Chris Collins discusses how technician shortages are forcing quick lube service advisors to rethink pay structures. When there aren't enough techs to handle the work, advisors can't hit their targets, which means pay plans need to change to keep them from leaving.
Take quick lube advisors for a second. So a quick lube service advisor is set up to fail from every angle there is, but one is the pay. So you have your lowest.
Talented, right? Most of the time it's the new advisors, the least talented, lowest paid techs and advisors touching the most customers. And now the average per ticket on a quick lube, is it high or is it low? Low. Like how much gross does it. Does a quick lube advisor produce less than they make? Probably most of the time it's around 20 or $25,000. Right.
That's high.
I'm trying to.
You're trying to be nice.
I'm trying to be nice. So now to keep a quick lube advisor, if they were going to make 5%, 8%, whatever of what they wrote, they, it'd be minimum wage. They wouldn't be able to survive. Right? So now what do you have to do?
You gotta pay more, guarantee them or whatever.
And so now the percentage that you're paying out. So how efficient are quick lube techs? Usually 50, 60%. So you got in. Heaven forbid you have a manufacturer that wants you to have two quick lube techs per stall.
Please don't swear at me like that. That's terrible.
Then you're 25% efficient. So you got technicians that are 50% efficient. So let's say a quick lube tech is making $18 an hour, but they run at 50% efficient. What is your cost per hour?
$36.
Yeah, but what do you think it is? 18, 18. And now you got a quick lube service Advisor that's writing $20,000 in gross, but you got to pay them four or five thousand a month to keep them because it's constant turnover and it's brain damage. Right? So now you're paying them 25% of the gross.
After you have spent $36 an hour to produce that. Right. And so.
Same thing happens on the other side where, okay, now the advisor's performance is going down, but our turnover is going up. So we need to pay the advisors more. And in no time, in no time does somebody say, hey, you know what the fix is to this thing? Got all these customers that want to get in. We got all this demand. What we need to do is we need to hire more techs and start pumping out some work. And then the advisors will make more because they're paid the right percentage of what they do. The advisors can make a lot of. Right.
They sell more.
How many times can we come in and move the Percentage that the advisors are getting paid down and they make more money instantly. Because all we did was add tech.
Almost always. Always.
Yeah. And so that's what. That's the reason why your pay plan gets changed is this happens like over time where it's like Band Aid. Band Aid, Band Aid. Now the department's losing money, everybody's in a panic, and they just start cutting with no thought for. Well, how do we. How do we create a scenario where it's a win win.
For everybody? Yeah. The quick. The quick lube thing is the best example of that that I've seen is. It makes no sense.
Yeah, it's a death sentence in a lot of cases. It's tough to run the business like that.
Okay. And the last one that we have, we kind of just touched on.
Most of the time, the pay plans get changed for service managers, service advisors, because they're not making money. Most of the time, the department isn't making money because they don't have enough techs to get the work done.
Yes, sir.
Tex drive. He who has the text wins always.
It reminds me of a question I just got asked recently. Where's the best place to sit when a submarine is diving?
Did you hear the snicker off camera when you went into your segue?
I did.
Could this joke have started with I was walking to work the other day?
It could have, but that. I'm gonna save that because other walking work is.
Let's go back. You're in a submarine.
What?
Yeah.
So where's the best place to sit when a submarine is diving? The answer is inside.
Right?
Yeah. Public service announcement. In case anybody gets caught in a submarine port, goes underwater. Go inside.
I'd like to say one more thing about pay plans.
Not too long into my career.
When pay plans were proposed to be changed or when, let me say this. When they weren't right.
I always came out ahead because I was a performer.
If you perform, you're way less susceptible. Unless you work for the Nation of America auto group or whatever. Way more protected.
Because there still is a place for performers in our industry. Whether you're a tech advisor, manager, whatever it is.
Yeah. Because a lot of times those pay plan changes, they're trying to. Trying to fix underperformance. So the over performer gets adjusted by. By proxy, almost. But unless they're changing it because you make too much money, then that's bad.
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.
