Digital Dealer - October 2017 - 22

C O V E R S TO RY

Continued from pg. 21

THEY CAN ALWAYS BE TAUGHT THE SKILLS,
SO WE DON'T NECESSARILY HIRE FOR A SKILL
SET. WE CAN TRAIN THAT. WE'RE HIRING MORE
ON HAVING THE RIGHT PERSONALITY."
car reconditioning center, having
dedicated techs doing the repairs,
and a full staff detailing all the used
vehicles. Then we'll be expanding
outward for Parts, the Car Shop,
and we also have a Diesel Shop.

ESPECIALLY FOR
MILLENNIALS, IT SEEMS
THAT VOICE MAIL AND EMAIL
ARE LESS CONVENIENT
FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
THAN TEXT MESSAGING.
I UNDERSTAND YOU'VE
ADDED TEXT MESSAGING
TO YOUR VEHICLE SERVICE
PROGRAM. HOW'S THAT
GOING? To be honest, it's not

just a millennial thing, it's all age
groups. Everybody who participates
in it really likes the program. We're
using Singlethread for our text
messaging program. The solution
that Singlethread afforded for us
is that it takes them from the very
beginning where the customer
gives us permission to interact with
them. It takes it all the way through
to viewing the online inspections
to viewing the repair order, so they
can pay the bill over the internet as
well. They can view the inspection,
view the R.O. and pay the bill all
through the Singlethread texting
program, which is really good.
Now when they come in the door
to pick up their vehicle, all we have
to do is hand them the keys to the
vehicle and say thank you for your
business. It's really nice and saves a
whole lot of time.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS
OF TEXTING? We're in the Upper

Midwest, but it seems like people
will respond to a text quickly. A lot
of employers, at least in our area,
don't want them to be using phones
or voicemail or calling on company
time. Texting, it seems, they hear

22

OCTOBER 2017

the ping and they can take a quick
glance at it or if you're in a meeting you're able to view it quickly
and give the approval for the extra
one-hundred or two-hundred
bucks, whatever it might be, and
you're done. It's a more instantaneous form of communication
with a customer, which they enjoy
as much as we do because if you
work in the Service department the
biggest problem you have is contacting the customer once they've
left the building. One of the more
indirect things people really enjoy
is the customers waiting for their
vehicle in the customer lounge; we
can communicate with them via
texting, too. So, they're sitting in
the customer lounge, a hundred
feet away from the service area, and
you're communicating back and
forth via texting.

DO YOU HAVE ANY
TEXTING SUCCESS NUMBERS
TO SHARE? The people that are

using it do enjoy it. I would say that
we have about 60% participation.
Some of the rest of that might be
commercial-type customers. You
do have the older retired people
whose whole day is to come and
sit in the customer lounge and
hopefully they can sit here for two
or three hours waiting for their
service work. So, you can complain
about it but for some it might be
the high point of their day. They
don't want to be texted. Or where
somebody like my mom and dad
who don't know how to text. The
participation rate is fairly high, at
least for us.

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT
YOUR PARTS BUSINESS. HOW
IS IT DOING? We're not big into

wholesale. We don't do any real
wholesaling at all. We've got some

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

strong competitors around us,
and we choose not to go down
that road. Virtually all of our parts
business is generated inside the
building. They're kind of at the
mercy of what the collision center
and service departments are
doing. But we've enjoyed uninterrupted growth since '09-010.
We were already coming out of
the recession, at least up here
back in 2009. We didn't have the
severe downturn, like Florida and
Arizona. We don't get the highs
and lows like they do down there.
We've had a lot of good years, a lot
of good runs. Hopefully that continues. Our operation is up. That's
why we're putting on a 50,000
square-foot addition.

I'D LIKE TO SHIFT
AWAY FROM PRODUCTS
AND SERVICE AND TALK
ABOUT STAFF. HOW MANY
EMPLOYEES DO YOU HAVE,
WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU
LOOK FOR WHEN MAKING A
NEW HIRE AND HOW DO YOU
KEEP THEM UP-TO-DATE ON
YOUR PRODUCTS? We have

approximately 135 employees. I
guess the biggest quality we're
looking for is their social skills.
Their ability to get along with
other people. And smile. They
can always be taught the skills,
so we don't necessarily hire for a
skill set. We can train that. We're
hiring more on having the right
personality. Product training is a
non-stop thing. Number one, the
manufacturers require employees
to be certified. They're all up-tospeed on that stuff. Our insurance
company comes in quarterly to
walk us through the building,
to make sure we're up to speed
on any changes. Walk through
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