These 5 Things Are KILLING Service Advisors! (Service Drive Revolution)
A short podcast/YouTube episode (hosted by Chris Collins) listing the top five problems undermining automotive service advisors: unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, no morning ritual, failure to pursue learning/self-improvement, and parts/parts-supplier issues (including slow parts delivery and estimating challenges). The hosts discuss practical habits (meal prep, working out, morning ‘golden hour’, reading/listening during commute) and finish with distribution info.
Chapters
The top five things killing service advisors today. The first one is eating at their desk.
Okay.
Like what's wrong with eating at your desk? It's unhealthy. Usually it's pizza.
It's a time saver.
You, you gotta give yourself 30 minutes to eat. Right. You can't just go grab a piece of pizza or a double cheeseburger. Yeah. Or double cheeseburger. Right.
Bacon on it.
If you eat right, you'll feel better, you'll sell more, you'll be happier. But you gotta either pack lunch.
Okay. Food prep.
Do the, the pre meal food preps.
Right.
But plan ahead.
Okay.
But eat good.
Eat good. Absolutely. Well, fast food is really bad for you. Absolutely. I remember my dealership days. We would start the morning with a double western bacon cheeseburger.
Start the morning.
Start the morning. That wasn't even lunch. That was breakfast. Yeah, it was, it was some really unhealthy times. But it's, it's weird because you get in this cycle where you just, your body just chases the bad stuff and it craves more.
Yeah, carbs, and more carbs and more carbs.
And then your blood sugar is just all over the place. So.
Yeah, yeah, like low carb, high protein. And also like when you eat bad like that, you're tired and you're sluggish the rest of the day. So by like 3 o', clock, you're a zombie.
Done.
And that's when like all the action starts to happen. People are picking up. You're, you know, you're on the phones.
Where you're earning your five star reputation. So plan your food out, eat healthy, be ready.
Number two, working out.
Lack of working out. Now you used, you said you had at one job that you would actually be able to go work out during the day.
So one of two things, like either I would get up at 4 in the morning and work out.
Yep.
Because you know, I had to get there early and get the night drops.
Absolutely.
So I would, I would get up at four, which meant I went to bed at eight and I wasn't hanging out and going out. But the second one is my last job as a service advisor, bless him. Jerry, my manager, let me. Well, the deal we had. I don't know about. Let me. The deal that we had was that I could take an hour and a half lunch.
Okay.
So I would take an hour and a half and I would go work out.
Nice.
And then I would have enough time to get food and come into work. So there was a, there was actually a Wendy's across the street. So I would get a chicken breast and a baked potato or something like that, something healthy and eat and then come back. But I had time to work out, shower and all that. But I don't know, a lot of advisors aren't going to be able to take an hour and a half lunch. So get up earlier and work out. But even if you just do it for 30 minutes, like read the book Body for Life, there's great workouts in there that you can do 20 minutes of cardio. 20, you can lift weights for 30 or 40 minutes. But the system in there of doing it will get you in shape. But if you, if you start eating better and you work out, you're going to have more energy, you're going to be clear, you're going to be more productive and you will be happier. It actually helps you feel.
Good. The good vibes, not the bad vibes.
Absolutely. I know when I work out in the morning, my mind is clear probably 10 times more than when it. When I.
Now most advisors are going to say I don't have time, I don't have time.
We all have the same amount of time.
Yeah, you got to make time.
Got to make time. Make it a priority. Absolutely. Working out. Third one, they fail to create a morning ritual. So how do you like to start your morning? As an advisor.
As an advisor.
As an advisor.
So.
I'm like, from the time I.
Wake up, let's talk. Okay.
So my morning ritual is I brush my teeth.
Perfect. That's good, man. Thanks for doing that.
So then today I wake up, right. I'm going to meditate.
Okay.
I'm going to work out.
Okay.
And then I'm gonna go to work. I probably won't eat until 7:30 or 8. I'll eat a little something.
Man. That's crunch time when you're writing up customers.
I know, but in between I can sneak it in.
Okay.
I'm not saying I'm sitting down for a meal, but. Okay, I can slam some eggs or something.
Yeah. So that's interesting. So your morning ritual, you've got a setup where you're doing your meditation, you're exercising, and then what time do you arrive to work? Do you like to get there early or right on time?
What time do we open in this.
Fictional, let's say 7:30. We open at 7:30.
I'm getting there at 6:45.
6:30, I'm at the beach. I'm there 5:30 to get those night drops.
Well, yeah. Okay.
A little competition going on.
No that happens for sure.
It does, absolutely.
I'll beat you another way.
You'll kill them with kindness. So the morning ritual, My point here for most advisors is do not show up when you open. And it drives me absolutely crazy. This behavior is something, I call it my golden hour of power before work. Right. So you want to get to the shop or the dealership an hour before anybody else is there, before any customers show up. So you can get your desk organized, you can do so those menial tasks and get your day kind of planned out. You know, go into our logbook, look at the customers that are in your piggy bank. Get your slow day plan set up. Set your goals. Car count goal. Sales goal. Get those nitrous.
Practice answering the phone. Just roll, click.
Absolutely.
Beat all the other advisors to the phone. Like, how quick can you go?
That's it. It's like in the pursuit of happiness, right? He never hung the phone in. He just pushed and dialed because he didn't have time. Those extra seconds counted. Right. So every day count, Every second of your day counts. So definitely that golden hour power is key. Get there early.
I would call on the night drops too. Even though in your scenario you beat me to them. I would call and like, I'd wake people up, but I'd be like, hey, I got your car here and I need some money to work with.
It's really reassuring just to know that the car is safe and you've got it.
Yeah, no, they. Nobody ever begrudged me that. What happens is most advisors, the doors open, they get busy, and then they don't call until 10 or 11. By then the customer's called in.
Correct.
So their customer's going to call in by 8. I'll just call them at 6 or, you know, 6:30 and say, hey, this is Kris, I got your car. I see you. Tell me what happened. Okay, I need some money to work with. I need you to approve unless it's warranty or whatever.
But do you know why this third point will kill a service advisor?
Why?
Because they'll just replace them with a tablet. So if you can't do this or you're not willing to do it, guess what? You're going to get replaced with the tablet number four. What's our fourth one?
They don't, they don't learn. They're not reading. They. They feel like the same thing about working out is, oh, I don't have time. So they're not listening to books about sales, about customer service, about business, how to get better. They're not going to courses, that sort of thing. So they're stagnant.
You know, one of the reasons I love coming down here when I'm in your. Your realm there, you guys. I mean, if you ever get a chance to come down to Chris's studio, you've got to just whatever it takes. There are so many books around here. It pushes your mind to expand. So I always learn something. I always pick up a book and pick something out of it.
It's a huge problem.
It's not a problem.
No. Over in the safe house, it's a huge problem. Like I have no more places to put books and I don't stop buying books. So the thing I was thinking about having somebody come in here in this room and really turning it into a library. Like building shelves with ladders.
Yeah.
Because I'm out of room for. I need more shelves.
I just love it. And so you're read. We don't learn. We get in that rut of just going to work and I get it. Service advising is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. It's very time consuming. It saps your energy. You're pulled in a million different directions every single day. So even for 15 minutes a morning, what if you just read and expanded your thinking? That's the whole thing. And then turn your commute into learning time. Right. University on wheels. Listen to our podcast. Get some other stuff going. Get into your brain so you can expand your thinking. So read and learn. Absolutely.
Number five.
I can't say. You got to say it.
The parts department.
The parts department.
Killing advisors.
Killing advisors.
Dead.
Absolutely.
Like snipers.
Yeah. More importantly, AC Delco and GM on their back order still. We have a truck that's been in there for six weeks now. We're still waiting on the part to be released. It's like crazy.
Killing you.
Killing me. Parts department. Thank you very much.
That's really not the parts department.
It is.
It's a parts supplier.
It's still the parts department.
Poor. Parts department.
Yes.
We love the parts department.
We love the parts department.
But you're killing us.
Stay tuned because we have a way to help.
Top five things. Killing service advisors.
Food.
Eating bad at your desk. Not eating good. Meal prep. Think ahead. Number two is you're not working out. You're not getting exercise. You're definitely not doing yoga.
That's true.
Morning ritual is number three. Reading, learning, improving is number four. And number five is kind of a.
Give me.
Yeah. The parts department.
Okay. If you had to come up with the fifth one what would it be?
Well actually like in that realm is I feel like advisors are under used in the fact that they don't have a good pricing guide. So it is kind of parts but it's not the parts department's fault. But it takes a long time to put together an estimate and there's, there's tools out there to make estimates easier. I agree but it's really hard for advisors to put them, put them together. 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 and Instagram @chrisbulldog Collins and I'll see you again on the next episode.
