Lost Sales

[dew23456]

I am interested in tracking lost sales,in service, and also in parts and body shop.

I know we ask people to buy services and repairs that we get told next time, on payday, etc. but never come back. I would like to track these lost sales and follow up on them.

I also know we get a lot of calls into parts dept that also never come in, what help to bring them in?

Same in body shop, do an estimate, they don't come in.

We don't use ADP or RR system, our system, Auto/Mate doesn't have provisions to track this that I am aware of.

[scotstrong]

What are you trying to identify?

Are you trying to quantify the "lost opportunity" dollars, or are you trying to identify "total demand" by posting lost sales to trigger stocking more parts?

If you quote a job (and the parts are in stock), but the customer does not buy now for whatever reason, this is not a "lost sale" for the parts side of the DMS system. Posting lost sales in this scenario is posting "false demand". This could trigger unnecessary increases in stocking levels of parts.

If you trying to "quantify" these "lost opportunities", I have not seen a particularly effective method of doing so other than some kind of a manual log.

Scot Strong

[ZFAN24]

As Scot said, we actually keep a paper/pencil log of anything we tell the customer needs to be done to the vehicle (aside from noting the rec services in ReyRey.) and contact them after a week or so to see if they'd like to schedule an appointment for the work. We also use a company called Newgen to mail reminders (and coupons) to customers anytime we inform a customer that they need brakes or tires and they are not purchased. I have op codes set up in ReyRey to trigger these letters/coupons. Basically a green/yellow/red set for each. I'm assuming this can be done with any declined services, but I don't know that for sure...now that I think about it, I'd like to know.

[dew23456]

Looking for a way to track "lost opportunities". The manual log was the only idea could think of also.
My idea is to have each advisor keep a folder at their desk, make a copy of the lost opportunity, call them back in a week and ask for the work. That is more work for them and I want to make sure they all do it.
I also want parts to record all of the parts they price out, with no sale, in stock or not.

The body shop has a printed estimate with all the info, I can't understand why they don't follow up on every estimate.

[svrmrg]

I created an english statement that I run every two weeks, that will print out the customer ID and the comment from the invoice of the RO. Then I have this information merged with a reminder letter. The letter reminds the owner that the service is needed and also reminds them that we offer shuttle service and can schedule the work around their schedule. For this to work you have to make sure the advisors are putting comments on the invoice.

[dew23456]

I don't think our system will pull comments. It will give laborOp's and description, but have not seen any comments unless you go into the actual ro. I will research this again, it would make life easier.
Thanks everyone for all the help. It helps me think outside my own box sometimes.

[robc]

I normally install unique operations such as Decline Future1 Future3 Future6, to flag follow-up. The number is the number of months to follow up. Not only do these work with declined sales but also with inspections where it looks like the brakes or something will need replaced next time around.

So then as we start May we can search for all ROs with labor op Future3 that were written in February. A quick call actually lends creditibility to the sales process and is a nice customer service. Something like, "Hi Rob, when you were in last February we mentioned you'd probably need your brakes replaced in 3-4 months, and I was just getting back to you to say we have a some openings next week. Is Wednesday or Thursday better for you?"

The end is a little agressive, but gets customers to move a little more and of course you can adjust as necessary.

== Rob ==

[bterbo1]

We use declined Op Codes and the advisor enters the declined item in the Customer Complaint and the quote in the correction field. All of this will pull into RPX in ADP. We then sort it by advisor and email follow-up specials to the customer. We also give it to our BDC and they do follow up phone calls.

[ZFAN24]

Anyone know if that is possible in ReyRey? Is there a screen where I can view only ROs with declined op codes? There is a good bit I don't know about this system.

[btk]

Zfan24- you may want to check in report generator (6910) there may already be a canned report for pulling out recommendations from the Reyrey system. If not, I have a report that pulls all repair orders with recommendations and we do our follow up with that report, Of course, it requires the advisors put all recommendations in the recommendation(20) line in the close out screen of the repair order. If you need the report, let me know.