There’s a great divide between going through the motions and getting the job done right. Are your customers getting the best from your staff?

I spent a few years at the service desk of one of the busiest Chevy dealers on the prairies. I was one of six service advisors and when it was busy, it was run-off-your-feet busy, and when it was slow, it was still pretty busy. There were countless days of writing more than 30 work orders per day, and in the throes of the ignition switch recalls, it was for weeks at a time.

Being a service advisor is not an easy position. You’re on the front line and you have to engage with your customers and other staff from the moment you walk in the door to the minute your last customer of the day has left the building. It’s mentally and emotionally exhausting – seldom do you leave your desk for a reprieve, and when you do, you’re paged back for a phone call, a tech with an estimate to sell, or a manager asking why you had to give away an oil change for free. If you’re reading this and you are a service advisor or have been at some time, you know what I mean. If you haven’t held the role, ask a service advisor to confirm its truth.

But that’s the role, and that’s what we signed up for. It’s not a job for the faint of heart and at times you have to have nerves of steel when the going gets tough. There are times when you don’t give a complete effort because you’re tired. You go through the motions, and get frustrated when your actions don’t produce results.

As a service advisor, doing it right is the EASY way. Just going through the motions makes your job exponentially more difficult – your customers are less satisfied, meaning your managers are less satisfied, and to make it all that much worse, your paycheck suffers.

These are common service advisor principles, but maybe one of them is your weak spot. Maybe you like to cut corners in one specific area because it makes you uncomfortable or its not glamorous. Maybe there’s a message in this for you – an area you’ll realize needs a tweak that will make your role more fulfilling.

(I write this section knowing I’ve failed over and over again in each of these areas.)

Greeting

According to the 2016 J.D. Power CSI Survey results, your customer satisfaction is greatly improved when they are greeted within two minutes of their arrival. On the 1,000-point scale, a prompt greeting can improve the score by 44 points. That’s a big difference, especially because it sets the tone for their service visit.

A prompt greeting means a more pleasant customer, usually. That means a better chance of upsells at the service desk, an easier job of selling estimates later on, and a better CSI survey score once the customer is on their way at the end of the day.

Sadly, 27 percent of survey respondents say they had to wait longer than 2 minutes for a greeting when they arrived at the service department. Here’s what that does:

• It irritates them before they’ve even spoken to you.
• It builds a wall against your selling strategies at the desk.
• It harbors a critical attitude toward you and your department.
• It prevents effective estimate sells later on.
• It culminates in poor CSI scores.

The greeting is perhaps the most important part of your job. Done right, it will make your role easier from start to finish with each customer.

Each dealership has its own criteria for a proper greeting. Effective greetings include a smile, eye contact, a respectful introduction with your name, and a handshake. It’s a personal thing as well – find something that works for you and do it every time.

Vehicle Walkaround

The purpose of the walkaround isn’t just to find additional things to sell, although it’s a great way to do so. It builds an extra layer of trust with your customer. They see firsthand that you’re paying close attention to their vehicle’s operating condition, which reinforces a caring, customer-focused environment. It will also make it so much easier to sell things later on in the process.

I won’t minimize the importance of the walkaround to selling additional repairs and services, though. You can equate it to the candy, chocolate bars, and gift cards at the grocery store checkout line – they are impulse purchases. They aren’t things that you knew you’d want when you entered the store but they seem like a really good idea once you see them. If you’re struggling to make an extra .1 or .2 hours on your work orders, this is the place to do it.

Check the basics – inspect the tire tread depth and look for abnormal tire wear, check all the bulbs, check for warning lights, and note the fluids and belt conditions.

Invite the customer to join you on the walkaround. It reinforces the purpose and makes it appear like less of a selling technique.

DO the walkaound on every vehicle. Make it so routine for you and your customers that they’ll find it odd if you DON’T do it.

Work Order Write-Up

This step might appear straightforward, but as a service advisor, you have to translate customer talk into language your technicians can use. Listening carefully is the most important part of the write-up so accurate, complete information can be passed on, resulting in higher fixed-first-visit (FFV) scores and happier customers.

Also, flesh out your customer’s concerns as much as possible. As a customer, there’s nothing worse than seeing “no fault found” on the invoice – no one brings their car in for no reason at all. A little extra investigative question-asking by the service advisor can draw out critical information that could solve the customer’s issue, or discover that it’s a normal condition for their vehicle.

When your write-up is complete, review the concerns with your customer once again to make sure you have the right information on the work order and make any changes that are necessary. This step can often conjure up an additional detail or two which might be helpful.

Keep Customers Informed

The phrase “No News is Good News” does NOT apply here. Whether there is anything to report to your customer or not, consistent interaction is always welcomed by your customer. They may not be pleased about the status report you are providing, but they’d rather know than not know.

This was always my biggest failure as a service advisor. I hated making the phone calls when there was nothing to report or when I knew my promised times weren’t going to be right. But instead of placing the calls to keep customers informed, I’d get incoming calls from customers checking up on their vehicle, and those are ten times worse.

Inbound customer calls are the worst scenario for selling as an advisor. The customer feels like they haven’t been valued already, so chances are slim they’ll invest their money in your services.

You have options to keep your customer informed:

• A classic phone call – this still works for a good number of your customers.
• Email – you can include details and pictures that reinforce the importance of an issue.
• Test message – it’s an unintrusive method of contact that is exploding in popularity.

Whether their vehicle hasn’t entered the shop yet, it is in the midst of diagnosis, you have an estimate to sell, it won’t be ready today, or it’s ready to pick up, your customer wants to know. Schedule intervals where you contact all your customers – say 10 o’oclock and 2 o’clock – so they will know to expect your call.

Incoming calls scramble your day. When you’re on top of your outgoing calls for follow-up, you’re in control of how you spend your time. See how well you can control your phone – try to make all your customer calls before they call you. You can even keep score from day to day so you can track your improvement.  

Active Delivery

When your customers come to pick up their vehicle, it’s a time to underpin their importance to you and your dealership. This is where you can show that you value their business and thank them for their patronage.

It’s also when you can go through the repairs and services once again, reviewing why items are necessary and what they should expect for their next service. By doing so, you open the door to booking their next service visit and strengthening your customer retention.

Imagine what the customer thinks or feels when they pick up their vehicle after servicing at your dealership, and you aren’t there to explain their invoice. Was the work actually required or are you just taking their hard-earned money? Are they not important to you? Was anything noted that should be closely monitored? It leaves the customer with more questions than answers and your cashiers can only do so much.

A personal, active vehicle delivery solidifies a customer’s positive perception on their service visit. While first impressions are most important, last impressions are valuable as well.