From sales to fixed-ops, dealership teams are ill-prepared for today’s rapidly evolving automotive landscape. As was apparent throughout last year, prices are falling, competition is increasing, and customer preferences are changing. Having acclimated to the low-pressure environment of the 2020 through 2022 pandemic-era economy, employees are in for a rude awakening as it becomes more and more difficult to stay successful.
To prepare their departments for the oncoming challenges, dealers will need to boost accountability, motivate staff members, and improve transparency at all levels of their business.
Luckily, there is one innovator helping dealers not only acclimate to the current industry landscape but exceed their wildest expectations across every department and key performance indicator (KPI). Today, we are investigating a brand new method of gauging and managing employee performance, one with a proven track record of driving success at dealership teams across the country.
Digital Dealership System
Digital Dealership System is an industry-leading technology firm supplying critical hardware and software solutions for the retail automotive sector. Its latest product, the Digital Dashboard, gives dealership teams and managers unprecedented, personalized access to performance data, unlocking new ways to track progress, motivate staff members, and retain more customers.
What is the Digital Dashboard?
The Digital Dashboard is a software suite comprised of revolutionary tools for both employees and managers that keep dealership teams engaged, connected, and energized. Its primary method of achieving this is through department-specific leaderboards.
These leaderboards, available on any display, including mobile, service three primary areas: sales departments, service teams, and business development centers (BDC). Each system is compatible with most Dealership Management Systems (DMS) and Customer Relations Management (CRM) software and can be set up for single-store businesses or multi-store groups via the Enterprise Leaderboard. These factors make integration simple, fast, and easy. Unlike other programs, Digital Dealership System’s solutions are also designed with customization in mind, allowing dealers to automate processes, tailor reports, or finetune data sharing and accessibility at will. Let us begin by taking a close look at how each leaderboard works and the KPIs they track.
Sales Leaderboard
The Sales Leaderboard provides digestible, accurate, and up-to-date information on each employee’s performance within the sales department. This feature of the Digital Dashboard tracks unit sales, gross revenue, and customer service index (CSI) scores while also providing critical insights into trends and progress toward goals. Thanks to Digital Dealership System’s phone app, employees and managers can also set up notifications that alert staff every time an important landmark is reached.
Fixed Ops Leaderboard
The Fixed Ops Leaderboard keeps technicians and service leaders informed and connected, giving individual team members the ability to track both their own progress and the department’s performance as a whole. Like its sales and BDC counterparts, the leaderboard records key data points during daily operations and presents them via a user-friendly interface. Fixed ops employees and managers can track appointments, gross revenue, hours spent on work orders, effective labor rate (ELR), and CSI scores, giving them an accurate representation of their efficiency and productivity and how their efforts impact the business as a whole.
BDC Leaderboard
Digital Dealership System’s BDC Leaderboard is a key resource for tracking the BDC team’s progress toward goals within the dealership, as well as ensuring dealership employees remain aware of leads. The leaderboard is capable of presenting each staff member’s closing ratio, in addition to BDC appointments, lead sources, and both inbound and outbound communications. Consider this a one-stop-shop for keeping BDC team members in the loop, engaged, and accountable to themselves and each other.
Why use leaderboards?
In the past, management teams have been forced to rely on outdated technologies to track their internal data, often using tools as rudimentary as whiteboards and periodical sales reports to evaluate critical areas such as employee performance. This approach is highly inefficient for a number of reasons.
For instance, managers have limited time to examine KPIs for each department due to the amount of time it takes to manually input and analyze data. Because of these time constraints, teams often go days or even weeks without knowing how well they are performing or how their efforts stack up against each other. Without the ability to know immediately when an employee is struggling or a method to show staff members how their performance aligns with the rest of their department, dealers are left with an unmotivated workforce.
So, how does Digital Dealership System’s Digital Leaderboard suite solve these issues?
Stronger accountability
Each leaderboard records and inputs data in real-time, meaning both managers and employees can track their current progress on a minute-by-minute basis. The Digital Leaderboard’s accessibility also means that teams can view their progress at their desk, on the TV, or even on the go via Digital Dealership System’s mobile sales leaderboard app.
For workers, the capacity to instantly gauge the impact of every customer interaction, sale, or task on their overall performance allows greater time to react and make adjustments when problems arise. This gives each team member more authority over their own progress. On the management side, the ability to conveniently monitor up-to-date KPIs creates the opportunity to intervene immediately when a team member starts to struggle, rather than waiting for the next staff meeting to bring issues to a subordinate’s attention.
These benefits ultimately reinforce accountability across the entire organization, not only on a personal level but also on a managerial level. Knowing their performance is easy to monitor gives employees the incentive to pay close attention to their work and strive for greatness while also creating more opportunities for leaders to support and coach struggling team members.
Positive motivation
The Digital Leaderboard has several ways of showcasing staff progress. For example, employee rankings are easily accessible, giving clear insights into the department’s top and bottom performers. With the Digital Leaderboard app, staff members can also receive notifications when their co-worker reaches a landmark, such as closing a sale.
These functionalities provide a benchmark for success and give workers the ability to see exactly how much their performance could improve. This places each employee in a competitive mindset, one that drives them to surpass their co-workers and claim their spot in the top positions on each leaderboard.
It also serves to recognize hard-working staff members for their achievements in real-time. Rather than waiting until the end of the month to reward employees for their accomplishments, managers can now celebrate individual successes as they occur, building up confidence and inspiring teams to be even more productive.
Increased transparency
With its suite of data presentation tools, the Digital Leaderboard serves to deepen the connection and trust across all levels of the dealership. Since each department can track multiple KPIs, leaders can see exactly how hard each individual is working to achieve their targets, and each staff member knows precisely how their performance compares to the rest of the team.
For example, if a sales representative fails to follow up with leads or a technician takes too long to complete service, managers can swiftly identify these weaknesses and help the employee make improvements. On the other hand, each team member can view exactly how their efforts align with the team. This removes the uncertainty and insecurity that co-workers often feel in regard to their performance, allowing them to feel more prepared when receiving feedback from a manager.
These advantages ultimately improve transparency and remove barriers between leaders and team members.
How can I get the Digital Leaderboard at my dealership?
Signing up for the Digital Leaderboard is simple, fast, and convenient. Digital Dealership System’s streamlined installation process means that most locations can be equipped with a fully operable package within three to five days of placing an order. Prices start at only $499 per month, making this affordable for any dealership interested in motivating and tracking their team.
To learn more about how Digital Dealership System can improve accountability, inspire employees to achieve greater things, and repair trust between managers and team members at your dealership, schedule a demo at their website or call 800-841-7084 today.
Digital Dealership System will also be at the 2024 NADA show in Las Vegas, February 1 through February 4. Visit booth 4547W to view a live demonstration of the Digital Dashboard and hear about more exciting innovations coming to the retail automotive sector.
