KPI and best practice provided by Jeff Smith

Hi Jeff, I contacted you a while back regarding Productivity / Efficiency ‘’terminology’’ versus calculations, and you kindly responded. I have another point of contention (albeit I don’t believe it is). I was at a recent franchise conference here in NZ, and the discussion point came around to Service Department (Workshop) Recovery Rate. The conversation [...]

RAB, lost his life in the early hours of Thursday 3 June 2010 at just 52 years of age.

Peter, a friend of mine, sent this story to me because he knows I work in the Motor Industry. For one company in the story, it’s great news but for the other company it’s a real nightmare and the sad part is they don’t even know about it! You have to read this one to [...]

Exactly 400 years ago, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble. Reconstruction of Galileo’s telescope by Jim Sugar/Corbis A refinement of models first devised [...]

Mystery Shop Nightmare! – by Mat Everitt I wanted to share with you my findings from a recent series of mystery shop visits I completed during the peak month of March. The objective of the visits was to obtain a price guide, but I decided to approach each dealer as a normal customer after a [...]

To call or not to call – that is the question?  – submitted by Amina Claasen I currently find myself in a Call Centre, doing Service follow up calls and Service and Mot reminders. The cost of Servicing and in particular, labour rates, is a main reason to be ‘Completely Dissatisfied’ with the service received [...]

The best insurance scam of the year, but then what happened… The event took place in Charlotte, North Carolina.  A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then  insured them against, among other things, fire.    Within  a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, the lawyer filed a claim against [...]

Short-term profits are funding a long-term famine – Submitted by David MacPherson   Despite the recession, the motorcycle industry is currently doing very well. Volumes and profits are up, but the worrying thing is that one of the contributory factors to this upturn is actually a situation that may cause the industry to struggle in the [...]

It’s possibly fair to say that 2008 has not been the easiest year for the motor trade and prospects for 2009 remain, at best, worryingly uncertain. Many dealerships are now approaching their year end and more than a few have no doubt been wondering what their annual accounts will look like. The temptation may be [...]