Manager Forum

We are considering using CRM. Does anyone have an opinion on how it has been working for them?
thanks

I'll put in my 2 cents.......


No matter what you do, you need a way to stay in contact with your customers. I am a huge user of reminder mailings and process them once a week. If things got busy for me and a few weeks passed without sending the mailings, we noticed it in our schedule.

You can do them yourself, or you can hop on the electronic bandwagon and do them through email. I have CRM and there's so much there I couldn't possibly list it all. Here's some....

Thank You email after each service.
Reminder emails synchronized to your reminders in Manager
Reminder emails based on mileage service intervals.
Reminder emails for appointments based on the schedule in your Manager product.
Welcome emails for first time customers.
Timing belt reminders based on mileage for vehicles that have them.
Blast emails that you and your support contact craft together based on what YOU want to say.
Access to web based history for your customers synchronized to your Manager.
Access to Sure Critic rating service integrated to your Manager product.
Website design and upkeep.


The interface to all this is real nice. Front page is a summary of all activities you've signed up for. All the graphs are clickable so it takes you right to the subsection you want.
There's tons of reports. I like the KPI reports that compare your shop to state and industry standards. A real eye opener.
That's the short tour.

We are considering usiing CRM. Does anyone have an opinion on how it has been working for them?
thanks

Ric, Does the CRM program send the typical "you have 10,000 on your car. You need to have your brake fluid flushed"? As a recommendation?

Demand Force is beating our door down. I am hoping to keep us steering toward CRM.

Can you PM me a "ball park" price. I know it is different for each person. But is it $10.00 a month or $500.00.

Yes, mileage based service intervals are sent out.

Thanks. I want to go CRM if possible as I believe the "support" will be there. Not so sure with DF.

The support agent that gets assigned to you acts like part of your team, at least the one I have. Never pushy, but always helpful. It's like having your own dedicated marketing person on staff.

1. I see you mention appointments. Right now we do not use the Mitchell Scheduling. Is that going to be an issue with CRM??

2. Can anyone tell me if you are using CRM and are "near" me?

We are located in Big Rapids Michigan (North of Grand Rapids about 55 miles). I would LOVE to look at the system, how you are using it, and get a "non-salesman" look at it. I am willing to travel. I was thinking about going to Ric's, but it will take about 18 hours to get there. LOL

1. I see you mention appointments. Right now we do not use the Mitchell Scheduling. Is that going to be an issue with CRM??

Yes. You need entries into the schedule for the appointment reminders to work.

Hello everyone. Just a heads up on the Demandforce. Was just at a shop owners mastermind group and the talk of CRMs came up. There were 4 guys all using demand force. Well they have been informed that demand force who is owned by Intuit and acquired customerlink earlier this year is on the block for sale. Intuit doesn't want them anymore. Just a heads up as to signing on with them may want to give that some thought. Three of the 4 shops service with them was discontinued because of that as well. Frankly I have had demand force, customer link, mechanicnet and while had their good points we have been using Mitchell's for a few years now because it seems to work the best, the review gather has been the best, and the reports are fantasic when I'm holding my weekly meetings with my managers. I have not tried Kukui but what I have seen and heard is they want everything including website and it is very pricy.

We use the crm program. I do not use the scheduler its not very good as it is. I will use the new one when its available. We have used crm for as long as I can remember maybe 10 years or so. I like it for our needs. Im sure I could utilize it better but im so busy as it is I just kinda roll with it. We do have a lot of turnover when it comes to our reps in fact as of lately it seems worse that way(I do not even know who my current one is). I do not have a website through them(may later). If you have any specific questions ill try to answer.

We do have a lot of turnover when it comes to our reps in fact as of lately it seems worse that way(I do not even know who my current one is).

Just to be clear, the CRM support agent is not the Sales rep. They are two different positions/people.

Correct ive not seen a sales rep come by for Mitchell in like 15+ years. My crm rep was the same for a long time but the last 1-2 years its been a revolving door.

This thread doesn't seem to have been bumped in a while. Does anyone have any further insight into DF vs. Mitchell CRM? In addition, I thought that I heard Mitchell CRM has a customer website per vehicle...is that accurate?

GUTHTIRE wrote:This thread doesn't seem to have been bumped in a while. Does anyone have any further insight into DF vs. Mitchell CRM? In addition, I thought that I heard Mitchell CRM has a customer website per vehicle...is that accurate?

Yes - Social CRM shops also have OwnerAutosite.com where each customer has their own page with tabs for each vehicle they bring into that shop. They can even add a new vehicle and marketing starts up for it even before they bring it into the shop for it's first visit.

Is there a dummy or mock up of the OwnerAutosite.com that we can see?

GUTHTIRE wrote:Is there a dummy or mock up of the OwnerAutosite.com that we can see?

Here is a demo account that you can use at the link below to look around.

https://ownerautosite.com/Security/Inde ... eSupport=1

Username: socialcrm@mitchell1.com
Password: mitchell1