Critiquing The Service Advisor Walk Around | SDR #195
YouTube episode (SDR #195) where Chris Collins and Christian review and critique service-advisor "walkaround" videos found online. They analyze advisor behaviors (greeting, rapport-building, tire checks, multi-point inspections, accessory pitches, technician introductions, using tablets vs. desk follow-up), give improvement suggestions (open-ended questions, measure tires with wheel turned, separate customer from car for pricing, avoid selling during walkaround), and discuss related industry news including used-car mileage trends and manufacturers reducing dealer inventory days.
Chapters
Hello, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to Service Drive Revolution. Today on the show, we are going to critique walkarounds on YouTube. It's kind of fun. So we have some walkarounds on YouTube and we're going to go through and talk about what we think about them. Also, there's some fun stuff in the news and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revol.
How you doing, Christian?
I'm doing great. Thank you very much.
What's new in the world of Christian?
Let's see. Getting ready. Oh, we're going on a road trip pretty soon.
In your new car. Well, you haven't shown me your new car.
Showed you a picture, didn't I?
No, the car. The actual car. Like, sit in it.
All right. You're probably gonna make fun of yourself.
Also, like, it's a convertible, but I want to smoke a cigar in it.
You can smoke a cigar in it with the top down. Yeah, but. So I barely moved it since I bought it. I've got exactly 200 miles on it.
So where's your road trip gonna be?
Well, no, we're going to Florida.
Oh, you and I are going to Florida?
Yeah.
Oh, I thought you were talking about your girlfriend.
No. Although she's going to New York with me next month. That's kind of exciting.
That is exciting.
So we're gonna fly trip. We're gonna fly trip. Not road trip, but then in the summer, I'm doing an RV trip. I'm going everywhere. Now that I think about it, there's a lot going on.
There is a lot going on. There's too much travel. I don't like it.
Gonna say no to more stuff.
Yeah, well. And speaking of things moving and changing, we're getting closer.
I get those speaking requests. I just say no. I don't even read them anymore.
I don't like.
Except for the ones you said I.
Saw the other day. They had four of them. I was like, no, I'm not going.
I don't care. But, you know, there's always that.
I think there's some good things that come out of those speaking gigs sometimes, but it's a. It's heck of a lot. I like the one that you did recently where you. I think you flew Monday and you were back Tuesday.
How was that for you? Because normally you stretch that out a little bit.
I don't know. I was exhausted today, this morning.
But do you need my. No jet lag, Gene?
I don't know. Yeah. I don't know how you don't get Jet lagged. I get jet lagged pretty bad. Well, the one note I made for the Monday meeting is, I don't want to fly Southwest. They suck. So here's one thing I think that's like a good customer service lesson is, you know, Southwest.
Spent a lot of time and effort in hiring people that had personalities. Like, it's kind of their thing. Right? They interview a thousand people. They hire two or three, and they want people that will say quirky stuff and that are funny and, you know, kind of more on the verge of extroverts.
Okay.
Whatever happened during the pandemic to those people, that personality type they just got, they just turned into control freaks that are super rude and bossy.
Yeah.
Like, super rude and bossy.
Like, so I was delayed 3 hours going out there.
Ouch.
And so, okay, whatever, you know, then coming back, I get to the gate and there's no plane. And so I look up at the thing and it was like, it said departure time, and it was different than the departure time that is on my ticket. Right. My E ticket or whatever. So I just go up to the lady and I'm like, hey, is the. Is the flight late? And she was like, yep.
And then just went back to her computer.
Like, snappy. Why are you asking me?
Kind of same thing on the plane. The lady takes my bag and slams it. She. She tells me to move my thing. Like, you just feel like you're a five year old kid. Like, and it's like there's two ways to say something. And all of you, like, super extroverted. Southwest Airlines, whatever, all having a crisis because they're in a. Those. That personality type post pandemic is a mess. They're barely holding on.
They lost their identity.
They're just about. They seem like they're just like one bad decision away from opening the door mid flight and jumping out. They seem so miserable.
They had too much alone time. They needed others. That's great.
Something. I don't know. It is, but they're terrible. Southwest used to be like, if you're going to Phoenix or Vegas, it used to be easy. I'm over it.
Yeah. I rarely fly Southwest.
Yeah. And you know, I said, put me on Southwest. It was funny. There was an American Airlines flight to Phoenix leaving at the same time, which you and I both conspired during the pandemic to not wear a mask to get banned from American Airlines.
We were trying to get banned from an airline. It was so great.
They're the worst.
Wait a minute. If we don't wear a mask, we can never come back.
Like, you'll put me on a list and nobody in my office will be able to buy a ticket ever. You're serious? You promise?
Like the lights flash on the computer.
When they try to book American Airlines again. Oh, so funny. You think you'd have to just have to pay for that sort of a ban. They do it for free. Yeah. So Southwest is out. They're, they're. They need to, they need to offer their, their staff some sort of counseling or something.
But could you have driven in the same travel time? I don't, I've never driven.
I've made the drive a couple times. It's like six or seven hours.
Okay.
Yeah. So.
Yeah, I'm back to my thing. Like, remember I said it once somewhere that how I decide if I'm gonna.
Do a speaking gig based on how much you would pay to not do the speaking gig.
Right. So how much would I personally pay? Like, I would reimburse the company or whatever not to go.
Yeah.
And that price keeps going up.
I like that. I like that you have the, that test. That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm not into it.
Sorry.
Okay, so should we do a little news?
Why dealers are selling used cars with beyond 150,000 miles. So back in the day when I think you and I were in the dealer world, over 100,000 was the taboo. Like once it got over 100,000, that's when we started to get things like, you can't finance everything like that.
Well.
There'S a store in El Monte, California, right out here that they had three cars listed on their inventory. One, a Corolla with 195,000 miles on it, a 2004 Infiniti, which I used to sell those brand new, by the way. 196,497 miles on it. And then a Prius. Like, seriously, first off, they should give this person an award. 2016 Prius, 360,000 miles on it for sale.
Yeah, the.
300,000 mile cars, now the new 100. It's like guys will say, you know, because of testosterone and HGH and having a young girlfriend or whatever, that like 60 is a new 40. Have you ever heard that?
And it doesn't say here on. Hold on, let me look. Yeah. How old's your girlfriend?
19.
Yeah, she doesn't look a day over 17 though.
But that's what used cars are turning into, is old, old guys.
So the 360,000 Prius is a 50.
Year old man, 40 with a 19 year old driver, owner.
That's great. Well, if you got to pick apart a car that's going to get wrecked the first time around, a Prius of 360,000. But, but I do like nothing to.
Sell, so they got to bring them back to life.
I like that they're putting metal on the lots. That's the thing.
When you would appraise one of those cars and you would tell the customer like oh, we'll give you a thousand, but you're like, you know, I can't, I can't put tires on this thing for a thousand or whatever. Now it's like anything that'll get from stoplight to stoplights worth five grand.
Yeah. And, and I think that so many times those cars were, it was a courtesy to give somebody 200 bucks. Like you would just, that's what you would pay to dispose of the thing. But I don't know, they're, they're resellable now because nobody can get a car any other way. It's interesting what's happened really is, but I thought that was pretty cool and it really, that just nicely segues us into our next story which is talking about Toyota and how they used to have you know, 60 to 90 day inventories for the dealers. So on the lot you'd have a three months worth of sales just sitting right around the lot. And they believe that once, once the chip shortage is over and everything like that, they're actually going to target a 30 day supply. Which makes a lot of sense to me.
Well, yeah, I think that a lot of manufacturers should think that way in the sense that if you have Tesla selling.
Direct and they're, they're just orders. Right. So they're knowing they're making it when it's ordered. The old model of having 90 days, you're burning through money. Especially if interest rates are going up and dealers have to floor those, it's going to be more expensive to floor them if they had a 90 day supply. So there's, there's a lot of reasons to, to bring that day supply down and keep the grosses higher. I think also that helps the used car market because if, if they flood the market here next year with cars, these customers that have paid over.
Those cars are going to depreciate to a degree that isn't sustainable.
Right.
And it's going to mess with the used car prices.
Yeah.
So by, by holding back the new supply a little bit, you're, you're going to protect the used car market to a degree or the drop in depreciation.
Yeah. There was another thing I didn't think about. I was watching a. I was watching a YouTube video on the shortage of inventory that I.
Another where I get all my medical advice. YouTube?
Yeah, why not? Anything you need to know is on YouTube. But, but I thought it was really interesting. Something I never thought about because they were talking about the new car and the used car shortage is something I never even remotely considered until I watched this thing was, is that thinking about leased vehicles? Right. So people that leased a vehicle back in 2019. Normally when someone leases a car, they drive for three years, they turn it back in. But what's been happening lately, they keep them. They keep them because they're worth so much more than what the residual is. So the. So the used car market has lost all those lease returns. So there's another shortage happening on top of this shortage, on top of that shortage. Like it's a fricking mess. And I think it's a perfect storm. It is a perfect storm. And then the cost of metals and all the things going on overseas and everything like that are making it so that the, the cost of producing cars is going up. So there's going to be a shelf between the way that the new cars are priced now and they are priced later. Like there's a lot of.
It's a good time for them to reset the model.
I think the 30 day thing is brilliant.
15 is brilliant. Why not? I mean, you know, people are accustomed to ordering also. Like, why can't they order and wait 30 days? Yeah, I mean there's nothing that we're trying to do right now that isn't 60 days out.
Try to order speakers. You try to order glass for our new building for windows. Whatever it is, it's 60 days out and then it'll be late. So you just. They say 60 and it's actually like probably 90.
But it does remind me, before I get too far into this next story, is that, you know how there's this. All these people that believe that the earth is flat.
Yeah, the earth is flat.
At our society and everything like that.
Yeah. You don't believe the earth is flat.
Well, I didn't until very recently because I do think the earth is flat and it's because the oceans aren't carbonated.
We get it.
That was a good one. All right, so rolling into our next one. I love when he doesn't laugh, by the way.
You gotta tell him it's a good one.
That's a sign of a bad joke.
It's like when you have to say, I'm not racist. Like, you're probably racist.
Oh, no, it's the same thing.
That was a good one. I did that the other day when I was speaking. What did I. God, I said something really funny and nobody in the audience laughed. And so then I go, by the way, you should have laughed at that.
That was funny.
Let me help you.
That's great. I imagine that that's probably something I. I will do when I do the stand up and nobody laughs.
Oh, so funny.
But, I mean, this is probably the most exciting news that's happened in the last seven years.
Lean, mean grass cutting machine Honda breaks record for fastest lawnmower Acceleration.
Chip shortages don't matter when you're talking about lawnmower.
Who's the dude that has so much free time that they're souping up their lawnmower? Why do you want to go fast on a lawnmower?
Okay, so that just makes me think.
Of like Tim Allen from Tool Time.
Like, and the thing blows up, right? Poor Al's being like, no, Tim, don't do it.
We got so much free time. We're gonna modify a Honda lawnmower.
Okay, so this is. I'm gonna have you guess. So they measure the speed of the lawnmower to break the Guinness Book of.
World Records for a lawnmower.
For a lawnmower, zero.
There is a record.
There was a record and Honda has broken it.
What was the previous record?
I can't tell you that. But what I can tell you is that they measure lawnmower speed for this particular Guinness Book of world records, from 0 to 100. So dead stop to 100 miles an hour.
So how fast this lawnmower goes 100 miles an hour?
Well, actually, it reached 150.99 at top speed. But just talking about a 0 to 100. Let's be realistic.
50 miles an hour.
Yeah. So what do you think?
It's 0 is the. Are they strapped into this thing? If you crash, you're dead.
Right.
It's like sitting lawnmower.
Yeah, the.
There's no cage. Right.
The helmet doesn't matter. Right. But yeah. So the average riding lawnmower, five to six miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. So it's.
That's what it should be.
Right. But what do you think? The 0 to 100 times modifications you have to do, you're going to blow. It's going to blow your hair away. What is it, 0 to 100 on a lawnmower, 6.29 seconds. Wow, that's pretty fast.
That's faster than just basically an engine and a steering wheel.
There's not much to go other than.
What kind of they have in that thing.
I don't know. I wouldn't, I would expect to have a lot of gears.
Gas combustion.
It's not a Tesla.
No, it's not.
That's crazy.
Oh, it's a, it's a combustion. It's the same engine that they put in the CBR 1000, the race ready bike. So it's a motorcycle engine.
That's nuts. Okay, we're gonna watch walk around videos and kind of.
Talk about them, discuss them, the good and the bad. These are videos that our team found online and.
They were kind of asking like what we thought about them. We're like, oh, that would make an interesting show. Let's just talk about it.
Yeah.
In no way is this meant to pick on anybody.
And these videos came on right after. Right after we googled how to fight cancer and do medical surgery. That's what came up after that.
Okay, what is this one? Is called.
Austin Subaru Service Advisor Walk Around. Now I wonder. This is to educate the customers when they come in. What's going to happen?
That's what I'm thinking.
So we're going to have to, we're going to have to keep that in mind that they're doing this to kind of show the customer what's going to.
Happen, to expect when they also are.
Going to pretend like we're a fly on the wall to a real walk around. Just because, you know, we want to give you guys some ideas and some tips for good walk arounds. But understand that the context might be.
A little off maybe.
Let's see. Okay, so what we have, if you're listening to this and not watching it on YouTube, is we have a car, which I'm assuming is a Subaru pulling into a service drive that has three lanes and I believe they're gonna pull into the middle lane. So the camera is from the point of view of the passenger.
And then right away you see that an advisor is walking out. A good looking advisor walking out, meeting the customer before they get out.
Like, car's not even in park yet and they're walking up.
Yeah. And they're.
Going to stick their head through the window and say this. How are we doing?
Good. Welcome to Austin Subaru.
Can do for you today.
Okay, so the customer, the passenger looks kind of like a hipster kid from Silver Lake.
Yeah.
In a beanie. And they're in like what is that, a Subaru Forester?
Yeah, I think so. It could be an outback.
Okay, so what do you. What do you think about the. What brings you in today? Is it your first time here?
I think it's really tough to machine gun questions. There was no opportunity for the driver to answer some of the questions. It was like, welcome, first time here. What are you doing? What can we do for you today? Get out of the car. There was no opportunity for the client to answer the question.
Yeah, so what I'm thinking when I walk up to a car right there is, I'm thinking, how could I make friends?
Well, the first, the first thing that popped into my head one is I like that he has a name tag, but he never said his name and never asked the customer.
You walk up to the car and you'd be like, hi.
I say, good morning. Yes. And then they drive fast. But it's a good start. Icebreaker.
So right there I would, I would try to find common ground. I wouldn't ask them if they had an appointment. I don't know that them being. It being their first time there is relevant. I don't know how that's relevant.
Well, there's no follow up though. If. What if they say yes or no?
Well, I would say something like, hey, how's it going? Something open ended. Oh, good. Oh, I love your forester. Obviously the, that, you know, Subaru customers especially, they're very culty and they're proud of their cars.
Love them. They love their cars.
And so then I might say something like, love, love your forester. I bet you've had some great adventures in this.
I like it.
So then they would start thinking about adventures and they would hopefully say, oh, yeah, or none yet, but I got one summer coming.
All of that. So the. I would go right to that. None of what he said is what I would. What I would do.
Okay.
So now the customer's getting out.
All right, so as far as your tire tread, we're just gonna check the tread on all four tires for you. It looks like your driver is at seven seconds. So it still has plenty of life left.
No, that's what we're worth.
The tires all of a sudden.
Okay. By the way, I haven't seen this. So I'm watching this for the first time. Maybe I should have watched it before.
No, it's funnier this way.
Way before I did that, I would say like, okay, here, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna, we're gonna kind of walk Around. We're gonna look at your tires and check it for bumps and bruises. He's just going right to the tire.
Come on, let's do this.
Somehow the customer is like that. Isn't a realistic scenario that the customer would bend down to look at the tires?
No, there's also a. There's a little trick that they could do. So maybe the tire would. It would have more relevance here. Right?
Flip it.
Well, yeah. So for those of you listening, the wheel is aimed straight. So there's no.
You would tell the customer while they're still there. Hey, could you do me a favor and turn your tires.
Voila.
Replace tires here until three. So I'm just gonna check all four, make sure they're, you know, evening out correctly.
Okay, Sounds good.
With me, to us, that means something. But to a customer, 7:30 seconds. In context of what?
Well, he said that we recommend them at 3. I might also throw it in there that then when they're new, they're at 10. Yeah. So given the Open the bottom. Also, kudos to him. Tread depth gauge.
Yep.
A lot of times we see people using their finger and clipboard.
Do you mind grabbing your owner's manual for me?
Yeah, I'll grab it for you right away. Okay.
Thank you, sir. Alrighty. So today.
So he's asking the customer to grab his owner's manual so he can reference the factory maintenance.
That's what it looks like.
Okay. I've never done that. Have you done that?
No. I've had people bring their maintenance book into me.
Yeah.
But I'm not asking them for it.
Typically 33,000 mile minor maintenance. So everything that's on listed for R, that's for review. They will change your engine oil, your oil filter as well. They will check your transmission level as well.
Is this okay? So one thing here is if you're. You're gonna go into this at the car without checking history. So I'm assuming that this advisor doesn't know anything about this, the history of this car or this customer if he's asking if it's his first time in.
Right.
I would not want to talk about any of this at the car until I've looked at history. Because there's things that aren't going to be in that manual that they might need, like an alignment, things like that. Right.
After that's done, they'll just make sure everything else is looking good. As far as brakes, tires. We'll just make sure your axles, your boots are looking good. Make sure they're not worn out. That's pretty much it. I will sign this before you head out just to make sure we did the service for you today. Okay.
I would say I will autograph this. I wouldn't say I'll sign it.
Austin Pets alive.
So now if you're listening to this, we are walking. We are walking around the back of the car. So we're continuing our walk around.
We also didn't touch the tires on that side.
No, we walked right by. We've walked by two tires.
Yes, sir.
So we measured the front left, came around to the right side, said, get your owner's manual. The customer, it was like literally sitting on the dash.
Right.
They have it. It's great, though. They're staging a video because part of this is they're making a video. Right. So we get it. But you would measure the other tires and I would do those in sequence. I wouldn't shift perspectives for the customer.
Yeah, I agree with him.
So now we're standing at the back.
You have any pets on you?
Yes, I do.
I'm just gonna check your wiper blade.
How old is your dog?
He's three years old and his name's Rocky.
Three years old. You know, as far as this goes.
We do offer a car wash. Do.
You mind if I get it through a car wash? It's courtesy. It just adds the time.
Yeah. Oh, I would love it.
Was that their nod to pet the dog?
Yes. So he had the sticker on the back. When on the back glass it said pets for life or something like that. And he's like, oh, hey, do you have any pets? And the guy said he's got a dog and his 3 years old named Rocky.
So do you think they've watched the pet the dog video?
Yeah.
No. I feel bad.
Picking on him.
I. I think we're critiquing. But this isn't a like, this is an indictment on that guy.
All right, he's so far, so good. Now there is just a couple rock chips right over here. I don't know if you noticed it. I've never seen those for at all. Touch your paint can do the trick. If you want, I can find out an estimate or see if a touch up bottle can fix this for you. Is that something you like to do?
Yeah, that'll be awesome. Okay, that's good. But I would call them bumps and bruises. Okay, now he's popping the hood.
So we're on the drive.
We checked the rear wiper but not the front wipers. We checked the front left tire. None of the Other tires. Now we're at the front of the. The forester and we're going to pop the hood.
All right.
Now we do this thing called a multi point inspection. Just seeing how the car is doing. They will check your filters for you. Now you have your engine air filter that's in here in this bracket. My technician will take this filter out and if it's getting a little dirty to him, he'll recommend it. If not, then we'll just go ahead and just leave it how it is. They always replace it every 30,000 of miles. It just depends on how far you travel, where you travel to.
Okay. Yeah, I usually travel a lot.
A lot. And it might get dirty and it's just doing its job. Other than that, your washer fluid is just going to be right over here. It will get low as much as you're using it. It's been raining, so it's probably a little below. We always top it off. And same with the engine cooling as well. Other than that, let's just go ahead and just take a look at it while it's in the shop.
What did you think of that? So it's a little show and tell. He was kind of. He didn't pull it apart, but he was kind of referencing like the cabin filter.
Right? Air filter. It was an engine air filter. This is one of the. I used to like the popping the hood, but I feel like over the last 15 years, when you pop the hood, you just see plastic. There's nothing there anymore. So I don't know that that has that dog and pony show that it used to. My fear is also like. So it looked like he unhooked the snorkel that holds the air filter in place. My fear is that it's not going to get put back on or something like that. So when one person's touching a car and then a technician gets a car, I worry about that. Yeah.
So I feel like I can build enough rapport with a customer and figure out enough stuff that I don't need to do show and tell that much. Yeah, not to that degree.
I have an accessory booklet here for you. Now, we do offer a couple features that you could add to your forester. The big one that you were telling me, I think you had a dog. The best one would be the compartment separator.
It feels like when I was single and a girl would be like, do you want kids? And you'd be like, you're 30, huh?
And she handed you the brochure.
You're 30. Never been married.
You want kids? Quick, your clock is ticking.
Got the Montessori brochure right here.
I've never in my life pulled out a brochure.
Let's pitch that thing on the walk around for the dog crate.
I mean, it's great if you do it consistently. You're probably gonna sell accessories, but I don't know that that's the time I was gonna say.
I think I like the pitch of an accessory, but I just don't like that it's done during walk around.
So my. My mindset for a walk around was the.
The.
There were kind of two purposes to the walk around. The main one was to build rapport and make friends. We tried to stay off of the car as much as I could, except for the bumps and bruises, to protect ourselves from liability and touching the tires. And there's something about touching and measuring the tires that gives you a little more authority. But I wouldn't go into any recommendations until I have them at my computer.
Which he did twice.
Separating from the car. It's like now we're in the mode of. Of riding it up. And now I can say, hey, the computer recommend or the computer says you're due. Yeah, that sort of thing. And then you're also in a position where. If I was going to introduce that brochure for accessories, I'd probably at my desk say something like, you know, do you. Do you think about personalizing your forester more? Do you know they make some cool dog stuff and kind of doing it that way?
Yeah.
But the brochure is kind of salesy.
It's like, ooh, it definitely feels very salesy.
Yeah. I wouldn't. I would never do it on the walker. And I think the other thing, too, that even though the bumps and bruises are actually technically the vehicle condition, some of the best stories I got from customers were on the damage on the car. Like, it was the best way to connect with people.
Oh, that. That happened that night when I had had too many and I decided to drive home.
Or they're. They're always blaming whatever the damage is on. On the spouse that didn't bring the car in.
Yeah. Or the teenage dog. Yeah. Yeah.
Great stories.
So the. The one thing I would say here, though, is it's going to be consistent if you're presenting it right. If you gave me a choice of never presenting at all or doing it this way, I would choose this, but I would do it a different way, personally.
I'll keep them from, you know, moving seat to seat, keep them in A steel place. Yeah. So that would be the best thing. Keep them, keeping them safe in the back. If that's the case, I go ahead and see if the parts department will give me a price on the part and the labor.
Okay.
And we'll go before you leave today, if you like to do so.
Sounds good. Okay.
They're still at the car at the forest.
Yeah, we're almost four minutes into this thing too.
Let me just check your wiper inserts for you.
Okay.
All right.
Oh, he's gonna check them.
Okay.
As far as this goes, your wiper blade is still fairly new, so I wouldn't worry about blaze just yet.
Nice.
Do you mind if I get inside the vehicle? Just check your mileage.
Okay.
I probably.
Would have got the mileage a while ago.
Oh, I think it's okay too, to have the customer read it off before they turn the car off.
All right. You're about 34, 314 miles.
Okay.
That's pretty much it, Mr. Gonzalez. I just need a signature there and I'll get it going for you.
And then we do have complimentary drinks. Make yourself at home and I'll grab you once it's done.
Okay, thank you.
Yes, sir.
So no RO is created.
Created.
They're signing like a.
He's signing a hand walk around sheet.
We've gone back to handwriting.
Yeah. It's interesting.
I miss those days.
Yeah.
Press hard.
This video might be from 1984 too.
So I think. I think some of this has more to do with the fact that they're filming it too. I mean, that's a hard thing to do. And they did a good job of filming this.
But I like to separate the customer from the car and actually go sit at a desk.
Yeah.
Or at a counter, whatever. But cool. So that's. That's that one.
I would rate that one as not bad. Yeah, not bad, but it wasn't bad.
Okay, here's the next one.
So all new.
Welcome to Greenway. My name is Tommy. Nice to meet you. What part of this is today?
Come on out of the vehicle. I'm going to plug in and grab some information.
Okay. He is potting the car is what they call it in Chrysler world.
So now one thing here that, that I don't like is.
He'S got his back to the customer and he hasn't told them really what's going to happen.
Yeah, you're right.
So you're. What happens here is you haven't gained control. So the customer oftentimes will get on their phone, they'll walk inside. I would want to establish like, hey, this is what's going to happen. I'm going to pod this thing and get the codes, whatever. We're going to do a little walk around, check it for bumps and bruises, and then we're going to go inside, give them a little. This is what's about to happen.
Yeah, but I'm with you. I'm 5050 on whether or not the customer stays, because there was no direction there that happened at all.
Right.
She could almost. She could almost assume that her job is done. She's given the guy the car in most would.
They'd walk inside.
Now, what this actually does, it's going to pull any information about recall service needed or any technical service bulletins on your vehicle.
Okay.
Okay. So now he's referencing his. His magic pad.
The magic pad.
Yeah. So look. Look how the pad is between him and the customer. Also, like, that's the weird thing about. About these pads in the service drive is they become the focus. Yeah.
And a barrier in this particular instance, too. The other thing that he did, which I don't suggest, is he asked the customer if she'd like to join him for a walk around. I never ask.
No, you assume it.
That's right.
I would have had some sort of compliment and asked some sort of questions about where they headed today. I definitely would have complimented the truck. The truck is gorgeous.
Gorgeous. It's the big Dodge. It's red.
It looks like it just got washed as shiny.
So I mean, just. Just that. Right.
I'm gonna check your tires and everything on the exterior of the vehicle. He's gonna be running the battery test.
While we do that. Okay.
Love your ram, by the way. I have one myself.
Great truck. Okay, so if you're listening to this now, out of. Out of nowhere, a technician has appeared, popped the hood, and is checking the battery.
That was mystical.
Yeah. So now we have. We have a third player in this song here. If you're gonna do that, I would introduce the person.
Yeah. Say. Say Billy is gonna get started on his inspection on your vehicle. Something like that. Yeah.
Well, the way. The way this is kind of going well, let's see what happens. But I. If you don't introduce the technician.
Kind of minimizes their importance or value in the situation where if you introduce them by name and then say what they're going to do, they have a little more.
Little more pixie dust.
Excellent condition on the truck.
Now the cameraman has decided that what the technician is doing is so much more important.
Than the walk around. That's great.
We've lost all sight of the customer. We're gonna see how to test the battery.
The no name technician.
Excellent condition on the truck. So you definitely keep it clean.
I like to measure both in and out.
Well, three spots I think.
Well, that's probably the right way, but.
Two is, two is the, the minimum. Did you hear it? Just ask. That was a good script. Do you guys offer a complimentary car wash? How many customers tell you that?
Big complimentary.
Do you guys offer a complimentary multiple.
Like hey, can you wash it?
Yeah.
So where we're at, you do have an oil change contract. Best thing you can do for your vehicle is upgrade to a synthetic oil. They give you that option with the small upgrade fee.
I've never been a big fan of the word fee and I'm still back to the second one in the row where they're selling at the car on the walk around. It's an interesting thing, but.
I don't hate that he would talk about it and say, hey, so I see that you got the oil change contract. I want to talk to you about a couple of options and maybe a better way to protect your vehicle.
Well, kind of like the other one. I would, I would have spent more time building rapport. And then I would say, okay, this is what you need. You need this oil change. It's this much. We need to rotate. I would probably say, you need oil change, we need to rotate and it's this much and give them one big price. But I would just tell them what they need. I wouldn't go through all the features and benefits and all that because it just sounds schmucky.
Well, in this case, that car had they. What they're talking about is that the customer has. When you buy a Chrysler, you get a couple of oil changes for free. So what he was talking about is that she already had the oil change covered. He was trying to upseller to the synthetic. I just don't know if that's a place for it.
I wouldn't like if it needs synthetic, then it should be covered or whatever. But I don't. I think that in the beginning if the like, if the customer has free oil changes, we want the customer in the beginning to perceive that it's hassle free and low cost. And so these early ones, I don't know that you always want to sell them something.
Oh yeah, so I see what you're saying. So really, what like hey, you gotta.
You got a free oil change. But really it's worth not what you should have got.
Yeah, right. Okay. I.
It creates a ton of doubt.
I never thought about it like that. It's interesting.
Like, if we're gonna. If the, if the truck needs synthetic, then let's pack synthetic into the. The whatever we're giving them.
Right.
Most common one that I don't see you have is the bed liner.
Well, actually, it's funny you should say that because I have been looking into.
Getting the bed liner put in.
Oh, okay.
Definitely would like to look into that.
For sure.
Absolutely. Yeah, I have that. And I also have the ambient lighting actually gives you some color options much nicer than the river. They've got Carolina blue, believe it or not. It's nice. Now what I could do for you is the bed liner, your ambient lighting, the synthetic upgrade, and your tire rotation. I could keep you under a thousand dollars if you want to have that done today.
Awesome.
Would you like to do that?
Absolutely.
All right, Just get a signature right down there at the bottom, please. We'll see how that battery test went too.
All right, sir.
Battery tested good.
Excellent.
Battery tested good. So we're all set.
Okay.
It is going to take probably a good two to three hours on everything services and the upgrades.
Okay.
Would you like to wait or would.
You like me to come off today?
So.
Excellent.
Come on inside in my waiting area and I'll talk to you after the inspection.
This is acting and you know, they're trying to role play this so we, we understand how hard that is. But that being said, me, I would spend more time on. Have you taken it off road? Do you get in gun fights? Have you ever been in a police chase with it? Like, I would make comments about the adventure that can happen when you're. You're attractive and you have a big jacked up pickup like that. Like, I would spend way more time figuring out they have kids.
Like, yeah, getting to know the customer, whatever.
And I don't mean that in a way like, oh, is she single or anything like that. I'm just saying, like, she's got a truck. Has she gone off roading? Like.
There'S a reason why. Like, maybe she lives on a ranch. Maybe she has horses. But I would want to know way more about her. And I would talk about all the other stuff inside. I would separate them. I wouldn't try to do everything on that iPad or whatever that thing is. I know people love that and they assume. And then I would. I don't know. The. Under a thousand.
Keep you under a thousand.
You're Assuming that a thousand is their budget, why not 5,000? Like, how did we come up with a thousand?
I'm pretty sure she was gonna say okay to whatever. It didn't matter.
Pretty, pretty. I like the first one a little more because it was more rapport.
Yeah. Oh, the. Yeah, with the sticker on the back. The dog thing. I agree with that.
We have a customer sitting up. The vehicle's kind of on the side of the building.
This is a no drive store.
Yeah.
So it doesn't look like we have a service drive. Service advisor walks out of the door with the clipboard on the opposite side. So she's gonna have to walk around the front.
Before. Before I walk around the front, I want to make eye contact.
Yeah. Or walk around the back would be safer.
Oh, so the customers are already out of the vehicle.
Okay, let's just talk about the fashion choice here.
On this customer, we've got a blue, purple. We have a top ensemble.
We have a tank top with a blue tank top peeking out and pink runner shorts.
Yeah.
Headed to the gym.
Or to a PTA meeting?
I'm going to go with gym. We'll see what happens here.
She's driving. What is that, a Ford Edge Explorer? Maybe the little Explorer. We're going right to transaction.
Let's do this thing.
I would say headed to the gym.
You wouldn't say. My God, I didn't think those colors matched. But you proved it.
They match. Really?
I think the blue, the purple, and the pink looks funny to me.
No, purple and pink go together just like a red and pink dog. Because like I learned from Chip, kid, pink is just light red.
Okay, got it.
At a better marketing department.
Light blue didn't do the same. So now the service advisor is in the car. Now, we're assuming that the reason why she hasn't introduced herself.
Yeah, we had a big car and.
Given her name is because they already know each other.
But she's sitting in the. The customer's car, started it.
So they either drove it.
That's a good drive right there.
Yes.
Yeah, it's about 14 hours.
What I'm doing now, I just want to test the wiper blades on it, make sure they're not streaking. But if I remember correctly, we put.
Some on there last.
You know, I think we did do.
That, cuz I don't see. I mean, they look perfect. So they're holding right up for us.
Oh, okay, great.
See?
Now aren't you glad that I talked you into those wiper blades last time?
Yes. Yes.
See Everybody says Franix on that, but Motorcraft does just as well.
Yeah, you're right.
I like that they're talking about personal stuff. It's a little bit of a leap. Okay. But I guess if they already know each other, kind of fun.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't hate it.
So I went to the beach and everything was good. But I kind of noticed when we were going down the highway that, that it was like full and to the, to the left.
Okay.
Now when you felt it falling, was it when you were braking or just driving down the road?
No, just while we were driving down the road.
Because that at least will rule out any kind of like caliper sticking or anything like that. I focus more than on the alignment. Okay, let me check these back tires here. Okay, great.
He's just looking at the front here.
Let's see.
Yeah, we're at 8, 30 seconds all the way around. Just by looking at them, they're wearing really well.
Want to, definitely want to go ahead.
And get the alignment and that way we get the best possible wifi.
What did she say?
She was talking about the quality of.
Motorcraft wipers versus other wipers to rotate the tires.
Yes, yes.
And right now what we have everybody's can do online.
Okay.
And then I'll actually give you a pretty good feel for everything.
Oh great. Okay, so we'll go ahead and get.
You on that.
Framing what's about to happen.
Where you're at. You're at 19,000, a little over 19,000 miles.
Okay.
Just keep in mind probably around this time would be like your air filter and things like that.
It's interesting. Everything's referenced to the last time.
Okay.
While he does the multi point inspection. So we're going to check everything, your air filter, your belts, your hoses.
Don't you wish all advisors have that.
Kind of memory ready for you.
Okay, thank you.
In fact, let's go ahead, let's get this battery tested. Let me go ahead and get my.
Technician, I can't remember someone's name on that yesterday.
Now what he's going to do, he's just going to make sure that we're at the proper bolt. So that way I don't want to want you ever to be stranded anywhere.
Oh yeah, I appreciate that.
And now, and just keep in mind too, every time that you come in, we're going to do this for you. So we're going to check everything under the hood since we're doing the tire rotation as well. We'll check your brakes, make sure the brake pads Are where they need to be. Make sure the rotors, you know, nothing looks okay.
Yeah, I definitely appreciate that because as much as I'm on the road with Brody, I can't be screenable right now.
Completely understand.
Battery's good.
Good deal.
So we'll go ahead and mark that for you right now on that. And so right now we've got you set up for your works package, your oil change, your entire rotation. We'll go ahead and get it on the alignment machine as well. And what I'll do is I'll have a before and after print out for you so you can see what that looks like.
Okay.
But we'll go ahead. Let's let Chris go ahead and get it back there for us so that way he can get started. And let me take you to the waiting room. I'll show you where the coffee's at.
Okay, great.
Thanks.
So here's one thing that I will say. They're acting this out and so much harder.
It's easy to pick on these things for sure.
Yeah. And it's not fair. But the one thing I would bet, I would actually bet money that she's actually a really, really good advisor. Yeah, I bet you she, she does a really good job. She seems really on top of it and it's awkward that she's got a camera in her face and she's, she's playing this script.
She might be the best advisor of the three. I would say this is the worst. Walk around.
She, she. In their script or whatever they're doing, there was, there was an attempt where we were alluding to. We had built rapport before.
Yes.
But still, I mean, let's build rapport now and talk about what's happening now. Where are you headed today? What do you got going on? That sort of thing. But yeah, I hope, I hope that helps you guys in the, you know, the secret to the best advisors and, you know, the way I approached it when I was an advisor was most of that time at the vehicle is, is learning about them and getting them to talk about themselves. And, you know, I want them to see me as a friend. And so think about the conversations you have with your friends. Those are the conversations I want to have at the vehicle. And I don't want it to be transactional. I don't really want to talk about prices or specials or coupons or anything like that because that makes me fall into the category of.
