Ok Service Managers, the tempature is hot, the shop is full and everyday you are wondering how you can get more vehicles through the shop to meet the summer demand. It’s upon us with a vengeance it seems. Every customer has planned that road trip and the cars are not holding up to the strains of the high temperatures. You have just finished a June that netted great profit and July is trending higher in the exact same direction. So things are great, business is good…right? The short answer is YES and it SHOULD be its summer and we see this typical spike in traffic. I warn you and to quote my favorite show, “winter is coming” and right now it’s time to plant the seed and prepare for the winter months. Here are a few tips that will help you keep your shop busy during those few months of shorter light.

Focus on the basics – I know everyone is busy, but make sure you are updating the customer record. Verify all the customers’ information. Make sure you have an updated email address which will allow you to follow up with them in the next 5 to 6 months with your holiday specials.

Plant the winter seed – Take a moment with each customer and explain the importance of proper maintenance during the summer and also the items to prepare for in the winter. We know the items their vehicle needs today, we should also prepare them for their next visit in late fall and prepare them for the need of tires, wipers, etc.

Slow down and pause – Its busy and we know that being busy causes extra strain, however, your customers’ expectation does not change with the seasons. Their expectation in summer is the same as it is in your slower months. Keep this in mind and take the extra steps necessary today to retain this customer for tomorrow. During the busy months it's easy to loose sight of this. Just remember the customer in front of you right now expects the same level of service today even if you have multiple carryovers from the prior day and a technician off for vacation and you have written twenty percent more vehicles this month.

Apply these basic fundamentals to ensure a great fall and winter season. When business is super busy, it is even more critical to make sure you complete every step of the repair process to keep the customer coming back. Do not loose sight – every customer is a precious commodity and the cost of losing one is staggering.

Ok Service Managers, the tempature is hot, the shop is full and everyday you are wondering how you can get more vehicles through the shop to meet the summer demand. It’s upon us with a vengeance it seems. Every customer has planned that road trip and the cars are not holding up to the strains of the high temperatures. You have just finished a June that netted great profit and July is trending higher in the exact same direction. So things are great, business is good…right? The short answer is YES and it SHOULD be its summer and we see this typical spike in traffic. I warn you and to quote my favorite show, “winter is coming” and right now it’s time to plant the seed and prepare for the winter months. Here are a few tips that will help you keep your shop busy during those few months of shorter light.

Focus on the basics – I know everyone is busy, but make sure you are updating the customer record. Verify all the customers’ information. Make sure you have an updated email address which will allow you to follow up with them in the next 5 to 6 months with your holiday specials.

Plant the winter seed – Take a moment with each customer and explain the importance of proper maintenance during the summer and also the items to prepare for in the winter. We know the items their vehicle needs today, we should also prepare them for their next visit in late fall and prepare them for the need of tires, wipers, etc.

Slow down and pause – Its busy and we know that being busy causes extra strain, however, your customers’ expectation does not change with the seasons. Their expectation in summer is the same as it is in your slower months. Keep this in mind and take the extra steps necessary today to retain this customer for tomorrow. During the busy months it's easy to loose sight of this. Just remember the customer in front of you right now expects the same level of service today even if you have multiple carryovers from the prior day and a technician off for vacation and you have written twenty percent more vehicles this month.

Apply these basic fundamentals to ensure a great fall and winter season. When business is super busy, it is even more critical to make sure you complete every step of the repair process to keep the customer coming back. Do not loose sight – every customer is a precious commodity and the cost of losing one is staggering.

Transparency is key – This is the hardest one in our business since we have a history of doing just the opposite and our customer’s guard is up. In order to accomplish this you need to make certain that you are doing everything possible to allow the customer to relax their guard. Empower your customer and engage your customer early during the repair process by offering choices and listening and asking clarifying questions. Do not be afraid of transparency and simply embrace it. Everyone, customers and employees enjoy transparency

Remember that customers are people – This is one I hear on the service drive everyday. We associate customers with their vehicles and then naturally when it comes time to discuss needed repairs we are thinking of the vehicle instead of locking in and listening with the customer. The challenge would be to remember your customer by name by remembering a fact about them instead of the model and color of their vehicle. This type of name recognition will help you build a relationship with the customer instead of their vehicle.

Use humor to help lighten the mood – In no means do I intend you to suddenly become a stand up comedian when dealing with a customer, actually that type of behavior could cause the adverse affect and our customers will see right through the skit. Nothing is more upsetting than asking for a product and having a clerk or owner be rude. In contrast poking fun at yourself will help the customer feel more comfortable so that he or she can better open up to you about their need.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated – Ok this is one that has been taught to us since we were old enough to remember and understand so how come this simple behavior is so easily forgotten. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes and provide the same level of service and respect you would want. This classic lesson is a simple task that will help create trust.

Use open body language – Get out from behind the counter, smile, engage in open conversations, make eye contact; our customers can tell consciously and sub-consciously how you feel being around them. Simply be yourself, every customer interaction is unique and should be treated that way, keep it simple and don’t overthink it.

Relationships take significant time and effort to build but can fall apart quickly. Do not take the relationship for granted, appear apathetic and the rapport will fall apart faster than you built it, guaranteed. Use these simple steps to avoid the pitfalls and start cashing in on the currency of trust in your service drive. 

Transparency is key – This is the hardest one in our business since we have a history of doing just the opposite and our customer’s guard is up. In order to accomplish this you need to make certain that you are doing everything possible to allow the customer to relax their guard. Empower your customer and engage your customer early during the repair process by offering choices and listening and asking clarifying questions. Do not be afraid of transparency and simply embrace it. Everyone, customers and employees enjoy transparency

Remember that customers are people – This is one I hear on the service drive everyday. We associate customers with their vehicles and then naturally when it comes time to discuss needed repairs we are thinking of the vehicle instead of locking in and listening with the customer. The challenge would be to remember your customer by name by remembering a fact about them instead of the model and color of their vehicle. This type of name recognition will help you build a relationship with the customer instead of their vehicle.

Use humor to help lighten the mood – In no means do I intend you to suddenly become a stand up comedian when dealing with a customer, actually that type of behavior could cause the adverse affect and our customers will see right through the skit. Nothing is more upsetting than asking for a product and having a clerk or owner be rude. In contrast poking fun at yourself will help the customer feel more comfortable so that he or she can better open up to you about their need.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated – Ok this is one that has been taught to us since we were old enough to remember and understand so how come this simple behavior is so easily forgotten. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes and provide the same level of service and respect you would want. This classic lesson is a simple task that will help create trust.

Use open body language – Get out from behind the counter, smile, engage in open conversations, make eye contact; our customers can tell consciously and sub-consciously how you feel being around them. Simply be yourself, every customer interaction is unique and should be treated that way, keep it simple and don’t overthink it.

Relationships take significant time and effort to build but can fall apart quickly. Do not take the relationship for granted, appear apathetic and the rapport will fall apart faster than you built it, guaranteed. Use these simple steps to avoid the pitfalls and start cashing in on the currency of trust in your service drive. 

Over seventy percent of our customers perform research online prior to making a purchase decision. Forty percent will perform research online but purchased offline, and thirty percent will research online and then purchase online. Both of those segments bring two different opportunities for our service and part business.

For those that research online and then purchase offline are the hand raisers we are looking for. These customers are looking for more information online so they are educated and make the right decision when they visit the store.  The biggest area of opportunity would be to target branded search terms such as Ford Taurus alternator or Nissan tires or Honda oil change.

Branded search term (BST) such as “Ford water pump” or “Honda timing belt” would help generate sales over the front parts counter. These customers might represent the do it yourselfer or backyard mechanic but what it really represents is the biggest opportunity for retail growth in parts. However, our competitor capitalizes on this opportunity eighty six percent of the time. These BST’s carry the largest query volume, there has been tremendous growth year over year and comparatively does not have a lot of competition in this space. The question is why are dealers only getting the click through fourteen percent of the time.

The next biggest area of opportunity would be to tackle the oil change BST. The bad news, our competitor seventy four percent of the time owns this.  For someone looking for a Chevy oil change or Honda oil change online may be looking for service coupons or specials and will be directed to the Jiffy lube or Quick Lube corner store 3 out of 4 times. It looks like the competitor strategy is to spend heavily in this area as their information shows first most of the time in the ad space. One thing that I have noticed in this area is the dealer does have a presence on this page but they are not capitalizing or getting the click through, this inly happens seventeen percent of the time.

Finally the last BST that has the largest margin of deficit would be tires. When some one is looking for Honda tires the dealer will capture the click through thirty two percent of the time compared to the competitors’ sixty five percent of the time. Again there is a presence in this area from the dealer it just seems that the customer will pick the ad space prior to clicking the organic or natural non-paid ads.

In recap, the dealer does have presence organically on the search results page but the numbers indicate that they need to have presence in the ad space as well to capture our future business. The first 3 areas to start would be branded search terms for parts, tires and oil change. These terms have the largest difference of percentage of click capture between the dealer and the competitor.

It is not all bleak. The branded search term for battery, the dealer is capturing the click through forty five percent of the time compared to the competitors thirty nine percent. So for this term the dealer shows up organically and also within the ad section thanks to national presence in this area. Is this a roadmap for our future terms and a way to make up ground digitally, looks like it.

Over seventy percent of our customers perform research online prior to making a purchase decision. Forty percent will perform research online but purchased offline, and thirty percent will research online and then purchase online. Both of those segments bring two different opportunities for our service and part business.

For those that research online and then purchase offline are the hand raisers we are looking for. These customers are looking for more information online so they are educated and make the right decision when they visit the store.  The biggest area of opportunity would be to target branded search terms such as Ford Taurus alternator or Nissan tires or Honda oil change.

Branded search term (BST) such as “Ford water pump” or “Honda timing belt” would help generate sales over the front parts counter. These customers might represent the do it yourselfer or backyard mechanic but what it really represents is the biggest opportunity for retail growth in parts. However, our competitor capitalizes on this opportunity eighty six percent of the time. These BST’s carry the largest query volume, there has been tremendous growth year over year and comparatively does not have a lot of competition in this space. The question is why are dealers only getting the click through fourteen percent of the time.

The next biggest area of opportunity would be to tackle the oil change BST. The bad news, our competitor seventy four percent of the time owns this.  For someone looking for a Chevy oil change or Honda oil change online may be looking for service coupons or specials and will be directed to the Jiffy lube or Quick Lube corner store 3 out of 4 times. It looks like the competitor strategy is to spend heavily in this area as their information shows first most of the time in the ad space. One thing that I have noticed in this area is the dealer does have a presence on this page but they are not capitalizing or getting the click through, this inly happens seventeen percent of the time.

Finally the last BST that has the largest margin of deficit would be tires. When some one is looking for Honda tires the dealer will capture the click through thirty two percent of the time compared to the competitors’ sixty five percent of the time. Again there is a presence in this area from the dealer it just seems that the customer will pick the ad space prior to clicking the organic or natural non-paid ads.

In recap, the dealer does have presence organically on the search results page but the numbers indicate that they need to have presence in the ad space as well to capture our future business. The first 3 areas to start would be branded search terms for parts, tires and oil change. These terms have the largest difference of percentage of click capture between the dealer and the competitor.

It is not all bleak. The branded search term for battery, the dealer is capturing the click through forty five percent of the time compared to the competitors thirty nine percent. So for this term the dealer shows up organically and also within the ad section thanks to national presence in this area. Is this a roadmap for our future terms and a way to make up ground digitally, looks like it.

In the service drive, we constantly are discussing performance metrics that measure how much is being sold on average to every customer. Although, these metrics are very practical and serve a purpose to determine who is selling additional services and recommending needed repairs, they might not be telling you the whole story.

“On paper” I had one of the most impressive service advisors that I have worked with over the last 20 years. However, spending some time out on the service drive I began to think; is he building our business or building his wallet? This is a typical question that I’m sure most of us have struggled to answer at some point in time.

I received some feedback from one of the other advisors that I took into consideration and started my investigation. I listened to recorded calls; I reviewed the multi point inspections and I discussed the issue with some of the techs. Taking all of this information in I came to a conclusion.

My service writer sees value in the maintenance recommendations he is making! In addition he is selling the value of the service instead of just selling the service. Here was the most critical thing I found. There were several times that the customer was advised of a recommended repair. My advisor went through his typical sales approach, he explained the benefits of the OEM pad and then explained why we are recommending it being done now. In this case there was 2/32nds left on the brakes and after he went through his technique the customer said, “not at this time”. The next step he performed I quickly implemented into our follow up process. Once the customer said no, my advisor explained that he was going to set a future appointment to remind him to follow up with her about a month from now. At this time he set an actual appointment in the system and did a brief explanation of the reason for the appointment. As I was listening to the call I quickly checked the appointment log and sure enough the appointment was set in there.

I called my service advisor in to get more info. He explained that when he calls the customer back they have had some time to think and now are more willing to confirm an appointment. He said in most cases they were really surprised to see that he remembered to call them back.

This is how building a relationship first is critical; the increased sales will soon follow. When a customer has trust in your brand or in this case your personnel you will be able to build a strong loyal customer data base that is happy to spend at your store. Review your staff, inspect the process used to sell additional services, verify the inspections are complete and thorough, and make sure their follow up is personal. This basic process will build lifetime customers and help generate bottom line profit. 

In the service drive, we constantly are discussing performance metrics that measure how much is being sold on average to every customer. Although, these metrics are very practical and serve a purpose to determine who is selling additional services and recommending needed repairs, they might not be telling you the whole story.

“On paper” I had one of the most impressive service advisors that I have worked with over the last 20 years. However, spending some time out on the service drive I began to think; is he building our business or building his wallet? This is a typical question that I’m sure most of us have struggled to answer at some point in time.

I received some feedback from one of the other advisors that I took into consideration and started my investigation. I listened to recorded calls; I reviewed the multi point inspections and I discussed the issue with some of the techs. Taking all of this information in I came to a conclusion.

My service writer sees value in the maintenance recommendations he is making! In addition he is selling the value of the service instead of just selling the service. Here was the most critical thing I found. There were several times that the customer was advised of a recommended repair. My advisor went through his typical sales approach, he explained the benefits of the OEM pad and then explained why we are recommending it being done now. In this case there was 2/32nds left on the brakes and after he went through his technique the customer said, “not at this time”. The next step he performed I quickly implemented into our follow up process. Once the customer said no, my advisor explained that he was going to set a future appointment to remind him to follow up with her about a month from now. At this time he set an actual appointment in the system and did a brief explanation of the reason for the appointment. As I was listening to the call I quickly checked the appointment log and sure enough the appointment was set in there.

I called my service advisor in to get more info. He explained that when he calls the customer back they have had some time to think and now are more willing to confirm an appointment. He said in most cases they were really surprised to see that he remembered to call them back.

This is how building a relationship first is critical; the increased sales will soon follow. When a customer has trust in your brand or in this case your personnel you will be able to build a strong loyal customer data base that is happy to spend at your store. Review your staff, inspect the process used to sell additional services, verify the inspections are complete and thorough, and make sure their follow up is personal. This basic process will build lifetime customers and help generate bottom line profit. 

Recently I was visiting a dealership and watched the frantic pace of employees moving around going about their day. After only 3 months removed from a 22-year career inside of a dealership I was shocked about this frantic pace and it was an eye opening experience and reminded me of a tragic accident that happened early in my career.

When I was a service advisor I remember coming in after a weekend and a place that I usually turn on the lights and start the coffee is already a buzz. The service manager and senior leadership were already in closed-door meetings and it looked like there were a couple of detectives at the store as well. Of course everyone was wondering what had gone on. As we came to find out what used to be a normal activity or process in the dealership allowed a man to break into our store, steal a car and then be involved in an accident where an innocent bystander was injured.

At this store when a car came in for service the customer pulls right into the service drive that is directly connected to the shop. Quite often the technician would take the vehicle from the service drive and then pull it right into the service bay.  On a late Saturday afternoon a vehicle came in the service drive and one of the technicians indicated he would look at it next and the advisor informed him it is carried over until Monday.  End of business came and the store was locked down. During the weekend a man broke into the dealership found this car sitting on the service drive with keys in it, powered up the bay doors and then drove out. Unfortunately he created an incident that cased great harm to others. Fast forward several years and many depositions the dealer was held responsible for not having an adequate control process in place to prevent this from happening and ultimately settling on a multi million pay out to the family.

Millions of dollars were lost; people were hurt because of a bad process within the dealership.  It still seems commonplace for a technician to leave the keys in a car that he is working on in his bay overnight or over the weekend. This is the same scenario that allowed a dishonest person cause harm and cost the dealership. Key control is important. Are your keys locked down when you are closed for business? Are there keys still being left in a car (in the shop) after hours? If so you are exposed for a possible theft that will cost your owner millions. In the saying “good fences make good neighbors” makes the case for a good end of day lock down process that removes keys from cars and secures them. In addition a solid securing and door locking procedure will help you build that fence to help prevent this opportunity for a criminal to strike on.

Point is, I know it is chaotic, there are a hundred things a service manager does on a daily basis to produce a profit, keep happy customers, make happy employees and grow the business but one slight of step in your process could cause a monumental disaster within the blink of an eye.

Recently I was visiting a dealership and watched the frantic pace of employees moving around going about their day. After only 3 months removed from a 22-year career inside of a dealership I was shocked about this frantic pace and it was an eye opening experience and reminded me of a tragic accident that happened early in my career.

When I was a service advisor I remember coming in after a weekend and a place that I usually turn on the lights and start the coffee is already a buzz. The service manager and senior leadership were already in closed-door meetings and it looked like there were a couple of detectives at the store as well. Of course everyone was wondering what had gone on. As we came to find out what used to be a normal activity or process in the dealership allowed a man to break into our store, steal a car and then be involved in an accident where an innocent bystander was injured.

At this store when a car came in for service the customer pulls right into the service drive that is directly connected to the shop. Quite often the technician would take the vehicle from the service drive and then pull it right into the service bay.  On a late Saturday afternoon a vehicle came in the service drive and one of the technicians indicated he would look at it next and the advisor informed him it is carried over until Monday.  End of business came and the store was locked down. During the weekend a man broke into the dealership found this car sitting on the service drive with keys in it, powered up the bay doors and then drove out. Unfortunately he created an incident that cased great harm to others. Fast forward several years and many depositions the dealer was held responsible for not having an adequate control process in place to prevent this from happening and ultimately settling on a multi million pay out to the family.

Millions of dollars were lost; people were hurt because of a bad process within the dealership.  It still seems commonplace for a technician to leave the keys in a car that he is working on in his bay overnight or over the weekend. This is the same scenario that allowed a dishonest person cause harm and cost the dealership. Key control is important. Are your keys locked down when you are closed for business? Are there keys still being left in a car (in the shop) after hours? If so you are exposed for a possible theft that will cost your owner millions. In the saying “good fences make good neighbors” makes the case for a good end of day lock down process that removes keys from cars and secures them. In addition a solid securing and door locking procedure will help you build that fence to help prevent this opportunity for a criminal to strike on.

Point is, I know it is chaotic, there are a hundred things a service manager does on a daily basis to produce a profit, keep happy customers, make happy employees and grow the business but one slight of step in your process could cause a monumental disaster within the blink of an eye.