Chris Collins identifies five habits that separate top service managers from those stuck in survival mode. The best ones reject tribal knowledge and the status quo, set ambitious goals like industry-leading CSI scores and 50% net-to-gross profitability, and actively seek creative improvements instead of accepting how things have always been done.
5 things great service managers do that nobody talks about. The, the very first one that came to mind for me was they don't accept the status quo. And what I mean by that is most service managers that we interact with have been trained through tribal knowledge. So they, what they know about running a service department, they know through watching The people that they've worked for before, but it really isn't in line with an outcome or a result. It's just in line with surviving and doing the thing that's always been done in an effort to be safe and secure and not ruffle anybody's feathers, not kind of try to do anything outside of the box, basically. And in a service department, it's what we call a closed-loop system. In the sense that in business you have open systems and you have closed systems. A closed system is something that happens repetitively over and over again. And so in service, we make appointments the same way, customers pull into the drive the same way, advisors— like, it's a closed loop system. There's no variables. It's not like if you're going out into the field working for an oil company, And there could be 20 different things going on with an oil well that isn't working anymore. Or, you know, if you're a Navy SEAL and you're going into battle, there could be all kinds of variables. In service, there's no variables. It's very consistent. Like, the personality of the customers might be a variable, but the basic process is a closed-loop system. It's the same. And if you've been doing it for 6 months, you've kind of seen every type of personality. You've dealt with every sort of issue. You've had a comeback. You know, there aren't really any, any new problems after you've been doing it a little while. And so the, the service managers that are really great, that are special, are focused on getting better and improving. And they're a little more creative. The, the problem with, with status quo is you're not creative in the sense that you've trained your mind to maintain. You're in the habit of maintaining a certain process and kind of a certain ideal, but in order to improve, you, you have to do something different. You have to be creative and try something new. And, you know, one of the things that we run into over and over again is we get hired. So we're told like, hey, we're not doing very good. Our customer satisfaction isn't very good. Our profitability could be better. Come in and help us figure that out. And then we come in and then what happens is the manager proceeds to try to convince us that we should keep everything the same, not quite making the connection that if we kept everything the same, you don't need us and nothing's going to improve.
The same.
In order to improve, you have to do something different. And I think the best service managers understand and are looking for ways to do things different. They're, they're looking for ways to apply their creativity and to change. They're looking for inspiration. And what, you know, why not have the best CSI in the country? Why not be 50% net to gross? Like, why not really be shooting for something special? If you're going to show up every day and you're going to put in the work, why not do it at a high level? The, you know, the varying degree of effort to perform at a high level versus just surviving is oddly a trick because it's easier to perform at a high level than it is to just maintain. And people that are just maintaining won't agree with that because of the, the aspect of not wanting to change, right? They're so afraid of changing because they're in a habit. But the, the people— like, you know, we could take, uh, we could take you to Lots of service departments where you would sit in the service manager's office and you'd be like, hey, you would look at the service manager and be like, hey, you don't do much. And those are the high-performing ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, uh, you know, an interesting thing with, uh, like thinking about this from a performance aspect that, you know, um, being, being on your team Enough years into it, I started kind of seeing it enough times, um, where there's that thing where a service manager has a record month. And a lot of times, if a service manager doesn't have the right mindset and is kind of satisfied with the status quo, um, they do a thing where, uh, once they have the record month, they start complaining that, oh, now that I had a record month, my boss wants even more. Yeah, you're not done. We've reached the destination and can you believe it, Hoagie? We made it to $350,000 in gross and now that's not good enough. And then it doesn't happen very often, but the ones that have the right mindset that you're looking for, and I don't want this to get lost on people because there's a ton of wisdom in what Chris said. And if you unpack this enough, you'll truly realize it, that if you're reaching for full potential, You're not allowing the status quo, things like that. It's easier. There's a world that if you're reaching for full potential and customer experience and profitability, that what you find is you control the things that you can control and you'll find yourself way more proactive than you are reactive. And I promise it's easier. And I get it, when you're in it, it's not easy to see, especially if you're kind of learning this game, but it is the truth. That's really good.
