Written By: Steve Hall
When we ask service managers how important technician efficiency is to profitability, they most often say that “it goes hand-in-hand” or “if they aren’t efficient, you won’t make money.” I agree with their comments, but am constantly amazed with how they quantify “efficient.”
It seems that we have become accustomed to thinking a technician is efficient if they hit our flagged-hours goal for the week. At times this is true. Everyone can have a bad day, or…
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Added by Garry House on April 24, 2013 at 9:36am —
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Written by: Steve Hall
When we ask service managers how important technician efficiency is to profitability, they most often say that “it goes hand-in-hand” or “if they aren’t efficient, you won’t make money.” I agree with their comments, but am constantly amazed with how they quantify “efficient.”
It seems that we have become accustomed to thinking a technician is efficient if they hit our flagged-hours goal for the week. At times this is true. Everyone can…
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Added by Garry House on April 11, 2013 at 3:00pm —
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In my 25+ years in the automotive dealership training and consulting arena, I have been exposed to numerous dealership executives, department managers, and sales and service personnel who felt the need to be “on the job” 60, 70, and, yes, even 80 hours per week. And no matter how much you love the retail business and its diversity, excitement and challenges, that level of time investment in your business career will never allow you to achieve any type of reasonable balance between your…
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Added by Garry House on October 4, 2012 at 2:37pm —
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I’m sure you’ve heard this theme over and over: the automotive retail world we work in today is in continual flux, requiring continual adaptation and an unprecedented acceptance of change. At the beginning of each of our NCM Instituteclasses, we ask the attending dealership executives and department managers, “What is your biggest single challenge?” Although it may not quite come out of their mouths this way, the answer we…
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Added by Garry House on September 20, 2012 at 1:03pm —
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Everyone I talk to seems to have their own conception of what the 80/20 Rule is all about, but very few people in the retail automotive business fully understand its dominant principles and how they should be applied to our business. Nonetheless, I’m a believer that the 80/20 Rule can and should be used by every sensible person in their daily life. The successful utilization of this principle can multiply the profitability of auto dealerships and the effectiveness of any…
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Added by Garry House on September 12, 2012 at 8:58am —
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It’s time for a continuation of the mini case study focused on the objectives established and challenges faced in building processes to develop, measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client automotive dealership group. In our article titled OTDB Measurement and Management – Part Two, published on March 20, 2012, I discussed the structure of the vehicle sales department and the general expectations that we defined and communicated to the members of the sales…
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Added by Garry House on August 30, 2012 at 12:31pm —
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It’s probably because of my college training in industrial engineering, but I’ve always been fascinated and challenged by trying to define any meaningful relationships between “opportunities to do business” (OTDBs) and sales results. After a half-century of experience in the retail automotive business, I’ve concluded that there truly are consequential metrics associated with selling both vehicles and service at an auto dealership.
For instance, do you know how many good vehicle sales…
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Added by Garry House on August 14, 2012 at 6:15pm —
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At last week’s semi-annual meeting of NCM’s divisional directors, 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members a good discussion developed around the topic of Service Advisor Compensation. The common questions that several on our staff were seeking answers for were as follows:
Has there been any significant change in advisor compensation…
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Added by Garry House on August 7, 2012 at 2:44pm —
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Last week I attended NCM’s semi-annual meeting of all its divisional directors, 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members, who, along with our CEO set aside two and a half days to dialogue about what’s happening around the industry and within the company, and how best to address the needs of our clients. As usual, it was a great encounter, with far too much agenda content and discussion for the overall time allotted.
One of the topics that…
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Added by Garry House on July 31, 2012 at 1:23pm —
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I recently had the privilege of teaching our first NCMi class that is totally focused on leadership in automotive dealerships. We began this 1½-day class talking about “employee engagement,” and the general managers attending this session began positively nodding their heads, when I started this discussion with, “Surveys show that…
1. Less than one in four American workers say they work at their full potential.
2. One-half say…
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Added by Garry House on July 12, 2012 at 12:30pm —
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I am again continuing the mini case study focused on the objectives established, and challenges faced, in building processes to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today, my focus is on one of the greatest vehicle sales opportunities that most dealers enjoy, but fail to capitalize on.
At one point during this engagement, I had asked the dealer principal if he was satisfied with the strategies being employed to develop vehicle sales…
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Added by Garry House on July 3, 2012 at 12:40pm —
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We recently completed a regional NCMi® training workshop in Washington, D.C. titled, “How to Make the Phone Ring and the Door Swing in YOUR Used Vehicle Department.” One of the class exercises was for the attendees to complete a checklist to determine if they operated a “World Class” used vehicle department. Following are the questions that resulted in the most productive discussions:
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Added by Garry House on June 27, 2012 at 8:45am —
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A few weeks ago, we published an article titled “Clear Expectations Set the Standard for Dealership Excellence.” In that discussion, I talked mostly about setting expectations. Today I’ll be presenting one of the processes that NCM recommends for managing expectations…the “one-on-one” meeting discipline. Why should we have one-on-one meetings? Because every employee needs and deservesto have quality, individual, interactive…
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Added by Garry House on May 7, 2012 at 5:00pm —
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Over the last ten years, anyone who has not witnessed dramatic changes in the used vehicle arena must have his head in the sand. Why is it then that so many franchised new vehicle dealers have thus far failed to effectively adjust to these changes? So that you understand what I’m talking about, I’ll just mention two of these impactful changes: (1) the growth of the Internet as a marketing source; and, (2) the advantages available through inventory optimization technology. Even the language…
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Added by Garry House on May 7, 2012 at 4:59pm —
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NCM Associates was on hand at NADA 2012 with the express purpose to open a dialogue with attending dealers and managers to listen to their issues, concerns, successes, and desires relative to their automotive dealership operations. It was a great opportunity for us to connect with dealers inside and outside the NCM family and as always, the conversations were compelling in many ways. In particular, one dealer told me about his vision for developing his future leaders, which I found to be…
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Added by Garry House on March 23, 2012 at 8:44am —
2 Comments
Over the last ten years, anyone who has not witnessed dramatic changes in the used vehicle arena must have his head in the sand. Why is it then that so many franchised new vehicle dealers have thus far failed to effectively adjust to these changes? So that you understand what I’m talking about, I’ll just mention two of these impactful changes: (1) the growth of the Internet as a marketing source; and, (2) the advantages available through inventory optimization technology. Even the language…
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Added by Garry House on March 23, 2012 at 8:30am —
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by Kathryn Carlson
Auditing personnel files should be an annual task for the HR Manager or Business Office Manager. It isn’t fun but it is necessary if an employer wants to ensure compliance with record retention regulations. Annual personnel file audits also provide an opportunity to correct any issues prior to an…
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Added by Brian Torrez on January 31, 2012 at 4:51pm —
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Several weeks ago we published an article that discussed the 6 Elements of Effective Accountability Management. The second of these elements, “Clearly Defining and Communicating Your Expectations,” is a critically needed, but rarely well-practiced, discipline within the retail automotive industry. You’ve heard it before: people will rise to the level of performance and/or behavior that is set for them. Mind reading is not a job requirement, in spite of what some dealership managers…
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Added by Garry House on January 27, 2012 at 3:47pm —
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Digital marketing veteran to focus on delivering unbiased actionable business intelligence to Tier 3 retailers
SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 1, 2011 -- DrivingSales announced today that it has acquired consulting, training and research company Revenue Guru. As part of the acquisition, Revenue Guru founder and veteran automotive digital marketing expert…
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Added by Crystal Hartwell on December 1, 2011 at 1:29pm —
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Mike Martinez Joins DMEautomotive as Chief Marketing Officer
Digital Sales and Marketing Veteran to Drive Brand, Marketing and Sales Momentum of Automotive Marketing Leader
Daytona Beach, FL --…
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Added by Crystal Hartwell on October 5, 2011 at 8:50am —
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