Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
Issue link: http://autodealermonthly.epubxp.com/i/99735
in the beginning viewpoints What are you planning to improve in your operation in 2013 and how? Frank DeLuca President and Owner DeLuca Toyota Ocala, Fla. In 2013, we would really like to stress our mission to be the preferred automotive destination for our customers by delivering outstanding value, superior products and an exceptional personal guest experience. We respect the time and priorities of our customers and colleagues and treat every customer as an honored guest in our home. We are streamlining our communications with every customer to ensure they receive the best possible service in every department within our dealership. We have an open-door policy, so we want to make sure every customer knows they can come to us with any question or concern. We are the automotive experts in Marion County (Fla.) and have been serving our community for more than 34 years, we want to make sure our customers know how much they mean to us, and we want to know if someone is not 100 percent satisfied so we can do our best make it right. We practice the belief that "there is no best, only better." We will also continue to support our community, giving back not only to feel good, but it's the right thing to do. Note: DeLuca is a nominee for TIME Dealer of the Year. Wayne Bentley Owner / Operator Howard Bentley Buick / GMC Albertville, Ala. Our plan to improve operations for 2013 is to renew our emphasis on processes for each department in the dealership. Although we already have dealership processes in place, in some areas we feel the need to add others. Even though we experienced a substantial improvement in business during 2012, we have already found ourselves getting away from some of the plans previously developed. One main area of concern is our customer touch-point process in sales and service. These critical processes have helped us to be successful to this point, but must be reviewed constantly. To accomplish this task we plan to have department managers and support personnel meet to discuss current processes in place and determine if changes, additions or deletions are in order before we start the year. In addition, we plan to include review and encouragement time points for our established processes. After this, the course of action will be to document each process and communicate our plan with all necessary personnel. We believe a higher success rate is achieved by involving management and support personnel directly in the development of any process. After all, they are the people who are the key to our overall success. Note: Bentley is a nominee for TIME Dealer of the Year. Steven Chessin Lead generation / management specialist Newton Audi/VW Newton, N.J. Change itself is the issue. Have a meeting, then another the next day, and see how (employees) take the same seat. Somewhere in your store, someone is doing something right and they (may be) the only one. Why are others not encouraged or required to follow the leader? Maybe (it's) because the benefits are not clearly understood; maybe because someone has a stake in the old approach; maybe because (they are) "too busy." Whatever the reason, a better way is not being utilized. Managers need to watch more carefully when someone is doing something right and have them show others the way. Every day, salesmen see me doing something that they know works, and how many ask me to show them how? And how many managers tell them to learn how? Exactly! None and none. Before you can have improvement, you have to actually want it. I am most surprised when it is there for the taking at no effort or cost and still not accepted. I do not need to site examples, I am sure you can. Jordan Papik General Sales Manager Papik Motors Luverne, Minn. Over the past three years, we have seen a steady growth in sales. During this period of growth, we've been able to maintain very high customer satisfaction scores and service retention percentages. These numbers have been the foundation for our business. We have happy, repeat customers who do their maintenance and service work at our dealership. At this point, we have been able to service our customers without adding staff. Our employees come to work to work, and we have improved efficiency. Over the past few months, we have realized that there have been times we haven't had adequate staff and or good enough processes to be able to effectively handle all of our customer's needs. As the economy recovers, we expect our sales and service business to continue to increase. We are going to need to increase staff and/or improve our efficiency so we can continue to provide our customers the level of customer service they have come to expect. We have found that hiring the right people and training them can be very challenging. This is going to be a main focus for our business in 2013. What are you planning to improve in your operation in 2013 and how? Go to www.AutoDealerPeople.com and share your insight for publication consideration in our January 2013 edition.