Q. My service department books by service advisor and teams. Can the system handle that?
A. Yes, the system is extremely flexible and can be set up to handle this. You can also set up a book for standard services and one for express lane services.
Q. How do customers access the program to make an online appointment?
A. They go to the dealer’s website. When they select Make Service Appointment, this will take them to the dealer’s service appointment calendar, allowing them to schedule a real-time appointment.
Q. Does TimeHighway.com pass the appointment to my DMS system?
A. Yes, there is an immediate data transfer into ADP and Reynolds & Reynolds.
Q. What if my DMS system is down?
A. You will always be able to review your appointments on the TimeHighway.com system and, when your DMS system is back up, the appointments will transfer.
Q. Who determines the services that are listed on the website for customer selection?
A. All services are totally customizable by each dealership.
Q. What if I want to continue to use my DMS to schedule those customers who call in?
A. You may do that. In that case, we can set up a specific number of appointments or hours available for online appointments.
Q. How do you access my customer database?
A. We import your customers into TimeHighway.com at time of setup and then poll your system on a regular basis to maintain the database in TimeHighway.com.
Q. How do my customers know they actually have an appointment?
A. They receive a confirmation email immediately after the appointment is made and a courtesy reminder email the day prior to the appointment.
Q. How does the system prevent customers from booking times that are unavailable?
A. We set up a back end matrix with all services, service duration, service depth and appointment time increments, so when services are selected – either by the customer or your internal personnel (if you elect to utilize internally) – the system will only show dates and times that are available for those particular services.
Q. My waiting area becomes extremely crowded on some days. Can I limit the number of appointments scheduled by customers who want to wait for service?
A. Yes, you can set up a depth of waiters per time slot. For instance I want 3 appointments every 15 minutes, but I only want 1 waiter every 30 minutes.
Q. If I want to show service pricing to my customers, will the system allow me to do this?
A. Yes, you can elect to show pricing of all services to your customers.
Q. I have reduced service hours on Saturday. Is it possible to limit the services for which I accept appointments on Saturday?
A. Yes, you can elect to flag services for which, when selected, Saturday just will not show as an available date.
Q. My manufacturer has different scheduled maintenance intervals for different years and models. Can the system accommodate that?
A. Yes, we can attach specific scheduled maintenance with descriptions to any year, make or model of vehicle.
Q. We are always looking for ways to follow up to be certain our customers had a positive service experience. Can TimeHighway.com help with that?
A. You can elect to include a customized survey in your pre-CSI Thank You email that the customer can complete and when they hit “Submit”, the survey will be immediately returned to you.
Q. Can the system assist me in notifying my customers for whom their special ordered parts are in?
A. You can elect to manually generate an email or text message to these customers.
Q. I provide loaner cars to my customers. How do you handle those?
A. You tell us how many you have available and we set up the depth for that number and track them as they are selected.
Q. How do I make my customers aware of this feature?
A. Some will find it on your website. We also send an Announcement email to all your customers for whom you have an email address, plus we generate a Welcome email to all new customers when we import new customers into TimeHighway.com. In addition to that, we provide an initial supply of stickers for your RO’s and information cards for your customer waiting area. Utilizing an “on hold” message making customers aware of the availability of confirmed, online service appointments is very effective. We also recommend that the salespeople register the customer at time of delivery and schedule First Service.
Q. How does the customer change or cancel an appointment?
A. There is a link in their confirmation email, as well as in their courtesy reminder email that will take them directly to the appointment book and they can cancel or change the services, date or time. They can also go to your website, log in and access their customer profile and make the change from there.
Q. How do I know what appointments are scheduled for a particular day?
A. You can view the Appointment Report in TimeHighway.com which provides all information regarding each appointment. Or you can view on your ADP or Reynolds & Reynolds appointment screen.
Q. What if I’m limited as to the number of particular services my shop can perform on a certain day?
A. We set up the depth for those services so that number can’t be exceeded and, if one of those services is selected and is fully booked for that day, the system will show the next date that is available.
Q. What percentage of my customers can I expect to schedule online?
A. Very quickly you will find 10-15% of your customer will book online. And, as more and more become aware of this convenience, this will increase dramatically. We have dealerships that are experiencing over 25% of their appointments being created by customers from their website.
Q. What about customers that don’t show up for their appointment?
A. Due to the reminder notification, you will find that no shows are decreased considerably. However, there will be times when a customer does forget or has an emergency and isn’t able to keep the appointment. With ADP this customer automatically receives an email requesting they reschedule; with other DMS providers, you can click on a button to send this customer an email requesting they reschedule.
Q. Are the emails generic or can I provide the verbiage I want to use for my dealership?
A. Every email is totally customizable and can include HTML as well as text.
Q. How do I handle it if I have a technician out of the dealership for training or on vacation?
A. You can adjust the time bucket hours for the days the technician is gone.
Q. How is my customer notified when the services on the vehicle are completed?
A. He can log into the dealership website to see the status of his repair or, if you choose, we can automatically generate an email or text message to the customer advising him the services are complete and he can pick up the vehicle at his convenience.
Q. The customer receives a confirmation email, a courtesy reminder email and a completion notification email or text message. Is there any other communication generated by TimeHighway.com?
A. Yes, there is the email that can be generated to the customer who doesn’t show up for their appointment and an automatic CSI Thank You email generated after the RO posts to Accounting.
Q. Am I limited as to the number of personnel who have access to the system?
A. No, your license fee provides unlimited access to the program. You can also log in even when you are out of the dealership as long as you have Internet access.
Q. If I want to load my shop and use technician hours, will the system keep track of these?
A. Yes, you can see at any time the total numbers of hours booked and hours left to book for any particular day.
Q. What if I want to offer a service special – can you notify my customers?
A. Yes, we will generate an email to all customers in your database for whom you have an email address making them aware of the special, with a link that takes them to your website in order to schedule an appointment.
Q. My shop books by skill level. Can TimeHighway.com handle this?
A. Yes, you can attach a skill level to each service and set up daily technician hours by skill level.