Best Ways For Parts And Service To Succeed Together | SDR #194

Welcome, everybody, to this edition of Service Drive Revolution. I'm Chris Collins and this is Christian.

Hello, everyone.

We have an exciting show for you today. We're going to talk about how parts managers and service managers can get together and create better results, how working together will transform the fixed ops like it's a match made in heaven. We're going to give you some inspiration and some ideas on how you can specifically create some. Some incredible results together. Also, I'm going to tell, you know, share. Why I was late for this and why I'm pissed. I'm very upset about something, and to your, I don't know, detriment. Detriment. I'm going to tell you all about it and there's going to be some fun stuff in the news. So that and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revol.

It is a disaster, Christian.

Oh, tell me more.

So I was late coming to this. Ask me why I was late.

Well, I'm gonna ask you why, but I will tell you. Like, with you not being late ever, I get really nervous when you are.

But why? Just ask me why.

Why were you late?

You don't have to. You don't have to rub it in.

Why were you late, Chris?

Because this money pit that we bought, that we're moving to.

Is just one bad thing after another.

So what happens when you buy a building that was built in the 40s or whatever?

Yeah. There's. There's 80 years of.

But now they're talking about, we're going to move the SDR set, but the office is going to now get pushed back to the very end of the month, which means that we're cutting it pretty close.

And, you know, the funny thing is, when we started this whole party, like, I felt like you built in a really healthy amount of time. Yeah.

In that meeting just now, everybody's surprised about the calendar. Like they. Now all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, what we're moving. Like.

Yeah, those things sneak up on you a little bit.

No, we've been talking about it. We've been talking about it every day. Nothing's sneaking up. But anyways.

Our. Our stay here in this building is coming to an end. We are moving to a new. Exciting and unpredictable.

Yeah. Well, I've loved. I love this journey like that, what we've done. I'm really excited to see what comes from the next thing.

Yeah. But I think part of my problem is I sometimes prioritize design too much, and design.

Can create time constraints.

So I agree with that. But I also think that the design has so much intention and end result that it'd be silly to cut corners to get it done two days early because the end result is that your design is going to last throughout.

Yeah, we'll see. Okay, let's go to what's in the news. Maybe this will cheer me up.

So before we get to the news, though, I want to tell you just something that's. I think it's going to cheer you up a little bit. But, you know, when you really think about it, murdering people is not what gets you in jail for the rest of your life. It's the lack of creativity in disposing of bodies that gets you in jail.

Oh, who do we know that's an expert at disposing of bodies? Because that would come in handy.

I. I don't like to talk about it.

You just write down the number on a piece of paper and hand it to me.

E.J.

E.J.

Let's go to the news.

It's gonna be fine. I've got some cool stuff in the news today.

Just to recap. We've got two models that Ford's going to. They've got their Ford Blue, which is combustion engines, internal combustion engine. And then there's model E, which of course E stands for electric. But here's the really cool thing for the dealers. Guess what? They can't do both. They're going to have to choose one or the other.

So, like, you can't sell.

Ford Motor Company is going to ask the Ford dealers to specialize in one or the other. And even possibly diversifying the parts into two different sections so they won't be able to sell Mustangs and the Mustang Electric on the same lot is what it looks like here. But I mean, that's just.

Does it say what the thought process is behind that?

Just that it wants it to be a dedicated commercial entity is kind of the verbiage that they use. But I feel like this is just the beginning of the sanctions that are coming.

Wow, what a confusing decision. Like, how do you make. If you're a Ford dealer, which way do you go?

Depends on where I'm at in the country. If I'm in the. If I'm in, like, let's say you're in Alaska. Oh, easy Ice. So I go.

Still.

I see Bakersfield, California Electric.

All of California. I do electric.

Tacoma, Washington Electric. Moscow, Idaho.

Ford Blue.

I just think I want to name.

I'm trying to figure out. I'm trying to figure out if I'm Right.

Walla Walla.

Yeah. Okay, so that's really interesting. Oh, and then the dealers are gonna.

That's just not the way that Ford is like, oh, we're not gonna. It's not gonna affect you guys. We're not gonna go direct to consumer. And then it's like, oh, well, what we'll do is divide you.

Right. And then also in the news, and I feel like service driver revolution wouldn't be appropriate without having a story about Justin Bieber.

Yeah, we talk about Justin Bieber a lot regularly.

Actually, there's a couple of things.

What goes good with your maintenance menu and service advisor pay plans and how to recruit techs is Justin Bieber.

So I want to read the headline on this because I think it's pretty crafty. Justin Bieber is banned from buying a Ferrari. And in parentheses it says and it's too late to say sorry, which is one of his songs. I thought that was pretty crafty. Clever, but essential. And I'm gonna think we can probably put the picture of this thing up. But he has.

Gotten banned from buying Ferraris because he's kind of defacing and personalizing, which I think did a pretty good job with this one. It's a. We've got a bright. For those of you listening, a really nice, bright blue Bieber Ferrari. It's in Bieber blue. And yeah, they don't like that at Ferrari. When you change.

Did the Ferrari look like a Nissan Z?

A little bit.

He's like, I see the picture. That literally looks like a Nissan.

I could get a Z or I could turn a Ferrari into a Z. Yeah, let's go that way.

What do you do when you can afford to do anything?

Yeah. I don't think that he had too many limits, but it's funny that you can make a.

You can make such a cool, sexy looking car. That's the. Is that the California T?

I think that this is a.

Oh, gosh.

My buddy Mike had a California team. That thing is beautiful. It's a sexy car.

Yeah, I'm looking here, trying to figure it out. F458. Is that a possibility?

Yeah.

So there you go. I don't know. Ferrari's really. Well, they've just been in the news.

But I think Bieber will be okay. I think somebody will sell him a Ferrari. Even if they're broker or whatever. He'll figure out a way.

Yeah. So. So, yeah, so that's the.

Could buy a Nissan. What he could do is try to make a Nissan look like a Ferrari.

That would Be crazy.

Be great. It's still a Nissan.

I do like the electric blue, though. I think that that's pretty nice.

It's a cool color. Okay, you want to get to the subject? So I had.

I had a ton of comments the last couple days. So I was in Phoenix speaking at a. At a meeting for a big dealer group.

And quite a few people were like, oh, that's so cool. You're gonna include parts. And I think we're onto something.

Yeah. It's definitely been a heavy topic of.

Just a couple people were like, why aren't you gonna include body shops?

I think that there's a. There might be an audience out there for that, too.

I don't know. I think that might be too far. We can't. We can't figure out how to move into a building.

I like how you're connecting the two dots there. So pissed.

Oh, I was thinking, too, like, we probably shouldn't. Like, we shouldn't plan meetings where you can get wound up. Oh, I. I was thinking, like, in the. In the new leadership stuff that we're doing or whatever, I was thinking, like, to be a good leader, you have to be a good actor. Because, like, right now, the people listening to this could care less about our problems with the building. And I just want to punch something.

Yeah.

And so you have to, like, we have to consider the audience, in a sense. And I'm going to be a better actor in pretending like that isn't going on and doing this. But leadership is that way. A lot of times you're going to walk from one thing to another and pretend like that thing didn't just happen.

Yeah.

Pretend like those people aren't morons.

They're not.

And then the new people that you're talking to aren't morons.

But the reality is that the world of morons. That's so great.

Can you segue that into a joke?

I could try. I mean, it's really like. It's a lot like, do you know.

What I did do?

I was sitting in a table with a bunch of people, and they were asking about you, and they were like, oh, is he. Is Christian really funny or whatever. And I'm like, super funny. No, because I think you're really funny. I always have.

But I was. They were talking. I said, oh, you should hear the jokes that I don't let him tell on the show. And then I told you your mining joke. Oh, killed. Absolutely killed.

Oh, it's. I'm so.

I'm not even sure I told it Right. But it killed.

There weren't a ton of variables to that thing, but I feel like that was a. That was a. That was a room killer for sure.

Once again, everybody listening could care. Well, like, tell us the joke or don't, but don't tease us. Right?

Yeah.

Okay. Best ways for parts and service to work together. And this was inspired by.

One of our listeners.

It was a great call.

We tried to have him come on, but he wasn't available at the time we're filming. So let's go through. Let's go through the list.

Do you think that he knew that filming was happening right after your construction meeting and that's why he elected not to come on.

He had no idea.

All right, so I've got a list. Do you have your own?

Well, when we went through this earlier, you put the things that I said in your list.

Okay, great. So these are in no particular order. Maybe some bit of particular order. But the first thing that we thought, one of the ways to bridge the.

Gap between parts and service.

Parts and service, that they don't see themselves as silos, would be wonderful. And to first bring them together. What better way to bring them together than with a shift meeting?

Yeah. So, like, when we're in a service department, we'll have a shift meeting every morning. And a lot of times, the more progressive parts managers will come to that meeting. So 6:45, you know, 15 minutes before we open, the parts manager will come participate in that meeting. And then in some stores, we'll have a shift meeting with the techs, and the parts manager will come to that also. And then the service manager going to the parts meetings. So whenever there's a meeting in fixed ops, both managers are there supporting each other.

I think that's great.

Well, you know, when a parts manager shows up to a shift meeting, that. That's a different kind of parts manager. That's somebody who cares. And sometimes the first time they go, they get beat up a little bit, especially the tech one. But what happens is if they show up the next time in the next time the. The team starts to believe that this person cares or not. You know, just hiding in an office, avoiding everything they, you know, they want to know, and they'll address whatever comes up. Even if you don't like the answer, you would rather have somebody be there and show up than to hide.

Yeah. I think that in some of the best places that we've been to, I've seen actually when the service managers on vacation, the parts manager runs the whole thing. Oh, yeah, that's really cool.

Yeah, it's really cool.

So, yeah, so there are progressive parts managers out there, and that's the kind of stuff that they're doing. So shift meeting you want to participate in. I think shop meeting is really good, not just for the parts manager, but I think for the back counter people to participate in that because they're a big part of production.

Well, and also, like, extra. Extra credit would be if the parts and service managers are going to the sales meetings every Friday together and talking about accessories. You know, if you're preloading any cars, talking about those handing out spiff money if they sell accessories.

Oh, coming from the parts manager instead of from the sales department.

Oh, yeah, the parts. I always. Yeah, the parts and service manager. Go do that and pay that money.

Yeah, that's brilliant. Because then you don't see the. Then you don't see the parts and service manager as an obstacle there. Their source of income. That's a really good way to look at it. Well.

And you're constantly bringing the possibility of accessorizing or personalizing vehicles to the front of their mind.

Agreed. I like it. So the next thing on our list is. And it sounds like we're getting a little meeting heavy here, but I promise we're not. Is that monthly that the service and parts department have a joint financial meeting.

So you sit down, you get your. Your financial statement, you make two copies, one for yourself, one for the other manager. So you both have them, and you go through, you know, what's our net to gross? What are our margins? What are our gross profit percentages? Where could we be selling more? How could we help each other and really have an understanding that you're in it together? And what comes out of those meetings is usually the service department can figure out ways for parts to hold more gross on stuff, and the parts department can figure out how when they're selling parts, the service department can get more labor. So they start adding to people who are calling on a part. Hey, we can install that for you. They start recommending the service department and they start feeding work that way. And also, just like sometimes the pricing in the back counter is different than the front. You just start to figure out things and how you can help each other make more money. Headcount deliveries, like some sometimes I've seen come out of that meeting. Like a shuttle driver also can be a parts driver, and they can split overhead that way.

Or parts driver can shuttle. Yeah, the back and forth part of it.

There's a lot of synergy if you want there to be in support people, all of that.

Yeah. This is a really good time for me to talk about one of my mentors, Steve, who you know, my general manager way, way back in the day. We had finally.

His last name.

Steve Camp. Love him. Steve.

Sharp dresser.

Sharp dresser. Great dude.

Great leader. Total gentleman.

Our genius, for sure.

So, no, you might have gone too far. Car genius. Like, he designs cars. He sells cars.

What about just the car business? That he's a genius in it Is that fine?

Well, you're. You're. You're implying that he can design a car.

That's how you receive the message. Not necessarily how I sent it. But so. So Steve had a. He's like, what the hell are those two people talking about? But. But we had a meeting every month, and all department heads, so. So new car, used car parts, and service all had to get together. We all got the statement a few days before the meeting. And our job was not only to look at our own department. We then had to talk about the. What suggestions we had for the other department. So it forced that interaction. And so I was looking at the used cars, and I'm like, okay, so here's. Where's the expenses? Not matching up here. This gross margin looks a little bit low. So as a service manager, I was making suggestions to sales. The sales manager was making suggestions to parts, and we all literally was kind of like training for becoming a general manager because you learned how the whole thing worked, but, like, the way that the department heads beyond came so close and, like, they looked at themselves as a cohesive unit after that, it was a. It was a genius thing. So I've seen this work before. The long story short.

Yeah. And I think I went to one of those.

You did.

Yeah. And also I think that's where I learned that you had been in sales.

Yeah.

And wasn't it Steve that encouraged you to go to service?

Yes.

Yeah, I remember. I remember having that conversation with the two of you, because I think I knew you a little while before I knew that.

Yeah. I don't think that we definitely isn't.

Something usually a little later in the game. And it kind of surprised me.

Yeah. I liked the sales side, but I wanted to be a general manager, and I just. I didn't know anything about service or parts, and I needed to learn.

Yeah.

So I'm super grateful for the way that my journey came out, and Steve was a big part of that. Yeah.

But if, like, if you just think about this, you guys, like, if you.

Both sit down parts in a service manager and you're like, hey, we're going.

To look at this.

How can we, how can we do better? And you're helping each other. Just the energy and focusing the, the light. You know, whenever you shine a light on something, it's going to get brighter, it's going to have energy and it's going to get better. Just the act of you guys dedicating two hours a month to that will, will have incredible outcomes. The outcome will be incredible. You got to consistently do it, you got to put it on your calendar. But it's magic. Like especially the collaboration. Like most of the time you're kind of alone in that. So having somebody that will, you know, be a friend and give you another opinion on things or push you where you kind of like are like, I know I should do something there but I don't want to get rid of them or whatever. Having that kind of accountability person, I.

Agree with that 100%. And it's a vested interest in each other too. I mean this is probably going off the beaten path. But I would say that, you know, for general managers out there, I would seriously consider pay plans where parts and services were tied to each other too. For the management should be a little nubbin for the well being of both departments. Yeah. So kind of moving on. And this is one of those things where Chris was just describing that because the marketing that I've seen coming out of dealerships, Parts does their own thing, service does their own thing. There's no reason those two things shouldn't be together. Why would we not be thinking strategically about how to market from both departments?

Yeah. And so in market in the other part of that is come up with.

Quarterly.

Specials that parts and service are collaborating on. So hey, we're going into winter. What is it we can sell as a package that we can advertise? We're going into summer. What is it we can sell in, in the summer? Like great things come of those conversations because I've seen a few times where going into summer we pack a detail into something and then there's a kit with wax and whatever that the parts department is selling to, that's a takeaway. So there's all kinds of things we can do where we can make things special and separate ourselves from everybody else that you know, if you're doing a get ready for a road trip in the summer and it comes with water bottles and just things to make people a cooler that's branded, you know, from the dealership or from the Manufacturer, all of those things, luggage, whatever. You know, a lot of times the manufacturers make these accessories like luggage or coolers or things like that. And we don't really ever talk about them. But if you're thinking about it, you would, you would advertise that. And especially now that you can do that stuff on Facebook and Instagram and market in a way that's a little.

Easier to convey something more than just a coupon. You can tell a story and you can show pictures and be visual with what you're doing. You know, everybody's thinking about getting out of town and going somewhere this summer on a road trip. And so coming up with specials like that together where both departments are winning but you're capturing the imagination of our customers is really powerful.

Yeah, I think that we've never in the history of marketing, I don't think we've ever been in a time to be more creative than we are right now. Like the way that we can reach our target like through social media and everything, you hit them right where they're at and it doesn't even, it doesn't even cost a lot of money. And it's really that you're only limited by your own imagination. So I think it's a great opportunity for the two to become together. So the next thing on my list, and there's probably a couple of different facets that I was thinking about with this is cross training. So like parts counter people may be cross training as an advisor, advisors, understanding what goes into the parts department. A little bit of a cross train thing managers cross training. So that a service manager would understand parts and parts manager would understand service. I think there's a lot to that too. So that the two departments become interchangeable.

Yeah. And I think there's a couple of things there for the leaders of the departments to do. Like I think it's really, really helpful for a service manager to go out and call on wholesale clients. With the parts manager, you're not, you're probably not going to sell any labor. They're, you know, they're just buying wholesale parts. But just to understand that how in the parts department the door to door things still work. Showing up with a gift still works. And you know, service has that for fleet but you know, only some brands are. Is that applicable? In a sense. But then the same thing for the parts manager to actually work the drive, call some customers back, like do some of the things that the service manager does, you just kind of start to, to understand how the service department deals more with emotions. And the parts department deals more with constraints and transactions, and they're. They're very different if you pay attention. And we should appreciate each other for that. Like, let's understand it and embrace it. But it's a. It's a different kind of emotional journey for the customers. Like, parts is kind of just an exchange. Right, right. I'm going to give you this for that. And services is way more. People are emotional. They feel, you know, if their. Their vehicle breaks down, they. They feel like their world is falling apart sometimes. Like, it's just different.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. A lot of times I think that the. The thing that can really create emotion, and you already started to hit on this a little bit in parts, like working together is the whole accessory thing, for sure. Like, I think that most parts departments are underselling accessories, and with that comes a lot of emotion, because it's the fun part of owning a vehicle.

I think I've said it before, but all you have to do is go sit out in your service, drive and count how many cars have some sort of accessory. Like, they upgraded the stereo, they.

They wrap the car, they got the wheels. The whole.

I know. Like, some of you think right now, like, oh, we can't do stuff because we're the factory. And warranty and this and that. One, that isn't true. You can be creative and figure out ways not to compromise the warranty and do things. But two is it's gonna. For a little while, it's gonna get harder and harder, and if we don't find creative ways to keep the customers there and create revenue, we're gonna have a hard time. So, yeah, you almost need to start with a blank piece of paper and what we can and can't do and look at the opportunity and kind of keep your constraints or your judgments in check.

I love it. That's great.

I don't know how many times people are like, oh, you can't do that. It voids the warranty. Like, really? Wheels void the warranty?

Yes.

What are you talking about?

So funny.

I mean, maybe if we're cutting into a wire harness, right?

But you put different lug nuts on a car, it doesn't make your AC compressor break. Yeah, yeah, good point. So this one is one of my favorite ones on here. Between the parts and service departments, what kind of games can we play? What kind of fun can we have with our team? The thing that popped into an episode.

Of Jackass, like a service advisor walks into parts and a big hand comes out and smacks on I do kind.

Of like that idea too.

Maybe not as vinyl.

What kind of pranks can we play?

No, I think more along the lines of games of like, how could we support the business? So the thing that I think of where parts and service could kind of have a game would be on special order parts. And I think that the game could have something revolving around how long does a part sit on the shelf before it gets put on a car. And then parts and service could work together for that. You could split people into teams based on special order parts. There's a whole lot of stuff going on there. But mutually beneficial results coming out of having fun with the parts and service department like that.

Yeah. And also you can include the parts staff in things like selling accessories or whatever. Like you can pack a spiff into accessories or, you know.

And you also can go outside. Like I remember.

At the dealership I was running, we were the number one for the sunglass company called Jimmy something.

Maui Jim, Maui Jim.

We sold more of those than anybody out of our parts department. And so, you know, you can pack five bucks into things like that. We sold Tommy Bahama clothes. We at one point we were selling ipods. Like we did a deal.

Were they branded or did. They were just regular ipods.

We did a deal with Apple. We became an Apple vendor when they. It was pre iPhone.

Yeah.

And I remember at Christmas everybody was sold out of them and we had 200 of them. And there was a line out the door for our parts department. But you can, you know, you can sell things that complement the brand in the parts department. And then your. The staff for parts and service can get spiffed on that. And it's fun. You know, you could have a contest who can sell the most sunglasses. And you might be surprised. It might be a service advisor, but it should be a parts person. But it's fun. And they, you know, they're going to be in a game together, which is going to build the camaraderie and kind of teamwork.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun, man. Thinking about that too. That what better place to sell an ipod way back then than at a dealership? Because where do you listen to your music the most in the car? Then you've got the cord that you could sell, which also has a typically a really nice margin on it. Like, that's genius.

I bet most we also back we were breaking all kinds of stuff. So we were on Reynolds and Reynolds and we couldn't run. We couldn't figure out what model.

Cars we were Selling the most of what colors. Like the information just wasn't in Reynolds and Reynolds and BMW didn't give it to us at the time and we wanted our own sell through reports. And so we were going to Apple and Microsoft trying to figure out how we could do it. But the, the way Reynolds and Reynolds was designed, it was a different kind of code or whatever. Finally we got Reynolds to. I guess they said they'd never done it for anybody, but we got them to.

Let us in the back so we could do that sort of stuff. But we had relationships like that that helped out. That's great because it's lifestyle, right?

Oh man, I love the lifestyle approach. So then the other thing I've got is including parts departments in lateral support teams.

So you'd have a team. Let's say that you've got a lateral support team. They would have their own counter person.

Yeah. So usually it's every two lateral support. Have one parts person.

That would be my guess. Yeah. So that could be a lot of fun.

And they just mirror them on. Especially if you had the four tens, you could just mirror them.

Well then I think too, the other thing, for one of the first times ever you do something like that, you actually get a little bit of competition between counter people. Well.

And you bonus those parts guys on hours.

There you go.

And so they're vested. I've done that before.

Yeah. It's good. I would assume. I've never seen results, but I would assume that worked really well.

It made them have a bond, but it never made efficiency go up.

So maybe it was just a feel good thing.

Yeah.

Which is my final thing on this list. And I think it's really, really important to do this for both departments at the same time as an outside work activity.

Yeah. So I would suggest that every parts and service manager once a year go to SEMA together. I think that that's priceless. Like go to SEMA for three days together and walk the floor and talk about what you can do. But you will be so inspired. And there's so many crazy things that like by the time you get back and you've seen, you know, gas caps that have TVs in them or whatever, or wheels that have, you know, TVs in them and lasers and, you know, I don't know, there's a. There'll be some F150 pickup that makes avocado toast. At the touch of a button you're going to come back and you'd be like, we could, we could sell wheels and Tires.

Like it goes far beyond what happens at the dealership that you, you bring.

It back and yeah, the body kits you're gonna see. And then the other thing that it's gonna do is you're just going to realize that in every market out there, even, even I know you're, you might be saying like, oh, well, you don't understand, Chris. The town I'm in is 20, 000 people or whatever. Those smaller towns are more fanatical. But in just about every town there's a core of younger, you know, mid-20s, early-30s that are modifiers of cars and they, they are the best customers to have.

Like, they're doing cool stuff to their cars for sure.

And like, I think that we should be doing an event at SEMA and taking people because I, I think that it would just be so inspiring for a lot of parts managers because I think, you know, it's one thing for us to talk about, about it, but when they see it and they see how much money people are spending on that stuff, you, you know, and also just how tribal those people are. Like, people that are doing those sort of modifications or thinking that way are, are like, you know, for lack of a better, better analogy, they're like Trekkies.

Like, yeah, they're just looking for the next cooler thing. Yeah, there's no limit to what you're in.

You're in.

Yeah, exactly.

There's no there. The only barrier of entry is being a fan of it. That's it.

Yep.

There's no test.

Yeah, there's definitely no, you don't have to get blood or anything like that. You know, it's funny, we were talking about Apple just a couple of minutes ago and I don't know if you realize this, but Apple's branching out. They're doing everything right. They've actually gotten into clothing lines, specifically clothing lines for pirates and their best selling item, it's called Eyepatch.

And on that note, we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every week, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call us at 8333 ask SDR. That's 8333-ask-SDR for special deals on our books and training. Head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.