Blog
Short, practical notes on running service, parts and body shop departments that customers come back to.
Are You a Hoarder?
Are You a Hoarder? This is the time of year dealerships are making decisions for end of year adjustments. Today I wanted to focus on the parts Department aged inventory. I understand how hard it is to realize eventually old inventory loses its value and has absolutely no chance of selling. Nevertheless, this is a…
Putting out the Fires
Service shops today have times that technicians are being pulled off a job that they are currently working on, and placed on a priority of themoment job. I refer to these events as fires in our operations. When this happens, technician will lose a minimum 15 minutes of their production on the job they were currently working on.…
The Phone
Recently I place an order online from walmart.com because I wanted the convenience and discounted price on an item not normally carried in the store. The price was low and that included shipping on the item committing to a two day delivery. On that date the delivery was supposed to have arrived, I received a phone call…
Challenge Your Normal
Everyone that reads my newsletters or attends the conference call has a common thread. We want to improve. Today we are going to look at what I believe is a common thread for improvement. We must “challenge our normal”. Everyone has a routine they follow every day in their personal life, as well as corporate.…
Making the Team
Recently I’ve come to know a professional football player named, Jacobbi McDaniel. Jacobbi is an undrafted free agent from Florida State University that joined the Cleveland Browns last year. I attended a training camp session last week as his guest in the family and friends tent. I think we can all learn something about car…
Listen More
This paper will help improve your quality of life. It might be you’re in the position of a father, mother, manager, service advisor, technician or anything else listening is essential. It should be considered a talent or skill that we all need to improve. I’ve heard it said that if you want to be considered…
Try Again
Try Again Two of the most important words in our language are “try again”. If you consider every major accomplishment in the world today the individual responsible for it said those words often. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and when he stated, he had over 10,000 failed attempts. He was quoted as saying “it wasn’t a failure he…
“You’re Fired”
Over the years I’ve seen many dealerships terminate employees for various reasons. Most states today, state in their labor law claim, they are a right to work state. Interesting part about that is this means you really don’t have to have a cause to terminate someone’s employment at your dealership. Let’s look at this in…
Sales vs Service
Today’s car business has many challenges such as customer satisfaction, retention, and overall profitability. One thing I find interesting is, many of the challenges that car dealerships face are self-imposed. Today let’s look at some of the challenges and areas of opportunities for growth between the sales and service departments. Used Cars The used car department…
Know Your Stuff
I believe without any question the service advisor makes the difference in regards to the service and parts department’s profitability. The day of handing a service advisor a pen and saying “here’s your terminal” should be well behind us. The lack of training service advisors allows for processes to never be standardized. The new advisor has no…