Advisors as cashiers

[Chas]

Ok, the subject of internal business checks & balances has discussed. We all have assumed we never have to worry about any form of dishonesty. Now lets talk dollars. One thing Ive noticed over the years is that most customers (happy or unhappy) like to talk. Now lets estimate how much time and income will be lost if an advisor is to cash-out a customer.

First the mechanic of a transaction;

Invoice the Repair Order
Match with the Technician hardcopy
Locate the Individuals Keys
Determine how the customers going to pay
Accept cash and give change or process the Charge Card with signature
Wait for customer to review billing again
Get customer to sign service Invoice, separate and give customer their final copy
Locate someone to get vehicle for customer or give directions as to where vehicles parked
Listen to the story about their dog, kids and life for 5 minutes

Total time required to process average transaction through closing approximately 10 minutes

Now the Dollars;

Average advisor closing 16-18 repair orders a day. Lost time; 3 hours per day

Average advisor generates $ 100.00 per sellable hour. Daily Revenue lost per Advisor $ 300.00

Average store 3 advisors. Total Daily lost revenue $ 900.00 or $ 900.00 per day * 5 days = $ 4500 a week.

Not to offend anyone, but if you want them to be cashiers, maybe they should be and the store should be looking for real Service-Sales Consultants.

[robc]

As others have said it not about trusting the advisors - it is simple internal controls. Yes you certainly could put a system in place to augment the controls and not have an issue, but few shops I have looked at do. They just trust and hope everything goes right and they have been extremely lucky to have good people.

And I would trust many people with my wallet - I would not entrust them with someone else's wallet that was given to me. I have to protect the dealer's assets - not my own and I just hold that in a higher level of responsibility.

I don't get where there is this total disconnect about having someone else doing the cashiering. I don't whip out my wallet and hand my dentist my credit card. I actually feel better that someone is looking at the bill even if I know it a cursory review.

There is absolutely no customer service cure-all by having your advisors cashier. Either your advisors and cashiers suck or they don't.

[TheOne]

Chas and Rob make some seriously good sense. Chas you did leave out the parts that would be sold in conjunction with the labor lost.....

The point I was trying to make with the wallet comment was that is where trust is appropriate. There is really no room for trust is process. If a process is reliant on trust then it is a weak process. To build a process that promotes accountability and verification is not an insinuation of distrust, merely a better system.

To alter the cashiering process and remove the accountability and verification that it fosters because of a facility issue is simply disabling good business practices in the name of convenience. Assuming you have looked at the situation creatively this may be what is appropriate for your environment, but I would certainly look at it as a last resort with full knowledge of the probable and potential costs.

[This message has been edited by TheOne (edited 06-26-2009).]

[fordpts]

Advisors get the customer to pay money.
Cashiers collect money.

Active delivery takes care of both sides of the issues. Discipline is you answer using active delivery to the cashier.

It is the JOB of the advisor to answer any and all questions / concerns the customer has. If s/he is effective, it has been done BEFORE the customer gets to the cashier.

As for convenience to the cashier, the answer lies in what would you want for your mother in the same building you are in but a thousand miles away from where you are. What would you want for her? Make the inconvenience yours - not the customers.

[CarolP]

The only problem I see is it is easier for an advisor to make changes to the invoice amount if the customer did pay cash. This could happen after the customer left easily...and pocket the money. Just a possiblitly.

[john]

This cashiering issue has nothing to do with building customer confidence - it's about cutting admin costs - customer confidence is a cover.

If your advisors are executing a strong service process, customer relationship building starts when the reservation is made and with a strong P1 process in the drive. A strong P2 process after the MPI is performed is the icing on the cake and assures customer satisfaction and total understanding of the charges, payment process, and redelivery of the vehicle. I can assure you that an advisor that is not working the service process will not salvage a customer when he comes in to pay his bill - no matter who cashiers. I will also assure you that if you are not selling 2.2 hrs per CP r.o. at a profitable effective labor rate and high CSI (top 10%), your people are not working the total system. If they work the system properly, they should not have time to cashier. I did it for 15 years and built fixed ops for 5 other dealers in our group using the same simple processes - and made $$$$ - top 10% CSI - and no fraud or audits.

We tend to make things more complicated than they need to be when we should be focusing on executing what is proven and what works. My guess is that during the cashiering time, advisors ignore the phone, ignore techs, ignore customers in for write-up and sub-optimize their sales and true customer service in an effort to "get it right" for the office manager. It makes training a new service advisor hell and it increases the initial stress on the drive for them.

Just my veiw.

John