Not being a motor industry person, I occasionally read or hear things that make me wonder why…
One such recent prod was when I read that new car salesmen (and women) in UK car dealerships are paid more than those who work in customer facing roles in car servicing departments. I had imagined that they would be paid a similar amount with or without commission incentives because many dealerships tell me that garage services including car servicing and repairs are worth c50% of their income. And because I believe that with a bit more effort car servicing could be a bit more lucrative too 
.
I am not talking about technicians here as clearly their skills are not/should not be transferable.
But shouldn’t they be seen as equal in customer facing roles? If one knows about car sales and the other about car servicing shouldn’t they be working together, marrying their skills in a form of a coalition in car dealerships as it were?
Why not move staff around more, so they understand the big picture not just their part of it. And make car servicing staff feel as important not less important than sales staff?
Why is it that garage services are so often hidden away at the back, unless they are a separate business like Renault Minute or Ford Rapid Fit perhaps?
It makes sense to me and there are clearly customer service lessons to be learned in both areas so why not make the car two dealership departments female friendly buddies rather than very separate silos, one more highly regarded than the other.
After all the route to the showroom might be via garage services and garage services might end up accounting for more than half the new car sales income.
The reason must be the franchising car manufacturers I imagine?
FOXY Steph
