Digital Dealer - April 2019 - 10

Road Trip to DD26 | April 9-11, 2019 | Orlando

Service
Department
Health: Developing
a Consistency Culture
in Process Execution,
Financial Targeting,
Source Document
Prep, & Employee
Discipline
Are you tired of reactive managing and fighting
fires in your service department, as well as a
marginal bottom line? Join Ed Kovalchick at
Digital Dealer 26 this month (April 9-11th in
Orlando, FL) to learn the management actions
necessary to build a consistency culture that drives
continued growth in dealer service operations.
When adopted, this proven approach establishes
a unique degree of comfortable management
discipline, as well as providing tremendous
benefits in employee satisfaction and performance.
The financial benefits as a result of establishing
a focused and disciplined culture are many, as
demonstrated by the successful companies which
have adopted this management methodology. It is
highly proactive rather than the common reactive
approach to conducting everyday business, which
is the norm in most dealer service operations.

Takeaways:

 Identify the facets of a "consistency culture."
 Apply a consistency culture within your
service department.
 Learn which tools and strategies will help
you to maintain a consistency culture.
Speaker:

BY ED KOVALCHICK
CEO & Founder,
Net Profit Inc.

10

APRIL 2019

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

(Continued from pg. 9)

readily available market to
everyone.
Secondly, examine the
cost of the included parts
in each operation. In some
cases, the parts acquisition
cost will be quite excessive,
but you might be stuck with
it due to your manufacture's do-it-or-else loyalty
program. Keep in mind
that most do allow some
wiggle room, which may be
enough to reach elsewhere
for that particular purchase.
And don't forget to factor in
the sweet back money for
the loyalty.
Appropriate tech flatrate time is another factor.
A perfect example is the
purchase of modern alignment equipment which
allows alignments to be
done lickety-split, while the
flat rate was set when we
were using strings. This
being a competitive item,
it requires a competitive
price so excessive paid time
devastates the effective
labor rate, while a very
expensive piece of equipment essentially wastes
very valuable stall space
costing some $10K a month
in shared expense. This
stall is a financial bummer
at best anyway.
GAME SHAME

The bottom line is that
the margins won't be
abundant on competitive
items; however, keeping
a customer returning is
the smarter financial goal
overall. And getting creative
with labor and parts matrixes on non-competitive
items should make up the
difference. Unfortunately,
we don't establish the ev-

er-changing pricing playing
field, but we can play the
game effectively by taking
time to study and create
the right pricing strategies.
Too often this important
game is being played
around us and we aren't
participating.
For a "Price Shopping
Workbook" to help you
get started email Ed@
NetProfitGroup.com with
the subject line "Shopping
Workbook." The workbook
provides data entry for
three distinct vehicles,
which should cover most,
as well an area for phone
notes. Find someone who
can make survey calls,
who claims they visited a
dealership and received
a "laundry list" of things to
be done to their vehicle.
You may find you are right
in line which means this
high-impact fact should be
a part of the daily customer
education process. The
best part is that you can
get that "Dare to Compare"
sign up right away!
ED KOVALCHICK has
traveled the world training and
consulting in ﬁxed operations
with manufacturers and dealers. His extensive background
includes master technician
status, independent shop
owner, dealer with all Chrysler
& Nissan franchises, and
founder of Net Proﬁt Inc. He
is a graduate of the University
of Louisiana and has served
as state president of the Automotive Service Councils, and
the advisory boards of Wyo
Tech and Virginia College. He
has been a regular columnist
and conference presenter with
Dealer Magazine and Digital
Dealer since 1995. EMAIL:
Ed@NetProﬁtGroup.com.
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - April 2019
