Page 24 - On The Move - Volume 17, Issue 1

IMPROVING THE LIVES

OF YOUR SERVICE ADVISORS

t is often said that service advisors have the hardest job in the dealership.
II don’t disagree with the statement. At most dealerships, being an advisor
requires long hours, dealing with upset customers, figuring out ways to get
By Adam Wright
tickets through the shop, navigating relationships with other advisors, techs, OEM Project Mgr./Consultant/Coach
parts personnel, and managers, and a laundry list of other responsibilities. M5 Management Services, Inc.
Over and over again I visit service lanes that have high turnover because of (407) 221-8974
the pressure cooker environment advisors live in every day. adamwright@m5ms.com

My question is this – knowing how tough it is to be a service advisor, Give Them Training
why don’t we take steps to make it a better position? The benefits of Too little time and effort is invested in training service advisors. The
improving the lives of our advisors are huge. We could potentially typical training I have seen over the years is a few days of shadowing
lower turnover, improve sales, and increase customer retention. Let’s a more experienced team member to “learn the ropes” and then
look at practical steps you can take now so 2020 can be a year of throwing them into the water to sink or swim. There are simply too
happy advisors at your store. many elements of the job for this to work well. And it doesn’t. This
leads most managers to settle for hiring advisors with prior experience
Control the Hours – and, in many cases, bad habits.
Consider this – assuming 8 hours of sleep per night, people are
awake for 112 hours a week. This means someone working more Here are some potential solutions to implement.
than 56 hours a week spends more time at work than everywhere else • Send them to training workshops out of the dealership
combined. Worse yet, the hours at the dealership don’t factor in time environment
spent commuting back and forth from the house. Service advisors • Create a customer handling process spelling out the steps they
work an average of more than 50 hours/week. It is no surprise that must follow with every customer
they suffer high rates of burn out. There’s literally very little time for • Provide off-the-lane training on process, paperwork, and what-
work/life balance. if scenarios
• Role play, role play, role play
It is possible to control the number of hours advisors are scheduled; it • Cross training with other departments – parts counter, warranty
just takes proper planning and execution by management. admin, sales – to broaden their perspectives
• Have advisors participate in sales department training
Here are some tools you could potentially utilize to solve this. • Bring in trainers
• Stagger the arrival and departure times of your advisors
• Staff properly to have coverage throughout the week without Reduce the Responsibilities
requiring advisors to work open to close 5 or 6 days straight Studies have shown that most people are very poor at multi-tasking.
• Schedule a weekday off if Saturday is on Yet, we expect our advisor staff to multitask constantly throughout the
• Have a process to handle customers for advisors who aren’t in day. We need to think about what the core role of an advisor is and
the building – without involving the person who is off strip away responsibilities from them if those tasks don’t fit that core.
• Consider alternative work schedules, like 4-day work weeks (it
CAN work for advisors!) The two things advisors should do are:
• Provide great customer service
• Sell the necessary maintenance and repairs to their guests

Everything else should be placed on the shoulders of another team
member in the department. Once this is done, they will be able to
focus. It is critical that leaders in the dealership do everything in their
power to support their service advisors. Never forget that they are the
face of the dealership in many customers' minds, for better or worse.

22 www.maada.com