Service Drive | January 2016 by CBTNews

Don’t Miss The CBT Conference & Expo Feb. 9-11

JANUARY 2016

Check out our daily newscast on servicedrivetoday.com

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

a CBT Automotive Network publication

5 WAYS TO MANAGE

QUICK SERVICE WORK TO GET THE BEST RESULTS GARRETT MING … see PAGE 14

CHASE CUSTOMER RETENTION

SALES THROUGHOUT OWNERSHIP LIFE CYCLE JOHN FAIRCHILD … see PAGE 16

Jared Rowe Joseph Michelli Jason Dorsey

Patrick Lencioni

Dale Pollak Harry Hynekamp

Marcus Lemonis

Nick Saban

KNOW THE OPTIMUM

TIMES AND PLACES TO BUY NEW SERVICE EQUIPMENT CHIP WALKER

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 1459 Pewaukee, WI

… see PAGE 22

MAKE 2016 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER! Over 65 dynamic breakout sessions covering every department of your dealership.

Leadership • Management • Technology • Marketing

CBT Automotive Network 5 Concourse Parkway Suite 2410 Atlanta, GA 30328

MAKING THE CASE FOR A CHIEF OF CUSOTMER ENGAGEMENT

Gaining new insights into how both repair and car customers respond could justify the expense. ... see PAGE 26

Check out our daily newscast and magazine archives at servicedrivetoday.com

888.628.6779 | eleadsales@eleadcrm.com | www.elead-crm.com ÂŠ Data Software Services, L.L.C. 2016

STRIKE A CHORD. STRIKE A CONVERSATION. STRIKE A SALE. Every market strums to a different tune. Autotrader provides unique local market insights that keep you steps ahead of the competition, helping you sell more cars.

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SERVICE DRIVE MAGAZINE

Letter From The Editor

SERVICE DRIVE TODAY Email newsroom@servicedrivetoday.com Phone 678.221.2955

Dear readers, As your dealership service department launches into a successful 2016, sales of repairs and services aren’t the only things on your plate. You also need to make time on your calendar and travel plans for the Feb. 9-11 CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo in Atlanta. More so than any other conference for retail automotive, this event will target every business activity in a franchised new car dealership – from service to F&I, dealer leadership to marketing – with strategically tailored keynote and breakout sessions and leading executives and thought leaders from the industry.

JON MCKENNA Managing Editor

Remember, you can register today at www.cbtconferenceandexpo.com. To help affirm your decision to send your dealership’s managers, you’ll want to read our advance coverage of the conference in this edition. We’ve given you a road map of our keynote speakers (such as Nick Saban and Patrick Lencioni), panel discussions (on topics like successful digital marketing and getting better results from your used car department) and lead sponsors (including AutoTrader, EasyCare and ELEAD1ONE). Plus, you can review the panelists and topics for the latest list of breakout sessions, which will eventually reach approximately 70 highly relevant meetings.

Also in this edition, we’re addressing one of the most underutilized features in your dealership’s DMS – the auto dispatch feature. Does your service department utilize it? Has it ever? Wonder why so many service operations avoid auto dispatch? As Ken Rock of Auto/Mate Dealership Systems points out in his article, the good reasons to leverage that feature remain and fears that it will lead to staff downsizings are overblown. If a service manager can keep his techs from gaming the system and cherry picking the best jobs, then auto dispatch provides a pathway to increased productivity. And, we address some misconceptions of quick service. According to Garrett Ming of KABI LLC, any service department is in the quick service business if it offers special discounts or rewards programs, regardless of whether it has invested in a quick service lane. With that reality in mind, Garrett writes about five important management steps to ensure your quick service work is handled and delivered for optimum results.

President And Publisher Jim Fitzpatrick Vice President/COO Bridget Fitzpatrick Managing Editor Jon McKenna Art Director Brandy Brewer Web Design Michael Marley Director of Marketing & Events Karen Locadia Digital Marketing Associate Erin Mumphord Subscription Manager Emily Wiggins

Here’s hoping your dealership’s service lanes remain filled in January, and see you in Atlanta.

MEDIA SALES REPRESENTATIVE Gary Blitzer gblitzer@cbtnews.com d 678.221.2955 c 770.330.6821

In This Issue 6 A description of three days of the CBT Conference & Expo 8 An overview of the CBT conference breakout sessions Lose your reticence and make the most of DMS auto dispatch By Ken Rock, Auto/Mate Dealership Systems

Ask The Pros

14 Five ways to manage quick service work to get the best results By Garrett Ming, KABI LLC

16 Chase customer retention, sales throughout the ownership life cycle By John Fairchild, Fairchild Automotive Solutions

If you don’t have a unique service selling proposition, create one

By Michael Roppo, Automotive Domain Results

Making the case for a dealership chief of customer engagement By Anne Fleming, Women-Drivers.com

26 30 On The Set With Service Drive Today Results

20 Rotating lifts still have mileage left as a promotional system

By Chip Walker, Custom Facilities

To subscribe electronically, log on to ServiceDriveToday. com and click the subscribe link on the side bar. Alternately, forward your company name, your name, address, phone number and email address to:

info@ServiceDriveToday. com CBT Automotive Network, 5 Concourse Parkway Suite 2410, Atlanta, GA 30328 Please send address changes to the above email or mailing address.

By Jon McKenna

22 Know the optimum times and places to buy new service equipment

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ONLINE FEATURES Visit www.ServiceDriveToday.com

Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted only upon written request. Advertising rates are provided upon request.

DON’T MISS THE PREMIERE AUTOMOTIVE EVENT OF 2016 FEBRUARY 9-11, 2016 | OMNI HOTEL AT CNN CENTER | ATLANTA

LEADERSHIP ▪ MANAGEMENT ▪

TECHNOLOGY ▪

MARKETING

OVER 65 DYNAMIC BREAKOUT SESSIONS Inspire confidence, loyalty and hard work with key LEADERSHIP lessons from Nick Saban, Patrick Lencioni and many others. Gain valuable MANAGEMENT skills to “Win in Business” with Marcus Lemonis and panel discussions from industry trailblazers. Learn innovative and groundbreaking solutions to advance TECHNOLOGY and efficiency in your dealership with dedicated sessions from leading experts. Accelerate your MARKETING efforts and stand out from the crowd with insider secrets from Jason Dorsey and proven digital techniques and tools from the best in the business.

C BTCON FEREN C EANDEXPO.COM

WHEN: Feb. 9-11, 2016

CBT Conference Keeps Adding

LEADING SPEAKERS, THOUGHT-PROVOKING SESSIONS AND SPONSORS

WHERE: Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta HOW TO SIGN UP: Complete information is available and being constantly updated at www.cbtconferenceandexpo.com.

With the Feb. 9-11 event not far off, the time to register is now.

n recent weeks, the pace of news has been predictably brisk with the CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo, which will be held Feb. 9-11 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. Manheim Consulting decided to present its “2016 Used Car Market Report” during a press conference at the CBT event. Mercedes-Benz USA general manager of customer experience Henry Hynekamp and Joseph Michelli, author of a new book on the Mercedes approach, signed on to join a panel discussion on the car customer experience. ELEAD1ONE joined the roster of platinum sponsors of the conference. The list of breakout sessions hosted by the industry’s top dealership executives, consultants, trainers and vendor representatives continued to expand. Those developments will be explained in greater detail in the subsequent pages of the magazine. Here, we wanted to review the benefits that await you in Atlanta as the last few weeks wind down before the most broad-reaching conference in retail automotive. Remember, you can register today at www. cbtconferenceandexpo.com. The site has an easy registration process and offers even more detailed information about the event than you’ll find in this edition of Car Biz Today.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

A huge draw to the conference comes from the keynote speakers who will address four general sessions spread across three days, offering their successes and setbacks, and actionable strategies in marketing, motivating and retaining key staff, and keeping an edge as a dealer. The keynoters include:

JASON DORSEY, TUESDAY, FEB. 9, 9-10:15 A.M.

Dorsey is chief strategy officer at the Center for Generational Kinetics in Austin, Texas, and one of the world’s leading authorities on how to effectively market products and services to millennial customers. He will tell dealers how to do a better job marketing to Generation Y and getting those customers to buy now.

6 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

PATRICK LENCIONI, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10, 9-10:15 A.M.

Lencioni is one of the most famed speakers and authors in the world on business leadership and organizational health. The founder and CEO of Lafayette, Calif.-based The Table Group, and author of nine best-selling business books, will give dealers strategies to keep their most valuable and productive employees.

NICK SABAN, THURSDAY, FEB. 11, 9-10:15 A.M.

The University of Alabama head football coach practically needs no introduction, but just in case … he has led four teams at two universities to collegiate national championships and twice been named Associated Press coach of the year. Oh, and he also happens to own two car dealerships in Birmingham, Ala. Saban will give dealers insights into how he assembles and motivates winning teams, both on the football field and in the dealership.

MARCUS LEMONIS, THURSDAY, FEB. 11, 3-4:30 P.M.

Viewers know Lemonis as the self-made host of the small business-oriented reality show “The Profit” on CNBC. They might not realize he is CEO of Camping World and Good Sam, the nation’s and world’s, respectively, largest RV and outdoor retailers. Lemonis will explain his philosophy and discipline for winning in business every day.

Automotive Group; and John Fitzpatrick, president and CEO of Force Marketing. On Wednesday, Feb. 9, Jim Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of CBT Automotive Network, will lead the panel that explores how to wring more profit from a dealership’s used car operation. Best operational practices, CPO sales, inventory management and marketing approaches will be discussed. Panelists include Dale Pollak, founder and president of vAuto; EasyCare President Larry Dorfman; Jeremy Anspach, president and co-founder of PureCars; and Stuart Bailey, VP over the pre-owned division of Asbury Automotive. On Thursday, Feb. 11, Hynekamp and Michelli will give their insights on creating a dealership culture that emphasizes the customer’s experience (see next page).

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

An in-process schedule describing each breakout session and presenter is provided on pp. 8-9.

PLATINUM SPONSORS

Three leading vendors in the automotive retail space have signed on as conference platinum sponsors, meaning their brand and executives will be very visible. The companies are Autotrader Inc., EasyCare and ELEAD1ONE.

All panel discussions are slated to last from 10:45 a.m. until noon.

Autotrader, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Automotive, is an online marketplace for new, certified pre-owned and used cars. EasyCare, the dba of Automobile Protection Corp. of Norcross, Ga., markets a variety of vehicle service contracts. Valdosta, Ga.-based ELEAD1ONE provides a variety of dealership software including CRM, inventory, data mining and other packages.

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, Brian Pasch, president and CEO of PCG Consulting, will moderate a panel on how to win more web traffic in marketing campaigns to an online car buyer. He will be joined by Jared Rowe, president of the Cox Automotive media division; Rachel Richards, chief marketing officer at Sonic

Platinum sponsorship means attendees can look forward to company representatives serving as breakout session leaders, introducing keynote speakers and hosting events. Also, the companies’ products and logos will be on prominent display throughout the conference. SD

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

ServiceDriveToday.com

THE MERCEDES WAY WILL SHAPE PANEL On Auto Customer Experience

PRESENTATION OF

ith Mercedes-Benz USA in the midst of moving its North American headquarters to Atlanta from Montvale, N.J., you’d logically expect the CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo to have a noticeable Mercedes flavor.

The conference doesn’t disappoint. A panel discussion has been added to the conference agenda for Thursday, Feb. 11 from 10:45 a.m. to noon that features Harry Hynekamp, Mercedes’ general manager of customer experience; and Joseph Michelli, author of the just-published “Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the MercedesBenz Way.” Not surprisingly given their backgrounds and the Mercedes’ brand reputation, the panel is entitled “Driving the Customer Experience: What It Takes to Bring the ‘Right’ Culture to Your Dealership.”

MANHEIM’S USED CAR REPORT Burnishes Conference Agenda ne of the most authoritative and eagerly awaited resources in the used car retailing sector is the “Used Car Market Report” from Manheim Consulting, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Automotive.

The highly detailed report typically examines the previous year in review for used cars, the vehicle remarketing sector’s performance, sales by dealerships, rental industry revenue, leasing activity, sales to commercial and government fleets, and the international marketplace, among other key topics. As such, dealerships and every other business involved with the thriving used car sector regard the report as go-to data. The “2016 Used Car Market Report,” which is the 21st annual edition, will be unveiled at the CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo in Atlanta. Attendees of the presentation will hear an overview of the report, which examines 2015 performance. Tom Webb, the veteran chief economist at Manheim Consulting and one of the report’s co-authors, will present the findings and lead a press conference at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center.

Harry Hynekamp

Joseph Michelli

Hynekamp was promoted to his current job in early 2012, when it was a newly created position. He joined Mercedes in 1991 and over time served in a variety of jobs including department manager of finance and general manager of learning and performance. Michelli is a New York Times best-selling author, and his most recent book is “Driven to Delight.” It gives a behind-the-scenes look at the Mercedes leadership team’s multi-pronged strategy to deliver a best-inclass experience across all brands. Through his Pinellas Park, Fla.-based consulting firm called The Michelli Experience, Michelli speaks around the world on organizational development and companies that do a superior job serving their customers. In that regard, in addition to “Driven to Delight” he has authored books about Starbucks, Zappos, the UCLA Health System and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. He was named one of the top 10 thought leaders in customer service by Global Gurus. SD

ServiceDriveToday.com

Tom Webb

The findings are confidential until then, but a flavor of the report can be captured with some highlights from the 2015 edition, including: ✓ At just more than 42 million units, used vehicle sales were virtually unchanged in 2014. ✓ Auction volume grew by 5 percent to 8.8 million units in that year and was expected to keep growing. ✓ U.S. dealers’ used vehicle operations produced record profits in 2014, when sales of certified pre-owned vehicles also hit a record of 2.3 million units. ✓ Rentals hit record revenue for the fifth straight year, climbing to $26.1 billion. ✓ Lease originations exceeded 3.5 million units for the first time since 1999. Apart from its comprehensive examination of the various segments of the used car sector, the report usually presents a series of brief case studies and highlights from previous editions. SD

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 7

BREAKOUT SESSIONS *In-process list; new sessions are being added daily

MIKE ANDERSON

LEE HARKINS

C E O / P a r t n e r, T h e R i k e s s G r o u p “Negotiation Free Selling: It’s Time Has Come” Learn about the automotive tradition with the Automotive State of the Union & what challenges/ recommendations come with that. Meet your customers expectations & learn common challenges that come along with having the keys to success. This industry is a changing marketplace, rethink “profit” and reduce expenses while increasing sales.

President & CEO, M5 Management Service, Inc. “The Process of Winning” Increased profitability and customer retention requires an adherence to a series of disciplines. The #1 challenge a service department has is consistency of process. This workshop will provide a “how to develop” approach to develop the process of winning! We will define the components and the reward for changing the behavior.

J E R E M Y A N S PA C H

D AV I D K A I N

C E O & C o - F o u n d e r, P u r e C a r s “Overcoming Automotive Advertising’s Greatest Deficiencies” Through the information overload that has accompanied the digital age, one asset has emerged that puts the odds in our favor: big data. This session will show how data provides powerful intelligence that makes decisions based on probability. Learn why it allows us to analyze, optimize, & amplify all aspects of digital strategy to create the ultimate digital experience.

President, Kain Automotive Inc. “Advanced Internet/BDC Success Tactics” In this session, David Kain, President of Kain Automotive, Inc. will demonstrate 10 Proven Internet / BDC Tactics used by leading dealerships that you can put into play today. No theory, actionable techniques that work and will work right away. David will cover communication skills, professional development of your team and marketing strategies in this session.

CLINT BURNS

CHIP KING

CEO, The Next Up “Don’t Let Your Showroom Benefit Others” As a dealership you spend millions of dollars ensuring your staff, inventory & showroom appeal to buyers who walk through the front door every day, but often it’s just a showroom. Learn a consistent, accountable approach that assures the best customer experience & helps your sales staff prove value, thereby ensuring those internet sales stay where they belong– at your dealership.

O w n e r & M a n a g i n g P a r t n e r, C a l l R ev u “Driving Revenue: Focus on Your Caller’s Journery” Your phone is the number one point of contact in volume and influence on your customer’s journey. You deliver more than 15 out of every 100 sales opportunities entered into your CRM, yet over half of the sales calls are never entered because they can’t be. The focus on the sales call has fallen into the same bucket as training. Learn how to avoid this and make your dealership’s sales process as effective as it can be!

TIM KINTZ

J E F F C O WA N

Fo u n d er & C EO, J e ff Cowa n ’s Pro Tal k “Solve the Customer Retention Problem Forever! ”

service department.

Learn how solid proven methods can take your Service Customer Retention from the current national average of 40% to above 80% within nine months. Attendees wil llearn that these easy to understand techniques are even easier to implement. This is a must see meeting if you’d like to get the highest Customer Retention possible for your

President, The Kintz Group “How to Lead, Coach and Motivate for Exceptional Results” Wouldn’t it be great to start every month knowing you have several salespeople who will sell 15+ cars each? Are you finding it challenging to recruit & retain good salespeople? Business has changed – & in today’s competitive market getting & retaining customers is critical to future success. Learn how to turn your team into top producers to dominate your market.

M I K E E S P O S I TO

D AV I D L E W I S

CEO & President, Auto/Mate “How to Create Loyal Customers Without A Customer Loyalty Program” Dealers spend millions of dollars every year on customer loyalty programs, but you can’t buy loyalty with free oil changes. The fact is, customers will never love your dealership unless your employees love your dealership. The best way to improve customer loyalty is to focus on making your employees happy and creating a great place to work.

President, David Lewis & Associates “Creating Sales & Profits by Understanding Your Customer” n this session the attendee will get a better understanding of their Customers, why they are so defensive and how to defuse their apprehensive Areas of focus will be on the both the presentation and demonstration, and the negotiations. Today’s customers expect a sales process & get that sales process, change the process and you will change the customers game plan.

J O H N F I T Z PAT R I C K

P E T E M AC I N N I S

Dealers are constantly being told that the future of marketing is data-driven and technology-enabled. In this session, we’ll talk about why that’s the case, and how dealers can embrace that future right now with the resources at their disposal. With the data available today, dealers should be closing their internet leads at a much higher rate.

In this session dealers will learn how to leverage new online and instore technologies to sell more cars faster and enable a streamlined workflow for dealers that reduces risk to profit and customer satisfaction by slashing the ‘deal’ process from

CEO & President, Force Marketing “Increase Market Share, Decrease Ad Expense”

JIM FLINT

President & Founder, Local Search Group “Car Dog Millionaire: Drive Digital Sales” “Car Dog Millionaire” covers the auto industry’s leap of faith into the Internet during one of the all-time worst recessions in American History. Jim will break down digital details that continue to keep car dealers ahead of their competitors. With fact-based retail tracking the results lead to sales gains for his clients and more satisfied customers across the country.

GREG GIFFORD

Directo r o f S e a rch & S o ci a l , Deal erOn “Local SEO - Don’t Risk Your Business” In this fast-paced session, Greg will explain how Local SEO is different from regular SEO, then show why Local SEO applies to car dealerships. Walk through signals that influence local visibility in organic searches and explain exactly how to optimize each signal. Attendees will get a roadmap for SEO for their dealerships in 2016 across every important aspect of organic visibility.

8 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

CEO, eLend So lu t ion s “Creating a Connected Buying Experience”

hours to minutes.

CORY MOSLEY

Principal, Mosley Automotive “Best Practices Kill Sales Growth” Best practices represent a normalization of things every dealership might be doing, so in a crowded and competitive marketplace why would that be anyone’s goal? Back-to-basics thinking will suffocate your dealerships growth and hurt profitability. In this session Cory will break down these challenges & lay out a clear path for innovation, separation, and domination in your marketplace.

E R I C N AC H B A H R

C E O , H e l i o n Te c h n o l o g i e s “Invest Now, Save Later: Your I.T. Game Plan” Get Your Game Plan to making smart technology investments that will save you dollars. In this information-packed session, attendees will learn: How to develop the correct infrastructure, carrier bill analysis and recommendations for continuous up-time, and how to spend smart dollars by learning where you are overspending and how to better invest.

ServiceDriveToday.com

The CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo addresses every area of the retail automotive industry. The conference will feature over 70 dynamic general and breakout sessions addressing the latest industry trends, best practices and training for sales, leadership, service, digital and social marketing, F&I, management, BDC, Pre-owned sales and much more.

D AV E PA G E

O w n e r/ D i r e c t o r, D e a l e r e - P r o c e s s “2016 Digital Strategy Playbook Revealed” The landscape of the auto industry is changing faster than ever, it’s disruptive. Dealers need to deal with newfound strategies on business that involve OEM brand protection, Google, Lotlinx, Facebook etc., while consumers expectations are changing. How does a dealer get it right? The foundation of a dealers strategy will be challenged in this presentation.

B R I A N PA S C H

F o u n d e r, P C G D i g i t a l M a r k e t i n g “Defining the KPI of Automotive Digital Marketing” Brian Pasch will present his research on the metrics that dealers should focus on to determine if their online marketing investments are engaging consumers and contributing to an increase in auto sales and service revenue. In this workshop, Brian will help dealers create an action plan to improve marketing performance based on the KPIs introduced in this session.

G L E N N PA S C H

CEO, PCG Digital Marketing “Why Your Training Dollars Are Being Wasted” Maximize your investment for higher employee Performance. Glenn Pasch will share how thousands of training dollars are being wasted each year. He will share a proven system to prepare, deliver and implement training or your team and how to turn that investment into higher performance.

S COT T P E C H ST E I N

VP of Sales “Ready, Set, Text... The Compliant Way! Best Practices for Texting Consumers” The majority of dealers are already texting their consumers and you should be too. But what most don’t know is how to stay compliant in doing so. The TCPA released new provisions which could get you in trouble, $1500 per infraction/ $1500 per text. Review how to stay compliant & learn a process that keeps your personnel on track, gets texts to the CRM & best practices.

APRIL RAIN

Marketologist, Digital Rain “Fearless & Contagious Branding” This session will define the most impactful solutions instituted by both big business and leading dealerships around the country. This is NOT your average collection of tips, but an equal blend of tangible how to’s combined with motivation to execute & elevate a bold branding strategy in 2016. This session provides the knowledge you need to have a fearless & infectious branding strategy.

ALAN RAM Founder, Alan Ram’s Proactive Training Solutions

“Converting Off the Telephone and Internet Better, Faster, and Smarter! ” Join Alan Ram as he lays out proven strategies for converting more and higher quality traffic to your showroom floor through the effective utilization of telephone and Internet. Learn the biggest mistakes dealers make when it comes to conversion and how to avoid them, what’s killing many BDC’s & which specific models have proven to be most effective long term & more.

DON REED

C E O , D e a l e r P R O Tr a i n i n g “Six Simple Changes for a Record Year in Fixed Ops” Want Some Good News? Shocking Facts about Service Writers: Service Traffic Drivers Are Declining! Learn the changes to turn your service department into an effective and accountable dealership department. These six changes will make for a motivational and successful service department!

JENN REID

Sr. Enterprise Channel Partner Manager, Equifax Inc. “The Role of Credit Report Transparency in the Sales Process” In this session, Equifax will walk you through a credit report, helping you interpret what is shown in the fraud, compliance, public record, inquiry and tradeline sections of the report. Understanding the details in a credit report gives you a better understanding of the potential risk and opportunity associated with each consumer and should ultimately help you finance more deals.

ServiceDriveToday.com

JASEN RICE

Owner, Lotpop, Inc. “5 Processes to Improve Gross & Volume for you Used Car Operation” 5 controllable, key processes that are essential for every used car manager to get inventory turning and get both gross and profit. Leave with 5 easy-to-implement processes that a used car manager has the most control over to make the biggest difference in their used car operation, increasing dealership’s bottom line & with fewer missed opportunities for better profit.

TO M ST U K E R

P r e s i d e n t o f S t u c k e r Tr a i n i n g “Sell 20 Cars a Month on 10 Quality Conversations a Day” In this session, quality conversations will be defined and the exact word tracks to master outbound calling through a soft cell method will be provided. Attendees will takeaway scripts and selling techniques to maximize household prospects and master the art of the referral. A specific formula of database management combined with these techniques guarantees that any sales person can sell.

PHIL SURA

V P of S al e s , Un ity Wo rks “Developing a Video Strategy to Drive Results” Video is one of the hottest opportunities for retailers but where should you invest your time and energy when developing a video plan? YouTube is the second largest search engine—How can you leverage this to sell cars? Can video help your service department? Attend this session to get the answers and a plan for developing a video strategy for your dealership.

M A R K T E WA R T

S a l e s & M o t i v a t i o n a l Tr a i n e r “Death of the Traditional Dealership & Salesperson” n this session Mark will give you the critical question all leaders will have to ask and answer to be successful. Mark will share changes you can make in the “Road to the sale” to match today’s marketplace. Attendees will learn the top do’s and don’ts in leadership and sales to increase productivity and sales.

GARY TUCKER

CEO, DealerRater “Building Trust With Car Shoppers to Fuel Dealership Growth ” This session will explain how Product, Price, Place and Person work in the sales funnel for dealership success. negative review (can you convert a negative experience into a loyal customer?) and the importance of the salesperson in building trust for the dealership, generating continued business for the sales department and the service lane.

ALEXI VENNERI

CEO, Digital Air Strike “Social is the New Search: How to Dominatethe Networks” Car buyers and service customers are increasingly relying on the social networks to find and research dealerships. Digital Air Strike’s co-founder/CEO Alexi Venneri will show real examples of how dealers are using social media and review sites to increase leads and sell more.

JOE WEBB

Founder & President, DealerKnows “What is Your Digital Aptitude?” Prepare to be tested. Much the same way customers are analyzing your dealership, you need to inspect where you are succeeding and failing both and through your dealership’s management efforts. In this interactive session, attendees will be given a live test that will grade them on their digital aptitude, policies, and management store structure, and personnel.

AARON WIRTZ

The Unforgettable Pitchman, Super Car Guys “Quantifiably Explosive Used Car Marketing” Looking to send your used car sales into overdrive? Learn the advertising secrets that took Super Car Guys from one store with double-digit monthly sales to a multiple location powerhouse with triple digit sales at each store. Get tips on effective marketing mix, developing the courage to move against the herd, & learn what digital marketing vendors aren’t telling you about video. session is for dealers straight from the dealership floor.

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 9

PUT ASIDE YOUR RESERVATIONS ABOUT DMS Auto Dispatch Features

WHY SERVICE DEPARTMENTS DRAG FEET

If you enforce the system and prevent cherry picking of jobs, then your service department will operate more efficiently.

In my experience, the three main reasons why the majority of service managers still aren’t using auto dispatch today include:

BY KEN ROCK

f at first you don’t succeed, try and try again, right? However, when dealership management system vendors first announced auto dispatch features about five years ago, many service managers tried them and quickly gave them up. Their avoidance was understandable given that the first auto dispatch systems were complicated and bug-riddled.

But as programming improved and features evolved, auto dispatch features became more user-friendly. Many service managers tried them again but most yet again dropped them (perhaps slightly less quickly than before).

How auto dispatch

Service managers are afraid that, if fully utilized, auto dispatch will replace a human being – meaning they’ll have to fire a dispatcher, foreman or technicians. I’ll explain later why this fear is unfounded.

Some techs try to game the system and cherry pick jobs, causing problems in the system that require human intervention. So, the thinking goes, it’s just easier to assign jobs manually in the first place.

Setting up the automated dispatch system takes time. It can take weeks to set up initial parameters, and months to transition from a manual system to fully automated dispatch. It takes continuous effort and commitment by the service department through this transition to ensure success.

You might ask, why bother at all with auto dispatch? My answer: Auto dispatch assigns the right tech with the right skill to the right job at the right time. Service departments that successfully transition to auto dispatch have enjoyed a 15 percent to 50 percent increase in labor hours sold, and everyone in the department makes more money. I believe that once your service group has transitioned to auto dispatch, both service managers and their personnel will love it.

HOW A TYPICAL SYSTEM WORKS In a DMS, the auto dispatch function is integrated with the service module. Setting up auto dispatch requires assigning certain skills, such as “brakes” or “electrical,” to techs; along with skill levels such as “beginner,” “experienced” or “certified.” It also requires that jobs be prioritized based on qualifiers such as “waiting,” “VIP,” “promised time” or “appointment.” When a repair order is created, the system electronically files that RO into the dispatch route sheet. Parameters are set ahead of time, so the system knows which skills and how much time should be

Here is how one auto dispatch system displays the status of jobs and other activities. 10 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

ServiceDriveToday.com

Conditions in service departments are always changing, and that’s why auto dispatch will always require human intervention and will never replace a human being.”

“

needed for each job. The system then prioritizes jobs and searches for a tech with the needed skills and availability. When tech finishes one job, the auto dispatch function automatically releases another job to him based on the pre-set parameters. You’re probably thinking that parameters like prioritization of jobs cannot possibly be set in stone. After all, conditions in shops constantly change. Sometimes, a “waiter” may need to take precedence over a “VIP,” or a “promised time” may need to have a lower priority assigned if the customer won’t show up until three hours later than expected. Also, what about techs who try to game the system?

AUTO DISPATCH WON’T REPLACE PEOPLE You’re right: Conditions in service departments are always changing, and that’s why auto dispatch will always require human intervention and will never replace a human being. Auto dispatch is not designed to replace anyone. Rather, the function is intended to increase employees’ productivity. For example, say your shop foreman currently spends 70 percent of his time manually dispatching jobs, 15 percent of his time training techs and 15 percent performing high-paying diagnostics. With auto dispatch, his time spent on dispatching jobs can be managed and reduced to 10 percent from 70 percent, with training rising to 40 percent and valuable diagnostics work to 50 percent.

HOW TO STOP CHERRY PICKING Because auto dispatch functions in DMSes are designed to be flexible, most do allow manual overrides in certain circumstances. Most let techs place a current job on hold and view the next job assigned to them, so they can choose to start work on the second job instead. This behavior causes obvious problems, including jobs not getting done on time and honest techs who don’t game the system receiving less desirable work. For auto dispatch to succeed, the service manager must enforce the process. One reason why many service managers don’t is they have favorite techs who are accustomed to being assigned plum jobs. Or, service managers may tire of hearing techs complain about auto dispatch and back off. Whatever the reason, it’s critical to stop letting techs cherry pick the best jobs. Believe it or not, 90 percent of the time the computer does know better than the service manager, foreman, tech or advisor about who should be working on what job, and when. If given a fair chance, auto dispatch will increase every tech’s productivity and pay. Recent upgrades to many auto dispatch functions have attempted to address the challenge of cherry picking. For example, in the version from my company, Auto/Mate, service managers now have the ability to control how many active ROs a tech can have open at one time. Users also have the option to disable techs’ ability to place jobs

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Stop worrying about whether these techs could be replaced by an auto dispatch system. They should become more productive.

on hold and make them get a manager’s approval first. If some techs prove more trustworthy than others with the system, permissions can be adjusted accordingly.

PAYOFF ON THE BACK END Depending on the size of your shop, it can take anywhere from two days to two weeks to set up all of the parameters. It can take anywhere from several months to a year to transition from a manual system to one that is fully automated. Once the system is established, regular maintenance is required. Whenever a tech quits or is hired, that person has to be removed from or entered into the system, with appropriate skill sets assigned and adjusted as necessary. Ideally, the service manager or dispatcher should allocate 15 to 20 minutes every day for ongoing system maintenance. The good news is, finding the time to do this should not be a problem, because auto dispatch will be creating more free time.

I am cognizant of the innate fear about handing over such an important responsibility to a computerized system. “What if a bottleneck occurs?” you worry. “What if the system screws up and creates chaos?” Auto dispatch is no different than any technology in that the “garbage in, garbage out” saying applies. Auto dispatch is not something a service department can set up and forget. Every shop is different, so there’s not one set of recommended parameters. During the transition, parameters will need to be constantly tweaked until you find what works with your individual processes. It takes dedicated commitment to switch to auto dispatch, but once it’s humming smoothly, the time you invested – plus a whole lot more – will be repaid on the back end. I think your service department will become more profitable, each employee will generate more revenue, and customer satisfaction will increase due to quicker turnaround with fewer tech errors. And, if at first you don’t succeed, then try and try again. SD

KEN ROCK

Corporate Training Manager and Customer Support Specialist at Auto/Mate Dealership Systems Ken has trained dealership customers for more than years, after having worked as a fixed-ops director for a dealership group in New York and Massachusetts. He has more than 25 years of dealership experience and hands-on training of dealership staff.

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 11

Askthe

Pros:

Do you have questions? We have experts who can answer them. We have partnered with some of the top fixed operations consultants in the business who are ready, willing and able to share their knowledge and advice with you. All you have to do is email your questions to Newsroom@ ServiceDriveToday.com, and we’ll take care of the rest.

“What commonalities are you seeing in how dealers evaluate the job performance of their service managers? What metrics or KPIs are the smart dealers utilizing?”

CARSON IN METAIRIE, LA:

Brenda Stang, chief shifter at Shifting Gears Training:

Dealers are taking a threepronged approach to measuring the performance of their service personnel: sales skills of the advisors, productivity of the technicians, and relationships with customers and staff. The key is to make sure that the performance is measurable. Whatever you measure can either be celebrated or improved upon. A couple of key service advisor metrics are customer hours per repair order (CP/RO) and effective labor rate (ELR). CP/RO measures sales skills and shows whether your advisors are order-takers or salespeople. ELR compares the listed door rate with what was actually billed. It shows if your advisors are collecting your full rate or if they are discounting. The technician metrics are productivity (average hours per tech per day), efficiency (hours clocked on jobs/hours in attendance) and proficiency (hours produced/hours clocked). These metrics tell the whole

story of your shop. Do you need to hire more techs or reduce their numbers? How skilled and fast is your technical staff? In the area of customer satisfaction, customer retention and CSI scores are key. How many customers are returning to service for maintenances and oil changes? 76 percent of customers purchase vehicles from where they service their vehicle. Factory CSI scores will always be key for two reasons: They truly are a snapshot of your service, and the manufacturers factor in your scores when you are buying or opening new stores. The key metric with internal relations is staff retention. Every business experiences staff turnover, but excessive turnover is costly and affects the quality of service to the customer. Depending on the position and the person’s productivity, the average cost of turnover in service is between $25,000 and 70,000. The key to evaluating performance is frequency. The advisor and technician KPIs should be discussed at every payroll cutoff, and the customer and employee satisfaction reviewed monthly.

JIM IN LEAVENWORTH, KAN.: “What do you think a realistic conversion rate to additional service or repairs should be for recall customers who haven’t previously had any work done in our shop? Should we track conversion rates both for work done at the same time as the recall work, and for future work?”

Vern Poyner, general manager of the myCARFAX Program at CARFAX:

Conversion rates will differ for each service department, but many shops participating in our free myCarfax Service Shop program tell us they consistently write up additional ticket orders for recall customers. Ted Britt Chevrolet, for example, has about a 30 percent conversion rate.

Reassuring first-time recall customers about your knowledge of their vehicle is one key to converting them. A courtesy inspection (Ted Britt does one for all recall customers) and access to the vehicle’s service history help your team support their service recommendations, even for first-time customers. Whenever possible, let customers know your expert team can take care of the recommended services at the same time as the recall. Minimizing their wait is a big plus for the customer, since time in the shop often matters more than how much it will cost. They know they’ll have to pay to have the work done eventually, so killing two birds with one stone and no added wait time can make the difference between a yes or no. A good practice to help track upsells on recall customers is to measure the ticket value and separate out recall work from added services. Noting first-time recall customers in your DMS will help pinpoint those who come in for a follow-up visit. It’s a good idea to track work done for these customers at the time of the recall and in the future, since it will help determine the recall conversion rates for your service department. It also helps you more accurately forecast revenues from recall visits and adjust your customer service efforts around recalls to maximize ticket orders. Make sure you’re doing everything possible to foster those relationships and turn one-time recall visits into long-term loyal customers.

TOM IN DENVER, CO: “Our CSIs have been trending toward customers being unhappy about the length of time their service job is taking, which is ironic in that we’ve been

emphasizing being more deliberate in our work because before the CSIs were complaining about rush jobs. Any thoughts about how we can calibrate customers’ expectations? Because, we really don’t want to change our approach again.” Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training: I can certainly relate to your frustrations over CSI scores. As a dealer, I took over a store that had the lowest CSI score for that franchise of any dealership in the nation, at 34 out of a possible 100. When I left that store about five years later, we were consistently scoring 98. How did we do that? It all comes down to communication. The service advisor is the position in every dealership that has the most direct impact on communication with your customers, both good and bad. Your service advisors interact on the phone and face-to-face with more

12 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

customers in a given day than any other employee in the dealership. For example, if your sales team is selling 100 units a month, then your service team is servicing about 700 retail and warranty customers a month. So, the question I have for you is: Have they all been professionally trained on proper telephone skills? In today’s market, about 80 percent of your service traffic starts with a phone call. Secondly, you need to evaluate your service drive processes to ensure your advisors are communicating effectively with every customer. Here are some examples: • Verify the primary item • Review and recommend maintenance services based on condition, time and/or mileage • Advise your customer of your FREE multi-point

inspection • Verify the best daytime phone number to reach your customer • Give the customer an approximate time for completion of the repairs or service • Tell him or her you will call when the vehicle is ready for pick-up • Conduct an active delivery of the vehicle to the customer to explain the entire repair order • Schedule the next appointment based on time and/or mileage • Conduct a follow-up call the day after delivery, to ensure the customer’s complete satisfaction It’s not good enough to simply meet all the customer’s expectations. You must exceed expectations, and your CSI scores will soar to new highs and stay there.

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Steps To Make Sure Your

\QUICK SERVICE WORK Is Handled Optimally

Create an operational plan, hire enough lube techs and staff based on when work typically ramps up. BY GARRETT MING

very dealership today is in the quick service business, even if it doesn’t have a dedicated quick service department (and it should strongly consider creating one). Free maintenance offers, rewards programs, branded facilities and simply your desire to take care of your customers’ scheduled maintenance are generating a steady flow of customers who expect rapid service.

In this article, I will discuss five key attributes or activities that will help a dealership deliver exceptional results to quick service customers. First, however, I want to spend a little time discussing the typical mindset of a quick service customer. Most customers tend to be more time-sensitive about scheduled maintenance than about more substantial repairs. Larger repairs usually are unforeseen and onetime events, so the car owner has little understanding of the time and work needed. However, customers usually have a very good idea of how long scheduled maintenance should take, based on their own experience. Assuming that recent experience was positive, quick service customers likely will have high expectations and be critical of any breakdowns in communication and performance. So, the dealership will be challenged to provide consistent performance and precise communication, if it wants to win a loyal customer for scheduled maintenance. The dealerships I have seen succeed in quick service employ a solid operational plan, maintain a minimum ratio of quick service to general techs, a quick service to general tech ratio, staff based on times of day that generate the most work, communicate with customers accurately, and manage with performance-based reports and employee rewards. Each should be considered an action item by dealerships that desire long-lasting improvements in their quick service operations.

A SOLID OPERATIONAL PLAN

Every dealership needs a defined operational plan that calls out an operational path for every employee handling quick service work, regardless of whether there is a dedicated quick service drive. Clear directions to service advisors, techs and managers are needed for every step, from greeting to checking out the customer at the cashier’s station. The last thing you want is uncertainty. When employees lack clear instructions, they start making up their own ways of doing things, which lead to inconsistent performance and unhappy customers. Operational software that streamlines your processes and provides complete timing transparency is a musthave for medium to large quick service operations. In a busy shop with two or more advisors and four or more techs, it’s virtually impossible for an advisor to know when a job should start and finish without software. Placing a hard copy of the job order in a rack and hoping a tech draws the right repair is a recipe for daily problems, and is not part of a successful operating plan. Eighty percent of the initial work flowing into any quick service department is scheduled maintenance: oil and filter, tire rotation and inspection. A critical part of your operational plan should be for all lube techs to be trained to perform your service department’s most common jobs with exactly the same steps. Starting at the same point, inspecting and recording results, and performing the work using the same steps and within a set time based on actual results will drive consistency into your operation. A manager who commits to training all quick service techs before they touch a customer’s vehicle, and timing their performance will proactively solve many of the customer complaints that today takes up much of his time .

A 3-TO-1 RATIO OF TECHS

Having lube techs focused only on initial quick service work flowing into the shop is the only way to ensure consistent, timely and accurate starts. Advisors dealing with customers immediately after larger repairs are done, as quick service techs start the customer-requested maintenance, encounter huge issues as they try to answer the question everyone asks: “How long is it going to take?” The most successful quick service departments maintain three dedicated quick service lube techs for every general tech. The lube techs are responsible for completing all of the initial quick service work, making it much easier for advisors to commit to and keep promise times with their customers. Meanwhile, general techs are responsible for identifying additional work, helping the advisor sell it, and completing that work. On average, additional work will be found with 33 percent of the initial jobs flowing into a quick service operation. If your service department historically has identified more work than that or uses two-man teams to perform the initial work, then aim for a 2-to-1 ratio. A defined standard for lube techs to general techs lets yours be a truly quick service operation, while still providing enough flexibility to pursue additional work discovered during the multi-point inspection.

STAFF BASED ON WHEN JOBS ARISE

In most quick service operations, as with most freeways, traffic flow ramps up during certain times of each day and slows down at others. A service manager needs to staff up during the busier periods and reduce staffing during the slow times Looking at a large number of jobs at many dealerships,

Customers usually have a very good idea of how long scheduled maintenance should take, based on their own experience.”

“

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ServiceDriveToday.com

“Every dealership

needs a defined operational plan that calls out an operational path for every employee handling quick service work.”

4 A status page enabled for mobile devices and a display screen in the customer waiting area each provides the transparency needed to reserve the “next available start time” and/or follow live progress of a vehicle through service. my company has discovered patterns about job flow. Quick service departments tend to be busiest writing up jobs in the morning until 10 a.m. After 10, activity steadily declines through noon, increases slightly after 1 p.m. and then dips steadily again from 3 p.m. until the end of the day. While your dealership’s individual results may differ, knowing your historical time-of-day and day-of week workflows will let you create a staffing schedule that provides great operating results and keeps labor costs in line.

COMMUNICATE ACCURATELY

Every customer asks, “How long is it going to take” at write-up. Giving your advisors the ability to answer that one question accurately has a huge impact on their success with your customers Misquoting a promise time or failing to give one creates the potential for an upset customer. More than half of complaints in quick service are tied to length-of-time issues. Miss a customer’s expectations about time, and he or she may be checking a watch or phone expecting to leave as your advisor delivers results of an MPI showing the vehicle needs new brakes. Some skilled advisors may be able to overcome this situation and still sell the brake job, but many others will lose the sale and risk a negative manufacturer’s survey. Using operational software in your quick service department that provides accurate start and duration times on all your initial jobs will enable advisors to communicate accurately during the write-up and throughout the service visit.

PERFORMANCE-BASED REPORTS AND REWARDS

An operational plan is only as good as its execution. Reporting milestones need to be installed to ensure everyone is accountable for his part of the plan. Daily reports with results of the number of jobs created, start times hit and job duration times hit will provide the data you need to give feedback that rewards or counsels your service employees to continually improve. Daily focus on performance with either positive recognition or correction keeps your quick service operation building the habits that lead to success. The five attributes or activities I’ve described in this article can transform your quick service operation into one of your dealership’s highest-performing departments. Every dealership today is in the quick service business, anyway. Let’s make it the best business it can be. SD

The ebb and flow of quick service jobs during an average day.

GARRETT MING

CEO and Founder of KABI LLC KABI’s WorksTiming software is designed to provide operational transparency, increased daily throughput and, and improved customer communication and loyalty to quick service operations. Garrett has more than 26 years of dealer operations and automotive retailing experience.

Expect more quick service customers in the morning before 10 a.m., and staff accordingly.

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JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 15

s your service department developing to your satisfaction, year over year? Future repeat vehicle sales are likely to come from customers who get their vehicles serviced regularly at your dealership. Some studies indicate customers who regularly service their vehicles at the selling dealership became repeat vehicle buyers more than 80 percent of the time. Vehicle sales are a direct product of excellent retention in the service department.

Customers who are cultivated properly within the life cycle of their vehicle ownership also purchase more legitimately needed services, and over time become happier and more profitable customers.

Pursue

CUSTOMER RETENTION AND MORE SALES

At Every Stage of The Ownership Life Cycle Advisors need to be prepared from the first appointment through the latest pick-up. BY JOHN FAIRCHILD 16 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

Your service advisors come in contact with more customers on a daily basis than anyone else on your staff. On average, an advisor generates more per-person gross profit than a salesperson does. The crucial question then becomes: Are your service managers and advisors treating customers properly at each stage of the life cycle related to customer retention and retail growth?

IT STARTS WITH SERVICE APPOINTMENTS Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s examine the life cycle of a customer who buys a car from our dealership, related to each step in the customer service process. In so doing, we can address practical steps that must be taken to ensure excellent service customer retention and satisfaction, and retail growth throughout the ownership experience. Every customer visit typically starts with the setting of a service appointment, either the first time after purchase or for subsequent service. The best-performing dealers have BDC agents or an appointment coordinator, rather than their service advisors, set appointments. Why? An advisor often will be too busy to be sufficiently professional and timely when setting service appointments. Also, that advisor may well calendar appointments based primarily on his aspirations (or lack thereof ) and not on shop capacity.

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“Remember, it’s your department’s job to

keep the customer well informed about the condition of their vehicle

each every time they visit.” For drop-off customers, make a proactive status call. In other words, YOU ask the preferred contact method (text, phone or e-mail), YOU reach out to the customer and YOU give a time. Contact all drop-off customers every day, at least once a day, to relay their vehicles’ status.

Service advisors need to put a lot more strategic thought into leveraging the customer’s pick-up.

Depending on the customers’ needs and dealership’s history, the setting of this appointment is a prime opportunity to plant the seed for additional needed, or previously declined, services. Once the appointment is set, advisors must review the customer’s history BEFORE he or she arrives at the service department. This gives a chance to create a plan tailored to where that customer is in the ownership cycle. Is that customer overdue for preventative maintenance? Will special-order parts be needed to complete the job? Did the customer decline or postpone work during the last visit, so a reminder is in order? Armed with this information, the advisor can be proactive with existing customers and impress a new customer on his or her first visit.

NEXT, THE WRITE-UP At write-up, advisors should perform a walk-around vehicle inspection, determine the prime concerns, offer to have any postponed or past-due maintenance performed, and check for uncompleted recall work. From this exchange, the advisor will arrive at an agreement with the customer about the work to be performed this visit. Additionally, the two should agree on how to contact the customer upon completion and/ or for status updates. Special attention should be paid according to where your customer is in the ownership life cycle. The service department needs to put its best foot forward with the first few visits after the purchase. This is when you can get to know your customer and cement a relationship that will make them want to do all of their service business with your dealership. Remember, it’s your department’s job to keep the customer well informed about the condition of their vehicle each and every time they visit. Start your multipoint inspection process during the FIRST visit, so the customer gets used to hearing about seeing the progression of wear in their car. People want the sense of security that your service department can provide

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them. Keep them aware of upcoming maintenance requirements, so they are always prepared to act. Owners bringing a vehicle to a dealership mid-cycle also deserve to be treated like first-time customers. Take extra care during their initial inspection to ensure they know the current state of affairs of their car. Report the facts and offer solution options. Let the customer decide how to proceed; never pre-judge his or her response. Keep in mind, customers often need to hear your recommendations several times before they decide to buy. It is critical your staff always re-offer services that were previously declined.

AT THE CUSTOMER STATUS UPDATE Updating your customer’s status is an oft-overlooked activity that, if handled properly, can endear your service customer to your dealership. Ideally, no customer will ever have to inquire BEFORE your team has reached out to him or her. No matter where your customer is in the ownership life cycle, this is an important habit that must be developed religiously. For waiters, you should estimate the time of departure once the write-up is complete, and tell them for example “around 10:15” and NOT “around an hour.” Also, you need to deliver inspection results with a prioritized presentation of any needs as soon as possible.

ACTIVE DELIVERY AND CUSTOMER PICK-UP Regardless of where your customer is in the experience of ownership, this step needs special attention. When all services have been performed and the car is ready for pick-up, then an active delivery needs to occur. “Active delivery” means more than just tossing your customer the keys. Preferably, the service advisor also acts as the cashier when the customer picks up, as he is best equipped to answer any questions. This leads to a more streamlined and positive customer experience. This also is the time to remind the customer of upcoming services needed, review the MPI results, and make sure he or she has your contact information and knows how to deal with you in the future. At this time, try to schedule the next maintenance appointment. Make it a statement, not a question. It’s far too easy for a customer to say, “I’ll call you when I’m ready” if you simply ask if you can set their appointment. Instead, try this approach: “Mr. Customer, I set your next service appointment reminder for March 23, 2016, at the same time of day you came in today. Here’s my card with the appointment information on the back. We’ll call and e-mail to remind you a couple of days ahead of time, and you can reschedule if needed, okay? Are these the best e-mail and phone number for you?” Finally, you should personally follow up with your customers via e-mail, phone or handwritten card. Remember, you want your store to stand out as the only place to take their car when it needs attention. If you follow these suggestions, your service customer retention and retail business will grow throughout your customers’ entire driving experience. Good luck and good selling! SD

JOHN FAIRCHILD

President & Performance Coach of Fairchild Automotive Solutions John has more than 35 years of experience in fixed-operations management and consulting, and trains fixed-ops staff to improve performance and customer service. He started working in auto repair and parts at age 15 and over time held numerous positions at dealerships, including general manager. Reach John at john@johnfairchild. net, or visit the website at www.fairchildautomotivesolutions.com.

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 17

ESTABLISH

E DEALERSHIP'S UNIQUE SERVICE SELLING YOUR

very service department needs to offer customers a primary reason to buy from that dealership and not from a competitor. One way to do this is establish a unique service selling proposition, or USSP (which is different from a unique sales proposition in that a full range of service alternatives are offered, rather than a single sales pitch or menu ultimatum), and manage to it. Your USSP can be identified by completing the phrase “Customers will buy ____ from us because ours is the only service business that provides premium care.” It will evolve as your business plan or target market changes, and you can have different USSPs for different types of customers in your service and dealership databases. All service advisors and techs should be properly trained to communicate and perform the USSPs. Let me give you some practical examples:

PROPOSISTION Every service department should determine what unique factors keep customers coming back, and then sustain them. BY MICHAEL ROPPO

A service department could offer a “drop in at any time” complementary performance and safety service check to all VIP customers. This is an effective USSP for businesses that need a fast way to fill their schedules The dealership could offer a 5 percent to 10 percent VIP discount to customers who need service and repairs exceeding $500. This would be a USSP for cost-conscious customers The

service

department

could

extend special new and used vehicle offers to customers who are due for an upgrade based on time factors and buying preferences. All of these examples are driven by understanding customers’ expectations and buying habits.

A USSP SHOULD CONSTANTLY EVOLVE It’s a good idea to review your service department’s USSPs regularly so that you can ask yourself whether you can tailor services and products to better match your customers’ expectations and needs. Consider asking customers why they buy from you. Their answers will reveal what they believe your USSP is, which may differ from your concept. It’s also useful to constantly check on your competition. Remember, if your competitors are making the same or similar value proposition, then your USSP isn’t really that unique or valuable.

CAN YOU ATTACH A GUARANTEE? A USSP that carries an implied guarantee will truly differentiate your service business from the competition. Follow the following five steps to develop a USSP with a guarantee:

Think in terms of what your customers receive. Everybody wants to receive high-quality service. A dealership service department that tries harder and guarantees the best prices and a job that is done right the first time, every time, on time with no surprises is something special.

Examine how your services and products are unique in terms of customer benefits. How are you solving a customer’s problems, frustrations and challenges? For example, do you think all golf coaches are the same? They are not. A coach whose unique service proposition is to

“A USSP that carries an implied guarantee will

truly differentiate your service business from the competition.”

18 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

ServiceDriveToday.com

guarantee to improve your swing is the one who gets the business.

Identify a “pain point” in your industry. Everyone is bothered by sitting for hours in a dealership’s waiting room. Service departments get it right when they promise to service a customer’s vehicle in 28 minutes, or the job is free. How’s that for a convincing USSP guarantee? Think laterally and creatively, but be prepared to be held to the promises you make to your valued customers.

Be specific, and make sure you can back up your USSP when asked for proof. Ads and marketing are sometimes largely designed with an internal purpose to inspire staff, but USSPs are not. They should describe what makes your dealership so special, what you already are doing well for your valued customers, why you are still in business. It’s just not good enough when you are the only one who knows why!

Evolve this USP into a unique service selling proposition by emphasizing a full range of service alternatives.

Why should I do business with your dealership’s service department rather than your competition down the street? Answer: We offer the nation’s most affordable service industry guaranty coverage.

What can your service department do for me that others can’t? Answer: Our service department offers the only three-year, 36,000mile service repair warranty in the industry.

What can you guarantee me that no one else can? Answer: We are the only dealership in the tri-state area with a five-year, 50,000-mile used car warranty.

Distill all this into a single sentence, or better still a short phrase. You must think in terms of output. Every word must sell value.

The job is not over, though, until you have integrated your USSP into all of your advertising and marketing materials, and other communications like e-mail templates and business stationery. Plus, you need to have done a market launch.

KEEPING THE PROPOSITION CONCISE Convincing guarantees are double-edged swords when they are put out in the public eye. You’ve just created another role for yourself as service director or manager. You must monitor, monitor and monitor to make sure your dealership is sticking to the promises it makes. While many USSPs are only a few sentences long, that doesn’t mean they have to be. Marketing consultants usually lay out three essential questions that a solid USSP should tackle, with examples of good answers for each. For example:

OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER To further help develop a truly effective USSP for your service department, I suggest that you also consider taking the following steps: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Step back from your daily service operations and carefully scrutinize what your customers really want. Keep in mind that the answers might vary from quality to convenience, reliability, friendliness, cleanliness, courtesy or customer service. Know what motivates your customer’s behavior and buying decisions.

You need to know what drives and motivates customers to buy their service from your dealership. Go beyond collecting the usual customer demographics like age, gender, race, income and geographic location that most businesses collect to analyze their service sales trends. For example, ask for birthdays and anniversaries as well, and find out the last service date from another provider so that you can create targeted special offers. Uncover the real reasons why customers buy your dealership’s services and products rather than a competitor’s. As your business grows, you’ll be able to get improved candor from your customers. You will be surprised how honest people are when you ask how you can improve your service. At the beginning of the day, it’s all about maximizing all opportunities to do business. At the end of the day, it’s all about results. The true measure of a business’ success is its ability to understand the USSP mantra as a consequence of continuously meeting or exceeding performance and profitability objectives. The biggest challenges in business lie not in planning or strategy, but rather in whether your business will take the necessary actions and stay focused on achieving intentional results. SD

MICAHEL ROPPO

Director of Fixed Operations and Training /QPS at Automotive Domain Results

Ask yourself: How is your service operation uniquely resolving this customer’s issues? ServiceDriveToday.com

Michael has more than 30 years experience in training and consulting for Automotive Domain Results and its parent company, The Mironov Group. He helps dealers attain maximum profitability, customer satisfaction and retention by improving the quality of their management teams and the personnel who come in contact with their customers. Visit his website at AutomotiveDomainResults.com.

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 19

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When To

\REPLACE OR UPGRADE Heavy Service Equipment Is A Key Question

Your dealership must be knowledgeable about lift and compressor options before touring exhibits at a trade show. BY CHIP WALKER

ou checked the dealership closet and you are fresh out of wire hangers. This means your service manager has no tool left to fix that aging lift for the 40th time. Now what? Okay, that example was a bit facetious, but seriously, when was the last time your dealership took a realistic inventory of its service equipment? Does that equipment still help get the job done, quickly and well, or is your service staff so used to holding their heads right, standing on one foot and pressing the “On” button that they really don’t remember how the machine is supposed to work? Can your current equipment handle all of the new vehicle models, including trucks with extended cabs and dual rear ends, and run flat tires? Most importantly, is the equipment safe for both your employees and customers’ vehicles? If you had to answer “maybe” to any of the questions above, it might be time to think about adding to or replacing some of your service equipment. That means being comfortable with the fundamental questions of where to start and how to ascertain what equipment is really needed.

WITH LIFTS, MAINTENANCE REALLY PAYS Let’s start with the lift, your single-most-important piece of shop equipment. Whether they are in-ground, above-ground, old or new, lifts are the workhorses of a service department. They tend to require very little maintenance and work well day-in and day-out for years, without much thought given to them – until they suddenly fail. Regular maintenance on your lifts will give back years of dependable service, and routine inspections will ensure they are operating safely. If you have older in-ground lifts, make sure you have replaced the hydraulic fluid with an environmentally friendly replacement liquid. If your service department does suffer a leak that is above the shop floor, replacing hydraulic fluid decreases the odds that the lift will break down and prevents a hazardous waste spill.

If your lifts are above-ground, check your cables to make sure they are not frayed and your pivot points to be sure they are lubricated.

IN-, ABOVE-GROUND MODELS: PROS, CONS Now, let me address some pros and cons for replacements for each style of lift. In-ground lifts can be situated closer together than other types of lifts. So, a dealership can lay out their

bays tighter such that they fit an extra bay into the space that otherwise would hold 10 to 12 bays. However, in-ground lifts are more expensive and drive up construction costs because of the additional floor prep needed. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, once installed they cannot be moved. Above-ground lifts are my preferred choice for lots of reasons, including lower cost than in-ground models, the lack of underground components to service, and the ability to reposition the unit or move it to a new shop. The most compelling point in their favor, for me, is that you now can purchase above-ground twopost lifts that have line voltage and compressed air delivered to the post itself. In other words, you don’t have cords and hoses running from the wall to the vehicle, which removes a tripping hazard and shop clutter. This type of lift gets all of its air and power connections from above, within a tech’s arm’s reach. In addition, a service department can mount trouble lights, hose reels, a cordless tool charger, etc. right on the post, although it will need at least one heavy duty two-post lift or a four-post drive-on model. A heavy duty two-post lift can service most commercial units and without the floor space needs of the much larger four-post drive-on model. However, service managers need to bear in mind that above-ground lifts do require more room in between to allow for posts and passage. This could be a significant factor in a

Above-ground lifts offer several advantages, including cost and mobility.

“It might be time to think about adding to or replacing some of your service equipment. That means

being comfortable with the fundamental questions of where to start and how to ascertain what equipment is really needed.”

22 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

ServiceDriveToday.com

smaller shop. And, remember this point: When deciding on the size of a heavy duty lift, you can’t think only about gross vehicle weight. If your shop services a lot of commercial trucks, you have to anticipate the loads they carry. For example, materials can add as much as 5,000 pounds to the total weight of a plumbing truck.

AIR COMPRESSORS GET BETTER Let me now discuss air compressors. Repair shops’ air needs have changed dramatically over the last 10 years. With the advancement and power of cordless tools, techs use much less air then they once did. This may or may not be true for body shops, which continue to be active users of air-driven hand tools in order to reduce tool weight. Reduced air requirements means service departments can turn to a smaller, more efficient compressor. I have always liked having a main unit with a 5-horsepower back-up. This way, if the main unit goes down or requires maintenance, your techs still have air to get their work done. Also, you should look into a screw-type compressor. While the

initial cost is a bit higher than with a piston model, it requires far less maintenance and is quieter in the shop. I won’t have space in this article to touch on other key pieces of equipment including tire equipment, alignment racks, floor equipment and AC machines.

WHERE TO SHOP? NADA Now, how can dealerships get the equipment that they need, at the best value, and comparison-shop? My best answer is simply to go to the NADA show and shop the floor. You will find every key category of equipment, from scoop to nuts, all under one roof. Do your homework ahead of time so you know what

“How can dealerships

equipment you want and the quantity you need. You can shop lift manufacturers with displays 150 feet apart that will work hard for your business. Almost all automotive equipment manufacturers present at NADA and will be happy to guide you through your purchase. Most of them will offer show specials if you order at the event, will offer to perform free floor layout evaluations for your shop, and provide specs for power, air, etc. Don’t forget to research possible financial support from your OEM. Most auto manufacturers have an equipment division that will finance your purchases at really competitive rates. I know Ford and GM both have excellent programs, and I am sure there are others. Finally do not overlook any opportunities from your suppliers. For example, your oil vendor may offer you an oil distribution system under a three-year contract on bulk oil. I can’t overemphasize: Ask what’s available and comparison-shop. If you need service equipment, come to NADA in Las Vegas this year and get your shop back in shape. SD

get theatequipment that they need, the best value and comparison shop? My best answer is simply to go to the

NADA show.”

CHIP WALKER

President of Custom Facilities Inc. Chip has 25 years of construction and design experience and also spent 10 years as COO of one of the largest dealership groups in the Midwest. He also serves as his company’s in-house expert on manufacturer’s imaging programs and on compliance requirements. See the website at www. buildmydealership.com.

Service departments can leverage the benefits of smaller and more efficient air compressors these days.

ServiceDriveToday.com

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 23

Putting The New

.CAR .CARS And .AUTO To Use In The Dealership Could a new web address extensions make your general dealership, or your service operation, simpler to remember? BY JON MCKENNA

24 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

et’s say your dealership is Carson Cars, doing business in Birmingham, Ala., with a website at www. carsoncars.com. Would car buyers remember your brand more readily if you promoted the domain name www.carson.cars? Would your service department page get more organic web traffic if your business owned www.carsonservice.auto?

“Shorter and memorable domains also work better when a dealership prominently mentions a

web address

in its [various] advertising and marketing campaigns.”

As of early December, these were no longer hypothetical marketing scenarios in the retail automotive world. A business operated from Santa Monica, Calif., and called Cars Registry Ltd. began making available three new, so-called top-level domains, or TLDs: Web addresses ending in .cars, .car and .auto. Obviously, these domains offer the most utility to auto manufacturers, dealer groups and individual dealerships, and suppliers and vendors serving the automotive industry.

Cars Registry is a joint venture of domain name remarketers XYZ and Uniregistry Corp., which operate the TLDs .xyz, .lol and .college, among others. Through Jan. 12, Cars Registry will distribute the auto-related domains to businesses that have a registered trademark, and then the general public has eight days to secure one by paying a premium fee. On Jan. 20, the domain names will be distributed by retailers like Network Solutions and GoDad-

dy at a recommended retail price of $3,000. It’s in Cars Registry’s interests to stimulate a market for the new domains, but of course dealers need to critically evaluate how they would serve their business interests. After all, dealerships can’t just start over with a new business name tied to a punchy new URL.

QUICK, EASY TO TYPE INTO A PHONE The questions become whether and how to add a .car, .cars or .auto domain name to a dealership’s current brand marketing as a valuable adjunct. Mike Ambrose, chief operating officer at Cars Registry, believes the primary appeal is the ability to offer a shorter and easily remembered web address in an era when businesses are aggressively marketing online

ServiceDriveToday.com

to the left of the dot, Ambrose said.

“the ease of communicating and marketing the URL.”

Shorter and memorable domains also work better when a dealership prominently mentions a web address in its electronic, print, TV or radio advertising and marketing campaigns; e-mail addresses; and business cards. The goal is unaided recall by the consumer. Those domains automatically would route someone to the dealership’s home page, which would keep its existing URL.

Kain added that he sees “a lot of clunky web names out there” in the dealership world.

AIMING FOR MORE WEB TRAFFIC What about SEO benefits? Ambrose says the new TLDs enhance the chances that a dealership’s name would be the first hit when a prospect searches for, say, used cars in Topeka, Acuras in Denver or even just cars in Boston. Ambrose is hoping that even if they’re not sold on the prospects right away, dealership groups and individual stores will reserve one of the new domain names over the next few weeks and then park it for a few months while they study their options.

These millennials prefer to type a short and memorable web address into their smartphones.

“You want to be the forward-thinking dealership group that appeals to the generation of car buyers that is coming online today,” he said.

identities to consumers calling them up on a mobile device. “We expect to see .car, .cars and .auto to be well adopted in the auto industry and to see a lot of clunky .com and .net domain names to become the second, third and fourth choice for dealers,” he predicted. “More and more visitors are visiting dealership web sites on a mobile device, and they want a short URL. The shorter the domain, the more likely that the web site is popular.” Why would the new web address necessarily be shorter? Because the automotive tie-in can be pushed to the right of the address dot. An effective and punchy domain name ideally will be no longer than eight characters long

SEEKING A STREAMLINED URL

Is www.stlmotorcars.com such a clunky address? Some might not think so, but it’s not punchy enough to suit Graham Hill, principal of the St. Louis Motorcars dealership group that sells Aston Martins, Bentleys and other luxury brands. Hill immediately reserved www.stlmotor.cars to become his group’s primary domain name, has already migrated to the new site and is starting to advertise the new web address. He also reserved stl.cars for his staff’s new e-mail addresses. “I’m not a tech guy, I’m a car guy, but obviously how could you forget either .cars or .car? It gives the dealer the ability to go straight to the customer with its own name and identity, not the OEM’s, emphasized. .cars is totally relevant to the car business, obviously, and I think as time goes on, it will become the norm for the business over .com.” SD

“We expect to see .car, .cars, and .auto

to be well adopted in the auto industry”

David Kain, a former dealer and now president of the Lexington, Ky.-based Kain Automotive training and consulting firm, is recommending that his dealership clients do just that. For his own part, he has reserved the www.kain.auto domain that he plans to promote as the business’ primary web brand, although traffic will continue to be directed to a home page at www.kainautomotive.com. He believes the biggest potential benefit of the new TLDs is

- Mike Ambrose of Cars Registry

Will the new domain names improve a dealership’s organic search results with car shoppers? Time and experience will tell.

ServiceDriveToday.com

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 25

Would a

CHIEF OF

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Help Keep Your Service Customers? Gaining new insights into how both repair and car customers respond could justify the expense. BY ANNE FLEMING

ow much do you really know about your customer’s true experience while he or she is shopping for a car or deciding where and when to get it serviced? As a dealership manager, you already read your CSI reports and customer reviews. However, obtaining a broader, authentic understanding of your customer’s journey through the sales process will drive more dollars to your bottom line. How can you accomplish this deeper dive and learn more about what happens before, during and after a sale, or during and after a service visit? Creating a director of customer engagement and experience position is one alternative. This would be a key position responsible for collecting and analyzing data, and then leading an effort to optimize the customer life cycle with the end goal of improving customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. This director would assess all of your dealership’s departments and find ways to make their customer service as seamless as possible. It would be an especially strategic role at stores with multiple brands and that receive reviews on multiple platforms.

HOW EXTRA INSIGHTS BENEFIT YOU You might think that the data you are already collecting are sufficient to understand your business. After all,

26 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

if sales are up and your CSI scores have never been higher, it stands to reason that something is going well in the sales process. However, let’s be honest: Not all CSI scores are created equal. How many sales or service drive visits have been completed with, “If you’re not going to give us 5s on all answers, please give us a call first.” That can feel coercive and unfair to the customer, as if his or her true opinion doesn’t really matter to the dealership. In today’s complex marketing and sales environments, it is important for dealership to understand the nuances of your sales – and, even more importantly, of the sales and service customers you lost. A proper analysis requires collecting as much data as possible. CSM, an e-magazine for customer service professionals, reports that a typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to 16 people about the bad experience. Analyzing customer interactions at a macro level to spot trends, and following up with micro-level analysis of specific issues can mean the difference between new or lost sales and satisfied or dissatisfied customers.

THE CASE FOR ADDING A MANAGER You might be inclined to let various managers throughout your dealership prepare data and reports to increase your understanding of customers’ experience. In order to obtain a cohesive, honest view of your processes, howev-

What is really going through this car buyer’s mind? Perhaps a dedicated manager could find out.

er, it can be much more effective to let one person lead the effort. Done right, this is a fulltime dealership position that will pay for itself many times over. A director of customer engagement would work closely with your BDC and Internet department and provide an overall perspective of the dealership. While the BDC and Internet teams will be the voice of the dealership to your customers, the DCE would help fine-tune scripts and follow- up calls. Having the DCE perform analysis would free your BDC to spend more time on direct contact with customers. Customer experience management (CEM), also known as customer journey management (CJM), is a multi-faceted process that begins with collecting as many data points as possible from sources such as Google, DealerRater, women-drivers.com and Edmunds. It is a process that involves competitive analysis, reviews of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and customer reviews on auto and dealership websites and customer surveys. It also involves seeking perspectives from your employees about their interactions with customers. While the DCE wouldn’t interact with customers on a regular basis, there might be specific times when special surveys are created to explore customers’ viewpoints.

WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN’T Once data points are collected, the analysis begins to understand what is working and what needs re-tuning. Analysis helps identify gaps in the sales, service and marketing processes. An overview of the responsibilities of the DCE includes: Identify customer satisfaction drivers Assess sales performance gaps relative to competitors Create customer satisfaction surveys and interviews Perform on-site observations

ServiceDriveToday.com

“In order to obtain a cohesive, honest view of your processes...

it can be much more effective to let one person lead the effort” Conduct extensive reviews of social media and Internet reviews Create action plans to improve performance Identify metrics for success evaluation Here are three examples of when data collection and analysis can help you fine-tune your sales processes:

2. 3.

Understanding demographics: According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report from February 2015, nearly four in 10 women out-earn their husbands. Also, an Autotrader Inc. study reports that 53 percent of millennial car buyers are women. Are you collecting enough information to understand those demographics in detail? How would a deeper understanding help you target these market segments at an optimal level? Women’s buying habits: Women-Drivers.com reports that women visit 30 percent more dealerships than men do before buying a vehicle, and 48 percent of women purchase cars by themselves. Millennials and technology: A survey by Edmunds in early 2015 found that 80 percent of mil-

lennials use digital strategies to shop for cars, compared with 46 percent of people over age 35. Do you vary your marketing strategies by age group?

DOWNSIDE, UPSIDE DOMINO EFFECTS Now, I’d like to discuss how the lack of data could negatively affect your dealership. If you don’t know the demographics or buying habits of your customers, you may pay a big price when they walk out the door because: If a customer doesn’t buy at your dealership, he or she will buy from your competitor. That has a compounding loss for your dealership in terms of referrals. Chances are, a customer with a negative experience will tell people about it. A bad social media review can go viral in a hurry. When you lose a direct sale or lose a sale due to negative reviews, you also lose the service business of that potential buyer for at least three to six years. By not using digital marketing targeted to the right

age groups, you run the risk of your competitor winning simply based on a better social media or Internet presence. The upside is much more interesting. Paying attention to details and correcting the course of your customer journey will result in fewer lost sales. Suppose these changes resulted in a 1 to 2 percent increase in sales. If an average single-store dealership generates $52 million in business, then the increase in sales would more than cover the cost of a customer experience director. Realizing that sales gain will take time, but the gain will continue to increase as long as course corrections continue. A simple starting goal would be to identify how many lost sales are occurring and eliminate 10 percent of them.

POSITIVE, RECURRING CUSTOMERS In his article “Customer Journey Management Is The Future Of Customer Experiences” (SmartBlog on Leadership, May 2013), Brian Solis indicates that as customers connect more and more with technology, they become more informed. Being more informed empowers customers, who then become more demanding. This is a double-edged sword, unless your dealership is doing everything possible to proactively move your customers through the customer journey. Today’s dealership customer journey involves more than the reactive approaches of the past. The days when a dealership is a buyer’s first stop are gone. When a shopper walks in your dealership’s door, he or she may already have read your dealership reviews and done research about desired car features and pricing.

The manager on the right could point the techs on the left to approaches that help them keep more customers.

ANNE FLEMING

President of Women-Drivers.com Prior to her involvement in the retail automotive industry, Anne spent 20 years in brand and strategic product development for several international consumer product companies. Her leadership training led to the founding of Women-Drivers.com, which has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, USA Today, Working Mother, Smart Money and other national media. Visit her website at Women-drivers.com and follow her on Twitter @Womendrivers.

ServiceDriveToday.com

It is up to your sales advisors to ask the right questions to assess where your customer is in the buying lifecycle. The director of customer engagement can create a blueprint or flow chart for assessing the next steps. Collecting the right information can help identify disconnects in the journey that result in lost sales. The DCE may seem like a “soft” position – one that doesn’t have a direct link to sales or customers. In fact, it would be a key addition to your dealership staff that lets you go beyond CSIs and reviews and attain an indepth understanding of what does or doesn’t work at your dealership. In essence, the DCE could provide the “glue” to create a seamless customer journey that doesn’t just happen once, but rather is repeated many times over. SD

JANUARY 2016 Service Drive 27

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ON THE SET WITH

Bill Wittenmyer of ELEAD1ONE.

Brian Pasch of PCG Consulting.

John Fairchild of Fairchild Automotive Solutions.

Lee Harkins of M5 Management Services.

Pete MacInnis of eLEND Solutions.

Tim Kintz of The Kintz Group.

Jeff Cowan of Jeff Cowan’s PRO TALK.

Don Reed of Dealer Pro Training.

Chris Lentz of AutoSweet.

Michael Roppo of The Mironov Group with Corinne Lillis of Service Drive Today.

Bruce O’Brien of SpinCar.

Nick Dudley of Nalley Infiniti (left) with Joe Gumm of Service Drive Today. 30 Service Drive JANUARY 2016

Gary Tucker of DealerRater.

Curt Zondervan of No Pressure Selling. ServiceDriveToday.com

BEHIND EVERY PASSIONATE CUSTOMER is a dealer who loves the car business.

For a chance to win your very own #lovethecarbusiness documentary, register at

www.lovethecarbusiness.com and don’t forget to stop by CBT Automotive Conference & Expo booth #309 on Feb.9-11 in Atlanta, GA.