Sunday service hours can be a boon

The service department at Olathe Toyota in Olathe, Kan., is open on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's among only 7 percent of U.S. dealerships that provide full Sunday service, the National Automobile Dealers Association reports.

It hasn't always been easy to assign 13 shop employees to work on Sunday, concedes Tom Blackman, Olathe Toyota's fixed operations director. Most applicants for jobs in his service department don't want schedules that include Sunday hours, he says.

But other workers prefer the predictability of Sunday shifts, Blackman says. And in any event, he told Fixed Ops Journal, the dealership continues to buck the closed-Sunday trend for "one reason: customer convenience."

About 80 percent of Olathe Toyota's Sunday work consists of maintenance jobs, including quick service, Blackman says. The dealership averages 55 repair orders each Sunday.

Efficient dispatchers and a system of green, yellow and red lights that lets service customers know how much of a wait they face help the department manage its workload, Blackman says.

So-called blue laws in several states continue to limit dealership operations on Sunday. Union contracts at some dealerships rule out Sunday work for service employees. Religious resistance to Sunday commerce still prevails in some communities.

But where such things aren't obstacles, industry analysts say, service departments can build good will and loyalty among customers by opening on Sunday. Expanded schedules also enable dealerships to compete better with aftermarket quick-lube and auto-repair stores, they add.

"Dealerships are retail," says Rick Wegley, an instructor with NCM Associates, a dealership consulting and training firm in Kansas City Mo. "The need is there. It costs you not to be open."

Bonnie Knutson, a professor in the School of Hospitality Business in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, says consumers expect "convenience, customized service and control of the experience."

Dealerships, including service departments, "should be asking: How can I give time back to my customers?" Knutson says.

NADA's 2016 Dealership Workforce Study reported that 23 percent of dealerships in South Atlantic states and 10 percent of dealerships in Pacific states offered full Sunday service last year. In other regions across the country, the rate of such service was no more than 2 percent, the study said.

Dealership express-lube lanes were slightly more likely than service bays to be open on Sunday in most regions, according to NADA.

Parts departments had similar patterns of Sunday operations to those of full-service shops, the report found. The study added that "almost no body shops were open on Sunday."

Maintaining Sunday hours poses special challenges, service directors acknowledge.

Michael's Toyota of Bellevue in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Wash., has an intricate staff schedule to cover the 81 hours a week its service department is open, says service director Russ McDuffie.

"We have four master diagnostic technicians on Sundays," McDuffie says. Since these techs choose to work weekends, he adds, they do not get a pay premium for Sunday shifts, which run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The work schedules of service advisers, lube techs and parts desk employees include Sunday rotations, McDuffie says. He estimates that 60 percent of his shop's Sunday work is express service and the rest repair jobs.

Pohanka Chevrolet in Chantilly, Va., has offered Sunday service for about 10 years, Service Manager Jeff Dobson says. The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

"It's easier for clients to come in on Sunday," Dobson says. "Put yourself in their shoes, alter your hours to meet their needs."

Blackman of Olathe Toyota says he touts the advantages of Sunday shifts to service employees. Weekend work allows for schedules that are less variable and more consistent, he says.

Consultant Wegley warns service departments not to stretch their staffs too thin to accommodate Sunday hours. Instead, he recommends that dealerships "make weekend hours a part of your recruitment."

"I had a technician who preferred weekend work," Wegley recalls. "The guy loved to fish, and it was no hassle getting his boat in the water on a Monday or Tuesday."