“Maintain your hours per C/P Repair Order (RO) at a minimum of 2.5” says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training Solutions.

If you are currently at the national average of 1.5, then this might seem a bit of a stretch. It’s always a stretch when it’s as big as an elephant. And we know how to eat an elephant, right…..one bite at a time.

So, let’s break it down into bite sized pieces.

In the pursuit of HPRO the first thing we must have is well trained personnel. This means everyone including the cashier must have training.

What kind of training?

If you are a person that has any customer contact (read everyone in the dealership) then Customer Service Skills would be high on the list. This includes everything from how to greet to how to answer the phone.

Now, you would think that a business that relies so heavily on the phone would have phone training on a regular basis.

Wrong.

Call your parts department sometime and ask about a special order part. Call the service department and ask to speak to the owner. See how long you are on hold. Call the receptionist and ask to speak to the detailers. Call and ask for a shuttle driver to come a pick you up.

The point is, it’s not only the day to day calls it’s also the unusual, the “you called parts and you really want sales” call that tells the tale.

Second, conduct regular Sales Training. Sales Training is for anyone in contact with the customer on a regular basis. Does this sound familiar?

Everyone in the dealership is a salesperson. The greeter who sells friendliness, the parts counter person who sells a part, the service advisor who sells the labor….everyone is a salesperson and yet why is it only the salespeople get sales training?

Lastly, maintaining 2.5 HPRO is a direct result of what you measure. You can conduct phone skills and sales skills training, and if you never spend a second listening or critiquing to those whom you have just trained, you have wasted your time.

What we measure determines what we focus on. If we consistently ask our advisors “You wrote 12 CP ROs yesterday and only booked 8 hours. Can you tell me what happened?” after awhile, they will be prepared to answer that question before you even ask it, which means they are focusing on…you guessed it…Labor Hours per RO.

Try it. Start asking your advisors about something specific for a week and see what happens.

Maintaining 2.5 HPRO is a lot more difficult than attaining 2.5 HPRO. Just take it one bite at a time and before you know it, you will have 100% Service Absorption.

If you want to see how you compare, send an email to lbuchholz@dealerprotraining.com and schedule an evaluation. You don't know what you are missing until you have it inspected.