Electronic MPI

[AustinHew]

Is your service department using an electronic MPI? If so, which one? And if not, why not?

I'd love to hear the pros and cons of an electronic MPI system. Even better would be the pros and cons of a specific electronic MPI software.

Thanks,
Austin

[XDCX]

I'm guessing that MPI stands for "Multi-point Inspection" form....

I'd be curious to hear if many dealerships have transitioned from the forms that a technician manually fills out to an electronic version that can be printed out for a customer.

It would also be interesting to learn if there are any Electronic MPI systems that could eliminate a dealer's liability because information discovered by a technician was never conveyed to a customer. I'm thinking about the lawsuit that resulted in a $3 Million punitive damage award - click here

[AustinHew]

Yes, MPI stands for "Multi-Point Inspection" form.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by AustinHew

Yes, MPI stands for "Multi-Point Inspection" form.

Thanks for the clarification.

Hopefully some of our members will chime in and indicate if they're using an electronic MPI form in their service department.

It would also be interesting to see what percentage of stores even do a MPI form for their service customers. I'm guessing that nearly 100% of the dealerships provide MPI information to their customers but I've been wrong before.

[AustinHew]

No problem. Sorry for any confusion.

Yes, I would be curious to hear that answered too. I assume almost all dealerships are using paper MPIs to communicate service upsales to customers.

Is that true?

[FixedOpsGuy]

There are a number of Electronic MPI processes out there. Each of them has there own "bells and whistles". The onlt things of value that I would care about are these...

Is the information user friendly for the customer? Does it provide enough information about the value of the needed service to the customer without giving too much information. In other words, if the MPI sheet is telling the customer that they need a Fuel Induction Service, What does the supporting verbiage say that will provide value for the service?

Does the Electronic MPI process track lost sales, advisor closing ratios, tech MPI representation ratios, Tech "addition service requested" ratios? Sales depts track the amount of "ups" that a salesperson receives and then holds sales people accountable for their own closing ratio. In 2 examples, 1 salesperson has 40 ups and sells 20 cars, and the other salesperson has 20 ups and sells 15 cars. Who is the better sales person? It's obvious that if the salesperson that sold 15 had more ups, then the store would most likely be better off.

The same goes for the service department. We track hours sold per RO, sales per RO, Effective Labor Rate.... and so on. But, personally, if you want to know who your best advisor is, it's the advisor that closes the highest percentage of sales opportunities. Because then, all the other numbers come in line and can be managed.

A real good electronic MPI process will track what I mentioned.

Does it have a color printer that MUST be purchased? Does it have 5 extra pages of verbiage supporting recommended services? Guess what, you DON'T NEED THAT. What sells the job is good relationships, good attitudes, smiles, handshakes, a simple explanation of why a service is needed, and when the total value of the needed item outweighs the cost associated with it, the customer buys.

To answer your question, a single page MPI inspection sheet can be used, and is used here. But, a great shop will have employees in the shop that have a job description of production manager, formerly the parts staff, where they help with MPI's, monitor MPI representation, pre-load RO's, track all closing ratios, and SELL HOURS. The rest falls in line.

At the end of the day, consider this scenario when you have a record breaking day...

OK, so I sold 30% more labor than any other day, had 100 customers hit my door, sold 250 hours, 2.5 hours per RO with a $450 Parts & Service RO average, we had a record breaking day! But, We recommended a total of 750 hours to those 100 customers, a less than 33 percent closing ratio. Where did all the other needed work go? why did we lose it? Do these cars fix themselves? Or, monitor the closing ratios, monitor the lost sales, provide a quality single sheet, easy to read MPI to the customer, continuously train the service staff with on-going roll-playing, have a good "save-a-deal process" in place... where the service and parts manager review high-profile lost up-sell attempts for more opportunity.

Sorry for the long text. But, this subject is a stake in my side at times with other dealers. Too many times dealers think that an expensive program is the solution to our net ROI. When it's actually people and processes.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by FixedOpsGuy

There are a number of Electronic MPI processes out there. Each of them has there own "bells and whistles". The onlt things of value that I would care about are these...

Is the information user friendly for the customer? Does it provide enough information about the value of the needed service to the customer without giving too much information. In other words, if the MPI sheet is telling the customer that they need a Fuel Induction Service, What does the supporting verbiage say that will provide value for the service?

Does the Electronic MPI process track lost sales, advisor closing ratios, tech MPI representation ratios, Tech "addition service requested" ratios? Sales depts track the amount of "ups" that a salesperson receives and then holds sales people accountable for their own closing ratio. In 2 examples, 1 salesperson has 40 ups and sells 20 cars, and the other salesperson has 20 ups and sells 15 cars. Who is the better sales person? It's obvious that if the salesperson that sold 15 had more ups, then the store would most likely be better off.

The same goes for the service department. We track hours sold per RO, sales per RO, Effective Labor Rate.... and so on. But, personally, if you want to know who your best advisor is, it's the advisor that closes the highest percentage of sales opportunities. Because then, all the other numbers come in line and can be managed.

A real good electronic MPI process will track what I mentioned.

Does it have a color printer that MUST be purchased? Does it have 5 extra pages of verbiage supporting recommended services? Guess what, you DON'T NEED THAT. What sells the job is good relationships, good attitudes, smiles, handshakes, a simple explanation of why a service is needed, and when the total value of the needed item outweighs the cost associated with it, the customer buys.

To answer your question, a single page MPI inspection sheet can be used, and is used here. But, a great shop will have employees in the shop that have a job description of production manager, formerly the parts staff, where they help with MPI's, monitor MPI representation, pre-load RO's, track all closing ratios, and SELL HOURS. The rest falls in line.

At the end of the day, consider this scenario when you have a record breaking day...

OK, so I sold 30% more labor than any other day, had 100 customers hit my door, sold 250 hours, 2.5 hours per RO with a $450 Parts & Service RO average, we had a record breaking day! But, We recommended a total of 750 hours to those 100 customers, a less than 33 percent closing ratio. Where did all the other needed work go? why did we lose it? Do these cars fix themselves? Or, monitor the closing ratios, monitor the lost sales, provide a quality single sheet, easy to read MPI to the customer, continuously train the service staff with on-going roll-playing, have a good "save-a-deal process" in place... where the service and parts manager review high-profile lost up-sell attempts for more opportunity.

Sorry for the long text. But, this subject is a stake in my side at times with other dealers. Too many times dealers think that an expensive program is the solution to our net ROI. When it's actually people and processes.

I'm getting caught up and just had a chance to read your post - excellent commentary.

Concerning a MPI sheet, my personal preference as a customer would be to receive a one page report that came from a color inkjet or laser printer. I like reports that are easy to read, have a reasonable amount of white space and use graphics where appropriate - tire wear as an example. I've seen several hand printed MPI reports that used a "Green, yellow, red" format to show a customer what services need to be performed and think that's an effective way to quickly convey information.

From the dealership's perspective, I love the idea about using a MPI system that allowed the Service Manager/Director to track the performance of his technicians and Service Advisors. As a general rule, employees tend to perform at a higher level when they know their performance is being tracked and there's no question that dealerships lose sales because some employees don't point out needed maintenance to their customers.

As a final note, as a customer, I'd be most interested in a MPI report that offered me some inducement if I returned to have the recommended services performed - perhaps a free rental car if a major service is performed.