The parts counter is often the first interaction new customers have with many dealerships. If there is a place to make a good first impression inside your dealership, this is where it would happen.

Make sure your parts team knows how important it is for the counter to look inviting and for them to look like professionals because the impression they give represents your dealership as a whole. The “wow” is really what we are striving to achieve in dealerships.

Most of the time, the changes that are needed in order for a customer to have a wow experience at your dealership are not big. Instead, they are often a series of small changes that will make a big difference in the overall customer experience.

I can’t stress enough the importance of “word of mouth” marketing. When a customer has an experience like this at your store they will gladly walk out and tell others about that experience. Many times they will actually say “Wow, I can’t believe that you had that part in stock.” Or “Wow, I can’t believe you were willing to help me find the part I needed.”

Give your customers a wow experience and they will tell others and your business will take off.

Improving Appearances

Even if your parts department is located in the back of your store, it still often has the highest level of customer contact. So what you do — and how you do it — will have more impact on your customers than either sales or service. That’s why it is so important to focus on ways to maximize the customer experience with your parts department. Think about the progression of a customer’s experience in your dealership. To start, when they pull into your dealership, they drive by shiny new equipment that represents your sales department.

As they get out of their car or truck, they are met by the energetic sounds of engines running and tools being used in the service department. When they make their way to the parts counter, which is often messy, a person on the parts team often says something like “What can I help you with?” Or worse yet, as I heard a parts person the other day say, “What do you need?” Nothing that person did provided that wow experience for the customer. I am sure that given an option, the customer from this point forward will look for parts some place other than that dealership.

Your parts counter experience may not be exactly like this, but I feel confident that you have some opportunities to improve what you do; how you parts area looks and the interaction you and your people have with your most valuable resource — the customer.

Take a moment and think about your parts counter and the area surrounding it. If you were to walk into your dealership, would you be impressed with what you see? Would you walk out and tell your close friends that they should do business with you? Or would you just get your parts, be thankful that they had them and forget about the dealership until the next time you needed parts?

That first impression is extremely important to growing the dealership in sales, service and parts. Anything you do in your parts department to take away from that positive impression, is going to impact your profitability.

One of the things that I just can’t understand is signs behind the parts counter that say things like “If you don’t have the make, model and serial number of your equipment, I can’t help you.” Negative signs, telling customers all the rules they must abide by if they are to do business with you, will not make that first strong impression. I understand that you may have put them up because of frustration, but those signs only irritate your customers and make them feel unwelcome and unimportant.

Your goal is to make your customers feel welcome and that the parts department and your dealership are safe places to ask questions without being made to feel stupid.

Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.

More from Bob Clements

Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.

What the Parts Staff Can Do

I know that there are sometimes battles between the parts and service departments. When it comes down to it, the shop can’t do anything without parts. And the parts department’s ability to make sure that the right parts are ordered in a timely manner has a huge impact on shop efficiency and, ultimately, the customer experience.

We have to make sure that the parts department is communicating with and taking care of the service department. I understand that there may be times that parts are backordered or the ball may get dropped. I also understand that there needs to be a reciprocal relationship happening, and the shop needs to let you know what parts they need before they actually need them.

When I work with shops, I stress that point to them. But, it is so important that the parts department understands it is creating the customer experience in the shop. And, it is important for parts and service to have a singular goal of creating a great experience for your customers.

Because of the close tie between the service and parts departments, any improvement in one will automatically make a positive impact on the other. For example, the better job the service department does of communicating the parts it needs, the less time it will take for the parts department to fill the order, reducing transaction time for parts and improving billing efficiency in the service department.

The same holds true for walk-in customers. If the parts department can consolidate its parts into a tighter footprint and have more of the fastest-moving parts closer to the parts counter, it is easy to reduce the amount of time it takes to fill a customer’s order. In fact, it’s easy to reduce this transaction time by 40%, improving customer satisfaction and reducing labor cost for the service department.

Find Your ‘Hook’

When I do sales training, I always require the sales people to figure out what their hook is going to be. A hook is simply something that makes you memorable to your new customers — the thing they will walk out talking about.

Years ago, I was working with a dealer and I asked him how he got started. He said that when he first opened his dealership, he was there one morning with no customers and his wife had brought in some homemade muffins. Right around that time, a customer walked in the door. He asked the customer if he wanted a muffin and he was thrilled. So, eventually, his dealership became known as “the muffin place,” and customers could expect homemade muffins when they came in.

I have seen other dealerships bake chocolate chip cookies throughout the day and offer them for free to customers along with little milk jugs. Some pop fresh popcorn for customers.

Can you imagine what the reaction would be from your customers standing in line at your parts counter if you offered them a cookie? It would probably make the wait seem a little shorter and make customers happier by the time they got to the front of the line. All of these are ways that you, at the parts counter, can help create a memorable experience for the customers at your dealership.

You have to be careful not to get so used to having a line of people at the counter — that if you “lose one,” there are 8 more in line. We always have to keep in mind, even during the busy season, that if those customers leave us, they will go someplace else.

What will happen is someone will come along — this is a lot of where the online competition is coming in — and they will wow them. The result: You will lose them as a customer altogether.

There is nothing in your dealership that a customer can’t get someplace else, other than your employees. So, the employees in the parts department become the unique product that your dealership has.

‘Wowing’ with Displays

When it comes to parts, most people don’t think about them until they need them. This is why it is critical to be at the front of your customers' minds when that need arises. One of the easiest ways to do that is to set up parts displays in your showroom near your equipment displays. While the customer is looking at new equipment, they are not thinking about parts at that moment. However, a display conveniently located near the equipment will burn an image into the customer's mind so when they do need parts, they think of your dealership.

Don’t forget about the value of the endcaps on your shelving. That’s a great place to keep fast moving parts that the customer can pull themselves, such as oil, filters and plugs. In most cases, make sure that the parts on the endcaps are faster moving parts that match the season that you are in. If it’s mowing time, have parts on your endcaps that go with the mowing season. For instance, display a good selection of mower blades so that customers can pull their own instead of waiting in line at the parts counter. If it’s spring, build service kits, or in the winter, display skids, shear bolts and belts for snow blower customers.

In addition to what you stock, appearance is everything when it comes to displays. There is nothing worse than displays that are dusty, disorganized and poorly stocked.

Every day, someone at the parts counter should be responsible for taking 30 minutes to reset the displays, making sure they are clean, organized and “fronted.” Fronting is the process of making sure that items are pulled forward. This makes your shelves look organized and full and easier for customers to select what they need.

Fronting the inventory also makes brands show strong and proud on your shelf. While it seems like it wouldn’t make a big difference, take some time to walk into a mass merchant store and walk the aisles. Look at how they place their product, the pricing and the signage. Why do they do this? Because it’s proven to help them sell more product. Taking that little time each day to make sure your shelves look right will add valuable dollars to your store’s bottom line.

It is important to think about your signage. Take the time to put up signs that direct your customers to what you are selling. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than to have to hunt for what they are looking for. Have your fast-moving parts clearly identified with a sign that quickly catches their attention.

One important sign that is all too often overlooked is the price tag on items. I understand that it can be tedious to price each item individually. But, if you were shopping and interested in an item and it wasn’t priced, would you buy it? If there isn’t a price on an item, in most people’s heads, it is subconsciously not for sale. And heaven forbid that you need to stand in line and ask an employee for the price on an item.

It is important to think through not only the big signs directing customers to what you are selling, but also to the price which will close the sale for you, and leaving your customer wowed by their experience.

You need to be rotating your stock to keep it fresh. How many times have you walked into a grocery store and saw something on the shelf that looked like it hadn’t been touched in months? If you saw that, what are the chances that you would pick that up and buy it? Probably not very good. Part of wowing your customers through your displays involves making sure that your stock always looks fresh.

If you have product on display that is beginning to look a little old, pull them from the shelves and use them to fill the needs of the service department. Technicians won’t care what the label on a tube of grease or a quart of oil looks like. Plus, it gives you the ability to keep a fresh, clean look for the customers.

Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.

More from Bob Clements

Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.