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July - August 2021
Service: How Much Do You Make When They Go Somewhere Else? Almost every day on my way to the office, I stop by a neighborhood convenience store, called Wawa, for a la e. ‘Wawa’ – kind of a weird name, but it’s a cool place. They make good la es there – be er in my opinion than Starbucks, and I don’t have to wait in a huge, slow moving line. If you know me at all, you know that I hate lines. That’s why I’ve always said that I hate cashiers in service departments, because they create lines and lines piss people off, so I hate lines; everybody hates lines. Anyway, this ar cle isn’t about cashiers or long lines, it’s about something much more important. It’s about service adver sing and traffic and opportuni es and profits. Now, when I go to Wawa, I always get the same thing. A 16 oz hot la e, whole milk, no flavor and I like it “not s rred”. I’ve done this for a long me and the workers there kind of know me. They call me James Bond, because I like it, “shaken not s rred”, referring to the way he likes a cocktail, except I don’t like it shaken, I just like it “not s rred” but, they think it’s funny, so I laugh and go along with them. That’s right I tell them, “I’m 007, Bond, James Bond”. So anyway, here is the deal. The la es at Wawa have always been $2.99, but the other day, I no ced that the price was now $2.00, not $2.99. While the guy was making my la e, (I call him “Goldfinger”) I told him that I no ced that the price had dropped and that it seemed like they were just giving money away. I mean I would have bought it anyway at $2.99 like I had always done, I told him. Now this is the good part and the part that really blew me away. He told me (this is the guy that makes la es at a convenient store), that when the company decided to drop the price by 99 cents, it really hurt their margins, but at the same me it increased traffic and overall sales enough to make even more with the volume – plus, now get this, he said it also worked as a great way to say thank you to their loyal customers like me. The goal for that, he said, was to a ract more customers and keep people like me coming back over and over instead of going to the compe on. Wow! Margins, upsells, traffic, volume, reten on…this is from the guy that makes la es for a living and probably makes maybe $9-10 an hour! I was impressed! So, if you were wondering where my story about la es is going, I will land the plane. My company, Car People Marke ng, does service adver sing for about 450 dealerships and what amazes me more than anything is how many service managers don’t understand what the “la e guy” at Wawa obviously gets. That being compe ve and driving traffic and boos ng reten on and crea ng opportuni es always equals sales and gross and profits, it just does. That isn’t rocket science, it is common sense. But believe it or not, when we talk to lots of service managers about being really compe ve on just 2 services (oil changes and re rota ons), they get hung up on trying to make a profit, instead of looking at the opportuni es those basic “in-demand” services create. Those guys, (I hope you aren’t one of them) are literally stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Think about it this way. Most dealers, depending on the carline, average anywhere from $150-$350 per repair order. You should know your average CP repair order sales number for parts and labor, if you don’t, find out, and find out now. Continued on Page 33
Mopar Masters Guild Magazine
