At the 12 Harris Auto Group stores, reviews and accountability are cornerstones of fixed operations.
David Hennessey, vice president of Fixed Operations, during a Daily Dealer Live interview with host Sam D’Arc, explained how he’s brought the processes he used previously at an 80-store group to the Harris Auto Group in British Columbia and Alberta to build customer trust.
What to know: The Harris Auto Group’s service departments have as many as 55 to 60 appointments per day.
Reviews happen before appointments to make sure the service department is ready for each customer and to speed up the timeline.
How it works: The service manager does the pre-appointment review to make sure the department is “prepared for the customer,” according to Hennessey.
The reason the job is up to the service manager is so they stay accountable for what’s happening on work orders.
Additionally, it adds credibility with the customer.
“If the service manager is going, review the history; he’s seeing what recommendations were there from last time that weren’t completed, he’s seeing what’s due on the maintenance schedule, either from the dealer or manufacturer,” Hennessey explained. “It adds a little gravitas to the customer when the advisor says, ‘Hey, my service manager took a look at the history of your vehicle.’”
Next steps: A review is conducted within 24 hours of closing each repair order by the service manager and/or the general manager.
With those, Hennessey explained they’re looking to see whether there were manufacturer recommendations, previously declined services suggested by the service manager, as well as what the adviser sold.
They’re also searching for missed opportunities, making sure inspections were completed, and adding accountability.
If something is missed, the service manager is encouraged to call the customer to make sure the vehicle is safe.
“We don’t know unless we’re looking, and we want to do it within 24 hours so everything’s fresh in our mind,” Hennessey said.
Digging deeper: A centralized BDC covers all 12 stores’ inbound and outbound calls.
The department has around a dozen people and utilizes a Dealer Mine, which functions as the service CRM to track what’s due, record phone calls, and handle emails.
Building trust: Across the 12 stores, use of MPI video is at 65%. Hennessey said they have a goal of reaching 90%, especially since stores using MPI video are seeing a 100% increase in revenue per repair order.
“People always believe what they can see. And so trust and transparency is something our industry is not necessarily known for, right? So, if we can give any type of opportunity to show the customer and earn that trust and transparency, it's just so important,” Hennessey explained.
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Another incentive: Along with working hard to earn the trust of customers via reviews and MPIs, the Harris Auto Group is offering oil changes for $49 in hopes to bring back customers who haven’t been back to the service department in some time.
Hennessey notes the offer hits the most people and has been the most successful in capturing large parts of their database.
"Customers don't come back for a multitude of reasons, but it usually comes down to the way we treat our customers and the experience they have."
Bottom line: All the efforts point to one thing that Hennessey notes is most important: customer retention.
“Revenues have been going up, but our accounts have been slipping back a little bit. We need to stop that,” Hennessey said. “We can’t just recreate customers. We need to make sure that we keep them in-house.”
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