Arizona Toyota Dealership Increases Service Department Profitability...

In an effort to increase service department profitability and customer retention in an extremely competitive marketplace, Camelback Toyota in Phoenix, Arizona, implemented a new, World Class Inspection program by MPi (www.mpifix.com). The result: an additional profit of $51,000 per month, along with a rise in retention.

Camelback Toyota has been servicing the community of Phoenix, Arizona since 1988. It is one of the largest Toyota, Scion dealerships in the state and has the largest parts department in the Western Region. The service department has 30 technicians that service on average 3,000 customer pay vehicles per month.

Phoenix is a very challenging marketplace for Camelback. It competes with another strong Toyota dealership and it contends with a high concentration of independent service shops in the local community. Confronted with this problem, Service Manager, Rob Menasci, decided that the dealership needed to differentiate itself from the competition and instituted a new complimentary inspection service, MPi'ss World Class Inspection's8482; program. The MPi World Class Inspection program offers real live process measurement for service departments, along with the tools and processes needed to measure, manage and coach desired results. It includes implementation, training, hardware, a measurement system, software tools and field support.

Since implementing the program Camelback has increased its monthly customer pay labor and parts sales by $51,463, a 10.1% increase. In addition, the service department has increased its monthly customer pay labor and parts gross profits by $40,628; a 14.7% difference.

I strongly believe that the mark of excellence is consistency, commented Menasci. Now, each technician does the same inspection every time and the program creates a professional report that is presented to the customer. Handwritten inspections get dirty, torn and many times customers can'st read the writing. In addition, they generally don'st get attached to invoices correctly; making it difficult to verify future or past recommendations. This new program saves customer recommendations for life and gives a lot more credibility, Menasci added.

Camelback Toyota uses MPi'ss customized Electronic Dealership Generating Solution, EDGE's8482;, to conduct the inspections. The EDGE system is a proprietary inspection software solution that delivers a World Class Inspection process for the service advisor and technician. The inspection results in a professional, one-of-a-kind customer inspection report for the customer to take away, that details what was performed and the results of the inspection with a price estimate in an easy-to-read document called the Know Your Vehicle Report's8482;. Each of Camelback Toyota'ss 30 technicians has his own PC for ease of program management.

Using the World Class Inspection program the dealership has increased service retention and places higher than the group average for Toyota dealers. Camelback Toyota has successfully promoted its service with their new owner'ss clinic event. Each customer is presented with a Know Your Vehicle Report, and the service advisors review the report with the customer, line by line, so the customer is knowledgeable as to what to expect. In addition to the KYV report, coupons are distributed for a discounted service, such as an oil change.

The Know Your Vehicle's8482; report is a valuable tool for the vehicle'ss first service. When the vehicle is new and the tires are in good condition it shows a green status, same for brakes. As the vehicle gets older, the customer can see the difference in maintenance, with pictures and an explanation of the parts that need to be replaced. They begin to realize just what needs to do to take care of their car; and are more apt to consistently stay with the store. It has certainly helped with our retention, said Menasci.

In addition to selling more services upfront, Menasci is proactive with previously declined work. He mails report fliers to his customers who declined previous service to encourage them to return to the dealership. The MPi EDGE system enables service directors to run reports that provide specific information on which customer vehicles were in for service, what services were approved or declined; and with the aide from the dealership'ss CRM software, they have the ability to send service reminder letters.

One of our most impressive benefits from this program is the volume of customers that return to have previously declined work performed. A lot of customers will take the report and go over it with their significant other and then bring the vehicle back in. The report explains it so well - if the work was declined it shows a picture of which part was declined and why it is important to have the work done. The customer can really understand what it is and why it should be fixed. It'ss like a silent sales person selling for you, Menasci said.

About MPi:

MPi (Mobile Productivity, Inc.) is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. MPi is an industry leader, delivering processes, metrics and software solutions which enable automotive dealerships to achieve World Class's8482; results in their service and repair departments. The company'ss World Class Inspection's8482; program is making a difference in dealerships across the country; providing significant increases in profits, efficiencies and customer loyalty.

MPi is a subsidiary of Service Repair Solutions Inc. (SRS), which is also headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. SRS is a leader in providing innovative information solutions for the service and repair industry. Current affiliates include Identifix, Inc., Mobile Productivity, Inc., and International Automotive Technicians's Network, Inc.

For more information call Susan Lovett at (800) 997-1674 x2010, by email at slovett@mpifix.com or visit www.mpifix.com

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