Dealership Newsmaker Q&A: Gary Pouliot

Gary Pouliot is the fixed operations direct at Lee Auto Malls Maine, which includes six new car franchises and nine used car stores.

What do you think is your biggest challenge in fixed operations right now? What things have you done to help meet that challenge?

One of the biggest challenges today is customer retention. We are all doing some kind of quick service or quick lube. We have discounted pricing on competitive services and even provided free services at times. We have tires for life and pre-paid maintenance when customers purchase the vehicle, and we try to sell it on our service drives. And there are so many other types of programs to keep the customer returning to our dealerships. That said, we still have a hard time retaining the customer for more than the standard 3/36 warranty time frame.

We keep up with modern technologies, so when the customer lets us know how they want to be contacted we know how to use texting, Twitter, Facebook, etc. What we do know is that the employees on the front line are the key to the trust factor the customer has with our dealership, so having good employees in key positions, like our service advisors and parts countermen, helps retain more customers past when the warranty expires.

Communication with our customers, letting them know what is changing in the market and what new models are coming out, and telling them about what type of programs we provide also helps with this challenge we are facing in today's automotive marketplace.

Do you use a perpetual inventory process? Why or why not? What processes do you follow?

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We do use a perpetual inventory process. We do bin checks throughout the month and reconcile all our inventory in all stores at the end of every month. Each parts manager fills out the reconciled form and sends that form to the office managers. They put in the numbers from the general ledger, and then we look for any issues that may come up or any inventory that is upside down from the books, we also have a monthly meeting that all the service managers, parts managers, body shop managers and owners attend. We review all the numbers, including aged inventory, and talk about what steps we are taking to get the general ledger and the pad to match or within a few percent of each other. This gives us a better chance to find and fix any issue before we do a year-end inventory count, and find the mistakes that could amount to a large amount of dollars lost.

Have recent events in Japan impacted your ability to obtain parts? If so, how have you dealt with that issue in terms of ordering and stocking?

So far, we have not had any issues getting parts. The only thing that is happening to us is that we are on manual release from the factory, so the manufacturer is not allowing dealers to overstock because they are worried about this issue. I do feel there will be issues getting parts in the next few months.

Gary Pouliot is the fixed operations direct at Lee Auto Malls Maine, which includes six new car franchises and nine used car stores.

What do you think is your biggest challenge in fixed operations right now? What things have you done to help meet that challenge?

One of the biggest challenges today is customer retention. We are all doing some kind of quick service or quick lube. We have discounted pricing on competitive services and even provided free services at times. We have tires for life and pre-paid maintenance when customers purchase the vehicle, and we try to sell it on our service drives. And there are so many other types of programs to keep the customer returning to our dealerships. That said, we still have a hard time retaining the customer for more than the standard 3/36 warranty time frame.

We keep up with modern technologies, so when the customer lets us know how they want to be contacted we know how to use texting, Twitter, Facebook, etc. What we do know is that the employees on the front line are the key to the trust factor the customer has with our dealership, so having good employees in key positions, like our service advisors and parts countermen, helps retain more customers past when the warranty expires.

Communication with our customers, letting them know what is changing in the market and what new models are coming out, and telling them about what type of programs we provide also helps with this challenge we are facing in today's automotive marketplace.

Do you use a perpetual inventory process? Why or why not? What processes do you follow?

PAGE 2

We do use a perpetual inventory process. We do bin checks throughout the month and reconcile all our inventory in all stores at the end of every month. Each parts manager fills out the reconciled form and sends that form to the office managers. They put in the numbers from the general ledger, and then we look for any issues that may come up or any inventory that is upside down from the books, we also have a monthly meeting that all the service managers, parts managers, body shop managers and owners attend. We review all the numbers, including aged inventory, and talk about what steps we are taking to get the general ledger and the pad to match or within a few percent of each other. This gives us a better chance to find and fix any issue before we do a year-end inventory count, and find the mistakes that could amount to a large amount of dollars lost.

Have recent events in Japan impacted your ability to obtain parts? If so, how have you dealt with that issue in terms of ordering and stocking?

So far, we have not had any issues getting parts. The only thing that is happening to us is that we are on manual release from the factory, so the manufacturer is not allowing dealers to overstock because they are worried about this issue. I do feel there will be issues getting parts in the next few months.