Editor’s Note
By Mary Welch
Roger Scholfield’s father had a plaque in his used car dealership office in Augusta, Kanas. It read “Service Means Sales.” Vic Scholfield’s, Roger’s father, was a firm believer that the sales department makes the first sale but it is the service department that creates a loyal lifelong customer.
Today Scholfield Honda, now in Wichita, is the largest Honda dealer in the state. They are only one of eight Honda dealers left who still operate a stand alone express service station and will soon move into a new 54,000 facility that will have 28 lifts — and room to expand.
Service, indeed, means sales.
Scholfield believes if employees are unhappy the dealership didn’t hire correctly or train correctly. That’ why he holds training sessions twice a week and encourages his employees to better themselves with extra training. A service tech he hired 22 years ago, Ryan Smith, recently placed fourth out of all Honda technicians in an intense skills competition. The dealership has been named the best place to work in Wichita — three times — and has received a Woman’s Choice Award.
It’s all about training and benchmarks in order to keep improving, he says. He views his dealership in a similar way to football players reporting to training camp. They may know how to block or run a passing play, but in training camp they do it again — and again and again. It’s all about process.
Such focus on training and getting the little details correct go a long in employee satisfaction and, by extension, customer satisfaction. Roger believes if the employees are happy, the customers will feel it, know it and appreciate it. After all, who wants to do business with grumpy employees who don’t care?
There’s a lot to learn from Scholfield Honda. The understand their job and always look to do better — and get recognized for it. It doesn’t take a lot of money, nor time. Just the right attitude, which starts from the top and goes all the way down.
Football teams have started their pre-season training both for the returning players and rookies. They will all be going over the playbook and running the plays over and over to become the best. Let’s take a look at our own teams and maybe it’s time to go over the playbook, get the rust out of our systems and practice being the best over and over again. If we all remember that service means sales and that service stems from happy, trained and engaged employees, well, there will be a lot of wins on the scoreboard.
Let’s go out and give it our best.
