For years now you’ve heard everywhere that you can’t measure social media ROI (return on investment). I’m not sure if it’s been an excuse to discount social media’s value or a fear of adapting to a new marketing model. Perhaps it is a little bit of both.
Marketing Charts recently outlined on a new report by the Platt Retail Institute, conducted in association with the American Marketing Association comparing marketers’ rankings of various channels’ budget allocations against the channels’ perceived importance and ROI. The study reveals that of the 11 channels identified, social media marketing ranks fourth in both current importance and ROI, but ranks only sixth in budget allocation.
Scott Monty of Ford Social explained in his blog that “The study reveals there’s a mismatch between marketing budget and effectiveness in key areas. Two are mass media and customer support, which are being overspent on versus their return on investment. Alternatively, email and social are being under spent on while they have a more effective ROI.”
When you know more, you can do more. Social media’s ROI can be tracked. But keep in mind that tracking is only the measurement of the result of your efforts. You must be able to tie those results back to your objectives to get real return on investment.
The following are Facebook objectives and results we track here at Kruse Control on a weekly basis:
1. Community Growth: number of likes obtained. This metric shows how your page is growing and can be tied in with budget spent on Facebook ads.
2. Engagement: number of likes, comments and shares. Content is what drives your social media success. When you track how your content is being received by the audience, you get smarter about what to post in the future.
3. Total Reach: number of people that viewed your content. This is another metric that can be tied to Facebook ad spend. Facebook allows you now to pay to reach more people. While it’s a lot different than even last year at this time, as a Facebook marketer I’m glad to have that available to me.
4. Popular Posts: The posts got the highest engagement. This is a useful metric for content curation. As marketers, we always use our best guess as to what the audience is looking for. Keeping track of your most popular posts allows you to give your audience more of what they like.
I have a client who shares a lot of content around a certain female service adviser. She’s well known in the community and has a bubbly, enthusiastic personality. Their posts with Mackenzie get off-the-chart engagement.
5. Budget Spent (Facebook ads, software tools, design, etc). Facebook is not free. You have to pay to play. If you want to increase your reach then you need a budget for ads. Beyond an ad budget, you’ll need money for software monitoring tools, scheduling software, photos and graphic design. Since it’s actual money spent, this is the easiest one to track.
6. Leads: number of leads generated. This is the golden ring here folks. There are two types of leads from Facebook – organic and traditional. Organic leads happen in the comments section of your posts.
Share a special offer and many times someone will ask, “How long is this on for?” or “Do you service Nissans?” Be ready to answer their question and pose another one to keep them engaged.
The traditional type of lead comes from a more proactive approach. It involves the strategic use of Facebook Ads that click through to specific landing pages. There are thousands of ways to use this tactic, it all ties back to your objectives and the results you’re looking for.
7. Sales: number of sales closed. Because of their very nature, organic leads will be known intimately by your social media manager. They’ve had conversations with the lead sometimes over months. When you’re running more traditional campaigns with landing pages, it’s helpful to have lead tracking software to know who the leads were so you can follow up on them.
It goes without saying that proper layout in any service business is just as critical to the financial success of the operation as equipment, personnel, and other more visible essentials.
Layout affects how the department will be organized and the flow of work through the department with the least amount of wasted motion. In the detail business, wasted motion from a poorly laid out shop not only results in higher labor costs, but also lower productivity.
For many dealers, giving such analytical consideration to a detailing department may seem strange since detailing has been that “dirty hole” in the back end of the building, operated by a few unsavory characters that are “typical” of detailing.
This type of thinking is correct, but what we hope to do with this article is show you that you can bring detailing out of the dirty hole and make it a legitimate profit center in your dealership. Considering space allocation and layout is the first step.
What is Needed
In the first place, you have to determine if you want your detailing department to do just new-car get-ready and used-car detailing for your in-house needs only; or if you want to offer the detailing service to the public, primarily your service customers.
Assuming that if you plan to upgrade your approach to detailing, you will want to maximize your profit by selling detailing to the public.
With this assumption, allow for at least three or four more cars per day. You will also need at least one to two wash bays to clean engines and wash cars. This area, of course, will have to be equipped with a proper effluent discharge system; that is, a grease trap and connection to the sanitary sewer.
Remember, even if you have an automatic car wash, you need the wash bay(s) to clean engines, wheel wells, and jambs.
You can have a good layout, but if your equipment is primitive, the layout will be ineffective. Conversely, if you have proper equipment and the layout is wrong, you lose any benefit the equipment will offer.
The flow of work through a detailing department begins in the wet bay where the vehicle is custom washed. A custom wash is when dirt is taken off under the bumpers, on spoilers, recessed areas, jambs, inside gas cap area. Wheels are hand cleaned and all brake dust removed; tar is removed from rocker panel area; and the engine is cleaned.
From the wet bay, the vehicle enters the detail bays where the trunk is cleaned and shampooed; interior is cleaned and shampooed; paint is buffed, polished, and waxed; and finally, the vehicle is given the final detail inspection.
If space for detailing is at a minimum, you may want to do the final detailing and inspection outside, or in another area, to open up a detail bay. This space adjustment can result in additional vehicles being processed per day.
What About the Retail Customer?
Now that you have taken care of the actual layout of the work bays, consider how you plan to take care of those customers outside the dealership who will be purchasing your detail services.
The customer has to be considered from two points of reference:
1. The customer who comes in for a detail estimate and/or to make an appointment
2. The customer who comes back for their detail service appointment.
Whereas in a free-standing retail detail shop, the customer would drive right up to the detail shop and talk to the manager and drop the car off, in your case, this is not possible. Even if it were, you would not want to do that.
If you plan to make money selling detail services, your service writers must have the opportunity to talk with customers.
The simple answer to both issues then is to have the customer drive right into your service department entrance areas. The service writer should be trained to properly estimate the vehicle and make appointments for the detail department. This will require close coordination within the dealership to balance in house work with retail sales.
If you do not have the service writer selling detail services, you will lose tremendous opportunities from the many service customers who will need detailing services, if brought to their attention by a trusted service writer.
Of course, when the customer returns for their appointment they again should bring the car to the service desk to drop it off.
By operating in this way, you give the customer the impression that your detailing department is an integral part of your dealership. Of course, the detailing department should be that way if you plan to make it professional and profitable.
Added Recomendations
Like most services you offer, the customer will not usually wait for their vehicle when having detailing services performed, so you do not need to concern yourself with where they would wait. Of course, if a customer comes early, or may only want an engine clean or hand carwash, they could use your existing waiting room.
A professional detail operation in a dealership needs a “manager” to manage the day-to-day operations of the department. They would need a small area in the detailing department with a desk where they can do the department’s paperwork and have a telephone. It must however, be as suitable as the office you provide for the body shop manager.
This article probably raises as many questions as it might answer, especially if you even considered an analytical approach to detail shop layout in the first place.
Hopefully, it has presented some things that you have never considered. Keep in mind that it is not intended to be conclusive, but only to offer ideas about what you might want to do with regard to space allocation and layout for a successful detailing operation in your own dealership.
I received a call on my mobile phone (how appropriate to start this column) asking, “As an auto dealer, how familiar are you with how mobile technology is affecting the used-car shopping experience?”
I like to think that I have a current outlook on how consumers and dealers are using mobile technology. After all, I have seen the benefits that the mobile revolution has brought to my stores. I love strategic text marketing and geographically mapping my service department’s direct number so that smartphone users will call for roadside breakdowns via Google.
However, technology and its uses change fast. I figured I had better investigate more before dispatching advice.
What I can say without hesitation is if you are an automobile dealer and your website is not optimized for your mobile customers, you are missing a large and quickly growing retail sales opportunity.
To clarify, we are discussing smartphones in this article, not the Motorola “brick phone” from back in the day. The only thing smart about those phones was that they could be used as a roadside hammer and “pocket dialing” was impossible.
But seriously, smartphones combine the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA), media player, digital/video camera, GPS and most importantly (for this article) a Web browser with a mobile phone, in case you were wondering.
Today, businesses are consistently hammering out profits using mobile applications that improve access to information, places and items that consumers want to purchase. Applications like Yelp for restaurant advice or Über to catch a cab rather than searching, calling, and waiting are tools I use all the time.
Other Apps include Google Maps and iMap for directions and searches for gas, food, hotels and other brick-and-mortar stores. Frankly, mobile has changed everything, including the way we do what we do.
In researching for this article, I discovered some amazing facts and equally amazing ideas about how our industry is using mobile smart phones. First, I researched Google where they track everything from our favorite websites to favorite search words and everything mobile.
Here are some interesting numbers: 63 percent of mobile phone users have a smartphone; 70 percent of shoppers use their smartphone while in the store; and 57 percent are shopping other dealers’ inventory while they contemplate buying the car in front of them.
Good news: 49 percent of smart phone searchers bought the same day that they searched, and 36 percent made the purchase within an hour. I love that number. New qualifying line: “How did you find this car?” “Oh, on your cell phone! Follow me (to the closing booth)!”
Here are a few more stats: 44 percent of smartphone users, which we have now defined as the majority of our customer base, use their phone to find your business.
Question, does your dealership show up? Thirty-six percent use it to look up your number. And a growing number use Siri to do this search. If you don't know what Siri is, we Siri'ously need to talk.
What do you think of these statistics? I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised. Even more surprising is that these numbers are about 22 percent higher than the previous year.
When considering the math, the potential market advantage/disadvantage is huge. I did some further research to see how many dealership websites are mobile optimized.
Meaning that when a smartphone user goes to a site, does it change to a format that is usable on their phone or tablet? Research showed only 20 percent of dealers have mobile optimized sites. What is that knocking I hear? I believe it is profit opportunity at the door!
Ok, enough numbers. What do you do from here? First, are you showing up on Google, Bing and Yahoo? Second, are your dealerships website mobile optimized?
Does your information show up when you search from a smartphone? Third, do you have a Wiki and Yelp page? This is important because this is how Siri accesses your dealership information.
With over 100,000,000 smartphone users in the United States asking these questions, it could be the profit breakthrough you’ve been looking to achieve.
Lastly, does your entire organization have an understanding what it means to the bottom-line the next time someone shows up at your dealership with a smartphone in hand?
Does your sales staff have an understanding of the smart phone customer and a strategy when it comes to meeting their expectations? You can leverage the technology and sell them a vehicle today.
While Yelp helped me find a restaurant to meet a colleague tomorrow, I bet more than a few people were looking for a dealership, a service phone number, and/or searching to view vehicle inventory. Were they able to find yours?
My final thought: If you own a dealership or any business, mobile truly needs to be part of your business plan. When calling 911 the question is always “What’s your emergency?” to gain the information necessary to send the right personnel to the rescue.
Are you in a 911 “mobile emergency?” If you want more information or could use some guidance, please give me a call. I'm on Google.
If your dealership detail department looks like the one in the photograph above, or worse, then you need to look at the anatomy of the department. That is, if it really bothers you to have a department that looks like the one in the photo.
At the recent NADA Convention & Expo, several dealers stopped by our booth and in discussions, they all indicated that their shops looked like what you see above or worse, but were not sure why. They blamed the people who worked in the shop or some other nebulous reason.
The reality is … the shop looks like that because the dealer, general manager, or whoever is put in charge, allows it to look like that; and, consequently, to operate inefficiently and, in many cases, unprofitably.
Often the reason is that those in charge do not know what to do to change the situation or where to go to get help, and some, unfortunately, do not care.
I hope that this article will help shed some light on how a dealership can make positive changes in their detail department and make it more organized, efficient and profitable, while turning out good quality work.
Principles of Production
To begin our anatomy, let us take a look at the elements of the detail shop that need to be studied, which are often called the Principles of Production. They make any service department what it is. They are, in order of importance:
• Management
• Personnel
• Facilities
• Equipment
• Chemicals and Supplies
Management – Honestly, if we look at the management of the detail department in the majority of dealerships, it is lacking. Usually the service manager, the body shop manager, or maybe the fixed operations manager is given the responsibility. Most do not want the job, but take it because the dealer principal or general manager gives them no choice.
The problem is, they do not want the job and, worse, they really do not know much about detailing or what to manage.
Question: How can you manage something you know nothing about? It often comes down to, “If the used-car manager is not complaining about the work, all is OK.”
Usually, there are no operational performance standards that the department is measured against. No one really knows what the ratios between labor and production should be or what chemical costs are normal or abnormal.
Since the person in charge of the department has another (more important to them) responsibility such as the service department, body shop and all of the fixed operations, they spend little or no time in the department; so, they put someone in charge of the shop. That is either someone they call the shop manager or supervisor, etc.
The problem here is that this person is chosen not on their ability to manage or supervise, but on their detailing ability — “the best detailer”.
Or, the person who has been there the longest. No matter that this person has no interest and no ability to manage, and is really being paid to detail, not manage. They are a detailer, and that is all they really want to do.
So, very little management is done by this person. Even if they wanted to manage, they do not have the skills or are even given performance standards other than “do good work, make the used-car manager happy.”
Is it any wonder there is a management problem in dealership detailing departments?
Personnel – Take a serious look at the personnel in the detail department … Honestly, would you hire them for any other position in the dealership? That is a harsh question, but when I ask most dealers, they say, “NO!” Then why hire them to work in your detail department?
Doesn’t that department deserve the kind of people you hire in other departments?
The mistake that dealers make with regard to detail personnel is that there first criteria in hiring for the detail department is, “Do they know how to detail?”
Bad mistake, for a number of reasons:
• Do not hire skills; hire values and teach skills.
• Good detailers are working; bad ones are not.
• And, there are many reasons a bad detailer is not working.
• Their experience is only good if you let them do what they want.
• They are typically not trainable.
That is just a start to the many reasons to hire a person with a good work ethic and good values and teach them what they need to know. There are some excellent trainers who will come to your dealership and train the entire staff in only a few days.
Other things to check when hiring for the detail department:
• The applicant’s driving record. A bad driving record is a sign of a problem employee.
• Do they have a valid driver’s license?
• Will they agree to a drug test?
• How many jobs have they had in the last year? A number of short-term jobs are another sign of a problem employee.
Keep in mind you have a wonderful opportunity to hire a “career-oriented” person. Your dealership or dealership group can offer that person growth and stability, etc. Things that most detail employees have never had, nor do they appreciate.
You simply need to up the standards for the people you hire and, as mentioned, do not hire people with detailing experience.
When you run an advertisement DO NOT MENTION detailing in the ad. Something like this:
AUTO SERVICE TRAINEES – Acme Auto Group has immediate openings for a new service department. No experience necessary; will train. Only career-oriented people, with a stable work history need apply. Must have a valid driver’s license, good driving record and submit a resume. Drug testing will be required.
This will eliminate the riff-raff you do not want to hire anyway. Conditions are too strict for the wrong kind of employee.
Facilities – In most dealerships, this is a “mixed bag.” For some, the detail department occupies whatever leftover space there is available to clean cars, with little or no thought given to what is needed in terms of space to operate an efficient detail department.
In these dealerships, the place looks like what could be called “The Black Hole of Calcutta.” Poor lighting, insufficient space getting cars in and out, and many do the engine cleaning and washing in the same bays they clean and shampoo interiors and polish and wax the car.
Others have a well-laid-out space with separate wash bays and detail bays, and good lighting, but they have allowed the detailers to turn the space into an unsightly “pig-pen.”
In both cases, this reflects little thought or attention has been given to the detail department and what is needed for efficient facilities or space.
Certainly, what is needed are wet bays for engine cleaning, wheel cleaning and jamb cleaning, as well as hand washing, if an automatic wash is not available at the dealership. Also required is good lighting that not only provides light on the tops of vehicles, but also the sides and interiors.
And, it should not be so bright that every flaw in the paint is visible even when they would not be visible in natural sunlight.
The number of bays should be predicated on the volume of work through the department:
• Used-car recons
• New-car get-ready
• New- & used-car deliveries
• Auction cars (those taken to the auction to sell)
• Rental cars
• Salesmen’s demos
• Retail details
Equipment – Without exception, the technology used in the majority of dealership detail departments is archaic at best, considering the cost of vehicles today with high-tech clear-coat paint finishes, interior leathers, plastics, alloys, etc.
• Pressure washer
• 10-pound electric buffers
• $50 shop vacuums from Home Depot
• Maybe a portable soil extractor
• Seemingly hundreds of small plastic chemical bottles
• Miscellaneous buffing pads and brushes
• Towels and rags
• Buckets and barrels
This is technology of a back alley detailer, not something a first-class auto dealership should be using on vehicles worth thousands of dollars.
There are several reasons for this lack of better technology:
1. Most detailers do not have a clue what advanced technology is available because they “do what they have always done.” And, there is really no detailing trade journal for them to read.
2. Most dealers or those in charge of the detail department will not spend any money on advanced technology for the detail department.
As a result, the dealer is paying for equipment they do not have in higher labor costs and less production.
The rule to be followed is this: “if equipment can increase productivity and reduce labor, then buy it.” You are paying for it anyway.
Problem: who knows what to buy?
Chemicals & Supplies – As mentioned above, the typical detail shop has hundreds of unmarked plastic bottles with who knows what in them. Besides being unsightly and disorganized it is a violation of OSHA regulations, which require any employer whose personnel work with chemicals have a Hazardous Communication Program in place and that all chemical containers be clearly marked as to contents and that each employee knows what to do in the evident of exposure to these chemicals.
I can tell you that few dealerships have such a program and, few, if any, detailers in these departments have a clue what to do if exposed to these chemicals.
The handling of chemicals in this way is costing the dealer literally hundreds of dollars a month. Chemical misuse, mis-dilution, waste, and theft. In the detail industry it is said, “One of the perks working in a dealership detail department is the ability to supply one’s weekend detail business with chemicals from the dealership.”
Anatomy Complete
There you have it, a simple guide to doing an anatomy of your detail department. If you take the time to view your detail operation using these Five Principles of Production, I think you will see that there are problems that are costing your dealership a lot of money.
The key then are the “3 – A’s”
• Awareness – becoming aware of problems and what they are.
• Acceptance – honestly accepting that you have problems that need to be corrected.
• Action – finally being willing to take action to correct the problems.
If I can assist you with your anatomy, please feel free to contact me at buda@detailplus.com or 1-800-284-0123 Ext. 4
A good manager and personnel for a dealership detail department is the single most difficult aspect for a dealership.
It’s 7:30 on a Friday morning. Danny, your detail shop manager, pokes his head into your office and asks for a few minutes of your time. Your thought is he wants to talk about a raise or a problem he is having.
Instead, Danny floors you with the news you didn’t want to hear. He’s leaving. He has accepted a job with another dealership.
You shake hands and watch five years of experience and know-how walk out your door. More than that, you say goodbye to that special type of employee, a technical person who is also a people person — someone who is comfortable dealing with employees, the used-car manager and salesmen, as well as customers.
Replacing Danny will be no easy task, because your detail shop has no management level employees suited for the position, and good managers are impossible to find. They almost have to be developed.
Possible replacements are the detailers who helped fill in whenever Danny took time off. The problem is, most have no experience in management, and they are much happier toiling away in the detail bays, where their contribution is probably the greatest anyway.
Then there is Danielle, the ambitious, sharp young lady you hired last year who wants to break into the automotive service business and has indicated a desire to manage. She’s a self-starter, taking management training classes at the community college at night, but needs more experience. You could also try to find a seasoned manager from another shop. In either case, you’re betting your operation on an unknown factor and facing the possibility of alienating your existing detailers.
What to do? Turn to the professionals. That is, engaging experts who can provide help, giving you advice on how to organize and hire managers and staff for your detail department.
Hire Skills: Not Experience
While every detail hire is significant, none has greater impact than hiring a manager. Many dealers make the wrong decision. You’re not alone. Dealers all over the country face the same problem for one very good reason. They do not know what kind of manager is necessary to properly operate a detail department.
All hiring is a skill. And hiring for a detail department is even more complex than most hires. Developing the skills needed to operate a dealership detail department requires knowledge. Odds are, as a dealer or general manager, you never hired a detail shop manager.
Plus, you’ve probably never taken the time to consider what you need in a manager, nor have you asked for expert advice. Is it any wonder then you have the wrong people in charge, or that your department does not run properly?
If you want things to improve, you’ve got to figure out what kind of management is needed and whom to hire.
First you have to do one of two things:
1. Hire a manager, and give them the same status as you give a service manager or body shop manager.
2. Put your service manager or fixed ops manager in charge of the detail department, but make sure they know how and what to manage. Most have no idea.
Many dealers simply make the best detailer the manager, assuming if they have detail skills they have management skills. Wrong!
They don’t, and that is why dealers have problems in their department.
You need a manager who can hire, train and motivate people — one who can establish performance standards for detail personnel and a manager who understands production-to-labor ratios, profit and loss and inventory control.
In most cases, detailers — no matter how good they are at detailing — don’t understand these things. And, in most cases, a service manager doesn’t either. You have to insure they are trained in detail shop management and that they even care.
While technical skills might be significant, most skills can be learned. On the other hand, top quality candidates must possess vital personal qualities such as honesty, integrity and a work ethic, which cannot be taught.
Once you have a manager in place, then focus on staff. When you interview a candidate, the job is to gauge the candidate’s true character and if they will be a stable employee, not a warm body that says, “Sure, I know how to detail.”
For example, to get good candidates you must establish a specific hiring process; not just put an ad in the paper for detailers.
Unfortunately, experienced detailers, and I use that term cautiously, are a type. They are usually transient workers with an unstable work history. Often having many jobs in one year’s time. Many have social problems, etc. And, if they are as good as they say, they would be working instead of looking for a job.
A help wanted advertisement we’ve used to find top candidates is as follows:
AUTO SERVICE TRAINEES – Acme Auto Group has immediate openings for a new service department in the dealership. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, will train. Candidate must have a high school diploma, valid driver’s license, clean driving record. Only career-oriented people need apply. Drug testing required. Bring resume and apply to: (Name of a person in the dealership).
This type of advertisement eliminates the majority of bad apples because they cannot meet the requirements. When they come in to drop off the resume and fill out an application, the person receiving them can review their appearance, grooming, etc., and note that on the application. This is another way of screening candidates: how they look when applying.
Then you go through the review and evaluation of the resumes and applications and pick only those candidates that show stability and career orientation to interview.
The 5 B’s of Hiring Detail Management & Staff
Be Prepared: Turnover is a fact of life in the detail industry, but if you hire properly you can reduce this. Always be prepared. They say the best time to look for a doctor is when you don’t need one.
Wait until you are sick and you are stuck with whoever is available. Protect yourself, and have a plan in place to replace a manager and staff as needed.
Be Professional: Use the best, most current tools available to find the best candidates. Don’t hesitate to get professional help. It is available.
Be Thorough: Check references and spend sufficient time getting to know potential candidates. Set up a probationary period for new hires, and spend adequate time evaluating their performance.
Be Aware: Know the detail shop. Be familiar with the culture in the detail department. Learn how all the personalities in the department interact and what detail employees expect out of a manager. Who spends this much time evaluating the detail shop in your dealership? Anyone? No one at all?
Be Patient: Never rush into hiring or hire out of desperation. Something almost always done in dealerships. Hiring always should be the product of careful, well-thought-out steps.
If you’re not satisfied with a manager or new employee, keep looking. The rule of thumb is to hire like you were betting the future of your dealership, because in many ways, you are.
Matching Personality to Position
Every dealership or business for that matter has an associate who might best be called the “odd man out.” This is the employee whose personality doesn’t quite mesh with the others, the employee with whom others find difficult to approach or communicate.
While the odd man out may be productive, for obvious reasons, you probably don’t want them as your detail manager or working in your detail department.
Every detail department has its own character. Dealers must take into account their own detail department’s particular culture when hiring. You should determine if the new person will fit in. Previous success is a guarantee.
A person can be good in one area and horrible in another. Every detail department and dealership is different. This is why it is imperative for a dealer who cares to be in touch with their detail department. You need to know how the people interact. Be concerned about how well employees will mix with a new manager.
Take the candidate out to lunch with some existing department employees. You can later quiz them on their impression of the prospect and how they felt about how the person will fit into their department.
Never forget, the detail shop manager is the main motivator. This is the person that your detail team is built around and the person who determines how efficiently the employees work together. Make a bad decision, and you could end up hiring a whole new group of employees to replace the team that walked out because they couldn’t stand the new manager you hired.
Along with matching a personality with the shop, hire locally, because department managers are unique in that they form close ties with retail clients. Your next manager might already be familiar with potential employees and customers in the area.
Always check references properly. References are useful, but can pose their own problems, especially if you aren’t personally familiar with the reference. References can be misleading, gloss over a candidate’s performance, unfairly criticize a candidate or give widely conflicting evaluations.
For these reasons, you need to look for trends. For example, if four people have the same comment, it’s probably true. If you’re given two conflicting views, give more weight to the one more similar to the opinion you’ve formed. There’s truth in numbers.
Another thing to consider when weighing references: be sure to do sufficient interviewing and investigating of your own to form an opinion of a candidate. If references carry the majority of the weight of your decision, then you need to do some more work of your own.
Predicting Performance
Considering the importance of making a good detail department hire, and the costs of a poor one, you’d think someone would have developed some useful processes to accurately evaluate a job candidate’s skills and predict performance.
Consulting firms have spent years creating and improving a variety of tests and surveys that help business owners evaluate job candidates and accurately predict their success in the work environments.
In general, automotive service management happens to be one of these environments.
A process called benchmarking is used to help companies systematically evaluate job candidates. Benchmarking measures character traits using the job candidate’s responses to surveys. For example, one survey used allows employers to check the integrity of a candidate by measuring the discrepancy in survey answers supplied by prospective employees.
It is given before an interview to provide as much information as possible about the prospective candidate before you actually submit them to the interview process.
Benchmarking is also used to prepare proficiency reports on a candidate’s job skills for specific positions, such as a manager or customer service representative. The report measures a candidate’s level of expertise in areas such as verbal skills, verbal reasoning, numeric skills and energy level.
Scales are used, ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 10, indicating weaknesses and strengths which provide in-depth analysis of the significant of each score.
Time is on Your Side
Going back to the problem outlined at the beginning of the article, who is the correct hire for your detail department? If you haven’t already guessed it, a right answer isn’t possible at this point.
Hiring is a multi-step process, and the dealer hasn’t worked through all of these steps. And, while the dealers problem may seem urgent, sufficient time actually is available for a thorough hiring process.
If you find yourself unexpectedly having to replace a detail department manager or staff member, the fact is, you don’t have to make an immediate hire. You temporarily have to make sure the most important managerial duties or functions are attended to.
You can put in place the same system you used whenever someone was on vacation. For example, delegate to others.
If you have never delegated duties before, now is the perfect time to do so. Since you need to continually evaluate your detail employees’ capabilities anyway, consider making the best of the situation by handing over tasks to talented employees with time to perform them. See how they respond.
Regardless of how you handle the immediate crisis, don’t fall into the trap of hiring out of need or desperation. If you hire the first detail manager or person available there’s a good chance you will need to rehire for that position again.
Give the hiring process the attention it needs. Use the available resources. Get help from a professional. Use personality testing and surveys. Call community colleges and ask for prospective candidates.
Remember, too, the hiring process doesn’t end simply because a position has been filled. You still have to evaluate a new hire’s performance during a trial period. This is anywhere from 90 days to 6 months. Think of this trial period as the final hiring step, the last hurdle your candidate must leap.
This period also might be the ideal opportunity to give a talented and interested tech like Danille her shot at managing. Try gradually turning over the managerial duties to her. If she works out, you’ve got your new manager. If she isn’t ready, continue looking for other candidates while she contributes where she can.
Too Much Work
Sound like a lot of work? It is. While the detail department has never been given this kind of attention, would it not be better to invest time, effort and save yourself problems in the future? Just keep in mind that hiring wisely pays off in the end. Ultimately, you new hire is the product of a process. Knowing that, would you want your process to be short, cheap and based mostly on luck?
Or would you prefer a more deliberate, thoughtful and comprehensive path geared logically towards success? The choice is yours. The detail department of most dealerships deserves your time, attention and considerations if it is going to improve. The longer you ignore it or let your general manager ignore it and treat it and the employees as such, you will continue to have problems.
If I can help, please contact me at 1-800-284-0123, ext. 4 or email buda@detailplus.com.
Profitability can be challenging sometimes, as we all know. I recently met with a group of dealers that, in varying degrees, all shared the same concern: make a profit, more profit and keep that roll going!
But at the core of our discussion, over coffee, the issue really came down to a couple of points: more customers and more quality pre-owned vehicles. At which point, I sipped my coffee, and found that reality a bit funny. In the age of technology, we are still trying to find higher quality pre-owned vehicles, and more of them.
I am fairly confident that during the time spent drinking our coffee, yet another physical or online auction has opened up somewhere with yet some more inventory. Maybe if we just can find the right inventory, profitability would rise, as well.
Or is it that the cost is just too high? Auction prices are climbing. There are the hard costs associated with getting vehicles to the physical auction. The time spent online making sure pricing is in line with the market is costly. But are we collectively missing something here?
Recently I wrote about a new type of auction that is springing up, one that possibly addresses these issues from another perspective. They are the dealer-to-dealer subscription-based auctions.
Now before you walk away from your cup of coffee and this column, just read the next paragraph. If you’re still not satisfied, come have lunch on me at NADA in Orlando, where I will be presenting and discussing this new concept (seriously, email me if you want in on lunch).
Here is how this basically lays out. The seller can post vehicles with no sale fee, and the buyer can buy cars with no buy fee. Now what does that really mean?
A typical auction transaction costs the buying dealer about $281. Through sites like DealerMatch, AutoFlipr, Dealers Link, Dealers Forum and others, that expense is eliminated.
In reality, you have more bidding room; very nice, but as we have all said to our kids, “We’re not there yet!”
Add to this equation: that the seller for the vehicle has not had to pay the average sale fee of $193, the average transportation cost of $42 as well as other costs like gas and the auction re-wash of $28.
The seller now has $253 in price flexibility and has not touched the vehicle. Wholesale accountability has been preserved, and some of these sources have floor plan options, that dealers want these days.
In the end, these channels can provide, on average, $550 of additional deal-making flexibility between buyer and seller.
To this I ask, how often have we missed purchasing a vehicle we want for $500–600? How many vehicles would we have wholesaled, and faster, if we were $500–600 closer on the bid amount?
How much would your dealership add to the bottom line through faster wholesale purchasing and selling? You won’t know until you try it, and really, what do you have to lose?
Was this worth having coffee and discussing? I don't know about you, but for these dealers, it is not often that they have a cup of coffee and discover they could instantly improve their bottom line profit. ‘Til next month, see you in the lens of the lanes.
Not all auto dealerships have detail depart¬ments that are disorganized, messy, financially unprofitable and turn out poor quality work; but enough of them do, so the question should be asked: “Why do deal¬ers operate such bad detail departments?”
Based on years of personal experience in the detail industry and working with auto dealers in the U.S. and Canada, I can say with little reservation that the detail departments in most dealerships are not run very well.
Hundreds of unmarked plastic bottles are littered everywhere, which is an OSHA safety violation. Three or four 55-gallon drums sit up against the wall, and rags and buckets are scattered here and there. Also, the stack of dirty buffing pads sit on a table, along with a stack of floor mats in the corner or on top of the drum. Sound familiar?
Why Do Dealers Allow This?
It would be presumptuous of me to attempt to tell you why the majority of dealers allow their detail departments to operate like this or why they do nothing to change it.
However, I will venture some personal opinions:
1. They don't know what to do.
2. They don't know who to contact for help.
3. They believe there is no other way.
4. They don't think it is worth changing.
5. They don't really care.
6. They develop an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.
There could be more reasons, but these are the most common that I have discovered over the years.
Do Not Know What to Do
Many dealers and/or their general managers truly do not know what to do to improve the detail department. Like the detailers, the dealer is doing what they have always done. In fact, until recently, no supplier in the detail industry offered the auto dealer any equipment or informa¬tion on how to change or improve their shops. Keep in mind, detailing does involve more than chemicals.
Do Not Know Who to Contact
Most dealers are truly at a loss as to whom they can contact for assistance to change and upgrade their detail department.
Believe There is No Other Way
This might be a legitimate conclusion on the part of the dealer, or they accept the fact that if there were a better way, someone would have presented it to them.
Do Not Really Care
Unfortunate, but true, many auto dealers simply do not care. If they get their used cars reasonably clean with only a little complaining from the used-car salespersons, they are happy. After all, they feel they have bigger fish to fry in the dealership. And detailing is not one of them and certainly does not warrant any attention anyway.
Do Not Think it is Worth Changing
This is another variation of the "don't care" attitude. That is, the detail department simply is not worth the time, money or effort to change anything. “It is good enough!” That is right, many dealers do not see the value in investing in upgrading, or changing the way the detail department operates.
Develop an Out-of-Sight, Out-of-Mind Attitude
For those who do not care or feel it is not worth it, they keep the detail area out of their sight, and as much as possible, out of mind. This is their way of "enabling" the department and the employees to continue their dysfunc¬tional behavior.
Is There A Better Way?
This is a valid question, and there is a positive answer. It can be as simple as the dealer principal/general manager getting involved in an effort to find a way to eliminate the problems in the detailing department by using common sense and the basic ABCs of good busi¬ness. The problems in most dealership detail departments can be improved, if not solved, but someone must take the time and effort to study the problem and develop solutions.
There is also outside help available. A few detail industry consultants and one or two detail equipment manufacturers are out there and can help dealers revamp their entire detail department from top to bottom and turn it into a very profitable opera¬tion.
Where Are They?
You need to search the pages of your trade journals to find those who advertise the type of services you need. Call a number of suppliers to see if they can offer organizational and management consulting. Be sure not to mistake technical detailing training for good organizational and management training. The last thing you want is more technical help. You need organizational and management assistance.
Call A Few Dealers
There are a few dealers that I know who have upgraded their detail departments and I am sure they would be willing to offer you advice. They are Dick Houston, Dick Houston Ford in Pine River, Minn; Jeff Mayer, Marion Toyota in Marion, Ill.; Brad Lillie, Gregg Young Chevrolet in Omaha, Neb.; and Tad Orme, Titus Will Auto Group, Olympia, Wash.
Keep the Faith
If you are not satisfied with the operation and condition of your detail department, keep the faith that there is a better way to detail cars and operate your detailing department. It will just take some effort on your part to do it. The first steps start with you.
As always, if I can be of help, please feel free to call me at: 1-800-284-0123 ext. 4.
January! Ah, I love the start of the new year — a completely clean slate with nothing but opportunity ahead.
The trouble with opportunity is you have to manage it to get results.
Opportunity for us in the pre-owned segment of the automobile business means only a few things: customers, inventory and sales process.
While some of these are not within our control, one definitely is: our inventory.
Sometimes I think of pre-owned inventory selection and management as like owning a deli. I know this sounds a bit odd, but I have owned a deli. The key to having a great deli is having a great selection of sandwiches.
Yes, you do have your specialty, an excellent Italian grinder is a must, but you must have selection. Pre-owned inventory is very similar.
There are sandwich shops that just make sandwiches. Nothing special. Nothing fancy. But is that what you want your inventory to look like?
How many times have we, as dealers and managers, drove by dealerships with pre-owned inventory that just looked like a row of vehicles? Nothing special. They all look the same with nothing unique.
Trying to get inventory to stand out is critical. We can sometimes get stuck in just offering what our customers expect to see and lose sight that this is an emotional purchase.
The customer’s eyes and senses have more impact on what they will purchase than the strategy of just putting a bunch of cars out there.
Every market has a niche. One of the dealerships I managed was a domestic line, and our pre-owned inventory was — you guessed it — primarily domestic because that's what we sold.
But a strange thing happened when a customer traded in a European SUV that we had another dealer bid, of course. But before we could get the wholesale order done we retailed it at a nice margin. So why not try it again?
We purchased one, and it sold. And so began an almost four-year run of selling a significant number of those European SUVs. This led to branching out into other European products that all performed nicely.
All this to say that market research didn't lead to this discovery, and there was no significant sales numbers that indicated this was a good idea.
Watchful observation and the willingness to try something different was all that it took. However, as far as the deli business goes, headcheese is still an acquired taste.
Amazon has mastered this process. Amazon doesn't just throw anything and everything into the marketplace. They recognize the value of the real estate on your screen and consider the activity of new products they put in front of you.
No customer activity and poof, it's gone. Their goal is 100-percent customer engagement. Stopping you in your shopping tracks to get you to click through seems reasonable.
This is what inventory should compel a potential customer to do: stop what they are doing, click or come into the dealership, and look at the car, SUV or truck.
I have seen this same idea repeat over and over in dealerships. A Korean dealership that can sell Jaguars. A Honda dealership that can sell lifted trucks and SUVs.
My point is that it is wise to find your niche in additional inventory of pre-owned models. It takes work, but the reward is definitely worth it. I have seen stores where niches have turned into 20 percent or more in additional sales.
I took a chance with grilled Panini sandwiches, and it was a great move. It rapidly accounted for 40-plus percent of our sandwich sales. But I couldn't have sold them if I didn't stock them!
So, the question is for the start of this new year is this: should we manage inventory like we did last year?
Or, perhaps seek new strategies for finding the next inventory opportunity and add to what is already working?
For me, the only thing that sounds better than this is making the perfect sandwich, sitting down and searching out those opportunities. ‘Til next month, see you in the lens of the lanes.
To implement the “Customer for Life” philosophy of Carl Sewell, it has to be carried out in all departments in your dealership, not just the new- and used-car departments.
Your dealership must be a place your customers come back to again and again for all their automotive needs. In short, the “Customer for Life” philosophy has to permeate every department in the dealership.
This brings us to the Cinderella of the dealership: the detail department.
One dealer stated his personal philosophy about retaining customers, which was to compete honestly on new car and truck sales, and to provide more for his customers. He indicated that he wanted customers to come back to his dealership for future vehicle purchases, but it is just as important to have them come back for their service needs, as well. However, unlike most dealers, service to him is more than mechanical, it is cosmetic too.
As he pointed out, “We have an in-house need to detail cars and wash cars, so why not offer that to our customers, too?”
And the dealership does that! The in-house detail department is equipped with the latest detail technology, and the store performs its in-house detailing, new car make-ready, and sell detailing to service customers. In addition, with an automatic car wash, they give new- and used-car customers free car washes for a year.
By implementing both of these programs, they have truly made a commitment to keeping their customers for life.
The Car Care Council reports there is $60 billion in annual unperformed vehicle maintenance. A goal of their Be Car Care Aware campaign is to reach out to the motoring public and reverse that trend in unperformed maintenance, of which car washing and detailing is a huge percentage. Think of it: two industries — the car wash and detail industries — make big money off “your customers.”
This is a good reason to make sure that your detail department is capturing your share of this market that has slipped away.
As warranty work becomes less of a factor in most dealerships, capturing car wash and detail business is the key to expanding your dealership’s revenues.
A few dealers recognize the value and importance of their detail department, bt you must have a good marketing plan in place to market these services to current and prospective customers; otherwise you will not enjoy the revenues.
There are some resources available to assist you in creating new business opportunities with your detail department and carwash. Remember, new customers to a detail department can become prospective customers for new or used cars as well as service work.
But you have to recognize the opportunity and move to take advantage.
Two key factors are vital for a progressive and profitable detail department — setting up with the “latest technology” and training the “right” people. Most dealership detail departments are operating with 1940’s technology and people who are basically unemployable anywhere else and un-trainable because they already “know everything”.
As the owner, you need to look for and be willing to invest in technology that will increase productivity, reduce labor and improve quality. Then hire and train competent people; that is, people with good values that can learn the necessary detailing skills. Frankly speaking, most experienced detailers are not these kinds of people.
There are some detail industry consultants, including my company DETAIL PLUS, that can assist you in your effort to setup and staff your detail department so it can be a revenue producer, not an expense, and at the same time drive current and new customers to your showroom and service department. All you have to do is take action.|
A user-friendly website is vital to the success of a successful detail department. Most dealers market their service departments on the store sites, but many fail to include the detail department. Alternatively, they do not provide adequate information to allow customers to understand online what is offered or make appointments.
Make it easy for customers to locate the detail department section of your site; clearly describe your hours of operation, detail department location and special services offered. Most importantly, make it quick and easy for the customer to enter their vehicle information, as the use of online appointments is growing rapidly with a computer literate society.
Follow-up with detail customers is very important. You want to be in regular contact with customers, so follow up with phone calls and mailings. Create a separate line on your work order that describes detail services needed.
Then follow up with that customer by mailing or emailing a discount coupon for the specific detail service. Have a person who calls customers for the service department also follow up for the detail department and schedule new detail appointments. Remember, people have two to three cars per family.
If you do not have the resources or systems to gain customers for your detail department or follow up with existing customers, there are several services available to dealers.
While most dealers recognize the value of well-trained personnel and the importance of employing ASE-certified parts specialists and technicians, this is an area completely over-looked when it comes to detailers. They just hire anyone who says they have experience.
This needs to be improved, and it will not improve if the dealer does not “drive it”.
If I can assist you in this area, please feel free to call or email me at 1-800-284-0123 ext. 4 or buda@detailplus.com
A detail department can be the “goose that lays golden eggs for auto dealers.” Having a properly functioning department is something that can generate $20,000 to $30,000 a month in revenues.
Most dealerships do not sell detailing services to the public for a number of reasons. However, a well functioning detail department can be a profitable part of the dealership, which will not only satisfy their in-house used-car detailing and new car make-ready needs, but also generate substantial revenues and even provide an opportunity to attract more vehicle-buying customers who come in for the detailing service.
Most dealers lose money in their detail departments because they view and operate it as an expense area, rather than a profit-center department.
RULES HAVE CHANGED
What dealers must recognize today is that the rules for operating a detail department in a dealership have changed. Unfortunately, dealer-principals, their general managers and just about everyone else in the organization, think of the detail department as the “Cinderella” of the dealership and of those who work there as “red-headed step children.”
LET’S TALK ABOUT PROFITABLE OPERATION
For dealerships that do have an in-house detail department, they must look at it as they would the service department.
For example, there are only so many hours in the day the department operates. So what must be done is this: take the number of detailer workers in the department and multiply that number by the number of hours in operation. For example, a staff of five working 8 hours a day equals 40 hours. That means you must have at least 40 hours of work.
If you do not have that much in-house work then you will loose money unless you supplement the work with sales of detailing services to your service customers and the public. From a department profit standpoint, it does not matter if you are processing wholesale work or selling to the public. That said, the public will pay double what the new- and used-car department would pay the detail department.
What a dealer principal or general manager has to do is insure that whoever is in charge of the detail department is carefully correlating labor hours to work hours, and that they have sufficient work for the labor on the clock.
To do this means not only doing your in-house work, but also offering the detail service to your service customers and the public. You will be surprised how profitable outside detail work can be and how it will generate more work by word of mouth referrals.
PERSONNEL
Having a busy and profitable detailing department can solve your personnel problems. Having constant work allows the detailer to work everyday, which helps to keep them and eliminates costly turnover. A detailer leaves a dealership when they are not getting enough hours. This is certainly less problematic than replacing personnel all the time, which seems to be a major problem for dealers with an in-house department.
The quality of the detail work should be consistently good with a trained and stable staff, as well.
Without question, the inability to hire and retain good help is one of the reasons dealers do not have an in-house detail department or decide to close a department.
Ask any dealer who has closed an in-house detail department, most will tell you it had to do with getting and keeping good personnel.
Too many dealers mistakenly believe contracting with an outside detail business will solve the problem.
However, for the same reason they have problems with personnel in their in-house department, they will have problems with outside operations.
How so?
It’s simple; most outside detail operations hire the same kind of people that that dealer has hired and pay them even less money.
If a dealer is lucky enough to find a good outside detail company, then they will be paying higher prices and have no control over when the vehicles are completed and back on the lot for sale.
If you have an in-house detail department or plan to start one know that to be profitable, you have to keep the staff busy all the time. If they aren't, then the department will not be profitable.
Many times, it is too much for the dealer to find sufficient work to keep the staff busy, but this is solved if the dealer has a program to sell detail services to the public.
Think about it.You have a captive, in-house market ready to buy the detail services.
WHAT IS REQUIRED?
As mentioned earlier, the dealer-principal or the general manager must make a commitment to the detail department as they do with any other department in the dealership.
That means they must manage as they do any other department: have good supervisory management, a good shop manager and good staff.
You need to have a proper space in which the staff can work and function efficiently, not some back alley bay(s) or garage “out back.”
And you need to have the latest detail equipment technology available.
You are not going to get it done with a $50 shop vacuum, a $150 buffer and a bunch of chemicals in plastic bottles. Gone are the days when a detailer can do detailing with primitive technologies. Vehicles have expensive two and three stage paint finishes, alloy wheels, sophisticated leathers, plastics, etc. You simply have to invest money in the purchase of chemical dispensing systems, air tools, vapor steamers, extractors, ozone generators, etc. And, dealers must provide the necessary training for people who are trainable so they are aware of the new vehicle technologies mentioned.
This is the reality of operating a professional, in-house department. It is not easy.
However, the payoff can be tremendous by both turning out in-house work better and faster, and selling detailing services to the public.
A FINAL WORD ON PERSONNEL
Getting good personnel is always a challenge, as mentioned. And the “first” rule is to not hire the typical “experienced detailer” that you may have hired in the past. They are typically transient employees not looking for a long-term job, but casual work. Their experience, whatever it might be is only good to you, if you let them do what they want, and that is “the inmates running the asylum.” You would not do that in any other department in the dealership; why the “detail department?
The rule to follow is to hire people with good values who want a career and teach them the skills they need.
The key to obtaining and keeping good people is to selectively hire and pay them well, and give them good training.
If a dealer continues to skimp on the quality of their detail personnel, they will have continual problems.
When a dealer tells me they cannot keep good people in their detail department that says to me a number of things:
• They have hired the wrong people.
• They are not being managed properly.
• They are not being given the respect any employee wants.
• They are not making enough money.
If a dealer continues to go “cheap” with the detail department; in terms of management, personnel, equipment and training, they will end up having to spend a lot more money in the long run.
Remember, every employee wants to work in a comfortable environment, and a detail technician is no different from anyone else in the dealership.
If a dealer cannot find and keep good detailers, it is usually traced to a poor hiring, poor working environment, poor lighting and poor work conditions. There is a demand for good people, and they will always go to companies where they feel they will be respected, have an opportunity to advance, have security and be paid fairly. Having a detail department requires a full commitment from the dealer.
An example of a dealer who is committed to their detail department is one who realizes that in order to have a professional detail department they have to have enough detail work to keep their employees busy. This means insuring that you have sufficient in-house work for them to do everyday, and if you cannot guarantee this then set up a marketing program to sell detailing to your service customers and to the public. By offering detail services to your customers, you meet the motorists need for total car care.
For the committed dealer, finding qualified personnel is not that hard. In this economy there are people available who are dependable and can be counted on to show up on time ready to work everyday.
Making the effort is worth it. By hiring the right detail personnel, a dealer can have a detail department that will drive potential car buyers into the dealership. While they are getting their vehicles detailed, the customers might wander around the showroom or used-car lot and look at inventory. If they are looking for a new car and they see some-thing they like, that detail customer is converted into a car buyer.
A well functioning detail department can easily generate from $20,000 to $30,000 a month in retail detail business, more than paying the expense for in-house detail work.
Dealers are short-changing themselves by not selling detail services to their customers. The number of detail businesses in the U.S.has expanded from 4000 in 1980, to more than 15,000 today. This number is not including carwashes that offer detailing, body shops, and some dealers who sell detailing. They are all your customers doing business with someone else.
SUMMARY
As the dealer principal or general manager, you need to put the money in to develop the infrastructure needed to run a good detail department. That means having the good supervisory management, shop management, good people and the latest detailing equipment.
All of this will pay for itself by a better functioning department and the revenues that will come from selling your detail services to the public.
Ultimately, having a good detail department also means more than another revenue source. By having a detail department aimed at serving the public at large and not just your own in-house needs, you are bringing in new potential buyers to look at your both your new- and used-car inventory. You will create a captive audience.
And a good detail department can do more. When a customer brings in a vehicle for detailing, a dealer can obtain valuable information about the customer. It is built¬-in market research.
The alert dealer will know all sorts of things about that customer. The dealer can learn how that customer uses their car. Do they baby it, or do they run it through the ringer and wear it out? With such knowledge, the dealer can better help the customer make an informed decision on the best vehicle to buy when it comes time to purchase another car.
By having a professional detail department, a dealer can get a customer used to bringing their vehicle into the dealership on a regular basis. Need a wash, a carpet shampoo, or a wax? Take it to your dealership.
There comes that time in every car's life when it becomes counterproductive to keep dumping money into that vehicle. If you have a good relationship with your customers, and they bring their cars to you for a detail service, you can tell that customer when it is time to get a new car.
A good detail department will give you control. It will give the customer a reason to keep coming back to you. But if you're going to have a detail department, you can't go in half¬hearted. As they say in poker, you have to go all in — but the rewards can be huge.
Today you need every edge you can get. Dealers who do not keep up, fall behind, and as we have seen this last three years, go out of business.
If I can assist you in any way, contact me at buda@detailplus.com.
