What share of a service advisor's pay plan does Chris Collins recommend be tied to CSI?

Chris CollinsHelping Struggling Dealerships Build Profitable, High-Performing Service Departments | Automotive Coaching Expert | CEO

Consistent CSI HD

17 Mar 2016 · 2 min

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1:57

Short YouTube service-drive tip by Chris Collins about achieving consistent Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) in automotive dealerships. Collins notes CSI is often inconsistent despite effort, offers an anecdotal idea (using bulldogs to greet customers), but emphasizes a principal remedy: tie service-advisor pay plans to CSI (recommends at least 30% of pay be CSI-based, defined as being above market). He cites dealers who rank #1 or top-10 in their brand nationally after making advisors vested in CSI and links CSI to retention and repeat customers.

Questions this video answers

At least 30% (pay plan should be at least 30% on CSI).

Chapters

Hi, this is Chris Collins with your service drive tip of the day. Today I want to talk about how can you have consistent csi? Now one thing you could do is have bulldogs in your service department to greet customers. That would work really well. It's worked for me for a long time in my industry and I know some mini dealerships that have Bulldog puppies in their service drive and it works good. But if you don't want to do that. The thing that baffles me about CSI in our industry is how hard you work, how much effort and time you put into it, and how inconsistent CSI is most of the time. And in dealerships and the one common denominator that I find more than anything else in the dealerships that have inconsistent CSI is their service advisors aren't really paid on csi. They're not vested. So the one thing that I've found over the years is that a service advisor's pay plan should at least be 30% on CSI. And when I say CSI, I mean being above market. I have customers that are number one in their brand in CSI in the nation. A lot of them are top 10 in their brand in the nation. And the one thing more than anything else that changed that was their advisors being vested and having a big part of their pay plan on csi. With retention being so important in our industry, CSI is everything and it breeds to customers coming back and a better customer experience. So really look at your advisor pay plans and make sure that CSI is a big part of it. I'm Chris Collins and that's your service drive tip of the day. Thanks for watching.