The Institute of the Motor Industry is calling on factors to consider accreditation to improve their efficiency and profitability on the back of a recent update of their ATA Parts Adviser assessment.
Recent changes to the ATA Parts Adviser accreditation ensure that it is more relevant than ever by responding to industry demand for a more customer-orientated approach. These include customer and profit retention, achieving more first time fixes and reducing policy loss. The changes to the assessment have been successfully piloted by Dingbro and CES and will be rolled out from April.
The IMI scheme is designed for advisors who ideally have two years’ industry experience and/or hold a nationally recognised qualification with 12 months post-qualification experience. There are two specific ATA accreditations of Parts Advisor and Senior Parts Advisor.
A study carried out by the IMI found that ATA enabled major motor factor Allparts to significantly reduce the number of returned parts, providing considerable savings to the business and a return on investment of 136 per cent. In real terms, ATA accreditation has demonstrated that the Parts Advisors at Allparts were accurately fulfilling the vast majority of their sales orders first time.
Steve Nash, the IMI’s Chief Executive, commented: “Historically, parts customer service and sales training has been underrepresented in this important sub-sector, as these skills are often seen as only being relevant to showroom or frontline service staff in the motor industry.
“However, as Allparts have proved, this could be a significant growth opportunity for motor factors and parts departments. Our commitment to the updating of ATA Parts Adviser accreditation reflects how important this area of development is to the overall success of the automotive retail sector.”
To find out more about ATA Parts visit www.ata.theimi.org.uk where you can also find details of your nearest training provider undertaking the assessments. From this April, ATA parts accredited individuals will also be added to the IMI’s Professional Register.
The Professional Register represents and promotes individuals who have proved they have the right skills, knowledge and competence to practise professionally within the automotive retail industry.
The IMI is also launching the public facing element of their Professional Register this April. The Professional Register represents individuals who have proved they have the right skills, knowledge and competence to practise professionally within the automotive retail sector and will be available for public viewing at www.imiregister.org.uk.
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