Roberto wants to move from foreman to service manager. The hosts say leadership matters more than service writing experience, but recommend six months in that role first to understand customer challenges and build empathy. They're sending him a copy of Irreplaceable Service Manager.
Foreign.
Welcome everybody to your Friday drive by.
Where we answer your questions. Most of the questions that you have kind of come from the service drive.
Yeah. Automotive industry for sure.
Yeah. We wouldn't mind every once in a while a stock question or relationship advice.
Yeah.
But both of us being divorced, we.
Who better to ask?
Who better to ask?
The number is 8 3, 3 3, ask SDR. That's 8, 3, 3, 3, ask SDR. And if we do answer your question on the big show, we will send you a swag bag. A swag bag of SDR swag. Okay, let's go to today's question.
I'm an automotive technician. I've been working on cars for about 30 years, 23 of those at a Nissan dealership. I have an associate's degree in automotive. I've been a shop foreman and I'm training apprentices for the last six years at my current dealership. My goal has always been to become a service manager and I'm coming up against some roadblocks as most places want to see service writer experience. I know personally, I have seen people go from being a shop form indirectly to being a service manager. And I'm wondering if there are any things you can advise me on or give me to work on that would allow me to make this transition a little easier.
I have two thoughts here. One is that being a manager has more to do with your leadership abilities and authority than it does your experience writing service.
Yeah.
If a tech comes to me and they want to be a service manager, guess what I make them do.
Right.
Service for six months.
Yeah.
So you might want to go right service because it is easier for you to manage service advisors when you have done the job a little bit.
I think there's probably there I've seen a couple of times. But it's a special individual that was able to make the jump without having it. It's just.
But they still struggled with. You still had to talk them through managing advisors. Because advisors are completely different than techs.
I agree with that.
Right. So even when you, when you had that individual, you still had to help them through that.
Yeah, I don't. I think that there's just also when you go and write service for six months, the. And this is the same like if I was an advisor and went into a shop or a tech and come to the. To the drive. I think that that empathy and understanding of what that job is different. You manage it differently when you understand.
How you know when you're working on the car, you're removed from the emotions. Yeah, you're. It's just parts. And when you're dealing with customers, they sometimes are crazy.
And it's not as easy as you think it is. It's not as easy as it probably even looks in some cases.
So.
Yeah, I like that part.
So you get an. You get a different understanding and respect when you write service.
Yeah, I think so too. And it's just then. It's just that imposter syndrome is never in your head either.
Yeah. Because imposter syndrome is a good. A good way to put it.
Yeah. So a lot of technicians turn managers, even if they don't say that it bothers them, you can see that they've got that imposter syndrome a little bit.
And kind of understand that half of the battle is won or lost in the drive. And if you have imposter syndrome, you tend to hang out in your office more when you should be out and about. You'll walk into the shop and you're comfortable, but you have a hard time walking out into the drive and kind of jumping in. So when you have that experience in six months is enough. That's all like literally a month, you go, oh, this is harder than I thought.
Right. But then you start, I think, you know, about the second or third month, you hit the stride a little bit.
Yeah.
And then it starts to make sense. And then I think another part of it is knowing what it feels like when it's going really well to try to encourage that out of. Out of your team. I think that's a big one, too. I also think that we should. We should send him a copy of IRS Irreplaceable Service manager. Here we go.
Just giving away the inventory.
Oh, I'm not ready.
Books for everybody.
I'm just not stopping there. I also think you should autograph it for him, but that's just me. So that should be a swag for.
Calling in all autographing for him. If you do, you got to draw a bulldog picture on it. And then.
Joking, we will. We will include in your swag bag Roberto, a copy of IRS and. But yeah, I think it's leadership authority. And then you would. You would do a better job if you went wrote service for six months.
Yeah.
So you might just want to do that.
Either way, best of success. And don't stop there. I think that coming from the shop to GM position is a very, very viable possibility and career path for you too.
Oh, yeah. You make a great manager.
Yeah.
Good. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time on service Driver 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 it's offers.com chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
