Dealerships have many reasons to work with staff and write the best repair orders possible. This helps the dealership in so many ways however to carry a special interest in today’s dealership environment. First, it is critical in maximizing submissions to receive retail pricing on warranty repairs. Second is that poorly written repair orders cost technicians billable hours trying to work around and find what the customer concern is. Advisors must spend as much time with the customer as possible so when they write a repair order, they know exactly what the customer issues are.

An example would be if a customer comes in with a loose door handle and the advisor writes that exact description and processes the repair order what will the technician be faced with? There might be eight door handles on the vehicle, so the technician starts looking at all eight to see what the issue is. When they can’t figure out what could possibly be wrong with any door handles, they then track the advisor down for more information only to find out they don’t know. The customer just stated a loose door handle. Five minutes with the customer to totally understand the concerns might save a technician an hour and repair the vehicle correctly the first time. Checking to see if the contact information for the customer is correct and what is their best number for today’s contact should be performed every time. Far too often customers are just processed with the advisor moving on to the next customer as quickly as possible. Then everybody must run around the dealership trying to put out the fires they created because of poor processes in the driveline during write up.

In reviewing tens of thousands of repair orders it becomes evident many advisors don’t understand how important it is to use labor operations properly. Every operation that is performed should have a separate line with the correct parts charged to the appropriate line of the repair order. Often many dealerships use general labor operations that include maintenance and repair items together. Although this may seem easier for advisors it’s tough to understand exactly what labor operations are performed on a vehicle. Dealerships should be sure to have in place structured labor operation processes and practices so that when anyone looks at history, they have a complete understanding of exactly what services were performed on the vehicle. Tune up your repair orders today and improve your gross profits tom...

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

Have you filed to receive retail pricing for warranty parts and labor yet? We have helped hundreds of dealerships all over the united states improve the quality of life for its employees. We do this by using our proven processes to improve margins and at the same time take your customer pay results to new levels of profitability! When you are ready to get serious about your margins, give us a call at (419) 433-0282, Or click the Video above to find out more about Margin Plus.

Sincerely,
Bart Barna, National Sales Director
Cell: (419) 503-0508
Office: (419) 433-0282
bbarna@fixedperformance.com