This is a transcript of a Service Drive Revolution episode (YouTube podcast) hosted by Chris Collins with contributors Jeremy and Lorraine. The episode answers listener questions about service-department practices: (1) whether marking parts down to cost on customer comebacks is appropriate — hosts argue the root cause is poor advisor documentation and communication, not markup policy, and note parts should be covered under parts warranty; (2) how to balance high cars-per-day quotas with maintaining higher dollars per repair order — hosts recommend focusing on deeper connections with fewer customers, leveraging technology (pre-appointment texts/emails) to shorten transaction time, and creating "key throwers" (loyal customers). The episode uses anecdotes and analogies (doctors on a river; petting the dog) and closes with podcast distribution and host social handles.
Chapters
God, are you there?
The voice of God is here.
How are you doing today, God?
The voice of God is good today. How are you?
Great.
That's good. This first question comes from LinkedIn. Service department is always putting things to their policy when it is a customer issue or advisor didn't make proper notes and the vehicle comes back. This does include in marking down the parts to cost. Is this a normal practice or am I just giving in to allow this to happen? Shouldn't it be a cost plus 10 to 15%? I've been told that they don't want to pay for the part twice, which is why this is being marked down to cost. Don't get me wrong. I'm a firm believer in making the customer happy for repeat business. But this is aggravating because it affects my CP per ro.
Chris, you want to handle this one? You want me to take it?
I'm dying. I. I have an opinion, but I'm dying to know yours.
Well, this is the proverbial story of the doctors who are on a rafting trip. And the doctors are by this beautiful river. They're around the, you know, the campfire, having breakfast, enjoying their coffee, when all sudden, a body comes floating down the river. So the guys rush in, they pull the body out, and they start CPR and they revive the body. And then two minutes later, another body comes down and then another. Before you know it, it's like the er. Like there's bodies on the shore. They're, you know, doing cpr and these guys are working their tails off like they're sweating. They're like, man, we came out for vacation, not to work. All of a sudden, this one doctor in the middle of all this gets up and just walks away. And like, his buddies, like, hey, George, where you going? Get back here. Like, you got to help us save these bodies. And George says, nope, I'm gonna go find the guy throwing the bodies in the river and stop this madness. And that's the same thing. The problem that you have here is it's not what management does with the comeback. It's not what they're selling the parts for. It's not what they're making you mark things down with. It's the fact that Service Advisor Air is creating this problem. So if you forget to write things on the ticket or you rush or you're worried about the CP number and you're not genuinely concerned in taking care of the customer, documenting their concern properly, petting the dog, right? Writing the ticket up, right? The first time you're Creating this issue. And it doesn't matter what management does. The 10 or 15% markup is irrelevant if you do your job right in the beginning.
Yeah, I don't. I dropped the mic. That was great. I love that story.
Thank you.
It's perfect. You're focused on the wrong thing, basically.
Yes, absolutely.
Now, one thing about the story too, that is a little incongruent is we're paying for the part twice.
Doesn't make sense.
No, it doesn't.
I mean, it would be under parts warranty.
That would be the parts department fault.
Yeah, that would be under parts warranty. Unless you're buying your parts from some backwoods like. But if you're buying them from a parts department, they're going to be under warranty. So that doesn't make. That part doesn't make sense. But I love your analogy. I agree 100%. The other thing I would say is whether you mark up policy and things are writing off or you do it at cost, the net at the end of the day is the same.
You're just, you're just raising your prices to charge yourself more. If you like seeing the bigger number, then that's fine. It, you know, you could make a case that it's the true representation of. Of what it is. You're going to sell it to yourself at retail and not at cost. But at the end of the day, your profit's the same if you write it off. Whether you write it off, it cost, you write it off at the full amount, it's still coming out. You're not making any more money on the bottom line.
No. And you know, Kris, I think the one thing, if you want massive CP numbers, what you have to do as an advisor is get more key throwers. Right? And you have to turn the tide. Instead of your dealership losing 70 to 80% of your client base to the independent world, flip those numbers. Do something every day to make, to be memorable, to be remarkable and make customers want to stay with you as their trusted advisor so they come back. Right? Let's flip the tide. If you had key throwers and you flip those tables, it doesn't matter what they do, your CP numbers would skyrocket.
I agree. What's the next question? God.
This next question comes from Roger in Florida.
Good morning, Chris and crew. I work at an extremely busy Toyota dealership in Southwest.
Stop bragging, Roger.
Stop bragging, Roger. If I'm aggressive enough, I can easily clear 20 ros a day. I've noticed that when I try to grab every Car on the drive. My ELR suffers. But we are way too busy to spend an hour or more with each customer. I'm trying to find a balance of numbers of cars written per hour versus keeping my dollars per high. I finished last month at roughly $265 per copy and. And am looking to increase that number. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Less is more. Is that what you're thinking, Jeremy?
No, I'm thinking that you shouldn't have to spend an hour with each customer. I mean, what we teach with petting the dog isn't an hour walk around. You know, it's. You got to get.
No, but. But It's. It's definitely.
15 minutes, right? It's not. It's not.
It's not just like a.
You know.
A recent scenario with somebody who was arrested and got a public defender. Guess how long a public defender in Los Angeles spends with their average client? So let's say this person's accused of a drug deal, murder, whatever, crimes that they can go to jail for for 10, 20, 30 years.
Three minutes.
Six.
Six minutes? Are you serious?
The average public defender spends six minutes on it.
Now, does he go to them or do they bring the con, the alleged or the charged person to the defender?
Oh, I don't.
Are you, like, in a cafeteria line with your tray? It's like, sit down. Next.
I think they just get the case assigned to them. They do it. They meet with them, and they go in front of the judge, but it's a short conversation, but they spend, like six minutes in preparation for something that could cost you your life. Like, you could be innocent. Or let's say that even if you're not innocent, I think the one thing that we. We hold true as a country is that you get a fair trial. Right.
For now.
Just saying.
Well, that's the. That's the hope, right?
Throwing that out there.
So I think less is more. Like, for me, I would rather connect with two or three customers on a deeper level and create a key thrower and have an. A higher average per ticket than write 20 plus. Ros. I was never good past 20, man. I would. I would struggle a lot.
My number was like 35. Like, when I hit.
So happy. I'm so happy for what is about to happen right now. Come on in, Lorraine.
Okay. Sorry.
She's got the goods.
She's got the goods. No.
Any police following you or anything? Can I have them over here?
Oh, yeah, sure.
Sorry.
You weren't followed?
I was not followed. Maybe For a second, but.
Sorry.
Awesome. Thank you so much.
We got the goods, Jeremy.
So Chris just received a bag with. It's red for our listeners. The. The noise you hear is him reaching into the bag, his right eyebrow. Just art.
It's exactly what it should be.
Are you gonna unveil it?
No.
Are you gonna unveil this now or is this for like later?
Well, they're illegal.
Oh, okay, cool. Awesome.
It's illegal. What's in this bag, Jeremy?
So should we talk about the bag or should we talk about the question?
What's the next. Well, do you have anything to add to that?
I. I do. I think, you know, with technology. Oh man. Though I see where you're going, that I empathize with him a lot because with more cars comes more opportunity and obviously the rewards are obviously a larger paycheck. So I completely get that. The desire to serve is also there. So use technology to get through the process faster. I would have a pre appointment email and a text that I sent out to every customer. I'd preload as much of the stuff as I could before they show up so I could shorten my transaction time. I'd learned to pet the dog virtually before the customer even showed up so I could cut my transaction time down. So I would say start to harness technology to shorten your transaction time per customer. And if you're smart, you could double your numbers. You could literally have a four to six hundred dollar average repair order instead of 265.
Thank you so much for watching this clip of Service Drive Revolution. Now you can catch the full episode on YouTube, iTunes or Spotify or wherever you consume your podcast. If you have any questions, go ahead and post them in the comments below. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post new episodes. I'm Chris Collins and you can find me on Facebook, Facebook and Instagram at Chris Bulldog Collins. And I'll see you again on the next episode.
