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Service Department Training Should be Prioritized

Evaluating your Return on Investment

Case Study: You hire a Service Consultant who, according to his resume, appears to be a consummate professional. To polish the edges you may send him to time management class, product training, and perhaps salesmanship training. You explain in detail the importance you place on all aspects of his position and pay him accordingly. In addition, you spend your time coaching that person on how you do things at your dealership to ensure total success and the proper CSI result.

In this case, I would argue that a person who fits the description of 'consummate professional' should be near turn-key and other than learning your process, should be ready to roll. If 'higher level' positions are not close to 'turn-key', you may need to revise your hiring practices/interview process.

You now hire a Service Cashier and if you're like most dealerships, that person receives the basic company policy training and a run down of the cashier position training. In most cases, the bulk of the training is spent on cash handling and the importance associated with that function. This causes the focus to be on the logistics of the position rather than the customer service aspects. With little or no customer care training, you turn the new hire loose on your customers.

If this is reality in your store, it's a bad plan. In many dealerships, the Service Cashier is also the person setting appointments and as such, is the first point of contact within your Service environment. Even if this is not the case, the Service Cashier is most certainly the last significant dealership contact before your customers leave. A strong argument can be made that the cashier position, more than any of all the positions in your department, carries with it the potential to have the greatest impact to your CSI. What level of impact does this last contact have on the CSI in your store?

How confident are you in your cashier post, based on the level of support in training that you've supplied? If you don't prioritize the training of your customer contact personnel, you'll end up losing business now and in the future.

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