What was the biggest problem in 2010? There are not enough people to take care of the Clients! This is the biggest problem I see in dealerships today. In 2010, I visited dealerships from Kentucky to Virginia, Texas, Minnesota, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Florida. All but one have the same problem in common: there are not enough people to “hug” the Clients. Since 2008, almost all companies cut their staff. Makes sense. The future was uncertain; Businesses needed to remain profitable, and the logical place to start was the biggest expense every non-manufacturing company has: personnel expenses. Several positive things came from this. Dealers were able to shed outrageous, “dead weight” warranties and were forced to improve and streamline processes. But if dealers are to prosper in the years to come, now that the economy has “bottomed out” (March 2009), they must be prepared to grow their parts and services business by being able to run the business professionally and appropriately. .
The problem appears to be that dealers are now “addicted” to very high Net Profit and Net Profit / Gross Profit ratios. What I’m talking about is adding directly commissioned service advisors and technicians to staff, not general “fatties.” This will increase both gross profit and net profit. New vehicle sales will not “bounce” back to previous levels for years; It’s called “the new normal.” The “gold” is in Used, Service and Parts. Get ready for the “new normal” we’ve been and will be in for years to come by equipping your departments with the right number of employees to take care of your current and potential customers. In the Service Department, in order to have enough time to serve Clients, your Service Advisors should NOT serve more than 15 Clients per day on average (12 if you are a first-line Distributor). And if your Service Advisors have taken over the cashier functions or the warranty coding, the number of Customers they need to serve should be less. Here is a simple exercise; For the month, take the number of Warranty Repair Orders and Customer Payment and add them together. Add Internal Repair Orders IF your Service Advisors write them too. Then divide the RO totals by the number of service advisers. If your answer is over 325, you need more advisers.
If you are thinking, “Our Consultants can currently handle our Clients, we don’t need to add anyone else.” Think about this: As of 2009, the vehicle paid by the average Customer in most Service Departments had more than 70,000 miles; Do you think it just needs an oil change? Combine that with the fact that your service consultants see customers maybe twice a year due to expanded maintenance requirements and improved product quality. That doesn’t give them / you many opportunities to build a relationship or take good care of the Customer’s vehicle. To do both, your consultants need TIME! Your Service Advisors may be forced to take crucial “shorthand” steps when handling too many Clients. Consultants will do whatever it takes to keep up with the day’s work, but are they doing what it takes to grow your business and theirs when they don’t have the time? The advisors write to the Client, obtain expense approval for the Client’s request and close the ticket. It is expected that they personally deliver the vehicle to the Customer through the Active Delivery process to RETAIN that Customer. But to grow their service business and increase their repair order sales, they need to do more.
Here are 10 processes that could get in the way on a daily basis if you are understaffed:
1. Carrying out a good reservation pre-writing, including the mileage request.
2. Review the history of the Client’s vehicle, search for necessary or previously lost maintenance and postponed repairs to present to the Client.
3. Take a GOOD Walk with the Client when the Client arrives.
4. Presentation of the appropriate maintenance menu after the ride.
5. Proper introduction of permit-based multipoint inspection.
6. The Technicians conducting a quality Multipoint Inspection, with digital photographs.
7. The assessors then contact the customer and request the sale of the items found during the technicians’ multipoint inspection (if you think this is already happening, ask the technicians, not the assessors).
8. Provide the BEST, best and good options to close more sales.
9. Request a good follow-up date for unsold work and record it in an electronic reminder system such as Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.
10. Make active face-to-face deliveries where the Advisors set the next Service Appointment and request any other vehicle at home that they can maintain for the Client.
When any of those processes are bypassed, you are wasting your “Service Ups”. When you have enough trained staff to follow the processes that are designed to take care of your Customers, everyone wins. My service push process works best when all the steps are followed, and you need enough people to do it. Your customers depend on your dealership to take care of their vehicles. To do that, your advisors must look at the vehicle’s mileage and vehicle history; then recommend what it takes to make a Customer’s vehicle safe and worry-free. By inviting the customer to your dealership, you have assumed responsibility for looking after the customer’s vehicle. That means selling recommended repairs and necessary maintenance, not just accepting what the Customer came for.
Not only do you need enough service consultants, you also need enough technicians with time to do the work the vehicles need. Your technicians become more efficient when they don’t bounce from vehicle to vehicle. Few things are more frustrating for a technician than starting a job, and then being told, “Wait a minute, could you take a quick look at this vehicle” or “Could you take this bartender’s oil change out of order before you go? finish that? ” Running in chaos to take care of Clients’ vehicles, like it or not because we have too few technicians, is inefficient and wastes your technician’s time. Your technicians will NOT do a multipoint quality inspection until they know that the consultants are going to sell the job and they know that they will have the opportunity to do the job on a vehicle that is already in place. Otherwise it’s all check marks or a sealed focus. If you say, you can’t find good people; try Craigslist.com, “the national electronic bulletin board.” Every dealership I’ve been to has had amazing results when they put an ad on Craigslist. Just last week in Macclenny, Florida (where are you asking? – correct), the Service Department needed to add more technicians. Within 24 hours of posting the ad, the Service Manager interviewed and hired a GM Master Tech, with another GM and Ford Master Tech the next day. There is no good excuse for not having the right amount of staff. The only way your staff can properly handle your customers is to have enough people to “hug” your customers. This then optimizes your Client’s visit, your facilities, and the money spent on training and advertising. Take care of your Clients and they will take care of you by coming back and spending money vs. deserting the hundreds of options everyone has that are closer to home or closer to work. For more ideas like this or information on management training and development for dealership operations, contact Lloyd Schiller at [email protected].