7-Day Service Operations

[jimmuntz]

We're just wrapping up 4 days at NADA and we had a Service Director from a Toyota store in the Northeast ask if we knew any dealerships that had gone to 7-Day service opertions.

We had some discussion earlier about Saturday operations - anybody running 7 days and can offer some input on how it is working, what problems to overcome, etc.?

[flyboy]

Used to be several in Las Vegas, but they shut everything down on Sundays now, dealer group thing, no sales or service can be open on Sunday.

Maybe someone in the Atlantic City area????

[scotstrong]

There is a large Ford dealer in the Columbus, OH market who use to run 7 days, 24 hours service department. Like many who have tried to aggressively extend their hours, long-term they found that there just was not much of an increase in business. Basically, the same amount of business spread over more hours, more expense, more liability exposure.

If your main motivator is customer satisfaction, recognize going in that that is the reason you are doing it; and do not be the least bit surprised that it adds nothing to the bottom line of the service department.

It may be a great selling point up front; but a surprisingly small percentage of people actually used the extended hours.

Like any attempt at increasing CSI, there is often quite a price tag attached. This situation is certainly a prime example.

Scot Strong

[AKTOYPM]

We ran 7 days a week 7am-7pm for several years.
It worked and it took quite a bit of maintenance to setup and continue.
Worse case scenario:
A key employee leaves or gets fired, you have no time to find a replacement, let alone train them and you get to work 7 days a week for months just to tread water.
Speaking from experience.
At least you get 1 day off a week if the place is shut down on Sundays.
Or you can come in on Sunday with no one else around to get things done.
Amazing how fast you can do busy work when no one else is around.

[zekensted]

My biggest problem was finding good techs to work the non-standard hours. We had a bunch of "cast-offs" from other dealerships - guys with family problems, drugs or drinking. But, after about a year, the "cast offs" turned out to be some of the best guys you could ever work with. Extended hours were good for our business at that time about 10 years ago.

[zsmith]

we have an Acura dealer locally (northern VA) who has parts and service open 18 hours a day, seven days a week!

[chevytech]

I have not worked a Saturday in 3 years. I just had to change jobs because my old dealer shut down. Now I have to work once every 6th Saturday (with a guarantee of coarse). Hum, I think I might have an emergency every so often and have to day a day off to make up for that. It just ain't like it used to be fellows. Don't forget that dreaded 8 letter word...TRAINING. That is the elephant in the closet. Times they are a changn'

[scotstrong]

Hey chevytech:

I heard a rumor that someone e-mailed your current employer all your posts from these forums so that they have a better idea of what they just hired. Good luck with that.

[robc]

I actually for the first time ever agree with Chevytech. I believe a sixth work day should be optional whenever possible. Those that work Saturday should get additional time off during the week ... again as much as possible.

If Saturday is a half day, then they should get to leave early. If they want to work it great, if not, ok too. I realize that might not fit everyone's needs, but it would be my ideal.

Tech - do they pay you a guarantee because there isn't enough to do or because they are all LOFs and it is impossible to make time. Just wondering since here in NJ most dealership's saturdays are booked solid, but you just can't make money on it.

== Rob ==

[flyboy]

We run a full Saturday here, I have 5 techs who work Tues - Sat, one writer on the same sched.

We are continuoulsy building the saturday business; mailers with disc for saturday work etc. Our biggest push though is fleet accounts. Showing them they can drop off Friday night and pick up Monday morning and not have any down time is our claim there.