SDR Q&A #6: Should a Service Advisor Get Permission to Conduct a Multi-Point Inspection?

Okay, we got a question.

By the way, if you have a question that you would like us to answer on the show, we will probably answer it. We don't answer them all because some.

Of them, some can be a little crazy.

A little crazy. But you can call us, what is it, 8333 Ask SDR. And if we do read your question, we do play your question on the show, we will send you some swag.

Good stuff too.

Okay, let's hear this. This question.

Hi, I'm Brooke from Jupiter, Florida, not the planet. I enjoy your podcast and I agree with 98.63% of your advice and observations. I've tried to hold out for five months to see if I could let it go, but I can't. You shot down the chaotic feminist comment that she asks permission to perform an mpi. My question is if I give you, for good reasons, would you be willing to change your mind on asking customers if they want a free multi point inspection? First question. When you ask permission, you give the customers little control in a situation where they feel they have them. Number two, customers aren't surprised when the advisors say, oh by the way, while we were changing the oil, we noticed you need breaks. When you're asking permission, the customer is expecting something either clean bill of health or not. If your inspection takes more than five minutes, like for a highline vehicle, when you ask permission, the customer can decide if they want to wait the extra time. Number four, if you ask permission, you give the advisors the chance to build the value of doing service with you with the benefits of a complimentary inspection and the opportunity to explain what will be inspected. Now the downside is if you ask permission now you're on the hook for your technicians to do a quality inspection. Thank you so much. Now I'll see if I can hold out for five more months and see if you'd be willing to change your mind on the importance of parts to labor ratio.

What do you think Brooke doesn't like about the parts to labor ratio?

I don't know. I'm really curious. I also like the 98.63% that she agrees. So she has an issue with two of the things that we believe in. That means that she agrees with with 146 things.

How'd you come up with that math?

I did the math on. I divided essentially 1.37 or 1.37% into what's 1.3? It's 1.3. So she agrees with 98.63% of all of our things that Means she doesn't agree with 1.37% of the things.

So one out of 102?

Yeah, roughly. But that's a lot of agreement. We're onto something.

First of all, Brooke, we really appreciate the question. You sound like a very fun person to hang out with. I bet we could have some laughs.

And she cares.

I'm coming to Florida next month, but not Jupiter. Where's Jupiter?

Down south by Miami.

Oh, it is. I'm coming to Miami.

You'll be in there?

I'll be there. I don't know what your feelings are. Do you think the 98.63%.

Agrees with tequila and cigars?

For sure.

There's no doubt. Really? You think Brooke's smoking a cigar?

I don't think she's against it. She may not do it like, I don't smoke cigars, but I'm not against you smoking cigars.

Okay, so, Brooke, we in principle are kind of saying the same thing.

Kind of. So what I've experienced going into hundreds of service departments is that when the advisors ask permission to do the inspection sheet, a lot of untalented advisors get, no, I'm in a hurry. I don't have time for that. And so what we found is.

And to your point, we want to plant the seed so the customer expects it, and we're the heroes. So we agree with that. We also agree with the fact that if we commit to it, we got to do it right. We got to have an ability to execute on the back end.

Maybe your experience with your advisors is they're a little more talented. It's a little different. But across the board, if you take my experience and our coaches experience with the, you know, thousands of advisors that we've. We've worked with, when you ask, instead of assuming, you can often create another problem that doesn't need to be there. And the customer can feel just as good by just saying, hey, Brooke, while we have it here today, I'm going to have the technician check it out, and if he finds anything else, I'm going to let you know instead of, hey, Brooke, do you want the technician to check it out while it's in here today? Because a percentage of the time, the customer is going to assume that that means it takes longer or that it's more or that we're, you know, we're fishing for something. It's way better to assume it. Just assume it.

So I hope that helps. I think, in principle, we're going after the same thing. It's not a we're not that far apart in what we're saying. I just maybe have a little different experience because I've been in so many stores.

Yeah, I think there's two things that kind of hit me on that. One is that I actually really like the fact that she said that the texts are on the hook. Right. Like when it comes to customer satisfaction, I want to be on the hook for as much as humanly possible. Like I want to make sure that they're getting the highest level of service. But I don't want Brooke to confuse the fact that we're assumptive about the mpi. It means not disclosing that we're doing the mpi because what happens is when you do it right and you say we're going to look over the car and do a multipoint inspection, have the techs look at it while we got the car in the shop and then you recall that when you call them back. Right. So we're saying we definitely want to disclose that we're doing an mpi. It's just not a permission based thing. It's very assumptive.

And I do believe at one point in our advisor training we were mentioning asking and we kept running into advisors saying, oh well, the customers don't want it.

That's right.

And then I would go to service jobs and I would listen to them and I'd be like, yeah, well, I guess asking isn't the smartest thing because it is. It does sound kind of awkward. And so it isn't that we haven't tried that. It just consistently across the board. It's not as effective as assuming it. Now if you want to get really deep, and I get accused of getting too deep on here all the time, mostly by this guy and people up in the office.

The psychology of asking somebody versus assuming that, that they want it.

There's a lot of effects that are negative when you're asking customer permission to do things versus taking control, making them feel safe and guiding them through the process. So if you're asking a customer permission to do a bunch of different things, they start to get decision fatigue and they start to lose trust a little bit. But when you assume things and you take control and you make them feel comfortable, they're more likely to buy the work and say yes. So on the back end of that question is your closing ratios of selling the work will be higher when you assume it.

Assuming that that's paired with pet the dog, walk around that they trust us in a good process. But when you give them decision fatigue and you're asking permission. You're creating subconscious doubt. We create subconscious doubt all the time in service departments with customers by the things that we do. But the most effective approach is to take a customer, be the expert, and tell them what they need to do once we've gained trust. But if you tell, like, oftentimes, like advisors get in this pickle where they're telling the customer what it needs in a way that it's optional, and then the customer will just by default say no, because they're like, you're not saying, I have to do it. If you told them, like, hey, you need to do your breaks, it's important, they would do it. But we're just, like, serving it up in an awkward way where we're mentioning a bunch of different things that they don't understand and how much time it takes and the book and the parts and this and that, and we're confusing them and they're saying no because they've lost trust and they don't feel like we're in authority. You got to understand where the doctor. They're coming to the doctor. You don't want to go to your doctor. And the doctor said, well, can I. Can I listen to your. Your blood pressure or whatever? Like, no, they're going to do that. And that's what they. They assume if we know what we're doing, we're going to take control. And that's a part of our process. So on the back end of that question.

It does affect the closing ratio and the trust that we're building on a subconscious level. And I don't know. That stuff's fascinating to me. Maybe not as fascinating to you, but it's fascinating to me.

No, I like it. You didn't go too deep. That was good.

What was that?

I blessed it.

Oh, that was a Catholic thing. Are you Catholic?

I've dabbled in it.

Dabbled in it? What do you mean?

Catholicism. Growing up. Growing up, I was curious, so I went to several Catholic masses just trying to understand. I grew up Presbyterian, actually, but same thing. Yeah.

Well, I think the Catholics have a better monetization.

They're more organized. Yeah, for sure.

They know how to monetize. Yeah. I don't doubt the system. 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 that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.