Automotive News - May 6, 2019 - Retail - 40

fixed operations

40 * MAY 6, 2019

How Mr. Bean,
The Rock hoist
service business

ACTON

Customers are
charged monthly
continued from Page 38

"A Lamborghini with a dead cylinder - there's no way," Hoyt said. "We
don't have the expertise or the interest. Our sweet spot is domestic products - Model A to Mustang GT and
everything in between."
The store specializes in "resto-mods" that install modern drivetrains and systems into older vehicles. For example, Acton has installed air conditioning in a 1956
Chevrolet Bel Air and put a modern
six-speed transmission in a 1970
Chevrolet Corvette.
The business represented only
about 20 of the dealership's 16,142
repair tickets last year, but it added
significant revenue. While Acton
charges $120 an hour for modern
vehicles, its hourly rate for classic
cars is $160.
Parts are one reason for the higher
classic-car rate. Parts for old cars
generally offer lower margin opportunities than parts for new vehicles,
which usually carry a 40 percent
markup. The store discourages customers from buying their own parts
for the projects, charging a handling
fee to those who do.
One recent repair bill totaled
$65,000, Hoyt said.
A current project is a 1940 Ford
pickup, bought on eBay by one of Acton's longtime customers. The truck
came from Oregon with a beautiful
body but a litany of defects underneath, including a severely rusted
frame and an engine that needs to be
rebuilt. Hoyt estimates the repair bill

Jenny King

autonews@crain.com

Acton Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram learned how to profit from old vehicles.

Profit machine

Prizes offer a fun way to improve sales

"A Lamborghini with a
dead cylinder - there's
no way. We don't have
the expertise or the
interest. Our sweet
spot is domestic
products."
Coleman Hoyt,
Acton Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram

will top $50,000.
The owner of a 1967 Mustang also
spent $50,000 for a mechanical restoration. But that didn't come in one
payment.
"We charge the customer at the
end of each month for the time we've
invested," Hoyt said. That includes
the time that techs spend tracking

down repair parts and researching
repair procedures for decades-old
vehicles.
Acton doesn't have a marketing
budget for the old-vehicle service,
relying on word-of-mouth and its
customer base.
The store also offers winter storage
for classic cars, a service that comes
with a tuneup and other maintenance that prepares the vehicles for
summer driving.
"My friends who are dealers have
never understood it and have
thought it was absolutely stupid and
crazy," Hoyt said of the business
niche. "And it's fine for them to think
that way. We have a lot of fun with it."
More important, he said: "Customers love it. It is visible. It shows some
cool stuff for people to see. And it
makes money." a

Get
the
most
FRONT END GROSS

Mr. Bean is the title character of a
popular British TV comedy. He's also
helping Street Toyota in Amarillo,
Texas, sell more wheel alignments.
The dealership's service department awards a Mr. Bean bobblehead
as the prize in an ongoing sales contest among its 12 service advisers.
Each time an adviser sells an alignment, he or she takes possession of
Mr. Bean until the next sale.
Other objects - a replica Toyota
Racing helmet, a bobblehead of
NASCAR driver Kurt Busch, a rock
with the image of actor Dwayne
Johnson, who is known by his nickname, The Rock - are prizes in other
contests among the advisers for sales
of tires, brake jobs and
Toyota Care Plus maintenance plans.
Three times a day, at random, a timer sounds in the
shop. Whoever holds one
of the prizes tosses two
dice and wins $2 to $12 per
roll, depending on which
number comes up. The advisers are immediately
paid in cash.
Jason Reed, Street Toyota's service and parts director, says advisers win
Training wheels
$500 a month, on averLonger-term changes
age, in the contests.
Possessing Mr. Bean also are paying off. By
"It's a relatively inex- at the right time can making it easier for cuspensive, fun and effective result in some cash. tomers to book service
way to help sales," Reed
appointments online and
told Automotive News.
on their mobile devices, Street ToyoThe contests are having the desired ta has more than doubled the numeffect. The shop performs an average ber of scheduled visits, from 800 a
of 275 alignments each month, at a month five years ago to as many as
typical price of $89.95, up from 45 to 1,700 now. The dealership's business
50 a month several years ago. About development center assigns six
70 percent of customers who are told agents to handle service and parts
their vehicles need an alignment opt calls exclusively.
for it, Reed says.
Reed notes that in the past five
years, Street Toyota has increased its
corps of service techs from 26 to 37,
Turnaround plan
The bobblehead competition is a while the number of service advisers
modest example of Street Toyota's has risen from 10 to 12. Despite the
broader service turnaround. In the general shortage of service techniprevious decade, the department cians, he says he prefers to hire techs
lost as much as $200,000 a year. Its without a great deal of experience at
customer satisfaction scores were other shops, preferring to train them
poor. Alignment sales were sparse. in the dealership's culture.
"We had to grow a team culture,"
Oil changes routinely took more
than two hours, says Reed, who be- he said, "with people working well
came the dealership's service direc- with colleagues and customers." n

Jay Anderson, a service
adviser at Street Toyota,
with one of the prizes: a
rock depicting The Rock

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tor in 2015 after being an adviser and
service lane manager.
Things had to change - and they
did.
Reed persuaded his bosses to hire
a fourth three-person team of lube
techs in Street Toyota's eight-bay express service operation. The express
lanes serve as many as 2,200 customers a month, Reed says, and
three-quarters of oil changes now
take less than an hour.
Entry-level technicians work under a hybrid pay plan, which combines a 45-hour paid workweek with
productivity bonuses, Reed says.
More-senior techs in the main shop
work under a flat-rate plan, he adds.
Street Toyota has taken similar steps
in recent years to boost its alignment
business, by requiring closer communication between service advisers and
porters in the service drive
to conduct alignment
readings. The service department uses a Hunter
Quick Check system. Reed
says the department pays
particular attention to cars
and trucks with more than
20,000 miles for alignment
checks.

Automotive News - May 6, 2019 - Retail

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