Transcript of a conversation (Chris Collins and another speaker) about dealership service-advisor practices, emphasizing the value of a nightly 'pre-write' ritual and thorough file management. Examples include an advisor (Doug) who used color-coded maintenance menus stapled to pre-write sheets and another large Ford store that required physically pulled customer files and review of RO history. The piece contrasts older paper-based DMS workflows with modern digital access and highlights how detailed customer history enables more empathetic, personalized service.
Chapters
It doesn't take long either. It's just like 20 minutes.
Yeah.
The night before.
Yeah. To get all 10 or 12 of your appointments.
You also learn so much about the customer in the sense of what if. That. What if they decline something and now they're coming in for the outcome of the thing they declined or whatever. Like, just knowing their habits, what they've done before, what they haven't, what issues they've had, just gives you so much insight into their experience.
Right.
So you can serve them better because you, you know, you kind of know, like, hey, they've had this recurring issue. They complain about rattles or whatever it is. It just. It gives you insight into how they maintain it. You know, how often they come in.
Yeah.
You know, a lot of times, like, we assume, oh, customers come in once a year for this brand, and then this customer has been in three times in a year because they have had different warranty issues or that sort of thing. You know, you would approach them with a little different, you know, empathy than just somebody who's coming in for an oil change.
Yeah. My. One of my best advisors that ever worked for me is. It was Doug and his. The pre. His pre write ritual was pretty crazy. But he would print up. He'd have his pre write, then he had like a.
A stack.
Just a stack of copies of our maintenance schedule, which it really ticked him off when I changed the maintenance schedule for essay because he'd have to throw away his big pile of maintenance schedules. But he essentially had the pre write, and then he staples the maintenance menu to the back. And he had this. He had a color coding system. Right. It was like, it was pink, yellow, or green. And green was if they'd already done the thing, and then yellow was if it was due, and then red. Pink was if it was overdue. And he, like, kind of had a thing that he said that I really liked it. He'd be like, you've done such a great job because you've done all these three or four or five things, and I'm sure you probably want to keep taking care of your vehicle the same way that you always have been. Here's what's next. Here's what's after that and everything like that. And it was. It was that. But that wasn't like, the genius of what Doug did is because what he was looking for was, like, the personal information. So, like, where they were from, all that stuff. So he would, like, do a little bit of research, and you'd find out that, like, oh, okay, so they, they were from St. Charles, Illinois. And you know, his kids go in the St. Charles districts. So he'd pre plan conversations based on the information that he had. Now we also had at first with our old dms, we had a little section where we could put little notes about the customers in the system. And we would go in when we were as an advisor, we'd put down like has two kids, four dogs, you know, one dog's name, name Buddy. Buddy or whatever it is. And then he's like, he's hitting all that stuff when they come in on top of, he's looking at their last five visits. Yeah. And I remember him one time for sure. Like he was checking in the customer. Been like two or three times for a funny noise. And then they hadn't been in for six months. And he asked me, he's like, hey, that noise, it looks like it's finally gone. He's like, oh yeah, I'm so grateful. And then they start right back in with a gratitude and then you're just easing into it. Um, but I thought that his ritual of the pre write was. It's the best I've seen. But, but I always think about that like that pregame is. I think about Doug.
Yeah, I remember when I first started going around in fixing service departments. There was this guy and he would hire me to come in and do advisor training. But his, his department, like it was this big Ford store in Washington and he would kill it like they were, they were a huge operation. But his numbers were nuts. His hours per hour, all that. He did this thing that everybody would think was inconceivable to be able to execute, but he did it. And it wasn't negotiable like the way he ran it. But the. Remember back when the DMS just gave you an op code? That was it. Like there was nothing there. He had all the files. Like he literally had two people filing constantly. And at the end of the day they had to pull all the advisors appointments for the next day's files. And all the advisors had this accordion thing on their desk with all of the files. And I, I just remember making the connection of the night before. All the advisors would be going through those files and through the ros. And you know, some of those files were huge because customers had been coming there a while. And you're talking about a farm, you know, farm community. People drove their trucks hard, like you know, a lot of information. But that was non negotiable for him like that. You had to go through the ros and that you had the file right there readily available.
And the fact that all the files were up to date, it was something that was a priority, you know.
Right.
And we have so much more access now to that information. You don't have to pull a file.
Yeah, you, like have to hit the H button. Yeah. Like, it's crazy.
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 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 now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
