31
July
2025

Keep Everybody on Track

COVID has transformed hiring dynamics, leaving dealership owners grappling with employee commitment. Discover strategies to re-engage teams and enhance performance in collections and sales.

Keep Everybody on Track

I have recently given a couple of presentations to dealers talking about collections and helping collectors have more success. I have always felt like as owner/manager we must understand people a little more than an average person might. COVID changed the atmosphere of hiring and maintaining a team in a few ways, not necessarily for the better.

COVID was a long process when you lived it day by day but still it seemed sudden when we went from production-based people with commission pay plans to the “What’s the problem, I came in today didn’t I” mentality?

I have told so many people about how we paid collectors, salespeople and technicians pre COVID. None of them were on salary. Collectors had a base pay but made more income from incentives. Our salespeople and technicians were on straight commission. We did this for about 30 years. If someone wanting a job in one of these positions requested hourly pay, we would show them how the existing team was paid and how much they were earning. If the potential employee balked at that and would only consider steady income over commission, we would have to pass.

As COVID started taking over everything I understood people trying to make steady income because it was a long-drawn-out process getting business back to normal and everyone just needed to support their families best they could. All the “stimmy” money, additional welfares and people, with a certain mindset, finding every type of entitlement they could, a lot of folks got hooked on “working” from home or not working, getting money and assistance from government.

Let me say here that I’m not talking about everybody by any means, but enough people did this, and it set an example that has continued since the extended end of the COVID period.

I have worked with dozens of dealers through and since COVID. One big constant I had been hearing “we cannot hire anybody to work”. That has really been a surprise on how things changed from 2020 to now. Dealers telling me they cannot find many applicants or the ones they do find won’t show up to interview once an appointment is set. People that do agree to work want guaranteed incomes at higher rates than before and it really has surprised me how many of these employees consider just showing up, not always on time or every day, as our good luck. Because the dealers (and other business owners) have had to deal with this trend, they are reluctant to discipline or terminate someone, that should be let go, because they need to keep the position filled.

Thankfully I have been hearing it is getting better. I have been to some dealers that have multiple employees who have been loyal for years. I visited other dealerships where turnover was rampant as well. In both cases I have been hired to come in and help the owner turn things around. “The numbers are getting worse, and the team cannot figure out how to improve them” I would hear from the owners. Several owners and managers just cannot help the team determine how to “right the ship”.

Another facet of what I find is that many owners aren’t really business managers. They aren’t good at training employees and do not really want to. So much of the newer technologies we see at the conferences are based on the premise that their solution will help manage the process and make operations easier to manage. The dealers buy the products, try to use them within their program and become disappointed within months. The employees at many dealerships cringe a little when dealers come back from a 20 Group or conference……what are we going to change this time?

What do most dealers need? A procedure and policies program that speaks to every task is helpful. There must be more though.

When I coach collection teams, I have a 2-week program where once I inject some new procedures we spend 30 minutes each morning reviewing the previous day call notes and talking about policies in some situations. On each of these coaching calls I have the owners and/or managers involved.

This helps because the management can answer questions about specific situations and possibly adjust policy as we go. Their participation also helps the owner/ manager learn what the collectors should be doing each day.

During these calls I also review the reports I use to get the metrics we are measuring progress by. In doing that every day for 2 weeks the collectors learn new habits, the managers as well and they all know where the metrics come from. Now the owner/ managers can better monitor the collectors themselves. I try to help the owners get a program started so the coaching continues every week going forward on some scale.

The key to collections performing better, which also works in sales and the shop, is providing resistance or calling out folks when they stray off the process. A quote I use is, “Man is like a river; they always follow the path of least resistance”. I have been in more than 100 dealerships, some multiple times, to train, coach or consult. I usually speak, one on one, with many of the employees. I have found that the above quote is so true. If you do not provide sunlight or resistance to lack of productivity, you will get more lack of productivity. Employees will do just what is necessary to stop complaints from happening from bosses and customers.

I often find dealers will pay me to come and write procedures for them and when I arrive, they hand me their existing procedure manual. The issue is that the existing procedures are not being followed, and a big reason is that no one is overseeing that the procedures are followed. In many cases it is because the owner doesn’t recognize what the procedures should look like, so they do not know if each task is being done correctly.

If you do not know where the keys should always be you do not know if they are misplaced when you see them on a desk or toolbox. The same goes with files, credit applications or invoices from vendors. If you are the manager or owner that doesn’t want to keep the team in line, then the team will do what they feel is best or they won’t do much at all.

A very successful dealer in the highline franchise space wrote a book in the 90’s. Mr. Sewell had multiple rooftops with huge service facilities and a very satisfied customer base. He had a huge productive team of very loyal employees that made great money.

In his book Mr. Sewell wrote that in order to have great employee success you had to have expectations beyond good and keep a “body hanging in the tree out front”.

As seen in our Magazine

Categories: Dealer News Stories

Gene Daughtry

Gene Daughtry

I do on site training for Auto Master Systems. I provide consulting for BHPH and LHPH operations. I provide Service Operations training. I do procedure writing for Independent Auto Dealerships.

Read more

Image