A short interview on a dealership-service-focused show where host Russell interviews service trainer and author Chris Collins. Collins argues that people skills and building personal trust are the primary drivers of service sales because customers rarely directly perceive service work; he gives examples of poor advisor scripts and recommends connecting about customers' lives. He also summarizes his books: The Irreplaceable Service Manager, Millionaire Service Advisor, and an upcoming book on gamification.
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Yesterday we were joined on the show by Lee Harkins who gave us his take on what the most important trait for any service advisor is. People skills. Being able to connect with any consumer that calls or walks through the door is vital for any service center. And your dealership's advisors are typically the first point of contact. And while it's clear that being able to connect with today's car owners is important, just how do you do it? Let's bring on author of the Irreplaceable service manager and trainer Cross Chris Collins for his insight. Chris, it's great to have you on the show. Thanks so much for joining us here today on Service Drive today.
Yeah, thank you for having me. He's right there. Can you see him?
And I have to imagine that there's a bit of a bulldog mentality needed to sell in the service lane. Talk about that mentality that leads to more sales and service.
Well, it's tricky because in service it's completely different than in car sales or if you're selling suits or something else, it's a completely different transaction because most of the time what we sell in service, the customers don't go home with that object. It isn't something that they can touch or hold. So you sell, I buy a new suit, I get to take it home. I feel like a million bucks. I wear it and it hits all the senses. But in service, when we sell a customer an alignment or brakes, they never see that. Most customers have no idea. You don't really tell a big difference in the way your car drives when you sell an alignment or breaks. Most of the time the customers are buying because of either fear or wanting to plan ahead and not have any surprises. But that's the motivator. And those kind of decisions come more from trust and trusting and liking the advisor. So the most important part of service advisors selling more is that the customers like and trust them.
So how do they earn that trust? And really where can they begin to do so?
What's special is the person helping them and connecting with them. So when service advisors walk up to a car, in most dealerships, the first thing that advisors say, and I see this all the time when I'm in drives, is they'll say something like, did you have a chance to call in today? Do you have an appointment? And it's very off putting. I mean, if you can imagine, and I just wrote an article about this for the magazine and answered a question, could you imagine, Russell, if I invited you over to my house and you bring Your wife. And you come to the door, and I open the door and I'm like, so, Russell, what brings you here? And you're like, well, we had plans. You know, customers come into our service department, they've made appointments, they've taken the time to schedule it, and then they get there, and what we say is, oh, did you have an appointment? You know, it's like, don't you know already? You know, so you show up to my house for a barbecue, and I'm like. I answer the door, I'm like, russell, did you have plans with me? And you're like, yeah, we just talked about it yesterday. And. And it's all very confusing for customers. And it just starts to chip away at the trust. And you chip away and you chip away, and pretty soon they're just like, I want my car. I want to go. And so we really need to. When we're walking up to a car, we need to think about what is it that we're going to connect with the customer. And the things that customers care about the most are their kids, their work, where they're going this weekend, their hobbies, anything besides the car. So the real key to selling more is connecting with the customers on a deeper level, then gaining their trust and then being good stewards of that trust and advising them what they need. But selling and service is the easiest thing. If you have the trust. You don't even have to be a good salesperson. If customers need the work and they trust you, they're going to do what you tell them to do.
All right, well, Chris, before we let you go, talk to us a little bit about your books and your work as a service trainer.
So my very first book was the Irreplaceable Service Manager, and it was a labor of love for service managers. I think service managers control more gross in the dealership and more customer transactions, and they get the least amount of support and training. So the irreplaceable service manager really is giving them a system and a roadmap. How to be a really, really good service manager, how to time management, systems, pricing, everything. So that was my first book, the Irreplaceable Service Manager. And then I followed it up with Millionaire Service Advisor, which teaches service advisors how customers. How you can easily sell to customers if they trust you. And it kind of actually goes through my life story of when I was a service advisor and the things that I learned about getting csi, building a database and all that. Those are my two books. I have a third book coming out called Gamification and how to use gamification to increase your profits and morale in your business. How to make it more fun. And that one's coming out in a couple weeks, but. But, yeah, those are my books, and I'll have to send you a couple copies.
Sounds great, Chris. Well, we look forward to having you on here again real soon. And hey, welcome to the service drive today, family.
