Despite a resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic, the SEMA Show is still slated to go ahead this November in Las Vegas. And in spite of the social distancing and face mask requirements, it’s going to be a booming success yet again. The question you might be asking is, “Why would SEMA be so important that it doesn’t get canceled (yet)?”

The answer is this: 282. More than $282 billion dollars US is spent on automotive aftermarket in North America, and just $16 billion is in e-commerce. And according to Hedges & Company, that portion is growing at 14 to 16 percent annually.  

More than $150 billion is spent out of pocket in North America on aftermarket auto parts, specifically. It’s big business, and accessories are a serious slice of the $150 billion in aftermarket sales pie.

How much of that business are YOU capturing?

Hesitant to Go Aftermarket?

It’s common for dealerships to shy away from aftermarket accessories, and OEMs like to push their own products as add-ons in the service department. However, there’s no comparison for brand name in certain circles. Thule, for example, is easily the most recognized authority in bike carriers, roof racks, and storage. There’s no doubt that WeatherTech made their name on the best floor liners on the market. And for lighting, Hella is the standard.

But dealers steer clear because they’ve had issues in the past. Mostly, they’re warranty issues because a vehicle buyer wasn’t told the accessories weren’t covered under factory warranty, leading to a confrontation. But that’s less of a product problem and more of an education thing.

Why Go Aftermarket?

Plain and simple, there’s big money in aftermarket accessory and parts sales. The margins are often as good or better than OEM parts. With brand name components that are seen as the best in the industry, it makes for an easier sale.

It lets customers ‘build’ a personalized vehicle also, using the parts they would buy after they leave the dealership with a bone-stock vehicle. This is particularly true for truck buyers who want a lift kit, larger wheels, tonneau cover, and any number of trim items. An old SEMA survey showed that the average truck buyer spent $2250 on accessories and equipment and SUV buyers were just a tick over $2000.

The money is there.

Keys to Doing It Well

Some automakers have a decent range of high-quality OE accessories. If that’s the case, use them as much as you can. But when customers opt not to buy accessories, ask yourself if they’re spending a couple grand elsewhere afterward. They likely are. It’s right then that you pivot to the aftermarket gear.

Stock popular aftermarket accessories. You know which parts are selling most often – things like wheels and tires, running boards, floor liners, and such. Have them on hand for fast installation when a customer chooses to go that route. A delay of even a few hours can easily be the difference between a buyer and a shopper.

Offer financing at time of vehicle purchase. There’s usually a bunch of room to finance accessories when you’re setting up the deal in the F&I office. Let customers know that now is the time to buy them and have them installed for a couple of bucks a payment.

Make it everyone’s job. Selling aftermarket parts and accessories isn’t just the parts manager’s responsibility. Salespeople and sales managers should know what’s available and how to sell it. F&I managers should have a product page for adding accessories. And the service team as well, obviously.

Build demo vehicles. Take a popular model and absolutely deck it out in available aftermarket accessories. When a customer decides to buy a similar model, walk around the demo afterward and show them what they could add. And eventually, someone will come along to buy the demo also.

There’s a ton of money on the table with aftermarket parts and accessories. Get after it. You’ll be keeping more of the customer’s purchases in house, and that only serves to reinforce store loyalty.

A quick visit to the dealership for an oil change isn’t exactly the riskiest behavior someone can engage in. The routine procedure should do nothing more than keep the engine running well. But for some dealers, a common service visit can unknowingly expose customers to possible identity theft and fraud.

LifeLock reports that the ever-growing problem of identity theft affects more than 16 million Americans annually. It’s a common problem. And if you’re having trouble figuring out how an oil change and identity theft are connected, consider this scenario.

Jane brings her Dodge Durango into the dealership for routine maintenance. In the Express Lane, the technician prints out a parts request and heads to the parts desk. After grabbing the oil filter and charging out the oil, he heads back to the bay and tosses the parts request into the trash or a stack of scrap paper. All it contains is an RO number, VIN, the customer’s name, and address.

Harmless enough, right?

Someone with bad intentions gets their hands on a stack of these parts requests. Still no big deal since LifeLock says an identity can’t be stolen with just a name and address. But it can be to mine more information.

With a name and address, a fraudster could look up public information that may contain details they need to know to commit identity theft. Examples include phone numbers, marriage and divorce records, education records, employment history, and more. Social media can provide birthdays and employment info in seconds.

That can lead to thousands in legal bills, years of red flags, and untold hours of frustration and tears. All from a scrap piece of paper.

Guard Customer Data

Preventing the potential for customer data getting into the wrong hands is a relatively easy task for the service department. All it requires is putting documents into secure shredding bins rather than the garbage, and securely filing the important docs. Diligence is the tough thing to master.

Everyone handles much of the same information. Invoice reprints, repair orders, estimates, and parts requests all contain enough information to cause issues.

Service advisors must ensure all repair orders are kept securely out of sight during their day and correctly filed with all documents attached after the work is complete.

Cashiers should ensure invoices are kept out of reach and that any reprints or mistakes are disposed of in secure shredding.

Technicians and parts advisors should toss parts requests into secure bins as soon as is feasible.

If it has customer information, it’s sensitive information. If it was your information and you wouldn’t be comfortable having it get out, protect it as if it were your own.

Undoubtedly, most of the population understands that businesses need to adapt to the ‘new normal’ during the COVID-10 recovery. Between plexiglass shields and social distancing stickers on the floor to increased distance between staff members, everything has changed physically. What hasn’t changed is the expectation of service excellence.

Every phone call, every in-person interaction, and every email should be handled with professionalism. It’s more than just being above reproach – the customer’s future business hangs on how your dealership treats them now more than ever before.

How NOT to ‘Help’

Recently, I placed a call to the parts department at a dealership to source a component that’s uncommon but not impossible to find. At every stage, the interaction went sideways.

The first call. When I tried calling for the first time, the dealership didn’t answer the parts line. Voice mail. I left a message.

I then tried two other dealerships with the exact sale result! Messages were left, then I waited. After three hours, no returned calls. I tried again. And again. And again. Finally, after the fifth call, a real live person picked up and asked me to hold. Happy to have a warm body on the other side, I held for seven full minutes.

During the brief discussion about which part I was looking for, there was a bit of static on the line. He said I was breaking up, then after no more than four seconds, he hung up. I was furious. After holding seven minutes, he gives up on the call after four seconds.

In a rage, I called back repeatedly – probably eight to ten times – until someone answered again. Same guy. I politely said, “Sorry, I guess the call got dropped,” while gritting my teeth. He remained oblivious.

I carried on with my explanation for the hard-to-find part. Again, “please hold.” Then, TEN MORE MINUTES ON HOLD LATER, he comes back and says it’s not possible.

I teed off. No need to describe. I found it online and purchased it in minutes.

How It Should Be Done

This is not about me at all. As someone familiar with the auto industry and some of the nuances, I believe I gave the dealer more latitude than a non-associated customer would. At the first point of difficulty, a customer has the ability to defect. I stuck with it.

Weigh in if you think I’m wrong, but I think these are the expectations a customer should reasonably have met.

• A good chance of reaching a live person on the first call. It should be normal practice to pick up every call by the second ring in every department, even parts.
• An efficient callback time. Three hours is too long. One of the voice mail messages actually said “within a business day”. That’s crazy. No one searching for parts is willing to wait 24 hours for a call back. Strive for 30 minutes and no more than an hour. Your customers are shopping elsewhere too.
• More than four seconds to correct a reception issue. A long hold time followed by impatience about reception shows you don’t value their time at all.
• No long holds. It doesn’t matter to the caller what’s happening on the other side. Best practices are much shorter, but always touch base within a minute or so of placing a caller on hold.
• Actually try to help. It’s not always about making this small sale. A customer will come back for a larger order if they feel they will be served well.

Accept this anecdote as a sample of how not to handle a customer who calls into the dealership. This was a parts desk but it could’ve been any department. A frustrated caller could be a loyal customer that’s now going to try a different dealer instead. Provide an exceptional customer service experience every time, whether you’re short-staffed from a pandemic or not, and your customers will keep coming back.

In Mid-March, dealership service departments became like ghost towns with about 80 percent of service business vaporizing. Some dealerships in the country were forced to close their doors and send everyone home until the service departments were deemed essential businesses. Suddenly, the service advisors who had established an incentive-based income could no longer rely on a steady paycheck.

Today, it seems like service departments in most non-hotspot locations are back to work, but it’s not the same as it was before. On average, consumers are spending less per repair order than before and others have taken advantage of new car incentives rather than fix their vehicle. Three metrics that comprise many service advisor pay plans – Effective Labor Rate, Dollars per RO, and RO Count – have been severely impacted.

For a highly commission-based position that’s been impacted by Force Majeur, it doesn’t seem fair to leave service advisor pay plans the same. Some dealers are doing it, though. I’ve heard from dealers that have put their service advisors on interim pay plans with a guarantee during the coronavirus pandemic. But those temporary measures will need a more permanent solution, in time.

Pay Based On Service Quality

Everyone knows that a service advisor’s top job is sales. It shouldn’t be. It should be to provide the customer with excellent service during their visit, and it’s far from that in most stores.

Customers are discerning about where they take their cars for service – as much as they are for where they decide to buy. Rather than continuing to make the service advisor position about sales, make it about relationship building with customers and guaranteeing a repeat visit.

Sales are absolutely necessary and maintaining sales should be a condition of the role. However, incentivizing high CSI scores and loyalty rates would be a better metric for service.

Higher Base

Rather than a minimum wage base plus commission, provide service advisors with a comfortable living wage as their base. When they aren’t scrapping to make ends meet with every dollar they can get out of a customer, it serves to both improve employee morale and customer satisfaction.

I once had a manager tell me, “If I don’t have a complaint once a month from a customer about a service advisor being too aggressive, they aren’t doing their job well.” That should never be the case. It’s borne out of a need to earn more, not serve the customer better. Pay well as a base so customers aren’t getting pressured or oversold.

Incentivize Sales, but Not the Largest Slice of the Pie

Again, it’s a service advisor or consultant position, not a service sales agent. It’s good to incentivize sales at the service desk, but not so much that it makes a significant difference in making a living wage or not.

Make commission or incentives around 20 to 30 percent of a service advisor’s earnings. During COVID-19, your advisors will still have a decent income even while the economy continues to recover. Working hard still has enough incentive to make it worthwhile. But the focus is put on customer service – right where it should be.

As dealership car sales are rebounding, we’re hearing about a V-shaped economic recovery being a possibility. It’s the prediction that as fast and as hard as the American economy dove to historic levels, we could see the same drastic resurrection financially. That appears to be happening in auto retail to some extent.

Used car sales in mid-June are just 6 percent behind the same time frame last year. New car sales have exceeded expectations, according to experts, despite being behind early 2020 projections by about 20 percent.

But here’s the catch: a V-shaped recovery isn’t a clean V shape. It has bumps along the way, and that’s bound to happen when we peak on the tail end. It’s extremely likely that another dip, albeit less dramatic, will happen in the sales department.

What does that have to do with the service department or fixed operations? Everything.

The cold, hard fact is that a dealership is a biosphere. Health comes from symbiotic relationships and any attempt at isolated success is met with failure.

A busy service department in a store that doesn’t sell new cars will eventually slow down. A successful sales department stagnates when other departments aren’t firing on all cylinders. If today’s sales economy is being tuned up, the other departments need to be involved in getting the store running like a well-oiled machine.

The role service plays with the service-to-sales handoff is huge.

What It Should Look Like Now

Customers come through the service department on the daily that are ready to replace their ride. It’s a simple process. The service team member walks with them to the sales department and introduces them to a salesperson or sales manager who talks them through their options.  

Someone in the service department – let’s take a service advisor, for example – isn’t always the best barometer for when someone is ready for a new car. There are opportunities out there to roll new units that will skip past an unknowing service advisor without missing a beat.

Here are opportunities for a service-to-sales handoff.

Older Car Owners

It’s a great time for owners of older cars to buy a new model. Low-interest rates, up to 180 days no payments – now is the time for those able to pull the trigger. People in the service department should always be ready with questions like, “Are you still enjoying your vehicle?” and “Have you considered replacing your car?”

Avoiding expensive repairs is a popular reason for older car owners to change it up. It isn’t usually the new tech or the latest body styles but the promise of reliability.

Cars with Warranty Expiring

A big portion of the American fleet is around the warranty expiration date. We’re talking about cars with 30,000 to 50,000 miles and two to six years of age. These car owners likely still have car payments but aren’t ‘upside down’.

A couple of questions to ask would be, “Have you thought about getting a new car that has a full warranty on it? I bet you’d still be around the same payments.” Or “Have you taken a drive in the new X? You’d be surprised at how well they’ve done with the new features.”

Everyone Else

It’s nearly impossible to exclude anyone as a potential car buyer that the service department could pass over to the sales team. Ads and incentives should be displayed in the service drive. A sign saying to ask an advisor if they’re interested in upgrading is helpful. Literally, it could be anyone that is in the market for a new car.

The service-to-sales handoff is so critical because they are your current and future service customers. What you should be trying to do is renew the customer lifecycle so your service department can have a continued relationship until they’re once again ready to buy another vehicle. Referrals, financing, accessories – these are all reasons to help customers switch into a new car.

Incentivize the process to encourage your service team to engage in handoffs more. It’s a sign of a healthy dealership team when it happens.

New normal, social distancing, quarantine, self-isolation. They’re all terms that everyone hopes to never hear again when we’re through with the COVID-19 pandemic. What the world is slowly realizing is that, no matter how diligent we are right now, it’s going to be years to go back to the way things were, and that’s if they ever do.

Service advisors are dealing with the same clientele today as they were a few months ago. The people are the same but the way they behave has changed. What that means is that the way a service advisor performed their key functions needs to adapt.

Let’s look at the basic roles of a service advisor, what they looked like pre-pandemic, and how they need to adapt for your customers in the coming months and years.

The Greeting

In the past, greeting a customer would have been as simple as opening the car door and shaking hands. A friendly smile and a welcome phrase. Today’s environment doesn’t exactly allow for that.

Customers today will be in two categories: in-person and DOPU (drop-off and pick-up). In-person customers can be similarly greeted to the pre-pandemic style except contactless. When social distancing has relaxed, perhaps an elbow bump will be comfortable. DOPU customers are very different, though. The greeting is still your first impression, but you have to make it over the phone when you reach out to discuss their work order as their car arrives. Friendly, business-like language will be the best way to make that impression.  

The Walkaround

Before the virus, the service advisor would lead the walkaround with the customer in tow or observing from the desk. That’s got to be different now since touching surfaces is taboo.

If your customer is in person, ask for their participation. Can they pull the hood latch for you, turn the wheels to the side, and turn the key in the ignition for the mileage? Having an active participant helps them to see the areas of concern alongside the advisor. If it’s a PODU customer, have the walkaround completed before calling them from the desk so you can review the findings before printing the RO.

At the Desk

Talking face-to-face across the service desk was the norm. Now it’s too close.

Six feet apart makes it a challenge to interact without being awkward at the service desk. Ensure you’re able to still show the customer your actions by turning the screen so you can both see it as best as possible.

The economy is touch-and-go at the moment but continue to sell services as an assumption with the understanding that you might receive a little more pushback. If you have objections, determine if your store’s financing might be a key to getting a yes instead of a no.

As always, get the RO signed. For PODU or contactless ‘signatures’, send the document to your customer and have them reply with ‘I agree’ or something similar.  

The Communication

Communication hasn’t changed. Keep in constant communication throughout the day. It’s one of the most important parts of every visit.

The Cash-Out

At the end of the day, the customer picked up their car from a cashier and the service advisor reviewed what was done at the cashier’s office.

Today, it will probably look a little different. To eliminate too many people sharing a space, the service advisor should have their RO reviewed before the customer sees the cashier. For PODU customers and even in-person customers, reviewing the work over the phone is a great idea. Your store will have payment options worked out for contactless payment and for PODU customers.

The Follow-Up

Just like communication, follow-up is still key. Maybe even more so.

Ask each customer how they found their visit, acknowledging it’s different than their last visit. Ask what could be done better for the process.

No one expects that everything will just magically return to the way it was. As a sales and customer service role wrapped up in one, the service advisor has a leading part in making sure that the service department continues to be a profit center that treats the customers professionally and efficiently.

The pandemic recovery effort has started and states have begun letting their citizens participate in more activities. Traffic has been increasing, and that’s good news for the autobody shop at dealerships. The coronavirus shelter-in-place order in California saved taxpayers around a half-billion dollars due to reduced vehicle collisions, but a good portion of that would have been income for collision repair shops.

The lost income is trying for dealers, even though labor is typically at a reduced rate and parts are negotiated with insurers. But courtesy cars are sitting idle and employees are waiting it out at home. What is usually a department that has steady income has become an expense.

It is, however, an opportunity for dealerships to streamline their autobody shops. A department that often carries high parts inventory and has vehicles packed into a tight lot can now be modified to a lean production process.

Why Switch to Lean Production?

Aside from the pains of physically implementing lean production in the body shop, there are no downsides on the back end. It results in shorter repair times, less inventory to carry, faster repair times, and happier customers.

The challenge, as with everything, is in what is necessary to make it work. These are core tenets of lean production for autobody.

Pre-Inspection

 For vehicles driven in, not towed in, the pre-inspection is an opportunity to take control of the work order and set the tone. Identify the insurance coverage immediately and begin the dialog with the appraiser. Complete a thorough pre-inspection that gives a comprehensive list of parts the repair will require, nothing less. If anything is in question, have an idea of its availability.

Order Parts and Set Appointment

Assuming the normal process is followed to determine who’s paying for what, the next step is to order all the parts. Inventory parts that arrive so it’s easy to find and there isn’t any time wasted searching for missing pieces.

Set the appointment for the repair when everything has arrived and there is time slotted into the shop. Here’s one key for lean production – the vehicle has to hit the shop on schedule or it’s all for naught.

Twice-Daily Meetings

Lean production hinges on the whole team knowing what everyone else is working on, and what’s coming to them next. A quick team meeting needs to be scheduled mid-morning and mid-afternoon so you can put it all on the table. If anyone is falling behind, decide what needs to be done to catch up. Whether it’s the mechanic, prep guy, painter, or assembler, everyone needs to be aware of the shop’s flow.

Accountability

Lean production only works when the whole team has bought into it. Typical body shop employees are 8-to-5, clock-punching staff members, but lean production demands more. It requires accountability, and that’s best done with a reward/consequence strategy.

Every team member must be aware that their job has to be timely but most importantly, flawless. There’s no time for mistakes or paint job redos. When everything is going on schedule, a healthy bonus structure should reward it. When production suffers, the team has to be penalized for the performance. That could be extended hours to catch up or a cut in bonus pay.

Lean production isn’t just about cutting costs or lowering parts inventory, although those are important. Its primary purpose is to give customers back their vehicles restored perfectly to their pre-accident condition and make them completely satisfied. It’s all with the hope that they’ll return for their servicing and their next vehicle.

We’re at the end of May 2020, and the jobless rate in the United States has just surpassed 40 million, or 14.7%. That’s the highest it has been for nearly a century. Americans are in a tough spot, financially, and the uncertainty going forward is a problem that’s almost as significant.

Despite the depressed economy, the retail auto sales business is beginning to make a recovery. New and pre-owned car sales have been restored across most of the states, and new car sales buoyed by aggressive incentives. And although service departments have been open throughout the pandemic for much of the country, joblessness is bound to command a dynamic change.

Unemployment Affects Frequency of Visits

Nationwide, labor rates at dealerships range from an average around $120 per hour to over $200 per hour. When a customer’s service reminder chimes at them as they collect unemployment checks, their internal dialog poses the question, “Can I afford to get my car serviced?”

Unquestionably, there will be a small but significant number of dealership service customers who delay their service visit or choose the low-cost oil change shop down the road rather than the service drive at their selling dealer. They simply can’t afford it – at least, they perceive the premium service option is unaffordable.

How do you combat it? It isn’t easy. To retain those customers as best as possible, a strategy might include lower door rates or a discount for those who can show proof of unemployment. It’s tricky to navigate because you don’t want to further humiliate the customer. It could be a sweeping rate change for a limited time also. Make sure to communicate it through social media and an email campaign, whatever you do.

Customers Keep Cars Longer

When the sentiment in the American economy is apprehensive, car owners tend to hang onto their vehicles longer. COO of CarBrain, Marcin Ladowski, says, “In the beginning stages of reopening the economy, we’ve seen that it’s the affluent car owners that are still buying cars. People who don’t know when their next check is coming have been holding back on a replacement, even if they desperately need a new car.

“What we’re going to find is an American car fleet that’s aging, costing more to service, and in some cases, unsafe to be on the road.”

While it might seem counter-intuitive, service departments need customers to restart the vehicle lifecycle every five to eight years for a profitable department. Encouraging customers with aging vehicles to explore incentives on a new purchase might not help today’s repair bill, but it will help future sustainability.

Lower Value Fleet

For service departments, it can be challenging to achieve targets with aging cars. Owners tend to be frugal, limping their car along and willing to live with annoying conditions rather than fix them. Lower dollars per RO, lower overall GP, and an increase in declined services are possible.

At the service desk, customers should be helped with their older, lower-value cars just like any other customer when there’s no intention to switch cars. Offer services that help ensure longevity and reliability, products that enhance pride of ownership like accessories and detailing, and consider a high-mileage discount as a loyalty program.

After an economic shutdown like the United States is just emerging from, no one really knows what to expect. In the modern era, it’s foreign territory for everyone. It’s largely assumed that for dealerships, the road to recovery will be a steady uphill climb, and the fixed operations departments will be the foundation for profitability in the meantime.

But who actually knows what the service and parts departments will be like during the recovery period? What we know is that customers are fickle. If they aren’t consistently engaged, they soon forget the reasons why they had been loyal. That’s when they start looking for somewhere to service their car that’s closer, safer, more convenient, more upscale, or any other factor.

The coronavirus pandemic recovery is going to claim some of your clients. It’s a sure thing. The question isn’t IF, but HOW MANY. Luckily, the same rings true for every other dealership, so you have an opportunity to impress select new first-time service customers defecting from other stores.

How do you keep them coming back for service? That, in large part, is accomplished at the service desk.

Be A Service Ambassador

Like it or not, service advisors, you are the face of the service department. You’re the mouthpiece, the liaison between the technician and the customer, the conduit between sales and service. You’re a brand ambassador.

Like any diplomat, expectations are high that you’ll keep yourself composed in stressful situations. No matter how many fires are burning behind you, you always smile, greet the customer warmly, and listen intently to what they need.

As a service ambassador, the relationship you build with every client is positively-charged, trustworthy, and personal. This personal touch is what customers will remember and keep them coming back.

Hit the Basics - Hard

In normal times, the basics are important. In critical times, the basics are absolutely essential. Do not give clients a reason to think about defecting to another store. In the basics, you must:

• Accurately write the repair order with sufficient detail.
• Discover the preferred communication method.
• Ensure timelines are being maintained.
• Communicate regularly with each customer.
• Clearly explain required/recommended work, the full cost, and ask for the sale.
• Follow up afterward to ensure customer satisfaction.

Anything less than an excellent job in the basics could increase the customer’s likelihood of looking for another shop.

Exploit the Advantages

Customer retention isn’t only about doing the basics right. All dealerships strive for that same achievement. But each dealership has unique little things they do – as do service advisors – that connect better with the customers.

For a few examples:

• - A loyalty program for high-mileage vehicles can keep your dealership competitively priced and retain the customer-pay work. Think about a scaled discount of 10-20 percent on CP work for vehicles over 60k miles.
• - Become small talk experts. Share photos of your pets or sports heroes, engage about their job as an essential worker. Make a note in the CRM, then recall your conversation on their next visit. You’ll blow their socks off for showing that you care.
• - If the dealership donates to a local charity, food bank, humane society, or any other social cause, mention it! You’ll find many customers prefer to deal with companies that have a social conscience.

Retaining customers is arguably the complete purpose for a service advisor. That’s what generates revenue, receives five-star surveys, and has them coming back for their next vehicle purchase to start the lifecycle all over.

Recently, I posted that dealerships should focus their marketing on the fixed operations department. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, service departments have been the only constant business a dealership could count on, and even that was at a reduced workflow typically. Looking forward to the next three months to a year, putting the service department to the forefront of business is paramount. That’s because service was, is, and will continue to be the linchpin to a dealer’s ability to thrive.

It’s ALL Service Business

All too often, the service department is still thought of as a standalone department with their own customers – that is, unless a salesperson wants to trade up one of their customers that’s in for a service appointment. But what is so quickly forgotten is that virtually every vehicle that comes to the dealership goes through the service department. New cars come off the delivery trucks before getting prepped for the lot. Trade-ins need to be inspected for accurate valuations. Used cars have to be reconditioned prior to showing.

Service managers, you know this. It’s your chosen career to take care of all these vehicles and customers. And in the pandemic recovery, you’re about to be leaned on – heavy.

Crank Out the New Vehicle Prep

For stores that stopped shipment on new car drops, there will be a mad scramble to re-up the inventory levels. It has to be at a feverish pace because sales did not suffer as bad as it was forecasted. For the service department, that means you’re going to be counted on to get them ready for sale.

Pre-delivery inspection, new vehicle prep – whatever you call it, the new car department is looking to you to have their inventory ready for sale. How quickly will depend on the store’s inventory level. If there’s a shortage on the ground, you may need to find a way to get PDI’s done within one to three days of arrival.

Get Used Cars Certified

Any trade-ins that are going to be kept for inventory and any cars purchased from auction should be reconditioned and certified before hitting the used car lot. It doesn’t have a good look when a used car lot has holes plugged with vehicles that need a bunch of work. Since reconditioning used cars can be a process that takes anywhere between hours and weeks, an initial inspection should commence within the first three to five days from arrival.

This might be your practice already, and it’s even more critical is the used car lot is half-empty. Pre-owned demand could soon be much higher as consumers lean away from shared mobility on safety concerns. Keep the low-cost units as trim as possible so there’s still profit left for the used car department.  

Satisfy Your Clients

Through it all, the usual service department customer volume is going to ratchet up to normal – perhaps a little more than before since people haven’t been servicing their cars as much in recent weeks. The reasons why client satisfaction is so important remains the same as always: these will be the customers you’re trying to retain so they’ll buy their next car from your store also.

Stay on top of the service customer workflow. Ensure constant communication and if your store is heavy with sales work, make sure you provide realistic completion times for your customers.