Is Training Really That Important to an Automotive Dealership?

In a word, Yes. Because it’s an investment in the dealership’s greatest resource – its people.

Organizations & Dealerships Invest In Training

Investment in training by organizations of all types and sizes reached its peak in 1999 – approaching $65 billion – and fell sharply the very next year, reflecting the economy and how people felt comfortable spending their money. The numbers crept back up, however, and in the ensuing decade, investments in training – in the form of sending employees out to open enrollment classes, bringing outside training firms in to do customized courses, and developing in-house training programs with dedicated training or human resources department personnel – have continued, with a total investment of nearly $60 billion for training in 2008, nationwide. That comes out to approximately $1,500 per employee. For automotive dealerships, who employed 1.2 million people in the US in 2008, that’s $1.8 billion in training, assuming dealerships value training to the same extent that other industries do – and we know that they do.

Of course, 2009 and 2010 saw a lot of reductions in workforce – and in training dollars spent – because many dealerships have only been able to focus on maintenance. Keeping their sales, service, parts departments, collision repair, and overall customer service at acceptable levels has sometimes eclipsed the desire for training. And that can be a big mistake.

Why? Because training is very important when you need to make the most of a smaller workforce and a reduced number of customers. That’s not to say you only need to train people when times are tough – it’s equally important when things are going well. And that’s because no matter how large or small your organization is, if you want to survive in any economic environment, you need to invest in your greatest resource – your employees. From increased productivity and efficiency to higher retention rates, the benefits of training are enormous – as are the risks of not training your staff.

Further, if you don’t train your staff, they become frustrated, they lose interest in their own growth within your organization, and they fail – resulting in their leaving of their own accord for something they feel will be more satisfying, or you end up firing them because they aren’t living up to your expectations. Either way, you’re faced with the costs of hiring someone new and training them – informally or through a training program – from scratch.

If your people aren’t properly and continuously trained, they can’t work at their peak performance. They won’t be as efficient or effective, their sales will suffer, and so will customer service – resulting in reduced profitability.

Turnover is expensive, much more so than training. Lost productivity and having your employees just “phoning it in” is expensive, too. Training? Even at peak levels of $1,500 per learner, training saves more than it costs – if you have the right training, provided by the right people.

Training Challenges

So training is important. Why, then, is it something most dealerships find so hard to provide?

	Time. If you’re trying to train your own staff, it’s virtually impossible for most dealership owners, general managers, and department managers to juggle the time involved in creating and implementing an effective training program at the same time they’re running their business or department. This is true no matter how large or small your dealership is. And if you do succeed in making time to do the training, finding the time to follow up and help your employees maintain and grow their skills is even more difficult.
	Expense. Bringing in a training consultant to develop and deliver in-house training can cost thousands – even for a small dealership with just a handful of employees to train. If you’re looking to train hundreds of employees, the cost of training can be enormous – whether you’re allocating time to send people out to classes, setting up a training room or rooms in-house, or maintaining a training department within your own dealership. No matter how you may have tried to do it, traditional training methods are expensive, often prohibitively so.
	Effectiveness. Even if you find the time and the money to do some or all of the training you need, how do you know that you’ve trained your staff in what they really need to know? Was the training offered in a way that made sense for the people and tasks involved? Will they retain what they learned? It’s quite common for a dealership to discover – after investing the time and money in a training program – that people learned some things they needed but key skills were not obtained, that employees didn’t really grasp everything they should have, and that weeks or months down the road, they’re no longer using or remembering what they learned.

It’s hard to imagine that as much as $1.8 billion was spent on training by automotive dealerships, despite these challenges, isn’t it? The fact that the training industry is as large as it is provides a compelling testament to the value of training. Even with the obstacles to doing it right, dealerships keep investing in it, hoping for better outcomes – which is where Dealership Training Online comes in.

Consider just one critical area of dealership operations… …INCOMING TELEPHONE CALLS.

How is your business affected each day by incoming calls that are not handled properly?

	Are customer issues effectively handled over the phone?
	Are calls sent to voice mail, misrouted, and disconnected?
	Does your staff get appointments 70% of the time from sales-related calls?
	Do you get the name and telephone number of callers 99% of the time?
	Phone image depicting poor telephone skills
	Do your telephone operators receive regular training to constantly reinforce excellent phone skills?
	Are sales opportunities lost due to improper call handling by your sales professionals?
	Does your operator receive complaints that employees are not returning customer calls?
	Are your managers confirming all appointments by phone?
	Do callers get that “warm and fuzzy feeling” when they call your sales department – so much so that they feel compelled to come into your dealership?
	Are your operators trained just to “get rid of the call” – or do they take ownership of customer issues?

Dealership Training Online Provides The Training Solutions You NEED!

	We solve the problem of not enough time to train, by making our training available online, 24/7/365 – and covering every aspect of your business. We provide comprehensive training that your sales and service managers and GMs never have time to get to – with a simple, bulleted-point roadmap for managers to use in weekly meetings. We provide Career Paths that contain a series of lessons for each role in your dealership, making it easy to assign training, and so your employees know which classes to take, in which order, and when they need to be completed. You also get easy-to-read and understand reporting that lets you stay on top of training completion and performance, with very little time and effort required.
	We solve the problem of training being too expensive, because our training system is downright affordable and inexpensive. Part of that affordability is because training is ongoing… it’s not just a “one-time training session.” Your employees can train and retrain, every week, month-after-month. We all know that one of our greatest challenges with training is the industry’s turnover rate. Hiring a consultant is expensive and even more so when a good percentage of your employees won’t be with your dealership very long after the training is completed. It’s frustrating and extremely expensive. With our system, when you have an employee that leaves your dealership, you simply terminate the user from the system and register the new employee for training – at no additional cost. And because our training approach is designed with your dealership in mind, more of your employees stay and continue to give you a return on your training investment.
	We solve the problem of ineffective training, because we know the car business – from the inside out. Our content creators have trained cashiers and operators, sales people, service advisors, recon workers, GSMs, business managers – literally, every type of employee across a car dealership, including car wash, body shop, and recon operations. They know what it takes to run a dealership effectively – from the frontend to the backend of the store. The fact is… not everyone learns the same way. We use what we call a “blended learning approach”, which means that our training material includes a large variety of learning tools and techniques, such as video, audio, reading, essay questions, simulations, matching exercises, links on the web, printable worksheets, and so much more. Some of your people will learn best through video, some by reading, others by lecture, and many through a combination of video, hands-on, and listening to a speaker explain concepts.

Ask us how one online training company claimed that dealership employees received proper training while watching online videos during the Super Bowl game!

If 90+% of consumers go online (via their computer or mobile device) to research vehicle sales and service – where’s the first place you lose sales and service revenues?

Online!

Dealership Training Online TOTAL Employee Training Made Easy & Affordable

Training For All Facets Of Dealership Operations

A Variety Of Learning Tools & Techniques For Different Learning Styles

Comprehensive Reporting So You Can Quickly & Easily Track Training Performance

An Online-to-Offline Roadmap So Managers Can Easily Reinforce Concepts In Weekly Meetings

Affordable, Online 24/7/365 Availability, Custom Lessons, And More!

Call Dealership Training Online Today! (717) 235-2687 Ask about our FREE Training Demo & Needs Assessment