A little story about my initiation into a new workplace a decade ago:

I had some previous experience as a service advisor already – about three years’ worth. Not exactly a ‘pro’, but no longer a newbie. I left a standalone store for a dealer group closer to home, and the structure was completely different. The focus was still on the customer, but more about keeping long-term clients for the income they provide instead of providing exceptional service as the primary purpose.

It was all fine at first, getting into the swing of things. Then one day, the service manager and fixed operations manager wanted to have a chat. They felt the service department needed an influx of gross profit, and that would fall on my shoulders. As a novice, I posed a question: “How do I maintain keep the customer happy while taking more money out of their pockets?”

The answer alarmed me. I was told in no uncertain terms that they expected me to be more aggressive. Don’t take no for an answer. In fact, I was told that they expected me to generate complaints about being too pushy. “If you don’t get at least one complaint per month about being too pushy, you’re not doing your job.”

Doing as I was told, I buckled down. The dollars started rolling in hot and heavy, but one massive negative resulted. CSI scores tanked.

What Did I Do Wrong?

Obviously, the pendulum swung the other way within a couple months. Now we needed to stop the bleeding in the CSI survey scores.  As a service advisor, I was just doing as I was instructed. Did I do something wrong? Yes, but it wasn’t on me. It was on my superiors.

It Was Out of Focus

It’s that fine line to walk: providing exceptional customer care in every circumstance versus earning as much for the department and dealership as possible. It’s a two-focus issue, like a pair of binoculars. If the left optic is out of focus, the view is skewed and inaccurate. If the right side is blurry, you’re missing critical details. Constant minor corrections are required to keep a good balance between the two spectrums.

It can be debated if I took the instructions too literal. But the result was an uptick in income at the expense of happy customers.

Are You Pressing the Financial Side Too Hard?

In the automotive service industry, pay plans are heavily based on commission, so it’s always an internal battle: oversell a bit and chance a slightly ticked-off customer, or keep the customer pleased as punch at the expense of a slightly disappointed manager. How do you react in a customer service versus higher dollars per RO situation?

• If you’re praising your service advisors for selling more month over month, you might need to perform a professional inventory. Are you sacrificing customer satisfaction for your own paycheck?
• If you receive praise for one of your service staff in a CSI survey, do you reward your team member for a job well done, even if it was a one-line oil change RO?
• If the team member with the highest overall CSI score is consistently earning less per month than a higher earner with bad CSI, is there something you need to explore?

Please take my musings not as gospel but simply as a consideration. In my past, I wholeheartedly know that the binoculars needed to be adjusted. Your store may be different right now, operating smoothly on both ends of the spectrum. Remember that it’s a fluid situation and it can change quickly. Be ready to make adjustments between true customer service, where the customers best interests are taken into consideration, and the bottom line for your department.

The Results

We all know the results when a customer is taken to the cleaners and finds out (which almost always happens). They move on. They take their business elsewhere. You’ve lost that customer, perhaps for life. Poor customer service and overselling have the same effects. It ends up costing you your CSI scores AND future business from that customer.