Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A40

40 | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
S T R E E T V O L K S WA G E N O F A M A R I L L O , A M A R I L L O , T E X A S

Reports put customers in driver's seat
Transparency with
reconditioning data
benefits sales, service
Published in Automotive News July 8, 2019

Larry P. Vellequette
lvellequette@crain.com

t was an idea born of frustration and still in
relative infancy: Open up the process -
and costs - of used-vehicle reconditioning
to the buying public to let people see what
the dealership has done to every car on the lot.
When Daniel Gregg, inventory director at
Street Volkswagen of Amarillo in Texas, came up
with the idea at a 20 Group meeting this year, he
didn't know how to get it done, he admits.
But that has become a team exercise at the
dealership, involving the sales, service and information technology staffs. And the result? A
detailed electronic report, available to every
dealership employee around the clock, that lays
out by stock number everything that the dealership knows and what it's done to the used vehicles on its lot - whether they needed new
brakes or tires, whether they had body damage
when they came in, what the inspection showed
and how much the dealership invested to get the
cars ready to sell to the next customer.
In short, a transparent reconditioning process
that shows used-vehicle customers that the
dealership did more than just "wash the car and
throw it on the lot" and translates into better
products to put before those customers.

Little cost
The dealership built this system and the reports it generates at almost no additional cost,
with vendor-supplied inspection reports,
Google Docs and its internal email system.
"You know the question," Gregg said. "Every
salesperson gets it - maybe not from every
customer, but from a lot of them, from the
ones that care."
His voice raised a bit: " 'What did you do to it?'
And if you can show them exactly what you did
to the car, it can also kind of presell our service
department" and help justify the vehicle price.
So how does it work?
Like almost all franchised dealerships, Street
Volkswagen's service department completes a
detailed initial inspection of each pre-owned vehicle that it acquires, either by trade-in or at
wholesale, as part of its reconditioning work. It
does the same type of inspection for the custom-

Street Volkswagen Inventory Director Daniel Gregg, left, and General Manager John Luciano look
over an inspection report. The reports are saved to a Google Drive accessible by all employees.
Street Volkswagen of Amarillo uses a
shared Google Drive to keep all of the
service records and reconditioning
information it has on each of the
vehicles in its used inventory,
allowing for immediate electronic
access that can be shared with
customers, who appreciate the
transparency.

er-owned vehicles that come through service
and provides each customer with a report, complete with photos, of where the vehicle has issues. The photos in the report are populated automatically through vendor Xtime, a subsidiary
of Cox Automotive.
Where the innovation comes is what happens
next: Inspection reports, including recommendations and any completed service repair orders, are saved electronically by stock number to
a shared Google Drive, where every employee at
the dealership has immediate access to them on
any electronic device.
"Before, these records were all on paper and
kept in service," Gregg said. "So when someone
got the question 'What did you do to it?' the
salesperson had to leave the customer, go back
to service, find someone to look up the service
record, and then take it back to the customer. It
was too much freaking work!"
Gregg said he is still experimenting with other
information the dealership has access to that
can be compiled into a more thorough report for
each of its used vehicles. Some examples: the
vehicle's original Monroney sticker, repair histories from other Volkswagen dealerships, photographs of the existing tires when they are

changed or before-and-after photos of dings
and paint imperfections that are addressed in
the reconditioning process.
But one thing included in each used-vehicle
report is the full cost of any completed repairs.
"We all pay retail, so there shouldn't be a
problem about showing retail cost of repairs
and parts. So why should there be any issue in
being transparent?" Gregg said.

Transparency is key
Even that level of openness has had an indirect
impact on operations. "The service and parts
managers are happy because it's another reason
not to catch heat when they charge the internal
customers full retail. And frankly, it's generated
more reconditioning work because I don't want
something to show up as a recommendation on
an inspection report and not do it," he explained.
Using the shared Google Drive to house the
used-vehicle information has already proved
beneficial on the sales floor, said the dealership's general manager, John Luciano, who is
also chairman of the Volkswagen National
Dealer Advisory Council.
"Customers love the transparency," Luciano
explained. The dealership, in the heart of the
Texas Panhandle, sells an average of 75 new and
105 used vehicles a month. "Transparency is a
difference-maker now with customers, and we
feel it's even helping us in finance because everyone can see everything that's been done to a
vehicle, and it's motivating people to get service
contracts to keep the vehicle in shape."
While the online reports are likely to continue to evolve, Gregg said the bang has definitely been worth the buck.
"It's cost us next to nothing to do," he joked,
"so my ROI is great!" e

Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement