Putting the "E" in rEvolution for fixed ops

In the past 30 years there has been a lot of innovations in the service department. No one disputes the fact that electronic technology and communications have revolutionized the fixed operations of a dealership.

But do you know where there has not been a revolution?

In training, coaching, monitoring your service team.

The service department still runs on the personal relationship you build with your customers. Every person coming into the service drive is an opportunity to develop a lasting and deep connection that will sustain a business through good times and bad

We train on the service sales process; we coach on the application of that service sales process and we monitor performance to correct and encourage optimum results. Right?

If we concentrate on making sure that our personnel are the best trained, the best coached people in the business, what’s left to help them improve? Where can you adjust? How do you make the service sales process faster, easier and better?

By providing them the best tools on the market to help them do their jobs. Which of course, takes us right back to electronic technology and communications. If there is no substitute for building a personal connection and lasting relationship with our customer, how has this technology and communications revolutionized our business?

Let’s take a quick trip back in time. 20-30 years ago, phones on your desk became cell phones in your hand. 10 -15 years ago, those same cell phones became smart phones with more computing power than what the astronauts used to land on the moon.

Along the way, our expectations have risen. Basically, we like things to be done as fast as possible with as much information as possible with as little inconvenience as possible. You could say we’ve spoiled ourselves.

And the dealership service department must keep pace with those expectations if they are going to compete in the market against the thousands and thousands of aftermarket repair facilities who are also competing for the same customer.

Which means, if I train, coach and monitor my team, and I’ve done as much as I can to increase performance, I’ve got to have a better set of tools. Enter electronic technology and communications.

30 years ago, if you had said to me that a device the size of a deck of cards will impact your service sales in ways you can’t imagine, I might have been a little skeptical. Who wouldn’t be? At that time computers the size of small refrigerators and DMS systems dominated the landscape of the modern service drive.

But look at us now.

Information is now the driving force of “good service” and you can not exist without it.

If information is still in the driver’s seat, then technology and communications became the engine and transmission. Your ability to deliver accurate, visually enhanced information as fast as possible, will determine whether your dealership fixed operations department will be profitable. Or not.

Just like computers morphed into smart phones, the service department communications will morph from handwritten MPI’s with in person delivery to electronic, visually enhanced MPI's with electronic delivery. And if you are not doing it now, you will be in the future, because everybody else will be doing it.

The days of a greasy, crumpled oil stained piece of paper with un-decipherable gibberish written on the front, are over. I know, I know…change is tough. Yeah, well so is the market. And if you haven’t latched onto the revolution taking place, you are going out of business.

That’s why technology and software like autonow is taking over the industry. It’s the service departments out there with the best tools that will win the prize. autonow is a prime example of how electronic technology can intuitively speed visually enhanced communications to the customer while providing an easy to use interface.

Here is where this is going. In less than 2-3 years, every service department will need to be able to provide an electronically delivered MPI, with pictures and video that tell the customer what is going on with their vehicle, while giving them real time updates on the progress of the vehicle through the repair cycle so they don’t have to call into the service department and ask “Is my car ready?”

Why? Because people are looking for trust transparency and speed. We have become a visual society folks. That is the promise of technology. And software like autonow delivers on that promise. 

This is where the next revolution in fixed ops is occurring. You had better get on the bus, because if you don’t, you are going to be left behind in a swirling pile of greasy, crumpled, oil stained, useless paper MPI’s that only tell your customer that you don’t care enough about them to get with the times. 

And that will be the end of your service business.

Need help? Call 760-419-9002.