Steps and Seconds Matter!

I run into Service managers who are very good at what they do and work very hard every day to increase their volume or profit.  Most are working on pricing and strategy.  Many are looking at every repair order attempting to find hidden money and ways to handle each transaction that will generate or retain a few more dollars. Nearly all look at their schedules and attempt to have the right techs on hand for the work coming in.  

You have heard me say this before. In Service, the only thing you have to sell is time!  I had the opportunity to work with a very talented man who created Express Service for a few major auto manufacturers.  One of those manufacturers guaranteed “29 minutes or the next one is free” in all of their promotional materials.  One thing he would drill into everyones head was that “Steps and Seconds Matter!”   

Fast forward, I was with a store owner who said he would be content if his service department turned vehicles in 45 minutes.  I told him he would not be able to market a 45 minute oil change when there were 50 other places in his town that were advertising Jiffy/Express/Quick at 30 minutes or less. The bigger issue was the lost revenue.  

To illustrate how much money we were talking about I asked him what a minute was worth.  It certainly doesn’t seem like much. “Just a minute”.  We hear it all the time.  When we talked about this his service department was averaging 38 minutes from the time a Customer was greeted till they were paying their bill and they wrote 1019 Quick repair orders!  A minute saved on each of those would amount to 17 hours!

I consistently trained teams that could easily do a vehicle inspection, oil change, tire rotation, replacement of wipers and an air filter in well below 20 minutes. I knew they could get to 28 minutes.  If they did, they would gain 10 minutes per transaction or 170 hours per month.  Enough to do another 364 Quick RO’s, a 36% increase in volume and a huge gain in net profit. 

You say, you don’t have Quick or Express service.  It is even more important for your main shop!  The transactions are far more complex there.  (Go to the advisor - get a job - go to the clock and punch on the job - find the keys - find the vehicle/boat/RV/motorcycle - test for the concern - diagnose primary concern - do a complete multipoint check - get part prices - present findings to advisor - advisor presents to customer - wait for approval - get parts - break out tools - do the repairs and maintenance - ensure the repair worked - QC - clean up - park the vehicle - place the keys - punch out - take the RO to the advisor - put away the tools - get the next job, etc, etc.)

You can’t tell me that if you brought everyone together, asked “How can we save just one minute?” that they couldn’t reduce that time dramatically.  This store wrote 1223 main shop repair orders that month. If they could save just .2 hr (12 minutes) per RO that would be another 245 hours x their productivity x their effective labor rate + their parts to labor ratio which would have ended up being another $600,000 dollars!

What to do?

Start by looking at your Service process, from the time a customer arrives till they leave.  You don’t need to define it all and drive yourself nuts with paperwork. Buy a stopwatch and use it!  For at least 3 transactions each week, just time each step: the reception, the write-up, the movement of the vehicle, complete diagnose and inspection, get approval, and so on. 

Share the results with everyone involved.  Make a scoreboard that everyone can see and update it every week.  Let them come up with the ways to reduce the time.