Sorting through resumes, you find applicants who show potential. There are some with experience to walk on the job and set your service department ablaze. Others might not have the experience, but you can see the fire within. These are the ones you want on your side.

Everything is great for a time. You’re setting records in sales and in your CSI scores. Then a complaint rolls in, followed by another. Your sales start by stagnating, then slipping. Before long, it’s clear that something isn’t working. There’s a wrench in the gears somewhere.

You can often narrow the problem down to one person or area, and you’re shocked. It’s the person you rested your hat on, the person you hired who showed so much promise. What happened, and where did you go wrong?

It’s Not the Employee’s Fault (At Least, Not Always)

The performance issues can boil down to just one person at times. I know it to be true, because it was me at least a couple times in my career. All the potential in the world and no limits to success seem like a wonderful thing to most people, but it’s not as easy as it seems.

Some team members can be left to their own devices and you’ll watch them flourish. Others require a little guidance to help them keep on the straight and narrow, achieving their full potential in your store. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone worked the same way? But they don’t, so it’s on you as their leader to treat each person as an individual.

What Motivation Can You Provide?

I don’t mean money. The basic idea is you’re paying a fair wage for the role, and it’s not always the driving force. So what methods can you use to motivate your staff? For that, you need to get in touch with each team member individually.

Determine what drives your employee to come to the office every day.

• It might be a passion for cars and a desire to work on the bench one day.
• It might be the drive to become a manager, then general manager, and eventually a dealer principal or owner.
• It might be simply to earn a paycheck and put food on the table.

Knowing why your staff work with you is important to discovering what motivates each one. Once you know this, you can plan out motivational tools.

For the car aficionado, make a reward a visit to an automotive museum or an open shop day to work on their car. For the upward-moving team member, offer management training courses or provide mentorship on your own. For those who come simply for a paycheck, dangle a carrot for a night on the town.

It’s Not Always Your Problem, Either

Not everyone can be motivated to do better; some must be motivated to move out. People will get restless, and turnover is a fact of live in any retail or service industry. Some people might be best getting a change of scenery, and if that’s the case, you can still help. The car industry is smaller than you’d think locally, and you have connections. If you have an employee who isn’t fitting in, offer to help them relocate to another dealership.

I’ve been blessed to have someone do this for me. It’s about actually caring about what’s best for the employee. Ultimately, it benefits your team to pare off a potential disruption. Give an honest reference to the next dealership, otherwise you’re burning bridges.

If getting in touch with your staff individually isn’t a strong point, that’s alright too. What that means is you need to hire accordingly. You should aim for experienced individuals, not someone in who you see potential. If you can’t put in the time for development, you’re going to squander that person’s potential, frustrating both you and them until they move on.