Introducing Coaches Corner
Learning Without Scars is pleased to present the very first in our new series, Coaches Corner. Please feel free to click the link to read the welcome post authored by Floyd Jerkins.
Lifelong Learners
In this week’s blog on education, curriculum designer and writer Caroline Slee-Poulos shares the big picture of why we do what we do: lifelong learners.
In education, we like to express the most important goal of any classroom as creating lifelong learners. This takes shape in different ways at different ages. At the younger ages, it is obviously the standard reading, writing, and arithmetic. As adults, it becomes a bit more complex,
We have to ask about goals and the big picture when it comes to adults. As adults, we want to move forward: we want promotions; pay bumps; increases in job title.
I would posit that what we really seek is GROWTH.
Realistically, growth is what we all seek.
As employers, we want hires who know the business. We are noticing that students are not graduating school with the necessary skills for the business. Trade skills are in short supply and require more education than the standard K-12 that is available to students today. Funding at the high school level for the trades has been reduced to a point where students are graduating high school without the necessary skills for our industry.
Take our industry out of the equation.
What does it say about us that our graduates are not prepared for the world of technical work?
I think it says that we are in a situation of catching up. Academics are not quite at the point we need them to be when it comes to “work ready” employees. We can’t expect high school graduates to know everything they need to know when they graduate high school. The reality is, if you invest in your people, they will invest in you.
What we want to see at every level are people committed to learning. This doesn’t mean the stereotypes of the ivory tower. This means having people who consistently strive to better themselves, who push for higher levels of understanding and accomplishment.
At the end of the day, education is all about creating the foundation that leads to lifelong learning. Lifelong learners are known for consistently striving to better their performance and their results.
Aren’t lifelong learners what you want to see in your business?
As Ron would tell you, the time is now. When it comes to your commitment to learning, I would posit that the time is always.
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Technician Shortage? Grow Your Own Techs!
Tonight, Learning Without Scars is proud to introduce readers to our new guest writer, Steven Johnson. In his debut post, he writes about a crucial issue we are facing: Technician Shortage? Grow Your Own Techs!
Steven Johnson retired from Associated Equipment Distributors in 2020 as Vice President of Academic Accreditation. While there, he grew the number of AED Accredited college programs to forty, and established AED Recognition of equipment programs for high schools. These include CAT ThinkBIG, John Deere Construction and Forestry and Komatsu ACT technical college programs. A robust online technical assessment and system were also created to measure students’ technical knowledge prior to matriculation and upon graduation. Established in 1919, AED is an international trade association based in Schaumburg, IL, representing over 500 construction equipment distributors, manufacturers and industry-service firms in North America. Established in 1991 and directed by AED members, The AED Foundation addresses
school partnerships, career promotion and research in the industry. This includes AED Foundation Accreditation of college diesel-equipment technology programs. Steve earned his MBA degree from Northern Illinois University. Prior to AED, he was Director of Marketing & Customer Service at I-CAR, a large not-for-profit collision industry training organization. Before ICAR, he was Director of Marketing and Manager, Market Analysis & Planning at Chicago Rawhide, a business unit of AB SKF, a global bearings manufacturer based in Sweden. Steve is currently an independent contractor and advisor to Learning Without Scars.
Technician Shortage? Grow Your Own Techs!
It’s an issue that has challenged the equipment industry for many years. That is, “Where do I find qualified technicians to hire?” Commonly, many employers have approached the problem by luring technicians from their competitors with money and other incentives. While that has worked for some, in many cases, it turns into a vicious cycle of who will pay the next $2.00 per hour more and instability in the local workforce. Sometimes the grass seems greener on the other side, however, I’ve heard of techs who went back to their original employer, even though they were paid less, because of the odious conditions “where the grass seemed greener.”
Dealers have also lured technicians from other industries or hired inexperienced technicians and used on-the-job training to bring them up to speed. That can also cause problems. Absorption rates can fall as experienced techs spend time overseeing the work of the inexperienced. In some cases, that can mean less money for the experienced techs depending on how they are paid. This is a form of growing one’s own techs, but it can take a long time to train these people to the level of an experienced shop or field tech, maybe 6 – 8 years. There are many excellent 2-year technical college programs in equipment technology. These schools allow a dealer to hire someone who can rapidly grow as a working technician. The issue here is that the schools currently do not even come close to supplying the numbers needed by the industry.
Therefore, I return to the topic of “growing your own techs.” I define this as establishing a full program for identifying and educating candidates who have the potential to be solid technicians. Here is what that looks like:
- Efforts start by dealers working with high school, or even middle school students. That may sound a bit early but consider that today’s technicians must be good in mathematics and science. I heard one involved person say that a pre-engineering type of high school education is the ideal. Students like that often have made initial career decisions early on in high school, or even middle school. Parents often have already discussed their views on careers with their children by then. And parents often are the most important decision- influencers.
This means getting the word out early on the excellent careers in our industry, talking with the students, parents, high school career counselors and other decision influencers. Employers can present at middle school and high school career days, start “diesel” clubs at the schools, provide guest lecturers, host career days at their dealerships, and develop career materials to be handed out at such events. All of this helps, in turn, to change the old all too common misrepresentation of the “grease monkey” to the correct image of “the high-tech professional technician.” And each time a student decides on an equipment tech career, it’s an image success story.
- Employers should support the students who made a decision to educate themselves in equipment technology. This includes scholarships, loans, helping with tool purchases, summer or work/study employment and mentoring. Finances can be a real barrier to entering the field. We all know that an initial good tool set can run up to $30,000 or more. Not everyone has the money to finance a college education either. Get creative. For example, one way of handling a student loan is for the employer to forgive that loan after three years employment at the dealership.
- Establish solid relationships with your local high schools and technical colleges. Offer to help with teaching resources and guest lectures on technology. Offer technical training to the instructors. One of the most important things is to serve on the schools’ Advisory Boards. This is a good way to help schools improve in the ways you see are needed. It is vital for forming long-term, positive local and school relationships. By “being there,” you demonstrate your commitment to students and schools. By “being there,” one may also identify promising students to recruit for your dealership, provide assistance, and mentor in the above ways.
- Support and hire from the technical colleges in both good times and bad times. It leaves kind of a sour taste in one’s mouth if during the bad times, you are nowhere to be seen, and in the good times, you show up asking, “Where are my techs?” Put yourself in their shoes. Even in the bad times, there are ways to support these programs; the last thing you want to see is them no longer in existence.
One final thought here. Shoot for the long term. If you start working with middle school students, it could be eight years before you hire them. From high school, it could be six years. However, one you establish a managed stream of graduating students at each level, you will be controlling your own tech destiny by “growing your own techs.”
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Developing a Value Based Training Culture
Tonight, we are happy to introduce a new guest writer, Mick Vaught. In his first blog for us, Developing a Value Based Training Culture, Mick emphasize the incredible importance of employee development.
Mick was born and raised in the small town of Williamsburg, Virginia, located in the South East region of the United States. While earning a degree in business administration as well as two degrees in Theology he has used this education as a foundation for educating corporate and distribution employees at all levels all over the world. Mick married his wife of 43 years, Carole and together have raised three married children and 8 grandchildren. After graduating from college Mick joined the Liebherr America group. While serving as Sales Manager he gained experience working with their distribution network in the United States and Canada. After 20 years of service, Mick joined Komatsu America as a product manager. Mick has worked as Vice President (Articulated Hauler Division) Of Volvo Construction Equipment Company, where he oversaw the development of sales, parts, service and the dealer pipeline with their launch of their new haulers. Mick has also worked as a training consultant for a large Caterpillar dealer, and was challenged with creating and launching their LMS system.Upon retiring from corporate America after 35 years, Mick also established his own leadership development Consulting Company. Here he worked with fortune five hundred companies around the country. The company (L3Learning Academy) also offered a wide variety of consulting services for small business owners designed to address everything from major strategic issues to more basic problems affecting everyday business practices. Mick sold the company, and currently teaches at the Charlotte Motor Speedway STEAM program, focusing on developing young minds with an aptitude towards science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
Development and Execution of a well-conceived Training Plan.
The cornerstone upon which a successful training program rest.
This training plan exists on two levels:
- Corporate – encompassing the entire organization and covering a relatively elastic time period of perhaps several years (this is a reflection of an overall set of goals)
- Specific – describing smaller organizational units within the organization and covering a discrete fiscal or calendar time frame (this is a reflection of concrete, measurable goals and objectives)
Training Plan Elements
Background
The Training Plan will begin with a background section, which describes the following:
- A description of the strategic Training Directive for developing a Training Plan. Training should always follow the corporate strategy!
- Define the core client group. Within this client group there will be field and regional offices throughout the branch locations.
- A comprehensive resource audit to determine those materials currently available and any of the GAPs that may exist for planned training expectations.
- Review the total number of employees and age demographics. Indicate approximately how many of these employees are local and if possible, how many are in each geographic area.
- Other pertinent information that may be appropriate under the Background section such as:
- new or, revised organizational-driven requirements (newly formed groups, programs, branches)
- changes in profile of service-oriented delivery versus product-oriented business models within the organization
The background section will be predominantly narrative in structure with a table or charts to assist in framing the context of our plan.
Current Status
The purpose of this section is to describe what sort of training has been completed to date. This section of the corporate plan will be updated each year, and referenced against the previous year for comparative purposes.
- What sort of training has been completed to date? Has the training been Ad Hoc and demand driven or … (competency vs. content based)?
- Has there been a formal training plan? If yes, to what extent has the training plan been completed? Did training include out-of-town travel?
- What are the factors that limit training?
- Is there a training budget? If yes, what is it and how much, if any, has already been spent?
- Have there been any needs assessment conducted to identify what sort of training is needed by headquarters and field offices? If no needs assessment has been conducted, this may be something to add as part of the overall training plan?
- Has a need for training evolved by the type of repeat questions and telephone calls for advice we have received?
This section will be greatly assisted by including a table to indicate current readiness against total numbers within targeted employee groups.
Mission Statement
The Mission Statement will address what it is we want to achieve in a corporate sense with the training plan. For example, our overall goal may be:
“AS AN EXAMPLE.”
To ensure all employees have those skills required to meet all competencies needed for their job descriptions and to add value to our Human Capital Management while also driving initiatives to focus on Business Knowledge Impact.
The overall goal differs from course goals and objectives because it is much broader and all-encompassing than course goals and objectives which tend to be more specific to the training and more limited in scope. It would be very challenging to reach the above overall goal in one or even 5 years. A number of different types of training would have to be implemented in order to reach the overall goal. Course goals and objectives are also much more measurable than the overall goal because course participants can help us assess whether or not we have met them.
Methodology
The methodology drives the approaches to training delivery that will be employed. For example, our training plan may cover 2 years, 5 years with a number of prescribed courses, or perhaps a phased approach that would be more appropriate for our mission. We may begin with general training one year and include more advanced training the following year. We may also want to offer one or two courses a year on specific topics. The options for this portion of the training plan are limitless.
- How will we reach our overall goal?
- What type of training will be offered? General awareness sessions or topic specific training? Will the training be branch specific in some cases?
- Will we develop brochures and other documents that explain marketing concepts, roles and responsibilities?
- Will we train via Zoom, video-conference, web based, computer based, or, create a video that staff can sign-out showing management buy-in. Create a training Hotline?
- Would it be beneficial to use a Training Steering Committee as we move forward?
Training Methodology should also be updated each year in the corporate plan as different training delivery methods are evaluated.
Description of Training
We will be doing more than one type of training, to include Service, Parts, Sales, Employee “Human Capital” and eventually a “Company Academy” to develop potential managers and leaders for future growth opportunities (this is where our training plan becomes more specific both in terms of deliverable and time frames). We will also be implementing quick vignettes such as “Lunch & Learns” to communicate common knowledge and information at a quick rate.
Time Frames
Training will be scheduled and delivered in a “time sensitive manner” working in collaboration with division and department managers to ensure optimum time management. Certain seasons in an industry dictate when time is most appropriate. Other elements to consider will be approximate time we expect to have new product or other documentation complete. Will the documentation be updated each year? When do we expect to have our Web Page up and running? Etc.
Goals
Identify Clients: First we will identify which group segment will benefit from the training: Customer support (service and parts) would be the first recommendation followed by sales and employee administration. Another goal to target is upper and middle management making available those disciplines needed for their position.
Objectives: Once we have identified the group segment that requires training, then we will identify what we hope the participants walk away with: This may include; to provide a comprehensive base-level of expertise to support the groups compliance with their core competencies and skill levels or, to ensure all ASC managers participate in training that specifically focuses on their area impact as it pertains to their specific strategies.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives are specific and measurable. Learning objectives identify specifically what the participants will do/learn/understand/identify/recognize etc…
Some examples of objectives would include any of the following:
The participant will show competence in the following:
Communication
- explain four basic principles of communication (verbal and non-verbal) and active listening.
- outline four barriers and bridges to communication
- list at least four ways communication skills will help create a positive work environment
- identify records that require formal FOI response vs. routine release of information
Time Management
- list job expectations of staff
- provide tools to use in prioritizing tasks
Organization
What will we need to be able to accomplish the training objectives?
Coordination of Training Delivery: (Based on our Training Resource Audit)
- Do we need to identify and coordinate a number of training sessions to cover each branch or geographic region?
- Do we need to find facilities that will be available on a given date?
- Do we have to solicit participants? If yes, will we send out a general e-mail or contact people by phone or post an advertisement? Will we have registration via the Intranet?
- How will the training be delivered? Will a facilitator actually give the session, will it be given via video-conferencing or will we develop a brochure or package that is self-explanatory? Will we create a video to send around the province? Will we have a Web Page or a FOI (Field of Information) Hot Line?
- Evaluation – How will we analyze the delivery outcomes and identify shortfalls of the training method?
Materials:
Once we have identified how we will deliver the training, the next question will be what materials do we need to deliver the training:
- Will we use slides, video, ILT, WBT, CBT or WebEx?
- Due to a deficiency in OEM support material our trainers are spending 65% of their time developing their own which takes away from our training effectiveness
- What sort of hand-outs will we provide participants?
- Will participants be expected to participate in case studies, pre-tests and/or post-tests?
- Will there be a poster we want to use?
Training Schedule and Budget
Finally, the Training Schedule and Budget specifically identifies the date, method, cost and approximate number of participants to be trained.
It would be useful to identify the approximate number of participants to be trained and identify the following:
- program delivery
- include central administrative staff (i.e., Personnel, Policy and Finance)
- include manager / director level?
- include executive?
Reporting
Finally, when the annual round of training is complete, we should consider the type of reporting we want to do. A summary of the above information is a good place to start and you can flesh out this report with the actual cost and number of participants trained. This information will be helpful in forming part of our overall evaluation of the training program.
Reports required must include the following:
- Personal Development Plan (PDP)
- Usage / Adoption (project-based)
- ROI (project-based)
- Assessment results
- Transcripts
- Exception reports (who hasn’t completed requirements)
- Printable into ms excel
- Push versus pull
- Export capabilities
- Flexible
Executive Summary:
The critical key for the success of a Learning culture depends on the following:
- We must create value for professional development
- We must create desire
- Tie learning to performance
- Communicate successes
- Run a pilot program
- Testimonials
- Recognition
- Pictures on a bulletin board
- Overcome fears
- Demonstrate learning environment
- Flash demo’s
- Technical assistance
- Peer support
- Provide job aids
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: HAVE FUN!
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Do You Really Need Product Support PSSRs, or CSAs?
Guest writer Bill Pyles shares all the ways we really do need Product Support SRs or CSAs.
Most larger equipment dealerships have a robust PSSR (Product Support Sales & Service Rep), CSR (Customer Support Representative) or CSA (Customer Support Advisor) that has been in the making for years. This group of Product Support men and women are an integral, value-added, sales and profit generating part of the entire dealer organization.
But maybe you’re a smaller dealer and looking to get to the next tier of the Product Support ladder.
This blog is for you!
The CSA acronym is my personal favorite as I truly believe the words customer support advisor best describes the position. The CSA is the direct link between the dealer and everything Product Support related. A well-trained CSA offers the options that meets the financial and equipment requirements of the customer. Should a failed engine be repaired, rebuilt, or replaced? Is the machine a production machine or a backup? Is the machine scheduled to be sold out of the fleet within the next six months? While the machine is down, are there any other critical areas of the machine that need inspected and repaired before going to failure? Customers get very angry when a leaking final drive went to complete failure, resulting in a machine down situation just after leaving your shop.
If your dealership sells and services tracked type equipment (excavators, dozers and tracked loaders) I know your aware the largest cost of ownership is the undercarriage. The undercarriage is a system into itself. Your CSA should have a complete understanding of the undercarriage system. A simple proper track adjusting discussion with the customer demonstrates a knowledge that will save him dollars and downtime. Getting a customer maximum undercarriage life will save thousands of dollars over the life of the machine.
You’ll also need a good machine population file. It’s tough to forecast sales not knowing your opportunity. A good machine population file will identify the aging, location, and hours on the equipment. By the way a good population file is beneficial to sales, many machines are removed from the fleet after so years and hours. New sales opportunities!
Typically, the 80/20 rule is the typical CSA customer list. The top 20 customers assigned to a CSA typically take of 80 percent of their time and resources. Dealers will need to develop the unassigned fleet customers and the “middle segment”, customers who have your equipment but do not purchase any parts or services.
You’ll need an annual CSA meeting to discuss trends, sales forecast, changes in the market and to celebrate over and above accomplishments (just picture your last whole goods sales meeting). Is the GM or dealer principle attending? The GM and or dealer principle must make an appearance to show support and comment on the current business environment and congratulate the high performing CSA’s. A well-developed CSA program will give you much to celebrate!
But who does the CSA report to? The dealer principle?
I once worked for a regional vice president who upon returning from an executive meeting was convinced, we should terminate the CSA program, all of it, today, now.
This executive meeting was held during one of the severe cyclic downturns in heavy equipment sales. Dealers were struggling to survive and expense control was job one. Elimination of the CSA program would save accelerating expense dollars. His rational was simple, if severely flawed. We have a good product and if a customer experiences a failure, he will simply pick up the phone and call us. And with our new snazzy web site, the customer will simply log on and make arrangements for needed parts and or service. After thinking this over maybe for 60 seconds I countered with the elimination of the whole goods salesmen using the exact same logic; we sell good equipment and if a customer needs a new machine or a long-term rental, he will simply pick up the phone and call us. Fortunately, neither plan was put into action, we survived the downturn and came out stronger on the other end.
The sales manager? Maybe not a good choice as the sales manager has enough on his plate with inventory, inventory aging, salesmen, OEM programs, order windows, financing and fleet deals. A CSA reporting to the sales manager may turn into a delivery driver for a bucket, gathering hours for a trade in or running out docs to be signed.
The parts manager? Maybe not a good idea as most part managers are outstanding at managing their inventory, over the counter fill, stock orders, counter activity but not managing a parts and service sales person.
The service manager? Not here either. Service managers have many balls in the air dealing with shop service, field service, training, warranty, the pothole in the parking lot (a little sarcasm) OEM’s and technicians. Not much time to manage a CSA.
A CSA without a direct supervisor soon becomes a “floater” or Product Support orphan employee.
A better solution would be a Product Support Sales Manager or a position with a similar title. This person would have 100% accountability for a successful CSA program. He or she would work closely with parts and service management in writing CSA goals that are in alignment with company goals. The Product Support Sales Manager would do the CSA’s bi-annual and annual performance reviews as well administer incentive plans and salary increases, create annual sales forecasts and work closely with the OEM representatives regarding OEM Product Support programs.
A Product Support Sales Manager is the mentor, manager, and coach in developing a CSA. CSA’s must have a career plan with defined goals in sales and service activity. I worked at a dealer who had an outstanding Product Support Sales Manager, super high energy. I truly believed this man could inspire CSA’s to sell snow plows in Miami Florida!
A CSA MUST participate in technical training for the products the dealer represents as well as management level training in negotiating skills and people skills. A successful CSA will have a basic understanding of oil sampling, why on time PM’s are important and an excellent understanding of repair, rebuild or replace options. These skills development can be better managed by a qualified Product Support Manager who reports directly to the dealer principle.
CSA Vehicle: Car or Pickup Truck.
I’ve had responsibility for CSA’s and have experience with both the CSA company vehicle being a car or truck; pros and cons for both. If you give your CSA a car allowance and he or she uses their personal vehicle, you’ll soon find the car parked and a company truck “borrowed” for the day to run out some rebuild pumps and a cylinder or two. Car allowance or not, the CSA will be reluctant to damage or have spilled oil in the trunk or floor. In my opinion a pickup truck sporting the dealer’s name and logo is your best choice. Graphics today look sharp on the job site and rolling down the highway. And when on site, if there is something that the CSA can help out by running something back to the shop, it will not be a problem. However, you’ll want to avoid your newly minted CSA into becoming a parts runner. I do suggest that when a CSA plans his day, he or she will check with will call to see if there are some parts he can bring out and check the service WIP (Work In Process) to see if the customers he’s calling on today have any equipment in the shop and get the status, the customer will ask, be prepared!
CSA Salary & Expenses
CSA salary and expenses are usually split 50/50 between the parts and service departments. I’ve heard arguments that a CSA will sell more parts than service and parts should pay more of the percentage. Most CSA programs are salary and commission based. Another responsibility of the Product Support Sales Manager.
But keep in mind, a dealer’s best margin comes from labor sales. It’s the responsibility of the Product Support Sales Manager to steer the CSA into higher labor sales. If a customer needs a reman engine and the CSA provides a quote for the reman engine, the labor to do the remove and install must be included. I think Michael Jordan once said he missed every shot he did not take. The same applies here; don’t quote the labor and you surely will not get it. Your competitors may be quoting the same reman engine AND the labor. The customer likes the turnkey repair and asks your competitor when they can start. Always provide a professional estimate/quote and follow up with the customer. Add value and close the deal!
Customer Support ADVISOR
When I was a newly minted Product Support Sales Manager, I thoroughly enjoyed customer visits and scheduled customer meetings. I’d wait for an opportunity to ask the customer if a recent issue, wrong parts, late service call, etc. he brought up was discussed with his CSA (I did not use the CSA’s name). If the customer replied “oh you mean the guy who measures our tracks” then we’ve failed to make the ADVISOR relationship with the customer. A good gap we need to close. CSA’s need to listen when the customer talks and suggest solutions to equipment problems. I know we’re providing value when the customer asks the CSA “what do you think?” When the customer says those words, the rest is up to you to deliver the outstanding Product Support that makes you the “go-to” dealer!
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Digital for Data’s Sake
Our new guest writer today is Sara Hanks, sharing her knowledge about going digital for data’s sake. In her own words, Sara introduces herself: My career launched 22 years ago as a mechanical engineer but shifted quickly into continuous improvement when I became a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Early on, I learned the value that could be extracted from data and the importance of digitally collecting that data. After several years in manufacturing, I transitioned to leading programs and teams to do Digital Transformation. Eventually, I was promoted to the Senior Director of Data Analytics, leading a team of data scientists, gaining firsthand experience with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Currently, I am the Director of Continuous Improvement at Wabtec Corporation, a supplier in the Rail and Mining Equipment industries.
I enjoy bringing joy into the workforce by solving a problem, creating user friendly digital products, or providing easy access to data. In 2020, I launched Leverage 4 Data to provide a platform to do all three – create a solution to digitize workflows with an intuitive user interface and accessible data.
Digital for Data’s Sake
Digital transformation has been a buzzword that has been talked about for years, yet many people struggle with what it means. Often, when asked about digital transformation, more jargon appears, and we are swimming in a sea of acronyms and terms like CRM, ERP, and Digital Twin. What exactly is a digital twin? I am not going to go into that here, but I will talk about digitization. I like to simplify the concept by talking in terms of the business processes. Digitization is taking an existing business process and transitioning it into the online digital world to drive value. Improving the customer experience or implementing technology to retain younger talent are some of the benefits to digitizing processes. However, my favorite outcome of digitizing a key process is the creation of data.
Focusing efforts to extract value from the data can be daunting. Here are four examples of how data from a digitization can improve operations, costs and even culture.
Creating KPIs to Measure Performance
Recently, I had a dental procedure done. When I arrived and was checked in, I noticed that the receptionist looked at a paper logbook to verify my name. The same logbook was used to make my next appointment. I was shocked! They lacked a system to track a major part of their business, managing appointments. How could they know who failed to show up or how often people canceled? What about tracking how long the actual appointment took vs. the scheduled time to make sure procedures were planned well. It is difficult to improve what you don’t measure.
The easiest place to measure the effectiveness of a process is with a time-based metric and a quality metric.
- A time-based metric. Speed is everything – how fast are customer orders being fulfilled, how long does a service event take, what is the cycle time associated with procuring parts? When the process is managed in a digital platform, such as an eCommerce platform, or an ERP, there are time stamps for each event, providing the ability to measure the total time, as well as the time it takes for each step of the process. Creating KPIs for overall process can create a mechanism to add urgency and improve the time.
- A quality metric. Whenever a time-based metric is introduced, it is important to balance it with a quality metric. I remember when my team introduced a cycle time metric on customer issue management, unfortunately a quality metric was not added. The solutions to the customer issues were delivered quickly but occasionally resulted in rework, and sometimes costly rework. When the data is in a platform, it is possible to calculate the rework or first pass yield of a process.
Improve Operations with Insights
I’ve seen plenty of operating rhythms that reviewed KPI scorecards. Bringing a scorecard with red on it to the leadership team, was sure to be met with scolding. What I found surprising was how little the leaders asked questions when the KPI was green. Wouldn’t that be insightful? I like to understand why the red exists, as well as the green metrics. This is where dashboards and visualizations can help. Visualizing the operational data in a dashboard is one of the simplest, yet impactful ways to use the data to improve operations.
My teams have made some amazing analytics dashboards and visualizations. One dashboard built allowed the service teams to visualize the best performing shops against the worst. The user could drill into why product needed service to see which workorders impacted quality. Nobody used it, even though I thought they provided a ton of value. The biggest pitfall was not connecting them to the existing KPIs.
Now when I approach dashboard development, I start with the KPIs. Perhaps they are KPIs created to measure time and quality, or they are something else that is already adopted. With a cross functional team, we brainstorm all the possible data points that could impact that metric. A visualization is built to provide an exploratory experience to drill into the data in a consumable way. I recommend bringing the visualization into the operating rhythms and use the dashboard to answer questions in the meeting. A scolding leader is likely to become intrigued.
Reduce Stress
Another use of data from a digital system is never talked about but is probably relatable. We’ve all been there. It’s 4:30 on Friday afternoon and you receive a call from a customer or your boss. They are upset about something, and you need to find answers. The panic sets in and you start to put together the story to provide an answer. This usually involves digging through papers, email and perhaps phone calls to colleagues to find information. Data retrieval is difficult. I remember one issue took 19 hours of rummaging through paperwork over a 3-week span to identify which parts were impacted by a quality issue. When the process exists in a digital system, and the critical data is captured, answering the mail becomes much easier. The stress in these situations is reduced, making it much easier to enjoy the weekend. While the ROI is not clear, spending time fighting fires is certainly non-value add. Extinguishing them quickly is a win.
Increase Revenue from the Data
Finally, the operational data collected in your digitized processes is to identify revenue opportunities. For example, the historic services data can be used to predict future service events. Offers could be targeted to those customers to provide those services. The historic service data could be used to cross sell during a maintenance event as well. For equipment that is serviced on a regular basis, are there probable breakdowns between planned events? Additional preventive services or upgrades could be offered at a discount during the maintenance as an alternative to fixing a failure. Could the customer buying patterns identified by the dealers be useful to the OEMs, providing leverage for the dealer?
Netflix transformed the movie renting experience by making it more convenient, i.e., going digital, but their revenue gains were from using the data to provide binge worthy shows and keep people on their platform. Imagine the possibilities for equipment dealerships.
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A Special Announcement from the AED Foundation
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Introducing our Colleague John Sessums
Our new guest writer John Sessums is the owner of Mechanic and Techs LLC, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. John’s career spans 38 years involved in equipment dealership management, and he is also an AEMP Certified Equipment Manager. As a Senior Product Support Manager and later as Wholegoods Sales Manager, Johns’s focus has always been on increasing sales by providing superior customer support. Once retired, he formed Mechanic and Techs and now offers a unique buffet of affordable Product Support Growth Solutions. M&T provides Consulting, Recruitment, Speciality Job Boards, On-Line Search Systems, LWS Skill Assessments/Training/Testing for those in Service, Parts, Sales, and Rental.
I have been a past student of Ron Slee’s Quest Learning Centers, and I credit that training as the foundation of my success. As a Regional Manager of Product Support and later as Whole Goods Sales Manager, I have sent many of my employees and managers to Ron’s training seminars to learn from the GOAT himself. They each returned with a three-ring green binder that held the secret of success for themselves and their employers. Using Learning Without Scars, all companies looking to grow now have a proven method to succeed.
Every dealership is looking to grow, but most are more focused on handling day to day issues
Six years ago, after 38 years in the heavy equipment business, I launched a recruiting company focused primarily on recruiting higher-level equipment technicians. Our team created a buffet of employee management services for equipment dealerships across the country centered around LWS.
About two and a half years ago, Ron and I discussed a client who was having trouble finding the number of techs they needed. As we talked, I shared with Ron my main challenge was locating and vetting qualified people. Like everyone else, I had to take a candidate’s word that they actually had the skills they claimed to have.
Considering my company offered a performance guarantee, I needed a proven method to confirm a candidates’ knowledge and skill level before recommending them to clients. Being an old equipment guy, I also knew guarantees and refunds were great, but what I valued most was hiring qualified and committed people the first time. After talking with Ron over several weeks, I knew I had found the exact answers I needed.
Ron and I took part in an equipment industry article about five years ago about the coming technician crisis. What will now follow will be a rapid rise in wages and a gradual decline in overall tech competency and efficiency. As with technicians, the last train carrying needed Product Support replacements has already left the station and is rapidly heading towards that same bridge. Thankfully, all manufacturers offer excellent technician training, so that crisis will hopefully even out over time.
LWS will be at the forefront of product support employee training. Ron and his team have been busy formatting and transferring his thirty-plus years of knowledge and teaching onto the new LWS site for the past several years. Ron’s training seminars, books, and consulting have been considered the Gold Standard for Capital Goods dealerships across the U.S. and translated into several languages worldwide. Senior managers in dealerships across the country have vetted and approved the LWS courses. An equipment industry senior service management expert developed the Technician Assessments. While the site’s content was time-tested, duplicating Ron’s unique delivery method and personality online took time to perfect. You can now visit Learning Without Scars and view firsthand what our friend, along with his daughter Caroline, and the entire LWS team have been up to for the past few years. I think you will be very impressed.
Our company, Mechanics and Techs LLC., was designed and is staffed by seasoned semi-retired equipment industry corporate managers. We have successfully managed multi-branch Service, Parts, Outside Product Support Sales Teams, New and Used Sales teams, Rental groups and worked with a wide variety of brands and types of equipment and trucks.
We combined our many years of hands-on dealership experience to create a unique selection of affordable Product Support Growth Solutions specifically designed for our equipment industry clients. We provide Consulting, Recruitment, Specialty Job Boards, Web-Based Online Candidate Search Systems, LWS Skill Assessments/Training/Testing for those in Service, Parts, Sales, and Rental.
We will introduce you to more of our services, in more detail in the coming weeks and months. I look forward to having Mechanics and Techs working with learning Without Scars for years to come. Thanks for welcoming us as a Colleague.
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The 5th Element
Our guest blog post, The 5th Element, has been written by a new guest to our website: Patrick Fisher. Over the past two decades Patrick Fisher has been primarily focused on distribution development of large complex agriculture and construction equipment dealerships. Patrick was the Vice President, from March 2013 – October 2021, of Sonsray Machinery, Inc. with P & L responsibilities for Construction Equipment locations with Sales and Service Area (SSA) of 15+ locations within five contiguous states on the west coast. Patrick was the former Vice President, until March 2013, of the Construction Division at Titan Machinery, Inc. with P & L responsibilities for Construction Equipment locations with Sales and Service Area (SSA) of 40+ locations within eleven contiguous states in U.S. While in this role he successfully developed and launched Titan Rentals, a Rent-to-Rent business unit within the construction stores. Mr. Fisher also served as Director of Operations for Titan Machinery responsible for all parts and service operations for all of the Titan Machinery locations.
He was additionally Planting and Seeding Platform Engineering Manager for CNH Global until May 2003. Prior to joining CaseIH in 1996, Patrick was an automation engineer for Hutchinson Technology.
Patrick continues to spend time with his family farm near Bismarck, ND to ensure his two sons learn and appreciate good work ethics. Mr. Fisher has a Bachelors in Industrial Engineering from NDSU and an MBA from the University of Mary in Fargo, North Dakota. He was a member of the Case Construction Dealer Advisory Board (6+ years), the American Rental Association, and the Association of Equipment Dealers. Patrick has a proven track record of business growth execution. Patrick’s hobbies include hunting, fishing, and flying.
THE 5th ELEMENT OF AN EQUIPMENT DEALERSHIP: PREDICTIVE MACHINE DATA ANALYTICS
Equipment dealerships have evolved through the years to not only include equipment sales. Parts, Service, and Rental sales have proven to be critical success factors increasing expense absorption to ensure profitability especially during these days of supplier equipment shortages. The next evolution of equipment dealerships is the 5th element: predictive machine failure analytics.
Today’s customers have access to more information about their operations and equipment than ever, yet most dealers wait for the phone to ring to help solve a customer issue. All machines are the same, if not they will be the same within the next design cycle of that manufacturer. The equipment is designed and built by engineers and production employees that went to the same schools using the same steel, plastic, and electrical components. All equipment is the same, the only differentiation is customer support. As a dealer you can no longer survive with a reactive customer support culture. How do you shift your customer support culture to the 5th element using the technology that is readily available to the industry?
The average dealer installs 40% of the parts they sell. I do not foresee a time in which all parts sold by a branded dealership will be installed by trained technicians. However, I do think by changing the culture of the dealership service support from reactionary to predictive machine failure you should be installing 60%+ of the parts sold by trained technicians. Increasing parts sales installed by technicians by 5% would increase the typical dealerships pretax net income by 20%. A 10% increase in parts installed would increase pretax income by nearly 40% for the typical dealership. How do you convince customers to buy your labor experience when buying parts? This is something that we all have struggled with through the years. The simple answer is you don’t, unless you provide predictive failure analysis support. When a customer is standing at the parts counter or on the phone talking with a parts counter associate asking about the pricing and availability of parts, they have made the decision to install the parts themselves. This decision could have been based on prior experience, timeframe to repair, pricing or many other reasons. Machines are breaking down, your dealership is selling the parts to repair the machines, however over 50% of the parts are not being installed by your dealership. How do you change this?
Today’s technology is impressive and underutilized by the typical equipment dealership. Most manufacturers offer telematics on new equipment that is tied into the CAN bus of the machine that reports alarms, usage, and position through either cellular or GPS transmissions. These can be monitored remotely to help support the customer, however after the free trial period supplied by the manufacturer, most customers do not renew their subscription because of the lack of perceived value. Most dealerships do not have processes or people in place to support remote monitoring. The primary issue with today’s telemetric systems is that they are priority to the manufacturer not the customer. Customers are looking for a one stop solution for machine uptime. The current telemetric solutions can help provide limited predictive machine failure by monitoring changes in reporting of the machine alarms.
The missing piece of the puzzle for a true machine telematics predictive failure analysis is real time oil condition and fuel condition reporting. There are solutions available today that can be added to machines that provide real time reporting of oil and fuel condition. These solutions are relatively inexpensive and can provide timely reporting of changes in oil and fuel. These systems coupled with the manufactures CAN bus telemetric solutions have the ability to provide your dealership with a predictive failure analysis solution for your customers. Customers understand that machines breakdown, however they tend to breakdown at the most inconvenient time, when they need it to work. If you are able to remotely monitor CAN bus alarms as well as real-time oil and fuel condition changes your dealership could provide predictive machine failure analysis to your customer. This would allow the customer to schedule repairs with your dealership. Scheduled repairs can be planned and are more likely to be scheduled with the dealership for repairs.
Most customers currently do not renew their telemetric subscription after the manufacture supplied free trial period because of last of perceived value. This is a function of your dealership to bring perceived value to the customer. Technology is evolving every day and will continue be a critical part of machine sales/service cycle going forward. All equipment manufactures spent excessive engineering resources to ensure engine emissions compliance over the past 10 plus years. Now the focus is technology development. This 5th element of a dealership: Predictive Machine Data Analytics will be the primary equipment distribution game changer in the next 10 years. Will your dealership embrace this technology as an integral part of service culture?
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The Digital Dealership, Your Audience: Marketing Activities, Part 2
In tonight’s blog post, guest writer Mets Kramer continues his exploration of the digital dealership. Part 2 of a series, tonight we look at marketing activities for your audience.
Digital Marketing to your Audience
Anyone who’s read marketing articles or blogs or attended a course will be familiar with the 4Ps of marketing, along with many similar acronyms. Product, Price, Placement and Promotion sum up the core tenant’s marketers need to consider when creating a marketing and advertising plan. In digital marketing and for the Digital Dealership this is even more important.
In the Digital Marketing world, we often speak about engagement. Engagement is critical to digital marketing success and why reconsidering the basic tenants of marketing is so important. In the digital world, what we see and what we want to see are determined by Engagement levels.
Over the past couple of years, you’ve heard a lot about the engagement algorithms used by social media sites and other platforms. These platforms have two main goals, to create user engagement with the platform and extend the time spent by users on the platform. To do this the platforms have highly intelligent algorithms that present content it calculates will be of interest to people. This is often based on the type of content or early engagement with it. If content has low engagement the algorithm effectively buries the content and, even if you have lots of connections, most of them will not see your content.
Creating content and marketing to your audience through digital media requires careful thought to be effective and this is where defining, segmenting and building strategies for your audience is important. Take a moment at this point to think about how you interact with various types of digital marketing, you’re someone else’s audience segment too, it will help with your own strategy.
In the first part of this series, we looked at defining who’s in your audience, and segmenting them. These segments can be defined by any criteria, from sales volumes to location to fleet size and industry. What’s important is to have segments defined to create strategies. You can define these for known contacts in your audience, but you can also create these segments in the unknown audience. For each of these Segments of the audience, consider the tenants of marketing.
First, what is the Product you want to present to each segment?
Is it the dealership, the experience of the people in the dealership, is it machine inventory or is it services like rental, your shop or parts? Each of these items is of varying degree of interest to your audience. Content should be created for each of the products your dealership has to offer. Your existing customers may want to learn more about service products. Your prospect customers may want to know about the inventory you have for sale or about the brand you represent and the capabilities of that brand. Your unknown audience likely needs to learn more about who you are and about the dealership in general. This will help them to recognize and consider your other products, like machines, in the future. Regardless, it’s important to understand all the products you have to offer as each audience segment will find different values on each product. Furthermore, don’t forget, your content needs to be engaging, so try and use video, audio, closed captioning and imagery.
Second, what channels will you use to place the content for your audience to see, engage with or react to?
There are traditional channels, like advertising sites, billboards and magazines. There are digital channels including email campaigns, your website, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram etc. and there are also physical channels like signage, brochures, posters and even invoices. What is important is to understand what audience you’ll be addressing through each channel and what the purpose of the content is.
The Channel selection can be approached from multiple directions. Consider for each channel, “what audience segments use the channel?” or approached from the other direction, “what channels do your target audience segments use?” You need to determine this for each audience segment.
In the last few years, I’ve seen LinkedIn be corporation and brand development focused, Facebook focuses on small contractor and community focused, Instagram looks to be Brand, Product or announcement focused etc.
Third, what will be your plan combining these 3 main aspects. Audience Segment, Contact and Channel?
For this step it is often helpful to create some matrixes. For each defined audience segment create a grid with 2 axes. One for Product content and the second axis for Channel. This work will help you really think through what content to place on each channel to engage your audience. For your digital channels this is critically important, and the work done to define your audience and your product content will help you make sure the content is engaging. Content placed on the right channel designed for the audience in the channel will always get you higher engagement, and in return, your content will be viewed by more of your audience members.
Finally, as a Digital Dealer, how will you use Information to augment your marketing?
Using and collecting information is the hallmark of a smart and digital dealership. Analyzing information about your audience, including feedback from marketing and advertising efforts, help you to fine tune all the above 3 aspects, content, audience and channel. Here are some examples.
- Add user specific information to Email Campaigns. “Hi John, because you own motor graders, we thought this inventory item might be of interest to you”. This can be done though tagging in the mail software and merge codes. This content will be many times more engaging.
- A Dealer website that recognizes returning customers and provides shortcuts to frequently visited pages or functions, and filtered inventory or promotions based on existing Fleet. “Welcome back Bill, this section lists the functions you often visit; Online Parts, Machine Specs. Your 410 is due for a service, here’s a link to the filter kit”
Spending time analyzing your audience always pays. They can be your existing customers, local contractors or people you don’t know. Building a marketing plan, for each of the audience segments you’re interested in, will help you retain the customers you have and funnel in new customers to your sales and after sales operations.
Mets Kramer
Mets.kramer@strategicevolutions.ca