Those who hope to achieve success in life understand your standards hold a critical part in any achievement. Isn’t it interesting as critical as standards are towards achievement so little time is spent understanding and developing them? We are so caught up with the concerns of the day and dealing with current issues there isn’t any time left to develop the processes that would eliminate them. Recently I was in a dealership service department and witnessed a technician extremely frustrated because he had been searching for a special tool for the last three hours and hasn’t found it. The tool was needed to complete the repair so he had to continue his search or have management call other dealerships to see if it could be borrowed. Most opportunities for improving our company uncovers we can use a calculator to determine the financial gain to implement a new process or procedure. As you can see in this example the standards on special tools were poor causing losses in productivity on a daily basis. If the standards on special tools required them to be in neat, clean, and in order so no time was wasted the financial gain would be substantial yet hard to measure. Standards with personnel are also essential as their professional image reflects the entire dealership. You likely wouldn’t want to order food at a restaurant where you witnessed the chef smoking a cigarette over food being prepared without regard where the ashes might fall. Eventually, poor standards will destroy any business enterprise or relationship. Implementing high standard programs will allow dealerships to invest more in personnel benefits while maximizing profitability and customer care. The best programs achieve an environment where everybody wins and are rare to find. Wise individuals understand investing in improved standards isn’t a cost it’s a benefit. Attracting and retaining incredible staff requires high standards that are never compromised.

Sincerely,
Rob Gehring, President
Fixed Performance Inc.
rgehring@fixedperformance.com
Cell: (419) 282-1351
1-888-205-8718
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