Parts Department and Policy Expense

[Doug]

I've also posted this to the Parts Manager list just to see what happens...

Here's the deal. I get along great with our Parts Manager about 99% of the time....no kidding. We agree on nearly everything. One snag, though....

I just can get Parts Department to ever admit they've made a mistake and help with policy expense or rental expense. No matter what happens they band together and, quite literally, nothing is ever their fault. Sure, if I really make a huge issue out of something they may agree to sharing some expense but they certainly have never volunteered to do so....just out of a sense of fair play.

I would really like them to voluntarily step up to the plate once every so often without me having to present an overwhelming amount of evidence of their mistake and turning these situations into a confrontation.

In any other situation these guys are helpful and flexible....which I really appreciate.

Any thoughts on this ? Not sure if I'm actually asking for advice or just venting !

Doug

[jargonaut]

Obviously you dont really get along as well as you indicate or your communications and sense of comraderie would be better. Sit down and have a heart to heart with your parts manager and explain that service works together to accomplish one goal- satifying customers so they return time and time again to SPEND their money and you then make real profit as a happy content and satisfied customer is one that is more easily kept long term and tends to tell their friends which in turn makes more business for service and the cycle continues. The us and them posture so often found in dealerships between sales and service and office and service or service and parts for instance limits the chance to really ever make the whole dealership work smoother and with less friction between workers and departments. In the end we are all here to serve the customer and make ourselves some money in the long term but I also like a sense of accomplishment and team spirit to make me complete.
Talk to the parts manager and spell out how you feel his obligation to the overall dealership isnt being met when his department cant do anything wrong.
I remember one manager of a dealer I worked for always wanted his cut for anything they did such as when service scouted and found an engine to use in a cust pay job and ordered it and unloaded it in service and un crated it and installed it and quoted a competitive price to win the job from the customer and this manager simply signed the purchase order and marked up the engine 20% for that effort which greatly cut the labor profit which we cut to get the job in first place. Communication is key to it all.

------------------
Alan The Warranty Guy

[Farfinator]

Doug;
The first thing I would ask is how your policy account is structured. What are the rules. i.e.
Who takes the hit and how hard for warranty charge backs?
How are discounts and menu maintenance items weighted?
How are the costs of part returns for mis-diagnosis handled?
How are the costs of VOR's handled?
How often does an advisor mis-quote result in a compromise on the part's G.P.?
How efficiently do your service team get SOP's off the shelf?
My point is that there are may incidental and sometimes not fully appreciated costs incurred by both departments. Your Parts Manager may feel that he/she is quitely doing alot more in sharing expenses than they are given credit for. Having worn both hats, I must admit that incuring heavy warranty chargebacks, for instance, on parts or a 50/50 split was a real issue, as the part's dept 99% of the time were no way at fault.
When you sit down with your collegue make sure you BOTH have a clear understanding of the "policy like" expenses you incur. It may not matter much whether 50% or more of the rental is "Part's fault." It may be petty given the OVERALL give and take.
If you start nickle and diming ever instance a department screws up you will no doubt end up adversaries and it probably just ain't worth it.
I'm sure if you keep eating the occasional rental fee, the 6-10% return fee on SORs will continue to be absorbed by that dept.