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dealership spotlight / service
maintenance, so that helped menu sales. It helped our profitability, [and] it helped our parts flow."
In mid-2010, the dealership received word that GM had indeed reversed its decision to terminate the store's franchise. With Lupient Chevrolet out of the termina- tion crosshairs, it was time to get the business back to where it really needed to be.
The downside to focusing primarily on survival for so long is that some of the finer points of conducting business can fall by the wayside, at least temporarily. The service department had worked hard to both retain its own cus- tomers and bring in refugee Saturn customers, but focus had been lost somewhat when it came to efficiency and, to a degree, customer satisfaction. While in survival mode, the department's focus was on simply getting customers in and getting them taken care of. He added, "We were … not paying a lot of attention to hours per RO and effective labor rate and all those kinds of things," said Schmitz. "We were just trying to … survive as a business."
It had also been difficult during that time to find and keep a service manager. Donovan Brummond stepped into the role in early 2011. Schmitz had worked previously with Brum- mond, who served as service manager at another Lupient
GM store. Schmitz credited him with much of the service department's improvement in performance over the last year, including a CSI score that moved from the mid-70s when Brummond first started to over 93 percent.
Regarding the operation of the service department when he started, Brummond observed, "I don't think they had the op- portunity to really tweak and try to get things dialed in be- cause they just were in such a different mode, basically trying to get by."
To help get the service department back on track, the dealership enlisted the serv- ices of DealerPro Training Solutions. Once the dealership was able to put the wind-down behind it, Schmitz said, "It was basically, 'OK, we know what to do, but now we've been away from it for a year. Now we need to relearn it.' … We hired DealerPro to help us rediscover those processes."
Brummond said the key to getting things on track has been to make small changes. "We started to make little adjustments—simple things like greeting people as soon as they came through the door," he explained. That practice in particular is very important to him, he said. It comes down to the idea of simply being a good host. "This is our house, and if you have a guest in your home, you don't just expect them to wander
around your house, you … show them around," he ex- plained. "When they leave, you walk them out."
He also combined the responsibilities of the car run- ners/shuttle drivers so that they now also serve as greeters in the service depart- ment. "We have couple people who are designated, but if they're out doing other things, everybody knows that if [a customer] pulls through the door or walks in, somebody had better head right over and say hi, find out where they need to go and get them there," he said.
One of the seemingly smaller process tweaks he mentioned is making sure the service department determines the best method of reaching the customer when needed, whether it's by phone call, text message or email. If the tech- nician encounters something in the course of working on the vehicle and needs to obtain authorization to make a repair, it is important to be able to get in touch with the customer quickly. "I think a lot of service departments make the mis- take of … calling and leaving messages and playing phone tag with the customer when you have a technician [waiting on authorization]," Brummond said, adding that it was critical to make certain technicians don't have a lot of down time. "Your technicians are the people making you money, so having them stand around is
"I think a lot of service departments make the mistake of … calling and leaving messages and playing phone tag with the customer when you have a technician [waiting on authorization] ... Your technicians are the people making you money, so having them stand around is an absolute disaster."
- Donovan Brummond, Service Manager, Lupient Chevrolet an absolute disaster."
For customers who choose to wait on their vehicles, Brummond decided to invest in a pager system, much like the ones used in casual dining restaurants. He liked the idea of having that option for cus- tomers who want to wait on their vehicles at the dealership but don't want to be confined to the waiting room; they can instead look around the showroom or wander the lot. Brummond said the pager system is more efficient and more pleasant than paging them over a traditional PA system.
One of the bigger changes in the service department was the customer check-in process. "We do a walk- around [of] the vehicle with them, point out anything that's an issue … just so we get an overview of the vehicle itself and the customer and know how they feel about the vehicle. You can tell a lot from that little bit of extra time spent with them," explained Brummond. The customer is then presented with a mainte- nance menu covering services that are due based on time and mileage such as oil changes, tire rotation, fluid replacement and so on, obtaining the customer's authorization at that time for the services they want.
In addition to the walk-around and maintenance menu pres- entation, another process that has helped to boost profits is the mandatory 27-point in- spection given to all vehicles at each visit. "It doesn't matter if [the vehicle] was just here … We do the same inspection on every vehicle, every time, and we get that information back to the customer," he said. The mandatory inspections have helped to generate more profit in parts. "Obviously … selling
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