Saturday service

[MARV]

I would also like to add that Saturday hours need not be a millstone around one's neck IF the employees are treated well with benefits and reasonable hours during the regular work week. In our case it's not a problem because that's exactly the way our DP treats everyone.

Store hours in sales are 9-6 M-F & 9-3 Sat. Closed Sunday
Service 7-5:30 M-F & 7-2 Saturday
The benefit list is too long and would probably bore you but I will suffice it to say that we have exceptional tenure with some of our service and sales peeps making full careers of 40+ years. I say all of this to underscore that if people are treated well Saturday work is no problem.

[ghostrider]

I realize this is an old thread, but here is my take;

Saturday Service if done, needs to be a full real day of work, not a extra day for any staff. A service employee should never say, we dont do that on Saturday.
Most retail stores Saturday is "Game Day" , all hands on deck! Go by a store like Tire Kingdom, they celebrate Saturdays and have some of their best days on Saturdays.

Saturdays for us is one of our best days. My assistant works Tue to Sat, I work Mon-Fri.
Monday is a long day w/out him but I manage.

[John Schutz]

tx fLYER. wHO'S WAGGING THE TAIL?

[mr4t60e]

Every Saturday I ever worked was an absolute cluster****. What started out as "light repair only" morphed into the service advisors selling everything under the sun and promising customers same-day service without checking for parts and time in the shop. Can't say I blame them for trying to earn a living, but when things went wrong (and they often did), it was the technicians that took the heat. Good examples of this are when the SA tries to schedule every oddball wiring problem or squeak and rattle for 11:30 AM (and we close at noon).

For the tech, most Saturdays were just an opportunity to do oil changes .3 at a time. It never helped that the probability of one or all of the techs being hung over from Friday night festivities was quite high.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by mr4t60e

Every Saturday I ever worked was an absolute cluster****. What started out as "light repair only" morphed into the service advisors selling everything under the sun and promising customers same-day service without checking for parts and time in the shop. Can't say I blame them for trying to earn a living, but when things went wrong (and they often did), it was the technicians that took the heat. Good examples of this are when the SA tries to schedule every oddball wiring problem or squeak and rattle for 11:30 AM (and we close at noon).

For the tech, most Saturdays were just an opportunity to do oil changes .3 at a time. It never helped that the probability of one or all of the techs being hung over from Friday night festivities was quite high.

It's difficult to make Saturday's "just another workday" for several reasons. Some can be overcome, some can't. Many of the resources you have available Mon-Fri just aren't there on Saturday, but some are.


It's almost comical, though. You tend to get a more time consuming customer (in Parts, anyway) on Saturday. "I'd like to price every bolt on the frame for my 98 2500 that I'm restoring". Can't just tell those people to pound sand and GTFO... 25 minutes later (and that's if the guy ends up wanting to buy in the first place) you made $9.21 gross, and you have a line of grumpy people on the front counter and backed up phones. The first response to that is "staff up, then" which is already done, but the next guy on the phone wants to know if the alternator he bought off of a 96 4.7 at the salvage yard will fit the 98 3.7 he actually owns. The next guy in line was at a Friday night car show and wants ambient lighting for his Challenger that Jethro had. When you explain to him that it was discontinued a year ago by Chrysler and there's no stock left, you're immediately on the same social status as Osama bin Laden. The next person in line is this nice lady that is barely containing her three kids that are intent on terrorizing everyone in the showroom. The DVD player in her Caravan doesn't have audio...."I need to buy the part that fixes that." Sorry ma'am, I'd love to sell you the 'instant audio' part but it isn't that simple. There are several reasons why that might be occurring and Service really needs to diagnose the failure so I'll know what part to look up. "I don't have the time for that."

Oh joy, the next guy in line is carrying a handful of rusty moulding clips and an absolutely hammered repair manual for a 85 Ramcharger...lol.

And like mentioned...the oil changes. Good God, the oil changes. We probably do 40-50 oil changes on Saturday. Rarely does the advisor have any luck upselling anything on oil changes, either. We make the bare minimum on parts on oil changes (to be competitive, ya know), "but we really need to use it as an opportunity to sell maintenance so it's a sacrifice we have to make". The next time they want me to sell stuff for next to nothing and use that as an excuse (tires come to mind), I plan on pointing to the 'success' of our oil change program and laugh as I walk away.

All said, we'll bust our a$$ on Saturdays and will be lucky to make $1k in gross. Think that happens maybe about once a month. Mostly it's around 6-700.

Personally, I wouldn't have a hard time sacrificing the pittance that Saturdays add to my check to spend more quality time with my family. Me and pops wetting hooks on a cool Saturday morning or a weekend in the Hill Country with the wife is much more valuable, in my opinion.

I'm sure it's different for technicians. I can see how they can get a lot of work out on Saturdays that helps their paycheck. I'm actually happy it's a plus for somebody.

[possum]

Joe, you nailed it! People in the "real world" understand this biz.

[ghostrider]

These are some good points for sure. I guess I also have been lucky to find staff that needs to work Saturdays and have a day off during the week. Saturday service is also helpful to sales, accessories, swapping parts, dead batteries, etc.. Sure there is not much money in this kind of stuff but it sure is helpful.
I think your market dictates your need for Saturday sevice. We average about $4000 in service gross and usually another $4000 in parts gross per Saturday. Not great, but does help. I really have no way of knowing if these Saturday customers would come during the week and stay loyal to us if we were not open.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by possum

Joe, you nailed it! People in the "real world" understand this biz.

I'm still getting caught up and just read Joe's post for the first time - he really did hit the nail on the head when it comes to describing some of the challenges associated with Saturday Service.

He was so descriptive I thought I was reading one of Ralph's old posts.
.

[March88toDecember05]

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

It's difficult to make Saturday's "just another workday" for several reasons.....

Do not take this the wrong way and I do not mean to be argumentative at all. My dealership faced similar challenges to the ones you posed above. We did not handle these challenges very well either. They confound me to this day - there is no easy answer or magic bullet [here comes the but].

But, the retail customer does not care about the challeges that face dealers, only how they choose to handle them (Read: How does this affect me? - I am one of those retail customers now, so I can speak from both vantage points).

I try to avoid making generalizations, but on the whole independents (parts and service) handle Saturday much better than the average or below new car dealer. Why is that?

ghostrider has it right. Saturday needs to be a full day both in terms of hours and work done. Do it all the way or don't do it at all.

And JoeRocket, I feel your pain and desire to spend more time with your family. It is one of the reasons that I am happy to be out of retail [another but is coming].

But I used to remind myself and my staff of the words spoken by Hyman Roth in the Godfather II; "...this is the business we've chosen..." and we can adapt to the business or get out. It took me many years, but I did finally choose the latter.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by March88toDecember05

And JoeRocket, I feel your pain and desire to spend more time with your family. It is one of the reasons that I am happy to be out of retail [another but is coming].

But I used to remind myself and my staff of the words spoken by Hyman Roth in the Godfather II; "...this is the business we've chosen..." and we can adapt to the business or get out. It took me many years, but I did finally choose the latter.

I hear ya, no doubt. Hence this quote from earlier in the thread.

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

Working on Saturday sucks. But, that's the way it goes in this business and why it's hard to get really, really sharp people. They've generally moved on to industries that don't require them to live at the job and still make a living.

One of these days I'll find a way to do the same.

[ghostrider]

Several dealers around here have opened on Sundays.
I would think it would take awhile to build any volume. I am a firm believer in the 5 day work week, or 4 10 hour days. For 7 days of coverage you better have a lot of techs and staff, or would spread your current folks out thin.
It maybe part of that Mopar Elite.??

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by ghostrider

Several dealers around here have opened on Sundays.

Sales only or fixed ops, too?

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by ghostrider

Several dealers around here have opened on Sundays.
I would think it would take awhile to build any volume. I am a firm believer in the 5 day work week, or 4 10 hour days. For 7 days of coverage you better have a lot of techs and staff, or would spread your current folks out thin.
It maybe part of that Mopar Elite.??

Wow, a dealership Service Department that's open seven days a week. I bet a lot of the OEMs would support that initiative since it allows them to sell more parts without impacting their fixed costs. (I'm assuming the depots and tech support lines will only be open five days a week.)

In some ways I think that's why the OEMs may embrace public stores and multi-point operators. I think a single point private capital Dealer is more likely to factor in employee satisfaction issues than a public store or a Dealer who owns 20+ stores.

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

Sales only or fixed ops, too?

Ghost is a Fixed Ops guy - I'm almost certain he was referring to dealerships that offer Service and Part on Sundays.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by XDCX

Ghost is a Fixed Ops guy - I'm almost certain he was referring to dealerships that offer Service and Part on Sundays.

Just wanted to be sure.