I have been a service advisor in the automotive industry a total of 10 years. My first opportunity to work as an advisor came from a friend, where I was paired with the greatest teacher I could have ever asked for. He was strict and scrutinous. It ultimately lead to me being a top performing advisor in the independent automotive repair world.
A while back I had an opportunity to become a teacher of a group of service advisor and develop a program to help them advance their skills. I then took the time to reflect on the so called "soft skills" that come naturally or are hard earned through constant practice.
I wrote down a list that some peers and I agree are the skills that set some advisors a cut above the rest. Things that build lasting success through relationships and trust. Furthermore, honing these skills professionally led to me becoming a better communicator and empath for my friends and family.
Take my advise with a grain of salt as no advice is perfect, but I would like to pass on the lessons I learned and maybe it will help you to level up in your career. A lot of these skills seem obvious, but deserve attention. Do this stuff and it will make your life easier.
Setting Expectations/Keeping Your Promises
Setting a customers expectations is the most critical step in mitigating friction in the process of communicating throughout a customer’s visit. Everyone's life is busy. We all have a schedule and most of us rely on our vehicle to go about our lives. Preparing a customer for what may happen, however vague or detailed, pays off at each step in the process of completing their transaction with you. Setting their mindset to know what steps we take, what kind of cost possibilities there are and realistic time frames will make later conversations smooth and easy. This will reduce stress and make the sale easier.
Keeping promises is simple, if you tell someone a specific time that you will deliver a call back or estimate then you MUST meet or beat that deadline. Do yourself a favor, be semi vague with your time promises (i.e. this afternoon, tomorrow morning, next day or two). Whatever appointment you create for yourself with that customer has to be met, don't trap yourself in a one minute window.
Clear Communication
It seems like a basic skill to have, but the importance of clear communication can’t be understated. The basics of speaking clearly on the phone to the customer; using concise and simple words, polite and courteous tone, speaking with intention when delivering information and most importantly the pace of speech set the tone for every conversation you have every day. Speaking with command (not hostility) will demonstrate to the customer that you know your subject, you’re confident in the information you’re giving and you’re in control of the situation. It’s important in every type of conversation, good, bad, and ugly, to maintain confidence and pace to de-escalate a complex conversation.
Active Listening
Critical listening is a skill that elevates an advisor’s ability to give excellent service. When in the information gathering process it’s important to actively dissect what a customer really means. Hearing between the lines can provide valuable information like what a customer’s priorities are, the urgency in which they will need their vehicle, what’s driving their decision-making process or where we’ve fallen short of meeting their needs. Being able to decipher the customer’s intentions without asking is an amazing tool for generating the correct responses and maintaining or regaining command of a conversation.
Lead the Conversation
In a conversation between a service advisor and the customer, the advisor is the professional in the process. You are in command of the phone call and your office. It’s your responsibility to be in charge and lead the customer to the conversation’s objective. It is critical to prepare the information and walk the customer through each part. This is especially important with sales and bad news. Ideally when finished delivering the information to a customer, most questions (why, when, how much) should already be answered to remove as many objections from the table as possible. Leading the conversation gets both parties to the objective in a timely manner and minimize challenges.
Practice your conversation flow.
Memorize your "playbook" of things you say often.
Work on your presentation skills and treat going over inspection reports/estimates like a power point presentation.
Be the Professional in the Interaction
To elaborate on the last point. You are the master of this domain. You have the most experience and knowledge of how your service process goes. You've encountered all the scenarios and situations. You should be your client's shepherd from start to finish.
That means:
Giving them advice on how to schedule
What to expect with their visit
Smart choices to make with their visit
Helping to prioritize repairs if needed
Making a plan for their vehicle
As advisors, we make recommendations that are in the client's best interest. That idea in your brain should go beyond what impacts their pocketbook. We can help people prepare for their transportation, logistics and more to give them a better experience.
Gauge the Customer
Understanding the amount of information a client wants to ingest is a tricky, but awesome skill. Advisors should prepare for any and all questions. You should know what you're about to present and be ready to explain down to the last detail.
Quite frankly, some people don’t care.
Some people are engineers and want to know everything.
Figuring out how much a customer needs to hear to feel confident in their investment is a powerful thing. This can be determined by a level of trust or level of curiosity. Sometimes having knowledge can be the trust building factor. Being able to deliver the knowledge with each of the aspects of clear communication will win every time.
There are countless scenarios. Most commonly I've found that as you build trust through good and hard work, the less a person needs to know. When a person is hesitant or don't know you, they need to see you demonstrate that you do in fact understand what you're talking about. This can be trumped by the almighty dollar for anyone. You may have a customer who trusts you, but if the engine needs to be replaced... be prepared to explain why.
Never assume that you don't have to be prepared for someone.
Ask Questions
Not only does asking questions provide your team with the necessary information you need, but it engages your customer in the problem solving process. Even when the concern is straight forward, it builds value with the customer to ask them questions and get them involved in their visit.
Giving your team the best information you can get will dramatically improve their mood. Being lazy and writing a few words down for diagnosis is the same and getting a few words back as a conclusion. We don't like it, neither do technicians. Learn the right questions to ask and do your best to write out everything you can for your technician to work with. Your goal is to make sure the tech doesn't have to stop what they're doing to come ask you for more information.
Give Perspective
Giving perspective is a great closing tool. Perspective tools like “if this was my car… mom’s car… wife’s car” is great. More perspective tools could be “this is one of the common hurdles every make/model from this generation encounters. Every owner of this make/model will eventually have to tackle this, however, once we’ve tackled this particular obstacle the vehicles don’t have a lot of other big issues to address” or a comparative example to different car where the same repair is substantially more to diminish the weight of the current repair. Just a few examples.
Perspective is a great way to remind them that you are on their team. We are here to solve their problems and get them back to their lives. Your shop is not a Holiday Inn.
Empathetic Understanding
Being able to put yourself in the customers’ shoes and understand their situation, what’s important to them, what efforts they’ve made to help, how busy they are can all be powerful tools for sales. Drawing back on asking questions and actively listening, using the customers specific priorities can help you relate and give good reasons for completing services. If a person comes in with their minivan, two car seats and metal on metal brakes, mentioning something about safety in the sales delivery is a no brainer. Being on the customer’s team, again, builds trust and loyalty.
Avoid the Emotional Bank Account
The emotional bank account is where you lose. Getting attached to someone’s personal story or situation leads to discounts or cutting corners. Throwing discounts at a problem, because you fell short of serving the customer. Leading with discounts instead of being confident in the value of yourself and your team. This does no service to your customer. We have all been there, we’ve all felt terrible and that’s been reflected in our margins. The best thing you can do for a person in this situation is to provide them the absolute best experience they’ve ever had at a repair facility. Believe in yourself and your technicians! Give 130% to that customer and demonstrate that you care by putting in that effort. If you as an advisor do a complete job to help the customer, then you should be generating the trust and value with your customer so that you don't have to give away the farm to give a vehicle back to the owner.
Phrasing, verbiage, brevity
This is straight forward, but the way you deliver information influences the way your customer perceives you and that will leave an impression on the customer about you and the business. Speaking positively when answering questions (ex. Are you open weekends? We are open Monday through Friday "X" am-"X" pm. Our leadership always says if they don’t work on the weekends then they won’t make their employees!) Phrasing it that way gives them options that fit your schedule and you just told them your ownership and company take care of their people. Obviously there are much harder and more complex situations to practice which can be done with your advisor coworkers.
Verbiage is keeping the terminology simple enough to understand and, in some cases, words can leave an impression on others. When talking with a customer and saying “Honestly, you should do X” opens the door for the customer to think “so is the advisor not normally honest with me?” when Frankly your opinion should be seen as straight forward.
Brevity goes back to gauging the customer and delivering the necessary information without the run on sentence or added paragraph. Over-talking can leave a customer lost and confused. Check all the boxes of delivering the information in a concise manner and move to the next phase of conversation.
Relationship building
Invest in your regular clients. Make new ones feel like they've been a part of the family for years. Commit them to memory or log physical notes if necessary. Build a foundation with them so when they think about their car, they think of you. The more established relationships you have with your customer base, the easier your life will be. When these customers come through the door, trust is there, and they will do what you recommend so long as you don’t abuse the relationship.
Good practices to remember your clients:
Take notes on their profile
Check on your morning schedule and look up clients you don't know
Repeat the client's name in conversation
Take notes on their appointment
Review their service history before they come in
Review deferred repairs and ask them if everything still seems ok since you last talked about it
Let the client know you'll be rechecking past inspection items an recommendations to make sure they're safe.
Have conversations with them while they wait if you have time. Don't avoid them.
Building value
Nothing gets a customer in the door or ready to commit to a repair better than building value in yourself, your product/service and your business.
One of my leaders always asked, "What makes this business any different than the dozens of competitors down the road?"
The answer is that you and the rest of the staff are the difference.
Present every benefit of your business in a polished way for the customer. Have the mindset that all of the programs, education, services and benefits are products of the company.
Above and beyond amenities are a bonus to the customer and how you explain each to them sets the precedent for the value. Saying "We can get you a ride." is not the same as saying "Our company provides courtesy shuttles to and from the store. It's really nice and that way you don't have to worry about dropping off or picking up!"
In some cases, presenting services to a customer thinking about scheduling something can make a huge difference. Elaborating on how we do things shows value in our ability and attentiveness.
Lastly, writing the notes for a diagnosis during a sale and/or explaining what’s wrong to a customer can answer a lot of questions and demonstrate the effort we put in to helping our customers. A great advisor naturally gives polished presentations and builds value from start to finish with every client.
Summary
Being a service advisor is tough. Long hours, always having to be positive, mountains of paperwork, endless talking. All of the things I've listed above seem like more work, but I promise that if they become a part of your natural habit, your work will get easier.
The highest friction point I've ever had is upsetting a client or getting yelled at. It's the biggest contributor to stress, makes it harder to mentally clock out when you go home and creates animosity between you and your job.
We as advisors are here to help people and if we're effected by a bad customer experience, it effects everyone else we help after. This is why I suggest you actively pursue getting ahead of mistakes with the skills above.
Lastly, take care of yourself. Get good sleep, eat healthy foods, take time to recover and do things you enjoy doing.
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