Service Advisors as Cashiers....one more time

[Old Irish]

Hi gang,

Prompted by so many sucess stories I now have my service advisors doing their own cashiering.

As can happen, I never *fully* realized just how much a full time cashier does, at least in our dealership.

So, my question to those with some real experience under their belt is this......

Just how much of the cashiering roll do you have your cashiers perform? The whole nine yards? Or pretty much take the money, explain the repairs, and leave the rest to somebody else. Just a few examples:

* counting the till at night

* actually *closing* the repair into accounting, electronically

* mailing/faxing service contract claims

* filing signature copies, distributing copies of internals

So far the advisors have gone in with a good attitude but we are realizing that some of this stuff get time consuming.

I am just a little worried but am also trying to remember that we are just 2 days into a new ball game with a steep learning curve so we know there will be some bumps in the road.

However, if everyone else's sucess has been based on the advisors performing "abbreviated" cashier duties versus the whole enchilada, I'd like to know.

Any insights appreciated

Cheers
DD


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[Art_Mopar]

I never had enough work to keep a full time daylight and a part time night cashier busy so here was my solution that worked out great. I have my Advisors explain the repairs (Parts Advisors cashier Parts Invoices) and take the cash,credit card, chickens, pop bottles or whatever payment. I then have a full time cashier start at noon and work until nine at night. During this time she closes RO's & Parts Invoices, faxes extended warranties, writes vendor po's, calls SOR customers, appointment follow-up calls, service filing, and cashiers customers from 6pm until close.

[This message has been edited by Art_Mopar (edited 01-03-2008).]

[GMFXDOPSMGR]

Old Irish,
I have my advisors invoice the RO's, meet and discuss the repairs with the customer, discuss payment arrangements, make the next appointment, etc. then walk them to the cashier window where one of the ladies in the office accepts the payment. We chose to have only one cash drawer and it is in the accounting/cashier office. This way we have more control on payments. We have a college student that works part time and handles the drawer, contract collections, files (we are scanning our documents) and also helps with any office chores for accounting. This has eliminated any confusion with the customers, ie: pay types, deductibles, "surprizes", and lets the advisor get the vehicle brought up while the customer is completing the transaction. Warranty claims that have no cash involved flow very smoothly and the customers only have to deal with the one advisor. Seems to be working very well with us.

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Tom Edwards

[2wheels4me]

We have no cashier but we do have a full time warranty admin. Advisors take payment, close CP portion of tickets, call ext warr companies for approval. W/A closes internals and warr, prepares daily deposit, tracks warr and ext warr payments. W/A and receptionist split filing and paper distribution duties.
Eliminating the cashier might not save much or any money, that's not why we do it. We feel our customer is better served ( and hopefully more loyal) by having a single contact from start to finish.

[texaslp]

Our process is like gmfxdops, the "cashier" is office personell and performs other duties for accounting. I'd like to switch to the advisor's partially cashiering(at least accepting checks) because of our building configuation, but I would not expect them to take on the whole enchilada.

[harleygrl]

Being part of a larger Dealer group, we have one accounting office for 3 stores.

All of the advisors in our dealer group have a credit card and check machine on the drive and a bank bag with $100.00 cash for making change. The advisors handle the payment and close the repair order according to payment type.

This is where the "advisor as the cashier" job ends. At the end of each day the bank bags with all receipts, etc. are placed in a safe behind the sales tower.

We have one of the gals in our office (actually a different person for each store) go through each bag the next morning, post the payments into accounting, verify batch outs for the credit card machines, balance the bag, etc.

This seems to work great and even the front counter parts people in each store handle their over-the-counter sales in the same manner.

Mailing and faxing service contract claims is handled by accounts receivable; if it is a company we have credit arrangements with, other than that if it is a service contract that we are collecting corporate credit card via phone, the advisors handle that part.

Office gals do the filing via, scanning system into cold storage.

Good luck!