Why Creativity Matters To Our Dealerships

Some dealers remain unsure about the value of this product to their used car profitability. This quick read addresses those questions.
Congratulations! You’ve decided to advance your used car business by improving its reconditioning efficiencies through automation.
Now what?
Few people like change, and a shift in daily habits the least, so include your team in your planning:
As a dealership software system, reconditioning workflow makes conditioning used cars for resale more streamlined, orderly, measurable, and precisely more profitable.
By working together to build advanced reconditioning, your team will increase inventory turn, reduce costs, and get cars ready to sell faster so you can extend a better buying experience to your customers.
Dedicated recon teams always win the reconditioning production and performance race. And centralized recon centers almost consistently outperform recon operations having to operate out of the service department.
A dedicated recon staff entails technicians, detailers, an advisor, one or more porter, and a reconditioning manager, all who are focused on this task. A process-oriented advisor will work better in this environment than a customer-focused advisor taken from the service lane.
If creating a dedicated team and location is out of the question, then at a minimum, assign within the main service shop one or more service bays and internal technicians for recon mechanical inspection and repair.
The critical takeaway is you want recon to create its processes specifically to what recon does, instead of adapting the service lane process for internal work.
Related: How to boost your automotive recon process and capitalize on used-car popularity
Furthermore:
As with any software you use, before you use it, you’ll investigate its value to your business, and you’ll involve input from managers and future users in your exploratory meetings.
Advancing a recon operation from a paper- or spreadsheet-based management style to reconditioning software will present its fleeting trials. Managers will expect quick results, and system users may be slow to catch – or they might adapt seemingly overnight — depending on their comfort and experience using computer systems.
Include here the GM and managers of your service, used car, and recon departments. You will also want to include your internal technicians, detailers, vehicle photographers, and parts personnel. An increasing number of dealerships are also involving their sales teams and BDC.
With data compiled from more than 13 million cars having been processed through dealership recon workflow software, our data tells us some interesting information:
By using the performance reports reconditioning automation software makes accessible by mobile or desktop, managers can home in on the people, processes, and performance challenges that may be costing your dealership turn rate, retail margin, and lost opportunities.
With reconditioning automation in place, you will:
If you’re considering reconditioning automation, here are five best practices to understand:
As you explore this automated solution to personnel communications and accountability, vehicle and key tracking, and performance, visit us for more helpful articles and whitepaper downloads.