How to have your best year ever!
Being the most profitable service advisor possible is about knowledge and training is the best way to get more knowledge. This podcast discusses several key objectives to make 2019 your best service year ever through evaluating performance metrics and strategic goal setting. By following these four key points, you can make 2019 Your Best Year Ever:
#1 Where are you now?
The staging point for improvement is evaluating your current position. This means valuing operational performance using performance metrics to determine what is working and what needs corrective action. These values should include the previous 12 months performance:
- Number of customers today – adjust up or down to support sales
- Customer labor sales – evaluate hours per order including oil changes; total dollar sales in customer pay
- Labor rate – be at least 90% of your door rate; 95-100% are top performers
- Total sales – include everything from customer pay to warranty
Where do you want to go?
Challenge yourself by setting attainable yet aggressive goals. Every service center is different and goals should be applicable to your operation. Remember to push yourself to achieve higher goals. Don’t overthink; keep it simple and rely on the numbers. Try focusing on a core service like oil change service and then upsell other services from that staging point. A good rule-of-thumb is to set new goals achievable within 90 days. #3 What is holding you back?Ask yourself: Is the answer an excuse or a reason? An excuse must be fixed by the individual and a reason is an operational target. Don’t make excuses; rather, find the reason that numbers are down and/or not meeting expectations.
#4 How to get where How can Training help? Daily Worksheet
The best way to guide improvement is by using a Daily Worksheet. The Daily Worksheet is being proactive with the details of every service that is planned for the day. The Daily Worksheet is a list of the vehicles scheduled for service with their details, such as make, model, year, mileage, age, the time required for service, and recommended maintenance schedule. It is important that the Service Manager has a brief discussion with each service advisor about their upcoming Daily Worksheet before customers start arriving so sales opportunities are known beforehand. The details on the Daily Worksheet act as the staging point for recommending and upselling additional services when the customer arrives. The Daily Worksheet and brief strategy meeting are about being prepared for selling more services through preparedness and a positive attitude about the upcoming day. The Daily Worksheet only requires 2-3 minutes per service advisor once it is up and running but might require a little more time while everyone is getting accustomed to the new process.
Training Opportunities
If you want to improve sales, training is always the best way to achieve sales goals. Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk offers Automotive Service Advisor Training, Webinars, Automotive Service Workshops, and Service Advisor Workshops tailored to meet your specific needs as a service advisor, service manager, service department, service center, and/or dealership.
Based in the USA