When a customer comes into your dealership with their vehicle, the most important thing on their mind is twofold: “how much is this going to cost?” and “when can I get my car back?” The latter seems very simple, but can be a very costly question to your bottom line.
Your return on investment is realized through retaining customers, reducing the amount of overall downtime costs, and the ability to service more customers because of your quick turnaround time per customer.
Let’s break this down:
Every hour, and day that a customer’s vehicle is in your bay, it takes up valuable space for other vehicles, salary cost for your technician to work on it, as well as rental car fees (if you provide courtesy vehicles). Sourcing the correct parts for the service needed is by far the most time-consuming process. Without a proper way to eliminate back and forth calling dealerships to see what parts are available, this process could cost you heavily.
By investing in a parts locator solution that helps reduce downtime by sourcing parts from other dealerships, the time you are waiting to receive an OE part from the manufacturer can be cut down significantly. With a few clicks of a mouse, you can buy parts you need or sell parts you have to and from other dealerships and have next-day or same-day delivery. You increase your uptime, which reduces rental car costs, faster customer turnaround times, and as a result, yields more satisfied customers.