Albert, a Volkswagen service manager, asks how to cut technician comebacks. Chris Collins and Christian point to two problems: no clear quality checks and technicians working beyond their skill level because the shop is understaffed. They suggest a three-strikes policy for performance and better hiring and coaching.
February 10, 2023
8333 Ask SDR (spoken as '8333 Ask SDR')
Foreign.
Welcome, everybody, to your Friday drive by. This is where we answer your questions. We give you our insights, our feedback from hundreds of years of experience in the automotive industry. That's right. That's how old I am. Ancient. You can tell by the way my knees creak. If we play your question on the big show, we send you a swag bag. And the swag bag is always evolving, but it usually has a T shirt, a hat, a coffee mug, stuff like that. The only place you can get service. Driver revolution Swag. We don't sell it. Nope. You got to call in with a good question.
So let's get to the question. Are you ready, Christian?
Ready, sir.
Hi, my name is Albert, and I work for a Volkswagen dealership for about 10 years now. I'm the service manager here. You did a great episode on putting the customers on ice. I use it all the time. It works. I have an issue on how to deal with technicians that have those comebacks. So you can help prevent the amount of customers you're having to put on ice. If you could help me out with that, that'd be great, Albert.
I get the distinct feeling.
My psychic abilities tell me no crystal ball.
You just have the psychic abilities instantly and just.
I see the picture.
Love it. Yeah.
That's the sort of question that we ask when we're not good at hiring technicians.
Yeah. Because there's some obvious stuff going on there, right?
It'd be like, why.
Not? Why.
Christian? What do I do? My girlfriend keeps cheating on me.
I think you should get rid of her and get.
How many times do I forgive her?
Zero.
Okay, well, maybe a comeback isn't cheating on your girlfriend or on your boyfriend or whatever, but eventually it becomes that. So where's our line? Like, how many comebacks should a technician be able to have in a month.
In order for them to still have the ability to have conversations?
One of two things is going on. We don't have boundaries of what is acceptable because you got to quality check your work. Technicians gotta have a little care, a little concern about it. The other thing is, when you're short technicians, you're giving techs jobs that they normally shouldn't have. That's beyond their skill set because you have no other choice. So you're like, you got a kid that's still figuring out how to replace brakes. And you're like, hey, can you diagnose this tranny slipping or whatever? You know, it's like way over their head. So I think that I follow the three strikes. You're out. So the first time they have a comeback, we talk about it. The second time I write them up. The third time, they're on a. They're on a slow, fast trajectory out. Yeah. Now, that's. That depends on the situation, etc. But comebacks that are based on just the technician's quality care, double checking, if it's a pattern with somebody, we got to move on.
And it's pretty rare that they get better. Like those technicians that have a lot of comebacks. They don't. You rarely find the one that says, I used to be really terrible at comebacks and I got better. It seems like that's one of those things that. No, that it's a distinct failure in their system of repairing. The exception of that rule, like you said, is we have somebody doing something that they're not qualified for, which is a symptom, not a cause. At the end of the day, it reminds me a lot of. I knew this guy and he was driving.
He had a really, really important meeting, and he's. It's Los Angeles. It's tough to park around here. So he's like, in this lot trying to find this parking spot. And he's like, man, I'm not finding anything. I've got seven minutes to get to this meeting. I gotta go up and elevate everything like that. So what's he do? Like most normal people would do, he starts to pray. He's like, dear Lord, if you can only help me find a parking spot, I'll stop drinking, I'll stop cheating on my wife, and I'll go to church every Sunday. And he opens his eyes and all of a sudden this parking spot appears, and he pulls it into it and he says, never mind. I found one.
Christian joke.
Yeah.
You get that?
I did. There was a little play on words there.
Yeah. Kind of like the. Remember your paw joke.
Yeah.
So, Albert, the thing there is we have a thing called technician tree. If. I'm not sure if you're in our coaching program or on demand, but if you're not, get in there and let's help you hire some techs. Like, we'll help you with that. And then you'll feel like you're in a position of authority, not a position of.
Them knowing that you need them more than.
Yeah, Albert's sharp. He knows the right answer to all this stuff. It's just that he doesn't see it because he doesn't have the trump card yet.
Thanks for the question. Remember the numbers 8,000, 333. Ask STR. And we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. 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.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
