Lift, Inc. and Brodie – Tire Blitz
The primary objective of this program is to increase sales to your current customer base as well as drive the acquisition of new business. To ensure success, Camso/Solideal works alongside each dealer during the month-long blitz, and it works very simply. STARLIFT reviews the dealer’s past twelve-month sales (1 Year) to establish the ‘standard’ average monthly sales goal for the month of the tire blitz.
In a recent tire blitz in November at Lift Inc., headquartered in Mountville, PA., the dealership came in at 129% of their tire blitz goal and received the maximum rebate.
In addition, Brodie Lift President, Brian Degnan states, “Bi-annually, we perform vendor-supported tire blitzes, and they are a great success. We leverage the additional discount offered during that blitz period and pass on greater savings to our customers as well as increased commission opportunity for our team.”
We encourage each of our dealers to conduct a tire blitz and see both your total sales and your conquest business increasing as a result. Reach out to your ADM to get your tire blitz on schedule for 2024.
Lift, Inc. – Increases its Team of Technicians
One of the biggest challenges facing Toyota Dealers is finding technicians. We have seen our dealer network do a phenomenal job. We discovered a best practice from the dealer that could be an option.
Ed Hitchings, Fleet Manager at Lift Inc., stated, “At Lift Inc., we have nine of the 2022 Ford Mavericks. Five are allocated to our Field Service Managers, and the rest are allocated to four of our residential technicians. The technicians like them, they’re economical, lighter, and comfortable.”
This move makes business sense since the Mavericks are less expensive when compared to the Transit vans and the Chevy Express vans. The Field Service Managers do not need to carry many parts or tools with them, so they do not need all the extra space that the vans provide. Our residential technicians keep their tools at the shop located at their individual customer locations so they also do not need the extra space a van would provide.”
Lift Truck Supply, Inc. – Adrenaline Meeting from TMH to Engage Locations
After attending the daily adrenaline meeting at the plant in Columbus, IN, Lift Truck Supply borrowed the idea from the production team at TMH. Walter stated, “The communication at the meeting was amazing, and I wanted to bring it back to our facility somehow.” Lift Truck Supply initially tested the daily adrenaline meeting in a very small room and received a lot of pushback. However, they continued to hold the meetings and asked each team to build a KPI for their department, and from the beginning, it has evolved tremendously in the spirit of Kaizen.” Walter continued, “We have a great team, and I feel that it is important for everyone to have this meeting. We have expanded our room, and there is dedicated space for the adrenaline meeting. There is total buy-in now, and we enjoy the company-wide engagement.”
Lift Truck Supply meets daily via Google Meet, connecting their branches in Tyler, Temple, Cedar Park, Mt. Pleasant, and Texarkana at 7:50 am. They meet for about 10 minutes and keep the conversation to a minimum (meaning they cover the same specific topics each day, and unless there is a best practice to share with the team side conversations take place separately).
Individuals on the call include Sales Managers, CSSR Managers, Parts Managers, Service Managers, and Rental Managers. Sales Representatives and CSSR Representatives also attend the meeting. This is important as it gives the representatives a heads up on when delivery is going to take place for new, used, and rental units, as well as when a service job is going to be completed, allowing for the representatives to follow up with the customer. In addition, with centralized dispatch at Lift Truck Supply, the adrenaline meeting has been a huge help for dispatch in scheduling service calls, ultimately ensuring a highly satisfied and well-informed customer.
Ultimately, this has allowed the dealership to connect their departments, improve communication, and increase both accountability and visibility with each other.
Winchester Equipment Company – ASEC Journey
Executive leadership and participation are crucial to building a strong foundation throughout the ASEC journey. Dealer Principal, Scott Carnell, wanted a simple visual that made it easy to identify the safe walking paths in the shop area, and the “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” philosophy does just that.
Winchester shared the move of a large indoor reclaimed oil tank to an outdoor area of their facility. Winchester credited ASEC with helping to identify the opportunity. The move helped to increase the “usable” interior square footage of the shop. The space created two additional service bays – gaining additional revenue and profitability vs. a tank taking up space in the shop. Also, by moving the tank outside, it was easier and more efficient for the technicians to dispose of their liquid waste.
Although Winchester remains on the journey to ASEC Certification, you can see how the progress along the way can create excitement, motivation, and efficiency. In turn, this can result in cost savings, profitability, recruiting advantages, and other additional benefits.
Welch Equipment – Dry Ice Blasting
Dealer Development coordinated a technology discussion with Nick Andrews, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and Keith Fine, Used Equipment Manager at Welch Equipment Company. Nick and Keith summarized Welch’s experience with dry ice blasting and their planned use of the technology moving forward. While awaiting approval for the new wash bay, Welch Equipment Company experimented with dry ice blasting. Welch’s sales tend to average approximately 70% electric. Washing electric units is tough as the power needs to be completely disconnected, and there is wait time for the components to dry. Dry ice blasting was quickly determined to be a viable solution, particularly for trucks that had been utilized in very dirty applications.
Dry ice blasting, also called dry ice cleaning, is an environmentally sustainable cleaning and surface preparation technique. Dry ice blast cleaning machines use recycled solid carbon dioxide (CO2) pellets or MicroParticles, which are blasted at supersonic speeds and sublimate on impact, lifting dirt and contaminants off the underlying substrate. Dry ice cleaning is non-abrasive, non-conductive, non-toxic, and non-flammable, giving several advantages over other cleaning methods. CO2 blasting is also chemical-free, and water-free, and does not create secondary waste streams. Our dry ice blasting equipment features unparalleled technology that can be used in a variety of industries and applications.
Welch Equipment Company can see the benefits and has already started to implement dry ice blasting into their other non-Toyota businesses and locations. By using dry ice technology, they have converted this into cost savings, better profitability, and a cleaner, safer truck to work on for their technicians.
TMHS (Atlanta) and TICF – Toyota Leased Equipment Turn-In Process
During a recent meeting with the used equipment playbook dealer team, we identified an area where our dealer network needs more awareness. We realized there were many questions regarding the receipt of Toyota Leased Equipment at the end of the lease terms. As a result, Josh Smith from Toyota Material Handling Systems (TMHS) provided a list of best practices to support Toyota Leased Turn-In Equipment in concert with Tom Wolf’s Toyota Industrial Commercial Finance (TICF) procedures.
The Atlanta Team has streamlined the process and is openly sharing their best practices.
Tom Wolf (TICF) has also provided the TICF Lease-End Procedures Flowchart and Guide to support their requirements.
The Lilly Company – Managing Service Planned Maintenance (PM)
The Lilly Company identified an area of importance in which we wanted to share their best practices with our dealer network. Rick Gilleland from The Lilly Company has graciously provided a best practice for their internal process to support the management of Planned Maintenance to include PM agreements, Full Service Maintenance Plans, and Fleet Customers.
The service manager, dispatcher, and service clerk should all be active in managing PMs and their respective PM completion rate.
PM Scheduling and Reviewing:
Best Practice: If one of the better technicians still has a large number of PMs to complete, a less experienced technician can be pulled from another territory to assist. This allows the experienced technician to continue to take service calls.
Benchmark: PM completion rate should be no lower than 90%, with the goal of 100% every month.
Completion Rate Formula: Completion rate performance is calculated in monthly terms and should be calculated two ways. One calculation will provide an indicator of technician performance, while the other will determine the overall effectiveness of your PM program.
Technician Performance- This calculation takes into account the overall number of PM’s that the technician could reasonably be expected to perform. A PM should be considered complete, even if the work was not done, as long as the customer signed a PM inspection report stating they did not want the dealer to do the PM on that visit or if there weren’t enough hours on the truck to warrant PM work. If the dealer misses a PM when it is due, and there is an incident with that piece of equipment, the dealer can be held liable in some states.
Overall PM Program Effectiveness- This is a simple calculation of the overall number of PMs completed divided by the total number of PMs scheduled. A low percentage would indicate deficiencies in your PM program. Customer follow-up will be required to determine why your PM program is not meeting your customer’s expectations. Some discussions include:
Recommended PM Method:
Best Practice: It is recommended that all technicians do PMs. The PM is the starting point for additional parts and service sales. Ideally, all the technicians would work PMs and sell the follow-up work. It will also eliminate the number of times a truck is down for work. Better technicians have fewer and/or more important customers assigned to them. Newer technicians have more PMs and would include many of the 1-10 truck type accounts.
What should a Dealership do when a PM Customer continues to cancel or reschedule?
Best Practice: The key is in your communication. Have your technician and/or CSS schedule an appointment when there is an opportunity to point out the purpose and benefits of having a PM program for their forklift. Evaluate and design a PM program that meets your customer’s needs. If the customer is going through a slow time where they’re not using their lift, ask them if they would be interested in postponing a regular PM schedule until an agreed-upon date. However, remind them that if they resume regular operation of their lift trucks, they should get in touch with you or your dealership immediately to schedule regular PM practices. Give your customer options. Don’t send the wrong signal to your customer by dropping their PM schedule.
Planned Maintenance, when designed and managed correctly, is a win-win for the customer and the dealership!
The best practices mentioned above were received from our dealer network throughout 2023. To read any of the best practices in more detail, please see the archived newsletter section here.