School’s out, and the weather is phenomenal. It’s the time of the year when the flow of customer traffic into the service department slows to a trickle. They’re gone on vacation or taking care of their kids. Plain and simple, there are other priorities for your customers right now.

You still have a department to run, though, and you’re expected to keep your technicians humming along. Easier said than done some days, for sure.

If you find your staff twiddling their thumbs instead of turning wrenches this summer, here are a few ideas you can implement.

Make Training a Priority

Technicians, service advisors, support staff – there’s always a module or course to catch up on. While the service drive is slow and the shop has empty bays, emphasize the importance of catching up on training.

Your staff will be more inclined to kick off work early and hit the beach. But for those with the slightest business acumen, you can coach them to realize that getting these courses done now while it’s slow will free them up to earn more when it’s busy, instead of working on required training.

Release a Service Promo Campaign

In some areas, service departments in the summer slow down significantly. But because you still need to get your bottom line into the black, drumming up some business may be necessary.

Create a service promotion that’s ideal for summer. Perhaps it’s a complimentary A/C inspection with the intention of cashing in on expensive air conditioning repairs. Or maybe it’s a complimentary charging system test, helping you sell batteries.

Remember, this is to supplement your summer income. While there should be measurable results, understand that you’ll be attracting customers that probably won’t become regulars. You’ll get off-makes and older vehicles. Just be thankful they’re entering the door and do your best to service them well.

Work on Internal Jobs

Every service department I’ve ever worked in got backed up with internal work over the summer. Technicians took vacation too, leaving internal work simmering on the back burner. While the flow of customer work is lessened, push to get caught up on new vehicle prep, pre-owned vehicle certifications, and the like.

If you’re really struggling to keep techs busy, work out a plan with the new car sales department to equip several vehicles with popular accessories. Create a custom package for your store, potentially making the accessory package a long-term thing.

Summertime can be tough to keep the income flowing into the service department. Maybe you’re finding it the case for your store, or maybe you’re one of the fortunate dealers who don’t have this problem. The point is to keep working toward customer service excellence by providing knowledgeable repairs, good value, and vehicles your customers will love.

A customer stops in for their service appointment. They check in with the service advisor, have a work order written, and take the complimentary shuttle to work. Then, when their car is done in the shop, they get picked up from work, receive a description of the work completed, pay their bill, and head out on their way.

But what happens next? I know, it seems like an odd question, but I think it’s relevant.

Understanding what some customers are prone to do after a service visit gives a glimpse into the type of customer service that should be provided – both what’s been overlooked in the current visit and what could improve in the future.

The Parking Lot Inspector

Every service advisor can just feel the imminent time required dealing with a customer when they’ve checked out at the cashier, head to their car, and pop the hood. This customer is inspecting to make sure the repair is done right. They want to check every grease zerk, every fluid, and every tire pressure to make sure they’ve been dealt with.

No doubt, there’s going to be at least one question they come back to the desk to ask. But this type of customer is telling you something with their actions: you’re not fulfilling their needs as a customer.

It’s something that may only take a minute, and you can avoid the walk back into the store completely. Review the vehicle inspection report with the customer in detail, and do it at their vehicle. It’s a way to show transparency and a level of customer care no one else does. You can do it for the customers you know will walk back into the desk, or even better, do it for everyone.

The Online Reviewer

Some customers would prefer to give compliments or air grievances where everyone can see them, on the internet. You get online reviews every time they visit without fail. It can be good or it can be bad. If it’s good all the time, you know you’re doing it right. But if it’s bad…

That tells you your customer doesn’t find you approachable enough to tell you in person. Granted, some people are meek and would prefer to avoid even the smallest confrontation. But some people would prefer to leave mad and tell everyone online that you didn’t do a good job or their car wasn’t fixed right.

If you’re getting online reviews that blindside you, consider changing your greeting and customer interactions. Be friendlier. Greet customers by name and with a handshake. Use casual language (but not slang) when speaking with them in person and over the phone.

The Blind Truster

If you have people that are always happy and just go along with your service and repair recommendations, and never question you, you’ve made a customer for life. It’s your customer to lose. Obviously, you’re doing what the customer expects for vehicle and customer care, but there’s still a danger there.

Don’t try to take advantage of the customer that blindly trusts you. You may be tempted to oversell maintenance or upsell repairs before they’re necessary because you know you’ll get the approval. But those types of actions turn the blind truster into the next type of customer.

The Never Returner

It’s the worst type of customer: the one that never comes back. A customer that hasn’t expressed their unhappiness and doesn’t return is one of the most damaging things for your service department and the dealership as a whole. Just because they haven’t told you about their bad experience doesn’t mean they haven’t told 16 of their friends and family – they have. You’ve lost the customer AND their referrals.

The never returner is easily avoided. All you have to do is provide the best customer care you can for every single customer, every time. If you don’t, there will be some customers you just never see again.

I have to say, as a former service advisor, one of the things I despised the most was training. Don’t get me wrong – I love time off. But what I definitely did NOT love was being away from my desk, unable to be productive. Because, as you know, service advisors are typically paid on productivity. The more customer work orders you write, the more zeroes on your paycheck.

Yet, it seemed there was always some kind of training that was coming up. Either semi-annual training sessions through the OEM or the dozens of online webinars and training sessions, training was never complete. And it sucks.

But since I can look at it from the outside now, it makes sense. There’s a purpose for all the training. Seriously, there IS a purpose.

Let’s take down one wall now, because I saw it firsthand when I had to complete it. Service advisors will say, “Training is fine, but it’s all the stuff that has no practical application to MY job that’s frustrating.” It’s true. There are a bunch of courses you’ll need to complete for your OEM ‘Service Consultant Certification’ or some other credential. I’m not going to pretend that all the training material required for service advisors is beneficial practically, but nonetheless, it must be done.

It’s for the Credentials

Think about the person who does your taxes. It could be some shmuck that does it at home on their computer with Cheezies crumbs that barely graduated high school. But if that same guy has a degree in Business or is a Chartered Accountant, it doesn’t matter if he’s working in his underwear or in a $1000-dollar suit.

Completing certifications and training adds credibility to what you do. Whether they mean something to you or not, print the certificates you receive from online courses and find a place to post them. Better yet – managers, have desk badges made for training courses completed and post them at service advisors desks.

The credentials mean something to a customer – that they’re receiving professional service. The guard can be dropped. Their advisor knows a thing or two.

There’s Actually Good Knowledge Available

With GM, one of the certifications I received was ‘Certified Technology Expert’. All that means is that I was up to date on current technology training. It’s no big deal, and it’s something every advisor should have had.

But it also meant that I was the go-to guy for tech questions. I had been for a while before the certification anyway. But achieving all that technology knowledge meant I was trusted to help customers in a specialist kind of role.

It’s Important for Your Store

You can buck it, resisting the pressure to finish the training you need to get done. But it actually hurts your store. I can’t speak for them all, but some OEMs use staff training as a prerequisite for financial rewards the dealership earns, whether for sales, CSI scores, or otherwise. If a certain percentage of staff haven’t completed their training, the reward diminishes or vanishes.

We’re talking thousands of dollars monthly. And if you’re one of the staff that affected the loss, you can be sure management can see it.

This part of training is being part of a team. The ‘team player’ attitude wants the best for the store, not just the individual.

You Forget the Good Stuff

It happens over time, slowly so that you don’t realize it’s happening. You’re beginning to cut corners; to lose your motivation; to deviate from the process. Consistent training helps service advisors realign their actions with that of the service department’s processes.

In terms of car tech, it’s Lane Keep Assist. As you slowly veer off course without noticing, the next training session helps bump you back to center, restoring your focus on the path you should be on.

My encouragement is this: keep learning. Read training materials. Participate in OEM training sessions. Ask your management to enroll you in courses that come available nearby. Training is important for you professionally and personally, and it’s going to keep you moving in the right direction.

Everyone I’ve met who’s spent time in the service drive will confirm it: being a service advisor is exhausting. Just being ‘on’ all day, interacting with customers and co-workers, is tiring in itself. Some people thrive on the hubbub and bustling environment, but it’s not only the ‘type A’ personalities that makes great service advisors. You can have a softer disposition and be fantastic at the desk.

But I’ll tell you firsthand that it’s extremely tough to be consistent day to day, week to week, and month to month. I’m the second kind of person – a little quieter, go-with-the-flow, and a bit of a people pleaser. Fear of rejection goes hand in hand with my type of personality.

Consistency? It’s part of my vocabulary. I know how to do it. Achieving it, on the other hand, is not easy. For other service advisors who are like me (and even ‘type A’ personalities from at times) it’s hard work to stay consistent in performance.

Rate performance however you will. CSI scores, hours per RO, dollar per RO, gross profit, or your paycheck. When you’re inconsistent, your performance suffers in them all.

What You Can Do

It isn’t likely that your manager is going to just accept that your performance will be hot one day and cold the next. If that’s the case, you’re probably not going to stay a service advisor for long. You’ll need to find a way to keep consistent, level-headed, and on your game from day to day. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.

Establish a Morning Routine

I used to only give myself 20 minutes to do the triple-S in the morning, and I’d leave for work missing out on one of them quite often. Establish a morning routine that’s structured and concise. Wake up in the morning at the same time every day and get out of bed WITHOUT hitting the snooze button (that’s my weakness).

Dress for Success

You’re going to do better if you feel better about yourself. It might go without saying for some, but I’ve seen so many service advisors who go to work with their shirt untucked, unkempt hair, and shoes that have toes poking out of them.

Dressing well for your job has another side too. Customers take notice. I believe customers gravitate toward the service advisors who appear to have it all together, and that’s done with first impressions – starting with appearance.

Eat Well

It doesn’t matter what type of fast food you eat at lunch, or at breaks. You’re going to feel like crap. Been there, done that – it’s like an addiction. It really does help with your performance to eat clean. Anything you make at home will be better for you than eating out every day (within reason, of course). And again, when you feel better, you’re going to perform better.

Work Out

Get your physical activity in. Whether you take your dog for a walk, run around the playground with your kids, or pump iron at the gym, physical activity is fantastic for consistency. Primarily, it’s going to get the right chemicals flowing that benefit your mental acuity. Secondly, you’ll get in shape.

You’ll need to make time for physical activity. Ideally, you’ll do it as part of your morning routine or immediately after your shift is done. If you head home to relax a little, there’s a good chance you’re not getting off the couch to work out later.

Train Your Mind

Find resources for professional improvement. Read books on selling techniques or ‘self-help’ topics that apply to your position. Subscribe to blogs from masterminds, life coaches, and people you admire. Surround yourself with information by successful people to train your mind. Read a chapter a day, a blog every lunch hour – get it in at some point throughout your day. It’s going to make you more confident and positive, and you can put that to work for more consistent performance.

It’s a number some dealerships reach easily, while others work hard and never quite get there: service absorption. You know it as the fixed operations gross profits that cover the expenses of not just fixed ops, but the WHOLE dealership.

Service absorption used to be the measure of a quite successful dealership. But there’s uncertainty in the industry. Steel and aluminum tariffs, as well as proposed foreign auto tariffs, are going to have a serious impact on new vehicle sales, should they last very long.

That doesn’t even take into consideration the previous sales forecasts. Economists and industry professionals expected new car sales in 2018 to slow down anyway – the tariffs are just going to compound it.

You’re wondering how this applies to service absorption. If you aren’t at 100% service absorption already, will it matter when the market soon takes a dive?

It’s Never Too Late

The fact is, no matter what happens in the economy, your service department will never NEED to cover 100% of the whole dealership’s expenses to pay the bills. As long as there are still cars driving off the lot, gross profit on the variable side will be there. But no dealer is satisfied to just stay afloat, even if it’s short-term. There net profit, whether that’s from the sales floor or the fixed ops departments.

With storm clouds on the horizon, turn your attention to service absorption. Just a few changes can help you get closer to a 100% service absorption rate, easing the pressure on the whole store.

Audit Expenses

Service shop supplies, uniforms, miscellaneous fasteners – any expenses that you incur in the service department take away from the net profit. Dollar for dollar, if you can trim your expenses, you edge closer to 100% service absorption.

Call your suppliers and put them on notice. Give them an opportunity to revise their pricing while you request quotes from other suppliers. With your suppliers, it’s good to have a working relationship. But when it comes to business, it boils down to dollars and cents. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ve found hundreds or thousands of dollars in savings.

Perform a Labor Rate Analysis

If you’re running a tight ship with very little waste and you’re still coming up short on service absorption, it could be time to make a pricing change. Perform a labor rate analysis, comparing your rates with your competitors.

Since the service department is less about pricing and more about relationships, modest increases where you are lower than the competition should be met with very little resistance. Plus, that extra income goes straight to the net – there are no extra expenses.

Attract More Service Customers

Perhaps the most important thing you can do – if you have the bandwidth in your shop – is attracting new service customers. Use any media you can to create new relationships with potential customers around you.

The benefits are pretty obvious – you add gross profit with every extra work order you write plus you’re increasing your base of potential new car customers too.

You might not get to 100% service absorption – your dealership’s financial structure just might not work that way, or your shop might not be big enough to do it. But if the automotive landscape tightens up like it looks like it will, you’ll need to do everything you can to keep your dealership profitable.

Statistics exist all over about happy customers. The J.D. Power Customer Service Index Study is one that provides valuable insight into areas of improvement as well as areas that have seen awesome growth. From those stats, we all know that happy customers are customers that will return for paid service, and that’s more than two thirds of customers.

But the statistics don’t get down in the trenches. They give an overview of areas that need improvement, but they provide the tools to get the job done. And of course, there’s the factor of the unknown. Unhappy customers usually don’t respond – they just leave and don’t come back.

The ticked-off customers that don’t say anything are difficult to address, simply because you don’t know they’re unhappy. But occasionally, you’ll get a CSI survey returned that expresses displeasure and “Will Return in the Future” is checked off as “definitely will NOT”. Those customers are not yet lost, but they’re an opportunity to create a loyal client.

How So?

If a customer has specifically told you they won’t be returning because they are unhappy, it’s usually because someone did something wrong, or didn’t do something they should’ve. That sounds to me like an opportunity at redemption. Take it while you can because you don’t get many chances at it, and certainly, at most, only once per customer.

If at all possible, do it verbally on the phone. It’s a level of connection that isn’t achieved in non-verbal communication. Otherwise, draft a well-written email to them.

Own the Problem

It’s the toughest thing to do in the automotive industry where most customer-facing staff are type-A personalities. Acknowledging failure doesn’t come easy, but it’s necessary.

Acknowledge the customer’s concern, summarizing the issue that has upset the customer. But it’s not enough to just acknowledge – you must apologize. You’ve allowed the customer to leave your store unhappy once. At minimum, it’s your fault for not correcting the concern before the customer’s visit was over.

You’ve disarmed the customer by taking ownership of the problem. They’ll keep listening to you now.

Explain What Should Have Happened

Your store’s policies and procedures dictate how certain situations should be handled. If you have an unhappy customer, there’s likely at least one thing that wasn’t followed to the letter. In that way, explain to the customer that you should’ve asked the advice of your manager/made your follow-up call as promised/detailed the estimate better/arranged the shuttle immediately, or what have you.

If the customer knows there’s a proper way of doing things but it wasn’t followed this once, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to earn their business back.

Promise to Do Better

If you’ve told the customer what you should’ve done, the next step is to tell them that you’ll do what should be done next time. By making that commitment, you’re beginning to turn the conversation to the future – their next visit to your store.

And with your commitment to improving yourself, it’s time to ask the question: “Can I ask you for another opportunity to earn your business?”

Do Better

Some customers will truly come back for another shot. Others may say they will and never set foot in your store again. For the ones return, follow through on your promise. Do better.

Elevate your customer service experience by owning customer concerns. It takes a big person to swallow their pride and accept blame for an unhappy client, even if it seems trivial or actually isn’t your fault. But if you’re able to walk through the problem with a customer, own it, and promise to improve, there’s a strong possibility they’ll return as a loyal customer.  

Dealerships all over have recognized the benefits in using an app for their store. It’s true – customer engagement is much simpler when you’re putting your communications in front of your customers’ eyes in real time. But having an app doesn’t guarantee customer loyalty.

In fact, a recent Think with Google study reports that 80 percent of app users churn within three months. That means they’re gone – no longer part of your clientele. The app is deleted. You’ll need to recapture that client again, and that’s harder than earning them in the first place.

It’s because of that high churn rate that some dealers don’t believe in the value of investing in a branded app. Hey, if 80 percent of the users drop off in 90 days, I’d question the value too! But there’s less wrong with the product (if anything) – it has to do with how an app is used.

Actual Customer Engagement

Listing information on an app and allowing customers to access it isn’t engagement. That’s passive, and it gives your competition the open door to engage your customer and grab their interest. It isn’t enough to have an app that sits idle until the customer decides to open it, browse through its features, make an appointment, or call your store.

Active engagement with an app requires an action plan. There should be push notifications and valuable content appearing on the smartphone screen regularly.

How Often Should You Engage?

Everyone has an opinion about the frequency of engagement through an app. For an auto dealer, daily is too much. In my opinion, once a week should be the minimum and three times per week the max – and that’s only IF your content is worth pushing.  

How to Use an App Well

I’m not an app developer, so the features you choose for your dealer’s app might not jive…but they should. I believe these three things are critical – they’ll help prevent that 80 percent churn rate.

Reward Loyalty

App users should receive perks and offers that others either don’t receive, or they should get them first! Use push notifications like a pre-sale for concert tickets. Only loyal app users are eligible for the service promotion first or the new car sale two days early.

Provide Valuable Information

Your dealership’s blog content should contain service tips, how-to’s for in-car technology, new vehicle walkarounds. Assuming you have these articles and videos being posted on your website, use push notifications to engage your customers with this valuable information. Keep it short and sweet.

Make It Personal

Customers increasingly appreciate the personal connection on websites. It helps to develop a ‘relationship’ without an interaction. Post team member profiles along with a short bio so customers know who they’re going to see in the store. Maybe they can’t remember their salesperson’s or service advisor’s name. It’s an easy reminder.

If you have an app, great! Do you use it well? If you have a high churn rate, there’s work you should do to keep your customer engaged.

Have you ever received a CSI survey result and been completely floored and ruffled that it wasn’t a perfect score? I know, it’s dredging up feelings you don’t want to deal with. But it happens a lot more than anyone wants to admit, especially from if you’re the DPSM.

The common scenario goes like this:

 The customer has been handled perfectly from start to finish. You’ve done your walkaround, built their trust, advised instead of sold, and kept them informed the whole time. You even offered your last courtesy car to this very client. At no point was there any indication they were displeased, upset, had questions, or been anything less than thankful and appreciative.

You might’ve explained it to the customer when they picked up their vehicle. “You’ll probably receive a survey by email about your visit today. It’s just one of the ways my performance is evaluated. If you’ve had a great experience, please fill it out appropriately. If there’s any reason you can’t give an excellent score, please let me know so I can fix it for you.” All handshakes and smiles, and the customer is on their way.

A few days later, their CSI survey comes back to you. They’ve marked their scores all one column over from perfect. In school, it’s an acceptable 80 percent. On a CSI survey, it’s the worst way to fail.

Why It Happens

Have you ever called a customer after a CSI score like this and asked why? I have. The reason is perfectly logical, at least in the customer’s point of view. The response I received was, “My service the other day was great! I have no problems with you or the dealership. I never fill out a survey perfectly, because there’s always something that can be improved upon.”

How do you argue with the logic? You can’t. What you can do is expect that you’ll get a survey like that from a perfectly happy customer every so often.

Unfortunately, your DPSM doesn’t see it that way, and scores don’t account for logical customer survey scores like this.

What You Can Do

Four out of five isn’t bad, unless four is a failing score. But there’s not much you can do about survey scores in the past – you can only look to the future. But how do you address the happy customers who never give a perfect score?

Get a Manager Involved

Not like you think, though. It’s not an ‘explain away the problem’ kind of thing. One item that some customers respond well to is an authority figure. So, in some cases, it can help for a service manager to call the customer after the advisor has called them. The service manager can say something like this:

“Hi, Mr. Ross. I want to thank you for filling out the recent survey you received. As I followed up with Jason to see if there was any way we could’ve served you better, he mentioned that you were completely satisfied. Is that true? (Assume a ‘yes’ from the customer)

“I’m glad to hear you’re happy with Jason and how your visit went. Would it be alright if I review with you how the manufacturer scores us based on the survey?”

See where it’s going? A manager may have the opportunity and influence to change a customer’s future survey scores simply by educating the customer.

There’s probably not much else you CAN do. Rewarding a customer for a survey response or coaching for a perfect score is either frowned upon or forbidden by OEMs. Unless CSI surveys change in how they’re performed by the OEM, there will always be a challenge with the odd customer who’s hesitant to give out five stars.

How have you dealt with the four-star survey? Comment below.

A quick snapshot of any dealership website reveals the exact same thing. The first thing that’s evident will be new car inventory, followed by used car inventory. Tucked away in a corner, in a seldom-selected dropdown menu are parts and accessories, and then the service department.

What do you get when you select the service department? Very few websites even have a clickable ‘Service’ heading. The ones that do have a basic, uninspiring page with little to no helpful information. Possibly hours of operation, a handful of keywords, but nothing more. The ‘Service’ dropdown has a slightly better, offering the opportunity to schedule an appointment, view specials, or perhaps even view maintenance schedules.

Compare that web presence to the service department’s value in your store. Are you operating near or at 100 percent service absorption? If you are, you know exactly how important your service department is. And if you aren’t, then maybe your website experience is a tool that could boost your service department up a little.

What Could Your Service Department Look Like Online?

Think about the ‘Service’ tab as its own website. Because, honestly, your customers that want service information don’t want to search all over your website to find the one thing they want to know. It should be contained and easy to find.

Provide Important Details Immediately

From the first click on the ‘service’ tab, customers should be able to access the most important details right away. It should give them access to creating an appointment or contacting your service department directly, and it should have your hours of operation immediately present. Don’t forget to show holiday hours also.

Show Who You Are

A personal connection is powerful. That’s why I’d always recommend putting a department profile in the related webpage. Post pictures and a one- or two-line bio for all your service staff, from service managers and advisors to cashiers and valets.

Display Specials

The manufacturer always has a service special running, don’t they? Artwork is provided from the OEM and it’s simple to insert onto the webpage. What’s even more important than putting specials online is making sure they are current. Information that is months or years past their expiration tells website visitors they can’t rely on the rest of your content to be current either.

Add a Service Blog

One of the most powerful tools for your website is a blog. Include how-to guides for basic service-related features like ‘how to tell when your air filter needs to be replaced’ and ‘how to adjust your tire pressures’.

A service blog is a fantastic opportunity to pack search terms onto your website. When potential customers are searching online, you want your website to show up. So, put popular search terms into your content as keywords. Terms like ‘oil change near me’ and ‘Honda repair shop’ are examples of keywords that customers are searching.

While you’re at it, every department should treat their portion of the website like this. The fact is that all dealerships are competing against each other for the most important leads right now: online leads. Make your web content stand out more than the others to get more than your share of the leads, service or otherwise.

I’m willing to bet this scenario sounds familiar:

The summer months have arrived. School is out and many of your staff are taking time off to spend with their kids. Vacations are planned and there’s competition to get the most desirable weeks. Those, of course, are those before and after long weekends, right?

But then, when you’re in the midst of summer, it all suddenly implodes. There aren’t enough service advisors to cover your bases. Customers are forming a queue outside the service manager’s door to complain about their service. And if you can write up all the customers, their work orders aren’t getting completed in a timely manner because the shop is a ghost town.

Granted, summer is usually somewhat slower in the service department than the other seasons. But even with fewer customers coming through the service drive, it doesn’t go like it should.

It’s a Common Scene

Most likely, some form of this summer scene happens in your dealership. Maybe not so bad, maybe worse. But as pleasant as it is to have summer arrive, most service managers can’t wait for it to end.

So, how do you get ready for the summer months? Whether you’re a service advisor or a service manager, here are a few tips to plan out the season.

For Service Managers…

• It should go without saying, but it still needs to be reiterated. Make a hard and fast vacation schedule. Set rules that absolutely MUST be adhered to. For example, limit the number of technicians away at a time while accounting for (but not expecting) the potential for ‘sick’ calls. The same goes for service advisors and support staff – always make sure enough team members are scheduled to handle the workflow.
• Plan to spend more time outside of your office than in it. With your team operating a few people down, part of your responsibility will be to support the ones that are working. Fill in for breaks, answer the phones, or spend time helping the valet. Not only will you help with productivity, but you’ll earn much respect from your team.
• Put your foot to the floor. Don’t let up in the summer months. If the customers are rolling in, do whatever you need in order to keep the department humming along. Remember, if your service department isn’t available for the customers when they want to come, they WILL go somewhere else instead.

For Service Advisors…

• Plan vacations at non-peak times in the year. I get it – sometimes the family wants to go to Wisconsin Dells or Disney, and there’s no choice but summer. However, less competition for peak summer vacation times makes for a better work environment. Plus, think of the opportunities to earn extra while other staff are away!
• Be ready for a hectic pace. Perhaps there are fewer customers coming in, but you’ll be moving faster to make up for vacationing staff. You’ll be tempted to sit out on the patio, enjoying the warm weather, but make sure you get enough rest for work the next day.
• Go above and beyond your duties. With support staff also taking turns relaxing, you might need to be a valet-slash-cashier-slash advisor from time to time.

Summer is coming fast. Get you department prepared and your team honed in!

I want to hear your stories. Have you experienced any crazy summer staffing issues in the service department? Comment below.