Company: EFG Companies
Company Description: For more than 45 years, EFG Companies has provided consumer protection programs for vehicles and residences across seven market channels. The company’s strategic intent is to build sustainable market differentiation and profitability for its clients and partners, including dealers, lenders, manufacturers, independent marketers and agents.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training Team of the Year - External - Financial Services Industries
 Nomination Title: Outpacing the Industry with Service Training
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 14 words used.
The attached reports from NADA show average dealership service drive income on page 12.
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated team, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Outline the team's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
As the pandemic impacted dealership inventories, dealers recognized the need to increase their service center revenue. The two case studies below demonstrate the impact EFG’s 10 years of experience building out its service center training and consulting practice had on clients.
Conklin Automotive Group
After more than a decade of struggling with Conklin Cars’ three service center locations to generate an effective labor rate, standardize processes, and streamline customer service, the auto group leaned on EFG to revitalize service center operations. EFG worked with the dealership ownership and management each location to:
- Develop a new “pandemic era” service drive strategy
- Define/evolve its business processes and governance model
- Execute a custom training curriculum for the service personnel
Results:
- 53% increase in service sales
- 57% increase in gross profit through service
- 56% increase in average sales per repair order
Vicars Powersports
Vicars Powersports engaged EFG in 2020 to improve service center operations. At the time, the service center struggled with customer service and retention, resulting in increased cost to resolve disputes, negative reviews, and poor morale. Traditionally, dealerships rely on service centers to cover operating expenses. This is called service absorption. In 2020, the service center for Vicars was actually costing the dealership money rather than covering expenses.
EFG Companies implemented new processes, training, and ongoing accountability inspections of what dealership management expected. In less than a year, the dealership increased its service absorption by 66%. They also achieved a 4.5-star Google rating, as well as a 4.6-star Facebook rating.
- Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 164 words used.
For more than 45 years, EFG Companies has provided national consumer protection programs for vehicles and residences across seven market channels. The company’s strategic intent is to build sustainable market differentiation and profitability for its clients. EFG’s award-winning engagement model is built upon the belief that the company serves as an extension of its clients’ management teams, providing ongoing F&I development, training, product innovation, compliance, and nationally recognized product administration.
This engagement model includes regular onsite support for everything from sales, finance, and service training to reinsurance reporting. That on-site support is reinforced by EFG’s operations, training, recruiting, and marketing teams to provide in-depth expertise and business recommendations.
EFG’s training team plays a pivotal role in EFG’s client engagement model for EFG’s automotive dealership and agency clients. Team members not only hold formal classroom training sessions on sales, finance and insurance, and service bay best practices, they also conduct on-site auditing and process reviews with senior management, and informal one-on-one training with individual employees.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the team's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 186 words used.
All franchise dealerships include a service center for their customers, as required by the OEM. Aside from the service center covering dealership expenses, repeat service center customers are more likely to purchase their next vehicle from the dealership, lowering the business cost per acquisition.
Most dealers advanced their careers through vehicle sales and very often struggle with understanding and managing the challenge of maximizing service center profitability. This was only exacerbated with the pandemic, forcing dealers to operate with less staff across the board.
According to the National Automobile Dealer’s Association, from 2019 to 2020, dealerships across the U.S. saw an 8% decrease in service and parts sales. In 2021, limited inventory and parts supplies sent costs skyward, resulting in a sharp 12% increase in sales. This was again repeated in 2022 with a 10% increase through June.
Meanwhile, Conklin Auto group grew profit by 57% and Vicars increased service absorption by 66%. Both dealerships significantly outpaced the industry, demonstrating that quality service drive consulting and training from EFG helped the dealerships increase service center income well beyond inflationary measures, generating impressive net profit results.
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