How to Write The PERFECT Amount of Service
Chris Collins and a co-host argue that selling unnecessary service to customers is both unethical and bad business. There's enough legitimate work in alignments, tire rotations, and cabin filters that shops don't need to push fake repairs. Building trust by showing customers proof of what needs fixing works better than policing the industry.
Questions this video answers
Twice a year.
Every 12 months / 12,000 miles (speaker also references AAA and that alignments often show need sooner).
About half of the cars (i.e., ~6 of 12).
Chapters
We should get it. We should just get into the. Our subject now of is it okay to steal from customers? Right.
Yeah, I think we can.
Because let's just say, like, you're. So you're working in a. At a Toyota dealership, and so Toyotas come in for service how many times a year?
Twice.
Twice a year. So let's say that you write up 12 cars a day, which you're probably writing more because most Toyota stores are burning their advisors out, and the Toyotas don't break as much. But so you, you're riding 12 a day. If they come in twice a year, how many of those cars are due for an alignment?
Half of them.
They're due for an alignment every 12. 12. Right. 12 months, 12,000 miles. AAA says that it. I mean, it's. Most of the time in 3,000 miles, it's due for an alignment. Yeah, I mean, it's out. Right. And so half of the cars you write up every day are due for an alignment. You could sell it to your mom and you could feel good about it. Are you selling six alignments a day? I doubt it. By the way, you're asking the question.
I agree.
So opportunity is everywhere. Tire rotations, cabin filters. Like, if you just concentrate on the stuff that customers really need and stop paying attention to everybody else around you and connect with customers and work on your closing skills, work on customers trusting you, work on creating key throwers, you'll forget about the other advisors and what they're doing. Right or wrong?
Yeah, I think for sure. Especially in the service, the service industry, karma is definitely one of those things that comes back to get you. So I think two things. One is don't assume that being unethical is the only way to increase your hours per hour. That's almost how that question made it sound. Right. Is it like the only way to grow it is to do what that person's doing. No, do the opposite of what that person's doing. Because in five years, everyone's going to be coming to you and not to that person, because people figure it out. And I think the other thing is that.
Yeah, just the amount of time that you must be spending. Like, if you're figuring out that somebody is selling an induction service at 40 that was just sold at 30, like, how much time are you spending looking at histories of someone else's stuff?
Do it for your own stuff.
Ask your customer a question, like, talk to them and get to know something about them instead of getting to know something about the RO that's being written Next to you, the way to increase the value of your repair orders is to build trust with your clients. And if you build trust with your clients, they're gonna believe in what you're telling them. And. And I think that that was another huge thing with watching the induction service being done is that when you're presenting that to the customer, from the first person of. I saw this, and here's what happened when I saw the service being done. How much more convincing are you, right? Your brother sold a bunch of induction services because he believed in it so much that he's like, if you don't notice the difference, I'll give you your money back. That's conviction. Conviction.
Well, actually, my brother was kind of skeptical, but he worked for a manager that did that, took a used car. And, you know, they had the foreman pop off the top, they looked at it, and then they put it back. And then the next day in the advisor meeting, they showed them, and they compared pictures, and, you know, the proof is in the pudding. Like, I. I'm not one to believe. I don't believe in snake oil.
I'm.
My brother was more skeptical than me, and I was mortified when he said he told people to give them their money back. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, that's crazy. But it worked in. I do it on my. Like, there's. I do it every year on any car that I have that's a turbo every year without. Without question. And everybody that I've had this conversation with, and it doesn't really matter. The car line and we've done it has then been a believer. And, you know, so.
Yeah, I don't. I just think the whole ethical. I'm standing on a soapbox thing is not attractive. Like, to get into it and really try to learn and concentrate on the opportunity that you have. It's like. So you go into a service department, and they're like, oh, you know, they. They want to talk about how the advisors are overselling coolant or whatever. And so I just go, like, say you go into a Ford dealership, and coolant is lifetime, which means what?
In my opinion, 100,000 miles. But lifetime sounds like.
But it's 90 to 100,000 miles, depending on what. Like, in Chicago, you could do it at 90, right?
Yeah.
And so. But let's say it's going to be 100,000 miles. So I go through. Like, people in Chicago drive a lot of miles, right?
And so I go through. They want to talk about, oh, they're overselling it. At 40,000 miles, whatever. I go through 30 ROS. How many of them do you think I find that are due for coolant, that it wasn't recommended?
70%.
There'll be a couple.
Yeah.
There'll be a couple that are over a hundred thousand miles. They've never had coolant.
Yeah.
And we're sitting around talking about what? Focus on the opportunity that's in front of you. Trust me, you're missing stuff. You're missing stuff all day long and your head's a little sideways because you're not really. You're not a technician. You don't know. You're judging. And the, you know, thing is, well, I want to put them down, so I feel. Okay, stop doing that. It's not attractive, and it's not going to get you anywhere. Concentrate on being the best you and make everybody else around you better. Lead by example. It's like, I. I always hate it when people, like, preach religion, like, oh, you're gonna go to hell and this and that. It's like, listen, you're like, I call them the Orange County Christians. It's like, you're out drinking, you're having sex, you're cheating, and you want to tell me about going to church. Like, why don't you lead by example?
Yeah.
Why don't you create a lifestyle that I come to you and I go, what is it you're doing that you're so much happier and more productive and you have a zest for life that I want instead of trying to make me feel guilty.
Right.
Right.
Yep.
You know what I mean?
Yeah. There's a ton of room on service drives to be inspirational, and I think that that's exactly the opportunity. So I think that that's a big thing with, you know, look at our body of work. I mean, I would love to see an advisor looking over their own ros. And saying, what did I miss? Like, that's inspirational to me and that makes me want to be, you know, work with that service advisor and try to be, you know, helping them on strategies of how we make sure we're consistent with our presentation methods.
It is not hard to be the number one advisor in selling tires and alignments in any service drive just by consistently turning the tires and measuring them, showing the customers and recommending alignments when they're due. If you just did those two things, and you could say, if the. If you recommend an alignment in a year or 12,000 miles and it's not out of alignment, don't charge the customer, and it'll be rare. It'll be one in 200.
And the equity that you get from trust is worth more than the alignment anyway. Yeah.
But if you have a problem getting over that idea.
Yeah.
Then just if, if they're not out of spec, then don't charge them. But it won't happen that often if you're truly putting them up on an alignment rack. I'm not talking about the drive over machines and all that. I'm talking about a real alignment.
Yeah.
So it is not okay to steal from customers. And most of the time, anybody who wants to have that conversation, there's so much opportunity under your nose that you're not getting by doing it the right way. It's just you gotta start asking a different question. Stop asking about what everybody else is doing and ask how can I get better?
Yeah. So speaking of that different question, I really think the question is, as advisors, first off, we need to acknowledge what do our customers perceive that we're doing when we're presenting stuff to them.
Yeah. Build trust. Spend your time working on yourself and how you can endear customers to you. Pay attention to customers, body language, what they're telling you how they feel. Ask for feedback.
Yep. I think that that's the thing is that our industry, our clients perceive that we oversell. And the only way to get them to understand that we don't oversell is education.
Yeah. It's good. Good stuff. Thanks. Thanks so much for the question. I know if I was a little hard on you, it comes from a place of love. So think about it, sleep on it, and you'll feel different tomorrow. But there's tons of opportunity in front of you. 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.
