Service department leaders share stories of survival

Ensuring the safety of employees and customers. Keeping technicians busy in the service bays. Adopting digital platforms. Emphasizing the importance of processes. Being open and prepared for change.

Panelists for the second and third installments of Automotive News' five-part 2020 Fixed Ops Journal Forum discussed how they kept their service departments up and running during the pandemic and how the crisis increased the urgency to make changes in how they operate. The third annual event is being held online this year over five Thursdays.

Here are edited highlights on select topics.

Keeping employees safe

Becca Kroeger, service and parts director, Universal Nissan, Orlando: Each night, "I took our fogger, and I sprayed every adviser's office. I went to the back and disinfected the technicians' workstations. I sprayed everything. My focus day in and day out was to keep people safe so that we can stay open."

Going digital

Danielle Rodriguez, service manager, Audi Nashua, N.H.: "We met several times while we were closed, and we basically put together a whole digital environment. We wanted to make sure that if the virus rates increased in New Hampshire that we would not have to shut our doors. We had to streamline the whole process to allow a client to make an appointment online — mobile drop-offs outside using a key drop and an online check-in form. We have the ability to communicate to the client with texting and email as well as phone and then to return the car to them and an online payment system. We've pretty much set up the whole client drop-off and pickup without having to come into contact with any advisers here."

Avoiding furloughs

Francisco Mora, service manager, Esserman International Volkswagen, Doral, Fla.: "We wrote a list of who we would furlough. Top of the list was the express [service] department because we didn't have the work to provide our express department, our hourly techs. But we thought outside the box. How can we get around this without having to furlough? So we said, 'How about we make our express department our pickup and delivery department?' So every express adviser and express technician was picking up and delivering. And the shop was working overtime. We were averaging maybe 20 or 25 pickup and deliveries on a daily basis, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And that helped us through plenty."

A higher calling

Mark Williamson, service director, Love Chevrolet, Columbia, S.C.: "We listened to our employees; we listened to our customers. We wanted to convey to them that we were still open, [that] we're here for them. Being an essential business, we felt that obligation to try to keep our doors open for [them] no matter what it took."

The need for change

Fred Fordin, vice president, CDK Global: "The new normal is how we're going to safeguard our employees and our customers during a pandemic. But [also] find a better way to operate, a way to make more money, a way to keep customers happier. We're facing all kinds of challenges as an industry. We've got to do everything that we can, as dealers, to improve the way that customers view us. And part of that problem is, operationally, dealers are still doing things the way they did them 30 years ago, in many cases."

importance of processes

Peter Chung, general manager, Magic Toyota, Edmonds, Wash.: "The basis of all of our process is just transparency. We really try to use the technology to be transparent with our consumer as well as our employee. And if we use that as a backbone, the process is very simple. We do the walk-around [inspection], but from there we allow the technology to really dictate our process [from] the [multipoint inspection] through what the technician does — all the way through taking the photos and then the communication via text back to the customer. And that really drives the backbone of the process."

Competing against independent repair facilities

Scott Gregg, service director, Tucson Subaru, Ariz.: Franchised dealers should "build the value in everything that they do to make sure customers understand we offer free loaner cars, we offer shuttle service and Lyft rides. Just build the value of everything you sell — factory-trained technicians, factory parts — things like that."

Being open to change

Rick Wegley, instructor, NCM Associates: "Be flexible. Be adaptive. Be prepared for change. Embrace change. If you don't like change, you're gonna really hate extinction when it happens because if you're not changing, eventually, the business is going to leave you in the dust. That's my best practice — just be a student of the industry and watch what's going on around you because it will ultimately affect your store."