Kaylee Felio: So I have Ryan Else here with Eide. He’s going to talk about and tell us about the history of his dealerships and I’ll just let you kind of take over and talk about your background.
Ryan Else: I’m the Parts and Service Director for Eide Auto Group based in Bismarck. We have four stores, we have a Ford store and three Chrysler stores. Been working with PartsEdge at the Ford store for probably 20 years, been there for quite a while. So when we first signed up we’re just looking for a way to improve our parts gross, set up a matrix, and help with some reporting and PartsEdge has been great. Anything we need, I mean, it’s just a phone call away any report any any number that we need to look at to improve. You guys have been able to help with that. And then as we’ve added stores, like I said, we have four total, we did have the other three on there. And it’s been great as well. So a great, great working relationship.
KF: Good. And then you oversee four different parts managers then?
RE:Yeah, and I came from the service side. I was a service manager before I took this role, so parts wasn’t my background. So you guys have helped me a lot. I mean, I’ve learned a lot as well, you know, it’s almost like a training, you know, with the help that Chuck in and Robert have given me
KF: Yeah, definitely. You know that’s what I always like to talk about is, you know, what we do is very unique, but if you’re not super familiar with parts, you’re gonna learn a lot, you know, with us, every day. So I’ll ask the question that everyone’s asking is: how have you guys adjusted to the pandemic? And how is business now? How was it?
RE: I guess a year ago, you know, during the thick of it, we did have to go to half staff for about a month and a half. Other than that, you know, obviously, we had a little bit of a lack of business. The biggest thing is backordered parts, hard to get parts in inventory now, but otherwise, business is great, people are back in and things are rolling again. So it’s good to have those months behind us for sure.
KF: Yes, it is. I’m glad. And how did PartsEdge help you through that?
RE: Well, I think the biggest thing is the reporting. You know, anytime anytime we needed to report on you know, obsolescent parts, for instance, you only when we had some more time during the pandemic, we’re able to drill into some of that, and get rid of some of that idle inventory was the biggest, biggest way that they helped.
KF: Good. Okay. And then how would you describe what we do daily for you?
RE: I guess the biggest thing is, is just keeping our inventory current, you know, they’re watching it every day. So it’s something that I don’t have to worry about. Any report that I need, like I said, it’s a phone call away. Within an hour, I can have any information that I need in something that would probably take me, you know, a day to figure out where to run this report from. You guys have the template for it set up already. And then making sure that our matrix is running properly, so that we’re getting the optimal gross every day as well, as well, yeah, is what I like.
KF: That’s good. Yeah, I can tell you guys are very active because your reports are very clean. You have a very, very good inventory. You guys are working hard. And then this is kind of a similar question, but what aspects of our service has had the biggest impact? Like, besides the reports, like what is the biggest thing?
RE: It’s that matrix, honestly, keeping that matrix, you know, dialed in correctly. The right source numbers on the right parts so that it’s set at the right percentage.
KF: Yeah. So us going in every day and purifying the system and just, you know, making sure the matrix is, you know, working properly?
RE: To set up and then, yep, same in obsolescent parts as well.
KF: Good. Okay. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to describe what we do for you and we love working with you guys.
RE: No Problem.