Are you?
Recently I filled out a form that asked for my occupation. I wrote: thief, crook and occasional con-man! It took some time before the person reading the form looked at me and said: “This is not really what you do for a living, is it?” I said: “No, but I have spent all my working life in the car business so you were going to think that anyway.”
I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who told the joke: “Did you hear about the car mechanic who became a car salesman? He went from screwing customers behind their back to screwing them in front of their face.”
There was a guy recently on television who had written a book on surviving in a downturn economy. He talked about reducing expenses and seemed to make a lot of sense. Then he made a statement that around 30 percent of the dollars spent having a vehicle serviced was not necessary. I liked him up to that point.
For decades I have tried to defend our industry but at times have had to resort to saying: “We are no worse than anyone else.” So what is the cause for us having such a poor reputation? Are the television shows like 60 Minutes and W5 and our national newspapers being unfair? Or is their some truth in the common stereotype.
Stereotypes come from somewhere
Have you ever been at a party and someone said, “guess what happened to me the last time I had my car serviced,” and you started to wish you were somewhere else? For example, at one party a guy told me he had an estimate for some repairs which he could not afford so decided to do the work himself, only to find out that parts over the retail counter were 20 percent less than the same parts installed in the shop. Parts managers call this gross profit: this guy had another name for it!
Then another person started to tell me how he thought his dealer did not do all the work they claimed so he lowered the tire pressure on one tire and sure enough it was still low when he picked up the vehicle.
We often ask service managers, “when you sell an oil change with a 15-point inspection, do you always do the full inspection?” Not many managers answer yes.
Personal stories
I am now on my seventh drink and the stories keep coming and my defence of our industry is weakening. To be honest, and that is not a pun, my own experiences have not been very good. I took my vehicle in for its first oil change and the bill was over $60.00. When I asked why, the advisor said: “We put an additive in the engine oil –‘mechanic in a can’ – and performed an injector service. I said, “I never asked for that,” so he said, “OK; we’ll take it off the invoice.” To which I responded: “No! Take it out of my vehicle. Drain the oil and the fuel tank.” This store automatically pours additives in your vehicle and if you complain they take it off the invoice and the snake-oil company pays them back. Hell of a way to run a business.
Getting involved as a third party can be a nightmare but it was my all-time best friend who called and said that his out-of-warranty vehicle had a cracked manifold and the repair bill was going to be huge. I told him to call the service manager and tell him there was a policy to cover all of the repairs. He did and was told there was no such policy. So, reluctantly, I called the service manager with the factory policy number and the date of the letter. He denied that the letter existed and got very aggressive. Come to think of it, so did I! Was it a mistake or was the service manager going to double dip?
One customer asked a dealership for a bumper-to-bumper vehicle inspection, which resulted in finding over $800 worth of work. The customer said: “Do it all.” The advisor looked very happy until the customer added: “But tell your used-car manager first. I purchased the vehicle from your store this week!”
Getting too creative
It appears that, in an effort to stay profitable, some service managers have resorted to ‘creative’ ideas. Too creative. For example, one store recommends bringing the customer back every 5,000 km – against factory recommendations – then recommends an oil change with a tire rotation at 20,000 km and an oil change with a brake inspection at 25,000 km, taking the wheels off on both services to increase labour sales.
Working as a zone service manager I was moved onto a territory to clean it up and reduce the warranty dollars. I asked how come the guy before me had made such a mess and was told, “he lacked your larceny.” I did not take that as a compliment!
One thing that has left us wowed when visiting dealerships in India and Thailand was a constant focus on transparency with the customer. We work with some great dealerships that are both honest and care about customers. If they have a failing, it is doing more for a customer than they get credit for. But alas, not every dealer is like that.
Our view is, we leave so many legitimate dollars on the table there is no need for getting creative. We implement a process in service departments to increase sales based on the premise that you win and your customers win.
If you would like more information on the cost of our in-house program, e-mail us at fixedbygac@cogeco.ca.
