by Kelly Grossenbaugh Director, Elevate ServicesHappy New Year!Last month, we talked about the importance of reviewing your settings, processes, and reporting. It was a year-end look back at your business to determine where things went well and where improvements were possible.Now it's 2022 and time to look forward.Below are some tips on how to structure goals for your shop and each team within it, as well as how to act on those goals. Setting specific goals for different teams helps to keep everyone accountable and shows how their performance impacts the success of the whole organization.Set SMART goalsYou’re likely familiar with the idea of SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. It’s a general best practice to set goals with these in mind.

• S: Each department should have a specific goal. It should be clear how their department’s goal will help the shop reach their larger ones.
• M: Goals need to be able to be measured. When there’s a concrete goal to hit, there’s less debate on if it was met or not. Examples of measurable goals are revenue targets, total number of cars serviced, or a particular CSI score.
• A: Set goals for your team that are a stretch for them, but still attainable. What I mean is, something that they may need to work for, but isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
• R: Goals that are relevant answer the question “so what does this mean for me?” When a department sets a goal, it should be around something they have a direct influence on.
• T: It’s important to set a time for an individual (or a department) to reach their goals. These can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or some other relevant time.

Ready, Set, ActionOnce you’ve set your benchmarks for the new year, now comes the hard part: building the action plans to achieve them. We spend a lot of time with shops working on where they want to go and how they can get there.You may say “we need to make more money” or “I think everything is fine, but could we be getting more claims from DRPs?” These are all fine goals, but to act, you need to dig deeper and ask yourself "Why?" and "How?" Here are some common actions plans – do any resonate with you?We often start by looking at your internal system configurations. If you haven’t yet, read my December blog post on planning and system maintenance. The changes you’d like to see then become the SMART goals for your teams.A shop's capture rate has a direct impact on revenue, so you should always know where you stand. CCC's leading Crash Course 2021 report showed that, across the industry, 76% of estimates are converted to repairs. Unless 100% of your estimates convert to repair orders, you should always aim to improve that capture rate: faster response times, more personal follow-up, more explanations of estimate lines, etc.To drive more DRP or Open Shop assignments, customer satisfaction and the impact of positive reviews are critical. Customer expectations around cycle time (an average of 10 days*) and being kept informed throughout the repair process are as high as ever. Net Promoter Scores, an indication of overall customer satisfaction, averages 88 across the industry*.The start of a new year is always an exciting time. It's a chance to reset, renew, and feel reinvigorated about what we can accomplish in the year ahead. Get on the path to success by mapping out SMART goals and get ready for action.*Source: CCC Crash Course 2021