Fixed Ops Journal - October 2022 - F18

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
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FIXED OPS JOURNAL FORUM WEEK 1
MEASURE OF SUCCESS
Stellar communication will keep customers coming back
B
ringing customers back again and
again is a top focus of service departments.
But how best to do
that? What are the issues holding
departments back? And how best
to measure retention?
A panel of service department experts tackled
those questions and others during the fi rst installment
of the 2022 Fixed Ops Journal Forum.
Th e panelists were Dan Beakey, service
manager of 24 Ford of Easton in Massachusetts;
Dave Foy, vice president of fi xed operations
at Quantum 5, a dealership training
company in Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Alan Freeman,
fi xed ops director at Jim Ellis Automotive
Group in Atlanta.
Here are edited highlights.
On the challenges of customer
retention during vehicle inventory,
parts and staff shortages
Beakey: We're having a very diffi cult time
acquiring the proper technicians to be able to
do the jobs. We're having a very diffi cult time
acquiring the proper parts to do the jobs. So it
can be very diffi cult to actually create an experience
that is going to provide customer retention
because a lot of these customers are
coming in and they're expecting [a repair] to
be one or two days, but it might be three
weeks or a month or it could be even more.
Freeman: We're faced with the same thing
that everyone else in this industry is faced
with. But at the end of the day, you know keeping
that line of communication open with the
customer and setting an expectation when
they come in and then delivering on that expectation
- that's the basis for our success.
Foy: Th ere's these long wait times for everything
in everybody's lives right now and that's
bringing more frustration out. But that's more
of a reason to invest back into your team, to
give them the skills to be able to handle that,
to be able to work through that with your clients
to understand how they want to be communicated
with. Not everybody communicates
the same way.
On the importance of the staff
PAGE 18 OCTOBER 2022
being strong communicators
Beakey: Th e staff all-around has to be strong.
And if there's any weak links, it's going to cause
problems, especially in today's world because
this isn't an easy job and not everybody's cut
out for it. And it takes a lot of fi nesse to be able to
look someone in the eye and tell him that [their
vehicle is] going to be there for six weeks and
oh, by the way, don't forget to give me a great
survey.
Foy: You need to know what's driving your
customer.
Measuring customer retention
Freeman: We use CSI as the voice of the customer
to hear what their satisfaction level is.
[It's] the No. 1 gauge that we have kind of built
into our culture here. And sales may sell that
fi rst car, but our service department sells the
one after that and the one after that. So what
we gauge our success with customer retention
[on] is how many of you come back not only
for service but to buy again.
Beakey: I would much rather use how many
customers I know by name and how many
customers know me by name as the customer
retention tool, than CSI. Customer retention
can defi nitely be monitored in other ways. I
wish [CSI] wasn't as important to me as it is.
Unfortunately, it kind of has to be.
Selling tires as a retention tool
Freeman: Mainly, it's the one-stop shop convenience
for our customers. Th ey don't have to
go to places to get things done. Th e other thing
is, it gives us an opportunity to analyze other
things that could become potentially hazardous.
It's an opportunity to really inspect the car
and give a customer a good full experience.
Beakey: You have to. If you don't do something
for your customer, somebody else will
and who knows - maybe they'll have a really
good experience with that somebody else and
all of a sudden they're that somebody else's
customer.
Foy: It's hugely important. Back in the '80s
when I started, we used to tell people to go get
their tires somewhere else. And look what
happened - an industry was built around us
telling them to go somewhere else. You've got
to take care of your customers. Th ey are there
for you to take care of them. Th ey're asking
you to take care of them. Tires is a part of that.
It doesn't matter if you're not going to make
much money on that. You really need to look
at whether you're in this for the short-term
gain or for that long-term relationship.
- Dan Shine
http://www.autonews.com/fojforum
Fixed Ops Journal - October 2022

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