Digital Dealer - June 2019 - 16

D E A L E R OP S & M ANAGEM ENT: L e a d e r shi p Continued from pg. 15

portant; there is a social
system that is interdependent in the workplace. The
individual talents in your
store are paled by the sum
of those talents working
together.
Just like in quantum
physics or quantum mechanics: The very act of
observing a system or people will in itself affect that
system and the people. In
this case, the behavior is
altered simply because it is
being observed and making the people feel valued.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming
taught that by adopting
appropriate principles of
management, organizations can increase quality
and simultaneously reduce
costs (by reducing waste,
rework, staff attrition and
litigation while increasing
employee and customer
loyalty). The key is to
practice continual people
improvement.
In the 1970s, Dr.
Deming's philosophy was
summarized by some of
his Japanese proponents
with the following 'a'-versus-'b' comparison:
(a) When people and
organizations focus primarily on quality (inspecting),
defined by the ratio:
Quality = Result of efforts
total costs,
quality tends to increase
and costs fall over time.
(b) However, when
people and organizations
focus primarily on costs,
costs tend to rise and quality declines over time.
Thus, your focus and
attention need to be on
your greatest assets - your
16

JUNE 2019

people. Any dealership
can compete on capital expenditure like advertising,
but no one can compete
with a store that values
and places their stock
in their employees. The
newspaper is in the trash
the next day, the ads are
in most cases forgotten,
but the lingering assets of
your team's enhancement
towards professionalism
will remain fixed in place.
Give them new tools, new
learning techniques, en-

dealer and although no
one resented this, everyone in service knew it.
Steve drove his vehicle
into the service lane within
sight of everyone working
the desks. Every service
advisor, including the service manager, looked up
to see who was driving the
only I might add, vehicle in
their lane. All 4 SA's after
looking up diverted their
eyes back to paperwork,
computer or some other
form of 'busyness.' Even

THUS, YOUR FOCUS
AND ATTENTION NEED TO
BE ON YOUR GREATEST
ASSETS - YOUR PEOPLE.
ANY DEALERSHIP CAN
COMPETE ON CAPITAL
EXPENDITURE LIKE
ADVERTISING, BUT NO
ONE CAN COMPETE
WITH A STORE THAT
VALUES AND PLACES
THEIR STOCK IN THEIR
EMPLOYEES."
couragement, and inspection regularly.
I'll give you one (and
there are many) simple
examples of how to use
this concept of inspection
vs. expectation.
When was the last
time you had a friend
inspect and examine the
service lane? A friend of
mine, let's call him Steve,
recently stopped into
his local dealership for
service. Steve, a humble
guy, happened to be good
personal friends with the

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

the service manager after
seeing Steve looked away
and went back to speaking
with one of the technicians.
Steve stood there alone by
his vehicle for 13 minutes
and began pondering
where the next closest
dealership was.
Finally, one of the SA's
came over and greeted
him with "what can I do for
you today?"
Are you kidding me? No
one could muster up the
courage, courtesy much
less the customer relation-

ship-building requirements
by immediately greeting
Steve when he first drove
in? Even if it was a "good
morning Steve, I'll be with
you in just a few minutes,
how about a cup of coffee
while you wait?" Just
something.
After the awkward wait
without any acknowledgment of Steve's presence,
the first words out of the
SA's mouth were, "what
can I do for you today?"
Come on. Where was
the "I apologize for the
wait Steve, we just got
consumed with a lot of
deadline stuff and although
it did, it should not have
taken precedence over
your importance in being
here. How may I serve you
today?" or "Hey Steve,
could I offer you a cup of
coffee?"
OK, maybe that could
be tough for the average
SA to say, but give me a
break here, if these guys
are treating a dealer's
'buddy' this way how are
they treating Tom, Dick,
and Harry? Steve spent
$872.00 that day, and the
store never knew how
close they came to giving
that money to their number
one competitor right down
the street.
DON'T JUST EXPECT
RESULTS; INSPECT
HOW TO ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS.

Over the years, I
have had the pleasure of
observing and working
with service department
personnel teaching them
how to use enhanced
communications tech-
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