As the old saying goes… The only way to increase profits is to reduce expenses and/or increase revenue. And, while this is generally true, in the service lane it’s easier said than done. In an ultra-competitive industry like retail automotive, you don’t want to raise prices and scare customers away, which leaves reducing expenses. And, while that might sound difficult and even impossible, it really comes down to optimizing the opportunity surrounding each repair order (RO). Here are some tips to generate more dollars per RO.

The Right Schedule

The first thing to check is your service lane’s appointment scheduling process. How easy is it for your customers to make an appointment? How many customers are your service advisors seeing each day? How much time are they spending with each customer at vehicle check-in? Are they doing a vehicle inspection walk-around with each customer? Appointment scheduling can be difficult to perfect but finding the right ratio of vehicles to technicians per day will result in a process that best accommodates your customers’ service needs. This will help keep your customers happily engaged during the check-in process and increase your chances for customer satisfaction.

Work the Process

Every dealership has an established service lane process for checking in and taking care of their customers.  From greeting the customer and identifying their service needs, to their vehicle inspection and repair order review, service lane process steps abound.  Some work… Some don’t… And, some work better than others.

Regardless of your dealership’s service lane practices, an often overlooked opportunity is the presentation of factory recommended maintenance, warranty/recall work and even tire replacement when reviewing the vehicle inspection and/or repair order. Assuming your advisor has identified any warranty/recall work, and they’ve listened to the customer’s needs and included them in the vehicle inspection; the presentation of recall, warranty or discretionary repair costs is a great way to increase your RO. If your service lane process lets the customer “see for themselves” any tire wear, window chips, worn wipers, burned-out lamps, etc., you’re on your way to increasing your bottom line.

Optimize Your ROs with eAdvisor

Using innovative technology, the eAdvisor system can help you increase every repair order, without sacrificing quality of the service provided. The key is the eAdvisor scan tool. Advisors simply plug the eAdvisor scan tool into the vehicle’s OBD2 port and it wirelessly transmits critical information to the Service Advisor’s work computer.  It takes less than ten seconds to complete and requires absolutely no manual data entry.  The data report includes VIN, mileage, tire pressure, oil life, fuel level, and more. And, it allows advisors to improve the customer experience. 

Visit eAdvisor today for more information about how our team and our solutions can help optimize your business!