Chris Collins asks why dealerships lose technicians. One manager ignored his request for transmission overhaul training and kept piling on work with no raise. His current dealership listened, funded the training he wanted, and gave him a path forward. Technicians stay when you actually hear them.
What do you think that most dealerships or shops are missing when it comes to retaining technicians and creating an environment where technicians see a career path? Like one thing you mentioned and just kind of reading between the lines that you'd been there a year and a half and hadn't had a review or a raise, like what sort of things do you would, would you advise managers to do in order to retain the texts that they have? Right. Because oftentimes retaining the text you have leads to them then recruiting other techs. I don't know how many times I've had technicians that worked for me at school recruit other techs to come work for us because of how the technicians feel and they talk. If really a small world at the end of the day, what is the secret.
In your opinion, to retaining and creating that environment?
I would have to say listening to the tech and just that example that I'd given you about speaking to the owner of the last Ford dealership I was at.
When I spoke with him.
Our initial conversation kind of happened in a meeting with about five other techs. He had sat us all down because he wanted us to work a little more and get a lot more vehicles out, but there was no incentive behind it. So I had voiced the concern. I was like, why would I stay here and you know, after 5:00 and not make, you know, hardly any money? Because like I said, the unorganization at that dealership was just that bad. I was like, I could stay here for extra two hours a day and make what, $50? Or I can leave and go to my second job and make $150 an hour. What incentive is there for me to stay and work a little more for you? Well, he didn't hear that at all. He didn't listen at all. Because next thing I know he was talking about, okay's talking about doing a bunch of side work. And, and I think the rumor around the shop got, I threw somebody else under the bus about side work. And this all came from that conversation. And I was like, he did not listen to me at all. Not only did he listen, but he went a whole different direction with it. And then on top of that, when he finally came and talked to me again, that's when I asked him about the transmission part. I was like, you've got a burnt out tech and I'm sitting here with the credentials to do this. Just need the training. You know, I can pull a transmission, put it back in all day, but taking out clutch packs and putting them back in, that's a little different. And I can't afford to do that on my time. I need me trained properly. I need to do it a couple times with somebody and then, then we can go from there, if that makes any sense. And he just shut it down. I was like, I don't want to spend money on that. Blah, blah, blah. That made me push my toolbox out. He didn't listen.
The new dealership that I'm at or the dealership I'm at right now, he listened to everything that I wanted. You know, this is where I want to see myself in a few years. This is what I want to do. And he made it happen. And I can see myself being at this dealership for a while, which is funny because I didn't ever think I wasn't going to work on BMWs. You know, I knew I had the credentials from Ford, but I always thought I was going to be at a BMW dealership. BMW does it overhaul transmissions? We just remove them and put a new one in. So there was never a place for me to do that there with this, you know, I'm actually doing what I want to do. And it all stemmed from social media. You know, I got fired from social media, but I also got millions of opportunities now from. From social media.
Yeah, that's. So listen, listen and have a career path is what I heard.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving 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 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.
