Planning is considered the single most important element of the administrative process.
The higher up the ladder you are the more the involvement and time devoted to planning.
If it is so important why are so few service managers devoting time to planning?
I divide class managers into two categories: either you are a “fire fighter manager” or you are a “leader.”
One aspect of the fire fighter manager is they are spending their day, you guessed it, putting out fires.
What does a regular day look like for a fire fighter manager? They are flying around the dealership from one crisis to another. They are dealing with one upset customer after another. Then they are running to the parts department to see why there is only one rotor in stock for a car that was booked two weeks ago for front brakes.
Then the fire fighter manager runs into their general manager and in passing the GM asks: “Why don’t we sell anywhere near the front end alignments as others in our peer group?”
The phone chimes and the fire fighter manager gets a text from their shop foreman telling them the wheel balancer is broken. For the service managers out there, does this sound familiar?
We can see that the fire fighter manager is busy but they are also out of control and have a great deal of stress in their day. They are on the go all day running from one situation to another that demands their attention.
How do we stop the madness? The answer my friends is planning.
The leader makes time to plan. It takes discipline and dedication. What I used to do was take all those issues that come up during the day and I would write them down in my note book that I had on my desk. (I know, old school).
Write them down in a note book, your smart phone or on your laptop — it doesn’t matter just write them down.
Then the next day I would come into the dealership at 6:30 a.m. This was my planning time. I am an early morning person. I like the morning. In the morning I am energetic and feel creative. I am not saying you should come in at 6:30 a.m. but carve out a dedicated time.
I have some managers that like to have their planning time in the evening after they put the kids to bed. I have managers that make their planning time at 2:00 p.m. and lock their office door with a sign on it that says in a meeting.
It doesn’t matter when you have your planning time, just make a time that works for you that you can replicate every day.
It doesn’t matter when you have your planning time, just make a time that works for you that you can replicate every day. So I am in the office at 6:30 a.m. and look at my list.
I see rotors weren’t in stock for a customer that was booked in for front brakes. I then ask myself why? Why did this happen? Is there a process that could have fixed that?
Maybe here is where I would think and develop a process to review service appointments two days out so that we have the parts in stock and set aside.
Then maybe I would look at the comment from my General Manager and find out why we don’t sell enough alignments. I might run some reports to see how many we sell.
Maybe start a training program for the service advisors to demonstrate the importance of selling alignments to our clients. Then make sure the technicians know how to use the alignment machine and ensure the alignment machine is working properly and has the latest software.
I would look at the wheel balancer not working and maybe develop a maintenance plan to reduce the chance of it breaking down. The idea here is you find out why you are putting out the fires and make a plan so you can fix the problem. Remember a goal without a plan is just a wish.
This time is so vital to moving the business forward. Fixing the problems that you run into and that your employees have brought to you.
I love the quote from Colin Powell: “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
A good manager has to fix the problems that are handed to them in the after-sales department otherwise why are they there?
Seasoned managers might think this sounds familiar. It comes from Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book Covey has a tool called the Four Quadrants.
Quadrant number one is where the fire fighter manager works and spends their day… putting out fires as discussed.
Quadrant number two is where the leader works. Spending time planning. The more they work in this quadrant working on improving processes, driving the business forward, developing employees and creating opportunities the more in control the business runs.
I believe that good managers take the time to plan and work in quadrant number two and move the business forward and I believe this is where the dealer gets their money’s worth from their managers.
Years ago, when my general manager announced that I was the new service manager at a BMW dealership, I received a call from Norm Koch who at the time was the After-Sales Business Development Manager at BMW Canada.
Norm said: “Congratulations on the promotion, I want to come see you at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.”
I was so excited, it was my first meeting with someone from head office. Tuesday came and I was walking past the customer lounge with my first cup of coffee of the day. There was Norm sitting there at 7:30 a.m. writing frantically on a notepad. I said: “Good morning Norm. I thought we were meeting at 10:00 a.m.?” He verified we were and said he would meet me in my office at 10:00 a.m. Sure enough Norm walked into my office at the planned time, sat down and started reading off that notepad.
“Your advisors are quoting different amounts for the same job. One service advisor does a walkaround in the service drive and the others never leave their seats. Technicians are hovering all over the place.”
The list went on and on and my emotions hovered from anger to overwhelmed to acceptance. Norm’s list was accurate, and I realized I had a lot of work to do and taking the day off to go golfing in the near future was not in the cards. As Norm left he said to me: “Take the time to plan or they will eat you alive!!” I never forgot that advice and from that day forward I lived my professional career taking the time to plan. Thanks Norm!
