Archives for June 2014

General Motors Creates Stupidest Mobile App EVER

June 19, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

I came across a recent article on ComputerWorld about GM’s China R&D Division’s reveal of a mobile app named DiDi Plate.

In summary, here’s how the app works:

While in your car, you use your mobile phone to take a picture of the license plate of the car in front of you.
After the plate is scanned, it gives you the ability to text the driver/owner of the vehicle.

Some potential uses that director of GM’s China R&D Division, John Du, shares are:

“…a male driver uses Didi Plate to scan and then message a woman driving in front of him. He asks her for a date, which she quickly accepts.”
“…a woman’s car is blocked in a parking lot, so she scans the plate of the car that boxed her in and tells the driver to move the vehicle.”
and, for bonus points, you can “Message people to tell them they’re terrible drivers.”

He even explained that they have “adapted the app to work with Google Glass. Just stare at the plate and it scans it and brings up the persons online profile.”

There are so many fails about this app and potentials for abuse I could go on forever but let’s just cover the very basics here in the interest of brevity.

Some genius at General Motors created an app that you use WHILE DRIVING to TAKE PICTURES and then TEXT MESSAGE people. Seriously?
I’m sure every woman (or man) would completely welcome unsolicited text message propositions from complete strangers while driving around town. What happened to the old fashioned catcalls of yesteryear? You know the wolf whistles and “hey babe” that men yell to attractive women passing by. That worked fine, didn’t it? This is the digital equivalent of that. It’s like one of those dating services where all the attractive women get bombarded with messages from lonely men (or vice versa). So much for your cell phone battery life.
Now, instead of just flipping off the idiot who cut you off or screaming obscenities at them that they may or may not hear, you’ll be able to ensure that they understand exactly what you say by simply text messaging them. Maybe you can send a selfie of you flipping them off accompanied by some choice words. Of course, when you text message someone using this app it is a) obvious that you are in the vicinity and b) your phone number is displayed on their phone. Now all of those unstable drivers who cannot control their temper will have even more opportunity to participate in a little road rage. Anybody up for the Roadside Fight Club? (It’s OK as long as you don’t talk about it.)

This is the most boneheaded, stupidest, insane, irresponsible, crazy, dangerous (I have a lot more adjectives for this) app ever conceived by anyone much less an automotive manufacturer’s R&D division. Yeah, it’s only in China so that makes it OK, right? They have too many people anyways. Perhaps this is GM’s way of contributing to world overpopulation.

At least they gave it an appropriate name.. Didi. I don’t know what that means in China but all I can think of when I hear this in context of this app is Carlos Menica’s signature phrase:

Educators Need To Stop Acting Like They’re In High School

June 11, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

If you know me, you know that I know a little about conferences. If you don’t know me, just check out my LinkedIn profile and you’ll see that I’ve been involved in some capacity with 16 automotive conferences/events in the past 5 years. Some of them I was super involved in organizing curriculum and marketing the event for the conference itself and some of them I was working for vendors in one capacity or another – sometimes even multiple vendors at a single event. I believe that it is in the best interest of dealers to get the education they desire to take their sales and dealerships to the next level.

Favorites don’t matter to me. Sure, I have the events that I like to go to, as does everyone who has attended conferences. I personally don’t care which conference a dealer wishes to attend. The whole point is for the dealer to attend a conference that offers content that they feel will help them be more successful in our business. That’s why I created a list of every physical automotive event I am aware of and even included a form for people to submit events that I’m not aware of. This is an unbiased list that I hoped dealers would use to identify events that may be convenient for them to attend. Let’s face it. Only 5% of dealers actually attend events. Sometimes that’s due to budget. Sometimes it’s due to a lack of motivation. I thought it would be a valuable resource and have had a lot of positive feedback about it. In fact, I’ve heard feedback from vendors that they also use my list because there are so many events that it’s difficult to keep track of them and make decisions on where to allocate their budgets.

I’ve seen a lot of bickering and in fighting over the years between cliques (for lack of a better word) of people concerning events. I am certainly NOT innocent in this. In the past, I was definitely pretty blunt and not afraid to promote an event I was involved in even if it meant ruffling feathers. I’ve learned my lesson and I do my best to no longer get involved with these politics and stay as under the radar as possible. Hell, I’m not good at being PC anyways so why bother.

The genesis of this blog post is that I just attended an excellent educational event for auto dealers. At this event, I met a person who has only been in the automotive industry for TWO MONTHS. At one point, this person candidly asked me which event(s) they should attend. This person shared that as they connected and interacted with people on social media, they would get messages from people saying they shouldn’t interact with certain people; that they were not good influences; that they were bad people. This person has seen the insane hostile conversations in public between vendors. They have only been in our business for two months and it’s already apparent to this person that there are cliques of people; that they don’t like each other; that they bad talk each other… and it’s really turning this person off.

Everyone wants to talk a good game of education for dealers as a primary goal. If that is true, let’s all focus on providing those opportunities for dealers. I’m not saying that everyone has to like everyone else or that we all need to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.” All I’m saying is that dealers that are just entering our business are noticing all of this fighting. If newbies know about it, is it not very probable that veterans also do?

When this person finished telling me this, I felt ashamed. I am ashamed that dealers are being put in a position in which they are being pressured to “choose sides” and are being told that if they like X person, then they cannot be “friends” with them. This is unacceptable behavior from an industry full of professional experts who claim to have a goal of educating dealers. It is also detrimental to revenue and attendance at not only their events but all educational events.

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Just realize that the opinions expressed in public forums are being noticed and absorbed by dealers and some of them are choosing not to get an education because of unprofessional behavior that they are being exposed to

To anyone holding educational events: Please don’t deprive dealers of an education. If you truly care about helping dealers improve and succeed, please let this be a wake up call.

In the end, the ones who are really losing are the dealers.

[P.S. I am NOT directing this towards anyone specifically. The dealership employee that expressed these sentiments inspired this blog. I don’t harbor any ill will towards any people or their educational events. Sure, I have my personal opinions and I’m not perfect and in no way am I trying to judge anyone. The purpose of this blog was to share this story. I sincerely hope that nobody takes this personally. I can only hope that the people that need to hear this message do so and take a moment to reflect on behavior that may be unbecoming of them as professionals and reflect poorly on them as educators.]

[P.S.S. Not only is it turning dealers off, it’s also causing vendors to second guess whether they want to be associated with an event.]

How to Be Sensationally Successful As A Manager

June 2, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

Building employee loyalty is almost as tough as building customer loyalty. If you’re not able to instill loyalty in your employees, how can you expect to be able to in your customers? According to Inc. magazine, in almost every exit interview, one of the top reasons for an employee leaving is a bad manager. HubSpot Founder and CTO, Dharmesh Shah, wrote an excellent article titled “10 Ways To Be Sensationally Successful At Your Job.” In thinking about the tips he gave, it occurred to me that while every one of his tips is fantastic advice, they would only be successful if a manager noticed and reciprocated, when necessary.

The best employee in the world can go unnoticed without attentive managers. This led me to turn those steps on their head and ask if some of these steps to being “sensationally successful” could be turned around and applied to management as way for a manager to be… well… sensationally successful at managing.

Be a Manager who is helpful, not one who tells people what to do – Too often, managers get so caught up in goal-oriented tasks that they fail to really see what’s going on around them. In the performance driven world of car dealerships, top performers are easily identified and rewarded. There are very few directions that a manager could give an employee that couldn’t be phrased as a request for help rather than a directive from the boss. By changing how you give direction, your employees perception of you can change to one in which you are viewed as someone that is there to help them succeed rather than simply someone who tells them what to do. It will also build a relationship with your employee in which they don’t feel afraid to ask for help and, ultimately, that is what you want. By encouraging employees to ask for help when they need it and nurturing the relationship to one of a mentor, you will be more able to manage and train effectively. By being someone that cares about them they, in turn, will care more about you.
Let performance build relationships – In this context, I’m not referring to your top producers but rather to those employees who make an effort to perform and/or increase their performance. Employees who are actively trying to better their performance are invested in your company. That’s the first step for an employee in developing company loyalty.
Watch for those who go the extra mile and reward them – The second step for an employee towards company loyalty is becoming engaged with the success of your business. The best way to identify these employees is through their actions. These are the employees that are going out of their way to assist a customer that is above and beyond. They’re the ones who stay late when you need them to; the ones that come in early or on their day off for an appointment rather than have another salesperson assist a customer that they have built rapport with. Your employees have lives outside your dealerships and when they give up more than the large amounts of time they already invest in your business to personally assist someone, they should be recognized above and beyond normal. If they give above and beyond, you should reciprocate for them and show them your appreciation.
Find the employees who mimic your top performers – These employees are exceptionally important as they are the ones that are actively seeking to improve themselves by identifying your top performers and mimicking them rather than hanging out with your average or sub-par performers. Just as good managers recognize the value in training, your future superstars will develop out of employees who are seeking to better themselves and further their success.
Identify employees who stand out – These employees are the ones that are providing not only exceptional customer experiences but are the ones providing exceptional company culture experiences. They are the ones who are bringing positive energy into work; the ones that their peers like to work with; the ones that you like having around and, most importantly, the ones that your customers like to deal with. Most of the time, these employees will also rank amongst your top performers naturally.
Identify employees who help others – Employees that actively seek to help their peers become better are engaged in your company. They are the ones who want their peers and your dealership to succeed. An engaged employee is actively showing their company loyalty whether they realize it or not. They are invested emotionally. These employees are not only satisfied with their job but are also actively working to make your dealership better both for customer and their co-workers.
Don’t forget why you hired them – At some point in time, employees came into your dealership needing a job. They all possessed qualities that you felt important to be successful and you made a decision to hire them. Always remember what those qualities were and seek to assist them not only in retaining those qualities but also in improving qualities that may need improving.

Employee loyalty is something that must be earned by a company. In this day and age of high turnover, businesses need to recognize that the days of an employee earning the loyalty of a company are no more. As the Internet has opened up the world to employees and job-hunters alike, employment opportunities have expanded from strictly local ones to national and even worldwide possibilities. Great employees are a dime a dozen and by showing that your company is loyal to them you will vastly increase not only employee retention but also create employees that are engaged in your business’s success and are loyal in return.

Your employee’s loyalty is crucial to developing customer loyalty and retention. If your employees don’t like working for you, you’ll be hard pressed to build the excellent customer experience needed today to differentiate yourself from your competition.