Training Your Service Advisors To Valet

Hey.

Hello everybody and welcome to Service Drive Revolution. We have an exciting show for you today. We're going to talk about training your service advisors to valet customers cars. I'm Chris Collins, this is Chris Joan.

Hello everyone.

And we're going to start off with talking about what's going on in the news.

We've got some good news.

This was fascinating to me by the way.

This article is called this solar powered electric vehicle never needs to be charged. So essentially there's a company called Aptera Motors, they're out of California and they have developed a three wheel vehicle that runs off of the solar power.

So you're saying they enjoy high crime and high taxes.

Yeah, I think that they're right where they should be. So essentially it says the average driver in the US drives 29 miles a day. Well, the average supply that a solar power car can accept in is 40 miles a day. So you never have to charge it. It's a really, really cool looking thing. It looks like a, I don't know, like a Jetsons type device.

It looks like a Saturn. Remember when GMC main Saturn with kind of like what's the Polaris? It's like the three wheel car. So you're cross between those two.

Okay, yeah, I see what you're talking.

Polaris, what is it called?

I don't know the name but I know the thing that you're talking about. It's.

And it's like almost like a fancy go kart.

Yes. But essentially a self sufficient vehicle. That's pretty interesting stuff.

So what happens when you go from gas or diesel to electric and then from electric to solar power which is I guess electric, another form of electric. What are we going to, what are we going to do? Like how are we going to keep technicians busy?

Oh, that's a really, really good question.

Hopefully they break.

Yeah, like maybe the insides and outsides and technology or maybe solar panel replacement.

Every once in a while I'm gonna tell you how we're gonna keep them busy. Tires and alignments.

We do not do tires.

Nobody has figured out a way to fix potholes. Potholes are still a thing.

They might be worse.

Can you imagine like if there's like people out there get together and they're like oh.

Let'S get rid of potholes.

Never.

That's good.

So it's interesting though. Look up a picture of it if you're listening to this. But it's a cool looking. I bet you the thing's super slow.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like an around the town runner But I mean, I was just thinking about it, like that's totally my type of driving. So it'd be really good for metro areas.

I could. Yeah.

I wouldn't trade Winston in for that.

No, there's no reason you would want to trade Winston in. You've done a lot of work with Winston. That's article number one. In my second one. This is something we've actually, we've talked to some people that run these kinds of business and I think it's definitely important as dealers for us to recognize that, that this type of service is out there. Car dealerships gauge tire installation as at home service demand surges.

Basically there's franchises out there that are selling the vans. And I don't know that we need to mention specific franchises, but they're selling the vans that have the equipment on them to do tires and they're going to people to do the tires. Which just shows you like, if they can sustain that without an alignment rack and they're just making a living on tires and like, should we get in the tire business? I know a lot of our truck clients that aren't in the tire business. You're. Now is the time. You're missing a huge opportunity.

That's right.

Because the industry is changing and if you're not doing tires and alignments.

You'Re just letting a good chunk of retention and money go out the door.

Yeah. And that's kind of what the thing that comes out of this I wanted to read this thing that we highlighted was. It says the growth of mobile tire installation services poses a dilemma for fixed ops directors. Do they cede the market to a growing number of already established mobile tire installers or make expensive investments in vehicle staff and equipment to compete in a low margin service sector?

I love the smell of rubber in the morning.

Yeah.

Tires, Tires, tires.

More and more tires. But I think it's a realistic thing. But it kind of leads us into our topic, if you will.

Yeah. So let me set this up. Christian came up with this list.

And.

When Christian was a service director, he was really, really good at a couple of things. First of all, for the brand, he had the highest customer pay sales per ticket. Like the factory literally came in and tried to figure out what you were doing and didn't ask the right questions.

Cause they always think it's something different. Right.

Yeah.

Than the system and the process. But also very cutting edge in his thought process of going to the customer, going after things and not sitting and waiting for it. And if you think about. So the brand was Infinity. There weren't a ton of infinities in the marketplace.

So you had this mindset of, oh, I was going to go after it. And if you have a high sales per ticket, at some point, if you want to do more, you're going to have to figure out how to get more vehicles or more ros. Right?

That's right.

Because you kind of hit the point of diminishing return with your closing ratios and all that. And so you're very progressive in your thinking. Then one of the things that you took on was valeting customers cars.

That's right. And we had.

The things that I would say is one is that launching the system probably one of the best things for our business in terms of really the reach. When you think about it, this was in the Chicagoland area. There was seven Infinity dealers in the area. The one thing was, is that what we didn't want an excuse for someone not coming to us is them saying that they've got an Infinity dealer just down the road. We fixed that by saying, you don't have to go down the road. The reality of our industry is that most people would rather go to the dentist then come and have their car serviced. So it was really an opportunity to differentiate ourselves and give a different product. And the thing that I think was so amazing that we didn't expect, there was all these unintended byproducts. The first was that our RO value was higher on valet services than on traditional customers that came in.

So you guys think about that for a second.

The average sale on a customer that you valeted was higher than on a customer that drove in. Yeah. Don't let that get lost in this.

Yeah. Because I think that that's probably one of the biggest objections is that people are like, well, it costs too much money to do A or B or whatever it is. Right. But the return is always so much better. So. So I've got it down to essentially, as you're thinking about how to get as advisors to be the best possible advisor you can be for a valet service. I've kind of got this whole our system that we did in seven steps. So the first one, pretty easy it is that you've got to appropriately market this thing that it's a service that you have available. If you're not telling your customers that you have valet service available, then you're going to be like, well, no one wants to valet their cars. So. So there's a little bit of an outreach that has to happen. Okay. And then setting the table for that maybe some of the ins and outs. And one of the things Chris and I were talking about this previously is do not limit yourself in how far you would go to pick up a car. Do not look at it as the one off. Look at it as the long game.

One of the other stores that was part of the program, they would go out of state to pick up cars.

Yeah, we go to Indiana.

Yeah. And I think that that's brilliant. They also went to Wisconsin.

Yeah.

So essentially, like all the neighboring states. Think about that. Like that they're so progressive that they would go anywhere basically to pick up a vehicle, which is cool. So the first thing is you got to let everyone know that you have that service.

But we didn't start that way though. You start small and then you kind of go out.

Yeah.

But you gain a lot of confidence when you start to see the results.

That's right. So then the next step is, let's say, okay, so we got people that are interested, they call and they send appointment. So the thing that sets the stage for the whole valet visit is what I call the 24 hour confirmation call. So this is the actual time to set the frame.

And I think the big thing is when you think about valet service in itself and what we've seen is that it can be done wrong. It can go really, really sideways. And I think the first thing is that when you're doing this 24 hour confirmation appointment, the window that you're going to pick up the vehicle is probably the most important thing.

I've seen it where stores will give a two or a three hour window. And what does that remind people of?

Well, it puts you in the script of like DIRECTV, AT&T anybody coming to fix a refrigerator. But you've all had it happen where you're like, oh man, what am I gonna. I gotta sit there for three or four hours waiting. So it becomes very negative. But I think part of that, and maybe we should say this first, is the advisor has to own this process, the valet. And the reason why we're calling this training your service advisors to valet is not that the service advisors are driving out to pick up the vehicle, it's that the service advisors are owning the process.

Yeah. So with that being said, you will find on your service drive that you'll have champions that are great at valet service. So that kind of leads me into where the advisor comes into this. So the first thing is that, you know, part of this whole deal is if you have a system and a process and you do the same thing every time, all the way through. Every time you do a valet, your advisors get really, really good at it. And how it worked for me was I had one main advisor and then one backup advisor. They both had the certain qualities that you're looking for with somebody that does valet. One is the total ownership that Chris is talking about, like they owned it from start to finish. And the second is they were really, really good on the phone and with communication.

And so also clarify you had one out of the six or seven you had.

Yeah, one out of five.

Yeah. So it wasn't the two advisor store. I just want to clarify that.

Yeah, that's a good point. So we actually had it paired down. Believe it or not. We had a 15 minute window of pickup and we actually set it up to where let's say that the pickup was to be at 9 o'. Clock. My goal was for the driver to be there at 8:55. I had no problem with them having to wait around for a little bit. But if you start the visit off with exceeding expectations, the sky's the limit. So during this, you know, after we get to the point, we're on our way. Step number three is you do a we're on our way call. This is done strictly by the advisor. And this is the part where the advisor picks up the ball and runs with it. And really the main thing is that the advisor is the main point of communication. The valet driver is there to do two things. One is just to pick up the vehicle, drop off a loaner was the way that we usually did it. And then the other thing is you would want a valet to do some sort of a walk around in front of the customer damage. Yeah. So it's just a check on around and it makes it look really professional. And to the customer it says we've got a system. So on that we're on our way call. There's a few things that you want to do. The first is you want to connect with the customer on a deeper level because you don't have them sitting in front of you. It's harder to connect when you're just doing it verbally versus having a customer sit in front of you. But that's the whole reason why the right advisor is so important. It's that person that you know that they can pick up the phone and they can call anybody and make a conversation happen. So you want to connect with the customer, you want to discuss the reason they're bringing the vehicle in Connecticut. So it's always just like If I was writing a ticket as a customer came in, whatever the appointment said, I always confirmed that and they elaborated if needed and everything like that. And then the next thing you want to do after confirming the primary concern, you want to discuss preventative maintenance. So say I had to. I took the liberty of reviewing your history. These are the things that you've already done. Great job. Here's the stuff that is due now and we can get that taken care of. I've got the technician just when the vehicle gets back, he'll just add that to the list and, and it'll be nice and efficient. And that way you don't have to make multiple trips. And then here's the really, really important thing is on this call, the we're on our way call is you establish contact times. So at this point you say, okay, so your driver's gonna get there at 9am the vehicle will be back here at 9:30. We'll get it into the shop. Your first contact for me is gonna be at 11am and would you like that contact via email, via text or via phone call? So you always want to establish that method of contact, but you do that before the car is even there. So they already know when they're going to get their next thing. Okay, so now here's another one we're on to. Step number four is the car gets back, the valet hands you the paperwork and the information. Right at that second, I send what I call is your car is here.

Text, which you got to understand is you're telling the customer that, hey, when I get it, it's going to go in the shop, blah, blah, you're going to hear from me at 11, at 9:30 they're getting a text they didn't expect.

That's right.

So just understand the psychology there is it really puts them at ease because they're like, oh, they're on it.

Yeah. So the, the, the car is here text is one of those unexpected communications. And at this point, and this is something that we did, and I highly recommend, worked out really well for us, is that that valet car always took a priority in the shop because that was never, unless it was an unforeseen circumstance, that thing was never going to be a carryover. It was always going to be in, out. Because if you had too many valet cars going carryovers and you got loaners out longer, it could mess up the whole system.

So it was right behind waiters in the order of priority.

That's exactly right. Okay, so now we've got the vehicle into the shop, the technicians looked over the car, the diagnosis or whatever, the primary concern is done. So step number five is there's this beautiful cadence with the valet of what I call the MPI call or that status update and the cadence of such. So what I would do is if I'm at my 11 o' clock contact time, that was discussed on the we're on our way call, I'm going to say at 11 o' clock, a phone call, email, text, saying, hey, I've got your inspection completed and your diagnosis is complete on the vehicle. And, and I want to go over that information with you. So it used to be back in the old days is all you would do. And if you're still doing paper inspections, it's the same way is that you review everything on the phone. Now if you've got a video or you've got an mpi, here's the thing that I found works the best with this kind of stuff, is that you send that stuff while you're on the phone with the customer. You let them know that the information's coming to you. Because the one thing that I see as a mistake for people doing valet services is they put it in the hands of the customer to look at their MPI and understand exactly what is on there. And the majority of customers, I don't believe, know, but they just don't want to tell you that they don't know. So that's a guided tour to go through the MPI or the video call or whatever it is. Okay, so that's step number five.

And then here's another really, really good. It's almost like a pattern interrupt, but it's the, your baby is on its way back, text or call. So you want to say, hey, your car's completed, it's cleaned up, it's all ready for you, and confirm the best way to get the vehicle back. Okay, so where are you at right now? Because sometimes what happens too is that you'll get the customer from the time that they picked up the car to the time we're dropping it off. They might have moved locations. And if you don't reconfirm the drop place, you could end up having a valet driver sitting in a place where a customer's not. So you want to reconfirm all that information, do another time with the 15 minute window again and essentially just kind of get everything back and the car goes. I also would do payment collection at that point in time so that there's no, there should be nothing that a valet driver would do other than collect a signature. Because I think that's another thing that people make a mistake as if the advisor doesn't own it. And then they're asking a valet to collect payment and everything like that. I feel like it's confusing. Yeah, it's a hard thing for the valets to understand. It's a hard thing for the customer to understand. Advisors start to finish, essentially. Okay, so vehicle gets back 15 minutes after that you send then the follow up and the thank you and I can't wait to take care of you next time. So you're leading and opening up for the next relationship. But if you're an advisor, if you're trying to really boost your numbers, getting good at this valet thing can be a complete game changer.

And don't look at it any different than the in person transaction where like Christian was saying is you want to pet the dog. Like when you're calling the customer, hey, are you at home at work? Oh, where do you work? Oh, you taking the day off? Are you working from home? Oh, where do you know? And build rapport and set the frame. But I wouldn't look at it any different. It's just the order of things is different. So like when you're going to check history and recommend and all that is different, but it's the same and you got to own it. Do not put the valet in the position of being the excuse for anything. You have to own that process from beginning to end. And just like when I was an advisor, I wouldn't want anybody else writing my customers. I wouldn't want the valets talking about pricing anything specific whatsoever that would be me. Because the customer is going to get confused. And then I run the risk of them being unhappy because they did not understand things the way they actually were. So, you know, own that process as an advisor and frame it over. Communicate. It's a great list.

Yeah, it's fun. You know, and I was gonna say this is totally off topic, but is this a joke? Yeah, of course it's a joke. I haven't told a joke yet, but, you know, it took me a long time to probably accept and realize this, but.

I figured it out.

My parents didn't like me.

You know how I know that? How? When I was a kid, my bathtub toys were a toaster and a radio.

That's terrible.

Yeah. Wow.

What a terrible childhood he had. Surprising. He turned out so well.

Yeah, I don't know.

He lives.

Electric shock definitely affected my hair.

That's awesome. Well, thanks, everybody. Also remember if you have a joke you would like to share with Christian or a question, we also on Fridays are doing drive bys and the number is 8333 Ask STR and we'll ask any questions any follow up to this thoughts you have. If we play it on the show, we'll send you some swag. But understand too, a lot of times when you ask a question, there's a ton of people out there that it helps because they are wondering the same sort of thing. So don't be shy, step up and let us know how we can help you and serve you better. And we appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every week, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call us at 8333-Ask SDR. That's 8333-Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com that's offers.chris collins, inc.com I'm chris collins and I'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.