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Hello everyone. Welcome back to another
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Volie Rally. Today I'm joined by Liza
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from our team. You all know Liza very,
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very well. She's joining me once again.
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We're going to talk about training for
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today's BDC and service rep. So Liza,
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thanks so much for taking the time with
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me. You bet. So, uh, Liza, really, when
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we look at this, training expectations
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have changed. What should BDC's do to
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keep up?
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Yeah. So, um, as I was prepping for this
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call, I was hesitant to bring up COVID.
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I hate talking about COVID. Um, but
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there was there was a shift there,
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right, to remote work and training. uh
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training also right comes into play
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there. So um postcoid a lot of our
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customers have had to adopt new policies
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and adapt to new tools that they're
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using um with their teams. I think
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remote training makes it easy to quickly
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roll out updates across an organization.
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Um, we're also finding that a lot of our
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customers are leaning into technology,
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how they can leverage technology for
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training rather than kind of an old
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school side by side approach. Uh we find
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that reps engage a little bit better
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with technology where they can sit right
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down at their device um and follow along
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with instructorled whether it's a
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webinar or it's a video that they're
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following along with um just more
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engagement from those tools that they
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can log right
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into. Um, and then you know there's also
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we're finding with our teams there's a a
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need or a desire
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for continuous opportunities for
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training and upskilling. Um, it's
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challenging working that in, right? when
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you have a rep who wants to level up,
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who wants to hit their bonuses uh higher
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than they have in the past, but fitting
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in that time, especially if you're doing
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it one-on-one when you've got a thousand
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other responsibilities um pulling you in
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different directions, but if you have um
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some type of tool that reps can use um
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on their own
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independently, they can take that on.
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they can do their training, they can
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increase their skills uninterrupted
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while you have other daily tasks going
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on. Um, so it's more autonomous in that
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way. Yeah. And those are a lot of great
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insights into some of the macro things.
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You know, let's talk a little specific.
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What what exactly are you seeing that's
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working?
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Um, sure. So, uh,
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having rather than, uh, you know, big
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long sessions, bite-size training, um,
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seems to be working well with our
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customers. A lot of our customers talk
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about utilizing like a daily huddle, um,
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where maybe they pull everyone in for 10
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minutes, something quick. Maybe they're
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addressing a policy change or maybe
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you're reviewing a common rebuttal um,
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and objections to those rebuttals with
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customers.
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um offering up some kind of relevant
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promotion that's being run or some kind
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of value proposition to
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customers. Um in regards to tech, what
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kind of um technology are people using?
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We have had a couple of customers reach
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out about um AI or chatbot mystery
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shops. So, um, you know, mystery shops
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are not new. Um, but having an AI tool
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or some kind of chatbot that's reaching
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in and doing the mystery shop, um, a you
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can get a lot more, uh, outreach done
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that way, a lot more touches. So, just
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more data
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points. Um, sentiment analysis is big.
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AI, call grading, anything um, that can
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be used to kind of look over all
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communications. again just getting a
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bigger sample
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size. Um and then a really big hit has
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been using chat GPT for everything right
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but mainly for scripting creating email
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templates text templates um talk tracks
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for phone calls uh that's been really
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big with our customers as well and uh
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another thing that people are using uh
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you know a lot of our current customers
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that is are are starting to use pulse.
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Liza, can you talk a little bit about
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Pulse and how that's helping with their
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uh the training? Yeah, absolutely. So,
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we've had really great feedback so far
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on our accounts that have been utilizing
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Pulse. One of the huge advantages is
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that, you know, they can kind of sit
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back and uh take comfort in the fact
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that Pulse is listening to every single
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one of their reps calls. I know there's
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a concern uh a with listening to calls
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is time consuming. So, I'm going to have
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to cherrypick the calls that I listen
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to, right? And am I getting a bad sample
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from a rep? Am I coming down on someone
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for one call that went sideways when
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every other call was perfect? Or vice
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versa? Am I catching the one good call
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when I'm missing the call where we
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promised something to a customer that we
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never delivered on? So, I think there's
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peace of mind uh with using a tool like
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Pulse where it's listening to every
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single phone call.
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And then they can personalize what uh
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different triggers they want to be
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alerted on. So like uh I think I
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mentioned if there's um sentiment,
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right? If there's any sentiment flags on
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the call, they can choose to be alerted
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for those. Um if we are not setting a
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solid appointment, they can be alerted
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for those. So little bit of
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customization. Um they're making sure
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that they're touching the calls where
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they're needed most kind of thing. It's
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a fair uh representation of what the rep
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is working on. Awesome. And are there
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any specific wins from one of our
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customers that come to mind with how
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they've trained and motivated their team
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to increase productivity?
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Yes. So, um, as far as motivation,
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right, easy way to motivate people is
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with a pay plan. Um, but not fair to
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have a pay plan where you're not backing
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up the incentives with proper training.
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So, one that comes to mind, um, somewhat
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recent, so we had one of our 20 group
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members, we had a an awesome meeting. We
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were talking about what are KPIs, what
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does everyone hold their team to, and
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how are they compensating for those
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APIs?
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KPIs. Um, that person walked away from
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our meeting uh, totally going to change
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up their pay plan. So they went back um
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kind of set the standards, provided
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resources to train their team to their
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new standards. Um and after implementing
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the new pay plan, the new kind of
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motivation for the training that they
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had provided, they had a 30% increase in
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agent productivity. So huge. Um and now
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they can easily steer their ship, right?
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So they've got the engine pumping kind
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of thing and now they just need to put
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the right activities in front of their
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team. So huge win. Mhm. No doubt. And uh
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and it just shows that with attention,
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focusing on these things and training
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towards the results you want to see as
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well as properly incentivizing um of
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course you can uh you know drive the
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business in the way that you want to. Um
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Liza, can you talk a little bit about
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Volie's uh specific training and support
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ecosystem?
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Yeah. So, um, some of this is, you know,
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not new. Some of this is new. So, we've
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added to our training repertoire what we
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have available. Um, some of the new
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offerings that we have are our agent and
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manager certification courses. Um, the
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manager certification we've uh rolled
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out a couple of months ago. Um, that
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course is going off really well. We've
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had really good feedback. Um we offer
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some tools like I mentioned um chat GPT
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for phone scripting and text scripting.
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So we have some baked in resources like
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that in our manager certification
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course. Um we also rolled out an agent
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certification
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course. Surprisingly to us uh it's been
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really wellreceived even for veteran
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reps. So, not necessarily just your new
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rep onboarding, um, but those reps who,
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like I mentioned earlier, uh, want to
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get 1% better this month, um, are really
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digging into that agent certification
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course, um, and taking, you know, the
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information back to, uh, you know, to
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their daily work, um, and seeing some
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wins there.
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We also have, you know, some of the
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things that we've had for forever,
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right? Um we do have a YouTube channel
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um that has hours and hours worth of
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content. As far as bite-size content,
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each video is somewhere between like
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three and six minutes. They're really
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easy to consume. Um those are great for
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onboarding, but even better for just
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going back and getting a little
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refresher. Um, you know, for reps in the
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communication center, we have our help
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docs in there. I'd love to hear it. I
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just got a compliment earlier this week
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on there's so much in there for our help
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docs. So, I always recommend that. It's
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a good place to start if you're um
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pulling up a new report that you've
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never dug into before or you want to
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dive a little bit deeper, get a little
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bit dangerous with our campaign builder.
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Lots of good resources in there. Um,
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obviously we have uh my team, our team,
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so onboarding support, um, all of those
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in-person um, virtual trainings that we
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offer. Um, so lots of different
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resources to increase your Volie
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knowledge. And then we've seen a need
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also just for increasing
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um industry knowledge or some of those
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uh just skills that are necessary um for
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a rep who's who's working directly with
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consumers.
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And specifically to Volie, you know, like
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Liza said, we're always posting YouTube
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videos and and starting new webinars
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like the Volie 15 to to show off and uh
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get you all knowledgeable about what's
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coming. So, always trying to keep you
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all in the loop. Well, Liza, thank you
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so much for joining me today. What as we
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wrap up here would be your number one
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takeaway, your number one training tip
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for
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2025? I thought about this one um
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thought through a lot of conversations
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that uh that I've had with our customers
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recently. Um all of this talk about AI,
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right, and different AI tools that are
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interacting with our
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customers, that's not going away, right?
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So, as it's becoming more and more
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prevalent um in dealerships and really
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everywhere, uh those human skills,
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emotional intelligence, adaptability,
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just basic communication skills, those
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are going to be key differentiators for
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your team and your business. Um so, my
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number one tip is to prioritize that
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human skills, um human skills
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development. So that might look like
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role play. It should look like real time
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coaching and feedback um for any
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customerf facing roles in your
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organization.
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Uh thanks Liza. What should anyone
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tuning in uh how can they reach you or
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the Volie team uh if they want to you
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know learn more about training tips?
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Yeah, so uh Katie on our team is leading
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up all of our training. Um you can reach
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out to Katie. Her email is
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katievi.com. It's an easy one. So, it's
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K. Never saw that coming. It's K A T I
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EVI.com. Um, but please always I'm
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always available to all of our
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customers. Um, it's fun to chat through
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some of this stuff. So, uh, you know,
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you can always grab me. Mine's
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Liza.com. That's liz.com.
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Sounds great. Well, thank you so much
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for taking the time and I hope everyone
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tuning in has a fantastic day.
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[Music]