Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/340625
Get Creative and Meet Customers' Top Two Non-Negotiables This will take a new way of thinking and preparing – old methods and excuses just won't cut it anymore if excellence is your goal. Last month, I referenced the "Product Support Opportunities Handbook" and the fact that these customer surveys, conducted every five years, give us invaluable informa- tion. We talked about customer needs and wants. This is information I use as the starting point in how I teach the Balanced Scorecard. I believe it is a powerful place to start as a result of our employees working harder to satisfy customers than they will to satisfy their bosses. But what do we need to excel at in order to satisfy these customer needs and wants? When you ask what they want, you open up a risk: If you don't act on their feedback the customer will become even more cynical about your desire to satisfy them. Internal excellence takes on many shapes and forms. It could be a simple matter of better communications. It could be much larger such as Internet ordering tools and electronic catalogs. It runs the whole gamut. I want to focus on two of the major customer needs. One for parts, one for service. Parts Department No. 1 Priority: Availability Over the past two decades, I have written often about inventory management and expediting – and even purchasing. I am a strong propo- nent of activities such as guarantees for availability. I go crazy (crazier) when you have backorders on fast moving parts. I am fanatical about finding every part every customer has ordered the day they order the part. I believe availability has influ- enced customer retention more than anything in the parts business. So, become consistent in finding every part every day. It should not be that difficult. In fact, it isn't but many are afraid of all the work this would entail. I want to break you out of your comfort zone – some people call it thinking out of the box. The box doesn't exist – it is simply our fear. Develop the procedures, the processes, and the systems so you can succeed at finding every part every day. What is the search sequence? First you pick parts from your store then what do you do? Do you check your other branch stores? What about your vendor? Then do you reach out to dealers in your OEM network, wher- ever they are? Do you take parts from machines in your inventory? And what about other sources for parts, even if they aren't genuine? How do you do it? Make it happen. Service Department No. 1 Priority: Responsiveness With service it becomes more diffi- cult. Everyone defaults, saying, "I can't find any technicians I want to hire." Every service manager is trying to hire a journeyman technician. That is a "fool's errand" today. Every good tech- nician out there has a good job and a good wage. They are not going to be knocking down your door looking for a job. If they are looking for work I would be suspicious. Something doesn't add up. So how do we address the responsiveness issue in this environment? Go back to basics. Make a list of all the journeymen you have in your employ. How many of them would be good mentors? Then hire that many helpers to work with those jour- neymen. This is just like the old days. You leverage the skills of the scarce resource by taking from them the work that someone else could and should do. Like sheet metal work, for example. And bring back the "helper" rate. That will be about half of the journeyman rate. The customer will like that, and they'll like getting their work done in a more responsive manner. Then, let's start to develop people. Let's consider an "apprentice" program. Partner with a local technical school or junior college and create a program that will deliver the skills you need to obtain. They are more than willing to help out. Get more aggressive in your main- tenance programs. This one needs your creativity. I believe, and most of you do, too, that you can train someone with basic mechanical skills to perform maintenance work within a three months. So, let's hire people who have mechanical aptitude and train them. Consider hiring technical school students for four hours of work in the evening, or on weekends. There are many options, but we have to be creative. The time is now. RON SLEE (ron@rjslee.com) is the founder of R.J. Slee & Associates, Rancho Mirage, Calif., celebrating more than 30 years in business in the United States, a consulting firm that specializes in dealership operations. Ron also operates Quest Learning Centers, a company that provides training services specializing in product support, and Insight (M&R) Institute, a company that operates and facilitates "Dealer Twenty" Groups. Fol- low Ron on Twitter: @RonSlee; and read his blog at learningwithoutscars.com. BY RON SLEE Aftermarket July 2014 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 59