It has always been said that if one thing is consistent in the car business, it is change. Today, there needs to be another word phrase added to that - CSI. We have all known, growing up through the business, that CSI is defined as The Customer Satisfaction Index. Just like the term ‘bumper to bumper’ needed to be removed from our vocabulary, so do those three words. Going forward, it very simply needs to be known as: ‘Customer Supplied Income.’ Every employee in the store needs to know this revised meaning and definition.
It starts with the hiring process. The new hire may be a 25-a-month car guy or a $1,000,000 service writer. If they do not have the internal culture that our store needs, they are just not the fit we are looking for. Do any of the following situations sound familiar?
We have grown to think that we should hire this person with the belief that they will be different or that we can change them. No matter what their past may say or how many dealerships they may have gone through, we hold on to our unlikely belief.
Another false start is when we bring back a ‘retread’ (rehire) thinking that they have changed their known destructive ways of the past. It has not worked for the past 150 years and will not work now.
Don’t lose sight of that answer. This starts with all of us taking ownership of the fact that it starts with the hiring process.
When was the last time that we walked the service drive at 7:00 am? When was the last time we helped on an active delivery in the service drive at 5:30? (Do we even have that process in place to know what one is)?
When was the last time we used the restaurant model: walked around and asked the client how their experience was. Is that a scary thought? Then you may have already figured out your answer.
Put simply, “an expectation” client. No longer can we say that any client “expects too much”, or that they are just “too demanding”. With the labor rates we enforce and the parts metrics we apply, our clients not only demand a higher level of service, they deserve it.
Honestly, clients today may know more about their vehicles than we do. Certainly in the new BEV era, it is very possible that many of our employees have never even taken a test drive in an electric vehicle. For us to expect a client to hand us their keys, spend thousands of dollars, and not even give them the courtesy of a proper write-up, an MPI, and delivery with a follow-up will certainly be the death of any service drive.
Please know: If we don’t it, someone else will.
We need to be 100% committed to and live the culture that “every single employee has the right to remove any obstacle or roadblock when it comes to the client experience.” If there is a process, a person (no sacred cows), or an environment that is preventing a perfect experience for a client, then we need to remove it. We need to have a culture and expectation of zero tolerance. If the dealership has a poor culture, the clients will know. The reputation will proceed.
The first answer is simple: convenience. No matter what kind of establishment or building we create - destination dealerships are becoming few and far between. We need to take a long hard look in the mirror and understand that clients today do not want to come to the stores any longer. They see it as a long, time-consuming process that we have made difficult. And honestly, just not opportune in the eyes of the client.
If pick-up and delivery, mobile service, or finding a way to be on the ‘client’s time’ is not on your calendar, you are already late to the game.
Every person in your Fixed Operations needs to bleed the idea that the client has a choice. If we are not willing to do it, (and by ‘it’, that means whatever it takes), then the client has a choice, and someone else will do it.
If we are not going to answer our phones, schedule when it is convenient for the client’s schedule and not ours and give them the level of service that they expect or there will be no us.
At any time, we need to ask ourselves, “Do our employees have the same ‘ownership focuses’ that we do”? This goes all the way from the detailer in the back, the porter on the drive, and the shuttle driver giving the rides, all the way up to Dealer Principal.
Sometimes there is a square peg in a round hole. And the peg that was once round, may now be square. It is time for a change for the culture of the store.
Shon Kingrey’s first job after the Marine Corp was as a Service Writer in Boone Iowa, where he quickly became a Service Manager and ultimately worked into the role of Fixed Operations Director over multiple locations. After holding a variety of notable positions along the way, Shon, who is an avid Green Bay Packer fan, was recently given the opportunity to return to his roots in the Midwest as the VP of Fixed Operations at the Kayser Automotive Group in Madison Wisconsin. This allowed him to take his 28 year career to the next level of Fixed Operations at a 100 year old family owned dealership group. Shon’s passion and love for his Teammates, process, and structure within Fixed Ops shows everyday.
