Decisiv Discovery Trackers provide in-depth look at service process

Decisiv has updated its service relationship management (SRM) platform to include standard and premium SRM Discovery Trackers, which are enhanced reporting options for the Discovery Management Reporting System. These new reports, accesible via a single dashboard, were developed to streamline monitoring and management of service activity by providing dealers with more insights and transparency at the overall dealer level, as well as at providing performance data on individual locations, service advisors, and individual cases.

There are three new reporting streams available via a no-cost Starter Pack or subscription-based Premium Pack:

• Status Tracker: when the service event starts and where it is currently
• Workflow Tracker: how long service event lasts
• Communication Tracker: how often are you communicating updates to the owner or fleet

The products are live now, and while the subscription premium pack of the SRM Discovery Trackers provides a more detailed look at the service process and workflow analyses, the Starter pack offers a big picture overview of information regarding service performance and is available at no cost to dealers on the Decisiv SRM platform.

Overall benefits

Here are some main benefits users can achieve, according to Decisiv:

• Faster return to service of assets
• Quicker workflow turnaround times
• More revenue-generating wrench time for technicians
• Increased volume of service events
• Faster customer approval on estimates
• Fewer phone calls from customers asking for an update
• Improved overall customer service experience

In plainspeak, the Tracker dashboard offer management X-ray vision into areas affecting productivity and revenue.

“The Trackers deliver valuable visibility into bottlenecks and breakdowns across all service and repair activities, and location,” said Decisiv President Tim Hardin. “For example, dealers already using Status Tracker have achieved an 11% to 24% overall decrease in asset-returned-to-service time."

Hardin noted the transparancy into operations have a direct "impact both productivity and revenue” by allowing managers to take action based on what they see.

"These reports deliver actionable information, directly to you and your team," he continued. "The information on status durations, workflow durations, and customer communication frequency provides opportunities to implement improved practices.”

Better overall uptime and customer satisfaction are the ultimate goals of these trackers.

"They're really geared towards two key benefits: reducing days out of service and improving customer communication," Robert Ziemba, Decisiv VP of marketing, told Fleet Maintenance.

On one side, the data gleaned helps a shop see if a trailer waiting for new tires has been sitting for way too long, allowing the supervisor to better understand how certain jobs fall through the cracks, or who was responsible. But on the postive side, the Trackers can help leaders see which techs have the best throughput times, or which service advisors are on top of everything. The shop can then call out and perhaps incentivize these top performers, leadign to better morale.

"In addition to supporting high standards of customer satisfaction, the Trackers offer a very effective way to help improve employee retention by recognizing and rewarding outstanding performance across every job role," noted Nick Pittinger, VP of data services at Decisiv.

Status Tracker

SRM Discovery Status Tracker provides a detailed view of events from case creation to the most recent status change to locate bottlenecks within the service process.

"What do we need to do to speed up those certain steps?" Pittinger explained. "Maybe they uncover things like they're waiting on parts a lot longer at this location." 

The ability to take a close look at the order in which steps occur and at what point there are holdups or excessive time being spent allows shops to avoid similar situations in the future.

"And if it's something that happens regularly, then that would be the type of thing that the tracker tools would help identify and allow them to be able to measure and attack," he said, explaining that dealers are then able to make changes and evaluate whether or not they are working.

Workflow Tracker

While the Status Tracker focuses more on specific steps within the servicing process, SRM Discovery Workflow Tracker identifies workflow durations and service time as jobs move within the shop, or as Pittinger put it, the "virtual handoffs from one person to another."

A granular method of evaluating efficiency, the tool allows dealers to make workflow-optimizing operational changes based on the reported duration of each action within the repair job.

"Who are the people that are involved? What role do they play?" asked Pittinger, explaining that the Workflow Tracker collects data to answer these questions. "How long do they have a service event in their hands before they hand it off to the next person?"

This provides an opportunity to compare times and share best practices from top performers within the shop, boosting efficiency and driving consistency throughout the whole operation.