Almost 10 years later, Paul's still on call for service customers' emergencies

This is the first article in an occasional series revisiting best practices in dealership fixed operations previously reported by Automotive News.

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — In 2010, Paul Jensen, the operations director of two Audi dealerships in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area, had an inspiration: creating a dedicated telephone hotline for the stores' service customers who needed help coping with roadside emergencies.

Jensen wanted to make sure those customers would get high-level attention at any hour of the day or night, seven days a week. So he resolved that he would staff the hotline himself, to respond to collisions, breakdowns, flat tires, keys locked inside vehicles and other owner problems.

He pitched the idea to the stores' dealer principal, Bruce Qvale. As Jensen remembers it, Qvale gave him the go-ahead but warned: "You're insane — it's not going to last."

It did, though. Nearly a decade later, the Audi dealerships' hotline continues to operate around the clock. And Jensen, 64 and now director of dealership operations for the 14-store Qvale Auto Group, still provides the reassuring voice at the other end during the 50 or so hotline calls he fields each month.

"I am it," Jensen told Fixed Ops Journal. "When the calls come in, I answer them with, 'You've reached the Audi Coral Springs or Audi Fort Lauderdale hotline. How can I help you?' "

Jensen says Qvale's Audi dealership in Lakeland, Fla., has set up its own hotline. He adds that he's unaware of any other dealerships that have adopted the practice, saying: "You need someone willing to answer the phone blindly in the middle of the night. Very few people are willing to do that for a job."

As he did when Automotive News first reported on the hotline in 2014, Jensen gives the dealerships' sales and service customers business cards that include the hotline's 800 phone number. Call center operators who answer hotline inquiries connect with Jensen even "if I am on vacation, out of town or out of pocket." He wants to be available at all times because, he says, "Most people who call in the middle of the night are in trouble."

"When my phone goes off, I get up and out of bed," Jensen says. "My wife gets aggravated by it, but I do what needs to be done. I've told people we will send roadside assistance to them to retrieve the car, and for them to call Uber to get a ride home." The dealership reimburses that expense.

Jensen says he has taken calls from Audi owners who have just been in crashes. If such customers don't need immediate medical attention, he directs them to the dealerships' list of Audi-certified body shops.

Flat tires are the most frequent reason for hotline calls. Jensen says he contacts Audi's roadside assistance program, which hires a nearby contractor to put the spare tire on and deliver the damaged tire to the customer's dealership for evaluation. "That way, the client is always directed back to us," he says.

Sometimes, Jensen says, the dealerships — with Audi's help — go out of their way to help customers."A client had her purse snatched while fueling up at a gas station," he says. "We towed her car from the gas station to the dealership, and then had a locksmith rekey her apartment so that she could get in. Audi backed it, because we were not going to leave her stranded."

On other occasions, Jensen says he calls on dealership employees to apply their expertise.

"A customer's convertible roof would not go up and it was forecast to be a rainy night," he says. "I found one of our techs, who was out to dinner with his girlfriend. They diverted to the customer's location, he closed the roof manually and directed the car to the dealership the next morning, where we fixed it."

Not all hotline calls report crises. Some customers call the 800 number to schedule a regular service appointment. Jensen transfers them to the dealerships' business development center.

"I get all kinds of calls," Jensen adds. "A customer can't open the trunk" because its latch is in valet mode. "Or, how do I set my date and time [on the dashboard clock]? I am familiar enough with the product to walk the client through the process to get it done."

If Jensen can't take a hotline call immediately, he says, he notes the caller's number and calls back promptly, even if the customer didn't leave a message.

"When they answer, I say, 'You just tried calling the Audi hotline — is everything OK?' " The response is generally one of gratified surprise, Jensen says.

In all the years of the hotline's operation, Jensen adds, he's been pranked only once, "and I got them back."

"A bunch of kids called up late one night," he recalls. "I called them back via caller ID the next day, telling them not to do that again. We haven't heard from them since."

Gus Batista, Atlanta regional aftersales manager for Audi of America, says Jensen's hotline mirrors the automaker's values of customer service.

"We're glad the hotline is still working," Batista told Fixed Ops Journal. "No one else is doing this at this level. Paul is really out there with this endeavor.

"Customers think, this is my store," Batista adds. "That type of service is so important, especially when you least expect it."

Jensen says Audi's support of the initiative has made a big difference.

"With Audi, we have some goodwill authorization," he says. "They tell us that if we are making good decisions for the customer, they will back us."