Q & A | Should Your Service Department Have a Dispatcher or Shop Foreman?
This is a transcript of a short Q&A episode hosted by Chris Collins with Christian as co-host. A caller (Chris) asks whether warranty processing should be outsourced or handled by an in-house warranty administrator, and which service-department roles are necessary (dispatcher, quarters/quarters staff, shop foreman). Hosts recommend doing the cost math for warranty outsourcing vs. an in-house clerk/admin, note pros/cons of large warranty companies, advise against dedicated human dispatchers in many cases (favoring DMS/software or advisors doing dispatching), and prefer team leaders over traditional shop foremen for technician development and productivity.
Chapters
Foreign.
Welcome, everybody, to your Friday drive by. This is where we answer your questions. The questions that are burning up your mind, that you're just like, man, if I had the answer to this question, I could rule the world. And the number should you want to call in and ask that question and get an answer is 8333 ask S D R. That's 833-3-3, ask SDR. I'm gonna apologize in advance. This. This episode might be a little on the. I don't know. Would you say racy? No, on the down. Because Christian's in a really bad mood today.
Well, you know where it started.
Yeah, you told me when I was walking to work.
No. With a customer.
Software.
So me saying something was done that wasn't done completely. And I don't know why that bothers me so much. It's like. Like you do this thing where you tell someone this is completed. I made sure of it. And then you find out it's not.
Completed and it's triple the work.
Triple the work. And then there's like the loss of trust and everything. So.
See, everybody, I told you this is going to be a downer.
So my only thing is, is that run right for it, own it, and fix it as fast as humanly possible. But when I.
Are things going at home better today?
But I would. Can I just tell you my joke first and then we can get into.
Are you going to tell me AI joke? You know, a lot of you guys think that. That advisors are going to get replaced with AI, which might happen. I don't know. But Christian in his downtime is asking AI different sorts of questions.
I do ask AI some funny joke questions every once in a while.
It always shuts me down when I ask it weird questions.
Oh, really?
I just like, if you ask AI like how to start a cult, it won't tell you. You have to ask it how to prevent a cult and then it'll give you the answer.
Oh, it's got some sort of sense of moral responsibility.
They all. Look, they're all woke over there. Whatever. Chat gp, Google or whatever. Yeah, which, which, which AI are you using?
Chat GPT.
I like the Claude one better.
I spent.
I just learned that. I think that one's Amazon.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, I didn't think they've all got one, I think. But yeah, my favorite was I spent a couple of my free tokens trying to build a cartoon character of Coach Hoagie in the Fly. I don't know why I have a cowboy hat on. Yeah, and. And the little beard that he's got. And then his body was a sandwich. A hoagie sandwich.
Very literal.
Yeah, extremely literal.
Okay, let's go to today's question.
Hey guys, name is Chris, service manager at a Genesis Hyundai store. New to the job recently, took over about three months ago. I've worked a bunch of different shops. I've been in tech. I've been an advisor. My first service manager role. But my question for you guys is, do you think a better process is the warranty processing companies or would you rather have an in house warranty admin? And if I could sneak another in real quick, what are current necessary service department roles? Is a dispatcher still a thing? Do you guys really think quarters are necessary? And I've never understood the purpose of a shop foreman. I know it's to drive productivity, but I've yet to meet one in 20 years that does. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Okay, let's address the warranty question first. So I would do the math. So I don't know what you're paying the warranty company, but let's just say you're paying them 3% or 5%, whatever it is. I would do the math on what they're claiming, what you're paying them, versus having an in house warranty administrator. My preference is always to have an in house warranty administrator. But I have had some pretty good outside companies that will have ongoing meetings with the text and will communicate. But you still kind of need a liaison if you want to run it tight because you got to make sure the stories are right and then we're claiming everything and that sort of thing. And so.
You just got to do the math on that one. Like in a smaller store, outsourcing, it makes more sense.
Yeah, because you're only paying like a thousand or $2,000 a month and you.
Can'T get a good warranty administrator for that.
No, not at all. I. I do totally.
Difference is if there's a local, sometimes in some of the smaller markets there's one person that has a warranty company that actually comes around. Like they service like five dealerships or something.
Yeah.
Why does that make you laugh?
Because I had this guy that came around and did that for a store that I worked in and he didn't carry the files normally he carried them in a milk crate. And I just remember him walking in with the milk crate thing. And that was just a. It was a genius system of organization. But yeah, so you knew it was warranty time when the Milk crate came in the door. But that's what made me think of that. That's why I smiled and laughed.
Let's see.
Anything else with that one dark cloud?
No, I like the, that in general, you have to have a warranty clerk instead of a warranty admin. So just figure that into your math. But sometimes it's better to do the outside. I don't know. I've seen it work both ways and also fail both ways.
Some, sometimes some of those bigger warranty companies have, have almost a back door with some of the manufacturers.
Yes. And they know what gets and what doesn't. So they just have a bigger data set.
They're good at teaching the techs how to do it the right way. And, and also they kind of, you know, they're not guaranteeing what happens in a, in an audit, but they, they run tighter because it's not just one person deciding, you know, when they're, when they're in a good mood or not a good mood. And like some days they could just be in a bad mood all day and then the warranty doesn't get done the way that you want it to get done.
We just switched off of warranty administrat and back to me.
What do you mean now we're talking about administrators. What are you talking about?
Okay, so the, the, the difficulty we're going to have answering this question about roles is the brand. There's no brand that I have a dispatcher. Is there a brand that you would have a dispatcher?
Only on paper, like with your BMW and your Porsches, where it's required by the manufacturer, but it's.
I don't require dispatcher.
Oh, dispatcher. No, I thought you said foreman. No, there's no brand that I would have a dispatcher.
Okay, so dispatcher. Never. I would just let the, the. Either I would let the software do it, or I would just have the advisors in lateral support. Then I would have them do it. That's my preference. But the, the DMS is a pretty good at it.
Yeah. I have a theory and I'm not sure if you've seen the same thing. Like when it comes to physical human dispatchers.
1 out of 100 are great, but 99 out of 100 dealerships think they have the 1 out of 100. So the, so it doesn't really match up.
Like I, I've seen a few, but more that it slows it down, then speeds it up.
Well, also when you scale to some degree, you need like three, because you got to Cover.
Seven to seven, six days a week or whatever. Yeah, you need three. And I've had three. Man, talk about more difficulty.
Is there always a ro that sinks in between the dispatchers?
Not always, but it's just. It's just slow. Everything is slow. It kills the energy.
Yeah.
You walk out in the shop and you can like, feel the energy.
Yeah. Speaking of energy, I was walking to work today and this. This lady just stops me and she says, you smell good. And I said, thank you.
Wow.
I said thank you. I use both nostrils.
No, I. I think what she meant was that like your cologne. What kind of cologne do you wear? Oh, I've been wearing Calvin Klein 1.
Louis. You ever do the Louis Vuitton ones?
Yeah, no, I've never even smelled them.
So they're pretty good.
Really?
You like that Louis Vuitton?
I do okay.
Shop foreman, like Christian said, it depends on the brand. It depends on where you're at to like the mix of techs that you have. Because if you got a bunch of young kids, sometimes a working shop foreman works. But I prefer team leaders.
And having a lateral support system, that's my preference. And then bonus, the. The team leader on the hours that's produced by the team, including. Including Tom Christian. What it includes.
Starts with a Q and ends with lube text.
Quick Lube text.
Quick Lube texts are included in that number always because we want. One, we want to inspect those cars and two, we want those quick lube. Quick lube texts.
To become CB text. We want them to grow up.
Yeah. They got to see the progression. And I think that, that probably grow.
Your own is what I call it.
I think that is the. One of the more valuable roles of the four man is to. Is to get those young pups up and running.
But N. Foreman. No.
Not my preference.
Okay.
Personally, team leaders.
That'S where I've seen the most work go through the shop.
Yeah. And the most. Most. Like I've seen a shop foreman and the service manager's like, yeah, he's. He's got these five techs and he's going to turn them into tax. Never works. I've seen team leaders get quick lube texts and turn them into text in.
A year and then beg the manager to hire another person.
Yeah. Team. So just, just my experience, I think we. I think we're thinking the same thing there, Chris. Thanks for the question.
I. Yeah. Don't you like that he's asking a new manager? Just asking like all these things that have been around forever.
Yeah. Just ask the question, Call your buddy Chris and Christian. We'll we'll help you out. Thank you, everybody. I hope you have a good weekend, and 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 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, answer on the show. Call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer.
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Sam.
