Retail Anywhere: Luke Jones - Playing Offense in Your Service Operations

Introduction Quote, Luke Jones: We were constantly on defense and like I tell these guys on the service drive, you don't win on defense. Now, it's kind of changed where now we're playing on offense and we are controlling the time that the car comes in, until the customer-- until the car leaves.

Greg Uland: I am Greg Uland with Reynolds and Reynolds, and here with me today is Luke Jones, service manager at Mitchell Buick GMC in San Angelo, Texas. Today, we're going to talk about how his service department is using a Retail Anywhere approach to meet customers' demands while maintaining, and in some cases even increasing, revenue and profitability. Luke, thanks so much for sitting down and talking with me today.

LJ: Yes, sir. Thank you for having me.

GU: Absolutely, it's a pleasure. So let's start by talking maybe about some of the challenges you were experiencing in the service drive, or just fixed operations in general, before adapting a more electronic and virtual process. Can you walk me through what some of those things were at your store?

LJ: Yes, sir. Our biggest problem was getting cars in and getting cars out and at the same time, communicating with the customers where their car was. We just had the toughest time getting them in, fixing them, communicating between the service writer, the technicians, the parts department. It was a lot of guessing, a lot of things that just didn't happen correctly to get the cars out, parts not getting ordered when we thought parts were ordered, cars being finished and they didn't know they were finished, just that type of nightmare that was currently taking place.

GU: Yeah, sounds pretty common, actually. So for you at your store, what were some of the consequences? What was happening that was coming from those challenges for you? What did those problems mean?

LJ: Well, a lot of mad people. A lot of mad customers. It was a lot of heartburn. We were constantly on defense. And like I tell these guys on the service drive, you don't win on defense. We have to stay on offense. And we just didn't have a good offensive game and we kept getting caught, not prepared for the customer. So now it's kind of changed. Where now we're playing on offense and we are controlling the time that the car comes until the time the car leaves. The conversations with customers and so forth.

GU: It's a good analogy and it's a common theme you hear from dealers across the country. But for you, Luke, what was kind of the breaking point? What were some of the factors that led to you wanting to make a change and move to a more digital approach in service?

LJ: We were constantly on the bottom of our CSI in our district and zone, and we just couldn't get off there. And we were taking care of customers, but we just weren't taking care of them like they wanted to be done. We were still in the old timey ways of calling and trying to get ahold of customers and calling and leaving voice messages at homes and at work. It was just a lot of wasted time. The technician was waiting for the service writer to approve the work, the car sat, we would park it outside, bring in another car. The customer would call and want to know if their vehicle is ready, and we'd just say, "No, we're waiting on you to return a phone call." 'Well, I'm not at home." Just that type of stuff that was just ended up being so overwhelming for us. And we just couldn't get out of this little hole that we had dug ourselves into.

GU: So, fast forward to today, and you've adopted a Reynolds kind of Retail Anywhere approach in service to help you serve your customers on their terms, but doing it without sacrificing the things that you need. Efficiency, accuracy, profitability, those things in the store, too. So can you talk a little bit about how Reynolds specifically is helping you achieve these things?

LJ: Number one, communicate with the customer. At times we almost over communicate. The customer, we ask them how they prefer communication, email or text. They choose one of the two and they know from the time the RO is written until the car is pulled into the shop, until the parts are ordered, until the parts are here, until the car is finished. It's just a day and night difference. We have two different lanes with quick service and repair service. And when they come in for repair, they got that type of service. Well, when they come in for quick service, they tend to wait in the waiting lounge. Well, the customers actually started asking for that same type of communication to them. So we actually treat them the same way, even though the server writer is 20 feet from them. Now, they get a text sitting in the waiting room to approve their work without the service writer walking over and doing it in-person. And that is what they prefer. That is how today's customer is changing. And it's been tough to really swallow that and change towards that because, from the way I've been growing up-- throughout 30 years of the car business, we always wanted to be in the customer's face. We had to shake hands, we had to get in their face. And that has totally changed, especially from COVID. Now everybody wants their space. Everybody wants to work from their phones or work from their offices without phone calls, without that personal touch. So, the more we communicate through tablets and computers and phones, that's the personal touch that they're looking for. If I don't have that, like I didn't have that. It was a tough time for us. And now my CSI is in the top three in the zone, top three in the district, I'm in the top in the nation. So I point my finger to all of that, to the Reynolds and Reynolds system, to being able to touch the customer in a total different way than it was 10 years ago, maybe even five, three years ago.

GU: For sure and that's great to hear. Those improvements are fantastic, and it sounds like that was one of the things that you were really focused on. So to hear that that's increased for you, that's great. So Luke, what else does it mean to you and your service department and really your dealership to be able to Retail Anywhere without sacrificing anything in the store?

LJ: Well, I think that's the only way. 90 percent of the customers want to communicate that way. So if you were to take it away, my learning curve of teaching the customers over the last two years that we're going to communicate this way would be very difficult. And at first it wasn't easy. The first twelve, six months wasn't easy trying to educate and retrain a customer that this is how we're going to start communicating with you. And we have a lot of farmers, ranchers, old field business out here, and they are way out where their phones don't get reception and they get a text and they are just all over that. And I just can't say enough that I don't know really what we would do if you was to take that away, at this point. I know that our CSI would go way down. I know that our dollars would go way down. Our performance would go way down. Our efficiency would go way down. It's a line that we have, a production line of cars that we put through the shop every day. And the reason why we can do that is because we're communicating with the customer so efficiently at this point.

GU: Luke, you talked about CSI for sure. Are there any other specific results or benefits that you've experienced since adopting this kind of new approach in service?

LJ: Profits are up. Everybody's happy. We're all on a performance pay plan here, so if we're not performing, we're not in the game. So in order to stay in the game, we had to perform. And that's getting a car in and out of the shop. And what we do here is we try to take care of the customer to a certain point where we call them key tossers. And they come in, they have their appointment set. They come in and they toss us the keys and say, "Call me when it's ready." And with this system, it's totally taken us there with the MPVI process that we have in place. If I was to quit giving those out today, they would say, where's my MPVI? They're so glued to it, they want to see how healthy their car is. They don't want to see any red marks on their MPVI. If there is, they're unsafe. They're feeling uncomfortable in their cars. And that's one thing that we want them to do is feel comfortable in their cars and reliable in their cars and safe in their cars. And when they get that piece of paper that comforts them, it's no different than leaving the dentist office or the doctor's office. You've got a good feeling about it.

GU: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and it's great to hear that your customers have really embraced this, too. So, Luke, final thoughts on this new approach. What should other dealerships do and maybe why should they choose Reynolds specifically to help digitize and improve their service department?

LJ: Well, I was on another DMS system for over twenty five years, so I really didn't have any questions, or how would you like to change my opinion about it. It was just a meeting that came down that said we're changing to Reynolds and Reynolds and I kind of fought it for a little bit, and then I embraced it and got my guys together and said we've got to move forward on this. One thing that is very important to me is the Reynolds and Reynolds assistance you get. The help and support that they give you, still to this day, I've been on it two years and they still treat me like I just got on it yesterday, which is very important to me. Also, everything is pretty much custom. If you don't like the way a report is set up, you can change it. If you have difficulties changing it, you can make one phone call and they're there and they can help you change it. You're on the phone, off the phone instantly. It's that simple. I would say each service writer, I have three, even my parts department, they can set their Reynolds up different per PC that makes them work more efficiently. From changing something as simple as colors. It's just very important that they're able to work easier and enjoy their job easier to take care of your customers. So Reynolds, it's really broad. It's a big system. I'm sure there's more than one way to do almost any function. I've got one server writer who writes an RO one way. Another one who writes it another way. But whatever it is for them that is able to work more efficiently is what's important to me. And that's what I love about Reynolds, how I can customize it from moving a column here to there, deleting the column, adding a column. It just goes on and on and on.

GU: That's great to hear and definitely appreciate it, Luke. And thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate you sitting down. And I hope you have some continued success there down in San Angelo.

LJ: Yes, sir. Thank you so much, Greg. I appreciate everything you do for us.

GU: For more information, visit reyrey.com/retailanywhere. Thanks for watching, everyone. Have a great day.