De-funk Your Service Department!

With all of the talk about the economy, stimulus packages, budgets and unemployment, I thought this would be a good time to shake everyone up with a little good news.  Come on now, you know we have to get out of the gloom and doom mode if we are ever going to survive this thing –so what better time to talk about it than right now? It seems to me that a lot of us are in this doom and gloom mode…a “funk” as I like to call it, and we need to shake it off or we never will see the sunshine again – you know what I mean. I talk to lots of dealers that are frustrated, confused, scared or even desperate – they are in a funk and they need to get out of it or they just won’t make it. Do you know if your store is in a funk?

Well, if you aren’t sure if your store needs to be “de-funked”, here are some of the signs. Many “in a funk” dealers have cut spending, cut personnel, cut advertising and cut their throats really – and some still can’t seem to eek out a profit. Attitudes are low, employees and customers are convinced you are going to go out of business and to be honest…you may be bringing that on yourself – that is a funk. I mean, stores that are survivors advertise, they paint, they clean, they have smiling faces on their employees and their customers know that they are rock solid to deal with – they know that the store is not in a funk. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying that it’s bad to cut the fat…but don’t cut the muscle…don’t cut the stuff that works.

Fact is, some dealers just won’t make it in these times – it’s sad but it’s true – they are permanently – funked.  Many may have lived a little too “high on the hog” to begin with, they had “all of their eggs in one basket” or they “couldn’t see the forest for the trees” – do you like those little clich�s ?  You know what I am saying, though – now is the time to get serious about survival and getting completely out of the “funk.” Do you need to de-funk your store?

Funk stores usually depended totally on car sales to survive and we all know that just doesn’t work anymore.  Many didn’t have the greatest of reputations to begin with and even more of them had no real interest in the service department business or service after the sale – and now those stores – are permanently funked (be very careful here)- meaning they are either gone or struggling to stay alive. But, on the other hand, stores that have invested in service, advertised and ran service like a sales department, are not just surviving – they are thriving! These good stores – un-funked stores are focused on customer retention and customer satisfaction and have been for a long time. They have strong fixed operations and they are the real winners in this economy – they are profitable and they have staying power.

So how do you do it – succeed in these times, and get rid of the funk, I mean? The answers to that question are so simple you most likely already know them. For starters, you dig in. You commit. You change the way you think about service and customer retention and service traffic. You focus on de-funking your store and you take a hard look at expenses and grosses and sales and you do whatever it takes to get the job done. That, my friends is the real answer to de-funking – You do whatever it takes to get the job done! Here are some de-funking tips to get you started:

Start the de-funking project by meeting with your people. They are the biggest spreaders of funk and you have to get them turned around first.  Tell them about the whole “funk” theory and that you are going to de-funk your store and you need their help. Let them know that you are going to survive and that you will need their commitment and help during the de-funk process. Tell them you want their input and that you will be looking at all aspects of your service business and that the objective of this is to ensure both your and their future.

Next, make sure your people understand how important a good attitude is and that being positive is funk’s worst enemy.  Let them know that they have to maximize every opportunity during these times (and always really) and make sure they know how to answer the phone the right way – with no funk attached to the call.  Make sure they invite customers in with an appointment offer and make sure they greet every customer quickly and courteously – and make sure they smile! Funks hate smiles. Make sure they know how to properly up-sell with long-term retention in mind – not just a short-term slam-dunk. Make sure your techs do a thorough vehicle inspection report on every single car – and make sure advisors explain them to customers. After you get your employees de-funked, you have to de-funk your customers – and smiling and being positive is the best way to do it.

Funk loves it when your store is closed. It breeds best when customers drive by or call and find out you are not open for business. What every you do make sure you are open for business at times that are good for customers, not just good for employees – and remember, you make no sales at all when you are closed.

Because funk is closely related to “idle” you have to make sure your store is busy all the time. When things are slow funk has a way of growing like wildfire. Stop the funk by being competitive with your prices…and I don’t mean just asking your self if you think your services are competitive…I mean ask others, shop the competition, read their ads and mystery shop them on the phone and in person to see how they do things. Funk hates it when you are busy.

Manufacturers today are pretty much in a funk.  They are closing down plants, lying off people, cancelling dealerships….they are in a funk. I bet most of them…and some of you “wish they could turn back time” and do things a little differently, right?  I mean don’t you think the Big-3 (as they used to be called) sometimes reflect back on the past – the good ol’ days and wonder how different things could be now if they had fixed the quality problem years earlier, or hadn’t made all of their cars look the same? And I wonder if they ever think about how things might be if they hadn’t ever started the whole, never ending, escalating factory rebate programs? I bet they do – and I am sure they are in a funk.

But the problem is you just can’t turn back time and you know it – and that can put you in a funk  too, if you let it.  What can and does work though, is asking yourself what would you do different and then actually doing it now. That is a de-funk-er…LOL.

Think about this for a minute – how different would your business be today if you had always been convenient, competitive and convincing? What if you had always been open early and closed late, and what if you had always been open all day Saturday?

Would there be as much independent repair shop competition, I wonder, if we had always focused on customer pay and real customer retention (like we are now) instead of just warranty work and internals? And what if you had always had competitive prices that were such good deals that the competition wouldn’t be able to compete – in fact, they couldn’t and wouldn’t even exist - how cool would that be?

What if you had always sold tires and never sent your customers to the tire stores – what if they never got the chance to steal and keep your customers – what if they didn’t get the opportunity to “Wow” your customers with their aggressive prices and free tire rotation for life offers?  What if you hadn’t “funk-ed” them?

And what if you had always advertised your service department aggressively, letting customers know that you were really interested in their service business? What would customer retention percentages be like at your store if you were always focused on service after the sale instead of just making the car sale? What if you truly looked out for their well being and what if you didn’t over sell them…what if you didn’t funk them?

Fact is we can’t change the past but we can change the future and you can de-funk your store. You just have to be committed to survival and success. You have to get all of your people on the same page with the same mindset. You have to be the motivator, the coach, the enforcer, the initiator and…you knew this was coming…the De-Funker!