My new free eBook, "Winning the Waiting (Room) Game" just came out, and while it's targeted to auto aftermarket/repair shops, I see a lot of similarities for auto dealership waiting areas. Where I worked @ Ford in NorCal, there was no waiting room. There were 2 facing couches outside my office, in the middle of the floor (high traffic), right outside the sales fishbowl. Not the most ideal setup.

So I created this eBook with the auto industry in mind. There are certain things people seem to be happy to wait for: the perfect table at Nobu, Cabbage Patch Dolls, anything Apple releases, the touring company of “Jersey Boys” to hit their local theater. While you can’t ever expect your customers are going to eagerly camp out in front of your auto repair shop’s doors just to get the hottest new oil change supplies, you can make the experience a little better for them by making it as short as possible.

Pay it forward: Everyone’s heard of pizza companies' “30 minutes or it’s free” promise, and now cable companies are getting into the “2 hour window or we’ll pay you $20” game. Make the same offer to your customers and see how much more quickly things get done. Being under the gun can increase your admins or F&I speed, but make sure you help them buy-in to the process (consider operating on both sides of the fence: give customers a gas card when their service times run late, but give your employees a bonus when they get done under the time frame as well).

Master your schedule: This one takes a little bit of time, but the investment pays off. You may feel like an air traffic controller, trying to keep all your employees’ and customers’ preferences in line. Some sales people don’t want to be scheduled for nights, weekends, or holidays, but guess what? That’s when customers may have the most time to check out cars. So you’ll need to check records of when you’ve had the highest sales volume (Friday nights? Sunday afternoons?) and add in appropriate staff. Someone on your workforce will be glad to have the hours, and more people on the lot means fewer minutes in the waiting room.

Call it concierge: Shuttle service is pretty passé these days, almost every dealership and shop has them. You may be surprised what a slight name change does to customer impression. Offer a concierge driving service while customers wait, to areas of interest such as malls, local colleges, airports, restaurants, and tourist attractions. Of course, your drivers can always take customers home and back. Don’t forget to brand your shuttle with the dealership’s logo and website.

Sometimes, there’s just no way to cut down waiting time. Salespeople are backed up, a credit check is running long, your vehicle is in the car wash. So, you need to take a strong, hard look at your waiting room accommodations. Customers may spend the better part of a day in your waiting room – do you want them to go home cramped, bored, and annoyed, or refreshed after an enjoyable escape from the world? You can win the waiting room game, but you can’t win if you don’t play. Download our free e-book, “How to Win the Waiting (Room) Game," and get tips on the best refreshments, activities, and electronics that will make your waiting room truly worth the wait.

My new free eBook, "Winning the Waiting (Room) Game" just came out, and while it's targeted to auto aftermarket/repair shops, I see a lot of similarities for auto dealership waiting areas. Where I worked @ Ford in NorCal, there was no waiting room. There were 2 facing couches outside my office, in the middle of the floor (high traffic), right outside the sales fishbowl. Not the most ideal setup.

So I created this eBook with the auto industry in mind. There are certain things people seem to be happy to wait for: the perfect table at Nobu, Cabbage Patch Dolls, anything Apple releases, the touring company of “Jersey Boys” to hit their local theater. While you can’t ever expect your customers are going to eagerly camp out in front of your auto repair shop’s doors just to get the hottest new oil change supplies, you can make the experience a little better for them by making it as short as possible.

Pay it forward: Everyone’s heard of pizza companies' “30 minutes or it’s free” promise, and now cable companies are getting into the “2 hour window or we’ll pay you $20” game. Make the same offer to your customers and see how much more quickly things get done. Being under the gun can increase your admins or F&I speed, but make sure you help them buy-in to the process (consider operating on both sides of the fence: give customers a gas card when their service times run late, but give your employees a bonus when they get done under the time frame as well).

Master your schedule: This one takes a little bit of time, but the investment pays off. You may feel like an air traffic controller, trying to keep all your employees’ and customers’ preferences in line. Some sales people don’t want to be scheduled for nights, weekends, or holidays, but guess what? That’s when customers may have the most time to check out cars. So you’ll need to check records of when you’ve had the highest sales volume (Friday nights? Sunday afternoons?) and add in appropriate staff. Someone on your workforce will be glad to have the hours, and more people on the lot means fewer minutes in the waiting room.

Call it concierge: Shuttle service is pretty passé these days, almost every dealership and shop has them. You may be surprised what a slight name change does to customer impression. Offer a concierge driving service while customers wait, to areas of interest such as malls, local colleges, airports, restaurants, and tourist attractions. Of course, your drivers can always take customers home and back. Don’t forget to brand your shuttle with the dealership’s logo and website.

Sometimes, there’s just no way to cut down waiting time. Salespeople are backed up, a credit check is running long, your vehicle is in the car wash. So, you need to take a strong, hard look at your waiting room accommodations. Customers may spend the better part of a day in your waiting room – do you want them to go home cramped, bored, and annoyed, or refreshed after an enjoyable escape from the world? You can win the waiting room game, but you can’t win if you don’t play. Download our free e-book, “How to Win the Waiting (Room) Game," and get tips on the best refreshments, activities, and electronics that will make your waiting room truly worth the wait.

Hey you! Not to sound like your mom here, but don't slouch! If you've been on your feet all day selling, the last thing you want to do is sit ramrod straight at your desk, right? Whether you're cubicle-jockeying your way through the day's quota or taking a break between sales, there's an important message here. The way you sit can actually affect the way you feel the entire rest of the day.

Sitting is something we take for granted – butt, meet chair – but the way you sit can affect your mood, health, and even outlook every day. It’s even got a fancy name, ergonomics.

What ergonomics isn’t:

• Super confusing
• Expensive
• A disruption of your workday and workflow
• Something that will take away from your current décor or floor plan
• Painful

Mama Said It Best

Go ahead, slouch. It feels soooooooo good. But not to all parts of your body. Your stomach is getting squashed, your neck is overextended, and your spine is totally out of alignment. So all those times that Mom told you to sit up straight, she was right. She was gently prodding you to maintain what the University of California, San Francisco calls a “neutral posture.” Neutral posture is win-win, because you don’t have to exert much effort to maintain it, but it also primes your body so that its organs and structures can perform their functions with the least possible strain.

Two on the Floor

Why is arranging your office chair to enable you to sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor the recommended way of ergonomists? Cross your legs right now and notice how your hips are out of alignment with the rest of your body, and your thighs are squished together, smashing blood flow between the two. One of your shoulders may even be lower than the other. That’s no way to go about the day! Two feet on the floor, suggested by experts such as those at Tennessee Tech University, sets your legs free and puts your body back into that easy but aligned position.

Chin Check

Imagine there’s a laser pointer on your forehead. Now look at your computer monitor. Is the laser beam pointing at an upward angle? Down? Straight in front of you? The University of California, Riverside’s ergonomics experts suggest that your computer screen should sit at a slight downward angle. When it’s up too high, you hold your neck – for 8 or more hours! – at a very straining position. Just for a moment, point your chin up in the air like you’re a seal balancing a ball. (Admit it – sometimes your job tasks make you feel like that trained seal.) While you’d never choose to do this, when your computer is configured that way, your body unfortunately does it gradually, until you’re doing it constantly, under the radar.

Save Money and Yourself

The biggest benefit of office ergonomics may be to your bottom line. While there certainly are products that cater to ergonomic efforts, such as specialty chairs and keyboard wrist rests, you can accomplish quite a lot toward ergonomic success without spending a dime. It’s all in how you configure your existing setup – and yourself! Encourage your fellow employees to do so too, and you may see fewer trips to the doctor, chiropractor, and pharmacist!

So you’ve adjusted your chair, settled your computer monitor, started holding better posture positions and you’re still not feeling tip top? We have some other ideas to soothe your moods. We developed a free soul-nourishing Cookbook eBook, available right here. I created it for office managers (the original target of our educational post), but think you may enjoy it too! Share it with your admins, bring it home to the family, and let me know what you think!

Click the image above, or grab your free cookbook here: http://bit.ly/1fDCdzf

Hey you! Not to sound like your mom here, but don't slouch! If you've been on your feet all day selling, the last thing you want to do is sit ramrod straight at your desk, right? Whether you're cubicle-jockeying your way through the day's quota or taking a break between sales, there's an important message here. The way you sit can actually affect the way you feel the entire rest of the day.

Sitting is something we take for granted – butt, meet chair – but the way you sit can affect your mood, health, and even outlook every day. It’s even got a fancy name, ergonomics.

What ergonomics isn’t:

• Super confusing
• Expensive
• A disruption of your workday and workflow
• Something that will take away from your current décor or floor plan
• Painful

Mama Said It Best

Go ahead, slouch. It feels soooooooo good. But not to all parts of your body. Your stomach is getting squashed, your neck is overextended, and your spine is totally out of alignment. So all those times that Mom told you to sit up straight, she was right. She was gently prodding you to maintain what the University of California, San Francisco calls a “neutral posture.” Neutral posture is win-win, because you don’t have to exert much effort to maintain it, but it also primes your body so that its organs and structures can perform their functions with the least possible strain.

Two on the Floor

Why is arranging your office chair to enable you to sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor the recommended way of ergonomists? Cross your legs right now and notice how your hips are out of alignment with the rest of your body, and your thighs are squished together, smashing blood flow between the two. One of your shoulders may even be lower than the other. That’s no way to go about the day! Two feet on the floor, suggested by experts such as those at Tennessee Tech University, sets your legs free and puts your body back into that easy but aligned position.

Chin Check

Imagine there’s a laser pointer on your forehead. Now look at your computer monitor. Is the laser beam pointing at an upward angle? Down? Straight in front of you? The University of California, Riverside’s ergonomics experts suggest that your computer screen should sit at a slight downward angle. When it’s up too high, you hold your neck – for 8 or more hours! – at a very straining position. Just for a moment, point your chin up in the air like you’re a seal balancing a ball. (Admit it – sometimes your job tasks make you feel like that trained seal.) While you’d never choose to do this, when your computer is configured that way, your body unfortunately does it gradually, until you’re doing it constantly, under the radar.

Save Money and Yourself

The biggest benefit of office ergonomics may be to your bottom line. While there certainly are products that cater to ergonomic efforts, such as specialty chairs and keyboard wrist rests, you can accomplish quite a lot toward ergonomic success without spending a dime. It’s all in how you configure your existing setup – and yourself! Encourage your fellow employees to do so too, and you may see fewer trips to the doctor, chiropractor, and pharmacist!

So you’ve adjusted your chair, settled your computer monitor, started holding better posture positions and you’re still not feeling tip top? We have some other ideas to soothe your moods. We developed a free soul-nourishing Cookbook eBook, available right here. I created it for office managers (the original target of our educational post), but think you may enjoy it too! Share it with your admins, bring it home to the family, and let me know what you think!

Click the image above, or grab your free cookbook here: http://bit.ly/1fDCdzf