McCarthy Motor Holdings, South Africa`s largest car retailer and the third largest in the world, has boosted unit sales of used cars by 100 units a month, or 4%, through its McCarthy Call-a-Car facility using its Website and call centre.
The extra sales are equivalent to opening a new sales outlet, without the cost of bricks and mortar, extra sales staff on site and inventory, says McCarthy used vehicle marketing executive Cedric Henderson.
"This sales boost has come at a time when the market is experiencing a downturn in car sales," says Henderson. "It totally validates our decision to implement a call centre."
The need for a call centre was first raised 18 months ago after McCarthy launched the interactive Website, www.usedcars.co.za. It was successful enough, winning awards here and in Europe, for McCarthy to embrace the concept of consumers buying cars remotely. "We could service 7% of our potential target market through the Web," says Henderson. "The other 93% we needed to reach through the call centre."
McCarthy attracts potential buyers to the site with innovative TV advertising campaigns. Callers specify their choice of car according to their individual requirements. A team of dedicated call centre agents, under call centre manager Desiree Wiseman, service these requests by scanning McCarthy`s Durban-based mainframe database, via high-speed telecommunications link, to ascertain which of McCarthy`s 110 national dealers has the appropriate car. Some 3 500 vehicles are held in stock at any time. Once the right vehicle has been found, a fax is automatically generated to the dealer in question, who in turn calls the prospective customer.
Critical is the quality of call centre agent, which perpetuates the McCarthy experience of value for money, quality and integrity, adds Henderson. "By outsourcing the call centre staffing requirement to QuestConnect, we were able to meet this requirement.
"With the installation of Ixchange`s CallSmart software and the move of the call centre to new premises in Wynberg under the management of Desiree Wiseman, we are looking to double this volumne of sales in the next six months," says Henderson.
Before year-end, says Henderson, the call centre will have been enabled to channel a call direct to a dealer`s cellphone, with the prospective buyer being able to talk to the agent, Desiree Wiseman as manager, the dealer, or all three in a four-way conversation.
Ixchange won the bid to supply the call centre against three other contenders. Chief qualifying criteria were cost-effectiveness, modularity of solution, the fact that the software is locally developed, and the ability to deliver the solution to requirements.
In identifying critical success factors for the call centre, Henderson cites:
- Having a passionate corporate champion.
- A clear, unequivocal commitment to processes. "Ensure your call centre processes are in synch with the business processes on the ground," he cautions. "This implies, of course, that your business processes are themselves understood, defined and documented."
- Establishing the call centre in manageable phases. "In our first phase we had a basic, but functional call centre, based on automatic call distribution. In the second we reviewed the processes and systems. We are now in our third we are fully integrating the Website and call centre and controlling our way forward. We are close to the fourth, strategic phase, where we can provide the customer with one seamless interface to all departments within the business."
-
Share
Editorial contacts