Chris Collins and a co-host explain why parts managers matter: about 90-95% of repair orders need at least one part, so high fill rates directly affect how fast technicians work and how long customers wait. A strong parts department also improves the dealer's relationship with manufacturers and bottom line.
And so then the next one is parts has several businesses within a business.
Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about.
Number three, we have parts. Availability directly affects the service experience for a few reasons. One is most ROs don't go out without a part. Right. So we need, we need parts to do an oil change, basically, with the exception of an alignment or some sort of wiring repair, whatever program. Yeah, whatever. For the most part, you know, 90, I would say 95 of an RO has a part maybe higher accurate.
And then the availability of the part. So the parts manager being good at their job and having a high fill rate, the availability has a tremendous effect on the production or the productivity in the shop. So the technician's efficiency that then leads to the customer's satisfaction.
In the sense that we can turn it around and the customer has their vehicle back. Also the, you know, if we don't have the part, then maybe a customer's in a rental car for a long time.
But if a parts manager is really good and we have the part in stock or we can get the part same day, the perception of the cost that the customer has, that this was easy and the technicians are going to be more efficient because they're not pulling them in and out.
So as a parts manager, the best thing I could hear at the back counter is, wow, I didn't think you would have that. Oh, yeah, that's, that's a great thing. But think about it from a sense of a parts manager not paying attention to his oil and they run out of oil and then service drains the oil. And now I've got to figure out how to tell the customer that you're going to have to wait for an extended period of time because I have to get oil from a local place because we ran out of oil.
It's fun to hear to say oil, isn't it? The next one is the parts department's profitability is a huge part of fixed absorption.
100% huge part.
The next one is a relationship with manufacturers runs through the parts department. So a lot of people listening to this have never made this connection because you've never sat in, well, sat on the side of the manufacturer. But the manufacturer only cares about service because they're putting a part on. They are in the business of selling parts. If you think about any vehicle that's sold, it is just a part. And then they want. They, they make more money selling the part individually than they do having it assembled as a car or a truck. Right. There's the old Henry Ford poster where the Model A, you could buy it for 350 bucks, but to build it in the service department was like $7,500 or something. Which is more than a hundred times, right? Yeah.
Well, maybe not 100 times, but it's a lot. And so they would rather.
Sell apart than anything else. So the parts manager affects the relationship with the factory more than anything else.
I was a GM or an owner. I would look at that in the sense of we already talked about it going direct to the main customer from the manufacturer, but they're still going to want to sell the parts because they're not going to operate service centers.
Yeah. And the best parts managers are on every program for the factory. They're.
They'Re taking the factory guy to lunch.
They are engaged. The worst relationship with the factory usually is a dealer that doesn't understand parts and has a lot of turnover at the parts position. And it's really hard for the factory to have anything predictable or set.
I say that as a parts manager, there has to be some rules. And the rules to the game are play with the manufacturer.
Yeah, like, but when I was running a store, I owned a store. I, I wanted. If a factory person came, we were washing and vacuuming their car, detailing it, basically, we were taking them to lunch wherever they wanted. Like, we wanted them to feel like we were in on every program. We were ambassadors for the brand. It's too important. It's the most important relationship, in a sense.
I would agree.
And I, you know, being in as many stores as we're in and as many as I have been in over the years, the dealers that would fight the manufacturers were always way less profitable.
Than the ones that didn't. Like, I, you know, I just would pay attention to that stuff.
There's been a couple times where I've had clients that stood up to manufacturers when things weren't right. I wouldn't include them those in that. I'm just saying, like ones that mismanage the relationship. You got to have boundaries. And sometimes the manufacturer oversteps in a warranty audit or whatever, you know, with the way they're doing things. Because there are bad people at manufacturers. But I'm saying just in general, their general approach. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. 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 that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video sa.
