by RICHLOWE » Tue Dec 19, 2000 4:24 pm
There certainly can be big benefits to the shop by paying the parts counterperson on labor hours sold. Here are some tips I found useful when installing this plan.
1.) Watch the ELR. On certain systems, it is possible for the service writer to set a dollar sale amount, but increase the hours sold. It drops the ELR significantly, but the service advisor takes a kickback from the counterperson. Set an ELR benchmark in the plan to avoid this.
2.) It is also true that the counterperson may start getting parts anyway possible to fill the order. Parts from downtown don't carry much gross, but gets the job out the door and in their pocket. To avoid this, set a benchmark for parts sales gross and watch the parts being put on ROs.
3.) Make sure that the counterpeople are not trying to micromanage the techs. This can be a major source of ugliness. The counterperson may tell the tech to perform the function a particular way to maximize hourly sales and make the tech quite angry. To avoid this, make sure the counterpeople keep their hands off the repair procedure.
4.) To go along with #3, counterpeople may start pushing parts replacement to increase their sales of parts to hit the sales gross benchmark. They may even suggest replacement of unneeded parts. To avoid this, watch the parts sales/gross daily. Towards the end of the month, if the sales gross take a sudden up turn with labor hours sales declining, this is the first clue.
5.) Make sure there is not a tremendous difference between service advisor pay methods and parts counterpeople pay methods. This can be a major sore spot if there is a great differnce.
Having said all this, if you keep your eyes open and watch for signs and encourage the good stuff, this method can be very profitable.
rich