Antot Report #001
The Disappearing Keys (v1 & v2)
By Antot — FIND IT ROBOT Field Reports
Typical dealership version (v1). Your dealership?
9:05 A.M. Monday morning.
The Toyota Camry is right where it’s supposed to be. Zone 4. 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 in the sales tower. One set in the porter’s office, on the brown pegboard. Pegs numbered by the last two digits of the stock number. Stock #44247 hangs on peg 47. Two locations. Belt and suspenders. Bulletproof system.
Until it isn’t.
9:06 A.M. Monday morning.
After greeting the customer and running back inside, the salesman checks the key locker. No key. 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.
9:10 A.M. Monday morning.
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.
9:13 A.M. Monday morning.
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.
9:19 A.M. Monday morning.
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.
9:17 A.M. Monday morning.
The customer leaves. Did not test drive. Did not buy. Did not come back.
Total time spent looking for keys: 14 minutes.
Total cost of the missing keys: one Toyota Camry sale (approximately $4,200 in gross. Plus the payroll hours spent looking. Plus the manager’s blood pressure).
Total Camrys sold: Zero.
This happens 8 to 12 times a month at the average rooftop.
Now for the FIND IT ROBOT version (v2)
9:05 A.M. Monday morning.
The Toyota Camry is right where it’s supposed to be. Zone 4. Customer can see it. Customer is touching it.
What the customer cannot do is get inside the Toyota Camry.
Because the keys are gone.
9:05 A.M. Monday morning.
Salesman pulls out his iPhone. Opens the FIND IT ROBOT app. Types in the Camry stock number.
Ping!
Car: Zone 4. Obviously.
Key 1: Service drive, bay 3.
Key 2: Sales tower.
9:05 A.M. Monday morning.
Salesman walks to the sales tower. Doesn't find the key in the locker, so he opens a few drawers. There is Key 2, in the drawer under the coffee pot, sitting next to a packet of artificial sweetener and a pen from a bank that closed in 2019. He grabs it.
9:06 A.M. Monday morning.
Salesman walks back to Zone 4. Hands the key to the customer. Customer unfolds his arms. The grimace goes away. The grimace is replaced by the other face — the contented face that test-drives a Camry.
9:06 A.M. Monday morning.
No huhs. No pages. No porters running. No manager. No phone call to the tech who detailed the car last Tuesday. The lost-and-found bucket is undisturbed. The burrito stays in the bucket (where it belongs.)
9:48 A.M. Monday morning.
Customer buys the Camry.
Total time spent looking for keys: sixty seconds.
Total cost of the missing keys: zero (there were no missing keys).
Total Camrys sold: one.
This happens 8 to 12 times a month at the average rooftop.
FIND IT ROBOT pings the keys. Both keys. And the car. From your iPhone. In about six seconds.
With FIND IT ROBOT, lost keys are a thing of the past.
Ping!
— Antot
FIND IT ROBOT™ PING!Tag™: The tracking tag that always knows where your inventory is.
Antot Report #002
The Porter Who Knew Too Much (v1 & v2)
By Antot — FIND IT ROBOT Field Reports
Typical dealership version (v1). Your dealership?
His name was Eddie. He had been a porter at the dealership for nineteen years. Eddie did not have a desk. Eddie did not have a title that fit on a business card. What Eddie had was a map.
Not a paper map. A map in his head.
Eddie knew that the silver Equinox was behind the body shop because the alignment rack was down Tuesday. Eddie knew the red Sierra was parked at the back fence because the customer who put a deposit on it lived two streets over and liked to drive by. Eddie knew which key hook the loaner Malibu actually lived on, which was not the hook labeled MALIBU.
Eddie knew where everything was. All the time. Always.
When a salesman couldn’t find a car, he found Eddie. When a manager couldn’t find a key, he found Eddie. When the auction transporter showed up at 6 a.m. for four units that were “ready,” Eddie was the one who found them, because two of them were not where the dispatch sheet said they were.
Eddie retired on a Friday. There was cake.
Monday morning, a customer wanted to see a white Tahoe. The salesman walked the front line. Not there. He walked the back line. Not there. He walked the overflow lot across the street. Not there.
Huh.
He went inside and asked the desk. The desk asked the tower. The tower asked the service drive. The service drive said try detail. Detail said try the body shop. The body shop said it left Friday.
It had not left Friday. It was on the lot. Somewhere.
Three salesmen and the used car manager walked the entire property for forty minutes. They found the Tahoe behind the parts building, next to a stack of pallets, where Eddie had moved it eleven days earlier to make room for a trade-in appraisal.
Nobody told Eddie they couldn’t find the Tahoe. Eddie was on a cruise.
The customer bought a Tahoe. At another store.
Total time spent looking for the Tahoe: forty minutes.
Total cost of the missing Tahoe: one sale (approximately $5,800 in gross. Plus the forty minutes of three salesmen and a manager. Plus the moment everyone realized that nineteen years of Eddie’s brain had walked out the door with a sheet cake and a Home Depot gift card).
Total Tahoes sold: Zero.
This happens at every dealership. The Eddies retire. The Eddies quit. The Eddies get hired away. The map in their head goes with them.
Now for the FIND IT ROBOT version (v2)
Eddie retired on a Friday. There was cake.
Monday morning, a customer wanted to see a white Tahoe. The salesman pulled out his iPhone. Opened the FIND IT ROBOT app. Typed in the Tahoe stock number.
Ping!
Tahoe: Zone 7 (behind the parts building, next to a stack of pallets).
Key 1: Porter's Office Pegboard.
Key 2: Sales tower.
The salesman walked behind the parts building. There was the Tahoe, right where Eddie had left it eleven days earlier.
No desk. No tower. No service drive. No detail. No body shop. No phone calls. No forty-minute property walk. No three salesmen and a used car manager.
The customer test-drove the Tahoe.
Total time spent looking for the Tahoe: six seconds.
Total cost of the missing Tahoe: zero (it wasn’t missing).
Total Tahoes sold: one.
FIND IT ROBOT pings every car. From your iPhone. In about six seconds. The map is in the app, not in Eddie.
Eddie can finish his cruise.
Ping!
— Antot
FIND IT ROBOT™ PING!Tag™: The tracking tag that always knows where your inventory is.
Antot Report #003
The Loaner That Got Loaned Twice (v1 & v2)
By Antot — FIND IT ROBOT Field Reports
Typical dealership version (v1). Your dealership?
10:42 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mrs. Patterson drops off her Equinox for a transmission flush. Service advisor writes her up, hands her the key to loaner #L-14, a silver Trax. Mrs. Patterson drives away. She has a hair appointment at eleven.
10:43 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Service advisor hangs the loaner key tag back on the loaner board. Not the L-14 hook. The L-41 hook. Two digits, transposed. The kind of mistake a human makes about 400 times a year and never notices 399 of them.
11:15 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mr. Delgado drops off his Silverado for a recall. Different service advisor. Different write-up. She walks to the loaner board, sees a key on the L-14 hook (it's actually L-41's key, but the tag says L-14 because somebody re-tagged it last month after a fender bender and nobody updated the board), and hands it to Mr. Delgado. “Silver Trax, third row of loaners, you can’t miss it.”
11:17 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mr. Delgado walks to the third row of loaners. He cannot miss it. He also cannot find it. Because L-14 is currently in the parking lot of a Supercuts on Foothill Boulevard.
Mr. Delgado walks back inside. He says “I can’t find the Trax.” The service advisor says “huh.”
11:22 A.M. Tuesday morning.
The service advisor walks out with Mr. Delgado. They walk the third row. They walk the fourth row. They walk the back row. There is a silver Trax in the back row. The key does not work. Because it is L-41’s key. And that is L-08.
Now there are two huhs.
11:31 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Service manager comes out. Loaner coordinator comes out. The loaner board is examined. The clipboard is examined. The DMS is examined. Mr. Delgado is examined, by which I mean he is offered a coffee and a chair and the universal dealership phrase “we’re so sorry, we’ll have this sorted in just a minute.” This is the phrase dealerships use when they know it will not be a minute.
11:47 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Somebody finally calls Mrs. Patterson. Mrs. Patterson does not answer. Mrs. Patterson is under a dryer.
11:58 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mr. Delgado is given the keys to a different loaner — a Malibu that was supposed to go to somebody else at one o’clock. This will become a separate problem at one o’clock.
12:24 P.M. Tuesday afternoon.
Mrs. Patterson calls back. She is confused. She has the Trax. She always had the Trax. Nobody said she didn’t have the Trax. She has a hair appointment, which is now finished, and she would like to know if her Equinox is ready.
The Equinox is not ready. The Equinox has not been touched. The transmission flush bay has spent the last hour and forty-two minutes being a conference room.
Total time spent on the loaner-that-got-loaned-twice: one hour and forty-two minutes.
Total cost: one furious recall customer, one confused hair-appointment customer, one downstream Malibu problem at 1 P.M., one transmission flush that did not happen, and approximately four staff hours of payroll spent walking rows and staring at a pegboard.
Total loaners successfully loaned: One. To the right person. By accident.
This happens at every dealership with a loaner fleet. The pegboard lies. The clipboard lies. The DMS lies, because the DMS only knows what somebody typed into it, and somebody typed L-14 when they meant L-41.
Now for the FIND IT ROBOT version (v2)
10:42 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mrs. Patterson drops off her Equinox for a transmission flush. Service advisor writes her up, hands her the key to loaner #L-14, a silver Trax. Mrs. Patterson drives away. She has a hair appointment at eleven.
10:43 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Service advisor hangs the loaner key tag back on the loaner board. Wrong hook. Same mistake. Humans gonna human.
11:15 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Mr. Delgado drops off his Silverado. Service advisor walks to the loaner board, reaches for the key on the L-14 hook. Before she takes it down, she pulls out her iPhone. Opens the FIND IT ROBOT app. Types L-14.
Ping!
Vehicle L-14: Off-lot.
Key 1: On loaner board, hook L-41.
Key 2: Off-lot (with vehicle).
11:15 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Service advisor says “huh,” but it is the small, useful kind of huh — the kind that happens before a problem, not after one. She puts the L-41-tagged key back on the correct L-14 hook. She types L-08 into the app.
Ping!
Vehicle L-08: Loaner row 3, space 12.
Key 1: Loaner board, hook L-08.
Key 2: Loaner coordinator’s desk drawer.
She hands Mr. Delgado the correct key to the correct silver Trax. Mr. Delgado walks to row 3, space 12. There is L-08. The key works. Mr. Delgado drives away.
11:18 A.M. Tuesday morning.
Nobody calls Mrs. Patterson. Mrs. Patterson is under a dryer, undisturbed. The transmission flush bay is flushing a transmission. The 1 P.M. Malibu is still available for the 1 P.M. customer. The loaner board is correct. The pegboard tells the truth, because the iPhone told the truth first.
Total time spent on the loaner-that-almost-got-loaned-twice: about ninety seconds.
Total cost: zero.
Total loaners successfully loaned: One. To the right person. On purpose.
This happens 8 to 12 times a month at the average rooftop. With FIND IT ROBOT, it happens zero times, because the app checks the pegboard against reality before reality checks the pegboard against the customer.
The pegboard can lie. The PING! cannot.
Ping!
— Antot
FIND IT ROBOT™ PING!Tag™: The tracking tag that always knows where your inventory is.
Next report: “The Trade-In That Came Back Twice”
