Training is essential for any position, but even more important for your service advisors! If the customer continues to service their vehicle with your dealership, the more likely they are going to purchase another vehicle from you!

One of the top things your service advisors could always use a refresher course on are both keeping the customer informed, and completing the walk-around. There is nothing worse than driving into the service lane to not be greeted and or acknowledged. 

When is the last time you training your service advisors? 

Here is an article I wrote on the top five reasons your service advisors need training! 

Same Specials. New Month. Seems like we live in a repetitious cycle when it comes to approaching putting specials online. Where we sometimes would rather stick with what we are comfortable doing than taking a chance and doing something new. I previously wrote about upselling online taking the time to put some video content on your specials page. The idea that while you do not have to offer a video that shows the customer how to repair their vehicle (as that defeats the entire purpose, no?), but you can put together a 30-45 second video that explains the importance of the repair; such as bad brakes, balded tires, etc. Providing the customer a visual reminder as to why they should change their tires, etc. It is no secret that people tend to engage more with visual graphics than text. 

Have you amped up your specials page? If so, what changes if any have you seen in your appointments or upselling? 

Are Your Specials Hurting Your Goals? 

With Fixed-Op’s carrying the weight financially for dealers it is essential that your service advisors upsell product in the service lane. That is everything from additional services to selling accessories such as windshield wipers, and cabin filters. However, this does not seem to be the case where many service advisors have become order takers versus taking the time to both understand the customer's needs and suggest additional services; knowing that our customers are not going to ask to purchase other services. That said, here are the top reasons your upselling is not effective and how to change your tactics! 

Appointments With Pre-Selected Services. Customers can easily go online and schedule their appointment for a specific service.  

Appointments can assist us on the dealer level when it comes to being able to plan accordingly. That is ensuring that we have enough advisors to handle the traffic. As well as taking the time to make sure that your advisors are not overbooked, which can cause significant delays;  meaning the oil change that was supposed to be 45 minutes turns into a 2-hour ordeal, which can affect the customer's experience. Not to mention, an upset customer is less likely to agree to additional services. That and providing a rental to every customer - especially for a customer who is only getting an oil change - is not always cost effective. So how do we handle this issue? 

A busy shop can be a great thing! However, as mentioned above, if the appointments are not orchestrated it can become a disaster. To avoid this issue, and make sure your team is upselling your customer it is best to call the appointment beforehand. In doing so, your advisor can build rapport (especially for repeat customers), and upsell before their arrival. For example, if the customer has serviced with you previously, you can quickly look up their history; reviewing their profile to see if they have declined services in the past.  Looking to see what their objections were, which will allow you to serve the customer better. This way upon their arrival they are on the same page regarding what to expect. Moreover, if there were to be changes or additional items needed they might be more obliged to agree and have the work performed. However, none of this can happen if we do not take the time to call the customer before their arrival. 

Coupons Do Not Always Work. Offer Services that Compliment their Needs. 

There are those who tout a coupons success, but in the automotive industry, coupons do not always work, and dealers do not always have to drop the price on a service to get traffic. If you were to review oil change coupons - reading the fine print - many of the retailers who do oil changes can be more expensive. Not to mention, they rarely have OEM certified technicians. Another issue with many of today's coupons is that it pushes the customer into the service on the coupon. Wherein, if the customer were to use the coupon for the said service that is all that is on their mind and of course, the service is at a discounted rate. So if they were to be then offered a service at full retail, they are much less likely to want the additional add-ons. Think about it for a moment, you go into a store with a 20% off coupon for “one item,” and the cashier offers you an “add-on,” but for full retail - don’t you pass it up? The same is said for the customer standing in the service lane. That said, it is more important for the dealer to have a strong online presence and offer their services and amenities as opposed to merely providing a coupon. 
 
What if the Customer Says No? How to Overcome the Objection. 

The customer saying “no” is the most common objection and in many cases, the dealer will follow-up with an email to the customer with a coupon for their declined service. However, before it gets to this step, it is best to figure out and address why the customer said no in the first place. For example, if one of the declined services was for tires, the customer could easily think that the place down the street is the way to go, not even thinking about the fact that your dealer sells tires. That said, you can offer the customer a price match guarantee. Not to mention, we know that today's buyer is all about time. So if we can save them time and assist them, it is a win-win situation. However, this cannot happen if we do not ask. 

The other thing to note with regards to declined services is that if we keep sending the same message with the same coupons, then we cannot expect anything to change. Instead, we have to take a step back and look to see if the declined service is typical - a trend at the dealer in which case more training is needed - or if it is a one-off situation. In either case, it is best to build a rapport with the customer understanding his/her needs so you can better assist the customer. Knowing that people buy from people, and this cannot happen if we take “no” for an answer without having taken the time to build the much-needed rapport with the customer. 

 Bottom Line: The customer is not always going to agree to your recommendation, but if you can offer them a sensible solution then the customer will be more obliged to accept. Think about this for a moment; if the customer comes into the dealership for their oil change and in the back of their mind knows they need to stop at the local store to pick up windshield wipers because they believe the dealer is more expensive, then they will not even ask you for them. So if you were to offer the customer that their windshield wipers need to be replaced, and you have them as low as “x” then you could be saving them time. The customer will undoubtedly be appreciative that you have saved them time. Something that they were not expecting. So don’t be afraid to ask. 

Do you start the upsell process before your customer arrives? If so, have you found success with it? 

Knowing how long it can take to make the sale and the sheer cost of acquiring the customer - it's surprising that more dealers do not take the time to incorporate a better sales to service hand-off. Where in many cases customers are either not informed at all about service or their sales consultant might have pointed to where service is located. Now imagine being the customer - who just purchased a vehicle - to be completely unaware of what services, programs, or value you can provide them? This costs the dealership potential customers. Customers that should be retained in service. And while many customers through osmosis will return to the dealer for their next service. Others will not. 

Here are some of the best ways to handle sales to service hand-off: 

Simply Sending an Additional Email Will Not Work 

Emails are great. Not so great, though when the sales consultant failed to introduce the customer to service. At the very least, they should be introducing them to the service manager.  Or better yet, an advisor, which will allow the customer to put a face to a name. All of which can increase the chances of their remembering who to work with. 

Pointing to the Service Lane.  They Are Closed, Anyways.

Regardless of what industry you are in pointing to a general vicinity is a major no, no. Even if service is closed for the day, it does not hurt to give the customer a quick tour. Allowing them to visualize where it is to bring their vehicle in for service. This also allows the chance to explain the service program. This can and will set your dealer apart as many dealers fail to explain the benefits of purchasing with them. Not even branding that in their marketing. 

Assigning An Advisor to a Customer 

One of the unique ways a dealer can offer a higher level of customer service is assigning them to an advisor. Wherein, that advice would be that customers main contact at the dealership. Allowing the customer to put a face to a name. As well as having an “advocate” in both sales and service. If the advisor knows his/her client base - as the rapport is built - then it fosters the ability to create more of that appointment culture. Where the customer will book their appointment on that advisors day at the store.  Imagine the customer remembering who it is they are working with versus working with someone new each and every time. In which case the advisor might not be aware of the MPI the previous advisor offered. Putting themselves in what could be an awkward position. 

At the end of the day, it is about the customer. Anything we can do offers the customer a better experience the better the service lane will do. That all starts, however, with the sales to service hand-off. That handoff, however, has to be apart of the process as well as managed. Otherwise, it is seen to be a suggestion rather than not an option. 

How Do You Handle the sales to Service Hand-off? Have you approached it unique, unconventional way?  

Dealers spend hours planning marketing campaigns and coupons months (even business quarters) ahead of when they will be released. With the hopes that there will be surges in traffic all of which adds to the bottom line. One thing though that I offer we have yet to approach is the harsh reality that the customer is no longer waiting for an email sent to them or (even worse) a mailer with coupons to make a purchase. 

Instead, the customer is searching Google (and other search engines) when it comes time to service their vehicle or make additional purchases. One of the searches is "Oil Change Coupon," and to my surprise when I searched that within my zip code 0 dealerships populated within the search results on the first couple of pages. 

What did populate was Groupon (one of the largest coupon generators around), and guess who offered the top downloaded coupon for an oil change with over 5k+ positive reviews? Not a dealer. It was a big box store. That said, it was an eye-opener as the customer - while it might seem like a novel idea - is not waiting for the 4th of July to get the 17.76 oil change. Nor are they going to wait for the $20.18 oil change offer. They are going to search Google when it comes time to get their oil changed (or whatever another browser they use), and whoever comes up with the best coupon and reviews will earn their business. 

This is not to say that there are not those customers (the best ones) that will continue to do their business with the dealer. But what it does offer is that we have to change the way we approach coupons. And if we want to be on the cutting edge capturing more business (that makes sense) than we have to ensure our specials are visible when being searched. 

One of the other biggest takeaways from this search experience was that when we focus on the “smaller” picture by offering an oil change that is “seasonally” referenced, then we cannot expect to see a sizeable marginal increase. As we are only targeting a small group of customers versus offering continued, successful, coupons that are visible in the search engine. 

Lastly, the coupon available for the oil change with over 5k+ downloads was not even cheaper than most dealers. In fact, it was $15+ more, which goes to show that a customer (in some cases not all) honestly does not go to the 5th, 6th, or 7th search results page. Instead, they see a coupon in the search results, and click on it! If it has good reviews and it makes sense, they’ll use it. 

Bottom Line: First and foremost, if you want to build and or increase business with coupons, which is the point other than internal OEM retention campaigns than we have to start thinking globally ensuring that the offer can also work as a conquest program. Not to mention, it is essential, too, that the coupon is visible on the dealer website along with good content for the customer to easily be able to book the appointment! All without having to give the oil change away! 

So do yourself a favor and Google “Cheap Oil Change” or "Oil Change Coupon," and see what comes up. And this is not to say that you will get hundreds more oil change opportunities, but what it does offer is the ability to build the business because you are in front of more people. Think about it, too - most customers do not think about taking their vehicle to a dealer for an oil change. Unless of course, the sales consultant builds that rapport with the customer during the sales to service handoff, which is a whole other conversation! 

Do you put coupons on Groupon? If so, have you see success with it? Are Your Coupons Visible to New Customers?

It is hard sometimes to imagine what the average customer searches for regarding services when you are on the dealer level every day. But if you take a step back for a moment - looking at it from the customers perspective - they want to know what is included in the service, cost of service, and when they can book the appointment! Sounds relatively simple, no? Yet more often than not many dealers fail to provide information regarding their pricing or repair descriptions. Not to mention scheduling the appointment, itself, can be quite the chore! 

Think about it. Each dealer has its own definition of “service” plans other than of what the OEM offers for service intervals.  For example, when the customer searches “20 thousand mile service” they may or may not get the dealer that they purchased from because the dealer fails to have that information on their site. 

Just this past week I searched “(OEM) 20k mile service (location),” and to my surprise, the dealership did not even show up until the 5th page! Yet service is the money the maker, no? Instead, other dealers that were well over an hour away populated. And as you can imagine, why would I call the dealer 1-2 hours away for service? I wouldn’t. So why would any other customer? Are we forgoing business opportunities for the sake of not providing them with information? 

That said, here are two top tips for ensuring that when a customer is searching for service with your OEM (in your backyard) that your dealer not only shows up BUT offers relevant content with a strong call to action! 

Service Landing Page 

When is the last time you updated your service landing page? What does it even include? For the OEM I used as an example when I searched “OEM service” their dealer did show up. But not when I did “OEM 20k mile service.” However, when I clicked on the “OEM Service” link the landing page was for the 5k, 10k, 20k and 30k mile interval service? That did not make much sense given the search was simple “OEM Service.”  The other alarming issue was the “information” about the service intervals were “images” with “text” vs. actual text. It also failed to offer other services they did. 

One thing you can do to improve this situation would be to offer appointment Scheduling where the customer can “select” vehicle, “estimated mileage,” and “have you serviced with us before?” all of which would guide the customer to completing what we all want:  “the service appointment!” 

But make no mistake, if you ask them questions, but then fail to provide any relevant information they will not the only exit. They will become frustrated. All without having booked their appointment. 

Service Blog 

Having a service blog might seem daunting, but it could be advantageous. Only if it offers relevant content such as services, OEM maintenance schedules, and their importance, what service amenities are included, customer reviews, customer workshops, etc. The goal is to offer relevant content. The other advantage of having a service blog that explains services in a meaningful way is if a customer were to search “xyz” service, and you are the only dealer that offers the cost, what it does, and when the next available appointment is - you might just pick up another customer! Again, people just want some answers. 

Bottom Line: It is always best to search your “dealership service” to see what comes up! Looking at the results from a customers perspective. Making sure that your content is relevant. 
When is the last time you searched your service center? Do you offer the ability to schedule a service appointment on your blog? 
 

Regardless of which industry we are discussing most sales & service jobs (if not all) have a commission based pay plan. The purpose, of course, in having a performance-based pay plan is to ensure that the employee only earns based on what s/he produces. While there is nothing wrong with this concept. There is a problem, however, when the employee does not have the opportunities available at hand to secure the higher level of income proposed within their pay plan.

For example, when hiring an advisor you want to put your best foot forward. However, showing them your best year (which was two or so years ago) only for them to find out there are

Infrastructural problems that have not enabled the advisors to hit or beat that level is not the way to win someone over. This state of mind will undoubtedly cause the turnover!

That is not to say that offering and/or showing an employee the future potential is a bad thing. But setting them up to fail with unrealistic expectations is also ridiculous. Where the objectives are double the amount of volume your current best advisor is doing.

One of the best ways to sell yourself to a potential employee - one whose talent could very well pull your store ahead - is to offer them an opportunity. Showing what is working what is not working. This is not to bash current employees, but rather to offer what the real deal is - giving them an inside view of what will be expected of them should they accept your offer.

That said, here are some of the best ways to explain an offer without scaring away potential employees!

Don’t Hide Your Problems - We All Have Them

The last thing you want to do is lie or mislead a potential hire by not addressing current issues. As the employee will find out when they are hired hearing it from the employee, not the hiring manager. All of which can make the new hire feel that the management is out of touch and that there are far more problems than they realize.

Some of the problems could be good, too! Such as growing pains. Where your service lane is expanding and your needing to add an additional advisor. Explaining to them areas in which you are struggling to upsell. Outlining how that can impact their pay plan.

Offer Reasonable Expectations

Given that many dealers do not offer or provide an onboarding program - which by itself causes for massive turn-over - they do not have realistic expectations for the new hire. Where just because they were an advisor at ABC Motors does not mean they can immediately hit the ground running at ABCD Motors. There will be a learning curve especially if it is an OEM in which they have not yet worked for! One of the best ways to combat this issue is to offer a guarantee for the first month or so, which gives them enough time to learn the OEM. As well as the way you handle things internally.

Offer Training That is Relevant to Their Job 

Believe it or not, more often than not new hires want training. They want to feel valued. Part of feeling valued is to be invested in. Where if you have the ability to send them to training, do it! The better understanding they have of your systems and processes the better off they will be. Not to mention, it would only be beneficial to the company! And as far as their pay plans go - if they are paid commission on upsells the better product knowledge they have the more sales they will get. As they are confident in the product.

Bottom Line:

Be open and honest with the potential new hire. It does not mean that you need to offer up every issue that is happening. What it does, however, suggest is that in order to ensure them a successful start it is beneficial to offer realistic expectations. In turn, it affords the employee a means of starting their new role with a better chance of being successful in upselling!

How do you handle job offers? Do you only show your best years? Do you ever get questions on Turnover?

When is the last time you looked through RO’s to see how many services had been declined? Or whether or not the advisor even offered the service vs. simply clicking decline? Chances are - in any service lane - there are untapped opportunities. One them being marketing to the customers with declined services. That is not to say that sending the offer right after s/he leaves makes sense either. As the customer might think “if they can discount now why couldn’t they discount it before?”

Instead, focus on the smaller services where the customer will have to soon perform those services such as tires, brakes, rotors, etc. Sending the campaign in increments (such as a week to 10 days out) as they are most likely going to shop prices at the big box service centers.

Here are some of the best practices when sending the campaign:

Email Marketing

As I have mentioned before, email marketing is not going anywhere and remains relevant when communicating with your client base. What is not relevant or helpful, however, is sending emails that do not offer the customer something of use. Where if you were to send the declined service campaign immediately after their service (as mentioned above) they might not see the value in the discount or offer. Versus, if you send it out 7-10 days after their service it is on their mind. Where they have most likely looked to see what pricing is available in their own backyard.

In order to make it as effortless as possible, you can create 3-4 opcodes for the most commonly declined services: tires, brakes, rotors, etc.

Coupons:  Dropping the Lowest Price Does Not Always Work

Sending the lowest price in town does not always work. Not to mention, it sets the precedent for the customer that their services will be at a discounted price. That said, you can offer price match guarantee. In turn, allowing you to upsell the advantages of their servicing with you. Such as rental cars, & shuttle service. All of which sets you apart from the local competition.

Service BDC or Advisor Calls

If you have the staff, work with them! They could call the customers who have declined the service. Inviting them back into the service lane. As for the BDC rep, you could spiff them on the number of appointments they got through the door. If run efficiently this could increase revenue and appointments!

Service Plans

Offer the customer a plan of action that works with their own financial goals. Spending the time to review which options work best for the time being. Where perhaps each visit they can get one to two services items completed. This also puts the plan of action on their terms, which will make the customer feel as if they are in control of what they are fixing.

Bottom Line:

Just like in sales there are objections. And while there are certain service items that have to be fixed for safety - we have to ask ourselves, what customer does not want the peace of mind knowing that they're the vehicle - mode of transportation - is running at is best? Ensuring that the integrity of their vehicle is not compromised.

How do you handle declined services? Do you have the BDC call the customers? If so, what kind of results do you see?

Having an onboarding program for any of the positions within your dealership can not only save hundreds of thousands of dollars. It can also significantly decrease turn-over. Increasing profits as the managers have a clear outline as to what steps are necessary for training the new employee. Setting them up for success at the dealership. Long gone are the days of being able to put the new hire with an employee (to train them) who has not been with the dealership for more than a few months. 

The other thing to consider is - do you really want an employee who does not have the same level of experience training a new hire -  where they can shape (and influence) their perspective on the organization? 

Here are the top reasons to have a well-thought and developed onboarding program: 

Chaos Causes for Concern & Disinterest 

I remember the first day in the auto industry all too well. Where the first day I was shuffled around to 5 or 6 people. All of which were frantic in trying to get me what I needed. The problem, however, was that I was unsure of what I needed! I did not know what logins I needed - what products I needed training on! That said, it took well over 2 weeks to get the logins needed! 

As a new employee, you already feel as if you have taken a huge risk to make a career move. Where in the interview it is made to seem as if everything is well planned out. No problems. Easy as pie. But we all know, that is not how it works! 

Training - What is Expected?

You cannot hold someone accountable if they have not been given the necessary resources to do their job. Where the manager just gets frustrated with the new hires lack of knowledge on a vendor’s product. Yet, even the managers - themselves - do not know how to use the product hence the frustration they exhibit when dealing with a new hire. 

Make no mistake, the new hire can not only sense the frustration, but they will also sense a sign of weakness. Where if you are frantic and chaotic in trying to assist them with the simplest of things - they can (and in many cases will) lose respect for you as a manager. Where they will not want to come to you with questions regarding the selling of a vehicle, etc. 

Go Ask Someone Else

Sure, if you have been a long-time employee, you might feel comfortable and confident to ask someone for assistance in working with a new product. But when you are brand new and do not know anyone and are told to “go ask someone else” to handle something it sets the tone. Not to mention, when you do go and ask the other person, and they say “go see them,” which just so happens to be the person who directed them to you! 

This causes for frustration in the new hire. Where they do not feel supported. And if they do not feel supported within the first week or so they quickly lose interest.

Not Keeping Track of Training 

If you are not keeping track of what items s/he has completed then you are missing out! This allows a new employee to set the standards and expectations regarding the timeline to complete their training. This, of course, is a dangerous approach as it makes it that much harder to set expectations. To avoid this approach, have a training guide that offers what it is expected for the first 2-3 weeks of employment. Where both the manager and new hire sign off on what has and has not been completed. Giving you an actionable plan to follow when managing your new employee. 

Bottom Line: 

Onboarding someone - regardless of the position - is never easy. There are many facets to a job within a company. That being said, it is essential to ensure that the new hire has all of the necessary tools and resources when they first start. Making sure that the management team is involved when it comes time to train the employee in the various roles. Remembering that the more in alignment everyone is at the dealership, the better off the entire department will be! 

How do you handle onboarding? Do you get the employee their logins as the days go on? Are you the type that pushes the employee to someone else? 
 

If you your website has more options than a dinner menu (without sharing actual information) you might have too much going on. Sure, we like options. But not when it comes to the point of being “unable” to make a decision. We call this analysis paralysis. Too many choices also can lead to confusion, and confusion leads to doubt. And doubt leads to disinterest. Especially if you share all of the information regarding what the service entails without disclosing the price - where we are possibly talking our customer out of purchasing the service before they have even booked an appointment! 

Here are some of the top things to consider when managing your fixed-ops website! 

Service Appointments - What’s Going On? 

The highest conversion - typically - is the booking of a service appointment. That said, it is imperative that the route to booking the appointment is effortless. Where if the customer has to click multiple links to get to their final destination they are more than likely going to exit the page without booking! (most vendors can show you how many appointments were started without being finalized). 

The other thing to consider is not requiring the customer to have all of their information when booking the appointment. As they might not have their VIN number on hand or know what it is they are wanting to book. 

Lastly, you should also be able to see what the average dollars per R.O. are for a customer that had a service appointment! It would be interesting to see if those customers spend more or less than a customer who did not have an appointment. One that came in just wanting to use that coupon for a free oil change! 

Options Without Pricing. Would You Blindly Purchase an Item Without Knowing the Price? 

This is topic has two very distinct opinions. That is to offer pricing and the other not to have pricing. Let's step back for a minute though and put on the shoes of a customer. If you already had difficulty trying to complete what should be a simple task - booking the appointment - to then only find out that the pricing is not available wouldn’t you exit? 

A small percentage of the customers will continue with their scheduled appointment not knowing what the costs are going to be;  while others will simply exit without having booked an appointment. Perhaps showing up at an unscheduled time where the availability is not the best causing for a bad survey as the site might say “service time approximately 90 mins,” and it took 3hrs. As we know, the time to complete a service all depends on how many open R.O.’s there are at any given time. And do know, this is not referring to offering pricing to fix a transmission (or other significant repairs), but rather OEM maintenance Intervals, and other minor repairs. 

Less is More. Showing the Right Items! 

We know that we have an affinity for having several options for the customer to click on!  Each one opening Pandora’s box. Leaving the customer confused as to what they have done. Or worse, they have exited the page without converting because they were unsure of what to complete. All while they were just wanting to schedule a service appointment! 

We could also learn something from one of the major powerhouses - Amazon - where when the customer has *selected* a more expensive service (because they can see the pricing) it will show “what other customers have viewed,” which are at a lower price point. Not too low, but lower. For example, if the customer elects a $599 service - you would then show an additional service in the $49-125 range. Where the customer feels that the less expensive item is a value compared to the $599 service. Thinking, well $50-100 is not that much more. And I do need to replace “X, Y & Z.” 

This is not to say that this approach will work all of the time. What it does, however, offer is that it is all about showing the right items. Customers also want to know approximately how much it is that they are going to spend. And while it might much more or less depending on what the actual issue is the customer at least has a general idea regarding pricing. 

Bottom Line: 

It is essential to clear the clutter from your fixed-ops page - keeping only necessary information regarding the booking of an appointment and cost of the services. Allowing the customer to pre-pay (putting deposit essentially down) where they are agreeing to complete “x” service(s). And if it were to cost less more depending on the nature of the service(s), you already have an agreement, where the customer is much more likely to work with you! 

How do you handle the online experience for your service customer? Do you show the pricing online? If so, have you see results from this approach?