On May 8th of this year I published an Up to Speed article titled “Did You Ever Look at Your Service Gross Potential THIS Way” In that article I stated that NCM Institute…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on December 6, 2012 at 10:30am — No Comments
For me, it changes as time goes on. The love for my occupation get's me fired up!
Big motivators for me are looking forward to an upcoming concert, the changing of the leaves, a sporting event on TV and playing with my dogs. What gets you fired up each day?
…
ContinueAdded by Jeff Cowan on September 27, 2012 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment
Whenever I ask this question, I’m usually very disappointed with the answers that I receive. This past week, when I queried a group enrolled in the NCM Institute's regional Service Management training class in Charlotte, NC, only 20% responded with a “Yes.” My disappointment continues, and…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on September 18, 2012 at 12:48pm — No Comments
Good morning Dealer Elite Members,
As I travel around North America I have found that dealership staff like customers are convinced that servicing their vehicles at a dealership is more expensive than Hans and Franz, Jiffy lube etc.
The competition has not only convinced our customers they have convinced our staff that we are no longer competitive in the market. This is a huge problem and needs to be dealt with.
Step…
ContinueAdded by Ian Nethercott on September 18, 2012 at 8:31am — No Comments
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…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on September 12, 2012 at 8:58am — No Comments
As each customer walks into a showroom, salesperson’s heads immediately go to the door. Their heads start spinning and kicking into “sales mode”. Maybe they have a pre-loaded script in their heads of what they say. Maybe they fly by the seat of their pants. The end goal is always the same; to sell the customer a car.
With all of the different ways to interact…
ContinueAdded by Katie Colihan on August 21, 2012 at 2:41pm — 1 Comment
Many times, many of your in store problems can be fixed by doing one simple thing. Change the culture of the store with the customers and with the employees,
I worked at a large Jeep stored that gave out a loaner car for every customer that came into service for anything including an oil change. Meanwhile we had a shuttle van that was used more as a parts van than a shuttle. I noticed many of the loaner invoices showed car being brought back with 10 miles or less on them. At the time,…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on August 17, 2012 at 7:56am — No Comments
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…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on August 14, 2012 at 6:15pm — No Comments
Throughout my 40+ years in the automotive business, I always thought there would come a time when I would leave and take a 9am - 5pm job with holidays, multiple weeks of paid vacations and other normal job aspects. It never happened. No matter how bad of a day I might have had, I always found myself driving home thinking to myself ow much I loved this business.
In my years as a mechanic, I love fixing cars. As I rose through management I loved fixing problems with customers,…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on August 10, 2012 at 8:05am — No Comments
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…
Added by Garry House on August 7, 2012 at 2:44pm — 2 Comments
Like buying a car, your customer has a choice when it comes to service. Your odds of winning that business dramatically increase, if you are on the phone with your customer, at the point the need for service is created. AutoMBrace was created to fill this void.. Contact us through Dealer Elite.
Fewer cars, lower margins – AutoMBrace understands that the dealerships profits come from the service department. Service revenue depends on selling service to your customers and,…
ContinueAdded by Bob MacMinn on August 2, 2012 at 12:31pm — No Comments
Those words were actually said to me but I'll get to that in a little bit.
Well the dog days of summer are upon us. The showrooms are filled to capacity and your next available service appointment is in two weeks! Every marketing piece you've done has been a home run. Your biggest problem is where to park all these customer cars and all the managers can think of is how sweet their commissions are going to be. Some are even thinking that, at this rate, I can retire in a couple of…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on July 26, 2012 at 11:47am — No Comments
Recently, Chrysler announced that they reached their goal of having 80% of their stores opened on Saturday. In the pre-Fiat days, the number was closer to 60%! How exciting! What are the other 20% of their stores doing being closed? How can you NOT open your service department at all on Saturday? Even if they are there to support the sales department, they need to be open. Unless of course you have a CBA saying you must be closed which, in that case, the person who negotiated the contract,…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on July 25, 2012 at 1:40pm — No Comments
Back in the 1970's, I cut my teeth in the car business pumping gas and being a mechanics (yes we were called mechanics then) helper. I learned quite a bit and it set the foundation for a wonderful career in the automotive industry.
One of my early lessons in customer service was provided by my old boss. Our oil change cost $9.95. A quart of oil cost about $1.10 back then. The store I worked at was an Exxon franchise. Now our customer could go into the chain supermarket right next…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on July 24, 2012 at 6:18am — No Comments
The #1 thing that drove me crazy in stores were the phones. I would spend days, weeks, months, planning a marketing strategy to make our phone rings and then I would end up answering most calls myself, setting up appointments, and answering status calls(my least favorite call to get!).
I've watched service advisors look at their ringing phones and NOT answer it. When I saw that, it required, what I called, an immediate training session with the advisor. As like most of you who…
ContinueAdded by Jim Mahoney on July 23, 2012 at 6:00am — No Comments
Wow, that’s a lot of acronyms, but you know what they all mean, right? Following are four recommendations from John Gilbert, the Fixed Operations specialist with NCM’s Retail Operations division. To increase your effective labor rate (ELR), reduce your cost of sale (COS), and improve your gross profit margin (GPM) on customer-paid repair order (R.O.) sales:
Check…
Added by Garry House on July 10, 2012 at 10:00am — 1 Comment
Added by Ian Nethercott on July 9, 2012 at 9:55am — No Comments
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…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on July 3, 2012 at 12:40pm — No Comments
When I was teaching the Sonic Dealer Academy from 2001 through 2008, my co-instructor, Steve Hallock, became famous for asking each class why they thought we spend so much time talking about the service department. He would explain that it’s because, at a 75% gross profit margin on labor sales, the service department offers, by far, the greatest incentive to increase sales. "So why bother?" Steve would ask. "Because it’s only75…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on June 28, 2012 at 5:30pm — 4 Comments
The NCMi faculty members and the NCM Retail Operations field consultants have learned that managers who effectively manage the elements of “controllable profitability” within their respective operating departments normally produce a significant departmental net profit. This, of course, assumes that the majority of dealership expenses (limited-control and fixed) are fairly distributed to each operating department.
Many managers, however, lack the proper focus on controllable…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on June 27, 2012 at 8:30am — No Comments
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