5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Fixed Operations
1. Improve your Customer Experience. Dealerships have unfortunately not changed much about their service, parts, and body shop customer experience. In fact, for many dealerships, it's the same experience as it was 15 years ago. People are requiring more of businesses these days. Having to call the dealership for appointments, for status checks, and follow-ups is not what the customer wants to do. You should be centered around convenience, efficiency, and ease of doing business with you. Chances are, you're leaving money on the table.
2. Concentrate on Appointments, Scheduling and Efficiency. Each day your inventory to sell is time. If you don't sell that time, you will never have the opportunity to sell it again. If you're taking "X" number of appointments per day, you're missing your efficiencies. "X" number of appointments does not take into consideration the following: carryover work, emergencies, walk-ins expected, type of work, staffing call-off's, available alternate transportation, and on and on. The bottom line is that there are many opportunities to calculate the capacities needed and sellable for each day. If you're not looking at a daily capacity, you're leaving money on the table.
3. Are you growing in your service, parts, and body shop? If you're not growing, your declining. When a service department is really plugged-in with their customer experience and their efficiency, their demand grows. If they are not willing to grow with the demand, then they have left a lot on the table. There are some great restaurants in my area and they have massive waiting lists. These pushed out waiting lists are many times because of lack of staffing. Staffing is a problem everywhere, and finding great people is a huge competition. What sets you a part from other companies? Do you have an associate brochure listing all the benefits for working for your company? How many people have you wanted to hire, to find out that they just ghost you or go with a non-automotive employer? If you're not upping your game here, your leaving money on the table.
4. Are you training? The best companies have continuous training for their team members. It's more than just a mission statement, it's a culture of improvement. Some dealerships are great at measuring performance, but lack in the area of training. We all know that relying on factory training isn't the best way. If you're not training your managers to be great trainers, you're leaving money on the table.
5. Are you reviewing your team-members frequently? As we continue to hire Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z and beyond employees, we know from research that they are looking for quick forward movement. These generations are willing to work hard for a company that provides a work-life balance, with opportunities for quick advancement. Are you positioned to provide this? If not, you could experience large turn-over, and longer periods between hires. By spending some one on one time with them and reviewing them, it gives you time to reflect on their performance, their training needs, and give you an opportunity to provide them with a tangible career path. If you're not reviewing your team-members quarterly, you're leaving money on the table.
2. Concentrate on Appointments, Scheduling and Efficiency. Each day your inventory to sell is time. If you don't sell that time, you will never have the opportunity to sell it again. If you're taking "X" number of appointments per day, you're missing your efficiencies. "X" number of appointments does not take into consideration the following: carryover work, emergencies, walk-ins expected, type of work, staffing call-off's, available alternate transportation, and on and on. The bottom line is that there are many opportunities to calculate the capacities needed and sellable for each day. If you're not looking at a daily capacity, you're leaving money on the table.
3. Are you growing in your service, parts, and body shop? If you're not growing, your declining. When a service department is really plugged-in with their customer experience and their efficiency, their demand grows. If they are not willing to grow with the demand, then they have left a lot on the table. There are some great restaurants in my area and they have massive waiting lists. These pushed out waiting lists are many times because of lack of staffing. Staffing is a problem everywhere, and finding great people is a huge competition. What sets you a part from other companies? Do you have an associate brochure listing all the benefits for working for your company? How many people have you wanted to hire, to find out that they just ghost you or go with a non-automotive employer? If you're not upping your game here, your leaving money on the table.
4. Are you training? The best companies have continuous training for their team members. It's more than just a mission statement, it's a culture of improvement. Some dealerships are great at measuring performance, but lack in the area of training. We all know that relying on factory training isn't the best way. If you're not training your managers to be great trainers, you're leaving money on the table.
5. Are you reviewing your team-members frequently? As we continue to hire Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z and beyond employees, we know from research that they are looking for quick forward movement. These generations are willing to work hard for a company that provides a work-life balance, with opportunities for quick advancement. Are you positioned to provide this? If not, you could experience large turn-over, and longer periods between hires. By spending some one on one time with them and reviewing them, it gives you time to reflect on their performance, their training needs, and give you an opportunity to provide them with a tangible career path. If you're not reviewing your team-members quarterly, you're leaving money on the table.