The Importance of Service Advisors

11 Repair Orders Equal One Car Sale The gross profit generated by 11 repair orders equals the same amount you make on the average car sale!

Dealers average about $1,600 dollars in gross per car sold, not counting F&I income which varies all over the board. On customer pay, the average is about two hours per repair order at $75 effective labor rate and 75 percent gross profit. The average is about 70 percent parts to labor ratio and maintaining about 45 percent gross for parts sold on repair orders. Let's see where the numbers take us.

Think about this: Each repair order delivers about $112 in labor gross and $47 in parts gross, for a total of $159 in gross per order. That means just 11 repair orders generate more gross profit than the average car sale!

And this: Most advisors write up about 20 repair orders per day, while most vehicle salespeople see about three shoppers per day. Do the math: advisors visit with five to seven times more customers each day than your vehicle salespeople do.

Very perplexing stuff: Most dealers have vehicle sales meetings at least weekly, some daily. They focus on phone skills and closing techniques. They role-play, have walk arounds and post each unit sold by each salesperson on a huge tracking board. They reward top vehicle salespeople with trips, bonuses, and incentives. My question is why don’t you do the same for your service salespeople?Have you had a service sales meeting lately? When was the last time you trained advisers on how to answer the phone to get more customers in or how to sell tires? When was the last time you actually practiced or role-played selling a 30K or worked with them on negotiating or overcoming objections? Never is too long ago.

Get yourself out there! Get excited about your service business and your service sales team. Start by hiring the right people—people who like to sell. Train them, motivate them, pay them, and treat them like salespeople. Make sure they understand how important it is to be honest, but that they have to sell and retain customers for life. Give them the tools they need, empower them with the ability to work deals, give loaners, and get in the tire business in a big way.Make sure your service people know what you expect: Each car should get a multi-point inspection report, invite in each customer on the phone, and they need to do whatever it takes to put deals together. They need a never-say-no attitude. Reward top performers and hold them accountable. Treat your service people more like salespeople and they will perform more like salespeople.

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Service Advisor Courtesy

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Service Advisors are the key customer contact. In certain situations Service Advisors are the first and last people that customers come into contact with. Therefore, it is suggested that Service Advisors be courteous at all times. Courteousness can help to establish a trusting relationship between your customers and your service department.

• Service Advisors should use the customer’s title and name unless the customer asks to be called by their first name.

• For customers who have appointments, Service Advisors should promptly greet the customers by name, have an appointment or reservation worksheet ready to record the customers’ basic
information, and speak knowledgably about the customers’ vehicle.

• For non-appointment customers, Service Advisors should promptly acknowledge arriving
customers by smiling, waving, or giving a polite greeting.

• Throughout the interaction, Service Advisors should exhibit good listening skills. This involves
encouraging customers’ needs have been met. For example, a good closing question would be,
“Is there anything else that we can do for you today?”

• Advisors should under promise and over deliver.

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Are Your Service Advisors Helpful

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Service Advisors are the key customer contact. In certain situations Service Advisors are the first and last people that customers come into contact with. Therefore, it is suggested that your service drive conveys to customers that Service Advisors are there to help. Customers who are adequately helped are more likely to be satisfied, feel confident in your dealership's competence and expertise, and less likely to bring the vehicle back for rework.

• Provide the appropriate training for your Service Advisors. Training that focuses on letting the customer know that the service department is there to help them, making the customer feel accepted and relaxed, and involving the customer in confirming the complaint.

• Service Advisors should assist customers in transferring items, opening doors, locating their car and any other service related scenarios to establish trust and caring.

• Service Advisors should prioritize recommended work for customers.

• Ensure that Service Advisors are actively listening to their customers. This involves encouraging customers to provide more information, asking open-ended questions, and listening carefully to the customer’s answers.

Keep Your Appointments Convenient

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Consumer research continues to show that offering convenient services is one of the keys to achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore it is imperative that every effort is made to provide customers with appointments that are convenient for them. This illustrates to customers that your dealership welcomes their business, is focused on their needs, and is capable of meeting their needs. In the course of scheduling convenient appointments, it is important to keep in mind that the scheduled workload should match your department's capacity. Providing convenient appointments is just one essential aspect of attaining customer satisfaction. Another primary aspect involves following through on what is promised.

• Centralize and control employee vacations and time off request to ensure proper coverage during peak times.

• Create and implement an appointment script that incorporates effective words, ensures that all
information is gathered and customers needs are considered when establishing a time and date.

• Implement a scheduling tool that will enable your service department to efficiently schedule work throughout the day and track such aspects as customers with appointments, Technician
availability, walk-ins, emergency repairs, promise times, and quality control processes.

• Use scheduling tool such as the Appointment Dispatch Form.This form allows
you to calculate deadlines, which ensures that jobs are started in time to have the vehicle ready
when promised. This form is your means of controlling shop capacity and matching the skill level
of your Technicians to the service jobs.

• Distribute work assignments according to the skill level and time availability of your Technicians.

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Greet Your Service Clients Promptly

Customer reception is one of the most important processes in your dealership's daily activities. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. It is highly recommended that friendly personnel greet your customers promptly. Customers who are left wandering when they arrive at the service department are less likely to have a positive experience. A friendly wave, smile, and greeting like "I'll be with you soon," goes a long way.

• Determine which days and hours are the busiest for your service department and designate a
qualified staff member as a greeter during these periods. At minimum, the greeter should
determine whether the customer has an appointment, obtain the customer’s name, and record
basic information regarding the vehicle.

• Service Advisors should be prepared to greet customers and initiate the consultation process
soon after the customers arrive. Do not let the customer wait for more than 5 minutes before the consultation process to begins.

• Acknowledge arriving customers immediately. The Service Advisor (or greeter) should
acknowledge the arrival of customers immediately, no matter how busy he/she is. At a minimum, the Service Advisor should make eye contact and wave and ideally should briefly let the arriving customers know how quickly they will be with them.

• Use an “all hands on deck” approach during peak times. For example, the Service Manager,
Warranty Administrator, Shop Foreman, and Cashier can be utilized to help to speed the write-up and make customers feel comfortable and addressed.

• Ensure that the Service Advisor can be identified quickly. Use uniforms, nametags, or even
pictures. Pictures can significantly be displayed in the Service area. These techniques will make it easy for customers to distinguish Service Advisors from other customers and employees. The
Service Advisor should offer refreshments and use of the service waiting area to customers who
will have to wait.

• Acknowledge early arrivals. The first Service Department employee to be active should
acknowledge and focus immediately on customers who are already there.

• At the beginning of each day, provide each Service Advisor with a listing of that day’s
appointments along with the customers’ names and service needs. Service Advisors should then
greet these customers by name and be knowledgeable of the reason behind the customers’ visit.

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How To Handle The Client In Your Lounge

After shopping many different service departments none of them practiced checking in with the waiting clients. After you write the waiting client walk them to the lounge and make sure they have a comfortable spot to wait offer them a refreshment. Once the car enters the shop and a technician is working on the car go check in with the customer to let them know what has happened so far (10 Min), when you know what the client needs for repairs check in again (10-15 Min, when the repairs are complete let them know that the car is going to be washed and vacuumed and that will take a bit longer so this would be a good time to prepare for departure. When all is set go get the client for the active delivery. If the customer is going to be at your store for an hour you should have checked in with them 3-5 times total removing the fear that they will be here forever.