According to Franchise Direct, there’s 38,000 auto franchise units among over 100 concepts currently operating in the United States. These concepts include aftermarket parts and accessories, maintenance and repair and cosmetic and paint. We took a look at the most important KPIs in this segment of the franchise community.

Sales and Marketing

Star Rating

87% of consumers will not consider working with a business with only 1-2 stars, according to SearchEngineLand. Franchisees who don’t stay on top of reviews could pay a heavy price. Tracking their star rating on Google, Yelp and similar sites is a key marketing metric.

Quote Capture Rate

Number of transactions is a way to assess customer count. This can typically be retrieved from your point of sale (POS) system.

Quote Capture Rate = Total Sales ÷ Total Quotes

Customer Acquisition Rate

A strong automotive business has a combination of new customers and retained customers. The customer acquisition rate, as a ratio, tells you how good the business is at sales. In the world of “hunters vs. farmers”, these are the hunters.

Customer Acquisition Rate = New Customers ÷ Total Customers

Operations

Customer Retention Rate

As a complement to the sales metric above, the customer retention rate tracks how well your service team is performing. Automotive businesses rely on repeat customers, so you want to keep this KPI strong.

Customer Retention Rate = Repeat Customers ÷ Total Customers (a complement to customer acquisition rate)

Productivity

Productivity measures how much free time your technicians have. If this is low, it shows there is not enough work to support the staff that you have.

Productivity = Hours Clocked ÷ Hours Available

Efficiency %

If a tech takes 4 hours to complete a 5 hour repair, his efficiency is 125%. This number tells you about the systems you have in place, the accuracy of quotes and your team performance as a whole.

Efficiency % = Sold Hours ÷ Worked Hours x 100

Sales Mix %

As a franchisor, you may see advantages of franchisees performing one service over another. Usually these services are higher-margin and can enhance the profitability of the business overall.

Sales Mix % = Revenue from X Service ÷ Total Revenue x 100

Cycle Time

Cycle time can be measured in many ways, but the most practical one according to experts is from time from drop-off to delivery. This can be measured based on the POS or other operational systems.

The best way to help your franchisees reach their goals is to measure performance along the way. Learn more about FranConnect’s leading performance tools that can help you track the KPIs that matter most and make a positive difference in your business.