Fixed Ops Journal - August 2020 - F12

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Consistent pricing, better processes build trust

ability. It also hurts credibility, Weldon says, if
uring the recent business downturn,
customers compare prices.
service department officials at Han"The COVID-19-related downtime afforded
sel Auto Group in California had
us the opportunity to circle back and look at
time to take a deeper dive into the
everything we've purchased and our processcapabilities of a Dynatron Software platform,
es," Weldon says. "We've purchased a
purchased late last year to ferret out
ton of computer products and driveoverlooked business opportunities.
way aids over the years."
One of the revelations: Patterns of
At many shops, some products get
inconsistent pricing for the same
pushed aside.
kinds of work, such as oil changes, at
"So like a kid who has too many
the auto group's nine rooftops in Pettoys, we took things out to look at
aluma and Santa Rosa north of San
them again," he says. "No one looked
Francisco.
at that capability before [in the DynaEliminating those discrepancies, as
tron platform]. I'm not taking any
well as enhanced training on pro- Weldon: Focus on
cesses for service advisers, could re- "what we do best" pride in the fact that we're first doing
it now... it's what every business
sult in six-figure revenue increases at
should be doing all the time.
each store, says Michael Weldon, director of
"But when a pipe is always carrying plenty of
fixed ops.
water, you don't worry as much about holes in
Consistent pricing - both internally and
the pipe."
compared with prices charged by indepenThe software also is helping service managdent shops - affects more than just profit-

ers identify inconsistencies in service-adviser
presentations. For example, service advisers
tend to stray from the company's walk-around
process when things get hectic, but a training
component in the Dynatron system is helping
to correct that, Weldon says.
"We're trying to get them to slow down," he
says. "It's important for our writers to do a
thorough walk-around with customers -
build a relationship so they're more at ease.
"That way they don't feel like you're trying to
sell them something when you offer service
recommendations or repairs."
Overall, the data analysis and the training
component provided by the Dynatron platform now has service managers "engaging in
their businesses, not just running them," Weldon says. "They're doing an exceptional job.
"COVID-19 has created a terrible situation,
but it's also provided a great opportunity to
concentrate better on what we do best."
- Ken Wysocky

COVID

continued from Page 11

on selling and more on the customer - asking open-ended questions that will help them
understand how customers use their vehicles," he says. "It's just like a doctor asking
questions to get information during an annual wellness exam. In the end, it's all about delivering value that's commensurate with customer expectations."
Lee Harkins, CEO of M5 Management Services, a fixed ops consulting firm, says that
during slow times service staff should get out
of their offices and retrain advisers on walkaround protocols.
"They need to practice, practice, practice,"
he says. "Technology is great, but it's just an
enabler. You still have to provide the basics."

Phone efficiency
At Lovering Auto Group, the business downturn was an opportunity to take stock of all of
its processes, says CEO Vanessa Delegas. The
group owns three rooftops in New Hampshire.
During this review, it was discovered that
customers who called with a service question
weren't always transferred to the right person.
The remedy was to no longer have the business
development center handle service calls even
though it was created in 2017 to do just that.

PAGE 12

AUGUST 2020

Lovering Auto Group took stock of all of its processes. "You can't afford to waste people's time,"
CEO Vanessa Delegas says. "Customers want to talk to someone who can answer their questions."

"You can't afford to waste people's time,"
Delegas says. "Customers want to talk to
someone who can answer their questions.
Now our service advisers are the first line of
defense when service phone calls come in.
"How you use your phones to meet the expectations of customer service is huge."

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting
impact on fixed operations and in some cases
has prompted long-term, beneficial changes.
"We have the opportunity to create a better
'normal' going forward," Borches says. "If
things don't look like they did before, I don't
know that it's a bad thing." 

Fixed Ops Journal - August 2020

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