NAPLES, Fla. — Pappas Toyota in St. Peters, Mo., implemented a real-time online service appointment scheduling solution by TimeHighway.com.

“With TimeHighway our customers can make appointments online, any time and at their convenience. If a customer still wishes to call for an appointment, the system is so easy that anyone in the dealership can take the call and schedule an appointment. Prior to implementing TimeHighway, only our service writers were able to schedule appointments, which created inefficiency and limited the amount of calls we could handle at any one time,” commented Ken Schneider, Pappas Toyota service manager.

Once the system was installed, TimeHighway launched an announcement e-mail and the dealership sent out a postcard to all 12,000 customers, offering a $5 oil change to any customer that scheduled online. The promotion was so successful that in just three months 20 percent of the more than 700 appointments scheduled each month were scheduled online. According to Schneider, this represents an extra 20 hours a month that his service department staff can now spend better servicing their customers, answering questions and up-selling products and services.

The TimeHighway system integrates well with the dealerships’ ADP DMS and enables the appointment to roll right into the repair order, which saves time and eliminates errors on data entry. The system also sends appointment confirmation emails, courtesy reminder e-mails, an e-mail or text message notifying the customer when the services on the vehicle are complete and a thank you e-mail after the vehicle is picked up.

Not only has the system helped reduce in-bound telephone calls with 20 percent of customers now scheduling online, it has also helped increase service traffic — the number of overall service appointments scheduled has increased by 22 percent in the past five months.

TimeHighway.com replaces telephone-based scheduling with Internet technology that enhances the effectiveness and customer satisfaction of the dealership. By scheduling appointments directly through the dealer Website, customers make confirmed appointments instantly without call-backs.