Eliminating the Service Cashier

[fburrows]

I have seen an increasing number of dealerships eliminating the service cashier function and I think it makes a lot of sense. Before you discard this as crazy idea consider the following:

1) Very little cash is used anymore in service. Ask your office how much cash they take in. You will find that its mostly credit cards and checks.

2) Your advisors are not typically busy when customers are picking up in the late afternoon.

3) Think of any other business and you will find that you normally pay the person who helps you.

4) Computer systems give us better control of missing tickets and you have to work your unbilled RO list anyway.

The huge advantage of doing this is that your customer is face to face with the service advisor and the advisor can explain what was done and the customer gets to ask questions. Communications with customers is a major factor in CSI and this insures that every customers talks with their advisor before they leave. You can always give the advisors a little raise to cover their cashier function since you have eliminated a full time position.

Dealers are making this change to increase customer communications and not to save money. All of the advisors I have spoken with are happy with the cashier function and do not feel it is overly burdensome or limits them in any way.

Something to think about!!!!!

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Frank Burrows
Automotive Business Solutions LLC
fburrows@absdata.com

[This message has been edited by fburrows (edited 12-29-2002).]

[sheri01]

THIS MAY WORK IN SOME STORE, BUT IN MANY, THE CASHIER ALSO PERFORMS RECEPTIONIST DUTIES, AS WELL AS RECEIPTING SALES AND PARTS DEPARTMENT FUNDS. IN HIGH LINE STORES, THIS CAN BE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, AND MANY OF THESE STORES HAVE OLDER CUSTOMERS, WHO ARE MORE LIKELY TO PAY CASH. ADDITIONALLY, IF YOU HAVE MULITPLE WRITERS ACCEPTING PAYMENT, DO YOU HAVE MULIPLE CASH DRAWERS, DO YOU REFUSE TO ALLOW CASH TRANSACTIONS AT ALL, ONE DRAWER FOR ALL WILL MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO TRACE COUNTING ERRORS, ETC. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE A PERSONNELL PROBLEM AS MUCH AS A PROCESS PROBLEM.

[rbrent]

I also think that there is some merit in this for the right store. Here we have not eliminated the cashier, but we do require that they page the advisor to the cashier desk when their customer comes in to pick up their vehicle. This still creates a personable atmosphere for the customer and gets any questions answered. This is a must for CSI. The cashier function is really secondary. We also use our cashiers for telephone reception, parts cashiering, file scanning, etc.

[Doug]

Our process is about the same a rbrents.....advisors walk the customer to the cashier, explain the bill, etc.

Although I may be accused of being too soft, I often wonder when we are gonna consider just how many repsonsibilities we keep piling onto the service advisors plates?

Of course, there's different procedures from store to store but as the years go by it seems to me that, as an industry, the expections never stop growing and the advisors' lists of duties just keeps becoming more and more demanding.

Am I alone on this? Just wondering....

Maybe I'm just in a mood tonight?

Doug

[robc]

Good thoughts Doug because I am along the same lines. I am not going to say "don't ever do this" because I've seen it work fairly well in a few stores (mostly import for some reason).

But what stores have to realize is by moving cashier duties to the advisors something will have to go. Now if that something lost is five of the twenty coffee breaks the advisors are taking in the afternoon then great - no big loss.

But more often than not, it will come from either fewer customers being written up or less time spent with each customer. One (not writing people up) will impact your dollars today - immediately. The other (not enough time with customers) will cost you some today since it is hard to sell things on the rush, and some tomorrow since CSI will decline.

If the average advisors in your store is writing 20 tickets, and the cashiering duties chit chat etc. takes three minutes per...well that's an hour gone right there.

For me it comes down to "is this most productive use of the advisor's time?" Who would I rather do these duties ... a $20K a year cashier or a $40K a year advisor.

Yes, if your advisors are standing around at the end of the day you could move to this system and make a go of it. But, if your advisors are standing around for an hour or more at the end of the day you have far more problems than just who is going to take the customer's credit card.


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** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[fburrows]

I am not sure that I made my self clear as to the reasons dealers are going to this system. They want more face time between the customer and the advisor. They want the customer to completely understand what was done to their car. Especially in higher volume stores I have seen customers picking up their car and asking the cashier in vain what was done. They are of course told to see the advisor but it they cant find him or her or they are tied up they just take the car and fill out a mediocre CSI survey and may or may not come back.

If the service advisors sees and talks to each customer when they pick up their car then there is no reason to change. This system also makes the advisor understand what happened to the car because he knows he will meet the customer. It also encourages the advisor to give a better explanation on the your car is ready call so he doesnt have to go over it when the customer arrives. The advisors I have spoken with using this system seemed to not mind the cashier function.

If your dealership does a great job there is no reason to change things. If you need improvement in this area then you might want to consider this. Your milage may vary.

[sheri01]

Then it sounds like you are trying to add an additional function to writers who are already not performing the vehicle delivery procces for the service customer. In successful service operations, these are complementary functions, not necessarily a combination function. I guess my concern is why a dealer has to "force" the service advisor to adequately consult with the customer. That is the writers job. To paraphrase Rob, why add more tasks to a position if it is already overburdened??

[richardwright]

I personally used to be the cashier for our service department. And their is nothing more frustrating then a customer asking you something you don't know. One way around this is to have the customer report to the advisor first for any questions or desputes. Then, if it's not to far to travel, send the customer to the cashier. We in fact have do have a lot of cash customers. The only safe we have is in the cashiers office, which is utilized for more then just deposits. It would take a lot of modifications to have our advisors cashier. And as Sheri stated our cashiers do way more then just cashier service customers.

[Paulp]

I have moved my cashiers into my consultants area so they will be very close to the customers. My consultants have to write at least 30 to 50 repairs orders a piece per day. There is no way they could book all these tickets and cashier. So I moved desks behind the service counter. There are chairs for the customer to sit in front of the cashiers. The service consultants are less than 2 feet away from this transaction. Any questions are answered by the service consultants. This has improved my csi and has helped train my cashiers to assist my consultants in their everyday needs.

[robc]

30-50 ROs a day? I mean 30 if you're really humming on a 12 hour day, but 50? Are 10 of them preps and another 20 internals? Think about this, a quick lube 15 minute LOF only change lane is only doing 4 tickets an hour, that's 32 in 8 hours.



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** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com