Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/570649
October 2015 | Boating Industry | 33 www.BoatingIndustry.com [ 2015 Movers & Shakers / BOLD MOVES ] CUSTOMER DRIVEN TODD SMITH Director of learning and implementation, CDK Global Recreation / Salt Lake City, Utah When Todd Smith came on board at CDK Global Rec- reation in 2014, the company was dealing with an over- whelming demand for its Lightspeed software. While that might seem like a good thing on its surface, it also meant CDK was struggling to deliver the service its dealers needed to go live with the soft- ware – a problem with the potential to undermine the company's success. Smith implemented a system of customizable elearning and communica- tion tools that resulted in immediate improvements for CDK. "We're doing a much better job to tailoring the needs to what the actual learner is actually after, so if it's someone who's working in parts they're getting the training that's relevant to them," Smith said. "It's very standard in their 'go live' week to have a trainer come out and spend some time with you and although we've been doing some elearning train- ing up front before the go live, we want to increase that with the leader- ship staff at the dealership." The most important change may very well be an internal communica- tion system that ensures that anyone that a customer deals with at CDK will have a record of previous con- versations. That saves time for both the dealer and CDK. "When a dealership is on-boarded to Lightspeed, of course they're going to interact with their sales- person, their project manager, their trainers, but also there are people behind the scenes that are support- ing [who] need specific information about the cus- tomer: what products they bought, what's important to them," Smith said. "We really needed that one tool that could collect and at an associate's fingertips, be able to tell us these are the specific set-ups this cus- tomer requested based on their business needs; these are the specific reports that they're looking for. They don't have to answer the same question twice." The changes have paid off with more satisfied customers, as re- flected by a 35-point increase in the company's Net Promoter Score in the last year. A new scorecard system helps CDK to more easily track both dealers' progress in learning, as well as the company's success in educating them. "As we make these changes, we can see, yes, customers' assessment scores are getting better, their likelihood of adopting the software quicker is improving, and that's why those are such important pieces," Smith said. "We want to react and improve our processes, do it in a way that ultimately makes for a better experience for the customer."