Chris Collins and Chris Jones discuss why the auto service industry obsesses over hiring technicians while ignoring a growing shortage of burned-out service advisors. They explore why advisors leave, how dealers use signing bonuses, and why losing an advisor costs more than losing a tech.
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Welcome, everybody, to your Friday drive by on this edition of Service Driver version where we answer your questions. The phone number is 8333 Ask STR. That's 8333 Ask STR. Remember, if we play your question on the big show, we're going to send you a swag bag. Like, lots of cool gifts in there. I am Chris Collins and this is Chris Jones.
Hello, everyone. You know what I was just thinking about is.
Oh, my God. You don't want to say this.
It's not a joke, but I was actually just sitting here reminiscing. I don't know if you'll remember this or not, but the first time that you and I did a drive by together, I didn't say anything. Oh, really?
Yeah. It's perfect.
That's perfect.
I know. I just sat here.
Yeah, try that. Try that today.
And then. And then you're like, do you have anything to add?
Nope.
You said it all. Okay. That's all we had for today. It was so good.
Yeah, well, the camera can be a little intimidating.
Yeah, we've come a long ways.
Yeah. You don't get nervous anymore? Okay, let's go to today's question.
I have more of a statement than a question. But, you know, everybody's working on hiring technicians, and everybody's so focused on that. Nobody's really focused on what got us in this in the first place. What got us in this situation in the first place. And my question more so is what got us into this situation in the first place and what we're doing about it to prevent it from happening in other parts of the dealership, specifically with advisors. This industry burned out technicians. And I talked to a lot of the advisors in my group that have been with the group for a long time. A lot of them are getting burned out. And right now we're making all these concessions to keep technicians happy, but nobody's doing it to keep advisors happy. And I'm afraid that soon enough we're going to start seeing a good advisor shortage. And I just wonder what your thoughts were on that. Thank you.
Sounds like an advisor sticking up for advisors.
If I had to guess for sure. Valid point, though.
Gonna hurt his feelings? You might. Do you have an answer that's nicer than the one?
Yeah, for sure. I think that. I think that we got to pay attention to that. All of our talented people. We should be making sure that we are doing our best. But what I wanted to say is.
Break the news to everybody. Can I finish my thought Let me break the news. News flash. I'm cutting in with the news. Continue.
The industry can function without service advisors. It cannot function without technicians.
Think about it as a restaurant. Like, you could go right up to the cook and say, hey, man, can you make me meatloaf? We could bypass the waiter. I could seat myself. Like, I love it when I walk into a restaurant and it says, please seat yourself.
Really? Do you go to a lot of restaurants that say, seat, seat yourself?
I wish I did. I wish I did.
We got to get you back on the diner circuit.
I wish. What's that app where you can make reservations?
Open table.
I wish Open table highlighted the ones that you can seat yourself. Right. I mean, I don't need a hostess. I don't need a waitress. I could deal right with the chef. I could be like, hey, man, how you feeling about that lasagna? Okay, let's do that.
We. We could pull right in the shop and tell the tech like, hey, it's looks like it is leaking oil. Or I need a. Need an oil change. Whatever it is.
We could function without service advisors. Okay.
I would suggest that our opportunity to make an experience would go down without them.
I would contend that sometimes that might be a good thing. Yeah.
We had an example a week ago about that, didn't we?
Yeah.
Well, I'm not saying, you know, I was an advisor. Right, Right. So I just think in the context of things, technicians are the machine. Without the technicians, we don't exist. Yeah.
I would also say that a good advisor will always have a job. And it's getting more common to go to a store that has no good advisors.
Yeah.
But a good advisor, that. I think that that's really just a reminder is that that job is one of those. Those career paths that you can literally make it anything you want. Want to. Right. Like if you want to be a general manager and you can start as a tech, as a service advisor. But, like, I don't know. I've got some stores that are paying signing bonuses for advisors.
So I think that being aware. But man, if you're already good, just. Just remember that you can be good. You can be good anywhere at the end of the day.
Awesome. Thanks for the sort of comment. Not quite a question question.
Yeah. But it. But certainly a topic that's worth acknowledging.
You guys have a great weekend and we'll see you next time on Service. Drive Revolution. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. 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 it's offers.com Chris Collinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
