Author Archive | Steve

Dealership service department

How to calculate your Effective Labor Rate

Effective Labor Rate: What is it and why should you care? Your effective labor rate is a weighted average of all the labor rates and prices you used in a specific period. In theory, if you multiply your posted labor rate by the total number of labor hours you sold last month, the result will […]

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Who sets the performance standards in your operation?

Performance standards: Who sets them in your dealership?

Unless you sell every car, write every repair order, wait on every parts customer, you achieve your goals through the performance of your people.  Are they crystal clear about your expectations?  Do they know–because you’ve told them–what your minimum performance standards are?  Do you know? Right now, some managers reading this are thinking: “We don’t […]

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Technician performance is really about managment performance

Technician performance metrics reveal management skills

Measuring technician performance means measuring time Everything that happens in a service or repair operation is about time. Yes, most repairs involve the replacement of a failed part, but parts can’t replace themselves—that requires labor. And labor is measured by time. Time in a service operation comes in three flavors: Time available to work. If […]

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Customer perceptions begin early

Customer perceptions: converting prospects to buyers

When baseball legend Joe DiMaggio was asked why he put maximum effort into every play, even when the outcome of the game was not in question, his answer was simple: “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best.”  DiMaggio understood the power of customer […]

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