Fixed Ops Journal - December 2021 - F4

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
RIGHT WHAT'S WRONG
How can dealership service departments stop falling so short?
I
DAVE VERSICAL
dversical@gmail.com
Chief of Editorial Operations
once walked into a shop
and stood face-to-crown
with a service adviser as the
seconds awkwardly ticked by.
I couldn't tell if he was
ignoring me or was oblivious to my
presence. His eyes were anchored
to his cellphone.
Another adviser then waved me
over to his desk - and spared his
colleague the trouble of having to
greet a customer.
At a diff erent service department,
I had my oil changed before a trip to
Canada. Later that day, I spotted
clean oil on my driveway. A crawl
beneath my car quickly revealed the
problem: Th e drain plug hadn't
been tightened properly, so I
grabbed a wrench and did it myself.
Th at story has served as a conversational case study with several fi xed
ops pros over the years. I've been told the off er of a free oil change was
the least I should have expected. After all, I did save the dealership the
potential nightmare of dealing with a customer whose oil pan was inadvertently
drained on King's Highway 402.
Yes, I was thanked when I called the dealership upon my return home.
Th e reward for my trouble beyond that? I was assured the matter would
be brought up at the next staff meeting.
I haven't been back to that shop since.
Th ose are just one consumer's experiences with two service visits at
franchised dealerships in recent years.
And they came to mind as I prepared to write this, my fi nal column for
Fixed Ops Journal, before retiring this month at age 66. Editor Dan Shine
has graciously ceded his usual spot on these pages to the guy who
founded the magazine nearly six years ago and who has watched every
issue come together since.
How can the service snubs I experienced continue to happen, I wondered?
I cited two examples ; I could have listed more. If these things
happened to me, there must be millions of consumers out there with
similar stories - despite all the wise counsel available from 20 Groups,
consultants and these pages.
For the last word, I turned to Dick Chitty, the retired Toyota executive
who helped launched Lexus more than 30 years ago.
He said the fi rst two people he hired at Lexus were the respective
bosses for parts and for service. One of the fi rst things he asked them to
do was create a list of things that cause customers to be dissatisfi ed with
dealership service departments. Th ey each came back with two full
pages.
Each item on the list was scrutinized. Chitty's new team was then
tasked with fi nding ways to overcome them - economically and practically
- at the dealership level.
PAGE 4 DECEMBER 2021
After that, everything was written down as a process, starting with the
greeting that welcomes each customer. It was then up to each dealership
to fi gure out its own path from there.
" If we get the process right, then we have time to interact with the customer, "
Chitty said.
And if it's not? " Th at's where I see all the issues. "
Chitty admits it's easier to start with a clean slate. Lexus service departments
in the beginning had plenty of time to get things right; they
didn't have much business.
But established service departments, for all the fl aws they might have,
can do it, too.
" Engage them, train them, educate them, give them responsibility,
and keep practicing and practicing, " Chitty says.
In the end, " Everyone in the dealership must understand this key fact:
You must satisfy the customer. "
Why?
" Because when customers are satisfi ed, they come back. And when
they come back, they bring money. "
A fi nal note
At the close of our conversation, Chitty, the fi nest of gentlemen,
thanked Automotive News for creating Fixed Ops Journal. " You have
done a great service to the industry, " he said. " You focus on the real issues, "
like the challenges addressed in this column.
It's an honor to have been part of it. Th ere are more people of Chitty's
character in the fi xed ops world than anyone would ever imagine.
Please help my colleague Dan Shine, dan.shine@crain.com, share the
stories of their work as he guides FOJ into year seven.
Fixed Ops Journal - December 2021

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