DAYTON, Ohio -

Dealers know the importance of customer follow-up. Now, they can tap into a new call service designed to improve the follow-up process, from sales to service.

The Reynolds and Reynolds Co., on behalf of its Virtual Customer Care Center, this week announced the addition of several new follow-up call services that the company says are designed to help dealers capture more lease renewals, retain more retail vehicle sales customers and improve service drive customer retention.

The calls are handled by Reynolds’ U.S.-based professional callers on behalf of the dealership. Also, Reynolds announced a revised menu for the Virtual Customer Care Center which allows dealers to choose from eight follow-up call service options separately, or in combination.

“We consistently hear from dealers that they want to know how to make their sales and service operations more effective, and how to improve the customer’s sales or service experience,” said Trey Hiers, vice president of marketing at Reynolds and Reynolds. “Yet, too many dealerships lack the time or people to put toward the types of follow-up that can uncover this critical information.

“The Virtual Customer Care Center can provide this knowledge for dealers and expose areas where they have process breakdowns or need to make process improvements. By helping dealers follow through on follow-up, the Virtual Customer Care Center helps dealers make operational changes that ultimately can deliver results for their business,” Hiers said.

The company explained that the Virtual Customer Care Center puts Reynolds’ professional callers in the role of Business Development Center staff for the dealership, and that follow-up telephone contacts can provide dealers with consumer feedback that can be used to improve dealership processes and procedures.

Results of the calls are integrated into the dealership’s Contact Management System from Reynolds, the company said, and with the dealer’s ERA or POWER dealership management system.

Reynolds’ callers also can set sales and service appointments and enter them into Contact Management, the company said.

According to Reynolds’ research, the company reports that consumers who are contacted by the Virtual Customer Care Center purchase a vehicle at nearly a 16 percent higher rate than those not contacted by the Care Center.