Recapturing (a lot of) Business from the Independents

In the last few years we’ve seen a renewed focus on Fixed Operations as the primary contributor to dealership bottom lines.  At the same time, independents have continued to take our market share, capturing more and more of traditional maintenance and repair work that otherwise could have been the bread and butter of dealer existence.  A lot of talk occurs around trying to build the dealer fixed ops revenue stream with increased warranty sales.  And while that is a sound strategy, let’s not forget what “got us to the dance,” the traditional repair and maintenance business.

Before we concede that the independents will continue to erode our repair customer base, let’s talk about how we can recapture work.  What are the drivers causing our customers to go down the street, past our shops?  It comes down to the three basics:  faster, better and cheaper.  How can we compete?

First we have to make sure we have challenging but achievable targets for our faster, better and cheaper. Then we have to know how we are doing in real time, all the time.  Why wait until the end of the month to know if your actions “raised the bar?”  You must know, at every point in every day, how your team is doing to help you accomplish your goals.  More importantly, you must get the team to motivate each other through healthy competition to drive past the goals.

MotiveLogic is the one solution that does that for you.  With high visibility dashboards that capture your target goals, and let everyone, from your technicians, to your service writers, dispatchers, managers, and the executive office, know where you stand right now and take immediate steps to make necessary changes.  MotiveLogic is inexpensive, easy to install, and easy to use.  You can see results as soon as you start using it.

Jay Baas