Fixed Operations departments are relying more and more on cloud-based software applications. Appointment software, service drive tools, maintenance menus, marketing platforms, BDC software, texting, bill pay, recalls, electronic MPIs and route sheet, vehicle management — the list goes on — and in most dealerships, Fixed Ops departments rely on multiple vendors and systems to fulfill these needs. This means increased complexity, data inconsistency, and the need for more resources to manage and integrate these disparate services effectively.
Now imagine a world where your service advisors, technicians, clerks, receptionists, BDC agents, and other members of your team can all use the same platform. The all-in-one platform isn’t just a novelty: it offers several advantages over using multiple vendors by streamlining the processes and increasing revenue. Here are seven ways that utilizing one platform benefits your department.
When using a single technology vendor with a complete suite of software tools to manage your facility, your workflow can be designed to be the most straightforward and efficient process that meets your needs. There is no one-size-fits-all in Fixed Ops. What works for you may not even work for your sister store or neighboring dealership, let alone a dealership across the country, selling a different brand to a completely different socioeconomic clientele. Having to fit several unrelated systems into your workflow will never match the flexibility you get from a single point of access.
Each vendor’s software looks and functions differently. Every time your employees must learn a new program you have to devote time to training. While your employees are becoming familiar with a new program, they spend extra time on each task and get less accomplished. Each new software program means another step in the process, and because the tools were not designed to work together this process becomes inefficient and hard to follow. Training employees on multiple platforms has proven time and again to be expensive for the dealership and frustrating to employees, leading to suboptimal software utilization, harming the customer experience, and impacting your bottom line.
Even once your staff is up to speed, they can still lose productivity switching back and forth between different user interfaces and menus. But this hurdle is eliminated by using a single platform. In the 2021 Workgeist Report, 43% of respondents reported a lot of time was wasted when switching between platforms. This makes it difficult for workers to focus on their assignments and tanks productivity in the long term. It takes an average 9 and half minutes for an employee to get back into work mode.
All dealerships have upwards of 10 different vendors providing services to their Fixed Ops Departments, and every one of them needs access to the DMS data to perform. Every DMS company is charging your vendors for this access. For example, DMS access fees for the top two providers can exceed $1000 per month. Vendors must pass this cost back to the dealership one way or another, totaling more than $100,000 in additional annual cost with no benefit to the dealership.
It is impossible to keep your data and information “at your fingertips” when it is siloed across various platforms. However, on a single platform you can have readily available and easy access to all of the information on the vehicle and the customer, streamlining workflow and allowing fixed ops employees to present pertinent and in-time information to the customer. You need a 360 degree view of the customer and related vehicle at every step of the process.
Data collection and data mining are pillars of today’s internet economy. Companies collecting consumer data are worth hundreds of billions of dollars because in this day and age, nothing is more valuable thanconsumer data. Yet dealerships are missing out on data that should be readily available to them if they were effectively siloing their data, making it very difficult and time consuming to mine. Hence, many dealerships are ignoring this valuable information
Having one vendor and one platform will produce a stronger bond between you and that vendor. Not only will you get more attention and better service, it will also give your vendor a better understanding of your operation, challenges, and goals. A well-acquainted vendor will be able to recommend new software and products that you may not have discovered on your own.
A single platform will produce automated reports, charts, and dashboards that capture all vital information. Instead of wasting valuable time compiling data from multiple tabs and windows, your employees can focus on achieving business goals. Integrated and cooperating programs can also facilitate greater automation. For instance, events in your service department can automatically trigger a tailor-made marketing campaign for the customers’ needs. These features not only increase revenue proactively, they also reduce potential costs.
Constantly dealing with software-switching, wasting hours on information searches, and re-entering data across business tools leads to a decrease in motivation, increases in human error and even employee burnout. By using one platform, your personnel can devote their energy to strategic and analytical work instead of mindless keystrokes.
Recently, many private equity firms have purchased different service providers in the Fixed Ops arena and “joined” them together to give the appearance of one platform. But digging a little bit under the surface, one can see that these are completely disjointed platforms beneath the facade of a unified system, beset by the same problems and challenges of multiple software developers, vendors, and platforms. Also, as you know, not every manufacturer endorsed program is the best in class. In fact, they are hardly ever top-rated. I personally know of dozens of dealerships that have signed with the OEM endorsed program to “keep the peace” but use a different platform that better suits their needs as the benefit far exceeds the additional cost.
Please be cautious when selecting your vendors. Choosing the wrong vendor can be an expensive and time-consuming mistake to fix. Compare your options side-by-side and let them compete for your business. The vendors will gladly tell you of their competitors’ shortcomings. Shop around and see what a single platform could accomplish for your Fixed Ops Department.
This article was previously published in Fixed Ops Magazine.
Fixed Operations departments are relying more and more on cloud-based software applications. Appointment software, service drive tools, maintenance menus, marketing platforms, BDC software, texting, bill pay, recalls, electronic MPIs and route sheet, vehicle management — the list goes on — and in most dealerships, Fixed Ops departments rely on multiple vendors and systems to fulfill Read More