Learn From One of the Best

Firstly…Why should you even listen to me? With all the blogs, “How to” books, and connections on LinkedIn, I am sure you have an overload of information on many aspects of the automotive world. But here is a unique perspective from someone, who in the beginning, had zero knowledge about cars and in general, zero knowledge about the automotive industry. Since 1989 I have been working, learning, and evolving as a service provider in the automotive industry. No matter where I have worked, within 1-2 months I am always the top Advisor in terms of labor and parts sales on the service counter. I am consistent with what I say and what I do. No matter where I have worked, I quickly establish myself as a go-to person that has all the right ways to handle each situation and get things done. I am a Customer Advocate: I am a Service Professional: and I am a Gold Standard Service Advisor. As a manager, I have taken departments, that have been running in the red for years, into the black within one month of my arrival. One dealership I began at had a record gross month in my first month of employment. The gross went from 54% to 74% in my first month. I was able to triple my first month’s net within 4 months. I have built progressive and unique pay plans, schedules, and apprentice training platforms. Before there were computer programs to do it, I structured and built detailed maintenance programs with competitive pricing from scratch into an easy-to-follow excel file that could be referenced by the advisor in seconds. At every place I have worked I have also rewritten how the customer should be talked to, managed, and sold to. As an advisor, my drive-thru teammates tend to see me in action and pick up tips without me even teaching them. They just see that my process works and can be adapted to their style of selling. This raises the quality of service throughout the entire service department and eventually the dealership. Everywhere I work, I am “Dealership First”. If an agreeable outcome for repair is not found, I quickly try and convert the service customer into a sales customer or a finance extended warranty customer. My goal is just not to lose the customer and the sale completely but roll them into another solution and keep their business in that dealership. Usually, I average, 2 - 4 extended warranty sales per month, and usually refer 2-4 people to sales every couple of weeks. As a manager, I am focused on the team. If I am going to make a change to a process that affects several people, I will have “sidebars” with everyone that will be affected. I love to hear input, feedback, and grievances. I truly feel, when managing, that I work for the staff and try to put processes and changes in place that will benefit the majority of them everywhere I can. Those are just some of the reasons you may want to hear what I have to say about the dynamics, the processes, and people that are in the drive-thru handling your most important asset, your customers.