My New Adventure - Al West Nissan

[Alex Snyder]

Another week down. Moving too fast without seeing an immediate impact. Just have to stay the course, though.

That's the hardest part of what you're doing. The only way you'll realize how impactful you've been is by benchmarking the current situation and then measuring against it one year from now. Seasonality, along with changing economic conditions, is a major factor.
I may have missed it in this thread, but there are some benchmarks you should record now. Here are a few that come to mind:

• Email response rate for salespeople
• Texting to appointment rate
• Appointment scheduling rate
• Appointment show rate
• Count of sales agents
• Avg time on job per agent

Seasonality and economics have an impact:

• Avg sales per agent/store
• Avg gross per agent/store
• Percentage of sales customers using service per month
• Percentage of service customers buying cars each month
• Percentage of past sold customers buying cars each month

 

[Alex Snyder]

Sorry to hear about the tornado. Hopefully, you all dig out and rebuild quickly!

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

That's the hardest part of what you're doing. The only way you'll realize how impactful you've been is by benchmarking the current situation and then measuring against it one year from now. Seasonality, along with changing economic conditions, is a major factor.
I may have missed it in this thread, but there are some benchmarks you should record now. Here are a few that come to mind:

• Email response rate for salespeople
• Texting to appointment rate
• Appointment scheduling rate
• Appointment show rate
• Count of sales agents
• Avg time on job per agent

Seasonality and economics have an impact:

• Avg sales per agent/store
• Avg gross per agent/store
• Percentage of sales customers using service per month
• Percentage of service customers buying cars each month
• Percentage of past sold customers buying cars each month

Good stuff. Thanks, Alex.

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

In case you are wondering what it's like being an already struggling rural Nissan dealer after a tornado, we have sold zero cars in 3 days. So far today we have had zero leads.

 

[Carsten]

Sorry, to hear that your town got hit! Scary!

 

[Tallcool1]

That being said, I've been very purposeful to do everything I can to try to raise the perception of us as a dealer and avoid any negative reactions or reviews from guests. While I always default to take care of the customer when it's even slightly reasonable to do so essentially, any guest complaint we take immediate care of whatever the problem is. No, "well they bought it as is," "the car is 15 years old," "it has 150,000 miles," etc. Just fix it. We need happy customers and can't afford unhappy ones. Agree or disagree with this?

Bill, I absolutely agree. Just fix it.

I go through this from time to time. Sell a car in November, and the following April the A/C doesn't work. It was 20 degrees when they bought it. They didn't know it wasn't working. I didn't know it wasn't working. I fix it. Just did a Compressor in a 2020 Chevy Blazer.

Heated seat in a Expedition, same thing. I fix it.

Now understand, I am using Cheap Amazon level parts or even used parts to minimize cost. But the customer doesn't care nor do they ask. They want the A/C and the Heated Seat to work. That's all they want.

Some of my peers tell me that I am a pushover. I don't care. I want repeat customers. Gross $3,000 on a customer and then blow them away over a $200 repair? No way.

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

Bill, I absolutely agree. Just fix it.

I go through this from time to time. Sell a car in November, and the following April the A/C doesn't work. It was 20 degrees when they bought it. They didn't know it wasn't working. I didn't know it wasn't working. I fix it. Just did a Compressor in a 2020 Chevy Blazer.

Heated seat in a Expedition, same thing. I fix it.

Now understand, I am using Cheap Amazon level parts or even used parts to minimize cost. But the customer doesn't care nor do they ask. They want the A/C and the Heated Seat to work. That's all they want.

Some of my peers tell me that I am a pushover. I don't care. I want repeat customers. Gross $3,000 on a customer and then blow them away over a $200 repair? No way.

Just had this conversation. How much does a new customer cost to acquire? Or I can pay $200 to keep one? I'm not good at math, but...