Reviewing Your Service Advisor Walk Arounds | Part 1

Okay, what is this one? Is called Austin Subaru Service Advisor Walk around. Now I wonder. This is to educate the customers when they come in, what's going to happen?

That's what I'm thinking.

So we're going to have to, we're going to have to keep that in mind that they're doing this to kind of show the customer what's going to.

Happen to expect when they.

But we also are going to pretend like we're a fly on the wall to a real walk around just because, you know, we want to give you guys some ideas and some tips for good walk arounds. But understand that the context might be a little off.

Let's do this maybe.

Let's see. Okay, so what we have, if you're listening to this and not watching it on YouTube is we have a car which I'm assuming is a Subaru pulling into a service drive that has three lanes and I believe they're going to pull into the middle lane. So the camera is from the point of view of the passenger.

And then right away you see that an advisor is walking out. A good looking advisor walking out.

Meeting the customer before they get out.

Like, car's not even in park yet. And they're walking up. Yeah.

And they're.

Gonna stick their head through the window and say this.

How we doing?

Good, how are you?

Welcome to Austin Subaru. What can I do for you today?

Okay, so the customer or the passenger looks kind of like a hipster kid from Silver Lake.

Yeah.

In a beanie. And they're in like, what is that a Subaru Forester?

Yeah, I think so. It could be an outback.

Okay, so what do you think about the. What brings you in today? Is it your first time here?

I think it's really tough to machine gun questions. There is no opportunity for the driver to answer some of the questions. It was like, welcome. First time here. What are you doing? What can we do for you today? Get out of the car. There was no opportunity for the client to answer the question.

Yeah, so what I'm thinking when I walk up to a car right there is, I'm thinking, how could I make friends?

Well, the first, the first thing that popped into my head one is I like that he has a name tag but he never said his name and never asked a customer.

Walk up to the car and you'd be like, hi.

I say.

Yes. And then they drive fast. But it's a good start. Icebreaker.

So right there I would, I would try to find common ground. I wouldn't Ask them if they had an appointment. I don't know that them being it being their first time there is relevant. I don't know how that's relevant.

Well, there's no follow up though. If. What if they say yes or no?

Well, I would say something like, hey, how's it going? Something open ended. Oh, good. I love your forester. Obviously, you know, Subaru customers especially, they're very culty and they're proud of their cars.

Love them. They love their cars.

And so then I might say something like love, love your forester. I bet you've had some great adventures in this.

I like it.

So then they would start thinking about adventures and they would hopefully say, oh yeah, or none yet. But I got one plan coming.

All of that. So I would go right to that. None of what he said is what I would do.

Okay.

So now the customers getting out.

All right, so as far as your tire tread, we're just gonna check the, the tread on all four tires for you. It looks like your drive.

That was good.

Yeah. How do you like seconds? So still has plenty of life left.

All of a sudden.

Okay. By the way, I haven't seen this. So I'm watching this for the first time. Maybe I should have watched it before.

No, it's funnier this way.

Way before I did that, I would say like, okay, here, here's what we're going to do. We're gonna, we're gonna kind of walk around, we're gonna look at your tires and check it for bumps and bruises. He's just going right to the tire.

Come on, let's do this.

Somehow the customer is like. That isn't a realistic scenario that the customer would bend down to look at the tires.

Now there's also a, there's a little trick that they could do. So maybe the tire would, it would have more relevance here. Right?

Flip it.

Well, yeah. So for those of you listening, the wheel is aimed straight. So there's no.

You would tell the customer while they're still there. Hey, could you do me a favor and turn your tires.

Voila.

Replace tires here until three. So I'm just gonna check all four, make sure they're evening out correctly.

Ok, Sounds good with me to us that means something. But to a customer, 7:30 seconds. In context of what?

Well, he said that we recommend him at 3. I might also throw it in there that when they're new they're at 10.

Yeah.

So given the open the bottom. Also kudos to him. Tread depth gauge.

Yep.

A lot of times we See people using their finger and clipboard.

Do you mind grabbing your owner's manual for me? Yeah, I'll grab it for you right away. Okay.

Thank you, sir. Alrighty. So today.

So he's asking the customer to grab his owner's manual so he can reference the factory maintenance.

That's what it looks like.

Okay. I've never done that. Have you done that?

No, I've had people bring their maintenance book into me.

Yeah.

But I'm not asking them for it.

Typically 33,000 mile minor maintenance. So everything that's on listed for R, that's for review. They will change your engine oil your oil filter as well. They will check your transmission level as well.

Is this okay? So one thing here is if you're. You're going to go into this at the car without checking history. So I'm assuming that this advisor doesn't know anything about this, the history of this car, this customer, if he's asking if it's his first time in.

Right.

I would not want to talk about any of this at the car until I've looked at history. Because there's things that aren't going to be in that manual that they might need, like an alignment, things like that.

Right. After that's done, they'll just make sure everything else is looking good as far as brakes, tires. We'll just make sure your axles, your boots are looking good. Make sure they're not worn out. That's pretty much it. I will sign this before you head out just to make sure. We did the service for you today. Okay.

I would say I will autograph this own sale sign it.

Austin Pets Alive.

So now, if you're listening to this, we are walking. We are walking around the back of the car. So we're continuing our walk around.

We also didn't touch the tires on that side.

No, we walked right by. We've walked by two tires.

Yes, sir.

So we measured the front left, came around to the right side, said, get your owner's manual. The customer, it was like literally sitting on the dash.

Right.

They have it. It's great, though. They're staging a video because part of this is they're making a video. Right. So we get it. But you would measure the other tires and I would do those in sequence. I wouldn't shift perspectives for the customer.

Yeah, I agree with him.

So now we're standing at the back.

You have any pets on you?

Yes, I do.

I'm just gonna check your wiper blade. How old is your dog? He's three years Old and his name's Rocky. Three years old. You know, as far as this goes, we do offer a car wash. Do you mind if I get it through a car wash? It's courtesy. It just adds the time.

Yeah.

Oh, is that their nod to pet the dog?

Yes. So he had the sticker on the back. When on the back glass it said pets for life or something like that. And he's like, oh, hey, do you have any pets? And the guy said he's got a dog and his 3 years old named Rocky.

Do you think they've watched the pet the dog video?

Yeah.

No. I feel bad.

Picking on him.

I think we're critiquing. But this isn't like this is an indictment on that guy.

All righty. So far so good. Now there is just a couple rock chips right over here. I don't know if you noticed it. I've never seen those before at all. Touch up paint can do the trick. If you want, I can find out an estimate or see if a touch up bottle can fix this for you. Is that something you like to do? Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Okay, that's good. But I would call them bumps and bruises. Okay. Now he's popping the hood.

So we're on the drive.

We checked the rear wiper but not the front wipers. We checked the front left tire, none of the other tires. Now we're at the front of the forester and we're going to pop the hood.

All right, now we do this thing called a multi point inspection. Just seeing how the car is doing. They will check your filters for you. Now you have your engine air filter that's in here in this bracket. My technician will take this filter out and if it's getting a little dirty to him, he'll recommend it. If not, then we'll just go ahead and just leave it how it is. They always replace it every 30,000 miles. It just depends on how far he travel, where you travel to.

Okay.

Yeah, I usually travel a lot. A lot. And it might get dirty and it's just doing its job. Other than that, your washer fluid is just going to be right over here. It will get low as much as you're using it. It's been raining, so it's probably a little below. We always top it off. And same with the engine cooling as well. Other than that, let's just go ahead and just take a look at it while it's in the shop.

What did you think of that? So it's a little show and tell. He Was kind of. He didn't pull it apart, but he was kind of referencing, like, the cabin filter. Right.

Air filter. It was an engineer filter. This is one of the. I used to like the popping the hood, But I feel like over the last 15 years, when you pop the hood, you just see plastic. There's nothing there anymore. So I don't know that that has that dog and pony show that it used to. My fear is also, like. So it looked like he unhooked the snorkel that holds the air filter in place. My fear is that it's not going to get put back on or something like that. So when one person's touching a car and then a technician gets a car, I worry about that. Yeah.

So I feel like I can build enough rapport with a customer and figure out enough stuff that I don't need to do show and tell that much. Yeah, not to that degree.

I have an accessory booklet here for you. Now, we do offer a couple features that you could add to your forester. The big one that you were telling me, I think you had a dog. The best one would be the compartment separator.

It feels like when I was single. And a girl would be like, do you want kids? And you'd be like, you're 30, huh?

And she handed you the brochure.

You're 30, never been married.

You want kids? Quick, your clock is ticking.

Got the Montessori brochure right here.

I've never in my life pulled out a brochure.

Let's pitch that king on the walk around for the dog crate.

I mean, it's great if you do it consistently. You're probably gonna sell accessories, But I don't know that that's the time I was gonna say.

I think I like the pitch of an accessory, but I just don't like that it's done. Walk around.

So my. My mindset for a walk around was the. The. There were kind of two purposes to the walk around. The main one was to build rapport and make friends. We tried to stay off of the car as much as I could, except for the bumps and bruises, to protect ourselves from liability and touching the tires. And there's something about touching and measuring the tires that gives you a little more authority. But I wouldn't go into any recommendations until I have them at my computer.

Which he did twice.

Separating from the car. It's like, now we're in the mode of. Of riding it up, and now I can say, hey, the computer recommend or the computer says, you're due yeah, that sort of thing. And then you're also in a position where. If I was going to introduce that brochure for accessories, I'd probably, at my desk, say something like, you know, do you. Do you think about personalizing your forester more? Do you know they make some cool dog stuff and kind of doing it that way?

Yeah.

But the brochure is kind of salesy.

It's like, ooh, it definitely feels very salesy.

Yeah. I wouldn't. I would never do it on the walker. And I think the other thing, too, that I, uh. Even though the bumps and bruises are actually technically the vehicle condition, some of the best stories I got from customers were on the damage on the car. Like, it was the best way to connect with people.

Oh, that. That happened that night when I had had too many and I decided to drive home.

Or They're. They're always blaming whatever the damage is on. On the spouse that didn't bring the car in.

Yeah. Or the teenage daughter.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Great stories.

So the. The one thing I would say here, though, is it's gonna be consistent if you're presenting it right. If you gave me a choice of never presenting at all or doing it this way, I would choose this, but I would do it a different way personally.

I'll keep them from, you know, moving seat to seat. Keep them in a stable place. Yeah. So that would be the best thing.

Keep them.

Keeping them safe in the back. If that's the case, I go ahead and see if the parts department will give me a price on the part and the labor.

Okay.

And we'll go before you leave today, if you like to do so. Sounds good.

Okay.

They're still at the car at the forest.

Yeah, we're almost four minutes into this thing too.

Let me just check your wiper inserts for you.

Okay.

All right.

Oh, he's gonna check them. Okay.

As far as this goes, your wiper blade is still fairly new, so I wouldn't worry about blaze just yet.

Nice.

Do you mind if I get inside the vehicle? Just check your mileage.

Okay.

I probably.

Would have got the mileage a while ago.

Oh, I think it's okay, too, to have the customer read it off before they turn the car off. All right.

You're about 34,314 miles. Okay.

That's pretty much it, Mr. Gonzalez. I just need a signature there, and I'll get it going for you.

And then we do have complimentary drinks. Make yourself at home, and I'll grab you once he's done. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.

So no RO is created. Created. They're signing like a. He's signing a hand signed.

A walk around sheet.

We've gone back to hand rights.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I miss those days. Press hard.

This video might be from 1984 too.

So I think, I think some of this has more to do with the fact that they're filming it too. I mean, that's a hard thing to do. And they did a good job of filming this.

But I like to separate the customer from the car and actually go sit at a desk.

Yeah.

Or at a counter. 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.