Des Moines, Iowa -- "Business prompted our decision to increase the size of our service department," said Ron Short, service manager of Toyota of Des Moines. "We are selling more cars than ever before and obviously are going to retain that volume in our service department as well. So we had a need, in the service department, to keep up with the volume of customers. For the last 18 months, we have set a record in service each month, even with all the construction going on." Short said the service department remodeling "started with just a basic idea that I had drawn out. I had this idea and put it on my computer, and then gave that to our owner, who then took it to the architect and from there to Toyota. Then, Mr. Gabus and the construction contractor together molded it and built it to what it is today."
Royal Construction Co. is the contractor for the project, Short said, while all the equipment comes through the Toyota Tool Program. He said that Jim McVey of McVey Hoist installed the hoists and the overhead exhaust, and Ryko Manufacturing Co. of Grimes, Iowa, installed the automatic car wash. He said a new Hunter alignment rack that will be able to accommodate the new Toyota Tundra truck has also been installed;. Boyer Petroleum did the oil delivery system.
Short, who has worked in the service department for the past 10 years, including the past two as service manager, said that before the addition, the shop had 23 bays with 27 technicians. With the addition, he said, the service department now has 32 bays and 34 technicians. The technicians work on staggered schedules, so that the hoists remain full at all times, he said.
"My only concern is that the addition is not big enough," Short said. "It's a good time to work for Toyota, they have a great product, and with the volume of cars we are selling, we will outgrow the beautiful facility we now have.
"Last year," he said, "Toyota of Des Moines received the President's Cabinet Award, the Service Excellence Award, Parts Excellence Award, and the Customer Relation Award as well as others.
"In order to keep up with the increasing sales and service," Short said, "we now have over 20 loaner vehicles, everything from Avalons, Corollas, Camrys, and even the new Tundra trucks as loaners compared to the seven Corollas that we had when I started 10 years ago. Everything we do back here revolves around customer satisfaction. We have five retail service advisers and two internal service advisers. The retail advisers take care of all the customers that come in the service drive and the internal advisers handle the new and used cars that we have in inventory."
Just as technology is changing how cars are worked on, it is also changing how business is done on the service drive, Short said, noting that many customers now choose to schedule their service appointments on the Internet. There is a service scheduler on the company's Web site, he noted.
To make sure that new customers are aware of the dealership's other departments, Short said that when someone purchases a car, the dealership has a special delivery team that goes over the vehicle with the customer and sets the first service appointment.
"One of the other reasons our retention is so good," Short said, "is that we have an unusual pickup and delivery system. We have 14 retired people that are bused out each morning to pick up customers' cars or trucks, bring them back to us for service, and then deliver the vehicle back to either the customer's home or business."
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