DealersEdge Professional Forums

Man am I sick of losing customers keys on the drive! I hope someone here has an idea for keeping control of keys.

I am considering the lock boxes the sales depts used to use. Anybody have some input on this? How do you keep the keys from getting put in a porters pocket, left in a techs box at night, or just flat out lost?

We keep the keys with the RO during the stay and repair until Invoicing. Cashier has a Numbered Board and the keys get taged with the customers name & phone # during reception time No exclusion alowed to any stuff member.
Their might be a better way, just havent found it yet.(Ain't broke-Don't fix it)

Well we all suffer from this one. At the last dealership that I worked for we were cleaning a roof vent one day to find a bunch of tagged customer's keys up there. It turned out that if a customer pissed a tech off, he would throw them up there as pay back. The only method that I have found fool proof is to have each person sign off on the keys and have one person hold all keys. Like the dispatcher or cashier. GOOD LUCK

No easy answer here.

The only thing that works for me is to really jump down throats when keys are not where they should be. No system will work without everyone exercising some personal discipline. This is one of the few items I'll really blow my top over....such a small thing can cause such a huge disruption in business.

A couple times I have to call techs at home and ask if they have keys in their pocket...a couple interupted dinner hours to come back to the store and bring a set of keys or open a tool box is all it takes. When the person at fault--whoever it may be----has to shares in the heat and inconvenience you might be surprised at how fast the problem is brought down to a tolerable level.

Porters? hate to say it but I've just had to put the fear of God into them.

That's my 2-cents

Doug

We ust the standard numbered hang tag/key tag system, with Tag number noted on the RO. We perform a daily "key hunt" for completed RO's at the cashier at 3:30-4pm. That way, if any are MIA, we can find them or duplicate before the customer comes to pick up. Lockboxes work OK, but are easily broken into overnight and will damage the car if left on and the auto down window switch is hit.

The best system I have used was to staple the key tag to the R.O. Sounds odd but in four years I can't recall a single key that was lost. The system, or lack thereof, where I work now is comical. I have now, I beleive, heard every excuse in the book for lost keys. Just remember- Simple works.

Just a post to make mention I think I solved the issue. Along with the numbered key/mirror tags we already use, I "made" some plastic key holders.

I bought some plastic from Home Depot, cut it into 1 1/4" by 8" strips, punched a hole for the ring, and we just attach the keys and tag to them.

Simple, but it works! They are simply too big to put into pockets and leave with them on a shuttle or home. We have had none disappear since we did this. I think I have about four dollars into this, and an afternoon in my woodshop <dang it>!

So, there you go!

we started using the "key track" system, a little pricey but much improved over any other we tried in the past, although still only as good as the people inputting the key info

In the dealership that I worked at, we kept the key attached to the RO, but when we went from RO forms to computer printed hard copies, the key attachment thing kept tearing up the paper. We set up a keyboard in the warranty office for a while and that drove me nuts. Finally, the numbered keyboard was put on an outside board near the dispatch desk. That seemed to work easier for all.

Karen

we utlize a cheap plastic tag that the Tag# and customer name is written on with a "sharpie" then the porters that park the car put it in the "TAG#" partking slot and the keys go in a lock box on the window.....
The techs draw their job and go the parking slot and take the keys from the lock box and rock n roll....
Lock boxes work well and save lots of steps and time not to mention lost keys...........