How To Improve the Efficiency Of Your Dealerships

Your dealership needs to be making a profit in order to keep its doors open. This means spending less and making more, but how do you do that? You improve the efficiency of your dealership.

But what does that really mean and how can you do it? Keep reading to find out!

It’s all about working smarter, not harder. Business efficiency is how your dealership performs its services in relation to time and costs.

You want to use your resources and team wisely and in an organized fashion whether it’s by automating tasks or creating processes that support employees.

You can measure your dealership’s efficiency by looking at your:

• Finances
• Operations
• Labor
• Material
• Processes

If you can make these key business functions more efficient, your company can grow exponentially. Here are 9 tips to improve the efficiency of your dealerships:

Do you ever feel lost while trying to improve your dealership? This may be because you don’t have a destination to head towards.

Plus without goals in mind, how do you even know if you’re succeeding? Your team won’t know what is expected of them and you won’t have any way to measure performance.

In the end, though, it is crucial to set realistic goals, or SMART goals. Keeping your goals Specific, Measurable, Relevant, and Time-bound makes sure they are achievable.

Time is money. So the key to earning a profit is doing things as quickly as possible without skimping on quality. Plus if you did step one and created a SMART goal then you’re bound by time.

Therefore in order to improve efficiency you need to reduce distractions. This means limiting phone usage for employees as well as looking at all your processes to see what is unnecessary.

You can eliminate things like long meetings where the information could be shared through email or even find alternatives to email like instant messaging. These interruptions halt productivity and can even lead to more errors, irritability, and the pressure of a time crunch.

It’s understandable to get a bit protective of your dealership. After all, you know what you want, so that means you can do it best…right?

Wrong. The biggest sign of a great leader is their ability to delegate. Trying to do everything can only result in you getting overwhelmed and making silly mistakes.

Delegating your work to qualified team members can allow you to focus on other important things and in return your team can learn new skills that can help them grow. It’s a win-win.

When delegating work, it is crucial to assign specific owners of the task and provide all crucial information. That way you are setting your team up for success and they can work efficiently.

Nobody is perfect. We get caught up working on something and forget things. But when running a dealership, if things get forgotten that could mean missed deadlines and lost customers.

While we may not be perfect, technology can be. Setting reminders and notifications for yourself and your employees can keep everything running smoothly and on time.

Internal and external communication is important to the success of your project-based dealership. Internally everyone needs to be on the same page and headed towards the same goal. Whether your employees are remote or in a different department, open and instant communication can improve collaboration and efficiency.

When it comes to your customers and vendors, open communication is key to operational efficiency. Whether it’s being transparent about expectations or being able to have full visibility of the project’s progress, streamlined communication can reduce delays and mistakes.

Ongoing training is important in every industry. Everyone, even senior positions, can always learn something new.

Plus, industry best practices are constantly evolving, and if your team isn’t keeping up you’ll fall behind your competition.

Now, this doesn’t just mean role-specific training. It can be teaching your lower-level employees to become leaders, management to communicate better with their employees, or how to use the latest technology to improve their day-to-day tasks.

Whether they are working remotely or in person, the environment they are in is crucial to their success. Whether that means providing tools that make mobile work easier or space for collaboration.

Those who enjoy their workspace are more likely to be productive. Consider the small things like do they have a place for lunch and to relax. Are their offices equipped with all of the things they need to be efficient?

Another way to create an efficient environment is by keeping the area clean. This means managing inventory efficiently so that it’s not taking up valuable space.

Nothing feels better than your higher-up recognizing your hard work. As an employer, you can motivate your team to put more effort into their work with incentivization.

Giving rewards for successes, big or small, can show them that you appreciate their hard work. This can make them feel inspired to continue working hard and get a greater sense of fulfillment. When they are passionate about their jobs people become more efficient.

It’s important to note that everyone is motivated differently. Some people appreciate verbal recognition publicly or privately, while others may be motivated by time off or a fun team outing.

Gone are the days of tedious, time-consuming work. As technology has advanced we have found more and more ways to leverage it.

The right systems can help streamline communication, reduce manual tasks, and help you stay organized. For example, ERP systems can help you automate processes saving your team time and reducing errors.

Having technology that allows you to integrate all systems can help eliminate duplicate work and wasted time bouncing around in different systems.

No matter the size of your dealership Khameleon has a solution for you. We allow you to choose the features you need and scale as you go.

Our easy-to-use dashboards allow your staff to simplify complicated projects, create insightful reports, and automate time-consuming manual processes to improve your dealership’s efficiency.