The Service Advisor role

The service advisor role.

Following on from my previous Service advisor post, I wanted to talk more about the role.

I first worked as a service advisor over 30 years ago. One of the many roles I experienced from Technician to business owner. Since then, I have had a hand in employing and teaching many Service advisors for dealers, independents, and my own garage business.

Hopefully you can tell from how I write about the role that I have great respect for it, it’s importance and the people that do it. It takes a certain type of person to be a Service advisor and enjoy it at the same time. A calm personality and being able to multitask is very important, and of course to communicate well with customers. An outgoing personality helps, customers always like it, along with being a team player as they are the connection between the customer and the technician.

So, who do you need?

Many employers insist on technical knowledge as a pre-requisite for the role. It is very helpful but is not the be all and end all. I have taught lots of people what they technically needed to know and how to use the systems. I talked about it in this previous post. What they did have however, were the other attributes needed. Don’t be afraid of a non techie person, after all not all technicians will make great service advisors.

Service advisors should be able to read situations and sense when a customer is not happy, but not complaining; a real bonus to stop the 1 star review before it happens. You also want them to be proactive and less reactive. In the independent garage we very often need them to think about workshop loading, parts control and customer contact, whilst building quotes and chasing warranty claims.

Here is an example by way of a little light reading.

Reactive Ronnie

Ronnie is a service advisor. Ronnie knows the job very well along with all the customers, has great technical knowledge and gets on with the team. The issue is Ronnie runs out of hours in the day, he is constantly busy, firefighting his way through his daily tasks.

Ronnie raises the jobs as the cars arrive and orders the parts, “no point in ordering parts for no-shows” he always says. Ronnie chats to the customers as they arrive but does not really worry about what service they are booked for, as in his mind that is the technician’s job. The phone rings and after a brief “how are the kids” conversation, hangs up the call having booked a service. Ronnie has not checked any history or quizzed the customer, as that is a job for service day. As he goes through the rest of the day he books as many cars in as he can, whatever the job is, as he needs to fill the diary, right?

Now Ronnie spends most of his day authorising extra's. Great, Ronnie is a rocket and is super busy ordering parts and selling work, earning the garage money! Any work that must be rebooked due to time or parts constraints are noted on the invoices as advisories, so the customers know what needs to be done at a later date.

Ronnie carries on chasing the next authority, parts that have not showed and new enquiries as everything happens live, in real time, it’s the way he likes it, and Ronnie is now Rockin! However, the pile of parts returns, and warranty claims get bigger. Not to mention the quotes “to be done” pile. As customers start to collect their cars Ronnie explains their advisories and they ask him for an estimate of the work, so Ronnie asks them to take a seat and soon he has a room full of people waiting for him to do his thing! Ronnie gets the customers away and happy, but goes home feeling that the day has snowballed again, and thinking “that’s just the way this job is”.

Proactive Penny

In a parallel universe or as I like to to say “same room, different universe” we have Penny.

Now Penny is everything that Ronnie is, but she works in a different way. Penny likes order. Once most of the customers have arrived she sets about the task of raising jobs and ordering parts for two days in advance. After all sending one oil filter back for a no-show is no big deal is it? Penny has also set the automated reminder system for her customers to remind them of their booking, hence rarely gets a no-show anyway. At this point Penny knows the techs are busy on their first jobs of the day and she has a bit of a lull, so it’s an ideal time to get the pre-ordering done. Penny takes a booking whilst ordering parts but notices there is a reminder on the system for a due brake fluid change. When she quotes the customer she says, “that includes your brake fluid change as it’s due, is that ok?” Boom! One more sale in the bag. The customer has preauthorised some extra work and it is filling the diary. Penny won’t have to chase around authorising extra’s on this job when it comes in, and neither will the techs, efficiency is rising!

Penny continues through the day with the extra authorities, returning any unwanted parts and building estimates for the work that cannot be done that day due to parts or time constraints. When the customers arrive to collect their cars, she has the estimates for extra work ready and asks them if they would like to rebook now? Yet another booking!

Penny has managed the day and has no customers waiting, just enough time before clocking out to file the paperwork.

To Sum up.

These examples are a tad crude I admit, but I wanted to make a point. Employing a service advisor is not about finding the cheapest person or just any person to sit at a desk. We should take care in finding who we want, and who fits with our team and customer type. Then reward them accordingly, just as we do technical staff. We should also ensure that training is available and a clear process is explained to them. In my view the Service advisor role must be appreciated for what it is, it is not a basic admin role. If you employ someone on that basis, they will not usually last the week, as it was not what they expected.

If you currently do not employ a service advisor but are considering it, think about the time they can free up for you and the team by having one that really keeps the wheels turning. It is a key role without a doubt, and possibly one of the hardest in the garage. I can also tell you that as a small business owner, without a Service advisor my holidays would have been very short lived. There is some more information in episode 3 of the Harmonic motion podcast, where I chat with James about the role.

If you do employ a Service advisor but would like guidance for training or building processes in front of house, then contact me here. Or book a chat here. It’s free to see how I can help you.