By Leonard Buchholz

Every year about this time we begin to contemplate. What was our final score for 2012? How did we end up? Did we just SURVIVE or did we THRIVE?

For most of you, that reality was written months ago and on the 10^th of January you’ll be reading the results you already suspect.

You may even be feeling some anticipation (much like a kid on Christmas morning).

For those of you who spent more time…

Lost Sales and Declined Services Customers are in many Dealerships, the largest untapped source of additional revenue. And in most cases, the Sales has been lost because of a few words and not a few dollars.

Advisors…

Clearly there is a huge gap between what "we" (old school) managers and Leaders consider useful and proper communication, motivation and Leadership techniques and what the "new" generation responds to.

There is a choice to be made.

A. Keep doing what you've been doing and keep getting the same results while expecting a different outcome.

B. Do something…

That's right! There are 3 Personal Components you need to have to Succeed in the Car Biz!

ATTITUDE, SKILL SET and KNOWLEDGE!

A strong Attitude will get you through the day even though you may feel like giving up. Attitude smooths out the ups and…

Most consumers have lumped "service", whether you are a dealer or an independent repair facility, as a commodity. Which means you compete in a market with everyone else even though the market is not a level playing field.…

Don’t you think there is too much waiting going on? I don’t mean the kind of waiting we do for a burger at the local drive thru or waiting for the mail to arrive.

And it’s not the other kind of waiting we do these days “plugged in” as we are.

Heck, we all know that in this “electronic” age, society is way too fast and by being so, has turned us into petulant…

It’s been 60 days.

You had every intention of making changes and doing something different. You had all of the information gathered and catalogued. You even made a list of all of the Managers and their responsibilities and revised their Goals based on the information and training you were about to provide them.

You were ready for Success! You had new expectations! You were ready to accomplish new Goals!

You were ready to reap the benefits of attending the NADA…

A dog and a cat were recently having a conversation about how each other looks at the world.

They had been friends a long time and the dog had recently been promoted to the title of Service Manager of his Dealership. The cat had stopped by for a visit and to congratulate her friend on his recent promotion. And, as Managers are prone to do, they began to discuss how each run…

Nearly every week someone says "What's new?" in the Fixed Ops Training world as if there is something wrong with what works.

And every week, the answer is the same. When it comes to Fixed Ops Training, Coaching and Mentoring..."Not much."

Oh to be sure, there are "new" things in Fixed Ops every day.

There are at least a zillion ways to keep in contact with the Customer. And there must be a bazillion CRM companies that can manage a "lost souls" campaign. And, yes, there…

The world is full of commodities.  Everything from cell phones to toothpaste.  It is the glue that binds all of us together.  We can’t live without them.  Nearly everything we use today is manufactured and produced this way.  In fact, we would collapse as a species if it was not. 

In the past 150 years we have morphed from a “handcrafted” industrial base to “mass…

Professional Service Advisors are Action oriented. They don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what is The Right Thing To Do because they already know what the Right Thing To Do is.

These Advisors have a sense of Empowerment and that leads to Empowered Action.

Empowered Action by definition is when one has the ability to do something with the Customers Best…

What are you paying attention to? 

In case you are new to Fixed Ops, I'll give you a little clue. We are “results driven.”

There is nothing that we do that is not measured, quantified, compared, sifted through, arm chaired, discussed, metered, broken down, dissected, eyeballed or run up the flagpole.

Everything we do is subject to verification. Professionally run Fixed Operation Departments know, live, love this.

And what they pay the most attention to is "The…

By now you have a completed December 2011 Financial. (If you don't, all I can say is WOW)

Look in the box that says "Profit/Loss".

Are you happy with what you see? Would you say that 2011 was a good year an   average year or a "I'm gonna have a stroke!" year?

Whatever your results your EOY(End of the Year) statement is a CTA (Call To Action) for 2012.

Here are 3 Calls To Action you might want to look at if you a looking to KSA in 2012. (You can figure that one…

What would be the one word to describe what a Service Department needs these days to compete?

There are so many to choose from. However, the one word that keeps coming up when I visit Dealerships across the country is adaptability.

The Dealerships that are doing well, adapt to changing market conditions and Customer demands.

Even if this is your first day in a Dealership, you know that the ability to adapt is the key to Exceeding Expectations.

The dictionary tells…

In many Dealerships lack of Profitability in Fixed Operations starts with just 3 processes that are not getting done with every Customer that comes in the door.

Everything starts with building a relationship. It sounds easy, we say it all the time and there is not one Sales book, cd, mp3…course…whatever that does not have some chapter on building relationships.

The Service Department is no different. Studies show that Customers who do not feel taken care of find a reason to do…