Chris Collins' team explains how to boost service advisor productivity without firing anyone. The main fix: hire more advisors to match your technician count, adjust appointment spacing to 20-30 minutes apart, and have managers model the behavior you want. Most shops run too few advisors against too many techs, which tanks both morale and throughput.
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Welcome everybody to your Friday drive By now, I'm doing this one alone. Chris Joan is not here because he already has left for our coaching meeting that we are hosting in Dallas this week. So we have our regular coaching and elite which is going to be very fun. Right after this, I'm hopping on a plane and joining him. So with that being said, this is when we answer your questions or I answer your questions. The number is 8333 Ask SDR. That's 8333 Ask SDR. And let's go to this week's question.
In this day and age where people are hard to come by, especially service advisors.
How do I get my staff to become more professional, more on the ball when it comes to.
Being a top service Advisor?
I have four advisors and I have about 20 techs in the shop. And I have a dispatch. Let me know what I can do to help increase productivity and increase the level of skill that my advisors have without having to replace the advisors. Thanks.
Thanks for the question.
Couple things right off the bat that stick out to me and I.
It'S not what you're asking about, but it's kind of connected is you don't have enough advisors for the amount of texts you have. So I think you're probably having your advisors write too many tickets. So usually a three to one average is a place to start, especially when you're trying to change the habits in the culture. And it would appear that you're running five texts each advisor, which can be harder. Also, you're doing dispatch, which I know there's places out there still running dispatch, but man, that's a hard way to go. Everything. You got 20 texts. Going through one person, the dispatcher becomes the constraint. I would make that dispatcher the other advisor personally, just me.
So more advisors. The question you're asking though, is.
Complicated in the sense that there's no miracle pill. It starts with you. So it's the example that you set. It's also where you put your energy. So if you tolerate the things that you're trying to change, then they're going to continue. And so, you know, a big part of it is what you're willing to accept. When you're a new manager, sometimes you got to pick your battles and take things, you know, in order of priority. But I would say having a good team of advisors is second to having a good team of techs. If you already have text, then you're doing pretty good there.
Then it's, you know, what are you paying Them, what sort of training are you giving them? What is the system that you have? How often are you having them ride in ro? So are you making appointments for them every 10 minutes? Every 15? Every 20? I personally do every 20 or 30 to give them more time to communicate with customers. You probably have them writing too many ROs, I'm guessing, which I'd like to have that like around 12, give or take.
I didn't hear the brand, so I'm not sure what the brand is, but either way.
Yeah. So there's, I mean, there's a. There's a lot of things. The system you're running, how the appointments are processed, how the work is processed, all of those things add up to how the advisors perform. And so starts with you. And then it's what you tolerate and what you give energy to. So where you're rewarding behavior and where you're not tolerating behavior and you have, you know, a line in the sand of what you're willing to accept, how much training you're doing.
And role playing and that sort of thing. And then the system around the advisors, and I personally always start with the system because form equals function. The system drives the behavior probably more than anything else. How often they're writing a customer, how the workflows, that sort of thing. And by having a dispatcher, I would guess most of those systems are probably antiquated and older. So hope that gives you some food for thought and some ideas. Thanks for the question. Remember the numbers 8333 ask SDR and we will see you next time on Service Drive 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 that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
