FEATURE BY JENNIFER MARSZALEK SHARING SERVICE RESOURCES Between Customer-Pay and Internal Service Environments S ervice managers and advisors at combined retail and internal service centers often juggle conflicting priorities, personalities, and equipment that can test patience, resources, and the never-forgiving clock. CUSTOMER-PAY IS VITAL TO PROFITABILITY Customer-pay and warranty work is vital to all dealers' profitability and customer relations. Because its focus is the public customer, the retail service function often has the pull in the combined service environment when priorities conflict. INTERNAL OPS SERVICES MORE CARS AND SELLS MORE PARTS We all understand the need to address the retail customers' service and parts needs. We all try our best to dispatch their service and maintenance needs efficiently and promptly. But internal service operations can be too easily pushed aside, even though internal 44 ops services more cars and sells more parts in a period than retail. It has been said a dealership's number one customer is its used car department. Technicians for both retail and internal work hard to deliver quality work and labor hours for their respective customers. In shared environments, resources and equipment are stretched thin under the same unforgiving clock.