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EFG Companies

Give Your Customer Retention a Boost with MVP

Eric Fifield Chief Sales Officer EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Eric Fifield
Chief Sales Officer
EFG Companies

If customer retention was ever a buzzword, it is this year! Everyone in the automotive industry is talking about it. But, what are we doing about it? The challenging thing about customer retention in the retail automotive business is the amount of time between purchases and the lack of frequent interaction with the customer during that time. Of course, the answer lies in the service drive, so how are we as an industry thinking about it differently than in years past?

Leaving Money on the Table

Let’s look at retention in terms of customer engagement between vehicle sales. According to research from the National Association of Automotive Dealers, 83% of customers who perform maintenance with the selling dealer are more likely to return to purchase another vehicle. However, the Cox Automotive 2018 Service Industry Study states that dealerships only represent 33% of the share of consumer service visits. Literally, dealerships are getting only a third of the customer’s business for maintenance. Not only are you losing the opportunity to engage with your customer – you’re losing service drive revenue!

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Recruiting

Setting Realistic Job Expectations

Contributing Author:
Amber Hash
Recruiting Manager
EFG Companies

Struggling with Employee Retention?

It could be due to the nature of the industry. It could be due to a labor shortage. It could be due to your recruitment practices. Or, it could be a combination of all three.

The U.S. unemployment rate continues to sink, hitting a 17-year low in November of last year at 4.1 percent. Job seekers are finding work more easily than any time since the mid-90s. Openings have now topped roughly 6 million for five months in a row, a record streak, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the second quarter GDP notched an impressive 4.1 percent, labor market analysts cautioned that an increasing labor shortage could impact growth going forward.

In addition, according to the 2017 NADA Dealership Workforce Study, the median workforce tenure in retail automotive is 2.5 years. However, it takes employees in key production positions, like F&I managers, an average of three years to reach full productivity.

Going in to 2018, dealers were already struggling with employee retention. Compound that with a labor shortage, and the typical high-turnover nature of the industry could turn from a nuisance to a serious problem.

In my previous blog, I discussed how hiring practices can impact employee retention – specifically the importance of vetting your candidates. While vetting is extremely important in making sure you’re filling open positions with the right people, it’s equally important to set realistic job expectations early on in the recruiting process. This helps your team make sure they are searching for the right talent, and it helps to set up new recruits for success.

Categories
Recruiting

Is Generation Y Worth Hiring?

Contributing Author:
Amber Hash
Recruiting Manager
EFG Companies

Disloyal, arrogant, selfish, overindulgent, high-maintenance, frivolous, image-driven, impatient, over-confident and spoiled – Generation Y has heard it all.  And, now the generation that everyone thought would never grow up is starting to make up the bulk of the workforce. But, will they be successful in retail automotive? Are they worth hiring?

Honestly, retail automotive can’t afford NOT to hire this challenging generation. The consumer purchase model is rapidly changing – driven in large part by the digital proclivity of Generation Y. Who better to engage with these new customers than people who speak their language – online and via text?

Raised in the era of digital technology, members of Generation Y can quickly prove their worth in the retail automotive workplace.  But, some adjustments must be made to reach an equitable compromise with this generation. Here are some recommendations for dealerships seeking to successfully employ Generation Y.

They work to live

The members of Generation Y are committed to achieving work–life balance. While their career is highly important to them, they believe that working hard does not equate to working long hours. This can be a hard pill to swallow for automotive managers who live by the “sun-up to sun-down” model.