Service-only BDC aims to grow business via outreach, efficiency

When veteran fixed operations director Nick Latino joined Parkway Toyota in November 2020, he set two priorities — grow service volume at least 25 percent and gain efficiency. The best way to achieve these, Latino felt, was to establish a service department-only business development center.

"The service department BDC is the backbone of the service department," says Latino, 60, from his office at the Englewood Cliffs, N.J., dealership.

From his desk, he can see the service reception and customer waiting areas. Likewise, customers can see Latino behind his desk — when he is not out circulating.

"I like to let customers know we're there to do the right thing for them," he said.

The BDC handles inbound customer calls for things such as service appointments, and also initiates calls, emails and text messages to drum up business from customers who, for instance, declined recommended service on their last visit.

Previously, employees who worked in the dealership's business development center served multiple departments and wore many hats, including file clerk.

"There were people making calls, but it was not a dedicated service BDC," Latino says.

For now, the new service BDC occupies a windowless conference room that was used for training. There are three employees, and Latino hopes to add two more.

"We service about 80 cars per day. My goal is to get it closer to 100 or better per day," Latino says. The service BDC is an important tool to get there, he says, especially by maintaining contact with existing customers.

"Research shows that after 36,000 miles, people start to defect," Latino says. "My job is to keep them from defecting." The Toyota brand is helping by providing free service visits to new-vehicle buyers for services such as oil changes, tire rotations and multipoint inspections for the first two years or 25,000 miles of ownership.

"Everything starts with a purchase, new or used," Latino says. "They get a welcome letter from the service department, and we make the first service appointment for them, for five months out — five months after the purchase — and then after that appointment, for 12 months."

Early in the pandemic, Parkway Toyota cut back its service hours for lack of business. It is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Before the coronavirus hit, service was available until 8 p.m. on weeknights.

Latino decided to stick with the shorter hours he inherited, even though business has recovered a lot and pandemic-related restrictions in New Jersey aren't as tight as they were in the spring.

"Even though we shortened our hours, we've still been able to satisfy customer needs. You have to be efficient," he says.

The dealership has 15 flat-rate technicians, plus three express-service teams of two technicians each. Latino says he is constantly looking to hire more techs — both experienced and entry-level.

Despite his desire to add techs, Latino says he is not sure service traffic will return to normal levels anytime soon.

"People are not commuting as much, they're not driving the same miles, they don't need service as often," he says. "With the pandemic, people have realized — the customers, and we have, too — that there's more to life than working these long hours."

Parkway Toyota is on the main commercial strip in Englewood Cliffs, directly across the Hudson River from New York City. The New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge is nearby.

The proximity to New York attracts a lot of corporate headquarters to the small, upscale, suburban city. It's not exactly automobile row, but there are other dealerships in the neighborhood, including a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram store next door. Headquarters for Ferrari North America Inc. is right down the street.

LG Electronics' new North American headquarters is across the road from Parkway Toyota. For now, LG employees are working remotely because of the pandemic, but Latino is already thinking about prospecting for customers when the building reopens.

"There are bound to be some Toyota owners over there, right?" he says.