A little care, attention and praise can go a long way in boosting morale and retention.
Finally, you have hired what seems to be the right person and they showed up on day one. Now what?
Ask yourself what does that employee say to their family when they get home after their first day of work?
“I am not sure I made the right decision.” Or, “holy crap I had a great first day.”
What is your plan for that first day? Are business cards ready? Are phones set up? Are passwords to computer systems set up? Are there scheduled appointments to meet every manager? Are the managers prepared to explain their departments?
A lot of us work at exciting brands. Are we excited about our new hire? Is there a process manual on how you do business? So many questions, so many things to do!
Yes, you need a well laid out plan to impress your new hire on DAY 1. It sounds so simple, but does it actually happen?
We often train new managers and the horror stories we hear are incredible. “They had me stroke the previous manager’s name on the business card and write my own name, I opened the drawer and an old lunch bag was in there, I am using the last manager’s passwords like everyone else.”
So many horror stories, yet so simple to change. Develop a plan and make that new employee feel like they made a great decision joining your dealership.
A recent study showed that 60 per cent of our employees are disengaged from the workplace.
That means a whopping 60 per cent are showing up just on time or late, doing what’s asked of them and heading to the door at 4:59 and squealing their tires out of the parking lot. How do we get our aftersales staff more engaged?
Goals and targets are one of the easiest ways to engage aftersales staff. However, so many managers we talk to can’t explain their targets to us. The targets come top down and sometimes seem unrealistic.
Goals and targets are one of the easiest ways to engage aftersales staff. However, so many managers we talk to can’t explain their targets to us. The targets come top down and sometimes seem unrealistic.
One of our company’s mottos is very clear, “If they are part of the battle plan, they won’t battle the plan!”
We need to teach our managers how to properly target aftersales. It’s actually very easy if we are properly tracking productivity and efficiency.
Capacity is the key. Every technician has the ability to produce so much. Figure it out!
Available Hours X Productivity X Efficiency X Effective Labour Rate = amount the technician can produce.
Ask yourself: Are your targets attainable?
We recently had a General Manager show us his yearly target he had given the service manager. The target was a half million dollars over what the department could produce.
Needless to say everyone disregarded the target because they never hit it. The purpose of a good target is so your employees can hit it, and you can celebrate it! Engage your staff in target setting. Remember: If they are part of the battle plan, they won’t battle the plan!
Communication is key. Lack of communication can be one of the biggest reasons technicians don’t feel part of the team.
Do you ever hear your technicians saying: “Oh I am just a tech, no one tells us anything”? OMG, just a tech!
We hear this all the time. How often does your service manager meet with your technicians? Is it the standard quarterly tech meetings? Those are productive right?
No! The techs usually come with a list of grievances and the service manager quickly becomes defensive.
The meeting gets some voices raised and it turns negative quickly. Everyone leaves the meeting more frustrated than when they arrived.
The chances of another meeting get slimmer and slimmer. We suggest weekly if not twice weekly ten minute meetings. This is where managers usually tell us we have nothing to talk about every week. Really? The service manager can talk about the business. How are we doing towards our common goal?
Remember we praise in public, discipline behind closed doors. Celebrate the successes in these meetings. Any bulletins we want to highlight; a new special tool we just received from the manufacturer. Talk about what it is and what it does and where you will find it. Read some positive CSI feedback you received from the customers. Techs would love to hear what their customers are saying about them. A good manager might ask a tech about a difficult repair they had. “Hey Steve, last week you worked on the F150 with the check engine light on. That was a tough one. Why don’t you tell us about it?” This accomplishes two things publicly. The boss recognized that the tech had a tough job and pointed it out making the tech feel good about getting the recognition and when he explained the job the other techs, heaven forbid, might learn something.
The next thing a good manager can do is say thank you. I know you do bbq’s for your staff but that doesn’t mean we should get the apprentice to drag out the bbq, run out to the grocery store and buy the supplies and then cook them.
After everyone has been fed the lucky apprentice can clean it all up. The apprentice will dread when you want to celebrate. The manager should do this all. Cooking for your staff and handing them a burger and saying “Thank you for working so hard” is the least they can do. Find people doing something right. As managers it is so easy to find stuff going wrong. Imagine what kind of culture you could build if you caught people doing stuff right?
It’s really pretty simple. Excite me when you hire me. Give me attainable targets that I understand how to achieve. Communicate with me and please, please celebrate my successes publically.
