This YouTube video (Chris Collins with Christian) explains how service advisors can use "pattern interrupts" to build stronger customer relationships. Key tactics: start conversations by addressing customers personally and discussing identity-linked topics (family, hobbies) during the vehicle walk-around; avoid transactional questions like "do you have an appointment?"; use brief, proactive updates (text/email) between appointments to reassure customers and build trust; schedule short gaps to write notes and follow up unexpected-touch customers. The clip ends with standard channel CTAs and contact/offer information.
Chapters
I'm trying to be a pattern interrupt. I'm trying to be different than all the other advisors. So when. When I'm approaching a customer, I'm not saying, did you have an appointment? What brings you in today? I'm like, hey, Christian, how's it going? I automatically just start my walk around, and I gain control. But I'm like, hey, where are you headed today? As we're walking around the car, we're measuring tread, and. And then I'm talking about the things that matter. And the things that matter are things that are attached to your customer's identity. So what sort of things are attached to your. Your identity?
Certainly my family.
So your. Yeah. Your son?
My. My interests outside of work are things that I attach.
What are your interests outside of work?
Zumba, Zumba, hiking.
Christian is a black belt Zumba dancer, actually.
More. Yeah.
Once again, most people are listening to this.
Awesome for the listeners, but yeah. So Zumba. I'm starting to really kind of get into the Latin cooking. I think that that's really, really fun.
Yeah. So any of these subjects, if you were to bring them up with Christian, you would see a change in his posture. You would see his eyes get a little bit bigger. He would lean in almost. And he would want to tell you about his son. He would want to tell you about cooking Latin food or whatever it is. And so that's kind of what you want to. You want to create in your customers, is if you're like, hey, where are you headed today? And they're like, oh, I'm going to work. And then my kid, whatever. Then you're like, oh, how many kids do you have? And now all of a sudden you're off to the races because they're going to tell you, what are their names, what are their age? But when I'm doing the walk around, I could care less about the commodity. You have to understand there is nothing special about the vehicle. Anybody can service that vehicle. Anybody. What's special is the relationship we have with our customers and how we make them feel. And the trust, the equity that we have in trust. And you build trust by treating somebody like a friend. Now, how do friends talk? Well, they talk about things that are attached to their identity. People, the bands, they like, their kids, their career, their work, you know, all of that Korean work are the same thing, but you guys get the idea. So I'm trying to be a pattern interrupt, and I'm trying to put them in the frame of a friend, not a frame of a consumer, vendor, customer type thing. I'm trying to be different than everybody else.
That appointment thing is just. If there's one habit that you don't want to add to that list, it's asking customers if they have appointments, talk about putting them on their back heels. I remember you and I were at dinner the other night, and we walk up to the place where you check in, and they're like, do you have reservations?
Meanwhile, the place was empty.
And I said, no, I don't have any reservations about eating here.
Sneaking in the Dan joke.
Continue on.
Then, you know, I'm going to. Then I'm going to create a pattern in my mind. And one of the reasons why we like to give advisors 20 minutes between appointments is for the rest of the morning. My pattern is two things. I'm going to attack the drive and write what I need to write. And then after I write, I'm going to touch customers that I wrote previously that don't expect it. So I want to be a pattern interrupt in the sense that I'm. I'm putting customers in the. The frame or the script of friend. And then the customers that aren't there, that I have their vehicles in the shop or they haven't been in the shop yet. I want to be a pattern interrupt, and I'm going to update them before they have to reach out to me.
So.
And that could be a simple text. Hey, it's going in the shop soon. Hey, I'm on it. You should expect to call in the next couple hours. Hey, we're, you know, we're still waiting on the part, but I, you know, you're at the top of my list. Anything just to reassure them that we know what's going on. They don't have to call us. That is completely different than any experience they will have anywhere else. And it builds a ton of equity and trust because they just relax, like, oh, yeah, okay, he's on it. If he updated me when he didn't need to, then I don't need to call because Christian's on it. Right. So I'm. I kind of like, look at that as, like, there's two modes. There's the writing, the customer mode, and then the updating customers. And it takes, like, in that five minutes I have in between, I'm going to be texting, emailing, touching customers in the easiest way possible, but the most effective way possible to let them know that they're still important and they're on the radar and they haven't been lost in the chaos.
I think texting is a game changer. Think about 25 years ago what it would have been like to write and have the texting feature and how fast some of these systems work where you're texting right from the computer. You should never have a customer call in. Like, you should always be ahead of that game because it's so easy to do it now.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver 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.
