We do a lot of brain busting determining how to generate sufficient stall revenue, so that the entire dealership’s expenses can be covered by service and parts.  Essentially we have established there are three distinct work types in auto service s

Here is a riddle for you. The average dealership saw its sales decline by 14% in the third quarter of 2009 and yet its gross profit dropped only 8%.  How is this possible if the largest portion of sales, the new car department, experienced a 25% dec

It’s no secret that automotive dealerships universally are dealing with shrinking customer counts in service and parts. Not only has the sudden and significant downturn in new unit sales impacted this figure, but the fact that vehicles only nee

Telephone Techniques to Improve Customer Retention  A service advisor’s ability to communicate effectively on the telephone can positively impact the dealership and improve customer retention. According to JD Power & Associates, 74% of all cus

There is only one way to increase your retail (customer-pay) service department revenue: sell more service! After reading the previous sentence my friend and co-worker, Ray Carter, would say, “ya think?” I realize this strategy of selling more se

It’s time to stop complaining and start planning for the new world I know you’re reading this in February, right around NADA time, but I’m writing it during the holidays and that has me thinking about all we’ve been through this year and what

I find simply observing processes to be quite constructive. Sometimes just stepping back and carefully viewing how methodology is being carried out, yields the discovery needed to solve agonizing evils — and can be more effective than all the p

While developing The Garage workshop for auto dealers, I constructed an interesting Excel worksheet, designed to drive the point that the current service and parts department models must change now. The results startled me. Continuing to survive from