My Advice For Young Service Advisors

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To this edition of your Friday drive by on Service Drive Revolution, where we answer your questions. Say hello to Chris Joan.

Hello, everyone.

Are you feeling good?

I'm feeling good. I just noticed I'm tan. Wow, look at that thing.

I just.

Instantly pictured you in a speedo on the beach rubbing oil on yourself, tanning. Is that how it is? Mostly, yeah. The audience is going, yeah, Christian, I.

Went jet skiing too. That wasn't.

Yeah, everybody, Christian was just on vacation.

I was. I'm back now.

But yeah, tell everybody where you went.

Well, I went.

This is Christian's attempt to be. What's his name from cousin Eddie.

No, I'm way, way more Clark Griswold than cousin Eddie. But I respect that. The RV and the cousin, he likes.

To rent an RV and then go on an adventure.

I do. So this year we went to Sequoia national park, which was a lot of fun because I'd never seen the big sequoia trees and my 9 year old son had never seen anything like that. So that was really cool. Then shot up and did like the Lake Tahoe Reno thing and then went down and actually went to a lake out in the Inland Empire and kind of did that. Like a big circle of sorts.

But lake in the inland. You mean a mud puddle?

No, it was really nice. Full of water. Yeah, water and everything.

We were out of water. Not on the inland.

Not where I jet skied.

Wow.

But it was a lot of fun.

Okay, let's tell everybody what the number is. If you have a question that you want us to answer on the show about vacations, RVs, whatever I can tell.

You like I can empty an rv pooper. Like no one, no one's business.

His number is 8333, ask SDR. So that's 8333, ask SDR. Remember, if we play your question on the show, one, you might be helping others because somebody might be afraid to ask that question. And two, we're going to send you a swag bag of service drive revolution stuff which very soon will have swag from Parts hold, which we.

I just got to tell you that the Parts hold logo, it's pretty cool. Phenomenal.

Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's go to the first question.

So I am a senior or lead tech at my dealership. I make pretty good money, but the service advisors seem to make 20 to $30,000 more than the lead tax. I've been thinking about switching over to become an advisor, but my manager physically won't let me because of the tech shortage. I'm Thinking about leaving to become. To let. To give myself a try being a service advisor.

So five surgeons.

They'Re sitting around having a conversation one day.

What about the question?

What?

What about the question?

Oh, it all plays in at the end.

Okay. Surgeons.

Yeah. So the first surgeon, he says, you know, my favorite person to do surgery on is an accountant. You open them up and everything's numbered. It's perfect. And the second surgeon says, well, I do agree. I think the accountant's great, but I actually prefer the librarian. Because when you do surgery on a librarian, you open them up, everything's alphabetical. And then the third surgeon says, well, no, no, no, no. I actually really like the electrician, because you open them up and everything's color coded. And then the fourth person's like. The fourth surgeon's like, well, I really like lawyers because you open up and they're heartless and spineless, so there's not a lot to worry about in there. Right. And then the fifth surgeon, who's been really, really quiet at this moment, says, you know what? I really like to work on technicians. Because when you do surgery on the technician and you put them back together, there's a couple of extra parts that you didn't put back, and the techs understand.

That'S great.

That's a long. You put some work into that.

We went all the way around the cul de sac, didn't we?

We did. Okay, so wants to remain anonymous.

Should call him.

Buddy is a lead tech that says the advisors make 30 grand, 20 to 30 grand more than him. And he wants to be an advisor, but his boss says, no, you can't be an advisor because we need texts more than we need advisors.

Although I think that's starting to catch up to it. I'm hearing demand on both sides, but.

What advice would you give him?

I don't know.

Say you're his wife, and he comes home and he says, honey, what do I do? What advice would you give him?

Well, I mean, the first thing I.

Say, I love how quickly you just agree to be his wife, but. Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, no problem. Whatever. I can role play. But at the end of the day. So the one thing that I was. That I'm thinking about in the back of my head is that that whole. The advisor's making 25 to 30 grand more than the lead techs. That's not normal. That's not normally how I see normal is dealership. Right. But I'm just saying, where with what I see, that's not necessarily normal. It's usually some of the highest paid people in the department are in the shop. So I. I'm curious, you know, what kind of statistics this guy is doing. But to me, it's really easy. Like if they're going to. If the shop's going to lose you. Either way, you can say, I'm either going to go find another job or you can make me an advisor. I feel like that would be really easy.

Well, I also think. And you can kind of hear it in his voice. He doesn't know if he'll like being an advisor. There's a lot of techs try to be an advisor and they don't like it.

It's harder than they think in a lot of cases.

And so I think this is a very personal decision. But I would say that if you go to quit, kind of like Christian was saying, there's a chance they give you a raise and maybe that's the path.

Yeah. Where he might end up working on cars. Getting.

He's probably worried about is leaving and going to get an advisor job. And at the other place, the advisors are making less than the team leader.

Maybe. But I just think that he's got a really beautiful parachute option here. So he can go try and be an advisor somewhere else. If it doesn't work. You're a technician. That's not the worst thing in the world right now.

So easy to get hired.

He's got the driver's seat at his. Yeah. The wind's at his back. So I think that he can be as creative as he wants to be.

I would say there's another option here is why don't you ask somebody to mentor you to be a manager and start thinking about leadership and being a manager? Because the truth of the matter is, being an advisor isn't the ending point. And you can learn to be a manager just as much. Being a team leader, in a sense, if you're. If you're a team leader, you're taking a demotion to be an advisor in a sense.

Yeah.

So maybe think about being a manager more than an advisor in that way. But it's good advice. It's a very personal decision. So we basically went in a loop and kind of analyzed it for you. But you kind of have to make that call. Let's go to the next one.

Hi, my name is Elijah. I'm from Tampa, Florida. I'm currently a lube tech at my dealership, but we just had a few people quit. So now I'm looking to become a service Advisor. But I'm 20 years old, and a lot of people see me as immature or like, I. I don't know, as much. I was wondering if you had any tips on how to come across as more mature or just in general, you know, mitigate, you know, that kind of feeling from customers.

Well, that's easy. If you want to seem more mature, grow a beard.

That's funny. I would say that you probably are talking too much. You're giving away too much, because there's no way they could perceive you as immature if you weren't giving that away. And so an exercise that might help you is to just ask questions and not give any opinions or any information about yourself. And what you'll find in that exercise is it's really easy to get people to talk about themselves, and they will perceive you as a great conversationalist, and you really never said anything. So when they say that you're a great conversationalist, it means you're a great listener. So practice being genuinely interested in people, connecting with them and getting them to talk about themselves, about things they care about.

And don't talk about yourself. Don't give away what you like, what your opinion is, what you did over the weekend. Because most of the time the reason why they're perceiving you as being immature is because you're giving away too much.

So you're coming off as immature. So just listen, be a listener. Be more stoic. Maybe read or listen to the audiobook's really good. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. That's a great book. To understand.

How to connect with people.

Yeah, that's great advice. I think that that's another thing, too, that hits close to home with you because you were always younger than your position dictated.

But everybody always perceived me as older.

I think, because of the way that you carried yourself, not because of the way you looked.

My mom, when I was younger, used to say I was 16 going on 30.

Yeah, you're old. Soul. Ish. I agree with that.

I think it's interesting now that I'm older, though.

That people perceive me as younger. I connect more with a younger crowd. Yeah, I'm not sure what that is. I can only be me and see what happens. I don't.

You're not trying to be someone else.

I don't quite understand it, but it is interesting as we get older. I'm not the kid anymore. Forever. I was the kid.

Yeah, but you slid into that role. And I think that you gravitate towards other people that are the kid.

So it's a. I think you're naturally a mentor for that role.

Well, I think younger people are probably just more fun to talk to because they're more open, they're more, you know, they're more curious. Yeah, I'm curious.

Very.

Yeah. Good question, though. That book's good. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

You can hear the audio. That's funny. Okay.

Do we have another one? No, let's play the one from parts.

That's a great one.

Hey, Chris, it's Drew here. I'm a parts manager, and I'm having a little debate with our service manager. He thinks the parts department needs to take the responsibility for hanging onto the store's special tools. I think the service department should handle it. We wouldn't ask service people to work for free techs handling things. Why should the parts department have to handle parts they don't see any profit on? Curious to hear what you have to say. Thanks a bunch.

Before you get into that, that reminded me of something. What happens when you drop a piano down a mineshaft?

You get a flat minor.

That's good.

Yeah. That's interesting. I have a question.

Can I answer a question with a question?

You can, and I'll give you the answer, though.

What are.

What do.

What do tools do?

So in a general sense, you'd probably use the tool to put a part on a car.

So the tools help you put a part on a car?

Yeah. Yeah.

Huh.

Drew, this isn't going to go how.

You think that's interesting.

But, I mean, parts would have nothing to do with the special tool because it doesn't help parts in any way.

It's not like they're putting parts on with a special tool.

In the dealership. Who do you think the.

Best? Like, you're gonna have five or six managers. So you're invest. You're gonna have a sales manager. You have a used car manager. Usually a chain smoker. Real nervous.

Yeah.

Not the kind of guy you want dating your daughter.

No. But would try.

You're going to have a finance manager.

Yeah.

Usually not the most exciting people to hang around. You have a service manager that could go a bunch of different ways. They come in all sizes, shapes, and personalities. You have a parts manager, and then maybe you have a body shop manager. Of all of those managers, which one would you think would be the one that is the most organized? Like, things are lined up in a row, they're on a shelf. They're the most organized. Like, what's the manager that's most likely to say when you're in their department, clap.

The parts manager. By far.

Yeah. You used to have a parts manager. When anybody was in there, you had to clap. And I asked him, why do you make people clap? And he said, because they're not putting anything in their pocket if they're clapping.

That's right.

Right. So.

Recap. Because I'm slow, it takes me a minute. Sometimes special tools are used to put parts on cars.

Yes.

So a part has to be involved.

In most cases, right?

Most major. High majority.

Yes.

High majority of the time. And then.

The parts department is the most organized department. Hypothetically. Hopefully, yes. In the dealership, they have an inventory system. So you could create a part number for a special tool. You could put the part number on the ro and then you couldn't close out the RO until the part where the tool was rent. Turn to the parts department.

I love it.

Could you create a part number for the tool that when the.

It's not the parts department's responsibility. But if, if, if a parts counter person wanted to and they put a part number on a tool and then they handed the tool to a tech and then they put that on the ro and let's say the value was a million dollars, Would anybody be able to close that RO out until the tool came back?

Probably not.

Would the tools disappear?

No.

No, they wouldn't.

And news files.

I wish that the special tools involved parts in some way.

Yeah. It's too bad they don't. But believe it or not, the special tools already have part numbers on. And where do you go to order the special tool if you need to replace it?

Where do they charge the special tools to when they automatically ship them to you?

Your part statement.

God, I'm having a hard time figuring this out. I don't know. I don't know. No, it's not the parts parts responsibility. Service should figure it out.

Or give it to the used car manager.

No, F and I is the next. If you talk about. Oh, organization. F and I. So they, you know, there's a lot in it for that.

I mean, they sell extended warranties, so, you know.

No, this is my answer. Yeah, tell the service manager to figure it out. I like it.

Team player.

Thanks, everybody for tuning in. We'll 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, 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.chris collinsinc.com. now that's offers.chris collins inc.com. i'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.