Amplify 2023 was joined by Jeremy O’ Neal, President, National Trainer, and Service Advisor at Advisorfix. Jeremy helps service advisors and shop owners get practical results in business and in life. He also runs his own auto shop.
Jeremy’s session addressed service advisors and tackled the problem of standing out from the competition. By drawing on his experience, he decoded ways to become a top-performing service advisor.
We put together a quick summary of “Becoming an Elite Service Advisor” by Jeremy O’ Neal. Let’s get started!
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Key takeaways
Too long, don’t want to read? Here’s a quick rundown of all the things a service advisor should do in order to upgrade their skills and become part of the top 10% in their industry:
- Maintain clearly defined goals
- Track progress every day
- Communicate clearly
- Don’t practice on customers
- Take the initial write-up seriously
- Inspect every vehicle properly
- Deliver a presentation for each sale
- Check any vehicle after repair with a QA checklist
- Follow up with customers 48 hours after repair
Read ahead for the full scoop!
Setting and tracking goals
First things first. Goal tracking is critical for service advisors. You need to have annual targets in order to be profitable and grow. The right way to do this is by setting an annual target and then breaking it down further into quarterly, monthly, and daily targets. These will help you stay on track throughout the year.
Next, Jeremy spoke about putting these goals to use. Track your daily goals and make sure you’re hitting your targets.
Wondering which metrics to track? Car count and daily sales are great ones to start with.
Communicate clearly
Then, Jeremy moved on to speaking about communication skills. This tip is one many tech experts have already heard but few implement.
But what does good communication imply? It means being transparent, attentive, and proactive. Let’s look at Jeremy’s tips for getting these three right.
Customers want to know how their service is going so it’s good practice to send regular status updates in a timely manner.
Share everything you know about the vehicle and ask questions to fill in the blanks. This comes in handy when you’re putting your sales presentation together.
Service advisors also need to make their clients feel important. During your interactions, give 100% of your attention to your customers. And extend the same respect to your techs and parts distributors as well.
About elite service advisors, Jeremy said:
“They’re laser focused, eye contact, listening, paying very close attention, making that person feel like they’re the most important person in the world.”
A clever tip we noted from the talk was to always double the time you think a service is going to take and convey that to your customer.
Don’t practice on customers
Practice makes perfect. You need to practice scenarios and conflicts before you actually speak to a customer. This lets service advisors identify and eliminate bad habits that are costing sales and replace them with good habits that will improve performance.
But what should you practice? For starters, always practice your presentations before you speak to the customer. Play out scenarios of possible conflict and know how to answer FAQs.
Jeremy recommends getting a partner and practicing three times a week for 15 minutes. Do one better by recording your sales presentations and seeing how you can improve them.
Take the write-up seriously
Too many service advisors ignore the initial write-up and head straight to the sales presentation. This means you’re shooting in the dark and possibly at your sale too.
First, understand what your customers want and how they feel about the repairs. Here are some good questions to ask:
- How long have you owned the car for?
- Has it been a great car? What’s been bothering you about it?
- What’s your mileage target?
- What can we do to help make this car perfect for you today?
- How do you feel about preventive maintenance?
Such details will help you put together a sales presentation that is least likely to make customers defensive. And ultimately, result in higher sales.
Inspect every vehicle thoroughly
This one’s obvious. Elite service advisors take each inspection seriously and train their techs to work in the same manner. That means no pencil whipping!
At the beginning of every service, take special note of the car’s condition so you are aware of any and all pre-existing issues. This helps make sure you don’t pay for damages you haven’t caused.
Then, randomly audit at least one vehicle inspection every single day to make sure your technicians are finding everything that needs to be done. Fluid leaks, tire conditions, struts, everything. Get underneath the vehicle and look at it.
Another caveat is to steer clear of guesswork and estimates. Measure everything! And document it, too. Take pictures, videos, and notes for your presentation.
The sales presentation
Moving on, Jeremy spoke about the need to work diligently on the sales presentation. Add all the notes, pictures, and details you’ve captured.
Jeremy stated that you should remove two words from your vocabulary: “Remove the word suggestions or suggest and remove the word recommend or recommendations.”
Instead, let customers know that you’ll be doing (X) to remove their concern, (Y). Use the right language to communicate that certain tasks are important to get the outcome your customers want.
Quality check, delivery & after-care
Once all the work is done, you need to check the service history and inspect the work.
Spend 30 seconds to two minutes with each car at the end of the day. Start them up, look under the hood, check for the lights, and so on. Don’t take your tech’s word for it. You need to own all the repairs that leave your shop.
Then, make sure you deliver the car in a professional manner and with care.
Once 48 hours are up, get in touch with your customers and thank them for choosing you. You can send an automated text message and luckily, Jeremy shared a default message too:
“Hey, we hope you and your vehicle are thrilled with the results from Freedom Auto Repair. Thanks for choosing us. Happy Motory!”
You could one up this with a phone call, but a text message is the bare minimum all elite service advisors do.
This, again, shows genuine care to your customers and makes them more likely to come back for a second visit. It’s also an opportunity for them to share any leftover concerns or feedback so the next service can be even better.
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Final thoughts
That’s it! That was Jeremy O’ Neil’s 101 on becoming an elite service advisor. There were some great tips and tricks shared as well that you can catch from the full session.
To conclude, service advisors need to think about how they can become the go-to person for their clients. How can they build trust and maintain it? That means focusing on building a five-star experience for your clients from start to end, every car, every time.
