Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F32

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

LEAVE US A LOAN

 Managing loaner fleet efficiently is critical task for service departments

&
QA

Q: How does a dealership benefit from operating an efficiently managed fleet of loaner
vehicles?
A: It's about profitability, and that manifests
itself in three ways. The first is that dealerships
don't get nickeled-and-dimed on typical operating expenses. The second is to make sure
that the money that they have invested in this
operation, in the form of people and assets
like vehicles, are most effectively utilized,
where they're getting the highest return on investment. The third is about elevating the customer experience so that you can get a customer who is willing to spend more, more often, and come back as a loyal repeat customer
to your service business.
If you have a bloated, poorly functioning
loaner fleet, you're bleeding money, you're

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JUNE 2018

aintaining a fleet of loaner vehicles for customers to use while
their cars and trucks are in the
shop is an increasingly vital feature of dealership service departments. How
efficiently a dealership runs its loaner fleet
can have a big impact on both service customers' satisfaction and the bottom line.
Russell Lemmer is an executive vice president at Dealerware, which offers a software
package that enables dealerships to manage
their loaner fleets digitally. Since the platform
launched last year, Lemmer says, it has attracted "hundreds" of dealership customers
that pay $400 a month for access to it, with
added charges for such things as connectivity
features and toll management.
Some of these customers, Lemmer adds, already are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The product reduces the amount of
time needed to process a typical loaner
transaction
from
nearly a half-hour
to barely a minRUSSELL LEMMER ute, he says.
Lemmer will
take part in a
panel discussion about the future of service
loaners at a forum sponsored by Fixed Ops
Journal in Atlanta in August (see Page 26). He
discussed loaner fleet management with
Fixed Ops Journal Editor David Kushma.

"A loaner program
drives trials of dealerships'
newer products."
RUSSELL LEMMER, Dealerware

not getting the most out of your cars or your
people, and your customers are typically disappointed.
With a high-performing fleet and a well-run
operation, you're minimizing that expense,
you're getting the highest ROI and productivity out of your staff, and your customers are
having a great time. You take a paper-based
process that typically requires 28 minutes to
get a car and turn it into something that's less
than 100 seconds, fully digitalized, and allows
customers to communicate by text messaging
and get on their way.
How does a good loaner fleet make a service
department run better?
It's a streamlined operation. Typically, dealerships are good at selling and servicing cars,
but managing a loaner fleet is not a core com-

petency. Loaners used to be a luxury-brand
expectation, and now they've moved more into the mass market - part of the customer-centric experience.
So service isn't just about getting my car
fixed at the best price. Service is about that experience, and a high-performing loaner fleet
allows service departments to elevate that experience for their customers while minimizing the amount of bandwidth and resources it
takes to deliver on that experience.
What advice would you give dealers and
fixed ops directors about creating an inhouse loaner fleet?
Start with your customer satisfaction scores.
If you're getting punishing scores, why is that?
We've seen a lot of customers who come in expecting loaner cars to be available, only to find
out they have to wait for four hours and there is
no alternative mobility solution.
Not having that fleet is superdamaging to
the dealership. If I'm considering a loaner
fleet, I would say, do I need it, and are my customers expecting it? And more importantly,
see LOANERS, Page 33

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018