Antot Report #001
The Disappearing Keys
By Antot — FIND IT ROBOT Field Reports
The Toyota Camry is right where it’s supposed to be. Stall 47. Customer can see it. Customer is touching it.
What the customer cannot do is get inside the Toyota Camry.
Because the keys are gone.
Now — and this is the part dealers know but never say out loud — keys are usually kept in two places. One set in the key locker behind the sales tower. One set in the porter’s office, on the brown pegboard, third hook from the left. Two locations. Belt and suspenders. Bulletproof system.
Until it isn’t.
The salesman checks the locker. Empty hook. He says “huh,” which is the universal dealership word for this is about to be a problem. He pages the porter. Porter checks the pegboard. Empty hook. Porter says “huh.” Now there are two huhs. Two huhs is a situation.
Manager comes out. Manager does not say “huh.” Manager says something else.
Meanwhile, the customer is still standing next to the Camry. Arms crossed. Grimacing. The kind of grimace that says I drove forty minutes for this.
By minute eight, there are four people involved: two porters, one salesman, one manager. Three of them are running. One of them is on the phone with a tech who detailed the car last Tuesday. They are checking pockets. They are checking detail bay drawers. They are checking the lost-and-found bucket where someone once found a wedding ring and a half-eaten burrito.
By minute fourteen, somebody finds one key in a service advisor’s jacket. Wrong jacket. Right key. Nobody knows how it got there.
The other key is never found. It is, presumably, still on the lot. Somewhere.
The customer leaves. Did not test drive. Did not buy. Did not come back.
Total cost of the missing keys: one Toyota Camry sale. Approximately $4,200 in gross. Plus the four payroll hours spent looking. Plus the manager’s blood pressure.
This happens 8 to 12 times a month at the average rooftop.
FIND IT ROBOT pings the keys. Both keys. From your iPhone. In about six seconds.
Customer test-drives the Camry. Manager keeps his blood pressure. The burrito stays in the bucket where it belongs.
Ping!
— Antot
Next report: “The Porter Who Knew Too Much”