Keeping your techs busy will help boost service revenues and keep customers happier too
We want to talk about a concept that is very important to us. It is in fact so important we wrote a book about it called “Stay in the Bay.”
We want you to think about this. It is not by any means a hard concept to grasp. If your technician stays working turning wrenches in their bay they are making you money.
If they are walking to speak to an advisor they are not making you money. If they are standing around at the parts counter they are not making you money. If they are looking for special tools that are not catalogued properly they are not making you money. You get it. So what do you do?
One exercise that all managers, be it GMs or Service Managers, find interesting is an observation exercise. Grab a chair, sit in your workshop and observe. The first hour should be at the start of the day. So if your technicians start at 8:00 am, sit in the shop from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Write down everything you observe as to why the technicians leave their bays. Also, observe when they started working. If they showed up at 8:10 a.m., write that down. Repeat the exercise after lunch and at the end of the day from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Once the exercise is finished, look at all the reasons the technicians left their bays and ask yourself, “what can I do with the process to keep them in their bay?”
Do not yell at the technicians for showing up for work at 8:15 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. Maybe you never have work ready for the technicians at 8:00 a.m., so why would they show up on time? One thing that always baffles us is how do you expect technicians to start working at 8:00 a.m. if your Service Advisors also start at 8:00 a.m.?
During your observation pay attention to the time a technician wastes seeking approvals and information from a Service Advisor — you will see the frustration building in your technicians.
If the technicians are congregating at the parts counter waiting for parts, they are not making money. How do you streamline this to keep the technician in their bay?
Why isn’t the parts department pre-picking parts the day before, ready for the technicians when required? Better yet, why doesn’t your parts department deliver the parts to your techs so they never leave their bay?
Parts managers usually tell us “I can’t do this! I don’t have the staff.” All these parts have to be picked regardless. We are asking the parts department to pre-pick parts the day before during slower times, not waiting until 8:00 a.m. in the morning when they have to be picked.
Most parts departments are extremely busy in the morning with wholesale orders going out, stock orders being received and phones ringing. Pre-picking parts will ease that morning pressure and keep your technicians in their bays!
While we are in the parts department, let’s talk about shop supplies. There is nothing more frustrating for a technician than standing at the parts counter waiting behind three other technicians waiting for a piece of sandpaper.
We usually recommend dealerships provide an area at each technician’s bench with a universally agreed upon inventory of shop supplies (gloves, lube, sandpaper, grinding discs etc.).
Then once a week or as required the parts department takes an inventory of the shop supplies and replenishes as required. Technicians now have everything they need to stay in their bay making money.
Now look at the end of the day. Are your technicians standing around during the last hour of their day? If so, you are probably not booking enough work. How many hours are you booking? The formula should be 8 hours for every licensed technician and third year apprentice and 4 hours for every first and second year apprentice. Please don’t book for up-sells…your technicians’ efficiency will take care of this.
Communication is another reason technicians leave their bay. They have to bring an estimate to the Service Advisor or talk to the advisor about something.
Our DMS systems have a chat feature so technicians can communicate with the parts department or the service department. Technicians should be able to make a parts request, have their parts delivered without leaving their bay.
Some of the dealers we currently work with no longer have a shop parts counter…no reason to…technicians have everything they need delivered to them.
The technicians should also use the DMS chat system to talk to the Service Advisor about their estimate to get approvals. During your observation pay attention to the time a technician wastes seeking approvals and information from a Service Advisor — you will see the frustration building in your technicians. They walk out there to see the advisor with a customer. The technician then walks back to their bay and waits. When they return the Service Advisor is now on the phone ….this almost becomes comical if it wasn’t costing the dealership so much money.
After all, our Parts and Service Advisors are SUPPORT staff, let’s start behaving that way!
