SDR Rewind: Morning Routine Of A Millionaire Service Advisor

Welcome everybody, to Service Drive Revolution. Today we are going to talk about the morning routine of a millionaire service advisor. We're going to unpack it. We're going to explain what are the things that you should be doing every day to be successful, to build your clientele and become a millionaire service advisor. Also during it, there's a little distraction with some questions that are a little off color and not pertinent to that, but funny that Christian is going to contribute. Say hi to Chris.

Hello.

So that and much more coming up right now on Service Drive Revolution.

So before we get to the topic of the day, you snuck a little calendar under there that I saw. Can you. Can you get it and read to everybody? Remember, most people are listening to this, not watching it. What is that calendar?

This is bad dad jokes. 2022.

And let me see, what is the. What is the joke? For my birthday, I did share with everybody that I spent most of it in a time machine.

So on my birthday, the dad joke is, how was the snow globe feeling after the scary story?

You want me to answer that?

A little shaken.

I thought that was a decent joke.

Who gave me this?

This is from Matt Myrick, one of our clients. Thank you, Matt.

On the COVID it says, what did the buffalo say to his son as he went off to college? And then the other, whatever this is, says, I don't know what. And he goes, bison. So what did the buffalo say to his son as he went off to college? I don't know.

Bison by son.

Oh, you said by son, not bison.

Well then for the joke. Yeah, but buffalo. Bison.

Is good. It was really nice.

Anything else you want to share with anybody or get off your chest before we get to the second?

No, but it is a great way to start a day. As you walk, the dad jokes. Yeah. And you just look.

You don't ever look ahead.

I do that too.

That's good. So, daily routine of a millionaire service advisor.

I'm so excited about this topic.

Why?

Well, there's a couple of little nuggets that you did as a service advisor that I really like. But mostly I just want to see what kind of questions.

Do you think those are included in the list?

Yeah. But I wanted to ask you a couple of questions on top of your list.

Like what?

So I would assume that when you were an advisor, your morning routine included getting up in the morning. Right. Going into a shower.

You gotta wake up to get up.

That's right. Who said that? I don't know.

What's that? Sales trainer guy? I don't know. It's one of the schmucky. You gotta wake up to get up.

Right.

Common sense served up as some great idea.

Yeah. So I believe that these questions will allow people to become the best service advisors. When you start your shower, do you clean the top half or the bottom half of your body first?

I start with my hair.

Okay. So top half. I believe we'll call that.

Did. As an advisor, did you wear a specific type of deodorant?

No.

Okay. Cologne.

What was the one you had, like.

In that time you had? Do you remember Drakkar?

What is it? What was it called?

Brute. Brute. The green stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, I think I. I still like that.

Yeah, I like cool water.

Old Spice isn't bad.

Old Spice is all right. It's a staple. I use that for my hair a lot. The Old Spice shampoo, Have you seen that kind of like that manly smell stuff? It's pretty good.

Your pants, do you put the left leg or right leg in first?

Left.

Okay. When you're driving, why are these relevant?

I don't understand how that's relevant.

Morning routines. This is what makes a great service advisor.

My list of morning routine for a great service advisor. Different than your list.

I had a feeling.

While you're driving.

Mine are more about the customer, which.

May be a hint.

While you're driving.

While you're driving, do you have the radio on? Do you have silence? Or is there another option that you.

Did then or now then? Sports radio.

Okay. Did you yell at the radio when you didn't agree with the person?

Yeah, for sure.

Okay. Yeah.

Sports radio.

The whole purpose of it, you gotta get heated up. Yeah.

All right. That's really all the questions I had for you.

And yeah, back then.

Seattle had no.

Winning teams, like, well, late 80s. Oh, that was. That was pre. No Ken Griffey Jr. On the Mariners. That was kind of exciting time.

He wasn't there much while when I was writing service, he kind of left, like around the end of high school. So that. That all happened when I was in high school. I remember in high school, my grandfather took me to watch Randy Johnson through a no hitter. That was high school. That wasn't.

I forgot that he played for the Mariners to start out.

I was thinking there was a time that the Mariners had Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. Tino Martinez, who ended up going to the Yankees and winning a couple World Series. I think there was an Edgar Martinez. Edgar. So you had Tino and Edgar. Edgar, arguably for my, you know, period of time. The greatest designated hitter.

Unbelievable.

I forgot about jb.

Yeah. You know, Griffey had a, had a swing that was like art. It was beautiful. But Edgar had a swing that was pretty smooth. Like Buhner, the.

Yeah, he was a big dude, wasn't he?

His, his thing too was like he kind of would swing like.

What'S, what's the Adam Sandler golf movie.

Happy Gilmore.

He like kind of had a swing.

Like that where he took a couple of. Stored it.

Yeah. And then also there was a guy that was traded to the Mariners kind of during that period, isn't it? Was Sosa or something. And that guy would foul balls away for like 25 minutes. He would just wear every pitcher down.

And then get a single at the end or walk or.

Yeah, whatever. He rarely ever walked cuz he swung at everything. But he could foul bow forever. You'd have the longest at bats. It was the greatest.

Oh, that's funny.

Okay, let's talk about the morning routine of a millionaire service advisor. So the, the first thing that you want to kind of consider is the coffee.

Let's talk coffee first. I can't believe I didn't put that on my list.

I'm trying to. I was trying to think about all the top performing advisors and if any of them didn't drink coffee. And I can only think of one.

So the day is going to start with some coffee.

I guess I'm with you though. Coffee.

No, I did not. When I was a service advisor, I did not work out in the morning. I worked out at lunch.

Yep, I remember you talking about that.

So it's really hard to work out in the morning. If you're a service advisor, you could do it, but you'd be getting up at four for.

Right.

So the first thing when you talk about, you know, at home, after coffee, dress and your preparation. I think that having a little, a little interest and care for the way you dress is going to separate you from everybody else. So I've told the story on here many times where my buddy Johnny, who's still at the dealership that I originally wrote Service, he's the, I think he's the service manager.

Said once to me over, you know, dinner, socially that he used to think I was such a. Because I wore a suit. But what I remember about wearing a suit to work was that people assumed I was the manager. Even though I was a kid. People assumed a certain authority about me. And so you don't. I'm not insinuating that you wear a suit to work. You're probably not trying to be Chris Collins, but wearing the polo shirt you washed 50 times, that's bundled up on the floor, maybe not the best idea. Like, put a little care and thought into the way you dress. Because people eat with their eyes.

It's not always just about how it feels or tastes. It also is how it looks. And you lose some authority when you're trying to gain trust from customers. And you look like a slob.

Yeah. Like, you just.

A lot of service advisors look like slobs. It's very common. The next thing is, don't wear too much cologne. Wear a mild cologne. There are customers that are, you know, allergic to cologne or offended by it. So I wouldn't go too heavy on cologne and things like that, but I would wear one. But one that is a little milder.

Going to work, not to the bar.

And then as part of your. Your morning routine as a millionaire service advisor, you're gonna want to stop for a minute and look in the mirror, and you're gonna want to repeat some affirmations.

Like it.

Do you do affirmations?

I don't.

And you're not a millionaire service advisor. Who are you? The affirmations I was thinking about that might be a good idea. And I'm kind of saying this in jest, but I am saying, like, you want to kind of think for a couple minutes in the morning about what is it I'm trying to do? And maybe it's. Maybe it's not framed as an affirmation, but you're just reminding yourself every morning, like, kind of what. What it's about. So one that you might want to remind yourself of is I'm creating key throwers. I'm a customer collector, right. I connect with customers. On a deeper level, I am the glue. So in the. In the circle of life of, you know, people buy a car and then they service it, and then they buy another car. I'm the glue in that circle, right? I prevent unforeseen surprises for my customers. It'd be so fun to make a. A pop video of you looking in the mirror. Like that Saturday Night Live skit where.

The guy's like, oh, yeah, the Stuart. Stuart Smalley.

I'm so funny. If you had that sort of shot where it's over your shoulder into the mirror, and you're like, get the baby sweater. Surprises for my customers.

I love it.

Selling is the easiest part. It's all about building trust, Right?

So, you know, some. Just remind yourself that really what this is about is collecting customers and Key throwers. And if you connect with two or three customers on a deeper level every day and you just do the math on what that means over time, it's. It's a pretty big number. And that's how we come up with being the millionaire service advisor is you should be writing well over a million dollars a year in parts, and service should be closer to two if you're really good. But there are advisors that have been been over 4 million in parts and service in a year, even knocking on five. So think of yourself as a customer collector and, you know, really connecting with customers on a deeper level that they trust and like you and they're throwing you the keys and they're like, hey, Christian, whatever it needs, let's get it done.

Let me know when it's done.

Yep, you have that, that equity with them. So the, the next thing I had on my list is you want to get in earlier than anybody else. So I was always the first one there. I had a key to the place. I was there before the manager most of the time. And so when I worked at the one place, I was there before the manager all the time because you didn't show up until 10. But get in earlier than anyone else and then get the night drops. Now the thing that you want to do with night drops is get the night drops, create an RO and call the customers. And I know a lot of times we're thinking like, oh, it's 5:30 in the morning or 6 in the morning, we're going to wake them up. It's okay to wake them up. It actually, I have found, is a pleasant surprise because it takes away the worry. Because think about it, what's going to happen is they're going to wake up, they're going to do their morning, morning routine, then they're going to call around 8 when you're at the peak of helping customers and everything's just starting to pick up. And now you got night drops calling, wondering what's going on with their car. So let's get ahead of that, let's avoid that and let's call them and then let's get a repair authorization. So if they're in warranty, then it's going to be in warranty, but if they're not, let's get some sort of authorization. So same technique, I would say, like, hey, Christian, I saw we, you know, we have your Jetta, your Corolla or your F150 or whatever. Tell me what's going on with it. And you'd be like, hello. And I'd be like, hey. I'd say it again. This is, you know, this is Chris from Bulldog Ford, and I see that we have your F150 here. What happened? Even if it says on the. On the night drop or whatever, what happened, I still want you to tell me.

Okay, Because.

Because it might sound different than what you write. And then I'm going to be like, okay, well, your check, engine lights on, whatever. Let's give me something to work with here. I'm going to put down, you know, $1,200. I don't know if it's an O2 sensor. I'm not sure what it is, but let's give ourselves something to work with. And then we would have that conversation. And then I would put that on the ro. I would write the time of when it was authorized, and I would do that for every night drop. I would create the ro. I would call. If I can't get them on the phone, I would leave a mess. And then, you know, the thing I'm thinking in my mind as. As a millionaire service advisor is I want to have enough work that when my technicians come in, they're like, oh, you know, the momentum starts. There's nothing worse for the shop that a technician comes in and they stand around for 20 minutes and they don't have any work that will set the tempo for the rest of the day. But if they come in and they have tons of work and it's already authorized and you know, there's good work on some of the ros, it's just going to create momentum in the shop. They're going to be more productive, morale is going to be higher, and, you know, they're just going to feel good about their day. So as the service advisor, I'm setting the tone because I'm the first step in a technician fixing anything is I got to create a repair order, I got to get authorization, I got to get good descriptions, right. I have to communicate it in a way that makes the technician efficient and helps them understand. I got to verify things sometimes. So that's what I'm thinking is like, how. How do I set it up for the technicians to have success in that sense? Right. So getting the repair authorizations, writing those night drops, and then I. When I set up a service department and yours might not be this way, but if the advisors are starting at 7, I have the tech starting at 8. I want the advisors to write two or three customers before the technicians come in. When you have the tech start at 7. And the advisors start at 7. Oftentimes, and it might only be 30% of the time, the technicians don't all have work because we're writing as the technicians are trying to find work.

That's right.

So I want to put a gap in there so those night drops become work for the technicians that might be coming in early or whatever it is. So write those. Those night drops, get in there early, get repair authorizations. So we're setting the technicians up to win and setting the tone and the pace for the day. They're going to be more productive.

Yeah. I think in the most ideal situations, you could even load the shop up with some of those cars. I've seen advisors before. Let's say that we're in a cold area state that they'll go out and they'll clean off the car or clean off the truck and say, hey, I've got it parked right here. Nice and easy for you to get to. It's all cleaned off and ready to go. Like something that makes the technician feel like that there's a call to action, like, hey, this thing's already ready and up for you to go. I couldn't agree more. That the night drop sets the pace for the whole shop for the day. That's right on. And I would say that that is the whole thing. Just like being the first person to get into work. It's. It's not a perfect rule, but I would say that, let's say 8 out of 10 times, the advisor that gets there first typically is the best advisor in the store. That's what I've observed is I've kind of traveled around 100%. It's. It's very regular that that's the case.

And I don't remember people beating me ever. I mean.

And I remember my stupid boss Dick.

Folding because advisors were like, oh, well, Chris is hogging all the night drops. And then what would happen is then he had his assistant manager who would come in at 8, would then get the night drops and divide them up between the advisors. It would be lunchtime, and they hadn't been written yet, and customers are calling in. And so they went back to, Chris can write all the night drops because I cared enough to get there, get them authorized and get them in the shop.

But yeah, that customer peace of mind, though I think that that would be a big thing is you'd worry that. That the thing got dropped. Right. You put it into a folder and what if the key gets kicked under or something like that? If you don't hear from somebody till noon, like four hours. You're going through the stress as a customer of like, do they even have my car? Yeah.

And the other thing is a lot of incoming phone calls in a service department can be avoided. Like, that's an example of us making the customer call in, plugging up the phones, and once again calling when everybody's, you know, doing other things. It's not the most efficient way. So the next thing that you do is you're going to review history of your incoming appointments. So I would go through all of my appointments and I would review history. So I have a general idea of what's coming in and what they're due for, maintenance wise. So I. I'm not even writing that down. I'm just looking. And also the other thing that I'm doing is I'm reminding myself of the customer's name. So when I review the appointments in the morning, it reminds me that Christian is Christian. And so when I walk out to the car, if I'm like, hey, Christian, how are you doing? It automatically makes Christian feel like I remember him and we're friends. So I'm trying to put him in the script or the mindset of that we're friends. And so I'm also trying to remind myself of the name. I did a lot of things like that to try to remember names so I could make people feel good and have that personal touch. But I'm also, I'm setting myself up to remember what maintenance they're due for. So when they're standing in front of me, I don't have to do that awkward thing where advisors leave the customer visual. You know, you're sitting there typing on your computer with the customer in front of you, but there's no interaction.

You're locked into the screen.

You're like, fuck to the blah, blah, blah, blah. The thing in the thing. So I'm reviewing history of incoming appointments. Then however you're doing your log sheet digitally or on paper, I'm moving everything from the day before there was a holdover to the top of my log sheet. So I wanted at the very top because, you know, what do I need to check on parts? What is it I need to do to get. Or maybe these holdovers didn't get seen. I want them diagnosed right away, but I'm putting holdovers at the top of my log sheet because I, I want them to be a priority because, you know, they've been here a day already and that's holding up loan cars, customers perception. You Know, they're not wine. They're not getting better with time.

That's right.

The next thing is, I will go out and I would tell the. The head porter that I'm waiting for a tow in.

I like that maneuver too.

I will go to the cashier, and I will tell them that I'll take any incoming calls.

Smart.

Like, that was always a thing too. Like, you go. You go to the cashier, whoever's answering the phones, like, hey, if you have anybody with a problem or you're having a hard time getting an advisor for somebody, give them. Give them to me. The other thing is, you could do the same thing in parts. Like, you tell parts, hey, if anybody calls in and they need, you know, they need help with labor or quote, just take a message and give it to me. I promise you I'll call them back within the hour.

Right.

But I'm soliciting from the porters, the cashier, and the parts department. More work. Then once, whether you have a shift meeting or not, depending on how your. Your department is set up, then once the doors open, I'm attacking the drive. So I'm going to the customers. I'm not letting the customers come to me. You. You lose equity with the customer if they got to come inside and find you. I'm going out to the car, and I'm meeting them at the car. I'm training my customers to wait. I'm coming out. So I'm. I'm literally. I look at it as like, I'm attacking the drive. The other thing is, I'm trying to be a pattern interrupt. I'm trying to be different than all the other advisors. So when. When I'm approaching a customer, I'm not saying, did you have an appointment? What brings you in today? I'm like, hey, Christian, how's it going? I automatically just start my walk around, and I gain control. But I'm like, hey, where are you headed today? As we're walking around the car, we're measuring tread, and then I'm talking about the things that matter. And the things that matter are things that are attached to your customer's identity. So what sort of things are attached to your. Your identity?

Certainly my family.

So your. Yeah. Your son.

My interests outside of work are things that I attach.

What are your interests outside of work? Zumba.

Zumba hiking.

Christian is a black belt Zumba dancer, actually.

More. Yeah.

Once again, most people are listening to this.

Awesome for the listeners. But yeah. So Zumba. I'm starting to really kind of get into the Latin cooking. I think that that's really, really fun.

Yeah. So any of these subjects, if you were to bring them up with Christian, you would see a change in his posture. You would see his eyes get a little bit bigger. He would lean in almost. And he would want to tell you about his son. He would want to tell you about cooking Latin food or whatever it is. And so that's kind of what you want to. You want to create in your customers, is if you're like, hey, where are you headed today? And they're like, oh, I'm going to work. And then my kid, whatever. Then you're like, oh, how many kids do you have? And now all of a sudden you're off to the races because they're going to tell you, what are their names, what are their age? But when I'm doing the walk around, I could care less about the commodity. You have to understand there is nothing special about the vehicle. Anybody can service that vehicle. Anybody. What's special is the relationship we have with our customers and how we make them feel and the trust, the equity that we have in trust. And you build trust by treating somebody like a friend. Now, how do friends talk? Well, they talk about things that are attached to their identity. They. The bands they like, their kids, their career, their work. You know, all that career and work are the same thing, but you guys get the idea. So I'm trying to be a pattern interrupt, and I'm trying to put them in the frame of a friend, not a frame of a consumer, vendor, customer type thing. I'm trying. I'm trying to be different than everybody else.

That appointment thing is just if there's one habit that you don't want to add to that list, it's asking customers if they have appointments. Talk about putting them on their back heels. I remember you and I were at dinner the other night, and we walk up to the place where you check in, and they're like, do you have reservations?

Meanwhile, the place was empty.

And I said, no, I don't have any reservations about eating here.

Sneaking in the down joke.

Continue on.

Then, you know, I'm going to. Then I'm going to create a pattern in my mind. And one of the reasons why we like to give advisors 20 minutes between appointments is for the rest of the morning. My pattern is two things. I'm going to attack the drive and write what I need to write. And then after I write, I'm going to touch customers that I wrote previously that don't expect it. So I want to be a Pattern interrupt in the sense that I'm, I'm putting customers in the, the frame or the script of friend. And then the customers that aren't there, that I have their vehicles in the shop or they haven't been in the shop yet. I want to be a pattern interrupt and I'm going to update them before they have to reach out to me. And that could be a simple text. Hey, it's going in the shop soon. Hey, I'm on it. You should expect to call in the next couple hours. Hey, we're, you know, we're still waiting on the part, but I, you know, you're at the top of my list. Anything just to reassure them that we know what's going on. They don't have to call us. That is completely different than any experience they will have anywhere else. And it builds a ton of equity and trust because they just relax like, oh, okay, he's on it. If he updated me when he didn't need to, then I don't need to call because Christian's on it. Right. So I'm, I, I kind of like look at that as, like, there's two modes. There's the writing, the customer mode, and then the updating customers. And it takes like, in that five minutes I have in between, I'm going to be texting, emailing, touching customers in the easiest way possible, but the most effective way possible to let them know that they're. They're still important and they're. They're on the radar and they haven't been lost in the, in the chaos.

I think texting is a game changer. Think about, you know, 25 years ago, what it would have been like to write and have the texting feature and how fast, like some of these systems work where you're texting right from the computer. You should never have a customer call in. Like, you should always be ahead of that game because it's so easy to do it now.

Yeah. And then I. The kind of. The last thing that I, that I had on there is order pizza for lunch and eat at your desk. It's pretty funny because that's what I used to do when I was an advisor.

That was pre workout.

Very unhealthy. Yeah. No, then I, then I developed a whole nother thing. But I was, by that point I was good enough that I, that I had leverage and so I could take an hour and a half lunch.

But because you did so good at the top stuff.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? You controlled the day. And I think that there's something to be said for that too is if you follow your routines really, really well, you get that hour, hour and a half. And most advisors, you go and you're like, yeah, could you take an hour lunch? They just laugh. Right. Because they're doing pizza at their desk too. But I think that when you go transition from morning to afternoon, it's different work in the afternoon. And I do think you need a little bit of a mental reset because otherwise 11 hours doing that all day long with no break. It's hard on the brain.

Yeah.

But if you can take.

So you, you kind of would end up doing that when another advisor was offer called in sick. Yeah, I wasn't going to be able to work out those days.

Yeah, for sure.

Going to have to, you know, cover the other advisor. So. Good list.

Yeah, that was really good.

That's, that's kind of the, the you know, morning routine of a millionaire service advisor. And it's all focused on how can we over deliver, be different than everybody else and create a scenario where customers are key throwers because they trust us. We haven't let them down. Like we've built equity with them. That.

The other thing and this is morning routine. But in the afternoon, one thing that I would do to tie that all together is I would ask customers, especially new ones, hey, can I be your service advisor?

Oh, that's great too.

Just like endearing to them. Like, hey, I appreciate your business and I want you to come back. Can I be your service advisor? Almost like, will you be my girlfriend?

Like yeah, you're making the definitely establishing that you want to have a long.

Term thing and it just ties, ties it all back around to what I did in the beginning. Pays off in the end. But you know, I want to be their person in, in the automotive field where I don't even want them to buy another vehicle without consulting me first.

Yeah, you want to control every bit of contact. Like I always say that is that you know, I never want a customer to talk to anybody but me for the most part. Like it's okay to be controlling with them. You can be an overbearing boyfriend. It's good.

Totally.

And then the last, obviously just a reminder of the most important habit. Pants on the left leg first.

You'll be fine.

So thank you for, for enduring that with us. And we will see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive 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 8-333-ASK S. 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.