Reynolds and Reynolds Launches Service Price Guides Master Certification Program

DAYTON, Ohio, Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reynolds and Reynolds has broadly launched the Service Price Guides (SPG) Master Certification Program for dealerships whose goal it is to increase their usage of the ERA^® SPG service repair estimating tool as one more strategy to increase profitability for the Service department.

"Our research shows a direct relationship between SPG utilization and gross profit in Service," said Jon Strawsburg, vice president of Product Planning at Reynolds. "In fact, as SPG utilization increases, dealers typically attain higher profitability in gross labor and gross parts charges per repair order. Dealerships also record higher labor hours per repair order, as well as higher effective labor rates."

In response to the research findings, Reynolds developed the SPG Master Certification Program to provide dealers with additional training and coaching to help them increase their utilization of SPG, with an eye toward delivering improved business results for their dealership.

The SPG Master Certification Program includes classroom instruction and system specification refinement, led by Reynolds' SPG experts. In addition, once training is complete, the Reynolds team will monitor the dealership's performance for one year. To achieve full SPG Master Certification at the end of the 12-month period, the dealer must achieve pre-defined goals for increased SPG utilization and effective labor rate increases.

Nearly two dozen dealerships piloted the SPG Master Certification Program and the results were tracked over a 12-month period. The dealerships achieved measurable increases to critical variables in their service operations, including an average increase in their effective labor rates of $2.75 over 12 months, which equated to an average of nearly $85,000 more per dealership in annual profits.

Dealers should contact their Reynolds Account Manager for more information on the SPG Master Certification Program. For more information on the Reynolds SPG tool, visit www.reyrey.com/SPG.

About Reynolds
Reynolds and Reynolds is the automotive industry's leading provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms to help dealerships improve business results.  The company is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with major operations in Houston and College Station, Texas, and Celina, Ohio.  (www.reyrey.com)

SOURCE The Reynolds and Reynolds Company