The COVID-19 pandemic has helped the way dealership service departments interact with customers, says NADA Academy instructor Larry Hourcle. But he warns that the departments have to guard against returning to old habits once operations return to normal.
Hourcle said the typical interactions between a service adviser and a client have "all gone away."
"Most of our clients are sitting at home right now," he said. "They're looking at their phones; they want to do more of the process online. There's a lot of great changes that we've been adapting to as dealers, and hopefully we'll be continuing that process.