Diagnostics

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Many of you already know of my requirement for an inspection prior to any work being performed on equipment needing repairs.

The customer makes known to us what they have as their complaint. This reasonably standard operating procedures. They call or come in and tell us what they want done. Many of you also know that I draw a comparison between the medical community and the equipment repair community. We at the dealership are the doctor and the machine is the patient.

The diagnostic inspection necessary to determine the “cause” of the complaint is similar to the blood work and vital signs that the doctor will require of you prior to making any determination of the treatment necessary to “correct” your complaint. They will be seeking out hte cause.

Once we have the cause of the complaint the correction is the easy part. The time is now…

Service Strategies

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The service department is a much misunderstood group of highly skilled prefessionals. One of these days they will get the appreication they deserve but in the meantime we need to continue to raise the bar on their performance and image.

One of the methods we could use would be to track quality. each week that goes by with a 100% quality record should be noted and celebrated. I am not sure you truly understand that the work that is done is exceptionally high quality and the service warranty or employee redo levels are extremely low. Start to track it and publish it. Just like a safety record put it on the wall. Keep a running total of the number of weeks without a quality failure. You will be pleased when you see the results as the number will keep going higher and higher. The time is now.

June Management Training

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The Balanced Scorecard

If you design your Dealership from the customer perspective you will win.

In the management training we offer through Quest, Learning Centers, Inc. we offer varying levels of management development. In our Unit II classes for both Parts and Service we use the Balanced Scorecard as one of the main pillars of the learning.

The Balanced Scorecard has been around as a business tool since the 1990’s and was developed at Harvard Business School. It became very prominent as a management tool in the Heavy Equipment Industry late in the 90’s and early in the 00’s. We introduced our version in the late 90’s and have updated it twice since. Our approach is slightly different than the method taught at Harvard in that we start from the customer focus rather than the financial focus they use academically.

I believe that your employees will work harder to satisfy a customer need than they will to satisfy a management need – I very strongly believe this to be true. As a result of this belief I start the Balanced Scorecard discussion from the perspective of what does the customer need or want. Not what WE think they want but what they factually want to receive from dealerships.

We obtain this information from surveys and customer interviews. I usually suggest that dealers initiate a “Voice of the Customer” program that will ask customers the same question for one week and do this once a month. Each time a customer is communicating with an employee they are asked a question, the same question all week long. The question could be related to a special program or hours of service, it is dependent exclusively on what the dealership wants to know. At the end of the week the answers are compiled and you will have a list of five or ten most common answers to your question. Then you have something to work with on developing solutions to the needs of your customer.

If you know the needs and wants of your customers then will know what you need to excel at in your business. That is the second step in the Balanced Scorecard – Internal Excellence. The customer tells you what they want and then you need to design the solutions. This is the internal excellence portion of the Scorecard and it covers processes, forms, methods and whatever is required to excel at the internal process that will satisfy the customer need. This is the beginning of wonderful solutions for your customers and satisfaction for your employees because there will need to be additional steps in the Scorecard to satisfy the internal excellence requirements. This is the Third Step in the Balanced Scorecard – Innovation.

If you know what you need to excel at internally then you will know what tools, technology and training is required to excel. This is your investment in the business. Providing the training for your employees and the tooling and technology required so that they can satisfy the customer needs and wants by excelling at what they do.

It is reasonably simple isn’t it? If you do this; ask for customer input on their needs and wants, from those needs determine how you can excel, and importantly what training, technology, and tools you need to provide to your employees.

If you do this you will achieve all the growth and profits you want. That is part of the curriculum in Unit II. Your Parts and Service Management should not miss this important class and learn, amongst the other important learning subjects, how to stay ahead of the competition. The time is now.          

Job Scheduling and Standards of Performance

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It is not too late to sign up for the webinars tomorrow April 24th. Job Scheduling at 9:00 AM Pacific and Standards of Performance for Service at 12:00 Noon Pacific. You can register at www.rjslee.com under the learning tab go to webinars. See you there.

Flat Rate Webinar

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Don’t forget this afternoon at 2:00 PM Eastern the flat rate – standard jobs webinar. www.rjslee.com under the learning tab go to webinars.

 

Books in the Bin

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Hi I will be writing a seeries of books in the coming years on subjects near and dear to my heart.

Several of you have commented that books would be more of interest than a monetized blog.

parts

  1. instore selling
  2. inventory management
  3. warehouse layouts and design
  4. backorder analysis
  5. pricing as a marketing tool
  6. purchasing
  7. metrics and dashboards
  8. instore merchanidising
  9. call centers
  10. the internet as a tool for a parts department
  11. teleselling
  12. technology as a process foundation

 

Service

  1. shop floor management
  2. field service
  3. flat rate systems
  4. service administration
  5. job flow and scheduling
  6. the internet as a tool for a service department
  7. inspection programs
  8. maintenenace programs
  9. service sales programs
  10. pricing and standard charges
  11. metrics and dashboards
  12. technology as a process foundation

 

Product Support Selling

  1. parts and service Selling is a science not an art
  2. territory management
  3. territory theory and design
  4. commission and compensation systems
  5. customer business management for parts and service

 

Marketing

  1. business development for parts and service
  2. market segmentation
  3. customer retention

 

management

  1. the balanced scorecard as a management tool
  2. activity-based management for parts and service
  3. personnel leadership

Selling Skills Part Four

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The first last time we talked about the six steps in selling we identified them all. The last time we communicated was on the first step – research. Let’s dig a little deeper into the second one.

  1. Objectives

Well after having completed all the research on each customer in their assigned territory the sales professional is now ready for the next step. That is setting objectives for each and every one of their customers for each and every commodity of parts as well as each and every service program offered.

This also involves some research. The parts purchases should follow the opportunity calculated for each customer based on the machine population, hours of work per year and the application. This is also true for the service programs.

When reviewing the customer purchases against the opportunity for each account the sales professional will identify where there are parts or service programs that the customer does not purchase at the levels that the opportunity presents. This is normally an indication that competition has penetrated this customer for some of their products or services. The diligent salesmen determines who gets the business and who the customer likes about this supplier and develops a plan to combat that competitive advantage.

This leads the sales professional to have a specific series of objectives for each customer which will allow them to have a purpose for each call. This purpose is to save the customer money, improve machine availability of some other tangible benefit to the customer. Having a purpose for each call and objectives to strive to achieve makes a difference in the success of sales personnel. The time is now…..

Service Webinars – April 23rd and 24th

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Don’t forget to register for the service department webinars next week.

They last about an hour and cost $95.00 per attendee who is a memeber of the AED.

You can register on our website at www.rjslee.com under the learning tab.

 

See you there.

The time is now.

 

 

Standards of Performance Service Webinar

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There is a Standards of Performance – Service webinar next week. This wraps up four service webinars for the week. This one is Tuesday at noon Pacific. You can register on our website at www.rjslee.com or directly at the AED. See you there. The time is now.

Flat Rating & Shop Floor Scheduling Webinars

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Over the past two months we have touched on a variety of subjects. Shop Floor Scheduling and Flat Rating have both seen considerable interest. There webinars on Monday and Tuesday next week one on Shop Floor Scheduling and the other on Flat Rating. You can register on our website at www.rjslee.com or directly at the AED. See you there. The time is now.