According to recent data from NADA, 2020 produced the highest net profit per retail dealership in automotive history. With record gross profit per retail unit on both new and used vehicles and record-high earning in F&I, fixed operations should be booming as well right? Well, in reality, that is not the case. On the latest episode of Service Drive, host Don Reed discusses why the service drive is lagging behind other departments in terms of revenue. Reed has helped thousands of dealers boost their service gross profits as CEO of DealerPro Training.
So, how can your dealership capitalize on service drive opportunities and grow? Reed says it comes down to one thing, training. A professionally trained service team will outperform an untrained group of service employees. Reed adds that car dealers often don’t consistently train their fixed ops employees, because, from their perspective, training is too expensive.
One of Reed’s favorite sales trainers, Jackie B. Cooper, said it best. “If you think training is expensive…try ignorance.” Reed likes this quote because ignorance does not mean incapable or unintelligent. It simply means that your staff is lacking the knowledge it takes to become a top-performer. The vast majority of dealership employees are hard-working and resourceful people, and it is up to the management staff to provide good training in order to improve their skills.
The position that needs the most training is the service advisor. The key processes that every service advisor must be trained on include:
- Answering incoming calls and selling appointments
- Scheduling appointments properly
- Meeting and greeting customers properly
- Conducting walk-arounds with customers
- Putting the. customer first
- Working with maintenance menus
- Presenting MPI recommendations
- Offering customers alternate choices
- Overcoming objections
- Conducting an active delivery
- Scheduling follow-up appointments
To emphasize the importance of service advisor training, Reed says that a single untrained service advisor can cost up to $150,000 per year in lost customer paid gross. So, if your dealership has four advisors, that’s up to $600,000 in losses. Car dealers cannot afford to keep their service staff untrained.
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