...AND if we don’t report on our team member’s performance relative to their peers, they all think they are doing just fine.

If I go to the Doctor and he says my cholesterol is too high, he knows the metric and the comparative values of my peers, and he presents that information to me in few words.

Better yet, Quest labs sends me a nice report after a blood test that shows whether I am in an acceptable range based on accepted norms they developed by comparing individuals over the years.

What they don't show me is where I rank in my age group i.e., with my peers. That would certainly be useful and would spur me to innovate regarding decisions affecting my health. As long as, over time, I keep reviewing these metrics in my quest for good health.

Managers Take Note

The key phrase above is "spur me to innovate regarding decisions affecting my ____________". This is it! This is why we build effective, interactive reporting for the dealership comparing peers and/or stores to each other. If I’m managing 32 stores, I’m ranking all the GMs on key metrics that are effective in boosting dealership performance, such as percentage of returning customers in Sales and Service and percentage year-over-year gross improvement, etc.

Canned reports don’t work as well as a customized approach just like a suit off the rack doesn’t look as good as one tailored to fit. Dealership owners/partners have different visions of success and, although the reports won’t change in style and presentation too much, how the peers are ranked can be different across dealership or groups of dealerships. Some managers want as high an Effective Labor Rate as the market will allow, others may see that as a detriment to long-term success. Your reporting must be customized to your values to be truly effective.

The blank in the statement "spur me to innovate regarding decisions affecting my ____________" will be the target of the metric in every case. This means that we should choose the targeted metric carefully. For example, ranking a technician on efficiency (flag hours/clock hours) would lead a technician to seek information on how to flag more hours on his shift.

With the proper interactive presentation of the report on SharePoint, automatically updated first thing in the morning, with a message and a link in his Outlook Inbox, it will spur him to innovate regarding decisions affecting his efficiency!

On the other hand, if the targeted metric for the technicians is productivity (hours clocked on ROs/clock hours), while a good explanatory metric, you may not want to make it the target.

Boosting Dealership Performance

What do you do to improve performance? People usually say:

• Find good people
• Manage them
• Train them
• Motivate them

All of these are important, and I have ordered them in a way that expresses my values. I only want you to consider one more performance improvement effort:

• Peer Comparative Reporting

And you need to put it after Manage Them like so:

• Find good people
• Manage them
• Peer Comparative Reporting
• Train them
• Motivate them

Why? Because the employee will be motivated to retain any training information he receives and, he will improve his metrics with an understanding of where he stands among his peers. This leads to self-motivated people on your team.

I will say this until I am blue in the face;

"With effective, interactive, reporting, comparative among peers and over time, even the guy on the bottom improves."

Why? Because they innovate their etiquette, procedure, regimen, routine, style, fashion, methods, ways, rules, M.O., and overall approach. I use all these words because the improvement happens in all those areas simultaneously. It’s amazing to see.

Let Us Take You to the Next Level of your Success

Dealerships may not share metrics effectively for several reasons including:

• Privacy - Some dealers feel metrics are nobody's business. If your goal is to improve your dealership, I have a few metric ideas that you might find acceptable.
• Security - This is a genuine concern but with Microsoft365 and the included SharePoint secure intranet application, this is easily managed.
• Lack of Skill on Staff - AST has the skill on staff to setup and monitor these systems.
• Lack of Data - The DMS data, down to the last detail (a la CDK Data Services), is what’s called for. Adding API connections to 3rd party vendors is even better.
• Lack of Timely Data - Effective performance driven data reports must be timely. At the extreme, some should be refreshed every fifteen minutes on the last few days of the month.
• Lack of Budget – This effort doesn’t have to be expensive. We can start with as little as one report and add more as the budget permits. It will pay for itself.

"Without objective information, employees resort to doing what they subjectively think will make you like them and keep them around. Otherwise known as flying under radar."

Reporting is crucial. Not just any reporting, but effective, interactive, time comparative, peer comparative reporting.

Call me now at (702) 498-8777 and we can discuss how we can give you a competitive advantage!