Automotive News - October 16, 2017 - Supplement - S47

OCTOBER 16, 2017 | 47

BOZARD

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Bozard Ford-Lincoln's technician teams adopt nicknames such as Team Power Stroke, whose
members are, from left, Leonard Johnson, Chris Mangefrida and Brent White.

"There are guys who are
task-oriented who get the
job done. There are other
guys who can train and
communicate well. You've
got to pair opposite
strengths with opposing
weaknesses."
Ed Roberts, Bozard parts
and service director

Bozard Ford-Lincoln sells about 5,000 new
and used vehicles a year, King said. Its service
business does about 5,600 repair orders each
month. But it wasn't always that way.
"I got here seven years ago and we were selling 50 new and used cars a month," said King.
"We're selling 400 now and we'll do $200 million in revenue this year. The issue isn't if our
customer satisfaction index has improved, it's
whether we can maintain excellent CSI with a
huge increase in traffic."
Before Bozard built its giant Quick Lane center
in 2013, it handled about 1,500 repair orders a
month. Once Quick Lane opened, Bozard's
monthly repair orders doubled. To keep up,
King and Roberts knew service techs had to
work faster without sacrificing quality. Ford Motor Co. had suggested dealers try two-member
teams. King and Roberts embraced the idea,
and had been testing the team concept with service advisers since late 2012.
"It helped with the flow of the service department there because if someone goes to lunch,
the team member knows about Mrs. Smith's car
and can go get it," King said. "And one might
know more about tires than the other."
So in 2014, they applied the team concept to
the Quick Lane operation, pairing 14 techs into seven teams. Each team works in one bay
on one vehicle at a time. Five additional techs
work in Quick Lane independently.
Roberts tried to match techs with complementary skill sets while paying attention to
team chemistry.
"There are guys who are task-oriented who
get the job done. There are other guys who can
train and communicate well," Roberts said.
"You've got to pair opposite strengths with opposing weaknesses."
The time to complete an oil change dropped
dramatically and customer returns for service
increased to 2.1 times per year today from an
average of 1.7 times a year before the program,
King said.
In 2015, Bozard's main service shop's business was expanding so quickly, "we'd run out
of room," King said. "To get more business out
of the same number of stalls," the dealership
carried over the team concept that had
worked so well in Quick Lane.
In the main shop, techs chose their partners.
Twenty-one techs are divided into eight teams
of two or three. Another 12 techs work independently.
In both shops, the teams adopted nicknames such as Team Diesel Dawgs, Team GT,
Team Cobra and Team Express.
Productivity improved 15 percent, King
said.
"They motivate each other," added Roberts.

The programs' success is reflected in the
dealership's customer satisfaction scores,
which have remained "consistent" despite the
store handling four times the sales and service
business it did in 2010.
"I credit this program as being one of the
things we've been able to do to maintain that
level of service," said King.
Bozard also has lowered its service staff
turnover rate, King said, because the staff enjoys the team camaraderie. And by freeing up
service bays, Bozard has hired more techs. In

2012, Bozard had 14 techs operating in 39
bays. Today, 33 techs work in the same number of bays in the main shop. Those additional
techs have helped drive up monthly gross
profits 30 percent each year since the team
programs started, Roberts said.
About 18 months ago, Bozard added an apprentice program. If a team in the main shop
is productive, it gets an apprentice, usually an
entry-level Quick Lane tech or a local college
student. Since starting the program, Bozard
has hired four apprentices into tech jobs.
Roberts cautioned that for a team system to
work, "You have to constantly manage it."
He changes Quick Lane teams every four to
six months to give people a chance to work
with others. In the main shop, he changes
teams only if the arrangement doesn't work.
"Sometimes you pair people with the wrong
person. They're not bad people but they are
paired wrong and you have to change them
up," he said.
But it's worth it, King added: "You can't disappoint the customer or they'll go somewhere
else. The teams, we think, give us the ability to
retain the customer." a

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