This is a short YouTube conversation (Chris Collins with Christian) arguing that service advisors should stop selling "diagnosis" as a separate product and instead sell a repair authorization (solution-focused). Collins says most repair orders no longer require diagnosis (he cites <10%), calls the diagnosis-for-fee approach "tribal knowledge," and walks through an AC-failure example (Mercedes E‑Class) to show how offering a worst-case authorization (about $2,500 for an evaporator) and then proceeding saves time, reduces friction, and increases likelihood the customer will approve repair. The clip ends with a brief promo and contact information for the show.
Chapters
Not selling diagnosis, getting a repair authorization. So how this works is.
Customer comes in and says, my car stalls, or a customer comes in and says, I smell something sweet burning, or a customer comes in and says, I have a rattle. Whatever it is, a customer has some sort of complaint that's going to require diagnosis. Also understand that less than 10% of ROS that I've seen in recent years require diagnosis. The cars and trucks are made better than they ever have. There aren't the runability issues there used to be. And the onboard, you know, diagnostic system tells you that it's an O2 sensor or whatever, better than ever most of the time. So it isn't like when we were writing service with handwritten ros where I don't know, 40, 50% of the cars coming in had a run ability issue, a stalling issue. You just don't see that anymore like. Like you used to. So we are talking about a very small percentage of your customers and a very small percentage of the lines that are added to repair orders.
That's right.
But should a customer come in and say, hey, my car's stalling, or, hey, I smell something sweet burning, that probably is coolant, Whatever it is, my AC is blowing warm. It's not blowing cold. Right?
When you sell Diagnosis, you're wasting your time and the customer's time and the technician's time. Because let's say in this. This is an example of tribal knowledge in our. In our industry that the reason why you are doing it this way and. And it's done this way isn't because it makes sense. It isn't because it's the best thing for you, the tech, or the customer. It's simply because that's how we've always done it. But it makes zero sense whatsoever that I would say, so you say, my car is blowing warm air, I can't get my AC to work. And I say, okay, Christian, we're going to charge you diagnosis. It's going to be $175. Now, what did we accomplish there?
We just agreed that I'm going to spend $175 to find out. I have to spend more money.
And now how many more things have to happen before we actually fix the problem? Because Christian gave me the what. What Christian wants, what he took time out of his day to bring this hunk of metal in to get fixed was he lives in California, it's hot as hell, and he wants ac. So what he wants is ac. Does he want diagnosis?
Not even a little bit.
Could care less about diagnosis. In fact, diagnosis is changing the subject. So now we've taken the customer from their, their biggest need psychologically. So the biggest need is it's hot. I got a black car with black interior, and I want it to be cool. That's what he wants to. Oh, well, let's talk about something else. Let's change the subject and let's, let's repackage this as a problem. That is another problem on top of a problem.
Right.
It's now we're layering the problems and in the complexity for the customer. When the customer had something very, very simple that they wanted.
Yes.
Right.
I think it's the first time that the customer actually comes in and to that point, right before they talk to somebody, they're there to get their car fixed.
The customer has it, right?
Yes, the customer has it. Right. They're there to get their car fixed. We then tell them it's an option. The first thing you have to do is figure out exactly what it is. Like if we never make it an option, they're there to get their car fixed.
Yeah. So now I'm an experienced service advisor. I get it. If you've only been writing service per month, you're not going to really know how to navigate this. But if you've been writing service for a year, maybe a little less, you pretty much have already seen, especially if you're working in a dealership, an independent shops, a little different because you're working on so many different models. But let's just say you work in a Volkswagen dealership, you kind of have seen in a year patterns of what's braking on which models. Right. You have a pretty good sense. So now let's say what kind of car do you want to have in this scenario with your AC not working?
A Mercedes Benz E Class. Okay.
So now I know that the worst case scenario and I know that the E class, most of the time it's the evaporator. My. It's the pump of the evaporator.
Right. Sounds good.
But the worst case scenario is going to probably be.
2200 bucks.
Yeah. Somewhere around a quarter. 2,500.
Yeah, 2500 bucks. So I know that because most of the time when that's the scenario, I've seen some ros that I've written up that the technician has said it's the evap or whatever it is, and it ends up being about $2,500. So now what we do is we say, okay, well, we need 175 to diagnose it. In a normal situation. And you're doing this because of tribal knowledge and because that's just what you were taught to do, but it makes no sense. You're gonna give it to the technician. What's the technician gonna do?
Evac and recharge.
And then what's he gonna do?
Figure out that it's an evaporator.
Okay. And then what's he gonna do?
Go to parts and get a price for an evaporator.
Okay.
And then attach the labor time, give it to an advisor.
And then what's the advisor gonna do?
Advisor's gonna call the customer.
And where's the car now?
Car is pulled outside.
Car.
Cause we're waiting on an answer. Right.
And then they get ahold of the customer or whatever. Right. And then what?
The customer says, I thought you said it was gonna be $175.
Maybe that does happen.
And then customer says, oh, geez, $2,500. That's so much. But go ahead and do it. I need my air to work.
Yeah, okay. What else could happen right there?
They could say, no, I don't wanna spend that much money. I'll take it somewhere else.
This protects you from that, right?
100%. So.
So now what I would say to Christian at time of writeup is, okay, we're going to have to check it out and figure out what it is. Worst case scenario, it's probably the evaporator. I'm going to give myself $2,500 to work with. If it's less, it'll be less. If it's more, I'll give you a call. Let me say that again.
Maybe write this down and slowly say it slowly.
Christian.
Yes, Chris?
I'm going to give myself $2,500 to work with.
If it's less, it'll be less. If it's more, I will give you a call. And then what do I do?
You fix my car, maybe.
But right then, in that moment, what do I do?
Well, you figure out how much I'm willing to spend. So if I say, well, I don't have $2,500, I've got a budget, I couldn't spend more than what I was gonna say.
You're right in what you're saying. But what I was gonna say is I shut up.
Oh, yeah.
So I shut up. And then you're going to tell me. Most of the time. Most of the time. And I'm telling you this. We've been in thousands of dealerships, taught this to thousands of service advisors, and most of the time the service advisors come back and go, that was too easy. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving 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.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
