You have everything you need to make great callbacks. This module is about making sure they actually happen — every day, whether it's busy or slow, whether someone remembers or not.
Yesterday's customers · Declined services · Intervals due
8:00–10:30
Priority calls
Next-day sat · Missed sales · Time-sensitive
10:30–12:00
Scheduled interval calls
90-day · Warranties · Milestones
1:00–3:00
Relationship calls
Proactive outreach · Loyalty · Cat. E
3:00–4:00
Log results · Update DMS
Every call logged, every appointment noted
1
Mindset
2
5 Types
3
Formula
4
Scripts
5
Objections
6
Operations
7
Metrics
Why this module exists
You now have everything you need to make great callbacks. The five types. The formula. The scripts. The objection responses. Every tool is in place.
And yet — in most shops, the system falls apart within two weeks of training. Not because people forgot the material. Because nobody built the system that makes it happen every day.
Callbacks aren't extra work. They're the work that drives everything else. But they will not happen consistently without a daily structure, a clear owner, clean data, and a protocol for what to do when things get busy — or when they get slow.
That's what this module builds.
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Facilitator — open with this question
"Two weeks after a training like this — what usually happens to the system?" The room will tell you: it stops. Then ask: "Why?" Let them name the reasons. Almost everything they say will appear on the next slide. That self-diagnosis makes the lesson land harder than anything you could tell them.
Lesson 6.1Why Most Shops Fail at This10 min
It's not complicated. But it doesn't get done. Here are the five reasons — and the fix for each one.
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Advisors are busy
The shop floor is reactive by nature. When a car needs attention, callbacks wait. The service advisor who's supposed to be making calls at 9am is writing repair orders at 9am.
Fix: callbacks belong to a dedicated BDC role — not the service desk
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No system — no list
"We do callbacks" means someone calls whoever they happen to think of. There's no structured pull from the DMS, no priority order, no list waiting at the start of the day.
Fix: daily list built from DMS data, generated every morning
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No tracking
If you can't answer "how many calls were made today" — you don't have a system. You have a hope. What isn't measured doesn't improve. What isn't logged disappears.
Fix: every call logged in the DMS or CRM — same day, every time
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No accountability
When callbacks are "everyone's job," they're nobody's job. No individual name attached to the results means no individual responsibility for making them happen.
Fix: one person owns the daily call metrics — and reports them
The biggest reason — above all others
"If callbacks are everyone's job — they're nobody's job."
Every shop that successfully runs a callback system has one thing in common: a specific person who owns it. Not "the team." Not "whoever has time." One person, with a name, who is accountable for the daily call log every single day.
Lesson 6.2Building the Daily Call List12 min
The daily call list is the most important operational artifact in the system. It is built fresh every morning from your DMS. It takes 15–20 minutes. It tells you exactly who to call, in what order, and why.
The Daily Call List — Four Tiers
Click each tier to see the sources and DMS filters
1
Today's calls — must happen before anything else
2–8 calls
▼
Next-day satisfaction calls
Every customer who came in yesterday
Filter: closed ROs from yesterday
Recheck callbacks
Any vehicle picked up with an open concern
Filter: recheck flag in DMS
2
Time-sensitive — get cold within 48 hours
3–10 calls
▼
Missed-sale callbacks
Declined services from yesterday and today
Filter: declined services, past 24–48 hrs
Post-estimate, no booking
Estimates written 5–7 days ago — no appointment
Filter: open estimates, 5–7 day window
Recall alert matches
New recall matches found in NHTSA database today
Cross-reference VIN list with nhtsa.gov/recalls
3
Scheduled intervals — your consistent revenue layer
5–15 calls
▼
90-day oil change reminders
Customers at day 80–90 since last oil change
Filter: last oil change service, 80–90 day window
12-month warranty reminders
Customers 30 days from warranty expiration
Filter: warranty jobs closed 11 months ago
Mileage milestone reminders
Customers within 2,000–3,000 miles of 30/60/100K
Filter: last recorded odometer + estimated daily mileage
State inspection / emissions
Expiration within 30–45 days
Filter: inspection date on vehicle record
4
Relationship calls — any day, consistent presence
5–10 calls
▼
Deferred services follow-up
30/60/90 days since declined estimate
Filter: declined services by date window
Lapsed customer reactivation
12–18 months since last visit
Filter: last visit date, 12–18 month window
Referral thank-yous
Within 48 hours of referred customer's visit
Filter: new customers with referral source noted
Vehicle anniversary calls
On or within 1 week of first-visit anniversary
Filter: first visit date = today ± 7 days
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DMS data gap check
Ask the room: "Which of these filters can your DMS actually run right now?" Most will say most — but the mileage milestone and vehicle anniversary filters catch people. If the DMS doesn't track odometer updates or first-visit dates reliably, those need to be flagged as data improvement items before the system goes live.
Lesson 6.3The Morning DMS Pull8 min
The call list doesn't build itself. Every morning, before the first call goes out, a 15–20 minute DMS pull generates the day's list. Here's exactly how it works.
1
Pull yesterday's closed repair orders
Every customer who came in yesterday gets a next-day satisfaction call. This is non-negotiable and always goes to the top of the list. Filter: closed ROs, date = yesterday.
Tier 1 source
2
Pull declined services from the past 48 hours
Any service recommended and declined in the past 24–48 hours becomes a missed-sale callback. The list should include the specific service, the estimated cost, and the technician's urgency rating.
Tier 2 source
3
Pull interval triggers for the current week
Run the 90-day oil change filter, the 12-month warranty filter, and the inspection expiration filter. Don't pull the entire database — just the customers entering their window this week. Manageable batches, not overwhelming lists.
Tier 3 source
4
Add relationship calls to fill remaining time
After Tiers 1–3 are complete, use remaining call time for Tier 4. Rotate through categories — don't just call the same deferred services list every day. Lapsed customers, referral thank-yous, and anniversaries should rotate in weekly.
Tier 4 source
5
Set the day's target and start calling
The list is built. The target is set (minimum 15–20 calls on a normal day, 40+ on a slow day). Calls start at the top of Tier 1 and work down. Every call is logged before moving to the next one.
Daily target
Lesson 6.4Time Blocking — When Callbacks Happen8 min
The single most common reason callbacks don't happen: they're not scheduled. "I'll get to it when I have a break" means they don't happen. Time blocking turns callbacks from an intention into a commitment.
7:30–8:00 AM
DMS pull + list build
Before the phones get busy. Before the first car arrives. This 30 minutes builds the entire day's call list. It is the most important 30 minutes in the BDC workflow.
8:00–10:30 AM
Priority calls — Tiers 1 & 2
Next-day satisfaction calls and missed-sale callbacks happen now. These get cold as the day goes on. 8am calls reach people before they're deep into their workday and convert better than afternoon calls.
Scripts 01–03Scripts 04–06
10:30–12:00 PM
Interval calls — Tier 3
90-day reminders, warranty calls, and inspection follow-ups. These are expected, welcomed calls — low resistance, good conversion. Mid-morning is the best window for this category.
Scripts 07–10
1:00–3:00 PM
Relationship calls — Tiers 3 & 4
Proactive outreach, loyalty calls, deferred services follow-up. The afternoon window works well for these — customers are more likely to be available and the calls are lower pressure.
Scripts 11–13Scripts 14–19
3:00–4:00 PM
Log, update, prepare tomorrow
Every call from today logged. Every appointment noted in the DMS. Any customer who needs a callback tomorrow flagged. The end-of-day log makes tomorrow's 7:30am pull 10 minutes faster.
Lesson 6.5The Slow-Day Protocol8 min
Most shops treat a slow day as a problem to wait out. The BDC treats it as a growth engine. When car count is low, that's not a sign to pause outreach — it's the signal to accelerate it.
When it's slow — this is what you do
A slow day isn't bad luck. It's unspent opportunity. Here's the protocol.
1
Double the call target
Normal day: 15–25 calls. Slow day: 40–50. The entire Tier 4 list gets worked. Every deferred service from the past 90 days. Every lapsed customer. The slow day is when the relationship calls happen that never get touched on busy days.
2
Work deeper into the deferred services list
Pull every declined estimate from the past 30, 60, and 90 days. These customers had real needs — they said no to timing, not to the service. Many are ready now. The 60 and 90-day callbacks convert at surprisingly high rates because the timing concern has usually resolved itself.
3
Run the lapsed customer list
Customers who haven't been in for 12–18 months didn't leave angry — most just drifted. A genuine, no-pressure stay-in-touch call from a shop that remembers them converts 20–30% of the time. These are warm calls, not cold calls. They're coming back to a place they already trusted.
4
Check for seasonal and proactive opportunities
Is a season change coming? Are there recalls in the database that haven't been matched to customers yet? Is there a major holiday in the next two weeks? Use slow days to get ahead of proactive outreach instead of scrambling to catch up to it.
5
Measure the day's output — not the car count
At the end of a slow day, the question isn't "how many cars came in?" It's "how many calls went out? How many appointments were set for tomorrow, the day after, and next week?" A slow day that generates 8 pre-booked appointments for the next three days is not a slow week.
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Key teaching point — the slow day reframe
"The shops that run this system consistently don't have slow days — they have days where they build the next week." Ask: "What did your shop do last slow Tuesday? What could it have done instead?" The gap between those two answers is exactly what this module builds toward.
Activity A1The Ownership Assignment12 min · Group
For the system to work, every task needs a name. Not "the team" — a name. Use the table below to assign ownership for your shop. The owner column is the person accountable. If that person doesn't do it, there's no backup — it just doesn't happen.
System Ownership Table
Assign a name to every task — not a role, a name
Task
Frequency
Owner
Morning DMS pull + list build
Daily 7:30am
Priority calls (Tiers 1 & 2)
Daily 8–10:30am
Interval + relationship calls (Tiers 3 & 4)
Daily 10:30–3pm
End-of-day log + DMS update
Daily 3–4pm
Slow-day protocol activation
As needed
Weekly results review
Every Friday
DMS data quality check
Monthly
⚠️
Watch for the most common mistake
Multiple people assigned to the same task. When you say "BDC Specialist and Service Manager both own the morning pull" — nobody owns it. One name per task. If two people could do it, one of them actually will, and the other will assume the first one did.
A2
Build Your Personal Daily Schedule
10 min · Individual
Using the time block framework from Lesson 6.4, build your personal daily schedule. Be specific — use your shop's actual hours, your actual role, and the actual DMS filters available to you. This is the schedule you will actually follow starting Monday.
Time
What I will do / how many calls / which scripts
___ am to ___ am
DMS pull · Build list · Target: ___ calls today
___ am to ___ am
Priority calls (Tier 1 & 2) · Scripts: ___
___ am to ___ pm
Interval calls (Tier 3) · Scripts: ___
___ pm to ___ pm
Relationship calls (Tier 4) · Scripts: ___
___ pm to ___ pm
Log results · Update DMS · Prep tomorrow's list
After building your schedule — share with the group
QWhich time block do you think will be hardest to protect — and why?
QWhat happens to your time blocks on a busy day? What's your protocol when a car needs you during a call block?
QWhat's your minimum on a busy day — the number of calls below which the system isn't working?
Module 6Knowledge CheckComplete before Module 7
8 Questions
Complete before Module 7
1Name the five reasons shops fail at callbacks consistently. Which one is the most important — and why?
2Describe the four tiers of the daily call list. What DMS filter generates each tier?
3Walk through the morning DMS pull in five steps. How long should it take — and what does it produce?
4Why do priority calls (Tier 1 and 2) happen in the morning — and what happens to missed-sale calls if they get pushed to the afternoon?
5What is the slow-day protocol — and how does the call target change on a slow day vs. a normal day?
6Why does assigning a task to two people effectively mean nobody owns it?
7What is the end-of-day log — and why does doing it every day make the next morning's DMS pull faster?
8Write your personal daily call schedule. Include your DMS pull time, your call blocks, and your minimum daily call target.