I know the industry standard for getting a used vehicle through the reconditioning process is 4 days or less. We have consistantly averaged 8-9 days for the past who knows how long. We have met with and begged the service department for a long time to fix the issue and get our vehicles through the shop faster. So far, no luck.

I'm curious to know if there are other dealers that have successfully got this number down to 4 or less days. Or do most dealers even track and hold their service department accountable?

Just to make sure we are comparing apples to apples in terms of volume, we retail an average of about 90 retail deals per month. We currently have 2 full time detailers, 1 full time tech (part of our problem) and sometimes the divvy up his work when he's really behind, and 1 internal service writer that acts as the middleman between us and service. It's also worth mentioning that we recondition to a very high standard so that may be causing to the higher average days.

Let me know how you got it done. Change in pay plans? More techs?

I know the industry standard for getting a used vehicle through the reconditioning process is 4 days or less. We have consistantly averaged 8-9 days for the past who knows how long. We have met with and begged the service department for a long time to fix the issue and get our vehicles through the shop faster. So far, no luck.

I'm curious to know if there are other dealers that have successfully got this number down to 4 or less days. Or do most dealers even track and hold their service department accountable?

Just to make sure we are comparing apples to apples in terms of volume, we retail an average of about 90 retail deals per month. We currently have 2 full time detailers, 1 full time tech (part of our problem) and sometimes the divvy up his work when he's really behind, and 1 internal service writer that acts as the middleman between us and service. It's also worth mentioning that we recondition to a very high standard so that may be causing to the higher average days.

Let me know how you got it done. Change in pay plans? More techs?

Just like most dealers at this time of the year, we are short on salespeople and we need to start ramping up for the spring and summer months. We were already a bit understaffed last month and I just lost 2 more in the last week (one quit and one was promoted).

We usually don't have that hard of a time getting qualified applicants but it has been more challenging this time. We typically just run an ad or two and offer a $500 recruiting bonus to our staff for bringing somebody on board. It has always worked in the past but we aren't getting that much action this time around.

Just wondering if anyone has something new that I can try that has proven to be effective? I'm open to trying something new in order to get the right guys in place. Any recommendations?

Just like most dealers at this time of the year, we are short on salespeople and we need to start ramping up for the spring and summer months. We were already a bit understaffed last month and I just lost 2 more in the last week (one quit and one was promoted).

We usually don't have that hard of a time getting qualified applicants but it has been more challenging this time. We typically just run an ad or two and offer a $500 recruiting bonus to our staff for bringing somebody on board. It has always worked in the past but we aren't getting that much action this time around.

Just wondering if anyone has something new that I can try that has proven to be effective? I'm open to trying something new in order to get the right guys in place. Any recommendations?

We have had some issues lately with out of state deals when it comes to taking care of their licensing and registration fees. We have had several customers either assume or claim that someone told them that we were going to pay for all of their licensing and registration fees. As you guys know, the customer usually wins and we had to pay for their fees that weren't set up in the deal as a result of the miscommunication.

I would assume most dealers handle out of state deals the same way that we do. We account for the sales tax in the deal and send that money to the dmv of the state where the customer lives. We do our best to explain that the taxes are going to be handled but they need to take care of their state fees when they go to the dmv and register the vehicle.

Because we keep getting put together lately, I was thinking that we need to put together an addendum or something for the customer to sign that states the customer is responsible for taking care of their state fees when they register the car. I figure by having that separate contract, we could avoid any future problems. So... Does anyone have a similar contract that they use at their dealership? Does it work? If you have something in line with what I'm planning on putting together, is there any way you could email what you use to me to give me some ideas of what to put on it? Any input would be much appreciated. My email is bgibby@henrydayford.com.

We have had some issues lately with out of state deals when it comes to taking care of their licensing and registration fees. We have had several customers either assume or claim that someone told them that we were going to pay for all of their licensing and registration fees. As you guys know, the customer usually wins and we had to pay for their fees that weren't set up in the deal as a result of the miscommunication.

I would assume most dealers handle out of state deals the same way that we do. We account for the sales tax in the deal and send that money to the dmv of the state where the customer lives. We do our best to explain that the taxes are going to be handled but they need to take care of their state fees when they go to the dmv and register the vehicle.

Because we keep getting put together lately, I was thinking that we need to put together an addendum or something for the customer to sign that states the customer is responsible for taking care of their state fees when they register the car. I figure by having that separate contract, we could avoid any future problems. So... Does anyone have a similar contract that they use at their dealership? Does it work? If you have something in line with what I'm planning on putting together, is there any way you could email what you use to me to give me some ideas of what to put on it? Any input would be much appreciated. My email is bgibby@henrydayford.com.

The owner of our store recently bought a house and used a company called DocuSign when he signed several of the documents during the process of the transaction. He was so impressed with how convenient the singing went that he is insisting we get signed up with them.

I looked into the comany and signed up for a free 14 day trial. I did a practice run and I've gotta say it seems like a really cool tool. The only issue is that I am trying to figure out what forms I can use and at what points it will be beneficial to use them. If financing is being done on the car deal, I'm sure that banks wont accept signatures from Docusign on the contracts that they require.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there that uses Docusign at their dealership? If so, what forms do you guys use it for and in what circumstance?

The owner of our store recently bought a house and used a company called DocuSign when he signed several of the documents during the process of the transaction. He was so impressed with how convenient the singing went that he is insisting we get signed up with them.

I looked into the comany and signed up for a free 14 day trial. I did a practice run and I've gotta say it seems like a really cool tool. The only issue is that I am trying to figure out what forms I can use and at what points it will be beneficial to use them. If financing is being done on the car deal, I'm sure that banks wont accept signatures from Docusign on the contracts that they require.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there that uses Docusign at their dealership? If so, what forms do you guys use it for and in what circumstance?

     I consider our accessories department a necessary evil at our dealership because I know we can’t do without it and I know we can’t get rid of it due to the fact they generate extra profit for the dealership.  With all that said, I would still love to get rid of it!

      As a sales manager, I get paid on the front and back end profit of each deal. I don’t get paid a dime on what the accessories department does. My main complaint is our accessories manager gets a chance to sell his crap before the customer gets into the finance office and sometimes the accessories that are included into the financing make it to where our finance managers can’t be as profitable as we need them to be. I find that I am purposely sabotaging the accessories manager’s opportunity to sell product by lying to him and telling him the deal is maxed out. I do that so our finance department has more than enough room to sell their back end products and still have a buyable deal with the banks.  My other complaint is he is constantly pissing off our customers and tanking my salesguys’ surveys.

      Anyway, the point of all this is that I think there has to be a better way to set this up to where I don’t hate dealing the accessories department.  I get the argument that he needs to talk to the customer before they go into the finance office so the accessories can be put into the financing but that is the part that bugs me the most.  Maybe the solution is to make it where salespeople and sales managers get paid extra on deals where accessories are sold. Or maybe there is an alternate way to get the accessories financed. Who knows! Any ideas you guys have would be great because I’m sure that they are better than the current process that we have!

     I consider our accessories department a necessary evil at our dealership because I know we can’t do without it and I know we can’t get rid of it due to the fact they generate extra profit for the dealership.  With all that said, I would still love to get rid of it!

      As a sales manager, I get paid on the front and back end profit of each deal. I don’t get paid a dime on what the accessories department does. My main complaint is our accessories manager gets a chance to sell his crap before the customer gets into the finance office and sometimes the accessories that are included into the financing make it to where our finance managers can’t be as profitable as we need them to be. I find that I am purposely sabotaging the accessories manager’s opportunity to sell product by lying to him and telling him the deal is maxed out. I do that so our finance department has more than enough room to sell their back end products and still have a buyable deal with the banks.  My other complaint is he is constantly pissing off our customers and tanking my salesguys’ surveys.

      Anyway, the point of all this is that I think there has to be a better way to set this up to where I don’t hate dealing the accessories department.  I get the argument that he needs to talk to the customer before they go into the finance office so the accessories can be put into the financing but that is the part that bugs me the most.  Maybe the solution is to make it where salespeople and sales managers get paid extra on deals where accessories are sold. Or maybe there is an alternate way to get the accessories financed. Who knows! Any ideas you guys have would be great because I’m sure that they are better than the current process that we have!