A short Q&A YouTube segment (hosts Chris Collins and Christian) responding to caller Elijah about dealers being overbooked with 70–80 service appointments and unable to complete all work. Key advice: quantify lost revenue from missed recommended work, communicate early with customers about potential delays (at write-up), ask how important timeliness is to the customer, set expectations (offer alternatives like loaners when available), and explore ways to increase shop capacity even without extra physical space. The episode emphasizes upfront communication to preserve customer goodwill and conversion of recommended services.
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Foreign.
Happy Friday and welcome to your drive by. This is where Christian and I answer your questions. And sometimes your questions are really, really good. They make us think. We love it. The number, if you have a question is 8, 3, 3, 3, ask STR. That's 8, 3, 3, 3,. Ask STR. If we play your question on the big show, we will send you a swag bag. That swag bag has included parts hold, which I'm displaying.
I'm the model for parts hold, actually.
Cliff Bobblehead doll.
It's a doll. It's a doll.
I love it because, you know, boys play with dolls.
Let's go to this week's question.
My question is going to be. I was just listening to your episode about how some dealers, you know will be bringing in some 70, 80 appointments and not really.
Able to get all of those in and then kind of grade you based off of, you know, surveys. So I was hoping you guys could maybe delve into a little bit more about that and how to mitigate that. This dealer that I'm planning on going into specifically.
Essentially has a lube rack and a set of tech line techs. And your RO just goes onto Iraq and it gets picked when it gets picked. So getting things in and out in a timely manner can be a little bit frustrating from what I've seen so far.
Thanks, Elijah, for the question. So the first thing is fixing that, like maybe mention.
How much money the dealership is losing in additional sales.
Just in the sense that if you're calling customers or getting cars in late, you don't have the capacity. You're not going to be able to sell any of the recommended work. Customers are going to decline it more often because it's not easy, it's not convenient. And so I, you know, we have a couple spots left for next year for our coaching group, so.
Maybe give some sort of an intro. Christian will do a strategy session and, you know, we can kind of help with that sort of projection on how much is is being missed. I would guess you guys are booked out pretty far too.
Just in typically when that happens for sure.
And there's tons of ways to increase your shop capacity even if you don't have the space. Tons of ways. But the thing that I used to do when I was an advisor and I was in that situation is I would tell the people at Write Up, I would say.
Hey, we're, we've been a little bit behind. We've had a couple technicians call in sick and we've had a couple bigger jobs. And so There's a possibility that it won't get looked at. I'm going to do my best. But.
If it doesn't get looked at today, how big of a deal is that for you? I would kind of like.
Throw that out there. I'd rather have that conversation up front than later on.
Well, there's no surprise if you do.
It early and they have all day to plan, Right?
Yeah. It's just the nicest thing we could do. Like, it's kind of the whole treat people you'd like to be treated.
And we didn't have loaners. We couldn't, you know, to get them a rental car was an act of Congress, so they kind of had to figure out their own.
I remember that metal dispatch, that spinny dispatch tower and how it. You just knew. It was like. It reminded me of a roulette wheel.
I have more luck with roulette.
Yeah. Where it's like, oh, no, my thing's going in there.
And so I would tell them up front, Elijah, that's what I would do.
I feel like I'd rather be.
Get a joke for that.
No, I. Because it's a serious thing. I think it's hard.
I was walking into dispatch the other day.
No, I gotta. I gotta brush up on my jokes.
Your dispatch jokes.
It's new. It's coming up on the new year, so. So maybe I'll get another joke calendar for 2024. That could be kind of fun.
So tell them. Tell them up front. That's what I would do. Yeah.
Over.
Over.
Communicate with customers. That's the thing. The ironic thing is that when, you know, Elijah's in that position and the customers don't buy anything and everything like that. So often people think it's the advisor's fault. It's not the fact that they've been put into a situation where a customer saying yes to something after they've been told no, their car is not going to get done. Is the. It's slim pickings.
Yeah. That's why petting the dog gives you so much equity.
You got to set yourself up for success. That's exactly right.
Cool. Remember the numbers 8333, ask SDR. Thanks, Elijah. Hope you guys have a great weekend. We'll see you next time on Service Driver 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 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.com chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
