Welcome to Gold Standard Service Training Inc.
For my first blog post, I just wanted to introduce myself and explain WHY you should be listening to me at all when it comes to the topic of Automotive Service. I am a bit of a Service GURU you might say. Throughout my career, I have been called the Goddess of Service, the Overlord of Service, and The Queen of the Drive-Thru and Work Mom.
What makes me different is I am honestly so passionate about how the customer is treated in a dealership. I try and put myself in their shoes and think and feel how I would want my issues to be solved. What is fair, and what is not? How would I react to this situation or that?
When I am dealing with a customer, I want them to feel how important they are to me every time they come in. No matter how small or difficult the issue is that we are trying to solve. But how did I get this way? What makes me different from other service advisors and other managers? This is what my blogs will try and touch on.
For all of you out there that find yourselves unenchanted by your job and unsatisfied with what you are doing day to day in the service drive-thru or behind the desk as a service manager there is hope. And that hope is YOU. Let me be your beacon for change and help inspire you to do great things with an amazing career. Because it truly is amazing. What other job can you earn north of 6 figures consistently with no degree? There are not many out there nowadays.
So here is a little bit about me:
I started in this industry, pumping gas to earn extra cash while I was going to university. At the time, gas was .45 cents a liter and the minimum wage was 7.50 or so. Also at that time, women were NOWHERE to be found in the Automotive World.
However, as always, fate put me in the best position possible it seems. The owner of the station I worked at also had 4 service bays and two daughters that he had planned to train to run the service counter at his shop one day. Neither took to doing the work at the time. But he had a great way of instructing and did not judge me for being a girl. Equally treated, I was put on a path of great success that would shape the rest of my life, my future husband’s life, and the lives of my sons.
By the time I was 19, I had become a bit of a tinkerer on the car my dad gave me when I was 17. My Dad showed me how to change the points and condenser (yes, I am THAT old) and my oil on my ’69 Beetle.
He would say, “The Volkswagen is ‘The People’s Car’ Alana. It was made to be cheap to buy, cheap to fix, and simple to repair. If you wanted to, you could change the engine on the side of the road in 35 minutes by yourself!”
(Incidentally, that very engine is pictured to the left!)
My Dad is very frugal and was always working in the backyard fixing his cars so he didn’t have to pay someone to do it, so I picked up a lot from him on the weekends that I was with him. He is also a strong speaker, negotiator, and salesman, I used to listen to him selling houses in the 80s boom and later cars, jewelry, china, pots and pans and I don’t even remember what else. So, I am certainly a product of the “sales” culture. Many of my mannerisms, inflections, and persuasion skills I subconsciously learned from him, I am sure.
My Mom was an extremely dedicated employee. Up early, out the door on time, never late, and was dedicated to making a difference for the residents she was caring for. From my mom, I learned to have a passion for a job well done and to be dedicated to those I serve. She raised me on her own more or less so I learned to be independent very early on.
I also was lucky enough to receive the best possible sales training from the one and only McDonald’s at my very first job when I was 14. Who knew that the phrase “Would you like an apple pie with that?” would impact my life forever. A simple and easy-to-learn strategy is taught to every new employee.
Sidebar: Sales skills are VITAL to survive in this world. I feel McDonald’s should be everyone’s first job. They train everyone on everything AND THEN put the people in the positions that they are best at. They teach everyone the art of “Suggestive Selling” which is the simplest, and most basic sales principle ever used. You are also imbued with the “Clean as you go” mindset and told to always be busy. There is never a time that there is not something to do. It is the same in the service department and especially in the drive-thru.
As I was being trained to pump gas, my boss showed me personally what to check under the hood when I was checking the oil. He wanted me to learn the right way to do things from the very beginning. He would say, “First, we remove that big wing nut thing and pull the cover off the air filter, then check the brake fluid, power steering fluid, coolant, belts, tires, wipers, and so on”. Demonstrating the whole way.
He was surprised that I did what he asked, and was suggesting things like air filters, belts, bulbs, wipers, brake fluid tops or exchanges when the fluid was black, alignments when I saw weird wear on tires, and so on at the pump. As green as I was, I honestly just thought people would rather know what was wrong and have an opportunity to fix it. I had no fear of losing a sale or having people think I was being pushy. The advice was genuine and sincere, based on a need that the customer did not even know they had.
He started paying me $1.00 for everything I sold. At the end of every shift, I always earned 60 – 100 extra dollars compared to the boys I worked with who were earning 5 -15 dollars a night. I am still not sure if I was just trying to prove I was better than the boys or not. But I learned I had to hustle to get to the next car and pop the hood while the gas was pumping on the first one, and show people what I was finding.
Why did I do this? Not because I was greedy or wanted more money. I was honestly afraid the boys would not do a good enough check under the hood and something important could be missed and an opportunity would be lost. I noticed that most people were shocked that their “regular” mechanic didn’t see the things I was showing them, and became loyal customers of my boss’s garage in turn.
In the beginning, and not knowing what I was doing, I would just look around, and when I saw black brake fluid or something that didn’t seem right to me, I would send the customer to my boss for a chat about the issue and what should be done about it. As I listened to my boss explaining the solution, I would make a mental recording of it, and then regurgitate the same information the next time I saw the same issue on another car.
Because I was then selling things at the pump for the shop, eventually, I was sending more people to his counter from the pump than he could handle alone along with all the other things a shop owner has to deal with. Within a couple of months, he put me on the counter to help him as an advisor and began to train me on everything.
They say ignorance begets more confidence than does knowledge. I was a shining example of that. I was eager to learn, eager to make a difference and I was excited about the things I was doing.
When an estimate came from one of the mechanics, my boss would explain how to present the required repairs, and what I could look for that the mechanic did not put that were also due by time and mileage. I took that direction to the letter and did it. Big estimates did not scare me, because he was not scared of them. I went through the “what’s” and how much, and I would just ask if they wanted to do it or not. Many people said no, but many people said yes! No words can describe how I felt when I sold a big job. I felt like I just leaped over the defensive line for a touchdown! Adrenalin and dopamine were suddenly pumping and I was addicted.
More and more big jobs started going through the shop and the technicians were loving it. If I didn’t understand what they were fixing or what it did, I could take 5 steps out to the shop and see it, feel it, and thus explain that better to customers when they needed or wanted more information. Generally, though I kept it simple. Most people have no idea and or have no interest in the intricacies of the operation of the whosits and widgets on their vehicles. More or less, they want to know how much, and most importantly, HOW LONG the repair will take. For those that wanted super technical info, I had to learn how to prepare for them differently as the techs back then would not dare talk on the phone.
I started to have the techs teach me about combustion and how fuel delivery worked. I used to help them with repairs when I was not busy on the counter. Slowly I started fixing tires, changing bulbs, and wipers and going on road tests to recreate issues customers were having. My car knowledge expanded a great deal in the time I worked there.
Did I mess up? Yes, gloriously at times. But each time I learned a better way to say or present what I was trying to sell. My boss was always supportive and always showed me a better way when needed. He worked beside me for months until I was ready to handle it all on my own.
He taught me that follow-up was vital. We used to call the customers back and check in on the work we had done. When we ran into problems, he handled them like a star. My mind was like a sponge, sucking up all the verbiage he was using so that when needed I could pull that explanation out of the memory files and use it as required. Having him as a resource at that stage in my career is the reason, I have been successful later in life doing this job.
The importance of a top-shelf trainer and mentor can never be explained enough. If I did not have these people in my young career, I would have never been able to do things the way I do them.
Mentors; You need one in life to teach you the right way to do things. My boss was not the only great teacher I had there either. One of the mechanics there was so good at explaining how things worked, I went to him whenever I had technical questions and I always came away with the best way to explain something. All the techs were great of course but he was exceptional.
Slowly, as time passed, under his and the other tech’s tutelage, I started to assist with repairs, hold this, pump the brakes, try to grab this my hand is too big, read me that pinout test. Or, go balance that tire, change that oil, and on and on. I even overhauled the carburetor on my Beetle all by myself. I still remember the stink of the cleaner I had to soak the carb body in. So gross.
Fast forward a few years, I found myself at my first dealership. A very busy Dodge store. My manager and I worked together for 10 years, most of them amazing. He was another key figure that I learned from along with the Fixed-Ops manager at the time. They taught me how to meditate, and look at things from both sides of a disagreement. How to relate to other departments. I got to sit in the office while problem customers were dealt with and my brain was still absorbing the angles and the verbiage, they were total masters of.
Whenever there was an issue with a repair or disputes between techs, my service manager always took the time to listen to both sides, and investigate the truth of any issue. He and the Fixed-Ops manager were also my great defenders over the 10 years we worked together.
There, I also had to learn dispatching because for a few of those years there was virtually no one to hire. Most of the time we have to think out of the basic “dispatch box” and ram things in the shop to get it all done. We would book 90 cars a day and, in the drive, thru, there was me and usually 2 or 3 green Advisors. I know what you are thinking, way too many. You would be correct, but I did it and did it shockingly well.
Honestly, I felt like an air traffic controller because my desk would have a lineup of customers that would only talk to me, mechanics that needed jobs dispatched, and other people asking where something was or how to do something that needed to be done and no one knew how. I was taking care of 60-70 work orders a day at the peak of it all because the other advisors could not handle more than 10-15 max.
Through the years, I have been a Service Manager, a Fixed Ops Manager, and a Regional Fixed Ops Manager. With each position, I have learned more and more about myself and the entire world that makes up what we call service. But really, the most important thing I have come to understand is, that you need to learn “the people” as much as you learn the vehicles, the processes, the CRM, and the strategies. By people, I don’t just mean the people you work with, I mean the customers you service as well.
Being and becoming what I call a Gold Standard Service Advisor means you have mastered how to bring what you and the dealership wants and needs, together with what the customer wants and needs. When you are skilled enough to manipulate the nuances of this interaction for the benefit of all, you can forge alliances with your clients that span decades. It is this sweet spot where you have created a true connection with your customer and those you work with.
Our goal at Gold Standard Service Training
To identify, train and empower exceptional service advisors and service managers with the knowledge and skills required to build relationships with customers that build loyalty and drive fixed operation profits long-term.
If you need a mentor I would love to help.
Message me: adviseme@goldstandardservicetraining.com
Commentaires