Reviewing Your Service Advisor Walk Arounds | Part 2
Transcript of a YouTube coaching clip where Chris Collins and colleagues review and critique a service advisor’s vehicle "walk-around". The speakers analyze advisor posture, use of diagnostic tablets, technician introductions, rapport-building, upsell timing (oil/synthetic, bed liner, ambient lighting), inspection routines (battery test, tire rotation, alignment), and recommended conversational strategies to build trust rather than be transactional. The clip closes with a show promotion and contact info.
Chapters
Come on out of the vehicle. I'm going to plug in and grab some information.
Okay.
He is potting the car is what they call it in Chrysler world.
So now one thing here that, that I don't like is.
He'S got his back to the customer and he hasn't told them really what's going to happen.
Yeah, you're right.
So you're. What happens here is you haven't gained control. So the customer oftentimes will get on their phone, they'll walk inside. I would want to establish like, hey, this is what's going to happen. I'm going to pod this thing and get the codes, whatever. We're going to do a little walk around, check it for bumps and bruises, and then we're gonna go inside, give them a little. This is what's about to happen.
Yeah, but I'm. I'm with you. I'm 50. 50 on whether or not the customer stays, because there was no direction there that happened at all.
Right.
She could almost. She could almost assume that her job is done. She's given the guy the car.
In most wood, they'd walk inside.
Now what this actually does, it's going to pull any information about recall service needed or any technical service bulletins on your vehicle.
Okay.
Okay. So now he's referencing his. His magic pad.
The magic pad. Yeah.
So look. Look how the pad is between him and the customer. Also, like, that's the weird thing about. About these pads in the service drive is they become the focus. Yeah.
And a barrier in this particular instance, too. The other thing that he did, which I don't suggest, is he asked the customer if she'd like to join him for a walk around. I never ask.
No, you assume it.
That's right.
I would have had some sort of compliment and asked some sort of questions about where they headed today. I. I definitely would have complimented the truck. The truck is gorgeous. Gorgeous. It's the big Dodge. It's red.
It looks like it just got washed as shiny.
So I mean, just. Just that. Right.
I'm gonna check your tires and everything on the exterior of the vehicle. He's gonna be running the battery test.
While we do that. Okay.
Tires.
Love your Ram, by the way. I have one myself. Great truck.
Okay, so if you're listening to this now, out of. Out of nowhere, a technician has appeared, popped the hood and is checking the battery.
That was mystical.
Yeah. So now we have a third player in this song here. If you're gonna do that, I would introduce the person.
Yeah. Say Billy is Gonna get started on his inspection on your vehicle. Something like that. Yeah.
Well, the way this is kind of going well, let's see what happens. But if you don't introduce the technician, it kind of minimizes their importance or value in the situation where if you introduce them by name and then say what they're going to do, they have a little more. A little more pixie dust.
Excellent condition on the truck.
Now the cameraman has decided that what the technician is doing is so much.
More important than the walk around. That's great.
So now we've lost all side of the customer. We're gonna see how to test the battery.
The no name technician.
Everything's in excellent condition on the truck, so you definitely keep it clean too.
I like to measure both in and out.
Well, three spots, I think.
Well, that's probably the right way, but two is.
Two is the minimum. Did you hear it? Just ask. That was a good script. Do you guys offer a complimentary car wash? How many customers tell you that?
None complimentary.
Do you guys offer a complimentary multiplayer?
Like, hey, can you wash it?
Yes.
So where we're at, you do have.
An oil change contract.
Okay.
Best thing you can do for your vehicle is upgrade to a synthetic oil.
Okay.
They give you that option with a small upgrade fee.
Okay. I've never been a big fan of the word fee. And I'm still back to the second one in the row where they're selling at the car on the walk around. It's an interesting thing, but I don't, I don't hate that. That he would talk about and say, hey, so I see that you got the oil change contract. Want to talk to you about a couple of options and maybe a better way to protect your vehicle.
Kind of like the other one. I would, I would have spent more time building rapport. And then I would say, okay, this is what you need. You need this oil change. It's this much.
We need to rotate. I would probably say, you need oil change, we need to rotate and it's this much and give them one big price. But I would just tell them what they need. I wouldn't go through all the features and benefits and all that because it just sounds schmucky.
Well, in this case, that car had they. What they're talking about is that the customer has. When you buy a Chrysler, you get a couple of oil changes for free. So what he was talking about is that she already had the oil change covered. He was trying to upsell her to the synthetic. I just don't know if that's a place for it.
I wouldn't like if it needs synthetic, then it should be covered or whatever. But I think that in the beginning.
If the customer has free oil changes, we want the customer in the beginning to perceive that it's hassle free and low cost. And so these early ones, I don't know that you always want to sell them something.
Oh, yeah, so I see what you're saying.
So really, what, hey, you got a free oil change, but really it's worth it.
It's not what you should have got. Yeah, right. Okay. I.
It creates a ton of doubt.
I never thought about it like that. It's interesting.
Like if we're gonna. If the, if the truck needs synthetic, then let's pack synthetic into the whatever we're giving them.
Right.
Most common one that I don't see you have is the bed liner.
Well, actually it's funny you should say that because I have been looking into getting the bedliner put in.
Oh, okay.
Definitely would like to look into that for sure.
Absolutely. Yeah, I have that. And I also have the ambient lighting. Actually gives you some color options much nicer than the red. They've got Carolina blue, believe it or not.
It's nice.
Now what I could do for you is the bed liner, your ambient lighting synthetic upgrade and your tire rotation. I could keep you under a thousand dollars if you want to have that done today.
Awesome.
Would you like to do that?
Yes, we can look into it.
Absolutely. All right.
Just got a signature right down there.
At the bottom, please.
We'll see how that battery test went too.
All right, sir.
Battery tested good.
Excellent.
Battery tested good. So we're all set.
Okay.
It is going to take probably a good two to three hours on everything services and the upgrades.
Okay.
Would you like to wait or would you like to.
Excellent.
Come on inside in my waiting area and I'll talk to you after the inspection.
This is acting and you know, they're trying to role play this so we, we understand how hard that is. But that being said, me, I would spend more time on. Have you taken it off road? Do you get in gun fights? Have you ever been in a police chase with it? Like I would make comments about the adventure that can happen when you're, you're attractive and you have a big jacked up pickup like that. Like I would spend way more time figuring out they have kids, like, yeah.
Getting to know the customer, whatever.
And I don't mean that in a way like oh, is she single or anything like that. I'M just saying, like, she's got a truck. Has she gone off roading? Like.
There'S a reason why. Like, maybe she lives on a ranch. Maybe she has horses. But I would want to know way more about her. And I would talk about all the other stuff inside.
I would separate them. I wouldn't try to do everything on that iPad or whatever that thing is. I know people love that. And they assume. And then I would. I don't know. The. Under a thousand.
Keep you under a thousand.
You're assuming that a thousand is their budget. Why not 5,000? Like, how did we come up with a thousand?
I'm pretty sure she was gonna say okay to whatever. It didn't matter.
Pretty good. Pretty. I like the first one a little more because it was more rapport.
Yeah. Oh, the. Yeah, with the sticker on the back. The dog thing. I agree with that.
We have a customer sitting up. The vehicle's kind of on the side of the building.
This is a no drive store.
Yeah. So it doesn't look like we have a service drive.
How are you?
Service advisor walks out of the door with the clipboard on the opposite side. So she's not have to walk around the front.
Before. Before I walk around the front, I want to make eye contact.
Yeah. Or walk around the back would be safer.
How you doing today?
Oh, so the customers are already out of the vehicle.
Okay, let's just talk about the fashion choice here on this customer.
Yes. We've got a blue purple top, ensemble.
Tank top with a blue tank top, P peeking out, and pink runner shorts.
Yeah.
Headed to the gym.
Or to a PTA meeting.
I'm gonna go with Jim. We'll see what happens here.
She's driving. What is that, a Ford Edge Explorer? Maybe a little Explorer. We're going right to transaction.
Let's do this thing.
I would say headed to the gym.
You wouldn't say. My God, I didn't think those colors matched. But you proved it.
They match. Really?
I think the blue, the purple, and the pink looks funny to me.
No, purple and pink go together just like red and pink do. Because like I learned from Chip kid, pink is just light red.
Okay, Got it.
Had a better marketing department.
Light blue didn't do the same. So now the service advisor is in the car. Now we're assuming that the reason why she hasn't introduced herself.
Yeah. We had a big car and given.
Her name is because they already know each other.
Where you say all your family, but she's sitting in the customer's car, started.
It So they either drove.
That's a good drive right there.
Yes.
Yeah, it's about 14 hours.
What I'm doing now, I just want to test the wiper blades on it, make sure they're not streaking. But if I remember correctly, we put some.
What do you think?
You know, I think we did do that because I don't see. I mean they look perfect. So they're holding right up for us.
Oh, okay, great.
See now aren't you glad that I talked you into his wiper blaze last time?
Yes, yes.
See everybody says Franix on that but Motorcraft does just as well.
Yeah, you're right.
I like that they're talking about personal stuff. It's a little bit of a leap.
Okay.
But I guess if they already know each other, kind of fun.
Yeah, Yeah.
I don't hate it so far.
I went to the beach and everything was good. But I kind of noticed when we were going down the highway that it was like full and to the.
To the left.
To the left. Okay.
Now when you felt it falling, was it when you were braking or just driving down the road?
No, just while we were driving down the road.
Because that at least will rule out any kind of like caliper sticking or anything like that. I focus more than on the alignment. Okay, let me check these back tires here.
Okay, great.
He's just looking at the front here.
Let's see.
Yeah, we're at 8, 30 seconds all the way around. Just by looking at them, they're wearing really well. So I definitely want to go ahead and get the alignment suspension brief.
Okay.
And that way we get the best possible life.
B.
What did she say?
She was talking about the quality of Motorcraft wipers versus other wipers.
Rotate the tires.
Yes, yes.
And right now what we have everybody you can do online.
Okay.
And then I'll actually give you a pretty good deal for everything.
Oh great. Okay, so we'll go ahead and get you on that.
Where you're at, you're at 19,000 over 19, 000 miles.
Okay.
Just keep in mind probably around this time would be like your air filter and things like that.
It's interesting. Everything's referenced for the last time.
Okay.
While he does the multi point inspection. So we're going to check everything, your air filter, your belts, your hoses.
Don't you wish all advisors have that.
Kind of memory for you?
Okay, thank you.
In fact, let's go ahead, let's get this battery tested. Let me go ahead and get my technician.
I can't remember. Somebody's name on that yesterday.
Looking at everything else on it.
You.
Know what he's gonna do? He's just gonna make sure that we're at the proper bolt. So that way I don't want to want you ever to be stranded anywhere.
Oh yeah, I appreciate that.
And now, and just keep in mind too, every time that you come in, we're going to do this for you. So we're going to check everything under the hood since we're doing the tire rotation as well. We'll check your brakes, make sure the brake pads are where they need to be, make sure the rotors, you know, nothing looks okay.
Yeah, I definitely appreciate that because as much as I'm on the road with Brody, I can't be stranded with a one year old.
Completely understand.
Battery's good.
Good deal. So we'll go ahead and mark that for you right now on that. And so right now we've got you set up for your works package, your oil change, your tire rotation. We'll go ahead and get it on the alignment machine as well. And what I'll do is I'll have a before and after print out for you so you can see what that looks like.
Okay.
But we'll go ahead, let's let Chris.
Go, go ahead and get it back.
There for us so that way he can get started. And let me take you to the waiting room, I'll show you where the coffee's at.
Okay, great, thanks.
So here's one thing that I will say. They're acting this out and so much harder.
It's easy to pick on these things for sure.
Yeah. And it's not fair. But the one thing I would bet, I would actually bet money that she's actually a really, really good advisor. Yeah, I bet you she, she does a really good job. She seems really on top of it and it's awkward that she's got a camera in her face and she's, she's playing this script.
She might be the best advisor of the three. I would say this is the worst walk around.
She, she. In their script or whatever they're doing, there was, there was an attempt where we were alluding to. We had built rapport before. Yes, but still, I mean, let's build rapport now and talk about what's happening now. Where are you headed today? What do you got going on? That sort of thing. But yeah, I hope, I hope that helps you guys in the, you know, the secret to the best advisors and you know, the way I approached it when I was an advisor was most of that time at the vehicle is, is learning about them and getting them to talk about themselves. And, you know, I want them to see me as a friend. And so think about the conversations you have with your friends. Those are the conversations I want to have at the vehicle. And I don't want it to be transactional. I don't really want to talk about prices or specials or coupons or anything like that because that makes me fall into the category of Costco and, you know, Walmart in a sense. And I want to be friend friend first. Trusted friend.
Right.
Thanks so much for watching this clip.
Of Service Driving Revolution.
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