With the busy season in full swing for Outdoor Power Equipment dealers, it’s essential to have their service department well-organized so units can come through their shop as quickly and efficiently as possible. Ideal is aiding in that process with a new feature that allows dealers to color-code work order statuses. When combined with Bob Clements’ color-coding ribbon scheme for equipment repairs, dealers can dramatically streamline their service process and get repaired equipment out to their customers with a quicker turnaround time.
Clements and Ideal’s Lead Trainer Dave Baumgarten educated Ideal users on this process, as well as other ways to create a high performance dealership, at a recent Ideal training seminar in Orlando, FL.
Clements recommends that dealers devise a color-coding ribbon system to help differentiate between pre-diagnosed equipment, diagnosed, waiting on parts, parts received, waiting for customer approval, completed, and dispose. This color-coding system can then be selected for the same work order statuses in the Ideal software so both counter people and technicians can be on the same page. This process can also help dealers bring more money into their shop.
“Many dealers have given up the thought of having a profitable service department,” said Clements. “We know with the right processes and a good business management system that great profits should be not only possible, but expected.”
“Adding colorization to the status of an order gives both end users and managers the ability to quickly identify which jobs and how many jobs are at what stage of the service process,” added Baumgarten. “This can be done without analyzing reports or looking through each job to determine its current status. It also allows for the service manager to quickly adjust the department’s resources, as appropriate, to insure an efficient operation. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.”
For more information, visit idealcomputersystems.com.
