When I was younger, I thought I was going to be a marine biologist. When I figured out
how much that was paying yearly, I quickly had to rethink that idea. So in between the time I quit university to have children and going back to my "Garage Life" I spent some time waitressing.
I loved waitressing, the customers were happy to come in and spend money and I didn't have to listen to people complain about how expensive their oil change was. There was no negativity around the experience usually at all. The team was so fun to be around, everyone was laughing and joking all the time. Just awesome.
When I was good enough, the manager used to let all the other servers go early so I could take all the tables. I was organized enough with her help to take care of up to 20 tables at a time. Her labor expenses were fantastically low, I made stupid tips doing it too
When I went back to the role of service advising, I started applying all the skills I learned as a waitress to the drive-thru. So here are the best waitressing tips that will help you be a better service advisor.
Organization and Time Management
These two things, for me, go hand in hand. When you are taking care of up to 15 -20 tables or so, you start to learn very quickly to treat your section as one big table. You DO NOT want to go back and forth table-by-table refilling drinks. You need to visit all the tables, get the list of refills you need, and anything else anyone might ask for, then go get all those things and drop them all off at once.
In as few trips as possible, you need to satisfy the needs. How does this apply to being a service advisor? If you are not organized, you cannot write many quality work orders. And by quality work orders, I do not mean, waiting for the older vehicles to drive in and try and write as many of those as possible.
Every work order can be a quality one if you choose to make it so. What brings the "quality" to the work orders you write is "YOU!" Your attention to detail, the relationship you build with your customer, your focus on the process, the follow-up, the updates you give to the customer, the review of history, the information you collect for the technician to diagnose the vehicle, and so on.
If you are overwhelmed you will not have any quality work orders, and you will be creating a wake of customer service heat for your manager to deal with daily. In order to build up your volume of quality work orders, you must work with a sense of purpose and you need to work with a sense of urgency at all times trying to save as many steps along the way as possible. Here are a few of the things I do to try and save time daily.
In our drive-thru, the advisor must do the walk-around and tag the vehicle before it is parked. So, I pre-marry about 20 tags with a walk-around sheet before I open the doors. When I approach the vehicle, I try and do so from the passenger front and start the walk around before I even get to the driver's side door. I get the plate, note damage, tire wear, etc.
This saves me time and allows the customer a few extra seconds to get organized if needed. As I am walking around, I am putting the color and type of vehicle on the tag. I greet the customer in a super friendly fashion and get the mileage and the last part of the VIN. I am already going through a mental list of what is due for service at this interval. I finish the walk around as I take the customer to my desk if there is not a huge line.
I tag the vehicle even before I write it up, after confirming that the customer does not need anything out of it, that we have the key, and that the vehicle has been there before if it does not have any of our dealer badging on it.
We have a staggered file on the wall with all the appointments preprinted. If it is busy, I grab that preprint and do a review, take notes, update information as needed, and get the customer on their way promptly. I move on to the next vehicle until there is no more to write. The only reason I stop is if I come across someone that is scheduled to wait. That needs to get written asap. If it is not busy, I take the customer to my desk and do a totally different procedure.
I try and avoid going back and forth to my desk unless there is some extenuating circumstance if there is a big lineup.
At that moment, getting people in and out is priority 1. We need to remember and respect that people are busy and are taking time out of their schedules to be there.
But no matter how busy the lane is, I move as if there is a line-up 20 cars deep. I move with purpose, and with a sense of urgency always. Because time is NEVER on my side.
During any average day, I put 8 - 10000 steps on my step counter. And I do not make redundant trips doing anything. If I am going to sales for something, I take my water bottle if it needs filling, any papers I need to drop in the office, or any questions I have for parts and start out on my "walk about." Before returning to my desk I also go to the bathroom. Every action has a purpose.
Build a Relationship and Keep it light-hearted
When I first started waitressing, I was shocked at how easily people would drop $150 on a meal, that would give no long-term benefit, but would scream blue murder if their car needed a brake job for 450.00 that would keep their family, and everyone on the road safe for 2 - 4 years.
Then I realized, that people do not have an issue spending money, even money they do not have if they have a sense of joy around it. How could I give them that sense of joy in the drive-thru? The only answer was that I could give them the best parts of myself in every interaction possible.
We need to SMILE. We need to have FUN. Yes, we need to sell, but if you can work on the relationship first, selling will take care of itself. You need to take your cues from the customer. Their body language, pitch, and tone of voice need to be paid attention to as well.
We need to learn when we should ask and how we should ask for the sale. There is a right time for everyone, eventually. But you need to build the relationship first. This is where that "quality" comes into play again.
Keeping it light-hearted is important, but so is the use of empathy and emotional intelligence at all times. This will help the customer feel at ease and will build a sense of trust in your relationship with them.
The answers are always there if you know how to look for them.
For real-time coaching on how to apply empathy and emotional intelligence message me at adviseme@goldstandardservicetraining.com
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