The word ‘productivity’ is used a lot in modern day working, but it’s something of an ethereal concept.
Being productive isn’t a tangible ‘thing’, and it’s incredibly difficult to measure. Yet, we all somehow know when we’ve been productive and when the opposite is the case.
The same goes for management, and if you run a car dealership, you may have experienced the nagging doubt that comes from suspecting the team is underperforming or not working to its maximum capacity.
In today’s blog post, we consider six ways you can raise productivity within your dealership team.
1. Provide them with a structured sales workflow
One of the most common ways for dealership teams to inadvertently become unproductive is to saddle them with an inefficient sales workflow.
If there’s no obvious route from initial enquiry to confirmed sale, it’s all too easy for the focus on conversion to slip.
With the right system and processes in place, your team can work from a connected, workflow-based enquiry process. This guides enquiries down a specific path and ensures the team are always aware of the customer’s exact position within the buying journey. That means leads will be followed up on time and no stone left unturned.
2. Embrace cutting edge technology
Thankfully, we live in a world where technology can save us from being unproductive.
By investing in a dealership software solution to manage your dealership’s sales, marketing and managements processes, you’ll provide staff with the tools they need to keep on top of their tasks.
For instance, the ability to glance at a dashboard full of critical, real-time data about leads, opportunities, upcoming tasks, KPIs and key business intelligence enables management and sales personnel to always be in control of their day.
3. Fix communication leaks
Communication leaks are rife in unproductive dealerships. Without great communication, teams will quickly and inadvertently begin working in silos, and miss vital opportunities to work together coherently.
By mixing automated customer correspondence (for instance, emailed test-drive appointments and service reminders) with in-app collaboration tools found in today’s dealership solutions, managers can more easily monitor sales progress and individual teams work closely together, no matter how big the dealership or how diverse their task lists.
4. Offer unique rewards
Although bonuses have traditionally been the most common way for dealerships to reward their staff, it does pay to be a little more creative these days.
Rewards for excellent performance should be memorable, which is why non-monetary bonuses are now used to raise staff morale and, in turn, their levels of productivity.
Theatre tickets, a table at a good restaurant and surprise days off are just some examples of the unique rewards you could use to foster a more productive team.
5. Encourage leadership throughout the team
Leadership doesn’t have to reside solely at the top of your business – it should be something that’s encouraged throughout the entire dealership team.
If you can empower employees to lead within their team, they should start to take more responsibility for their own individual tasks, too.
High levels of productivity are only possible through great collaboration, and that can only come from strong leadership. If you run a dealership that is full of leaders, the desire to finish each day with a completed to-do list will proliferate.
6. Don’t neglect breaks
No one is capable of working effectively for large stretches of time without sufficient breaks. Unfortunately, within the auto industry, it’s common for long days to become commonplace, thus making staff more tired and prone to errors.
Tired employees aren’t productive, so make sure you encourage a sensible number of breaks and rely on automation within modern dealership software to take some of the strain off.
For instance, automatic documentation of sales activities, as well as automated activity tracking and customer responses, remove the need to write boring, lengthy reports, thus offering more opportunities for staff to focus on what matters and take the breaks they’re due.
Wrapping up
There’s lots more you can do to raise staff productivity in car dealerships, but our six tips above are accessible for operations businesses all sizes, and we hope they’ll help you push your team on to produce their absolute best work – consistently.
