When asked if the win was a surprise, Aftersales Manager Martin commented, “At first it felt like it came of the blue, but we are always trying to be the best in the Snows division and after Q1 we realised we were in a good position to push for first place on a national scale. We didn’t really spend too much time talking about what we were going to do, we just concentrated on putting the effort in to maximise everything we could.
Our parts purchasing and quality scores were going strong, but didn’t know we had actually won until we had the phone call!”
The Aftersales scorecard takes 10 measures into consideration, so winning dealers have to be robust performers across a multitude of aftersales disciplines. “We are very strong on EVHC (red works) with 62% conversions YTD, with the national average around 45%. If we sell more parts, we sell more labour. The team are internally bonused on labour sales, so the two go hand in hand.”
Martin goes onto comment about the fixed price SEAT service plans “(They) have been great for the site, as they allow customers to free up some money for any additional work that may come up. We are starting to see the return of customers who have purchased plans historically and are now getting to stage of needing service/maintenance on some larger ticket items”.
People making the difference
Whilst discussing the score card, Martin acknowledged that the people development score took a hit with some staff changes at the start of the year but they are now are starting to bring this back up with the return of some experienced staff and the addition of new members to their workshop team.
This staff change has affected the consistency of processes being completed effectively within the business which has in turn affected their NPS score. They received zero hot alerts in H1, but have had to tackle some in recent months, and after analysing what has been fed back, they are certain that the issues are all things within the team’s control.
“With such a small team, every person has to wear many different hats, but the team are all on board and all buy in to the processes and understand the importance of these. They all have a clear understanding of what needs to be done and who’s responsibility it is.”
Martin appreciates the importance of staff morale, having made multiple recognitions through the SEAT Rewards website, with two monthly winners coming from Salisbury in the last year. He says, “This is a great tool to help with staff recognition and in turn, retention.”
Snows Salisbury are hoping that they will be able to repeat their success in Q3, with some friendly competition within the Snows group, they want to be the first to do two awards in a row!
Posted on: 12/11/2019
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