Chris Collins (speaker) advises aspiring service advisors that appearance and charisma are the most important factors in success. He recounts wearing suits at a young age, contrasts technician knowledge with customer-facing skills, and recommends practicing charisma, learning about cars by asking technicians when unsure, and focusing conversations on customers’ lives rather than the vehicle. The clip ends with subscription and promotional calls-to-action.
When I was very young, writing service. So the first thing that you need to do is really pay attention to how you show up, what you look like. Like, I wore suits because I was 19 or 20, and people questioned me because I was young. It's even harder when you're a female.
And so you gotta look the part. I would. I would really pay attention to how you dress and try to look more like a manager than a frumpy advisor. And I'm. I don't know how you dress now, but I'm saying how you look very much matters. It's the. It's the appearance, it's their first impression. And then the second thing is it's all about charisma and your. Your skills with the customer. It has nothing to do with the car. I knew nothing about the car. So I've told this story. When I answered this question before, there was this technician in the Volkswagen shop. His name was Shane.
Got all the Volkswagen techs around in the shop and had, like, this wooden crate box, and there was this round disc on there. And he called me, called me in the shop, and all the texts are staring at me. And he says, what is that? And I said, a brake rotor, and it was a clutch disc. And they all laughed and, you know, went to the boss and how can he be a service advisor when he doesn't know the difference between a brake rotor and a clutch disc? It's like they didn't. They didn't get it. I was really good at connecting with people, and I was curious about people. And I also wanted to serve people. I wanted to take care of them. I wanted to be a host. I felt a certain reciprocation like that. I took care of them and they kept coming to me. And I loved that interaction and that dynamic that the more I took care of them and the more I cared about them, the more loyal they were to me. And that's really where you want to. You want to focus. So practice your charisma, read books on charisma, pay attention to that. So the way you look, and that will get you far. The second thing is, every time a technician would give me an inspection sheet that had something on there I didn't understand, I would go back to the car and ask them to show me. And that's how I learned over time. But never lose perspective of the fact that the more you know about cars, the more shortcuts you tend to take. And that's why technicians have such a hard time when they come up to write service because they know everything and they can diagnose it in the drive and it ruins the customer experience. They end up taking shortcuts and they assume things and they don't, they don't let the process take care of itself because they're telling them in the drive what it is. Customers make decisions right then and there. And we never got the car, we never rode an ro, we never dehorsed them, that whole thing. So the, you know, you want to know enough to be articulate, but at any point when you don't know something, just say you don't know and go ask the tech. No customer is going to begrudge you that. And so the most important part is how you look, how you present yourself, and how well you connect with customers. Talk to them about everything else but the commodity. The car or truck is irrelevant. What matters is their kids, their hobbies, their jobs, what they think about the local football team, politics, whatever. 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. Subscribe so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 asksDr 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 sa.
