Getting Car Dealership Technicians Involved in Selling

Time is money for car dealership service departments and their technicians alike.

Technicians can help the cause and fatten their paychecks by using digital tools that get them more involved in selling repair work.

Such automated tools can add justifiable work to repair orders, check parts inventory availability and accurately quote the additional work. That’s according to a new study by automotive technology and software provider Reynolds and Reynolds.

The company says many things are outside a dealership’s control. But something dealerships can control is technicians’ involvement in selling hours.

Vehicle inspections are an effective way to find additional service work.

Yet Reynolds says finding the work isn’t enough; it then must be sold to customers. Service advisers play a crucial role there. Reynolds data indicates technicians using specific digital tools can be more involved.

The study cites a digital tool called Service Price Guides as a money-making aid to technicians and dealerships alike.  

SPG allows technicians to cross-reference if parts are available when adding work to a repair order without leaving their bays to walk to the parts department to check.

The study says dealerships, large and small, that arm technicians with such a digital tool have seen lucrative results.

Such tools also eliminate quote inaccuracies by automatically adding the cost to the repair order, including taxes and miscellaneous charges, so misquoting doesn’t occur.

More justifiable service work, less wasted time in the repair process, and accurate quotes for additional service work lead to quicker customer approvals and increased total hours sold.

Engaging technicians in the selling process maximizes profitability even in the busiest service departments, according to the Reynolds study.

The company touts the study as significant because it looked at dealerships of all sizes.

“We all know there are differences between service departments in major urban versus rural settings and between high-volume and low-volume departments, says Jason Sideris, Reynolds’ vice president-of fixed operations product management. “By segmenting the data, we can all compare and understand outcomes more accurately.”

The report’s data indicates busy shops with more than 1,200 customer repair orders a month can squeeze out more billable hours by using digital tools.

In the U.S., the most common form of technician compensation is a fixed rate. Here is how that works:

The manufacturer develops and tests an expected repair time for each specific job. Technicians are paid whatever their dealership’s hourly rate is multiplied by that designated repair time (regardless of how long it takes the technician to do the work).

In these days of dealers facing a chronic shortage of qualified service technicians, so it’s essential to try to keep the mechanics well-compensated and happy.

“You can’t keep all of your people happy all of the time, but you can keep most of them happy most of the time,” Paul Williamsen, product-education manager at Lexus College, a learning center run by Toyota, tells WardsAuto.