How to Maintain a Productive and Happy Team
In the US, dealership employees work there for an average of under two years.
If your average tenure is anything close to that, expanding a dealership is extremely difficult. Your company loses money, performance, and valuable time due to turnover. And everything is related.
Training employees has obvious advantages. They feel like valued team members and even perform better when you engage in their training. What benefits does a motivated team provide for the dealership? a higher profit margin.
We are aware that having a strong culture, distinct (and exciting) career paths, and great leadership are the best methods to draw in and keep top personnel. Let’s take a closer look at some tactical ideas you may use to keep your team motivated and sharp in light of those overarching ideas.
How to Keep Your Team Sharp and Satisfied with Employee Training
1 Provide platform-specific onboarding and instruction
Whether it’s a DMS or one of the several tools your service technicians utilize, new technology might occasionally cost more time than it saves. Your dealership can save a lot of time and money by routinely training the right team members on these tools. They will not only work more quickly, but they will also be less likely to waste time troubleshooting, which will lead to fewer errors in the system or with the tool.
The majority of software providers provide main users with onboarding (also known as implementation). Other team members may frequently receive the same training for an additional charge. Consider designating an employee as your “platform expert” who can lead training internally if you want to avoid paying additional platform costs and your dealership doesn’t have an IT Manager. Make sure your dealership has an employee handbook with detailed instructions for each platform and tool, in addition to software. If you have that, a member of your team should be in charge of keeping it updated as instructions and tools are introduced.
2 Develop your soft skills
Our research has shown that a positive customer experience is one of the most crucial factors in determining the profitability of your business. Even devoted consumers are rarely patient with a poor experience, but a great experience can significantly increase client retention.
That is why developing people’s skills is so crucial. Make sure your staff members interact with customers regularly and role-play, and be sure to respond to both positive and negative customer reviews. They’ll frequently indicate both the behaviors you should reinforce and the ones you should coach.
3 Conduct Internal Workshops With Team Members as the Leaders
Teaching is the best way to learn.
Internal workshops are a fantastic training technique that also improves team morale. These enable your dealership to schedule weekly or monthly training sessions when a team member (or small group) instructs their colleagues on a certain subject or tool.
Internal workshops run by team members are effective because they press teachers to become experts in a subject or technique. They also function well since the person delivering the instruction is a teammate with whom everyone can identify. Make it enjoyable and lighthearted! Since this may be done outside of the team’s typical working hours, think about ordering food and beverages for the participants.
4 Establish a Customized Certification Program
Don’t get carried away with this one; a “certification program” doesn’t necessarily mean that your staff receives a plaque. Simply put, we’re talking about a formal training checklist. Make a list of the essential skills your team members need to master after considering each job description.
You “gamify” the employee experience at your dealership by recasting each of your roles as a certification program. Employees may understand precisely what they need to learn in order to advance rather than passively waiting for a promotion (or quitting). This will improve the skills of your team and help keep employees on board.
5 Make Online Learning Programs Available to Your Team
There are several different online learning opportunities for dealerships, such as DrivingSales. After deciding on the program you like best, consider what your team needs to know and how they will each have access to it individually. Online training programs cover a wide range of topics that your employees may learn more about, from resolving sales objections to industry compliance standards.
When looking for and creating your team’s online learning program, keep the following points in mind:
* General management ideas
* Dealership operations
* Compliance Awareness
* Conversational sales techniques
* Customer communications
It demonstrates how much your dealership values professional development to pay for your team’s access to an online learning program, and it will pay off over time as your employees advance and learn.
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