The Problem
The Conicelli dealerships take pride in giving high quality service and valuable products. Two years ago, we went to a Toyota seminar and were told that if we weren’t running with factory scheduled maintenance, we were doing ourselves a disservice. We decided to look into our options and were amazed by what we found at Reynolds and Reynolds.
At first, I was skeptical as to what the Service Price Guides (SPG) could do for us, but when we put it in our Toyota store we saw an instant increase in dollars per RO. It’s working great.
We’ve seen multiple benefits since we’ve added SPG. Our effective labor rate for our group has averaged an increase of $3.20, which equates to $6,000 average profit increase per month. Our Toyota store alone has been seeing $15,000 of increased profit per month! We had tried to come up with our own menus, but with different car models, engine models, different capacity, and three different types of oil, we had thousands of combinations just for oil changes alone. It was impossible to keep up with the changes. When Reynolds told me that their menus would be updated automatically, it was like music to my ears.
We are now quoting the exact right services for each customer. Before, we weren’t even sure of the quote we were giving and we had skepticism in our voice. Now we can confidently quote a price, with tax, out the door. When a customer calls, we’re supposed to be the expert and Service Price Guides allows us to be that.
By doing more factory recommended services, even our customer retention is increasing because of SPG. We don't have to justify our recommended services to our customers anymore because everything is right out of the factory maintenance schedule. We never have to second guess our recommendations or back pedal on something that’s different from the factory. This helps us turn our customers into repeat visitors.
Service Price Guides has even made us more efficient. Because we can see parts inventory right on screen, the advisor immediately knows if they can book the appointment based on the quantity on hand. They no longer have to call parts or make the technicians stand at the parts counter. Our parts counterperson isn’t constantly moving parts from one line of the RO to another because SPG does it automatically. If I had to estimate, I would say our productivity rate has increased at least 10% a day.
When customers call us needing a price quote, we can look it up and tell them the exact cost, including tax. Customers are constantly in amazement that they don’t pay a dollar more than what we quote them. I can’t even tell you the number of positive comments I’ve heard. It’s a selling point for us and we have made customers for life because of this. Service Price Guides are a key part of our business going forward and I would say that any dealership not using it is in the Stone Age.
