RED FLAGS IN THE RECON PROCESS

“How’s our time to line?”

However you choose to run your vehicle reconditioning process, insist on consistency in carrying out this critical task.

Whether you rely on spreadsheets or sticky notes to track vehicle flow through this process, insist on a standardized way tasks are assigned, and progress noted. 

Whether a 12-day recon cycle is reasonable for you or five, be sure to manage recon to attain that goal consistently.

Improve your recon organically

To build a recon process flow that meets your used car volume intentions, start by answering on paper the following, which will add reality to opinions and guesses that can take over lesser-structured recon departments:

• How many hours will you allow for arrivals to be on boarded into internal services?
• How much time, on average, do you allow for a typical undercarriage and under hood mechanical inspection?
• How do you handle and track vehicles that need mechanical repairs, though no capacity at the time is available?
• Is it reasonable to start a vehicle’s reconditioning in cosmetics?
• Do friction, finger-pointing, and otherwise broken communication burden your variable and fixed operations?
• How are you using your vehicle reconditioning to build buyer confidence in your cars – and how easy is it for your sales team to demonstrate this presentation to customers?

Why you want data

Any dealer using just about any method to gain a level of control over recon processes will benefit from thinking through these questions and committing their responses to paper – and then abiding by the plan that emerges.

However, even so, the most secure way to ensure what’s transpiring through all the various steps that go into thorough reconditioning is to work from verifiable facts, not opinion.

This accountability is tremendously helpful if you want to sell more cars at higher grosses, whatever the marketing conditions.

Your staff must be able to close out each step of the reconditioning workflow process for which they’re responsible and then move it forward into the next step and the individual responsible for taking on this next step. The right and reliable way to get this done is to close out each step in real-time, within a system that managers can check. 

The second step is to make these metrics visible so everyone can see the impact of a weak link or a bottleneck that can then be addressed on the spot. 

The third step is to have a time-to-line target that includes specific department-level metrics. For example, if your overall time-to-line target is four days, then “Inspection,” “Service,” “Detail,” and “Photos” steps must be consistently under two days. “Parts,” “Body,” and “Sublet” steps, as needed, account for another two days.

The most promising proficiency target is four days, from start to sale-ready. 

Consider your red flags

Do these red flags sound familiar?

• You are under the impression you don’t have a recon problem because you’re told “we’re running two to four days.”
• You are still using a spreadsheet, shared Google doc, or sticky notes to track cars.
• You think that a recon workflow solution is an incremental expense. The truth is, it's for even the lowest-volume dealer, returning on average a $15 return on every $1 spent for the monthly software fee.

Make a difference

Spreadsheets are not a reliable recon tracking tool. Regardless of what’s reported to the question, “How’s our recon doing?”, when recon data is tracked and managed by recon workflow software the actual recon cycle times will at first show how inefficient other means of managing recon and time to line are.

The difference is often shown to be five or more days slower than opinion and guesses led you to originally conclude.

Dealers using workflow software quickly find an excellent speed-to-sale pace of five-to-seven days. Expert users often enjoy a speed of three to five days.

So what?

No matter the market, the sales department can’t sell a car if it’s not sale-ready and on the lot. Or, if sales doesn't have immediate visibility into the recon pipeline.  

Your best people want to be held accountable. They are eager to prove they are doing a good job and to control what is being reported to management. Any dealer’s recon operation will be more efficient when its production numbers are trusted, and individual work is valued.

Red flags will automatically show up in a recon workflow environment so staff can quickly eliminate these drags on recon efficiency that influence your speed-to-sale advantage.

Dennis McGinn is the founder and CEO of Rapid Recon. www.rapidrecon.com