saphura safavi long| gratis technologies president| [email protected] service drive technology...

Saphura Safavi Long| Gratis Technologies President| [email protected]

Service drive technology – Increase Revenue and Improve Customer

SatisfactionCEO Gratis Technologies

That’s the attitude But can you really deliver on the promise!



Obviously you are here as you are seeking improvements in your fixed operations! That is the beginning of success to question the

status quo

The book “How to Fly a Horse” indicates the following

“Sales+ Customers= Nothing Broken is a formula for corporate cyanide. Most big companies that die kill themselves drinking

it.”


When working on a complex machine that is not “delivering”, we must first break it down to

smallest parts, examine each for efficiency and then reassemble!

The “Machine” here is the “fixed operations” department


What does “Fixed Operations” mean?

And

What are its parts!


article written by Don Reed in Auto Dealer Today on line magazine titled “The Meaning Behind the Term "Fixed Operations", they described fixed operations called as such “ because you

don’t have as many variable conditions in service and parts as you do in sales.”


Does this name still hold?

Are there less “Variable Conditions” in this department than sales?

I beg to differ!!!!

That is thing of the past!


I believe “Fixed Operations” is actually called as such as it has delivered “Fixed Results”

A Highly limiting name

Our Expectations and the fixed results has earned this department that can be highly lucrative this name!

We are going to refer to this department as “Vehicle Maintenance or Service Department”


Historically any entity delivers the expectations of those “important” to them. Mediocrity brings

“mediocre” results! To say that we have a 50 RO per day “fixed” department will make it almost

certain that you do not exceed that number!


So Let’s make a 50 RO per day department into a 90 or higher !

Why not? What is to keep us from it?

First lets find out what affects the size and hence number of RO’s


Variables that Affect # of RO’sA survey of Service Directors and Dealer principals

Revealed

•Vehicle population in market•Vehicle sales by that store•Owner retention- Customer loyalty•What causes them to be loyal•Why are we losing them•Extended hours•Proper marketing to lost customers•Proper marketing to older cars that are going elsewhere – •Competitive pricing with other sources not necessarily other dealers


Variables that Affect # of RO’sA survey of Service Directors and Dealer

principals Revealed II

•Technician Productivity•Service advisor efficiency•Efficient accurate marketing tools that work for Service Department


We Also asked the same group of people to score the above for most influential to

least and they are as follows

Score of 10 is most influential and below 5 is least

The order in which they were scored follows


•Owner retention- Customer loyalty•What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them•Proper marketing to lost customers•Proper marketing to older cars that are going elsewhere •Efficient accurate marketing tools that work for Service Department•Vehicle population in market•Vehicle sales by that store•Extended hours•Competitive pricing with other sources•Technician Productivity•Service advisor efficiency


•Owner retention- Customer loyalty•What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them

So, the most pressing matter is as we sell cars and those customers usually have to bring the car in,

We are just as quickly losing customers whose cars go out of warranty

The answer to the second point is the crux of the matter!

•What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them


What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them

In order to grow, we must stop the bleedingTo do that

You must find the answer to the above question!


Lack of “timely”communication causes separation


American Management Association Document named the five steps to conflict resolution indicates the following

• Step 1: Identify the source of the conflict.• Step 2: Look beyond the incident.• Step 3: Request solutions.• Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support.• Step 5: Agreement.

All of the above has to initiate first with “Communication”


SOIf you want to know why

What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them

Start by opening the lines of true dialogue and communication with your customers


•Proper marketing to lost customers•Proper marketing to older cars that are going elsewhere

Both of above again point to the lack of communicationBut Once you have communication under control then

the above become very importantEssentially You lost them but how do you bring them back



Solution to this initiates with •Who are the lost customers•Why did they leave•What specific services had we provided them

SoWe must build a database of the above that is comprehensive and usable.

AndA system that can handle this data



Once you have your databaseYou must make sure its accurate

AndHave standards for your marketing

Such as •Never send reminders to a customer concerning a car already traded in at your own dealership•Do not initiate communication with greeting “Dear valued customer” if he is so valued how come you don’t know his name?•Do not call them by first name if the signature at the bottom has full name and title!


•Efficient accurate marketing tools that work for Service Department, Now that is a tough nut to crack!


•Efficient accurate marketing tools that work for Service Department, Now that is a tough nut to crack!

As most database management tools such as CRM are sales focused and cleanliness of data becomes

highly crucial in the service department communications.


•Vehicle population in market

Although this is a great factor in the number of repairs you might have, it is hardly anything that the dealership could affect, other than selling more and

more and moreWhich most are doing!

But the customers are still not coming in!


•Vehicle sales by that store

Well you might say that this is hardly anything Service Department can affect!The answer is Yes Indeed IT IS!

Service Department is where more relations are built or destroyed than anywhere else in an automobile

dealership!They might love buying the car experience but never

buy another car from that dealership after their dismal service experience!


•Communicate with customers every single time after every single transaction•Make it your mission to work hard to assure lines of communication are open•Make it your mission that more than one person “touches” the customer•Make it your mission to watch your reputation scores and drive attention to it•Test systems used at your dealership YOURSELF see how user friendly they are


•Call your dealership leave messages for your employees and see “how easy” it is to get response•Set service appointments on line and see how many clicks it takes•Your OEM might force you to use something, but if it adversely affects your business, you do not have to adhere!


•Extended hours•Competitive pricing with other sources•Consumer “friendliness” in all aspects of doing business with your company!

Obviously if your service department is not open when people need you and can come for service, they will take their cars elsewhere. Remember most

successful companies work on projects that makes lives of others easier and not necessarily one that is convenient for them or their employees.

So, one easy place to make a difference is extending your hours to comply with times people can easily bring their cars in!

Another is to have highly competitive pricing not necessarily comparing your department with other dealers but other independent service companies.

Don’t ask your 20 Group what their prices are, look around your city! Install systems that make life easy!


•Technician Productivity

5 Factors That Affect Your Employee’s Productivity National Business Research Institute

Attitude Is Everything: Happy employees are productive employees. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a consulting firm to figure that one out. Negative attitudes

can torpedo employee productivity much faster than nonstop basketball being streamed over the Web.”An employee with a positive attitude usually enjoys the work that they do and feels empowered and recognized for their contributions,” said Henning. “An employee that is complacent and does not really enjoy their

work, but is simply there for a paycheck usually does not produce at a high level, develops a bad attitude and generally drags a team down.”




Boss Is the Barrier: How can you improve employee productivity when the boss stinks? A recent poll found that, among other things, an employee’s

productivity is determined by their relationship with their immediate supervisor. When the bad boss fails to keep promises, never gives credit when

due, makes negative comments, or blames others for their mistakes, the productivity level of their employees is significantly impacted.”A poor

supervisor is definitely the No. 1 factor that causes low productivity,” said Barry L. Brown, President of a Florida-based consulting group. “It’s been my

experience that a good supervisor will motivate, inspire, encourage and reward good performance. Poor management , of course, is just the opposite,

only in multiples. Employees who do not have a direct connection with the company begin to lose all the reasons for wanting to do that little bit extra

and take the additional time to make something right.”

https://www.nbrii.com/blog/what-is-killing-employee-productivity/

https://www.nbrii.com/blog/what-could-ineffective-middle-management-cost-your-company/




Productivity: In Sickness and in Health: Health concerns, naturally, are a big drain on an employee’s ability to be productive, and companies know it. At the SHRM

Conference and Exposition last June in Washington, D.C., a survey showed that 85 percent of U.S. employers said they were interested in services to increase employee productivity, minimize absences and enhance the health of their

employees. Estimates show that 18 to 20 million American adults age 19 to 64 are not working due to a disability or chronic disease, or are not working

because of health reasons. Roughly 69 million workers reported missing days due to illness last year, for a total of 407 million days of lost time at work.




It’s the Tech Tools, Stupid: All the feel-good, psychological methods of improving employee productivity are great, but they’re useless without the right tools. And

the right tools mean the right technology. For an employee to be efficient and productive in today’s job environment means equipping employees with the right

gear. Companies that don’t upgrade or ignore the necessity for tech tools like PCs, Blackberries, cell phones and other 21st century software tools, run the risk of diminished employee productivity. Intel, the world’s largest semi-conductor

maker, found that wireless notebook PC users increased their productivity by 100 hours per year. They studied the work habits and productivity of more than 100 Intel employees who were upgraded to wireless notebooks and found a gain of

more than two hours per week, more than paying for the cost of the upgrades in the first year. They also found that when workers were able to control more of

their time, that productivity increased as well.




Downsizing and Outsourcing Morale Ever vigilant of saving a buck and satisfying Wall Street, corporate America has turned to cutting corners by downsizing and

outsourcing. Simply put, downsizing expensive labor while outsourcing a cheaper version. For employees remaining in those offices and factories, their morale and

motivation can take a big hit. Translation: Will the moves to save money be contradicted by a loss in productivity from disgruntled employees? In most cases,

employers fail to recognize that if they downsize or outsource, they need to provide support to the employees that remain. The psychological impact on

employees can directly impact productivity, forcing many to focus on their second careers instead of the job at hand.


•Service advisor efficiency•Research conducted by Automotive management network indicates the following!

1. Number of repair orders written per day2. Quality of the information captured on the RO3. Understanding shop loading a. Communicating the readiness time from a place of knowledge, 4. Revenue generated a. Total revenue per day b. Understanding the types of repairs that generate more revenue c. Revenue generated from jobs containing more customer pay5. Most importantly consumer satisfaction!Remember previous discussions you cannot grow the department without stopping the bleeding! They leave if they are not happy!


•Service advisor efficiency

1. Number of repair orders written per dayI am not sure that this is a factor that could calculate advisor

efficiency, unless he actually turns people coming to service away.

As if service advisor could actually single handedly affect the number of RO’s solving the problem that this workshop is

tackling would be easy!



2. Quality of the information captured on the ROThis is extremely important as sloppy data collection leads to a

great deal of double work and time wasted.Solid training and use of systems that force clean data entry

will be of tremendous value here.For example, customers a great deal of time like to

communicated via text, getting the cell # and their consent to receive text is of outmost importance in both time saving and

customer satisfaction



3. Understanding shop loading Communicating the readiness time from a place of knowledge

Telling customer what they want to hear, can be a major problem. The advisor has to have tools at his disposal that enables him to

communicate accurate ready time and have access to proper shop loading tools that does not allow him to possibly promise wrong

completion time.This again plays into the reason there is customer bleeding in

service!



4. Revenue generate•Total revenue per day•Understanding the types of repairs that generate more revenue•Revenue generated from jobs containing more customer pay



5. Most importantly consumer satisfaction!This simple statement is by far the most important as it should be

the total focus of the whole department!Satisfied customer stays

AndDissatisfied Leaves


Recap!•Owner retention- Customer loyalty. As “retained owner base grows so does #RO”•What causes them to be loyal and why are we losing them “Communicate”•Proper marketing to lost customers “Communicate”•Proper marketing to older cars that are going elsewhere “Relevant proper marketing tools”•Efficient accurate marketing tools that work for Service Department•Vehicle population in market “Keep on selling”•Vehicle sales by that store “Keep on selling”•Extended hours “Must Happen”•Competitive pricing with other sources “That fits your business and area”•Technician Productivity “ Very important should be addressed”•Service advisor efficiency “ Very important should be addressed”


Service Parts and Maintenance DepartmentA

Highly lucrative and complex environmentThat

Should and can deliver monthly “recurring” revenue each and every month

And Support the total cost of operation of that

company and deliver profit!This is the definition of the Service Department of

millennium!


How do we get to the above?Set your expectations right, if the previous slide

describes what you wish your Service Department to be, then you have your work cut out for you.

It will begin like drinking from a fire hose,But first break the issue to its simplest component

and address each separately.Remember

Not two departments are identical and for that matter you do not want it to be!


Have the courage to think outside the box and affect change


The book “How to Fly a Horse”Has a great quote

Think like a beginner!“Beginners mind is not the mind of a beginner but the mind of the master. It is an attention

beyond the selection and blindness of expertise, one that notices everything without assumption.”


How many RO’s do you want?How much revenue you want to generate

$$$

Is the very wrong place to startThe driving question to success in this business is How many loyal happy customers do you want to

haveOnce you decide that and drive for it, the rest will

happen!

CONTACT INFO

Full Name: Saphura Safavi Long

Company: Gratis Technologies

Job Title: CEO/ President

Email: [email protected]

Share an important takeaway you received from this sessionusing hashtag #DD19 for a chance to win an iPad

saphura safavi long| gratis technologies president| [email protected] service drive technology...

Documents

gratis technologies

dealerssaphura safavi

day fixed department

fixed results

term fixed operations

number of rossaphura

day department

auto dealer