How to Save a FAILING Dealership?? (Service Drive Revolution)

I'm new to the service manager business. I need help bad. The previous service manager really had a bad reputation and so does the dealership itself. I'm trying to build it up and have ordered your books. The problem I have is I'm over parts and service. But I'm stretched thin. I work six to seven days, 12 to 13 hours, and if someone misses, I feel the role. Most of the time I'm on the service lane myself. We write around 11 to 15 ros a day, 80% warranty, 20% cash. ELR around 88.7. That is a very specific number to.

Approximate, by the way, Don, you don't know this really, but that's an ELR from before you went to prison. Like 1984.

It's a low ELR.

Sounds like you're describing a dealership in San Bernardino, California.

I have four techs. One is a standout, the other three not so good. I'm in a small town and I will have to say it's welfare infested. Techs are hard to come by here. I love to build the reputation back up. I feel like I take two steps forward and nine steps back. Any help? Please.

You want me to handle this one?

Yeah.

Okay. A couple of things. Let's talk about crisis. Well, it is, but it's easy to fix. I think a couple of things. First and foremost, you got to look at the reputation. With your reputation, you build it with one client at a time. You have a client base. So just get everybody committed to delivering that five star experience every time now. And in 90 days you'll have a completely different reputation than what was in the past. The other thing too, I'm just going to go to coaching. Like who is there to support you? Right. Like if you're really feeling that bad about the dealership that you work at the past service manager, get some help. Get a coach to help you stay on track, stay on task. Get a priority list of strategies that need to be implemented and implement them. So absolutely. Coaching. And then that reputation I think is key. And then don't worry about welfare infestation. It's rampant everywhere in the United States nowadays.

Yep. You need, you need a community. It's a lonely place sometimes to be the service manager. It can be very lonely. So you need some, you need to surround yourself with some better people, double.

Your labor rate right away. That will kick out the people that can't afford it, that don't want to afford it and just attract the right customers to you.

That's double your Labor.

You can, right?

Well, you could, but 88 go to.

Labor rate 110, that's so low.

I don't know what the brand is like. There just aren't enough specifics here to talk about what. What he should go to.

But we had an extended warranty say that our area was at106.32 an hour on average. I. I was just happy it was over 100. So.

No, it's.

So.

It's funny, when I'm with dealers, they think that the reason why independents do so well is because their labor rate's lower. Right. And most of the time, the independents are higher.

Right. Absolutely.

It's about the customer experience.

It is. And I mean, the sad part is we're all fighting for the same technicians. You know, we have dealership technicians that leave and come to the independent. We have independent technicians that go to the dealership. So. So we're all fighting for the same talent pool.

And it's the most successful on both sides are the ones that concentrate on what they can control. They don't worry about the competition. They worry about their customer experience and what they. Collecting the best people and delivering the best product.

Yeah. And, Sean, that's what you have to do. You have to set your standards and go make your history. Right now, what you're doing is building your book of business the way that you're going to do it and then just worry about the past. Make it happen.

Good stuff. You got another one?

Yes. Yes, we do have another one. This one comes from Andrew on Facebook. I recently got employed by a dealership, literally my first week. Congratulations. And I am.

I would applaud, but as you know, I cannot use three of my limbs.

I am honestly very grateful and hungry to succeed. I would consider myself an honest service advisor when recommending services or whatever the case may be. And it has worked great at a mom and pop shop. But now since I'm at a dealership, they want you to push services such as additives, which can. Which I can in good taste. But I'm worried about pricing for my customers since I'm in such a competitive area. Miami, how can I sell my customers on the value rather than the price and the services they're receiving? Also, do you have any good techniques to assure the customers fill out their surveys for my KPI score?

So that's three questions.

Yeah, I've got pricing, value. Fill out the survey.

So the. The first thing I would say is when it comes to additives, I wouldn't sell anything that you wouldn't sell your mom.

Yeah.

Do the research on it first. Make sure that you believe in the product before you sell.

Now if you're working for a service manager that is more aggressive and not in line with your ethics, you probably need to, you need to do a little soul searching there. But I personally find that there's so many things that we can sell customers there is no reason for us to oversell over recommend. So if you wouldn't sell it to your mom, I wouldn't sell it. Then. The second one is value. Now what is.

Value to a customer? What makes a good deal? The answer is when the cost in the. No, when the value outweighs the cost. Right. So a lot of times in your role as a service advisor, you're creating that value by making it easy, saving them time, keeping them in a safe, dependable vehicle, being personal, be their person that's always available, standing behind the product.

Right.

So updating them when they don't expect it.

Right. And the pricing thing, you can't. Andrew, you've got to be careful on because the lowest price sometimes carries the highest cost. Like you put a $400 radiator in that has a six month 6,000 mile guarantee versus an $800 radiator that has a three year 36,000 mile guarantee. Yeah, it's $400 more. But if this one fails a month seven, you got to pay for it again. Now you're at the same price as the more expensive one. Right. But no, this one's going to cost you $2,000 because every seven months you've got to put one in. Right. So the pricing thing, customers always want to drag you in on price because they're just not educated. They don't know how to see the value in auto repair. And that's where you petting the dog and being that trusted advisor for your customer will help you win that pricing war and show them the value of what you guys provide.

When I was an advisor, I always thought that I was worth more. Like if I was going to take care of you and you were going to be my customer, you were going to pay more for that. But you were going to get my attention because I knew in the service drive I was in nobody else was as good as me. And if you had me as an advisor, you were getting the best. So a lot of it too is you having some confidence in delivering something that's worth more. You know, I always tell the story about my grandfather told me when I was really young that if you always give people More than what they pay you for, you'll always be in demand. So if somebody pays you $8 an hour and you give them $20 worth of work every hour, you will always be in demand. So I approach that like I would call customers when they didn't expect it. I would take care of them like they didn't expect it. I was better than everybody else, and they were going to pay a premium for that. And then what was the last question?

How to get them to fill out their survey. So I've got it summed up really easy. Deliver such an amazing service experience that they want to share that experience with the world. That's the biggest thing you've got to blow.

Wait, I thought it was threatened to come to their house and break their knees.

You could do that.

It's Miami.

That's right. Just get a silencer for your Glock.

Right.

That's all you need.

No, I'm sorry.

Absolutely. Yeah. Deliver such an amazing experience and do something special for them at the end. You know, one thing that we used to do when I worked, whatever car line you worked for, it was funny. I worked at Volkswagen, and There would be 20 white Volkswagen Jettas out there, and there's four customers out there hitting their beepers trying to find their car, and four alarms are going off at the same time. Yeah. My customers would be catered to right up front with their car backed in, the door open. I'd walk them to the car. So those are some of the smaller things that you can do to really wow them.

And.

And then on the survey, they will fill it out. If you do an amazing job for.

Them, I would say, too. We have a bunch of clients in Florida, in Miami, a couple really good dealers, and a couple of dealer groups. If you get your numbers up and you're performing at a high level and you. And you have good csi, send me your resume, and we'll pass it around. But we'll get you to a dealer that isn't. Isn't trying to make you sell stuff that people don't need.

Absolutely.

That's good. Great question. Well, thanks so much, Don. Good job. Great questions this week. Stay out of trouble, because people are starting to love your bit here on the show, and we don't want you to go back to jail.

It would be a shame for me to have to leave the country on such short notice.

Chris, we could take the show international. Yeah, we could.

We have people in Canada, right?

A lot of friends in Canada.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, thanks, Mario, Sean, and Andrew. We got some swag coming your way, so great job.

Thanks, Don.

You're welcome.

Thanks, Michael.

You're welcome.

Thank you so much for watching this clip of Service Drive Revolution. Now you can catch the full episode on YouTube, iTunes, or Spotify or wherever you consume your podcast. If you have any questions, go ahead and post them in the comments below. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post new episodes. I'm Chris Collins, and you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Chris Bulldog Collins and I'll see you again on the next episode.