In any arena, business or sport, top performers are identified through constant, ongoing performance evaluations. If you can’t evaluate their performance, then how can you identify their status as a top performer?

Service Advisors and Technicians are no different, in the fast-paced world of the Service Drive, lack of performance tracking can definitely impact everyone’s bottom line, and quick!

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to gauge aspects that are crucial to the accomplishment of an organization. KPIs differ per the business goals that are specific to each enterprise. KPIs are applied in business to identify business trends and advise on the best strategic actions.

KPIs are a set of standards to compare actual results against. For Advisors AND Managers, it’s kind of like a “Service Drive Success Gauge”… Ultimately, KPIs help the Service Manager, and the Technicians and Advisors themselves, assess progress towards their shared goals.

So what should we measure and how high should the target be?

Tech and Advisor KPI’s need to be a stretch but still attainable. It is critical that an advisor or Tech can see at any given time, how they are scoring compared to the established standard KPI. Most KPIs are measured on a month by month, month-to-date basis and show what end of the month value the Tech and Advisor is going to attain if they keep the same pace as currently reported. Here are the main Customer Pay metrics for improving Service Department Retail performance.

Service Advisors Retail Performance KPI’s

Repair Orders Written by Advisor and the Department as a whole

The number of Repair orders your advisors write is a data metric that is very revealing for the department as a whole and for your individual Advisors.

Customer Pay Labor per Repair Order

Customer pay labor per repair order is a metric that is likely to be a bit specific to your carline, demographics of your location and a few other factors. Train and counsel Advisors in sales strategies and estimating skills accordingly to improve this metric.

Customer Pay Parts per Repair Order

This metric is also variable according to a few different elements. As a rule, the Parts to Labor ratio should be anywhere from 1:1 up to 1:1.6 in some cases. While it is true the parts follow the labor, there are actions you can take to improve this number and sell parts heavy jobs.

Commodities Sales Per Repair Order as a percentage of repair Orders written.

Tires, brakes, filters and flushes and other commodities as compared to the number of customer pay repair orders written

• To troubleshoot observe if your Advisors are asking for the additional business at Write Up and also when presenting additional service needs
• Equip Advisors and Techs with information on how, what, when and the benefits the customer will receive if the services are performed.
• Make sure your techs are on the same page and recommending based on condition as well as mileage interval.

Multi-point vehicle check-up inspections and postponed services coding results; (how many MPIs and condition codes booked vs. customers waited on)

MultiPoints are related to retail success, the better job we do the more success follows. The bigger picture is, are we leaving money on the table by not inspecting certain cars? Are we really doing an excellent job of offering all legitimate needs to customers and keeping them abreast of the health of their vehicle? This is actually a legal and ethical issue as well, you don’t want a customer to leave your store not knowing of a potential safety concern your thorough inspection would have thwarted.

• Review Repair Orders Daily, coach and counsel individuals as needed. This is such a critical issue consider it being a mandatory and non-negotiable issue.

Use dealership historical data as well as industry and group benchmarks established to establish these targets. Managers should supply their team with up-to-date metrics, in conspicuous places with regular updates. Results should be posted in areas of the dealership that are easily noticed by Advisors. E-mail distribution of KPI performance is another way to keep everyone informed.

The visibility of your metrics scoreboard will strengthen accountability and spawn competitive ambitions amongst your crew. Make sure you include both comments of praise and action items in areas that need attention.

Remember Process = Profit…Yours!