Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A21

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 | 21
S E L L E R S A U T O G R O U P, FA R M I N G T O N H I L L S , M I C H .

Service facilitators reduce wait times
Group sells more
vehicles as appraisals
lead to trade-ins

Published in Automotive News March 11, 2019
Danielle Szatkowski

autonews@crain.com

special role of service facilitator is
helping Sellers Auto Group trim customer wait times and boost vehicle
sales.
The Farmington Hills, Mich., dealership
group employs three service facilitators at its
Sellers Subaru and Sellers Buick-GMC stores
after launching the position in 2012. Their No.
1 job: Make sure customers don't have to wait
when they arrive at the service drive, especially during peak hours. That's a common constraint many dealerships battle.
In addition to greeting the customer and
aiding communication with service advisers,
the facilitators offer to appraise customers'
vehicles, said Sam Slaughter, president of the
dealership group. Those appraisals can lead to
customers trading in their car and buying a replacement vehicle. The facilitator position has
contributed to lower service department
turnover and better customer retention,
which helps improve sales and profitability.
"The facilitators have helped maintain positive reputation and consistent customer traffic in the service drive, and that's helped our
organization grow," Slaughter said. "We have
sold about 12 to 15 cars extra per month from
people who came into the service drive, with
repeat customers telling us they buy Buicks
and GMCs because of our service department."
Even when service customers don't intend
to buy a car, he said, they sometimes end up
doing so after learning their vehicles are
worth enough to trade in for something that's
newer or that better fits their needs without
costing much more.

Customer-centric
Pat Hogan, general manager at Sellers
Buick-GMC, of Farmington Hills, said average service employee turnover at his store
has decreased to less than 10 percent in recent years. Service employees have an average tenure of 15 years. Since the facilitator
role was added, the amount of time a customer waits to be processed during peak
hours in the service lane has dropped from

Chris Cook, a
service facilitator at
Sellers Buick-GMC,
appraises a vehicle
that was brought in
for service.

Service facilitators at Sellers Auto
Group in Michigan reduce customer
wait times and help sell more
vehicles by letting service customers
know how much equity they have in
their current vehicles that could be
put toward another purchase.

an average of 2.5 minutes to one minute.
Sellers Auto Group retails about 300 new
and 150 used vehicles per month.
For Slaughter, a successful facilitator is
someone who takes the stance of "How can I
help you?" vs. "How can I sell you something?" When hiring for the position, Slaughter scouts internally for enthusiastic employees who have demonstrated they can make a
comfortable connection with customers and
who know a lot about the product lineup.
Chris Cook, a former detail manager at the
Buick-GMC store and an 18-year veteran at
Sellers, said he didn't hesitate to ask for the
service facilitator role when the position became available. After 12 years as a detail manager, Cook has now held the service facilitator
position for the last six years.

"With my passion for vehicles, there's no
better place in the world to work than a dealership," Cook said. "Sellers provides so many
opportunities for its employees, and Sam
does a remarkable job promoting within. Getting a job here was the best thing I've ever done
because I love what I do here."

A soft approach
Employees who are promoted to be facilitators must go through a gauntlet of training -
to hone interpersonal skills and learn how to
appraise a vehicle, Hogan said. The training
focuses on building customer loyalty, maintaining relationships and understanding how
the service drive operates so the facilitator can
steer customers through their visits efficiently.
"It's a soft approach of helping customers
first, navigating them through the service department and then educating them on the equity of their vehicles," Hogan said. "We receive
customer response cards on a daily basis, and
there's not a day that goes by where there's not
a comment that states how they were greeted
by a friendly person in our service drive or
how it was a smooth operation and they were
directed and helped right away." a

Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement

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