There’s a sales job in your dealership that earns much more than your salespeople to the bottom line. In fact, it’s many times what a salesperson earns. They arrive daily in your store, ready to work their butt off. At the end of the day, tired and frazzled, they’ve produced much more for your store than a salesperson who has just sold and delivered a brand new car.

Your service advisors are salespeople, even if it’s in the name of customer service. Their job is to inform the customers they serve why it’s important to part with their money, and how it will benefit them to do so. Seldom is there a noticeable improvement in the vehicle’s condition – it’s about maintenance more so than repairs in the modern era. Yet day after day, they come to work and earn more for your store than someone on the prestigious sales floor.

It’s Not Even Close

Just a quick recap of top salesperson earnings versus service advisor:

Sales

• An average salesperson makes a sale approximately every two to three working days, or roughly 10 cars per month. Some stores are higher and some lower, however the majority of dealers’ salespeople would be in this vicinity.
• Average gross on a car sale as reported by NADA in 2015 is $1088 for a new car and $1534 for a used unit. Let’s average that out to $1311 per unit.
• At that rate, a salesperson generates $13,110 in gross profit per month, or $157,320 per year.

Service

• An average service advisor sees 12 customers per day in a moderately busy dealership. That means in a 22-workday month, one advisor transacts with 264 customers.
• Each parts and labor work order averages a charge of $265 for customer-pay work orders and $273 for warranty work orders. Average it out at $269/RO.
• The gross profit average is 45.8%, meaning a gross profit of $123 per RO.
• In one month with 264 customers, a service advisor grosses your dealership $32,472. In a year, that’s just shy of $400,000.

The proof is there, and it’s hard to dispute.

Hiring Your Top Earners

If one of the highest earning positions in your dealership is at the service desk, shouldn’t you put serious effort into hiring the right caliber of people? That’s not to say you aren’t paying them sufficiently, because you may be. But wouldn’t you want the people that deal with more of your customers than anyone to be top-notch?

How Do You Vet Your Applicants?

Service advisors are anything but a dime-a-dozen. It takes a special kind of person to take the daily beat-down in customer service at this level. You want your service advisors to embody the good-natured, cool-tempered personality that YOU would want to interact with if you brought your vehicle in for service.

A few thoughts on vetting your applicants:

Do they have experience?

If they’re coming from another dealership, why are they looking for a new position? If a service advisor is moving on, check with their work references to see if there are performance issues. No matter how positive you are and whether you believe people deserve a second chance, the same issues are likely to pop up at your store soon after hiring.

Are they active in the community?

They don’t have to be involved in graffiti removal or the church choir, or sit on the board of a non-profit. What you want to know is that your service advisor applicant is outgoing and willing to interact on a real level with the general public. You need to know that they aren’t active in the wrong way, either, such as involved in illicit or criminal activity. Require personal references and actually follow up on them.

Are they willing to learn?

Very few dealerships do things the exact same way. Whether you’re hiring a ‘greenhorn’ with no experience and a steep learning curve or a novice with some experience already, test their willingness to learn. In the application process, implement a task that shows their willing to learn for the position (even if it has nothing to do with the role).

Require a criminal record check

Although everyone makes mistakes, there are certain issues you don’t want in your dealership. If someone has been convicted of burglary or theft, they are not a good candidate for a dealership position that deals with tens of thousands of dollars daily. If someone has assault charges, a stressful service advisor position might not mix well with those anger issues. And drug-related charges can indicate an unreliable person.

Undoubtedly, you understand how important service advisors are. Ensure your applicants will be well-suited for the position before signing them on.