You enter the amount, you enter what the description is, invoice number, and then, the customer fills all this out. They fill out their name on the card. They filled out the card number, expiration date, all that. So, there's less of a chance of them getting the number wrong because it's their number. But it's also less of a chance of you misplacing a number, especially if it's over the phone. You're cutting out the middle man. They're just doing it themselves. So, it's easy, simple, convenient. This is what customers are looking for.

This trend is not going away. So, you want to meet the customers where they want to be. You want to make sure you're offering all of the customers the chance to do that, so that you can increase revenue in your service department because you're actually offering them more chances to pay, more opportunities to limit their in-person interactions while still engaging in sales and engaging in service.

Recap

The "6 Benefits of Texting." Like we talked about, generating more leads through the website widget, which is a little button that we add to your website. And then, they can text into that platform that we showed you. Generate dozens of five star reviews. Stand out online. This is similar to the text to pay. You send a link to them and they can generate online reviews, so they can fill out the review in seconds. Use video chats for sales and service, more efficient communication. Collect deposits and payments from sales and service. Text from your existing business line and your personal cell phones. Save time, sell more by sending photos, and videos, and surveys.

Texting from your existing business line has got to be the biggest thing that we've hit on. You're using your business line rather than your personal number. You're not giving out your personal information, but you're still getting all the sales and the sales engagements from people as they come in. So, all these leads, you're still capturing. All these sales, you're still capturing. And you're still keeping revenue flowing in your service department because you're texting, you're giving people reminders, you're increasing the opportunities for customers to come in. That's the key as we head into 2022, and especially during the slower months, you want to make sure that you are engaging customers in what platforms that they want to be in. And you are offering them solutions so that there's no way around it. If they want to contact you, phone, text, whatever you're going to capture their sale.

Then, with that, we'd like you to text us in. We can give you a free demo. Or if you have any more questions, you want a little more in-depth answers, feel free to text us. Also, questions over here. "So, how does it work on the business line? Do you have to get another business line?" No. So, attaching this platform to your business line, we call your carrier and attach it so you can still get calls, you can still do all that. The only thing that changes is that you're using that platform. One number is being used by all your employees. So, the only thing that changes is you're just offering customers a texting opportunity.

You're offering them something that they haven't seen yet on your business line. You've given out your personal cell number, of course, but now they're using the platform and they're using your existing business line. So, there's one number that all these messages are coming to. And one number that it's all coming out from. From each employee that's responding, they're all responding through the same number. So, it's all putting it all together, putting it all in one that we set it up through your carrier.

So, with that, feel free to text us. Again, if you have any questions, feel free, reach out, get a free demo. And with that, thank you so much for joining us here.

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