Chris Collins and Christian advise a caller moving from service advisor to shop foreman. Show up early, set the tempo, and work harder than everyone else. Build real relationships with your best technicians through lunches and genuine interest, stay available to handle difficult calls and problem customers, and avoid getting pulled into drama with chronic complainers.
Foreign.
Welcome everybody to your Friday drive bound service driver solution.
Oh, that's a new style.
This is where we answer your questions. And Christian tells jokes, lots of jokes. How many jokes do you have for this one?
We're just gonna talk about my family tree. So I got a. I got an uncle. It may. It may be hard to believe this, but he's an Eskimo and him and his wife, they just bought an igloo. A couple of weeks ago I threw him a housewarming party and now he doesn't have anywhere to live.
That was smooth. Thank you. You just had that ready?
Yes, sir.
We did not pre plan that. That's pretty. That's pretty funny. The number, if you have a question for us is 8333 ask SDR. That's 8333 ask SDR. If we play your question on the show. We got a swag bag. We got parts hold stuff. It's pretty, pretty exciting.
It's a hot ticket.
All. All the, all the cool kids are wearing the parts hold trucker cap. Okay, let's go to this week's question.
Hey, service drive revolution. I'm kind of in a unique situation where I have the opportunity to move up from. From an advisor to a foreman in my shop. I interviewed for the position today. It all seemed to go pretty well for the most part. However, we have a couple of broken processes within our department where they're planning on putting the assistant service manager in the foreman spot to repair or replace some of those processes to make it a smooth transition for the next foreman. During my interview, they asked to see a couple of improvements on my side or some changes on my behalf. They asked to see me prove to the technicians that I can be an advocate and have their back.
And earn a whole new level of respect from those technicians, which I really understand. But as well as pivot my role and to be seen to the techs as a leader. But my primary question is what would your success suggestion be on how I can pivot my perspective as an advisor currently to be seen as a leader and also as an advocate towards those technicians.
So I'm going to call you Chucky because you're anonymous. But Chucky's easier for me. Do you like the name Chucky or do you want to call him something else?
No, it makes me think of that movie where the little doll kills people.
It's the worst scene when that guy. I don't think I watched a. I've seen like a couple.
Was that the one that cuts the.
Achilles from under the bed.
Oh, the wobbling in the things. Yuck. Ah, so gross.
I don't like horror movies. I don't like that in my head. Now we just put it in everybody else's head.
Sorry.
Okay, let's not call him Chucky. Let's call him Paul. Paul.
There's no serial killers or murderer people that we know.
Okay? Paul. Anonymous Paul.
And so I have a couple ideas here. So.
The first way to be perceived as a leader, in my experience, is to be the first one there and set a tempo, be the most available, the hardest working with the best attitude.
Being positive. The person who's the most positive is usually the one that people want to follow because people are attracted to somebody with a positive vision and outlook. So getting there before everybody, working harder than everybody, having an attitude that is open, not closed, is the place to start, but that's just starting and kind of the, the basics. Then the next thing that I would do is I would get to know the text personally. I would take personal interest in them. You probably, you know, I don't, I don't know how many techs are in the shop. I don't know the, the size. So I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, giving advice without knowing the specifics. But in a broader sense, there are going to be technicians that are the highest performers, that are not necessarily the most influential in the shop. And then there's going to be techs that are the most influential because they're the biggest pain in the ass, but they're not the performers. I would get to know the performers and I would ignore the pain in the asses in the beginning. So I would go to the best, the technicians that are flagging, that are the best at fixing problem cars, that are there to work, that look at it as a career. And I would get to know them personally, so I would get to know about their kids, their ambitions. I would take them to lunch, I might hang out with them after work, and I would be very, very curious about their issues, how we could make things better. And knowing them personally.
There'S way more leverage in a personal relationship than there is in a transactional relationship on both sides too, right?
So like, when you're, when you get to know someone, you want their success way more than if you don't have a personal relationship.
And so, yeah, the byproduct here will be they will want him to be the leader.
Right.
Because nobody else is taking personal interest in them. And so having a mover for a barbecue you know, that sort of thing. But hanging out with the, the winners in the shop that are the performers, not the malcontents or the ones that are the most opinionated. Because here's the other thing is when you do get this promotion and you're the shop foreman, you want to change the culture to be about the performance. So start focusing on that now.
That's great.
How can you make those technicians, you know, more productive? But when they come to you with an inspection, when they come to you with a problem customer, you want to be the available one that takes the phone call, stays and makes the call, deals with the customer nobody else wants to deal with whatever it is you, you want to be available and you want to have a good attitude about it and don't expect anything in return. That's the other thing is it's not a. Don't, don't look at things like a ransom note, like, I did this, so I deserve this. Do it completely selfless in an effort just to make the place better.
That's great. And I love the, I love the move from advisor to shop form. And you're obviously a, a future service manager or more.
Yeah, you're on the, you're on the upward climb.
It's the right way to do it. I have an understanding of both sides of the ball, so. Super cool. I'm excited.
Weird that you worked in a ball as an analogy for a service department.
Yeah, a little bit.
Baseball or a basketball?
I was seeing football.
Oh, an oblong ball.
Yes. That's way more descriptive of a service.
Department, by the way. Anonymous Paul, great job on the Revolution. Oh, great jobs.
High class. Well deserved of swag.
Great question. 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, please 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.
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