During the last 32 years, we’ve written many articles that mention the word basics – “A Return to the Basics,” “Following the Basics,” “Focusing on the Basics,” etc. We’ve discovered that in so many equipment dealerships, the basics are too often taken for granted.

Basics have been talked about and mentioned for so long that we think everyone follows and understands them. We are often told that basics are part of the job description – that it’s basic, after all. We find that what we refer to as being basic is so common that we all assume the basics are being followed. There are what could be termed big basics and little basics, and the size of the basic depends on how much dealers and managers believe these particular details affect the overall operation of the dealership.

For example, during the past 5 or 6 months we’ve focused on many basics that we all should be aware of in the product support, or parts and service areas of an equipment dealership. For years I assumed that dealers pondered over and studied their financial statements and recognized that their Service Department was generally the most profitable department within the dealership. I also thought it was a basic that service generally provided the least amount of sales contribution to the dealership. In fact, that is a big basic!
But what I once thought was a little basic has now proven to be a big basic. I once thought that all dealers, and even all manufacturers, realized that the guaranteed way to increase parts sales was to go after their customer’s service business.

Did I ever find out how wrong that assumption could be!

You can discuss it with people involved in parts marketing at both dealership level and the manufacturer level. They will all nod their heads in agreement, call it a basic assumption and forget to do anything about it, assuming it is a basic and that somebody is paying attention and will cover the little basic before it becomes a big basic.
We think that all basics start out as a little basic, and if not looked into, worked at and corrected, will eventually turn into a big basic. As an example, I have a friend who I consider an excellent operations manager in a large equipment dealership. This gentleman is a stickler for the basics and makes sure that his personnel accept nothing as being basic. He constantly works to make sure that nothing is ever assumed by always monitoring the basics. I am taking one of his many office memos and passing it along to our readers. It is his complete analysis of what many may consider a little basic.

From his memo:
When we say focus on the basics, some may wonder, how basic do we want to be? We are, at times, overwhelmed by issues which are caused by us not doing the basic jobs. An example is service billing, which should be a very basic and simple job. Our billing people have to be geniuses to figure out what and how they are supposed to bill something as basic as a work order. If all of the information required is not on the work order, or is not legible, they have to hunt for it instead of doing their job of billing. They are frustrated because they are delayed because someone else did not do the basic function of completing the work order as required. Why does this happen?

This happens because we allow it to happen! The manager is not managing his/her personnel. This is an example of something which happens in every location every working day. Why don’t we take the time and make the effort to eliminate this basic problem forever. Taking the time now to repair this basic problem will save many times the amount of time and cost it took to fix it. In this instance we are not making the people accountable for not doing their job, causing the burden to be put on someone else. Establish a process, train the people to do it and hold them accountable when it is not done. When the billing person gets the work order, it should be ready to bill.
Another basic function is the completion of time cards accurately, legibly and seeing that they are turned in on time. If this is done properly every day, the person responsible for turning it in can complete his/her job quickly and efficiently. How many times does the administrator who is responsible for turning in the time have to correct the time cards or hunt down the employee because he or she did not turn it in? Why did this happen? It happened because the manager did not manage! When the person who is responsible for entering the time gets the time card, the task should be a nothing more than a data entry job.”