Sorry this turned into a wall of text. Hopefully, this will clear up a few things.
Either I'm extremely dumb or something isn't lining up here. Maybe it's becasue I am just a develoepr?
If your team isn't doing their job, it's a leadership problem because it's a business.
If it's a customer problem then you are talking to a customer who has 2 decades in Japan and 1 decade here. As you know, I'm not afraid to share my opinions and ideas and get them laughed at and made fun of.
Customers? yeah, been there and did that. nothing like your customers or their helicopter parents raining done on you threatening to fire you. I spent 23 years dealing daily with vastly different customers - from Kindergarten students to 80 years who were very stubborn in their opinions. I walked away from that industry because I got tired of dealing with Junior High school kids. Every day the grind finally got to me.
I started blaming the customer ... so I quit.
I've dropped my ideas on customers here a lot. I even suggested learning NLP to do that. Lots of people haven't read a book on it so it's an easy throw away topic. It's a shame. I got a few take aways that helped me deal with customers.
I am black and white because it's a occupational hazard. If the software breaks, you basically know who to blame. We own up to our mistakes or the team will fall apart. We don't back stab and steal sales. So, it also makes it easier to see when a technician fails to check interior or brake lights, We have to Quality Control our products before they go out the door.
"the auto dealership leaders need help and they're looking to software leaders to deliver solutions that make their operations run smarter, faster. If you don't know operations, then you're at the mercy of the dealer driving your strategy."
As a few people like to recommend here, I think car dealerships can learn from the software industry like we did from Toyota years ago and took away learning of 5S that morphed into Six Sigma and we have morphed into Agile Methodology.
I really do appreciate the advice to sit in a shop and learn. But that is why I'm here. I read, listen, take notes, copy for later reading, try (I really am trying) to give back to the community, and more importantly learn from the comments that wrote that ended up being wrong.
See the cool thing is that developers are naturally learning about different industries and roll with no concepts when a new feature is requested. If we change to another company we could working in a different industry entirely. So, yes, that means we are at the mercy of the knowledge authority figure. But not at the same time. We have that industry crossover experience that Car Manufactures are finally experiencing with carPlay and googleCar.
Personally, If I can't learn from some of the best in the industry, then how can I learn from shop down the street?
I am talking about you folks here on the forums here at DealerRefresh. Why are you all selling yourselves short? y'all have so much to offer!
Seriously, a few of you should start a consulting business and help out struggling dealerships.
IF the Dealership Leaders need help but aren't listening, then how can anybody help them?
I suggested CarMax to do the appraisal. Seriously, I still suggest doing it. Might even be worth dieing on a hill for. Since I think it was brilliant. I also was expecting a facelam so no feelings hurt.
I stole this idea from Henna Chevy in Austin Texas. I heard that the group is like a Billion dollar group or something of the sort. I'm sure someone here on the forums know. Maybe they are a little smaller than the Cowboy group in Arkansas ... Either way. It's a legit dealership that has more than 100 cars on it's lot. (Covid changed that ...)
I liked the idea because it's smart.
1. You get a second opinion for free.
2. They have a whole process so each Carmax dealership should have similar standards.
3. Henna offers $500 over the CarMax price
4. If your leadership is solid and employees follow though, Why worry about carmax stealing your customers?
5. Because you offered $500 more the price, the price is locked and is basically non-neogtiable (no-haggle).
6. Henna also does their own assesment to make sure CarMax didn't screw up.
hmmm, I can't think of a 7th idea reason ... 6 it is!
Note: I sat through the process 3 times and had lots of time to think about why this is a good idea. maybe my understanding is totally 100% wrong so if it is, I would appreaciate the learning expererience.
So, I am confused why this is a "faceplam ashamed" idea.
Is it because I am just a developer ?
