parts estimates for sevice department

[jagman]

I am wondering if anyone would like to discuss how estimates are done on parts for their service departments and how do they handle any price disrcepancies?

[Richard]

This is a great question, because it is something we just started doing! We are on EDS, but I feel sure that almost all the current vendors have some way to make this workable.

We can make a quote ticket in parts, but sometimes you need more. On EDS you can add Misc Charges to the ticket, and we set up a misc charge "Labor", and at that point you put the Labor hours, and the Rate, and it adds it to the estimate, this way you have a full written estimate that you can stand behind, and if additional parts are needed, you can point this out to the customer or advisor. (Our counterguys are pretty thourough about making 100% sure that all possibles parts....chemicals, fluids, gaskets are on the original estimates now too.) So far....both our service advisors, and our customers have found it to be a very positive experience!

[Robert a Bamert jr]

Well jagman I feel your pain man.I just love it when you order a part from GMSPO and you get a s.s. that is not a true s.s but just a number that fills the order, with a price increase to boot.In some situations a freight line is useful for this, or a service manager that's willing to work with you on a case by case situation.Another thought is 10%(percent just example) is better than no %. Of course worst case.

[RICHLOWE]

DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.

WHEN GIVING AN ESTIMATE, DO IT IN WRITING. WE USE ADPs QUOTE ESTIMATE AND WE STICK TO IT. IF THERE IS A PRICE DISCREPANCY, WE LOOK TO SEE HOW THE DISCREPANCY IS CREATED AND WORK ACCORDINGLY. IF PARTS QUOTED $100 FOR PARTS AND IT TURNS OUT THERE WAS A PRICE INCREASE THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE CAUGHT, THE PARTS DEPARTMENT EITHER EATS IT OR WE TRY TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE CUSTOMER TO AT LEAST SPLIT THE INCREASE. IF SERVICE SCREWS UP, THE SAME OCCURS.

I AM BLESSED WITH PARTS COUNTER PERSONNEL WHO ARE VERY THOUROUGH MUCH LIKE RICHARD. OUR PARTS PEOPLE ASK THE TECH EACH TIME WHAT FLUIDS AND MISC SUPPLIES THEY WILL NEED TO COMPLETE THE JOB. OUR PARTS PEOPLE ARE ALSO VERY PARTICULAR ABOUT QUOTING THE RIGHT PART THE FIRST TIME.

THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE EMPLOYEE, THE DEALERSHIP AND THE CUSTOMER IS TO DOCUMENT EVERY STEP ALONG THE WAY AND KEEP IT FILED UNDER THE CUSTOMER'S NAME FOR TWICE THE PERIOD THAT THE QUOTE IS GOOD FOR.

[joe r]

We are on R&R ERA and would like to use the price quotes for estimates. At times we do use them. However, you can transfer a price quote to a counter ticket but not to a repair order. I have written R&R for program changes but have gotten no replies.
So for the present it is the good old yellow parts requisition form which are retained by parts by date after the parts are issued.

Joe R

[Pete]

Hello,
ADP has a new version of thier on board service pricing system (SPS)that has both labor and parts prices included. The guide can be customized for the labor times/rates/dollar amounts and the parts prices come form the parts side of the system with the current inventory and part numbers. R&R has an equal product dubbed SPG
(service pricing guide) and works the same way. Both systems will allow estimates to be created and saved. Shops with ERA and ERO can have the techs access the system also. Best point of all is that the customer can be given an estimate within 20 seconds without being put on hold while the advisor calls the parts department. Same for the technocians. Some dealers put a terminal with access only to the pricing estimate function in the shop for techs , keeping them from the back parts counter.
Call ADP or R&R for a demo.If you dont have these systems then there are 2 companies that provide PC stand alone systems for about 200-500 per month.
Good Selling!
Pete

[Chuck Hartle]

The Source Master is online! We used SPS in our dealership and it was way too time consuming and didn't cover all the things we wanted to price (mainly accessories from Chrysler).

I will give you a couple of examples of how we overcame a lot of that, especially when it came to the common things such as brake jobs, 30K, and 60K jobs.

First off, when it came to a specific repair that was competitive, such as a brake job, we isolated our brake pads into a single source, averaged out the retail pricing that was competitive, and set our pricing for all our brake jobs that same, only separating a "truck" price from a "passenger" car price. The service manager averaged out the time and we were able to menu price this repair and the service advisors could quote it with confidence always and the pricing was consistent and set by the source. We did this with many of the fast moving products in our inventory.

For certain jobs that showed enough consistency, we would build a quote and save them for 90 days on the system, then rebuild them when there was a price change and save them again, for jobs with multiple items and give them to the advisors so that we weren't always creating quotes over and over again.

You can run a report in the service department to look at the op code usage to determine where you can build the quotes that are consistently used over and over again.

It worked for us! Maybe over the past year or so SPS has found a way to make this program work better, but for what we saw it would almost take a full time person to administrate all the complexities of using it properly.

Chuck Hartle'

[d cleveland]

Hey Rich, documentation doesn't mean jack when the general changes the number and price in the middle of the game. One example I can recall just last year I ordered a seat frame that had a published dealer net of $139.00 and retail at approx.$225.00 . When the order was shipped the part had changed numbers and the new part had a net around $325.00 and sugg. retail around $545.00. Needless to say the customer told us where to put the frame and also had a colorful suggestion as to what we could do with GM also. These are the kind of things that make estimating difficult even with that 10% worst case deal working.

[RICHLOWE]

D CLEVELAND
THE SCENARIO YOU DISCUSS IS CLEARLY THE WORST CASE SCENARIO AND DOES NOT HAPPEN NEARLY AS OFTEN AS WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO TELL GM. GENERALLY, THE PRICE INCREASES ARE MORE REASONABLE THAN 200%.

WHAT I HAVE FOUND IS THAT IF A CUSTOMER CAN SEE WHAT THE PRICE WAS AT THE TIME OF ORDER AND THAT GM WAS THE CULPRIT IS CHANGING THE PRICE, THEY WILL BE MORE REASONABLE IN DISCUSSING WHAT TO DO FROM THAT POINT ON.

SINCE THESE OCCURANCES REALLY ARE MORE RARE THAN WE TRY TO SUGGEST, I WOULD SELL THE PART TO THE CUSTOMER AT COST TO SHOW WE ARE AT LEAST TRYING TO MAKE AMENDS ON GM'S BEHALF.