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Scheduling Guidelines
I am looking for a guideline to utilize when it comes to scheduling hours per day and hours per week. I am with a GM dealer who uses a BDC to schedule appointments for our service department and it is not going well! I am trying to find a solution because our BDC schedules to capacity or over capacity every day and every week so this is leading to poor quality inspections being pencil whipped. The techs know there is another job waiting in line for them so they rush through the current vehicle repair and inspection. It is poor quality because they have enough work waiting in line so they have no incentive to find more work per vehicle to raise their HPRO. The same issue is happening on the service drive with the advisors being order takers and not service advisors simply due to the fact the when the schedule is booked to capacity, everyone is stressed out and the additional service recommendations are non existent. I don’t have to tell you what is happening next. Low HPRO, low ELR, poor CSI and the service department I just began leading as service manager needs a lot of help! I am a former service manager getting back into the game and if my memory serves me correctly I want to say that proper scheduling is 80%-85% of available tech hours each day and each week. Am I correct or is their a better guideline for me to bring to the BDC when they are scheduling? my first priority to begin improving my mess is to improve the scheduling process to allow enough time for proper service consulting and additional sales per RO. I must eliminate the order taking and pencil whipped inspections and I feel that I need to tell our BDC to only schedule XX amount of work based on available tech hours. Thoughts and advice needed.
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2 Replies
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Jay, this can be addressed in several ways. Everyone is always looking for the perfect way to schedule, but some shops today have set that aside and take in all the cars they can (within reason).
A different way to address the issue is asking how we get the advisors and techs to properly handle every car regardless of workload. Some shops do this just fine with less stress and more profit. If customer expectations are communicated well and everyone is on the same page, there’s no need to hurry.
The trouble is that you have a whole crew used to doing it the old way. All you must do is convince them there is a better way and bring them along. 😊
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Jay,
I’m glad you’ve posted something, and I think it’s amazing that you’re looking for help. My first question is, what is the mindset of the owners of the dealership? The advisors? The techs?
Before you try to fix something, step back and understand where everyone is coming from. You’ll find out who is against what you’re wanting to do, and who is for it. Once you’ve gotten their perspective on things, please share it so I can give you advice directly tailored to your situation.
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