Track and Optimize Service Efficiency
With constraints on new boat manufacturing, it’s essential that your other departments, such as Service, are operating as efficiently as possible. Service Efficiency is a measurement of how effective your service technicians are. It is calculated by taking how much billable time is planned each day, week, or month and dividing that by the actual time spent by your technicians.
To measure your service efficiency, divide your billed service hours by the actual time clocked on the work order. For example, if you bill a customer 3 hours and it takes your tech 2.5 hours to complete the work, you're operating at 120% efficiency (3/2.5 = 1.2 or 120%). If you bill for 2 hours and your technician spends 4, that’s 50% efficiency.
Based on industry trends, anything above 76% is a good rate for sustainability, and reaching 90% indicates operational excellence.
| Poor | Average | Good | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Efficiency | <50% | 51-75% | 76%+ |
Ensure Accurate Work Orders
Tracking and cataloging data is the name of the game for strategy and operations. Ensure work orders are filled out accurately and diligently by your service department so points of strength and weakness can be identified.
Setting up a time to meet with your staff to explain the importance of staying on top of these work orders could be helpful. Work orders can often feel like frivolous busy-work to many staff members. If the time is spent to explain why it’s valuable, everyone can stay motivated and provide inspired data.
Prioritize Customer Retention
According to OutboundEngine, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer. Additionally, the success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60–70% while the success rate of selling to a new customer is generally 5–20%. These statistics alone are reason enough to measure and prioritize customer retention for your dealership. Assuming the customer had a good experience with your dealership the first time around, selling to them again is exponentially easier than selling to a new customer. An existing customer is already familiar with your experience, already trusts your dealership to some degree, and you already have their contact information.
| Poor | Average | Good | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Retention Rate | 0-75% | 81-90% | 91%+ |
If your customer retention rate is average or poor, consider implementing tools to support your service technicians and support teams. At Dealership Advantage, we offer dynamic visual management tools as well as automation so your team can stay on top of any incoming requests to meet and exceed your customers’ expectations.
Boost Turnaround Times
Much like service efficiency, turnaround time can either be detrimental or beneficial to the customer experience you offer. A short turnaround time impresses customers and keeps them coming back. Slow turnaround times can lead to bad reviews, complaints, or even abandonment by the customer. It is absolutely crucial to track how long it takes your dealership to complete work orders and service tickets. There should be an ongoing focus on decreasing the amount of time it takes to respond to customer requests and eventually fulfill them. Similarly, you should make it a goal to meet or beat the estimated timelines you provide customers. A customer may not care whether or not you service their boat in five days or seven, but if you promise five and it takes seven, you can bet they won’t be happy.
To improve turnaround times, we recommend implementing automated emails or text messages so users receive an immediate response from your dealership regardless of if any of your customer service reps actually have time to respond.
| Poor | Average | Good | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turnaround Time | 15+ Days | 8-14 Days | <7 Days |
Set Benchmarks for Staff
Be clear with your staff about the steps they need to take to meet goals. Don’t just tell your staff that a less than seven-day turnaround time is good, set a plan of action to ensure staff know how long they are supposed to be taking on projects and set up a system to ensure they know the priority of projects to get that turnaround time to under seven days every time.
With Dealership Advantage, we have the perfect tools to help optimize every aspect of your business and maximize your returns.
