Transcription:
Kaylee Felio: All right. Hi everyone. So I have Mike Weldon, Director of Fixed operations with the Hansel Auto Group. We’ve worked together for about 10 years. And so I wanted to get him on here to just share with you the history of the Hansel Auto Group, and why you guys hired PartsEdge to tell us in your words, what impacts we’ve made on your operations for over 10 years. So- I’ll let you take over.
Mike Weldon: Well, thank you. And then I appreciate you reaching out. It’s been a great relationship between us and PartsEdge. This was actually introduced to me back when I initially started with the company. I started in 2011. Talking to our CFO, we were struggling with our Parts Managers understanding the various different dynamics of their business, then the sourcing, setting up their purchase pricing, setting up labor types that they work with parts. And Robin suggested Robin Helms as our CFO, and he suggested that I reach out and talk to Chuck, which I did back then that was the Chuck show. So, Chuck got involved with us, he did some analysis on our stores. I gotta tell you, that was probably the best decision that we have ever made. It is now allowed the Parts Managers to be Parts Managers and sell parts. And Chuck follows up and PartsEdge follows up and gives us the analytics so that we understand our business, we understand our parts inventory, we understand our aging. And they put it on nice reporting and it assists us so that the managers can look at it and then make the adjustments on the fly or reach out to PartsEdge and get some assistance on making those changes. It’s really been important when we set up our pricing matrixes, and what have you so we’re market sensitive. And so PartsEdge goes in and they look at our setup, and they make recommendations on what we should do. So it’s been a great relationship.
KF: That’s great to hear. And it’s been a consistent change. Not like we just set up the matrix 10 years ago- we’re constantly reviewing that with you guys and making sure we’re staying on top of that.
MW: Yeah, I mean, I would say that I wouldn’t stay with a company unless they are progressive and continually improving their business model. Because if they improve theirs, it improves ours. And it just made it very fluid, I get the reporting, I look at the reporting. The CFO looks at the reporting, he’s got questions, he reaches out to me, and then we dig in, and then we look at where we stand.
KF: That’s great. So with the reporting that we provide, and I know you guys probably still look at your management reports, there’s different things you have to look at. But ours is just kind of like a one pager and you kind of just know what you’re looking at, rather than flipping through the management report.
MW: That’s correct. One page that lays it out, it’s easy to understand. And then we can key in on the areas that really don’t fit. Or if we get input from PartsEdge, we can key in on it and make some adjustments on the fly.
KF: Yeah. And how are your Parts Managers? So have you had a lot of turnover? Have you had them stuck around for a while, you know, 10 years is a long time.
MW: Well in most of our stores, the parts managers are still in play unless they retire. Parts you don’t see a lot of turnover in most cases. What we’ve done however within the company is that we’ve had some movement as people have retired, we move people around and we built better teams. And we’re able to do that because we can put a parts manager in a store and then PartsEdge can lend to support that individual’s learning that store to allow them to be effective and work with the day to day operations.
KF: That’s great. Yeah, I wanted to bring that up. Because that happens a lot where dealerships hire within the move someone with up to the position, and they’re able to do that because we can give them the support they need to learn. So yeah, that’s great that that’s happened for you guys. How would you describe what we do for you, that’s, in your words, just a couple sentences. I love to get this from everyone that I talked to.
MW: Well, I’m gonna be really brief because I like to keep it simple- it’s a great support mechanism and allows us to set up some standards within the business of operating our parts departments and allows the management to understand what’s going on with their department and getting the assistance by PartsEdge to make sure that they’re utilizing their inventory the best that they possibly can.
KF: That’s great. Yeah, that puts it in perspective. Well, I appreciate your time and doing this for us and thanks so much.
MW: Thank you. Appreciate it.