Every dealership wants better performance.
Most look at sales targets, inventory levels, and customer traffic.
Those things matter.
Operational friction matters too.
It slows teams down. It creates mistakes. It wastes time. It frustrates customers. It costs money.
The biggest challenge is that operational friction often looks normal.
Managers get used to it.
Employees work around it.
Customers experience it without knowing the cause.
The dealerships that improve performance are usually the ones that identify friction early and remove it quickly.
What Is Operational Friction?
Operational friction is anything that makes work harder than it needs to be.
It can be a process.
It can be a system.
It can be poor communication.
It can be unclear responsibility.
A salesperson waits for an approval.
A manager searches for information.
A customer waits for paperwork.
A service advisor tracks down an update.
Each delay seems small.
Together, they create a major problem.
One dealership manager described it this way:
“We weren’t losing hours. We were losing minutes. The problem was we were losing those minutes hundreds of times a day.”
That is operational friction.
Why Friction Hurts Performance
Small Delays Become Big Costs
A delay of five minutes does not sound serious.
Multiply it across dozens of employees.
Multiply it across weeks and months.
The cost grows quickly.
Research from workflow and operations studies consistently shows that employees can lose significant portions of their day switching between tasks, searching for information, and waiting for approvals.
A dealership does not need a major breakdown to lose performance.
Small interruptions create enough damage.
One sales manager shared an example:
“Our team was waiting on desk approvals several times a day. Nobody noticed until we tracked it. We were losing more than an hour per salesperson every week.”
The problem was hidden.
The impact was real.
Friction Creates Inconsistent Results
Consistency drives performance.
Friction creates variation.
One employee follows the process one way.
Another finds a shortcut.
A third creates a workaround.
Now three different versions of the same task exist.
Customers notice.
Managers notice.
Results become harder to predict.
One general manager recalled:
“We had three finance managers doing the same job three different ways. Nobody realized it until we mapped the process.”
That inconsistency created delays throughout the store.
Where Friction Usually Appears
Inventory Management
Inventory creates friction when information is incomplete or delayed.
Managers spend time chasing answers.
Pricing decisions get postponed.
Aging units remain untouched.
Mark Stephen McCollum has often pointed out that inventory problems rarely come from a lack of information. They usually come from a lack of action tied to that information.
One operator described a familiar situation:
“We had a report showing every unit over 45 days. We spent more time talking about the report than fixing the cars.”
That is friction.
The report exists.
The action does not.
Deal Structure and Approvals
Approvals are necessary.
Slow approvals create bottlenecks.
Customers wait.
Salespeople wait.
Managers get interrupted repeatedly.
One desk manager explained:
“The same deal got reviewed three times because nobody knew who had final authority.”
The issue was not the deal.
The issue was the process.
Customer Handoffs
Customers often interact with multiple departments.
Sales.
Finance.
Service.
Delivery.
Each handoff creates risk.
One missed detail can create confusion.
A dealership leader shared this example:
“The salesperson promised a delivery time. Service had a different schedule. The customer ended up waiting an extra hour.”
The customer saw one dealership.
The dealership experienced three disconnected processes.
Signs Your Dealership Has Too Much Friction
Employees Create Workarounds
Workarounds are warning signs.
Employees usually create them for a reason.
One manager said:
“When people start keeping their own spreadsheets, something is broken.”
Pay attention to those signals.
Questions Repeat Constantly
If employees ask the same questions every day, friction exists.
The process is unclear.
The information is difficult to find.
The responsibility is not defined.
Meetings Focus on the Same Problems
Recurring problems often indicate operational friction.
If the same issue appears every week, the process is not working.
One operator observed:
“We spent six straight meetings discussing aging inventory. Nothing changed because nobody owned the fix.”
How to Reduce Operational Friction
Simplify Processes
Complexity creates delays.
Review major workflows.
Remove unnecessary steps.
One dealership mapped its sales process and discovered three approval steps that provided little value.
After removing them, deal times dropped significantly.
Simpler processes move faster.
Define Clear Ownership
Every important task needs an owner.
Not a department.
Not a committee.
A person.
One store adopted a simple rule:
“If a task doesn’t have a name attached to it, it isn’t assigned.”
Accountability improved immediately.
Standardize Core Activities
Consistency reduces friction.
Create clear procedures for recurring tasks.
Inventory reviews.
Deal approvals.
Customer handoffs.
Delivery preparation.
One multi-store operator found that standardizing inventory reviews reduced confusion across locations.
Managers spent less time explaining processes and more time executing them.
Improve Visibility
Employees need information quickly.
The easier it is to find, the faster work moves.
One dealership reduced internal questions by posting key operational metrics where managers could see them throughout the day.
Simple visibility created faster decisions.
Review Processes Regularly
Processes change.
Businesses change.
Customer expectations change.
Review workflows frequently.
Ask employees where delays occur.
Listen carefully.
The people closest to the work usually know where friction lives.
One general manager explained:
“The best process improvements came from people doing the job every day.”
A Practical Framework for Improvement
Dealerships can start with five simple steps:
- Identify the biggest recurring delays.
- Map the process from start to finish.
- Remove unnecessary steps.
- Assign clear ownership.
- Measure results weekly.
Small improvements create momentum.
Momentum creates larger improvements.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Adding More Layers
Many dealerships respond to problems by adding more approvals.
More rules.
More meetings.
More reports.
This often creates additional friction.
Solve the root problem instead.
Ignoring Employee Feedback
Employees see friction every day.
Ignoring their feedback slows improvement.
Listen before making changes.
Focusing Only on Technology
Technology can help.
Technology cannot fix broken processes by itself.
Strong processes come first.
Tools support them.
The Bottom Line
Operational friction hides inside daily activity.
It appears in delays.
It appears in confusion.
It appears in repeated problems.
The best dealerships remove friction before it becomes normal.
They simplify processes.
They assign ownership.
They create consistency.
They act quickly.
One dealership leader summarized it perfectly:
“We stopped trying to work harder. We focused on making work easier.”
That shift often makes the biggest difference.
Performance improves when friction disappears.
