What Adds Value To A New Facility?

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Welcome to your Friday drive by on Service Drive Revolution where we answer your questions. The phone number, should you have a question is 8333-ask-SDR 8333 ask SDR if you notice a different background here. You're watching this and not listening. I am in my library at home because of construction going on at the office. So we're going to be doing them for, from here for a few weeks. And let's go to the first question.

Hello, it's Adam calling from up here in New Brunswick, Canada. We're finally in the middle of building a new building and just wondering if you had, you know, top one or two or three things that you would like to see in a new build. You know, we're looking at alignment checkers and all kinds of different things. So just wondering if there's something that you think brings really good value for customers, for tax, for advisors, for everybody.

That's a great question. So I'm going to answer the question globally and then locally as it pertains to the service department. So the first thing that I would do is think about the circle of life which is customers buying a new or pre owned car and then handing the customer back to service. So we want to design the facility that we're promoting, customers going up to the sales department. So we have a couple ways of doing that. One is where we put the coffee and where we put the waiting room. I prefer to design a facility where the waiting room is spread out across the new car showroom or through the dealership. Not just one area where everybody's staring at one tv. Those sort of environments where there's like one tv, everybody's you know, kind of huddled in one area, create a lot of tension. And also you're forced to watch the channel on TV of the person that was there before you. So if they want to watch Fox and you're, you know, a CNN type or they want to watch sports and you don't like sports, you're, you're forced into whatever's, whatever's up there. And it's really hard to please everybody. So having little individual spaces where people can borrow an iPad or read a book is going to make them feel more comfortable and relaxed and there, there isn't going to be that, that tension. The other thing is I would design an area where we have like the flagship cars that they can go see. Like cars that are tricked out or the highest model, like if you're a Chevy dealership, having a Corvette there. So they would go to the coffee past the Corvette. You know, just think about how can we get people to look at the new models, sit in the new models, engage with them, and feel like the sales department is a, you know, as a destination or a friendly place to be. The other thing is, is having parts have a, you know, a role in this, where they're displaying lifestyle products. Sunglasses, luggage, driving shoes, whatever it is, sometimes bikes, clothing, that sort of stuff. But letting the parts departments have some sort of boutique in that journey. So I'd want the customers to walk through the boutique on their way to the coffee, think about Disneyland and how at the end, you're kind of walking through a parts department or a gift shop. Then when it, when it comes to.

When it comes to the service advisors, I've had more success with the customer sitting down than standing up at a, at a desk. And also separating the drive from where the customers are written up. Now, I know there's a lot of people out there that think, oh, we're going to get rid of desks, Customers are going to get written up in the drive, we're going to use tablets. So far, the only thing that I've seen happen from that is CSI and sales go down when we're writing the customers up at the car. If we build, report the car, and then separate the customer from the car, sit them down, and then create the work order. They're. They're, you know, more likely to buy additional things, but they also feel more comfortable, they give better descriptions, all of that. I tell you that only from testing, not from personal opinion. When it comes to the shop, I would put a lot of effort into the technician lunchroom. I would have foosball. I might have video games in there, but I would really make that a place where they feel like it's a club. Like it's a club where they're going to escape whatever it is that's happening. But creating an environment where the employees are going to a lunchroom and there's other things to do that spark their creativity, that make them feel like it's a fun environment and that they, they enjoy, and that also makes them feel like we're different than the other places that they've worked or the, where their friends work. So use those areas that employees are going to use, like the locker room and the lunchroom, as, you know, as a way to make them feel special, not as just a necessity. When it comes to the technicians, I don't set up a quick lube in the drive. I spread the quick lube Technicians out through the shop. And so the way I would set up a shop is I would try to have as many of them in one location together as. As I can. You know, if you're in our system, service drive judo. We would have some sort of cabana to greet the customers outside before they come in and kind of control the frame and, and the speed of things out there. If you're not familiar with that, you should, you know, reach out to us and we can, we can tell you how you can get on demand or one of our coaches to, to help you come out and do that. But that's an integral part of the, of the process. That's the stuff that, that comes top of mind. Great question. I find a lot of times when I'm involved in the design of dealerships, the manufacturers and the architects that do dealerships keep doing the same thing over and over again, like waiting rooms. And they don't think about getting customers into the sales department from service. They don't think about the environment as, you know, it having an effect on how customers feel. They think of it as a necessity. So, like, a waiting room is a necessity, but we can use the waiting room as a way to make customers feel comfortable. Also for them to feel like we're a little bit different. When they're comfortable, they're going to maintain their cars. Oh, one thing you said to alignment checker. I don't do alignment checkers. Our clients that sell the most alignments are recommending alignments every 12 months or 12,000 miles like AAA and all the manufacturers recommend the tire checkers are kind of a dog and pony show and they become a constraint.

And I'm not even like, I don't know, you can debate the accuracy and all that. It's just a, it's a constraint. And as you get busier, you just need more and more alignment checkers. I would rather have the advisors spend that time making friends with the customer and building rapport than doing another. Another thing. Also, I go into service departments all the time that have an alignment checker. And they, they say, oh, we do it on every car. They never are doing it on every car. And their alignment sales are usually.

Better than if you weren't asking at all, but worse than if you were just checking history and advising on time in mileage. So I would skip, I would skip that and spend that money on foosball tables for the technicians and, you know, building a better lunchroom. Great question. Thank you so much. Remember, the number is 8333 ask SDR. And if we play your question on the big show, we're going to send you a swag bag. We also have a swag bags coming from parts hold, which is pretty exciting. But thank you for that. And I'll see you next time on Service Driver Revolution. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.