With a shortage of technicians, strained advertising budgets, and a national pandemic, it can be tricky for dealers to navigate fixed-ops management. Service drives were largely considered essential services at the height of the pandemic. There was a lot of pressure put on them to make up some of that lost revenue. Here to help us shed some light on these topics is Don Reed, CEO of DealerPRO Training.
“Well tell our dealers this is a great time to reboot, and by that what I mean is now is a great time to look at where you are,” says Don. “Many dealers had vast reductions in their staffs so they had fewer people to deal with- they had a lot of expenses they had to contend with.”
Don says that the biggest lessons fixed-operation managers have learned from this crisis is the need to re-evaluate the department’s financial statement and search for opportunities to improve sales and gross profit. In terms of recruiting and hiring, Don says the one dealership position that cannot fall by the way-side is the service advisor. If you have one service advisor working with 30 customers a day, then the CSI is going to tank. Start bringing the rest of your people back so customer service doesn’t suffer.
To hear more insight and advice from Don Reed, be sure to watch our full interview above.
Did you enjoy this interview with DealerPRO Training CEO Don Reed? Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic with host Jim Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@cbtnews.com.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date or catch-up on all of our podcasts on demand.
While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for all the latest auto industry news from CBT News.
