12 Jul Used Car Reconditioning Software Can Help Boost Your Fixed Ops Productivity

A Used Car Reconditioning Software can turn your recon process into an assembly line of profitability. Most dealership personnel will associate the term Reconditioning with  Average Days in Recon although ADR involves much more than the normal “mechanical and cosmetic” processes. When I was in the dealership, the majority of the reconditioning of a used vehicle was the responsibility (or assumed responsibility) of the Service Dir/Mgr. Most of the blame for inefficiencies in the process were laid at the feet of that same Manager or Department. Accountability was determined by a spreadsheet or white board.  With Rapid Recon’s used car reconditioning software you can throw those in the trash.

Rapid Recon, in the hands of a ADR  focused Service Mgr/Dir is highly effective and will create natural efficiencies in the process, resulting not only in more turn and front gross, but additional labor hours and parts sold. It’s a Win/Win for all departments. And if the dealership’s internal labor rate is equal to their door rate, it’s a no brainer. Normally the ELR for internal work is higher than customer pay (if the door and internal rates are equal). Since in most stores the Used Car Department is a captive customer of Service, generating more labor/parts gross and higher ELR with Rapid Recon is like shooting fish in a barrel!

By notifying a UCM with an automatic text on his/her cell phone of a pending approval, we have injected instant mobility into the process and at the same time shifted the accountability from Fixed Ops to the UCM (something the Fixed Ops personnel will love). Before using the used car reconditioning software from RR, the GM had no clear metrics on how long it took his/her UCM to approve a repair. It was always he said/she said. Now the UCM is totally accountable and as a result, the Fixed Ops process becomes more efficient. Vehicles will stay in the assembly line of reconditioning, that is, techs will not have to move vehicles in and out of their stalls, or up and down their lifts. Approvals will go from hours to minutes if not seconds resulting in higher productivity for Fixed Ops which translates into more flag hours for techs and a fatter paycheck at the end of the week. This should be the overlying incentive for Fixed Ops, specifically techs, to embrace our system.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Inspect what you expect” ? I like to tell my dealers that our system does the inspecting for them.