ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Next Up, a retail sales process aimed at improving dealership sales, announced the extension of The Next Up web-based system to include applications for a dealership’s finance and service departments. 

Designed to create added accountability in the finance and service departments, these new applications allow management to track the time department managers spend with customers, see real-time stats of each department’s activity and performance, and place managers in a systematic rotation for a consistent customer approach, officials said.

“By using our system to manage sales activity, dealerships have seen an immediate increase in CRM input, appointment set and sales. Now finance and service departments can realize these same benefits,” said Clint Burns, founder and CEO of The Next Up. “These additions will create consistent follow up, instill better finance and service processes and provide the in-depth reports management needs to increase efficiency, productivity and upsells.”

With these new applications, finance and service personnel log onto The Next Up system upon arrival and are automatically entered into the rotation. They are instantly notified when it is their turn to work with a customer. This consistent system eliminates “cherry picking” as it relates to less desirable customers (a cash deal vs. finance or an oil change vs. a large repair) and encourages personnel to spend the appropriate time needed to give that customer a quality experience.

In-depth reporting with drill-down capabilities gives management visibility into every customer interaction. From an immediate overview into what is happening at any point in the sales cycle, to personnel-specific views like product penetration and how many customers a team member is really speaking with, The Next Up allows management to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses and hold personnel responsible for closing ratios, officials said.