How To Handle An Underperforming Service Manager

Foreign.

Let's take the question. Remember, if you have a question and you. You would like some help, the number is 833-3-ASK STR. That's 833-33-2757, 3, 7.

Hi.

I'm a shop foreman in a small import dealership in rural New York. Customer service scores are constantly in the 85 to 88 range. And the service manager doesn't seem to care about any.

Where we are and never makes any attempts trying to improve customer service scores profits.

This bad leadership is making good employees want to leave. I want a service department to thrive. So how can I improve our department with a manager who doesn't care? Thanks.

Wow.

You go first.

So there's. There's a couple of things going on there that I thought of when I heard this question. One is that if the CSE is consistently bad, be patient. Because typically, what happens after a long time of CSE being bad, that it comes back to haunt the manager after a while. That's one of the things you've got to be either really good, it's gonna work itself out. Yeah. You either gotta be really, really good at profitability, or you gotta be really, really good at taking care of customers. My guess is that person's not good at either. So. So that part of it will work himself out. The thing that I always say, and I don't know, like, if you're going to complain about leadership, your other option is to raise your hand. Like, I don't know. To me, if you don't like the way that it's done, your options are to either, you know, become part of the solution or shut up. But if you don't like the way it's done, you're already a shop foreman. I mean, maybe you need to hop in the chair or at least volunteer and let somebody know that you're interested in making it better.

Yeah. How would you let them know that you're interested?

So I would. I would probably start off by.

And I don't know, maybe this is manipulation a little bit, but I would try to start to learn as much as I could about the job. I would want somebody to tell me and teach me, like, teach me about financials, teach me about what the ins and outs of the department are. Maybe start to game plan with a team on how we can make CSE better, like, those kinds of things. I would become a student, and then when the time came, I would probably go to ownership and be like, I think I've got an opportunity to try and take this department to the next level.

I would go to ownership right out of the gate and I would say, hey, my aspirations are to become a manager. I'm doing my goals for the next couple years and I have a five year plan and what do I need to do to become a manager? And then shut up.

Yeah, I, I'd be so interested in someone coming to me and saying, yeah.

No, then they're gonna tell you. And if they don't tell you, then go somewhere else where they will. But if you ask somebody to mentor you and teach you what they know.

It'S rare that somebody won't wanna help you.

Yeah.

Especially if you do it with humility and real intention to learn and be good at it, people are gonna root for you.

Yeah, I think that that is. It's definitely one of those things too. When, when departments are underperforming, whether you know it or not, conversations are being had.

Yeah.

Like, don't think that someone's. You know, for the most part, there's not a lot of sacred cows. Right. That, that it becomes good.

Cows make the best hamburgers. That's a Dave Anderson line.

Hamburger sounds really good. Right? I am hungry. It's not. So I did. I was going to tell you too. I did.

Parts hold.

Yeah, parts hold. This is shirt number three.

Wait, is this a segue into a joke?

Probably.

So I was. Because you always do that. You're like, oh. So I was walking, so I was driving. So.

So do you like this? Do you think I should try and disguise it a little bit more?

What?

Do you think I should disguise my segways a little bit? Because I kind of like it. It sets.

I like it for sure. I think it's funny.

So I was interviewing this guy a couple of weeks back and his resume looked really, really good and he had some good experience. Me asking him all the right questions, everything like that. He's got some really good answers. And I said, can you explain this four year gap in your employment? He says, yeah, of course.

You're laughing already. This is great. So.

I was at Yale for those four years and I'm like, wow. I don't think I've ever had anybody put in an application that actually went to Yale. Yes.

Ivy League, like.

So I'm like, come on, come on down. When can you start? And he's like, you know, I'll start as soon as possible. I really need a job.

So he meant jail.

So he had a little bit of a speech impediment. And his, his J's were wise.

Yeah. It's a little bit of a speech impediment.

Yeah. But boy, he's a loyal employee. He's great. And if you need a car broken.

Into, he wasn't in an amazing school. He was in jail.

That's right.

Pretty funny.

I like it.

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.