Automotive News Canada - December 2019 - v2 - F23

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Williams

FORUM

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Williams identified three key performance
indicators: "First, how are my hours being
tracked - by writer, by technician, by store?
Next, how do we get more hours - are our
techs doing the great-quality recommendations that we would sell to our family members? Last but not least, are we selling these
recommendations to all of our customers?
Selling today's hours is the most important
thing we can do."
Williams emphasized the importance of
making accurate daily forecasts of labor hours
per technician, and using those numbers in
setting goals for service advisers to persuade
customers to approve repair work based on
techs' recommendations. Every repair order
should include a vehicle inspection by a tech,
he said.
He cited the "big four" of service and parts
sales: brakes, tires, batteries and maintenance. Pay plans for service and parts managers as well as employees should reward
achievement of the performance indicators,
Williams said. All employees and managers
should know the dealership's goals for service
and parts sales and whether those goals are
achieved every day, he added.

Disney directions

Magic Kingdom's service lessons
Alan Starling, president of Starling Automotive Group in Orlando, said the opening of the
Walt Disney World resort and theme park in his
community in 1971 offered valuable lessons on
customer service.
Starling described Disney World as not only
"the happiest place on earth," but also the
cleanest - an example for his dealerships'

Starling

service departments. He said he learned from
Disney to dream big, to innovate, to go the extra mile to serve customers, to build a respected brand name, to educate and invest in his
company's future leaders and to help his
young employees with such innovations as a
program to help them repay student loans.
In other words, Dream, Innovate, Service,
Name, Education, Youth - or "DISNEY" for
short.
"It's hard to think of an American today whose
name is as powerful as Walt Disney," Starling
said. "We need to ask ourselves in our business,
have we built our company name in a steady,
positive and memorable way? This is about repeat business and building relationships."

standard Sims said he has worked to instill in
his operations along with Mercedes-Benz's
slogan, "The best or nothing."
Sims said the dealership defines its success
by how it is perceived as a luxury retailer, not
just a car dealership. To that end, Sims added,
he expects his service consultants to do such
things as send handwritten notes thanking
customers for their business.
"We want people with a cultural mindset
who feel winning is like breathing - it's not
optional," Sims said of his employees. "We expect personal and professional excellence. We
set that excellence as a standard of operation,
and we hold our people accountable."

Lowenbaum

How to hire

Sims

Roll Tide

"Expect excellence"
Cecil Sims, vice president of fixed operations at Mercedes-Benz of Birmingham, told
the forum audience that University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban -
whose teams have won six national championships - is a majority owner of his dealership. Saban's motto is "Expect excellence" - a

Maximizing human capital
Surveys of job seekers suggest that barely 1
percent would consider working at a retail
dealership, said Max Lowenbaum, vice president of sales for the online hiring platform
Hireology. Dealership service departments
that need to hire technicians amid an industrywide shortage must offer job candidates
pay stability, meaningful earnings potential, a
clear career path and work-life balance, he
said.
Service departments need to advertise jobs
digitally to potential candidates, Lowenbaum
said, noting that nearly one-third of job seekers drop off if an employer's application process or career website is not readily accessible
on mobile devices. Dealerships have lost as
many as 2 million applicants by failing to respond to candidates promptly, he noted.
see FORUM, Page 24

DECEMBER 2019

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Automotive News Canada - December 2019 - v2

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