Lookers Audi Productivity Savings and Rapid Return on Investment
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Lookers Audi Productivity savings and rapid Return on Investment Experience a safer and more open world Lookers is the third largest UK motor group in the AM 100, “Why spend thousands of pounds more each year renting or running 153 dealerships selling 10 major brands, together buying additional car parking space when you can spend a generating annual revenues more than £4.3billion and fraction of that sum putting in systems and processes which adjusted operating profits up 10 per cent to £94.7m during unlock efficiencies which, in turn, move more cars off our 2016. existing parking spaces more quickly? This is where the Traka key management system comes in. In all of this, it’s important Lookers Audi has three dealerships in the South of England in to recognise that the key to growing, especially with after Guildford, Camberley and Basingstoke and nine in the North sales (but also with sales), is to get cars on and off site as of England and Scotland in Ayr, Hamilton, Stirling, Edinburgh, quickly as possible. The Traka system helps to give me an Glasgow, Teesside, Tyneside, Wearside and Newcastle. accurate overview of where all the stock is. I can interrogate Lookers Audi sites in the south have maximum physical the system and spot cars that may be away at an independent capacity of up to 500 cars each. Camberley Audi is the largest body shop or our wheel alloying specialist. I know this of the three southern sites and the most complex, being split because the key may have been logged out by a technician between three locations: Sales - with parking capacity for 100 say 12-hours ago and not yet returned to the cabinet. Keys cars on London Road; the Camberley Audi After sales Centre just don’t stay out of Traka cabinets for that long anymore about a quarter of a mile away, with space for a further 100 unless cars are across at a third-party supplier which doesn’t cars; and a large third-party compound with space for a have a Traka system we can network with.” further 200 cars, nearly four miles away. ROI in under 4 months in after sales The Camberley Audi After sales Centre offers the second Michael Wrigley explained why he invested in the new Traka largest service department in the whole of the Lookers key management systems, fitting networked key cabinets in Group. Following a steep growth curve in which technician sales, after sales and Camberley’s outlying compound sites: numbers have increased from 14 to 20 and an associated back and front office recruitment drive has been completed, “Any areas where we could make it easier for our very busy the Centre now services 50-60 cars per day. They also prep all Audi-trained technicians to do their jobs quicker made very 2,000 new cars sold each year through Camberley Audi Sales good business sense to me. We estimated that each of 15 site. Camberley Audi has 13 sales staff and employs 85 staff in total across both the Sales and After sales sites (including reception staff, drivers and management). Finding growth through efficiencies Head of Business for Lookers Audi in Camberley, Michael Wrigley, is currently focused on driving down customer car servicing slot wait times to under one week from the day of request, and on finding efficiencies which enable them to move cars through the PDI, sales and servicing areas quicker: Audi trained technicians in Camberley (at that time) was find out which cars are previously wasting at least five minutes per day looking over in one of the other for keys prior to moving them into a service bay. That’s 75 dealerships if, for example, minutes being lost per day across the whole team or just over there is a request to test £100 - given their value and cost to the business. Multiply drive a specific model in £100 by some 300 working days per year and you have a Camberley, when the only minimum annual cost of this wasted productivity of £30,000. demonstrator available Based on this number we for that model is in worked out that Return Guildford and needs to be on Investment in this site driven over in time for the alone was achievable in customer. just four months.” Traka helps keep Lookers Eliminating lost keys Audi digital presence in line with physical stock However, the reality is that quick Return on Michael Wrigley also Investment based on sees the rapid access technicians’ productivity to keys as an important is just the tip of the consideration for keeping Lookers Audi’s digital presence iceberg when considering right up to date: the damaging impact of more significant lost key “Traka is part of a raft of measures we are taking to speed up ‘events’ which used to the taking of high quality photos of our Approved Used and happen at least once a new stock. We’ve hired a photographer full-time to work month on each Audi site. across all three South sites - taking great photos around and inside our vehicles, while others are busy editing the full “We’ve seen times when, before the Traka system went live, specifications of new cars our website. several sales people might be tied up looking for a set of keys for a large part of a morning. Clearly when these events We are about to hire a dedicated progress checker who will happened, it proved to be a huge drain on the business. help ensure all cars that are set to be photographed have had However, if the customer is waiting for PDI to release his new necessary preparation work completed to make them look car, that’s potentially very damaging from a customer service perfect. perspective. But if they are waiting to test drive the car in If the photographer or our new progress checker is telling question then we could potentially lose a sale. The Traka us that this car is not ready to photograph that’s useful system has eliminated key disappearance events because it intelligence. Again, it helps keep cars moving off the tells users who took out those keys last and when - regardless forecourt as more than 90% of visitors to our dealerships have of where that person is based across the Lookers Audi South been online and found a estate. You can pinpoint when those keys went missing car they like before they and then approach the last user with the evidence - asking arrive here. The quicker them to retrace their steps. We’ve been able to eliminate cars can be properly key losses because of the ability to trace the last person presented online on Audi. who had the missing keys and the time they took them out. co.uk and AutoTrader. That’s enough information to be able to help that person co.uk, the quicker they sell, retrace their steps and find it. Before we had the system, and the less discounts we we were losing between eight and 12 sets of keys per year have to offer to shift them. and had to order replacement keys. At £200 to £300 per key that’s another cost which we have eliminated with the Traka We ran a check recently system. to find out the extent of online domination now. The transparency that the system delivers has had another The day we picked we had positive impact: keys are never left on a salesperson’s desks just five people walking now. They come back to the cabinet much more frequently into our dealership in and promptly now. As the system sees increased use, the entire day, whereas management’s knowledge of what is happening with all cars that same day we had 93 going through both sales and servicing departments also people per hour, every increases. They can identify blind spots very quickly and close hour, looking at our stock via AutoTrader. them before they impact throughput. To keep our digital presence up-to-date, we must be Tracking keys between multiple sites prepping it, pricing, photographing and uploading listings to Each site has a networked key cabinet to give users the key sites without delays between these four stages. We are ability to locate keys across all three Camberley sites. Indeed, working towards completing all four processes within five because all three Lookers Audi South dealerships share days of arrival here. The fact that the photographer (and in the same server for Traka key management, it’s possible to the future the new progress checker) will be able to lay their In summary hands-on keys quicker because of the Traka system helps us.” Lookers Audi has used Extending Traka system to compound the Traka networked key management system Camberley Audi also uses a third party-owned compound to unlock the following to store up to a further 200 vehicles waiting to be prepped. benefits: Because it is not owned by Lookers, there were initial issues with installing a 1. Contributing towards networked Traka key efficiencies within management system a rapidly growing which were resolved Camberley Audi After successfully so that it sales Centre went live recently to enable Audi technicians, 2. Helping ensure Lookers Audi’s digital presence is up-to- drivers and salesmen to date by enabling photographer to find keys and cars more locate a car if over in the quickly compound via the system 3. Eliminating (previously) costly lost key events and then alert pound staff that they need a specific 4. Enabling closer ties between dealerships to share stock for car or cars and will be test drives coming to pick that car 5.