Fixed Ops Journal - April 2021 - F20

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

" Everybody
wants a car guy
or car girl they
can call and say,
'Hey, I need
brakes,' or 'It's
time for a new
[vehicle],' " says
Joel Tanner of
Donley
Automotive
Group.

Take a cue from customers - and keep them

ne element of the Quantum5 training program is to make service advisers advocates for their customers, a term likely to raise eyebrows
at some dealerships because it sounds like
giving money away.
But to Joel Tanner, the fixed operations director at Donley Automotive Group, it means
building a customer relationship based on
trust. As a result, when customers call a dealership for service, they will ask for someone by
name.
" Everybody wants a car guy or car girl they
can call and say, 'Hey, I need brakes,' or 'It's
time for a new [vehicle],' and they want one
point of contact, " Tanner says. " We want our
advisers and our sales team members to be
that [person] and build a long-term relationship. Not only do they know my name, but
they find value in me. "
The Donley group, which has four Ford

QUANTUM
continued from Page 19

Donley Automotive Group, which has four
Ford stores in central Ohio, including two
with Lincoln franchises, had service advisers
go through in-person training with Quantum5
in early March.
Fixed Operations Director Joel Tanner says
Quantum5 monitors how often his service advisers use the app and how quickly they are
advancing. This removes that burden from
him and other managers who were often

PAGE 20

stores in central Ohio, put service advisers
through the Quantum5 in-person training in
early March.
Tanner spoke with Fixed Ops Journal two
weeks after the in-person training, too soon to
provide any quantifiable repair order results.
But his service advisers say the training has
helped them recognize their own social style
and how they can use it with customers.
" I think the most important part of communicating is, if you understand how you behave
and how you approach things, then you're going to be in a situation when you start to read
social cues from other people and how they
behave, " he says. " You attack the scenario
based on the cues you receive. "
At Germain Toyota in Naples, Fla., General
Manager Brian Kramer transformed the sales
side of the dealership to a paperless digital operation last fall, and he has a similar vision for
the service department.

Paperless, though, doesn't eliminate the
need to develop relationships with customers,
Kramer says, so his sales staff received Quantum5 training earlier this year and service advisers will get it in the second quarter.
Instead of memorizing word tracks and
scripts, Kramer wants advisers to recognize
their customers' social styles and needs. That
approach in sales has boosted customer retention and CSI, he says.
" It's identifying the type of person [the customer is], communicating with them and treating
them the way they want to be treated, " he says.
Kramer says the steady change to digital operations means a lot of dealerships may have
taken their eye off the ball when it comes to
customer relationships.
" We lost touch with talking to humans and
the importance of it, " he says. " It's actually more
important the more digital you become. "
- Rick Popely

tasked with prodding employees to keep using what they recently learned.
" With typical training, you literally had to
become a subject matter expert on whatever
they were teaching that day or week, and then
you are required to do the follow-up and
make sure your team members are embracing
the new training, " Tanner says. " Sadly, you
spent a boatload of money on it, and weeks or
months later, it's by the wayside because we're
so busy in this industry that it's impossible for
us to also be the trainers. "
Tanner also liked that Quantum5 doesn't

teach new processes or make advisers memorize new sales pitches. Instead, advisers are
taught to pick up cues from body language,
emails and texts to help form their plan.
" With typical training, they're trying to 'load
your lips' with a lot of word tracks and how to
deal with objections, " he says. " Those things
are good to a point, but when you pick up on
the social cue from the person, you don't need
a word track. It's a lot easier to just think on
your feet than memorizing one thing for this
objection and memorizing something else for
a closing. " 

APRIL 2021

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4/5/21 11:34 AM

Fixed Ops Journal - April 2021

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