Fixed ops prove essential as dealerships fight to survive during pandemic

A little more than a month ago, I was in a Phoenix-area hotel conference room with about a dozen service managers and directors from around the country listening as they shared best practices from their dealerships. They discussed big issues such as effective labor rates and leveraging the latest technology to improve customer service, and smaller things such as saving a few bucks here and there on shop supplies.

At the time, the coronavirus was just beginning to gain widespread notice but had not affected operations at any of their dealerships. It was not top of mind for most of the participants. There were no parts shortages from China, they told me, and customers were still showing up for repairs and maintenance.

In the weeks since, as the pandemic brought the auto industry and car dealerships to their knees, my thoughts often returned to that group in Arizona as I wondered how they were coping. I have heard from a few of them who have told me in anguished tones of having to furlough employees and trying to keep operations going with a limited crew.

When I interviewed to be editor of Fixed Ops Journal in December, everyone I spoke to emphasized how vital the service, parts and body departments were at a dealership. The sales staff at the front of the store may be the favored child and get all the attention, they told me, but fixed ops was the breadwinner in the family.

That importance may never be more apparent than right now. As dealership consultant Rob Gehring put it: "Fixed operations have once again become critical to the survival of car dealerships."

Many U.S. governors have signed stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of COVID-19, allowing only "essential" businesses to remain open. For most states, this means no vehicle sales at dealerships. But service departments could still operate to keep ambulances, cars of first responders and the vehicles of health care workers, among others, properly maintained.

To Gehring, this all is reminiscent of the 2008-09 Great Recession, when fixed ops departments helped dealerships survive. Gehring says dealerships will make it through this pandemic as well. "It will be challenging but survivable," he says.

And when it's all over, Gehring says dealership owners will once again declare: "Wow, this fixed ops thing isn't such a bad way to make a living."

While the coronavirus crisis has made things difficult for everyone in the fixed ops departments, it also presents opportunities. That was the message of NADA Academy instructors Bob Atwood and Larry Hourcle during a webinar aimed at service managers and directors. The crisis was a chance to innovate, to be creative, to launch something they had been considering but didn't have the time or courage to try.

"It is a great time to do amazing things in fixed operations by showing customers the true difference between yourselves and the competition," Atwood told the webinar audience.

I look forward to hopefully getting together with the Arizona group at their next meeting in the fall to hear all the new and wonderful things they did at their dealerships.

The coronavirus pandemic also has shined a light on the people who often go through everyday life in the shadows, invisible and unrecognized. This includes the grocery store clerks and cashiers, the parcel delivery drivers and health care workers.

At a dealership, these unsung heroes would include the service advisers, the parts runners and the technicians. The fate of many dealerships now rests on the shoulders of these people, who often are overlooked and overshadowed by sales and the front of the store.

"Service is the backbone of the dealership. It's not the back end," Atwood says.

"Most of your states have said the service department is an essential business. It is essential to the U.S. economy."