The last time we met we talked about being in a rut. I believe it. The problem is that you do too.
Shopping is not a “male” thing. I tease that we are missing a DNA strand or something. We typically know what we are looking for or what we want or need, go to a store, look for it, find it, and then go the cash register and buy it – short and sweet and easy. Right?
Well then stores started cutting back on their support staff, the sales people on the floor, perhaps even the number of check out cash registers. Just as you did starting in the 1980’s when interest rates skyrocketed and Paul Volker was trying to kill inflation. All of the sudden the sale per employee metric became religious. It got a following. Oh I know I support standards of performance and one of the key performance indicators in a parts department is the standard of performance. However, there are many nuances to the number.
The variables sometimes are overlooked – like the average dollar value of the transaction, the weight of the parts, the number of pieces sold per part number, the time of year, and the pay package of the parts employee.
The standard that the AED, Associated Equipment Distributors, publishes is $600,000/employee/year. That today is still a pretty good standard as an average result. But we have to be careful of the usual suspects. A man drowned in a river of average depth of one foot. The $600,000 is based on a pay package of $42,000/year. Is that the average salary, commission and benefit package cost for an employee in your parts department? I don’t even need to go further. In some parts of the country this might still be in the right range but you need to do the arithmetic.
The same “male” genetic defect exists in our customers. They don’t like to be kept waiting for you to answer the telephone, or to acknowledge their presence when they walk into your store, or to wait while you go find the part in the warehouse. They want good service. So I acknowledge that good service is a person thing and that what is good for one person is not necessarily good for someone else. That is what makes customer service so difficult. It is the gap between the expectations that the customer has and the perception of what they got. That can only be satisfied by talented, caring, empathetic and skilled people in the correct number on the job. How do you stand up? The time is now.
WH Filosophy v1.4
In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold.
John Leonard, American critic
Friday Filosophy #31
A man who correctly guesses a woman’s age may be smart, but he’s not very bright.
Lucille Ball
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
Charles M. Shulz
Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.
Polish Proverb
The time is now.
Management Musing v1.9
I want to talk about tomorrow today. I want to look into the future and try to make some determinations about what management and leadership will be like in 2050 or so. I know that I am setting myself up for some ridicule but there are some truths I want to explore.
This started with the birth of my grandson in 2005. You see boys that were born in 2005 barring a disease or an accident are expected to live until they are 100 years old. That is right 100 years old. Can you imagine that? Now for the record I think that is terrific, however, that means also that there will be a lot of changes coming to accommodate this fact. Let me pose a few questions.
I know that many of you are much too busy and stressed to be thinking about such things but they really need to have some thought applied don’t they? You have children, or will have soon. You have grandchildren or will have one day. This is not just about those of us in our sunset work years. (I have about fifteen years left) This is about you.
How you manage your jobs and lead people is what makes a difference in their lives and also in yours. How you deal with tomorrow will be the same thing. The time is now.
Parts Pondering v1.9
The last time we met we talked about being in a rut. I believe it. The problem is that you do too.
Shopping is not a “male” thing. I tease that we are missing a DNA strand or something. We typically know what we are looking for or what we want or need, go to a store, look for it, find it, and then go the cash register and buy it – short and sweet and easy. Right?
Well then stores started cutting back on their support staff, the sales people on the floor, perhaps even the number of check out cash registers. Just as you did starting in the 1980’s when interest rates skyrocketed and Paul Volker was trying to kill inflation. All of the sudden the sale per employee metric became religious. It got a following. Oh I know I support standards of performance and one of the key performance indicators in a parts department is the standard of performance. However, there are many nuances to the number.
The variables sometimes are overlooked – like the average dollar value of the transaction, the weight of the parts, the number of pieces sold per part number, the time of year, and the pay package of the parts employee.
The standard that the AED, Associated Equipment Distributors, publishes is $600,000/employee/year. That today is still a pretty good standard as an average result. But we have to be careful of the usual suspects. A man drowned in a river of average depth of one foot. The $600,000 is based on a pay package of $42,000/year. Is that the average salary, commission and benefit package cost for an employee in your parts department? I don’t even need to go further. In some parts of the country this might still be in the right range but you need to do the arithmetic.
The same “male” genetic defect exists in our customers. They don’t like to be kept waiting for you to answer the telephone, or to acknowledge their presence when they walk into your store, or to wait while you go find the part in the warehouse. They want good service. So I acknowledge that good service is a person thing and that what is good for one person is not necessarily good for someone else. That is what makes customer service so difficult. It is the gap between the expectations that the customer has and the perception of what they got. That can only be satisfied by talented, caring, empathetic and skilled people in the correct number on the job. How do you stand up? The time is now.
Service Statement v1.7
The last service blog listed a series of items that are required if we are to give customers the certainty they want when they work with the service department. The first of those required items is an inspection. Yes I know the customer tells us what is wrong and what they want done. And yes I agree that many of the customers are very knowledgeable. And finally I agree that most customers know their machinery better than anyone else. So why don’t I want to trust their diagnoses? It is really quite simple.
I refer you back to your doctor. I know many of you don’t visit your doctor as regularly as you should, particularly you men. Women are much better at preventative maintenance, oops medicine, than men are as a rule. Perhaps that is why so many men customers believe that preventative maintenance is only about dropping fluids and changing filters. But go back to the doctor if you will. They see you once a year, perhaps more, and have a discussion with you, check your vitals, blood pressure, temperature, pulse, weight, etc., and then they send you to a lab for blood work, perhaps for an x-ray or an MRI depending on the situation. But don’t you know your body better than anyone else? So why not just tell the doctor what is wrong and have the doctor fix it? Of course you know the answer to that one don’t you? Then why don’t we operate the same way when it comes to the service department? You have to have an inspection. It should be done by specifically named inspectors. It should be a predefined series of steps and indications. It should have the machine operating as it would in a work environment, at operating temperature. Then we can be certain of the causes for the customer complaints. Then we can be more certain on our quotation and completion dates. That is what the customer wants and needs for us. The time is now.
Last Chance
Don’t miss the webinars today on Service Management. It is can’t miss webinar day.
CAS Filosophy v1.2
Some of you might know that my daughter has been fighting cancer since the early months of 2011 – multiple surgeries and serial sessions of chemotherapy and reconstruction and diet changes and untold emotional challenges. Now she is back to rebuilding her body and her life. Through all of this as a father you are helpless yet admire the tenacity and strength of your children. She is truly amazing.
She has taken to the Friday blog of philosophy although she will not follow my alliteration. Here is v1.2 of her Friday Philosophy. I hope you enjoy.
It’s not the size of the girl in the fight that counts: it’s the size of the fight in the girl that matters most.
Anonymous
Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.
Rumi
It was in the depths of winter that I discovered within me, there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Never give up… don’t ever give up.
The time is now.
WH Filosophy v1.3
It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone… And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.
Mark Cuban, American businessman and basketball team owner
Service Organization Webinar – Tuesday September 25th
The organization of a service department is about more than technicians and clerks and management. Designing the structure is about facts and not feelings. The time for shop and field jobs starts the design. The technology, tooling and processes used take us the rest of the way. Exploring the service department organization from a factual foundation is the goal of this webinar.
The density of supervision to technician has long been in dispute in this Industry. This webinar aims to put that dispute to rest by providing definitive measures of labor efficiency and quality in the forefront and not having “cost” drive decisions about those two fundamental elements of a service department.. From Roman times to the current US Army supervision has been a constant and defining attribute of high performance. We discuss the appropriate levels of supervision and provide a model for the participants to use for their business.
The clerical support in a Service Department covers all aspects of record management as well as labor controls, job controls, job process and work in process, as well as everything to do with warranty and technical documentation, either in printed or electronic format. The dealer business system is critical in supporting this function. This webinar will be of benefit to everyone in management and supervision of the service function.
Service Pricing Webinar – Tuesday September 25th
Too often dealerships call around to the neighboring dealers and ask for their service pricing. While it is understandable to know what the pricing is in your territory it is more important to develop a price structure that is required to attract the business and also produce the profit necessary to operate a dealership.
We will expose the “peanut butter” labor pricing for what it is – an over simplified unrealistic pricing mechanism – and provide an alternative to consider. It all starts from the skills of the men and the degree of difficulty of the work involved. That requires we must know the skills of the men we employ and then use their skills on jobs that match that skill. Consider that the wage that is paid to the men is a direct reflection of the skills that the men have and we have a starting point to determine labor rates. It is called a “wage multiple.
This methodology has been in use for a long time but not by sufficiently large numbers of dealerships; currently most of us over price low skill work and under price high skill work. We will define and describe the wage multiple so that upon the completion of this webinar the participants will be able to return to work and recalculate their labor rates with this new method and evaluate whether or not they should apply it in their Service Department.