Aftermarket Dave Baiocchi
Breaking down the silos Last month we discussed how the departments, or “profit centers” in our dealerships give rise to inter-departmental tension, and “silo-building” activities that if left unchecked, can easily affect customer service and efficiency in negative ways. I wanted to take some time this month to talk about organizational practices and policy standards that help to deconstruct these silos before they even have a chance to affect customer relationships. Aftermarket – NOT parts and service. Truth be told, most of the opportunities to erect silos can be found in the aftermarket department of the dealership. Notice I said AFTERMARKET. This is an organizational practice that I suggest for dealers right off the bat. The reason you have parts and service SILOS is that you have parts and service DEPARTMENTS. The function of caring for customer equipment is fully dependent on both the parts and service mechanisms working in TANDEM, as one entity. The moment that we allow the customer to see the separation between the departments, we have exposed our silos, and we start to lose cohesion. I don’t mean to suggest that we merge these departments on the financial statement. Goal setting, process metrics, and operational tasks are different for each one of these profit centers. We still need the visibility of clear-cut forecasts and functional assessments in each department to chart our progress and adjust our tactics.
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www.MHWmag.com
October 2021
I’m looking at this from the standpoint of communication, data visibility, coordination, and execution. The customer has to feel as if the parts effort and the field service function operate as a singular resource. How can we do that? Communication tools Every dealer I have visited in the past 8 years, struggles with some level of miscommunication. There is so much data that changes hands inside a dealership that we are bound to misunderstand or misconstrue some of the details. Over the past 40 years, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard: “We need more communication”! My response is simple: No, we don’t! When I was a territorial salesperson back in the ’80s, and my customer wanted to communicate with me, they had to call our main office location. The sales secretary would dutifully put pen to paper, and take a message (remember those pink notepads?). Then she would call my pager. The pager on my belt would vibrate and I had to find a PAYPHONE to call in and get the message. Then I dropped another quarter on the phone to call the customer. Compare that to what we have at our fingertips today! Cellphones, email, voice mail, IM, tablets, laptops, Facetime, Skype, Zoom, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn…. shall I go on? We don’t need MORE communication. We are actually AWASH in communication. What we need is BETTER UNDERSTANDING. Understanding is the GOAL of communication. Adding more ways to communicate without changing the quality of the communication will continue to produce less than acceptable results. So how do we refine our communications and our action plans so that the customer will see a unified, aftermarket effort? Here are 9 policy and process strategies for blowing up (or at least building bridges between) the silos in your dealership. • Write Instead of Speak. When there is a choice…write it down. The written word provides visibility and accountability that words just can’t duplicate.
