How Women Can Overcome Sexism in the Service Drive (Service Drive Revolution)

This next question comes from story about mosquitoes. Hi Chris, I enjoy your videos a lot, so thank you for making them. Following your tips has helped me in my career. The only trouble I have is I always feel like I want to know about cars. I like being able to explain to my customers in a comprehensive way what is going on. But I have also always felt that, that I have to work harder for their trust. I have a customer base now, but it was hard won by hard work and instilling confidence. But I still have trouble instilling confidence in my customers. I know it is going to be a lot harder for me because I'm a woman and I have had people ask me if they could speak to a man. How do I make my customers feel confident in their repairs despite my lack of mechanical knowledge and my sex?

That's a lot.

That's a lot. I have four words that can help her out. Word number one, I can help you.

What?

I can help you. So when she said, you know, she's asking. I did that. I know she's going to tell this to her auto repair clients because she.

So people look at her, she's going I can help you.

Yes. Because she said it's a male dominated industry and she's teach everybody to ask.

If they had an appointment.

No, we don't.

I'm also still confused about the mosquito.

That was her avatar.

Avatar.

How did I miss that? Who?

What was the question from God?

Her username was story about mosquitoes.

That's See that's her user.

I'd also like to hear, can we.

Clarify what that means when we send her swag?

Yeah, sure.

That's interesting.

So in the. And then about the technical side of it, I think if you want to learn about cars it's got to be a passion and you just do it because you want to increase your knowledge on it. The best service advisors on the planet don't really know a lot technically about the car. They know how to take care of the person and they fix the customer and let your technician in the shop fix the car and then you're just the conduit of that. You are the ambassador that oversees all the technical details that happen with the repair or the service and your job for your customers to make sure that you deliver a perfect product and that's what they're you're there for. And with that I can help you see how that.

Yeah, I. So.

We'Ve answered this question before also. And so I mean I guess I'll just go through my experience with this. But I was very young writing service. So the first thing that you need to do is really pay attention to how you show up, what you look like. Like, I wore suits because I 19 or 20, and people questioned me because I was young. It's even harder when you're a female.

And so you got to look the part. I would. I would really pay attention to how you dress and try to look more like a manager than a frumpy advisor. And I'm. I don't know how you dress now, but I'm saying it. How you look very much matters. It's the. It's the appearance. It's their first impression. And then the second thing is it's all about charisma and your. Your skills with the customer. It has nothing to do with the car. I knew nothing about the car. So I've told this story. When I answered this question before, there was this technician in the Volkswagen shop. His name was Shane.

Got all the Volkswagen techs around in the shop and had like, this wooden crate box, and there was this round disc on there. And he called me, called me in the shop, and all the texts are staring at me. And he says, what is that? And I said, a brake rotor, and it was a clutch disc. And they all laughed and, you know, went to the boss and how can he be a service advisor when he doesn't know the difference between a brake rotor and a clutch disc? It's like they didn't get it. I was really good at connecting with people, and I was curious about people. And also I wanted to serve people. I wanted to take care of them. I wanted to be a host. I felt a certain reciprocation like that. I took care of them and they kept coming to me. And I loved that interaction and that dynamic that the more I took care of them and the more I cared about them, the more loyal they were to me. And that's really where you want to focus. So practice your charisma. Read books on charisma, pay attention to that. So the way you look, and that will get you far. The second thing is every time a technician would give me an inspection sheet that had something on there I didn't understand, I would go back to the car and ask them to show me. And that's how I learned over time. But never lose perspective of the fact that the more you know about cars, the more shortcuts you tend to take. And that's why technicians have such a hard time when they come up to write service, because they know Everything. And they can diagnose it in the drive, and. And it ruins the customer experience. They end up taking shortcuts and they assume things, and they don't let the process take care of itself because they're telling them in the drive what it is. Customers make decisions right then and there. And we never got the car. We never rode an ro. We never dehorsed them, that whole thing. So the, you know, you want to know enough to be articulate, but at any point when you don't know something, just say you don't know and you. And go ask the tech. No customer is gonna begrudge you that. And so the most important part is how you look, how you present yourself, and how well you connect with customers. Talk to them about everything else but the commodity. The car or truck is irrelevant. What matters is their kids, their hobbies, their jobs, what they think about the local football team, politics, whatever. I know people say not to talk politics, but I. I never would in. I would never share my opinion, but I was really curious how other people felt. I love to talk politics and have people tell me how they feel and ask them questions about why they think the way they do. Sometimes it's, you know, 90% of the time, it's very disappointing because people just watch Fox News and that's all they know. And they don't, you know, really have an opinion. They're just following everybody else. But, yeah, you know what's amazing? The female thing can be your advantage, but you. You have to up all the. You have to compensate with clothes, charisma, and. And all that. You have to really show up with an aame.

Yeah.

The one thing I know you have a comment. I'm going to come back to that.

Or Chris is going to come segue to a joke.

But I'm not actually in this particular case. So what I would say is, is I think back to my coaching and the people that I've coached, and some of the most successful service advisors that I've worked with are female. And there's a common denominator between all of them, is that before they come into work every day, they walk in there and they know that they belong. So the first thing you need to do as an advisor, male or female, is recognize you're in the exact place that you should be and you belong there. The females that I've worked with that have struggled at first.

They.

They're not sure. They're. They're. They usually say, like, I'm a woman in a man's world. Kind of thing. No, you're a bad in the world exactly where you belong. You start to think like that and then your gender doesn't matter anymore.

Yeah. Although we do acknowledge it's harder.

No doubt.

It is a boys club. We're not discounting that. But you have to pretend like it is.

Yep.

That's what we're saying.

Yes.

We acknowledge that it is. It is a male dominated thing. But that's changing too. But slower than it should.

Yeah.

But in on the microscope you can make it your own world.

And also, like some of our best managers in our coaching group are female, hands down. Yeah. And Vicki, like one of our coaches, like legendary. So. And they all came up against that. What were you gonna say?

I was gonna say it's. It's interesting right now when we've got to go deeper than just the transaction in the car, like the commodity. So you're talking about the person's life like the. In caring about your customer. And I think right now people have this desire to connect with other human beings. Like we have been so sheltered away from people and you know, because of the COVID Yeah. With all that. That's herpes. Yes, all especially that.

Can you get herpes from a mosquito?

Probably.

That was a nice tie in.

What always amazes me is when you have trust with your client and they have a problem with the vehicle. And you know, we have a customer this week that came in and his truck overheated and blew a head gasket. And it's a major job. And it's like it's the tipping point. Are you going to keep it? Are you going to go buy a new one? And all this. And when you really get down to it, he came in last night, we had a conversation and he really shared the stuff that him and his wife have been going through with some family stuff that when he left, I just sat there for like five minutes. And I was so grateful that, you know, that I have my business, that we're able to reach out and help our customers in the way that we are. But also that he had the trust to share that information with me because he didn't have to. And realistically, everybody has stuff going on in their life and we downplay sometimes our role in providing good transportation for customers. But it goes so much further beyond the car and the commodity. And the more that we can connect with people at a deeper level, that's really where your expertise needs to be at and listen to them and be there for them because it's really Amazing.

You know, I think that the reason why I reverted to talking to them about work and kids and all that is because I didn't know about the car. And it was my way of keeping it off of the car in an odd way, but it ended up being my secret weapon.

The best thing you could do.

But I didn't want to get asked a technical question about a car. I had no idea. Like, even, like, people assume because I've done all this stuff in the car business that I'm out restoring cars on the weekend or whatever. Like, my. My favorite quote is, my favorite car is the one that's selling. Like, I don't. I've had every car that I've ever wanted. Like, I don't. I'm not. Like, I'm not dreaming about a car. I mean, I like cars. I. I appreciate the engineering and the. The differences between the brands and all that, but I'm not. I'm not trying to figure out the horsepower on a car or, you know, working on them or whatever. So I like the experience of it. So I think I was afraid of people asking me technical questions. It was always in the back of my mind, and that's why I would get them off the subject and talk about their kids or whatever, and it just ended up. I ended up outperforming others because I had that connection. Right?

Absolutely.

You're talking about the stuff that mattered.

Yeah, but I don't. I don't think that that was tactical. I think that was out of insecurity that I reverted that way. Protection mechanism, right?

Yeah.

That's good. Well, good stuff, you guys. 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 you. 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.