Are YOU Ruining Your New Service Advisors? | SDR #325

Welcome to the big show. Today we're going to talk about when are new service advisors ready? When are they ready? Also, just a reminder, we have Chris Voss and a bunch of other surprises in our Top Dog event this year, October 23rd and 24th. It's for our coaching clients and on demand customers, but it's going to be an incredible event. Best Top Dog ever. And then we talk about Ford having a recall and some other stuff. Coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution.

You're traveling in November.

I think it's always funny to talk about, like.

How a couple of months in advance, like, you're. You're good, you're ready to go, and then it's like, when is the date again? Like, there's a thing that you do where it's like, when is that again? Oh, it's. It's in four weeks.

Okay.

Are you sure that we have to do it? Like, you kind of go through this whole scale. I don't know if that's funny to people or not, but I love it.

You love my. You love watching me in pain.

Not necessarily watching you in pain, but, like, it's funny how when you do the thing where you agree, you don't think about it, you just are like, oh, I'd love to help these people. And, like, you're overcome with your. That's the.

Yeah, that's the key, is don't put me on the phone with them. Like, I say yes to stuff. I shouldn't. Shouldn't say yes because I. I don't know. I'm. When I'm on with people I like, it's about them.

Yeah.

But then after I regret it.

That's right. Whose idea?

What is that? What is that?

For you to be on this call.

Mine.

It was totally your idea.

But when did you say no, you can't be on the call.

If I can, I will. That's great.

Just if we can. Kosh. I hope this is all being recorded so that I can. I can play it back.

No, but the outcome is good.

I'm so excited. I think it's neat.

It'll be fun also, like, that's a quick flight. And. Yeah, I get to go to the Rothko Chapel.

That's good. I'm glad you're going.

Okay. So that was our band. But you can.

You can do that again, though. It's funny.

Yeah.

But then you can talk about. No, no. This one I'm really, really excited about. And they'll say, we'll talk again in a month.

So Christian wants to have a new rule that I'm not allowed to talk to customers and get on strategy sessions. Because whenever I do. What do I do? Christian, you.

I feel like there's probably been two or three people that have moved into your house because like you're like, come on, stay at the house for a couple of months. Like you are. You're like naturally like this super sweet and generous person and you have a filter in most.

Then I have to fulfill the thing.

That I have to fulfill the thing. Yeah. So. So there's like a thing. So Chris is.

So I will get on a call and I will promise the thing. And then months later, Christian be like, okay, so you fly into Dallas. And I'm like, what? I did what I promised what I don't want to do that.

He has no recollection of doing the thing.

Cuz I absolutely hate getting on a plane.

You do, You've done your time. I feel like that's the thing is you've just done too much and you shouldn't have to do it anymore. But it is literally like you can kind of see the erosion of the excitement. Usually is what happens is like when you, you, when you get on with them, you're great and it's good. I wonder what if. If what I should do is do like a halftime reintroduction to the people.

What do you mean?

Get you amped up again. Like, hey, I just want you to meet with these folks that you're going to speak with in a month and a half maybe. And what will end up happen is you give an extra two days or something. So that's also.

Oh yeah, I'll stay at their house.

Yeah. So great.

That's one thing you learn early on is not to ever stay at anybody's house. Like a lot of dealers that early, didn't you? Yeah, there's only. I can only think of one dealer, Firearms, that I would stay at. Yeah. At his house all the time in New York. He was great though. But I, he was just a friend. But most of the time staying at somebody's house, it like, I'm high maintenance. I want, I want my own stuff. I want.

Like.

You don't want me walking around your house in the middle of the night. Like. No, I just, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not user friendly when it comes to that. I also like, I design everything intentionally around certain things and when that's taken away from me, I don't do good.

Yeah, I like that you curate your Own environments like that. I think that might be part of the travel, too. Like, in your world that you've got here, you've really.

Just. How many times have I traveled and spent more on my hotel?

That's the other thing is, I'll be like, no, I'll pay for my own travel, because there's no way I'm gonna make them pay for the hotel I'm gonna stay in.

Yeah.

Although.

Although these. These nice folks seemed. They were probably one of the, like, the sweetest people that we've ever met.

Well, I think most people would.

Would pay.

I just don't know.

And they would. I feel bad, but, yeah, I feel like you.

That's the problem.

I'm tuned.

It's not them, it's you.

I'm worried about them more than I'm worried about myself until I have to go do it. And then the reality sinks in that I'm on spirit air, in a middle seat, going to Miami or something.

Just so everyone knows that's never happened. Never would, but never happen.

But the analogy is accurate.

But this one's kind of cool because there's a little bit of a. There's a little bit of a beautiful part of where you're going to do this, and you can go to one of your favorite places. So I think this. This experience is going to be good for you.

Yeah, no, it'll be great. But it is funny that, you know, you. You already are anticipating me complaining about it.

Yeah. September 18th is the first time that.

I have to be like, that's when I'll start complaining.

That's when you'll start. And then when is. It's like.

It's like, what will I say?

Well, you start with, when is that thing again?

And I'm like.

And you can go, well, did you look at the calendar?

I don't say that to you. But. But I give you the dates, and you're like, are you sure? Like, you like to question me whether or not I know if it's right or not.

Oh, poor Christian. Yeah.

Okay.

So funny. That just cracks me up. Yeah, I hate it. I hate traveling.

Yeah, you. You can't do those anymore. You can do the strategy sessions anymore.

It is so funny. Like, to the remote places, like the funny stories, like dealers that own their own hotels, and you're reading the review and there's bedbugs at the hotel, and they want you to stay there. And it's like, there's been times where I've driven an hour. Like, I've driven An hour.

To be at the morning meeting at 6:30 with the advisors. Right. But I got like the nicest hotel is like in a city far away and I'll do that because I don't want bed plugs.

Yeah. That's funny. None of us do. But there's a couple of them that I think the. One of the worst disasters I think I remember and this probably is what caused a lot of this for you. There was an Arizona experience. Do you remember this? Where you got there and you had to drive an hour and a half to get there and then they told you they didn't have a reservation for you. So you end up going to a different place and it was in the middle of the night. Like the whole. It was the worst possible scenario.

I feel like that's happened a bunch of times.

Yeah. I feel like that it's just been one too many and we can't come.

Didn't we get stranded in Dallas once?

Yeah, but that was kind of fun.

Yeah, but we made it fun. It wasn't fun.

My. But my favorite part about it was the fact that like the. Was what happened in Cincinnati before we went to Dallas. Cuz you're like, hey lady, like we're not going to make the flight. Oh, you'll be fine.

Yeah. No.

People that work at airlines are the worst.

So funny.

It is funny. What's. So everybody set your calendar to September 12th.

I will be complaining.

It's when it. When it begins. All right. I got this fancy iPad here. You want to talk about some news?

I have had some pretty fun people stay at my house though. Like that guest. That guest suite is. Missy did a good job.

Yeah.

Like people are always blown away by the snacks.

Well you. You two combined are also ridiculous hosts. In a good way.

It's important to be a good host.

I think I agree with you. 100.

I'll tell you like who.

Who taught me a lot of that was Don Crevier. Like he was an incredible host. Incredible.

Yeah. I feel like you've told me that before. I definitely think. I think your mom's a really good host too. So you probably had that ingrained. Like I always felt she's. Anytime I've been around her, it's always way more like whatever's going on with you is the most important thing. Like she's not. She has no concern for herself. Almost to a fault. But I feel like some came from that. But maybe the refinement came from Donnie.

Yeah, I guess the. The way that it feels in my head is.

The business side of it. Like, there's so many lessons from him in that way. Like, also just the way that he would treat vendors. Like, he would be friends with vendors, but he'd be like, hey, you know, Don, this vendor is way out of whack, and there's somebody who will do it for half. And he would be like, well, tell him. Like, like, you know, he's just, like, very. Like, just be honest and, like, be nice about it. Don't. You know? But, like, the truth is the truth sort of a thing. He just had this really nice way of telling the truth, but still, like, running a good, sound business and making decisions the right way and getting all the information, too. Like, you know.

But the hosting thing, like, he really had an attention to detail.

That was on another level. Like, my mom's a great host in the sense that she makes people feel comfortable, and she feeds you cookies and does all that. But Don knew how to hire caterers and not have people wait in line. And, like, you know, you. To scale that. Right. Like, it's easy for my mom to have cookies on your bed when you stay over, but to scale that to an event that has a thousand people, that's another level of attention to detail. And, you know, people not waiting in line, the. You know, the. The bar and how drinks are. Like, everything mattered. The parking. Like, he worried about everything. Like, you just want him. You want to take away all resistance so people can experience the thing you're trying to have them experience.

And so it just all matters. Like, everything matters.

And that's how we approach top dog.

Yeah. Like, there's a lot. There's a lot of him in all of that.

Yeah. It's a level of anticipation that nobody understands. Like, the way that we're trying to foresee needs and wants and everything like that. It's. It's. He comes out, I think, in that event for sure, and he would worry.

Like, he. He was always paying attention. And, you know.

They.

They.

They kind of have that. That debate. Right. Like, there's. That leaders eat last kind of a thing, and then there's the people that go first. Don was the guy that was in the middle. He wanted to be in the middle and experience what everybody else was experiencing.

Yeah.

And he wanted to talk to everybody. He wanted to hear what they thought. Like, he would ask, like, and he.

You know, the kind of. The debriefs that we do after an event would be the conversations him and I would have. Like, he would have a list of things, and he'd be like, hey, there was a line at this time, and I don't know that that person, that waiter should be at the dmv. They shouldn't be helping people. And like, you know, he just. He was. He was keeping notes on that sort of. Not in his phone, like on a piece of paper. But, yeah, there's something to that. Being a good host. But I've had some pretty fun people stay in my house. Yes.

I. I think that you choose those guests really well, so. But that helps out. But it's all about anticipating the needs. Want to talk about new news?

Yeah.

So I thought this was really an interesting one for you. Nissan, the Japanese company, closing their Japan. One of their Japan plants. I thought that was really fascinating.

Breaks my heart. And, you know, my first new car was a Nissan.

It was my first dealership I worked at.

I just don't understand why they.

They.

They sure missed that, Carlos.

Yeah.

Like, they've never recovered from that.

What was the deal with him? He was. He was doing something or something like that.

Charging his house to his expense account or something. I don't know.

He's not the first one to do.

That for sure, but they tried to put him in jail.

Y.

But he. You know, they haven't had anybody with that sort of vision and the ability to. To create products that consumers aspire to have.

Yeah. I will say the dealer body, though. Some of our. Some of our Nissan clients absolutely weathering the storm and killing it.

But that's because they're good dealers, not because Nissan's making it easy.

Yeah. So it just kind of lets you know that the. The product does.

We have Infinity clients that are doing good, but people wouldn't believe it. Not the average one.

No, they're not the average one. Not at all. This is something that'll help you to know that I've stopped driving. As much fewer traffic Deaths reported in 2025.

You attribute that to you walking.

Yeah.

I have been walking a lot lately. It's kind of fun. Let's see. There's so many things. Oh, there. There's been a spike in vehicle brand loyalty. That's not me, that's you. You're back to back on both your cars. Same manufacturer.

Yeah.

I really want a cyber truck.

I'm surprised you haven't gotten one yet.

Can't justify it.

They don't really have anywhere to park it. Yeah.

Would it even fit in your little driveway area?

Not with. Not with Winston.

Yeah.

Like, I don't want to get rid of Winston. I just Want a cyber truck for the pending apocalypse.

That's pretty funny. And Ford recalled 56,000 F150s.

If you're a Ford dealer, that is a chance to get people back that you haven't seen in a month.

Do an inspection to make friends.

Yeah.

That's 80% of them are going to an independent shop. You could get them back.

That's right. That's the way.

Use the recall as an excuse.

Yeah. And. And also here at Service Drive Revolution, we like to make sure that we provide good information. And I came up. I had an epiphany that happened to me a week ago. And I wanted to give this advice to our listeners and viewers just because it just didn't surprise me a little bit. Don't. Don't believe everything you read in bathroom stalls. Sharon was not ready for a good time, and it was a very awkward conversation.

Don't you miss the good old days when people wrote in bathroom stalls? Right.

Like, nobody's.

When's the last time you were in a bathroom stall that there was anything written?

It's been way too long.

Yeah.

To start putting, like, Sharpie markers out.

Is that because it doesn't happen anymore or just, like, where we live?

I don't know. I feel like if it was going to happen, it would happen. Well, I don't go public even.

Like, when I, like, a while ago took a road trip in the truck stops, like, and in the rest stops, there's no. Nobody's riding in those bathrooms.

Used to be, like, maybe nobody wants to have a good time anymore. I don't know.

Maybe. Christian, let me ask you a question, please. How long till a new service advisor is ready?

That's a great question and multifaceted in its answer. But when they. They're ready, when they can do the job and your customers aren't mad at them.

But is there one time, like, can you say they're ready in nine months or they're ready in a year?

I don't think so.

Yeah. It depends on the person.

I. But it is some. Do you get asked that a lot? I get asked that a lot. Like, how long does it take to train somebody? And I just think forever. Like, it's. We're always training.

But also, like, the thing about the training is you're always training with the feedback loop. Like, you give them three customers and then see how that goes. If that doesn't go good, you don't give them 25.

Yeah.

And I think you give them two.

Don't you think that a lot of people that we've seen, they don't even start at the 3, they start at 25 and then they'll never learn. What's wrong?

Yeah, no, you started three and then give them four and when they can do good with four, then you give them five. But you. And how many times have we had veteran advisors that are starting to struggle in CSI or something and you cut them back and limit them to eight and watch how quick it gets magically, it's fine.

Right. So.

You know, it has to, it has more to do with the individual and how they retain it and how close you're watching and involved than just a blanket timetable.

Yeah.

And some people unfortunately are a little smarter than others. Some people learn faster than others.

What are you kind of like potty training a dog? Right?

Yeah. Like you don't know what the timetable.

Is going to be when you potty train a bulldog most of the time.

I remember my first bulldog. He like literally, because before that I had had shelties and other dogs and what we would do that my family tradition or how I was raised is you would wad up a newspaper and then you would like bang the newspaper on, on your hand, which would scare the living daylights out of them and you'd rub their nose in it and then put them outside. Later on I learned there's other ways to do it where you can do crate training and. But that's kind of how I was raised. Right.

Okay.

So when I got my first bulldog, did a version of crate training, but also like Rocky would like literally look at you and then lift his leg and pee on the couch corner like he. And you know, you do the newspaper thing and reprimand them and rub his nose in it and put it outside and he'd come back and do it again. Like he didn't, he didn't care. And I remember this dog trainer, when we were taking her to training was like, oh, that you can't train bulldogs that way. You got to do it with treats. And so then, you know, jump ahead a week, he comes and gets you and he's like, hey, get a treat because I got to go outside and pee. And then, you know, you reward them and then they, they start to do it.

Yeah. So it's a day when you do it the right way.

But they're different than like, let's say my mother in law has one of those labradoodles. Cute dog. Never needed potty train. Like was potty trained by virtue of DNA. I don't know, like Just was smart. It's, you know, dog's pretty smart, great dog, but never had, never had to do any of that. Like they just were potty trained like in a sense. And so everybody's different. And I think it's the same thing with being an advisor. Some people struggle with the dms, some people struggle with the customers and the follow up. Some people struggle with the, the knowledge, like. Yeah, it just depends.

I would suggest that potty training advisors should be an early part of the process. But yeah, noted. That was, I think that I wrote down a couple of things about that that was maybe more cautionary tales and like trying to answer the question. But I think the hardest thing is remembering your desperation is not more important than their future.

Yeah, that's really good.

It's probably the thing that I see the most is that, good lord, we, we want to help the customers, we want to do this, we got to increase this or whatever it is and we do it at the expense of this poor person. I can only imagine how many people we've scared off of this industry that if they were onboarded. Right. That they were, that they'd still be here.

Yeah.

Can you talk a little bit more about like what you do in terms of the, the feedback loop? I think that's a really important part of trying to get people ready for their job is the feedback loop. And what are some things that you've done in the past when you're onboarding people?

Well, I think it starts with having some sort of deal before they're hired. Right. So like if I'm hiring an advisor, I'm having some sort of conversation with them that goes something like, hey, I just want you to understand that if I hire you, you're going to be held to a different standard. Now there's advisors here that don't get up and go greet the custom. There's advisors here that don't consistently do the walk around. There's a like that exists, but you're going to be held to a different standard. And don't assume that they'll be getting away with that for forever, but the first time, you know, do a walk around, you're gone. Like, I just want that in their head. Right. Because you know, one, one thing just on a side note is kind of the last thing you want to happen is to replace the advisors in a service drive because when customers come in and all the faces are different, it makes them very nervous.

They will tell you too.

And so it's way better if you can do a Little bit of a sleight of hand and you can get some new advisors in there that are doing the thing you want and then kind of get the other advisors to join your cult or your religion basically, in a sense. Right.

And also just on top of that is you might have an advisor that's been there 10 years. They have a clientele, but they've just been doing it the wrong way. And what we're asking them to do just seems counterintuitive. The social proof of other advisors coming in new that don't have a customer base beating them in numbers fairly quickly shows them that, hey, there's actually some credibility to this because I've been here 10 years and now these people coming in have no customer base and they're, they're putting up bigger numbers than me instantly. You know, that helps move them along. Right. So kind of that being said is like sharing the clear vision of what you're trying to do, how hard it is, and that they're going to be held to a different standard. And then unfortunately, you can't just let them go. You got to talk to them constantly. You got to watch. You got like, we look at numbers by the hour, by the day, like sitting down and going through goals with them. You know, how much are we going to do every day having a daily goal and really controlling the input and the output. Like not giving them too many customers. Like, and it depends on the drive too. Like if the drive has a lot of, a lot of non appointments.

And you only make an advisor four appointments, that's.

They still might write 12. Right. Because the customers aren't conditioned yet to make appointments. And so all of those variables play into your, you know, your approach, but you want to cap them. So like I would say, like, hey, once you get to six, I want you to stop and then, you know, review their ros. Do missed ops. Like you just have to look at all of, all of those systems we have in place. Do a lot of the training for you. And I, I would say too, like, the system is a better trainer than anything. Like how many people are like, oh, we want your advisor training? And they think that the advisor training is what did it. And it's not. It's the system that did it. The system is the best trainer.

That's right.

Because you have, you have no. Well, how do you say this? A good system doesn't allow them to get too far off track because it's. Everything has a rhyme and a reason.

Like.

Yeah, so that's the, the way That I know that I'm doing everything right from an onboarding and training standpoint. And I used to, I used to think differently about this, but I don't anymore. Like, I used to have this thing where someone's like a brand new advisor and I'll be like, oh, their numbers are just going to be bad for five months or three months until they figure stuff out or whatever the thing is. But the fix to that is this systematic input. Right. So like the great thing that happens, you know, you're doing it right if their, their numbers would be low overall. But like they're per RO metrics or.

Whatever their great example of that is you're looking at a customer's dashboard and they're like, traffic's down. And then you look at hours per RO and you're like, that's odd. Because if your traffic was down, you have more time to spend with customers. So your hours per hour should be twice what they are.

Bingo.

What we, what we would rather see is a new advisor have high hours per ro. All of the measurables are high with low volume. That's what you're saying.

Yeah. And you know that it's working. The time that you can add in one more RO is when you're really happy with the metrics on the three that they're writing. Then you go to four.

Way harder to do it the other way where they're riding 25 and they're at 0.5 hours per hour and you're like, hey, you should be at 2.

And they just don't know.

They're just looking at you like, I just want to go home and drink myself to death. Yeah. Like you can just see it in their eyes. They're waking up in the middle of the night, they forgot something. They like, like. And that's, you know, to your point is we've ruined more people than we've ever, you know, than we've ever trained in our industry.

Yeah. And I think that the, the take rate and success rate, those are good. There's also a thing to it kind of going the other way where if they're not a fit, it's not the job for them or whatever. I think you figure it out faster and more accurately if you're doing the slow onboarding because they just never progress.

So it's good on the good side and good on the bad side. Like the whole thing just. I can't think of a better way to do it than that. But. But yeah, I think that probably the best advice we could give would be that it's not just about like learning the DMS and the training and everything like that. It's the whole operation and you let him, let him behind the scenes. And one thing I think you're really good at too is I've seen you like you'll take people out to lunch or you'll kind of pull them into your office and say hey, what's going on? Like you're doing these. I think they're calculated but like they're like one week or two week check ins with new people and stuff like that. You're constantly kind of going back and giving them an opportunity. And I feel like you take that and then you use that to train them better and maybe train the next person better. But you're always using that feedback loop for how to improve the system. But that would be something that like I think the thing that is the average in our industry service manager hires an advisor. They turn them over to their lead adviser and they don't talk to him for a month.

Yeah.

I think that's what happens way up more often than not when you need.

To be talking to them at least a couple times a day in the beginning. Yeah. And looking at the numbers and then coach like it's way easier to start them fast and maintain them versus letting them get away slow and trying to then get them back on track.

That's right.

The other thing I would say too is for some reason in our industry we will, we will decide, oh, we're going to hire baristas for advisors and we'll go recruit three people from Starbucks or something. I like have a rule is like I never train more than one green pea at a time. It's so much better to surround them with talent. I'll go steal the advisor from down the street that's the top advisor and put them next to a green pea. But a drive full of green peas is a lot of chaos and volatility.

Because like half of them aren't going to make it. They're not gonna, you're just throwing it to the wind.

Yeah, I, I think that that's a, that's a highway to an ulcer.

Yeah, but it happens all the time. Like I came through in this 20 group and we're hiring insurance agents and you're like one at a time.

An insurance agent can make it. Sure. And so can a barista, but one at a time.

That's right. That's how the like the eight thousand dollar warranty chargebacks happen and all that. Other stuff that really just ruins everything. That happens when you have three.

Yeah.

When it's one, you guard it so tight that it doesn't get past you.

It's good.

That's a fun topic.

And so I, I would, I would say just in my. In my kind of.

Basic, like, understanding of time is six months to a year, depending on the person.

Yeah.

But it takes, like six months to kind of get the product down. You know, it goes by really quick. Six months goes by like that.

Yeah. And they can be successful the whole time. They don't have to. They don't have to swim around in raw sewage and then get better, which is how most of us did it. Right. Like two.

Like, if you think about lateral support and quick lube techs becoming, you know, C or B tech, same thing. It's a year plus, like, some can do it in a year, some it takes two years.

But once again, it's about the system. Like, if you have them overseen by a team leader, if they're involved in the inspections, if the, you know, if that feeds the overall group.

It'S a. It's an ecosystem in a way.

It's a great way to look at it.

Good. Well, thanks, everybody. Hope that was good. Food for thought, and we'll see you next time on Service Driver Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Job Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to Offers Christmas collinsinc. Com. Now that's Offers chriscollinsinc. Com. I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.