Welcome back for part #2 of our five-part series on what to look for in a good service advisor, when you are trying to find a home for all your automotive repair needs!
Last time, we discussed the need to have a service advisor who is willing to ‘fight for the rights’ of your car so to speak. To advocate for complete repairs, regardless of cost. This allows YOU to be the decision maker, and be in control of your FUTURE costs. Nothing is worse than never being given the chance to prevent a future repair cost.
This time around, we will discuss the second most important trait in a good service advisor.
The best service advisors in the automotive industry are honest to the point of personal pain.
This is a pretty bold statement, but one this author can personally attest to.
Over 16 years in the Automotive Repair industry, it has been personal experience that; service advisors who are honest, are not afraid to BE honest, even when it:
Think about it. When was the last time any of the above situations was comfortable for you; regardless of the industry you work in.
Those are the real ‘hot seat’ situations you can run into in just about every line of work.
The money situation is more than just a comfort issue – there are Service Advisors out there who have sacrificed parts of their paychecks – just because they refuse to take advantage of, or mislead a customer. Those are the advisors you need to seek out. Because they are focused on integrity, honesty, and above all – A LONG TERM CUSTOMER.
Those of us who have been in the industry for any amount of time know better than to think customers are like fish in the ocean, “There’s always another fish,” or, “There’s always a bigger fish,” are not statements you will hear a good service advisor utter. The trustworthy advisor is seeking to earn that trust, and keep it. This is because they know the secret to success – if you take care of your customers – your customers take care of you.
A-1 Custom’s SUPER SECRET RECIPE: If you take care of your customers, they’ll take care of you.
An honest service advisor is not driven by that extra pay they get for a specific brand of tire, or specific service. They look at the extra pay as simply a bonus for taking good care of their customer.
In other words; when they recommend that service, they trust in that service, and think it is the right thing for you, and they are happy to get paid extra or make a spiff; but they are just as happy to tell you when you don’t need that service, or when something else is better suited.
A great example would be changing a timing belt on a vehicle, with a water pump driven by that belt.
A sub-par service advisor will quote you minimal costs, (because for some reason they feel guilty about fixing your vehicle right) and recommend replacement of the belt only, and if you’re lucky, maybe the hardware and tensioner, and pulleys that go with.
They will probably forget to talk about how your cooling system is going to lose coolant during the service, and will call you back later to tell you that the cost has risen, due to the need to change the oil in the vehicle (from coolant that fell into the open lip of the exposed oil pan) and the extra cost of the additional coolant – and oh by the way, they get a little bonus if you use synthetic oil and do a full cooling system flush…
Can you see the pattern developing? Lack of concern, lack of foresight, and lack of honesty will turn that repair (quoted at, let’s say – $500) into a $900 repair that you weren’t expecting. Along the way, the disjointed process has created feelings of mistrust, and made you suspicious of every single penny you’re ‘being forced’ to spend.
Now what about the service advisor who is honest and (as mentioned in the previous blog) an advocate for your car?
For the same service, they took a look at the technician notes regarding the worn timing belt, and had the technician explain the service in detail. During the 30 minute long conversation, they asked pointed questions like:
That may seem like a lot of questions, but if the goal is to be honest, transparent, and advocate for the car to the owner – these are just the most important of many considerations that get weighed and balanced before you ever even talk to the service advisor! Then multiple estimates are prepared.
The first estimate includes every single item the technician has noted does, or might, need attention. It’s essentially the total amount of repairs that the vehicle would need to be back as close to ‘perfect’ as it can be at the time.
This give you the option to fix everything on your vehicle, in the interest of being open and fair – but more importantly – it gives you the opportunity to know what you are getting into, if you choose to go forward with repairs. For example, let us imagine that your vehicle, needing a timing belt; has another $6,000 worth of really required repairs just lurking around the corner. At this point, it is doubtful you would want to invest in timing belt repairs.
An honest and advocating service advisor will warn you at this point, that large repairs will be coming and depending on your plans for the vehicle you might not want to proceed with the belt repairs!
On the other extreme, imagine if that vehicle needing the timing belt repairs, normal fluid maintenance, and – let’s say
front brake pads. Imagine one step further, that the brakes are dangerous. In this case, the ‘good’ advisor would have that total repair estimate together to advise you that the belt repairs make sense, because the vehicle doesn’t have a lot of other issues going on at the same time.
The second estimate will include a complete estimate for timing belt repairs, and also any safety related items, like the brakes. This gives you the option to fix the original issue, and address the most pressing current problems on the vehicle. A frank discussion is made that centers around this estimate as a kind of anchor point for you to know what it will take to make the vehicle safe, drive-able, and reliable for at least the short term.
The third estimate is a bare-bones, minimal estimate. This estimate is for ONLY the main concern you brought the vehicle in for – leaving all other items alone and still needing attention. Once again an honest conversation will happen that makes sure you know what other repairs are needed, and a timeline of possible issues or failures that may occur because of the neglected repairs.
This isn’t a scare tactic – it is being bluntly honest about your vehicle and making sure you don’t have surprises down the road. Every day – honest service advisors have this conversation; and people still to perform the ‘extra’ repairs at that exact moment. But that conversation gives you, the owner, the ability to plan ahead and be ready for those problems, and maybe still address them before they strand you on the way to work, or make your car stall in traffic.
This is empowerment through knowledge. It is advocacy, and it is speaking for the car to make you aware of up and coming things.
So to finaliz
e, let’s go back to our original issue – the timing belt needs replaced. This honest service advisor is also going to tell you, up front, that the timing belt repair can be done by itself… but that there are additional items you should replace during the service to:
That same honest service advisor will be blunt about explaining that their recommended repair will cost more than a bare minimum repair. For argument sake, replacing the timing belt, tensioner and components, water pump, thermostat, coolant flush, oil change, and oil system cleaning is the complete repair offered – compare that to the $500-$900 earlier estimate by our ‘poor’ service advisor. However, they will also explain the value of performing that complete repair:
At this point, all the information has been given to you, and the honest advocate for your car will stop, and let you decide how to proceed. This is because they know they’ve educated you to the level to make an informed decision about your cars future.
They’ve presented honest options that always move forward for making things better – and they’ve made sure you’re properly armed to take care of problems that may pop up in the near future. This means they aren’t selling you anything, they are letting you choose a ‘level of care’ for your car.
That’s honesty and integrity – and someone who cares about you & your car.
