Service Advisor Training: The Perfect Walk Around

Five most important parts of a walk around.

Yeah.

What's a walk around? We get this question a lot. Should we do walk arounds? Another question we get is how do we get people to do walk arounds? Right.

That's the most common one.

And so we're. We're going to talk about very, very specifically the things that are really important to a walk around. And we're also going to talk about some things that people perceive to be important that aren't, which might surprise you.

So. Great.

Okay. So number one.

In importance of doing a walk around is do it.

Sounds so easy, doesn't it?

You got to do it. Yeah. Most people don't do it.

They might say they do.

Yeah. But they don't. Then the next one goes right with that is do it at the car.

So a walk around loses all of its magic if you're doing it alone and the customer is inside.

It's like having a Broadway play and not having an audience and you just go out there and perform.

Now, I can't remember taking a car in in recent memory where the advisor didn't do the walk around without me. And it surprises me every time for a bunch of reasons. One is they've lost all control at that point. Second is I'm sitting there with nothing to do for quite a while. Right. They've detached. There's no rapport being built. Nothing. And also, it pretty much tells you the story of customer comes in, doesn't know where to go, and finds an advisor at their desk. Then the advisor goes and does the walk around alone, which means that I was confused of who was going to help me or where to go for a specific amount of time. Right? Yeah. So that's insight, too. So you got to do it and you got to do it at the car or truck.

Yeah. So a news flash is that the customer does not want to be in control. We almost force them into it in those situations where we don't tell them what's going on.

Right. Okay. Now the third most important part of the walkaround is creating a connection. So a lot of times advisors think, or managers even, that the purpose of the walk around is to find out what's wrong with the car or even to. You know, a lot of advisors will walk up to a customer and they'll say, did you have an appointment? The walk around is not to figure out if they had an appointment. What if they don't have an appointment? Now what, you're not going to help them?

Like, yeah, but they get branded for such A redundant.

Like, it's a stupid question. Do you have an appointment? It is. And also, are you going to diagnose the check engine light? No.

So.

So the check engine light really is secondary to building rapport and creating a connection with the customer. And I've said this a million times that it's not about the commodity. People fall in love with the idea that they're a Toyota dealership or a BMW dealership or a Mercedes dealership. That is irrelevant. It is irrelevant. There's tons of other places that can fix a Mercedes or a Toyota. You know, it isn't about that. It's about your connection with the customer. That's. It's the relationship that you create. So the first part, the most important part of the walk around after doing it and doing it at the car is creating a connection with the customer, making friends and talking about the things that matter to them. So looking for things on the car or in the car that help you build rapport.

And just asking them, like, hey, where are you headed today? What are you doing? Getting them talking about anything but the car.

Yep. It's such a departure from when I was trained, when I was a service advisor many, many moons ago. Is that literally? Well, I wasn't trained to do it, but my coworker said, you better do a walk around in the car. And of course I'm like, well, what's a walk around? Explain that to me a little bit. And they're like, we have to go around the car and look and see if it's got damage, but because if it's got damaged and you don't note it and the customer says, we did it, it's coming out of your pocket. The only reason I was told to do walkarounds, like, the thought of the customer being there, the thought of connecting and actually asking questions like it was 1000% about the commodity. Such a, in hindsight, like such a failure and opportunity for me to connect with people right out of the gate.

Now, the next one, If I stand.

200 to 500 yards away from the drive, but let's say I can still see it, but I'm way, way back, so I can't hear anything, but I can see the service drive. And I'm watching an advisor do the walk around, I can tell if they have this next one or not just by watching. And that is controlled. So if an advisor doesn't have control, then one, the customer's at their desk inside, which is total loss of control. You have zero control. You're not Building rapport. If the customer's on their cell phone, if the customer has their back. Right. The really, really good advisors have control. The customer is following them or they're telling the customer where to go, but they have control.

They.

And the thing about control that you want to understand is if you have control, you have created compliance in the customer. So if the customer feels safe and they're following your direction in your lead, you have a much better chance of getting them to maintain and repair their vehicle later on. If they don't trust you and you don't have control and you don't have connection, you're going to have a lot harder time and it'll become more about price. So I guarantee you in a service drive where discounts are high and sales are low, the reason why is because they don't have the connection or the control.

That's right.

And control is physical. Like, I can tell if the. We call it in our advisor training, we call it a customer on your hip. Now follow me. We're going to walk. You know, we're going to do this.

But it's.

Let me know when you're done with your call so we can. Right. Tell him, like, get off your phone. Like, we're. This is important.

I always say, I would say I'll wait. It's important. And then I step back.

Yeah, but you're gaining compliance, and compliance leads to trust. Because if you're letting somebody take control of a situation, you are subconsciously saying that I'm trusting this process. Right? Right.

Yeah. We got to make it a party.

A lot of times, the reason why you're discounting, the reason why customers aren't coming back, the reason why you aren't selling is because the customers don't trust you more than any anything else. So first one is do it. Second one is do it at the vehicle. The third one is connection. The fourth one is control. Right?

Yeah.

And then the last one that goes with control is trust.

You have to have the customer's trust. So if the customer comes in and they don't know where to go, they don't know who's going to help them. There's complete chaos everywhere. When they do find you, you're on the phone talking to an extended warranty or calling parts or whatever it is you're doing. You never actually connect with the customer. And you go do the walk around. You come back, it's like, okay, so your check engine lights on anything else and it's just a transaction. You're just making them feel like a number, like they're just a part of a process that has no emotion or care built in. You wouldn't treat your worst enemy this way, let alone a friend.

Yeah.

Then you're not going to have trust. So control and trust go hand in hand that you want to have trust because trust leads to retention and sales. So having a clear, you know.

Understanding of that really, really is going to help you in, in the long run. So do it. Do it at the car connection. Control and trust. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. We're upload 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.chris collinsinc.com now it's offers.chrisconsinc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.