The Myths of Writing Service Part 1
Myths are dangerous things. They are invented from misinformation and the unknown. For example, only a few thousand years ago it was generally believed that if you sailed too far out to sea, you would fall off the end of the earth. It was only when man dared to sail out beyond where they had previously sailed that they proved the myth wrong. There was a time when people actually believed that the moon was made of cheese. That was disproven with the aid of powerful telescopes. Or how about that myth that if your wife is happy, everyone is happy – wait a minute… that last one is not a myth, or at least that is what my wife tells me.
In the automotive industry, there are myths that exist today regarding service writing, even though they have been disproven many times over by actual service writers themselves. Although they have been disproven, many still hang on to these myths. Why? I believe it is because by allowing the myth to exist, it can remain an excuse not to change; an excuse that allows many to be lazy and not acknowledge problems (which may require change or simply some sweat equity), or it could be that the myth has such strong reasoning behind it, that we just accept it as truth.
Today I list some of the most common myths surrounding the writing of service and hopefully, once and for all, make the many believers of these myths see otherwise.
Myth: If you write service and have a high closing ratio and high customer paid repair order average, then it is impossible to have high survey scores and/or high customer retention.
Fact: I know hundreds of service writers who complete the trifecta month after month, year after year. The difference is how hard you are willing to train a person and hold them accountable. If you expect and allow the myth to come true, it will – but it doesn’t have to. Think high-end restaurant here. If you visit a five star restaurant like Ruth’s Chris, you will experience servers that please people, sell plenty of appetizers, desserts and drinks and have people return in the future requesting them. As a matter of fact, if they cannot do those things, their service will not be retained and they will be let go. They accomplish the trifecta because they are trained to, and then held accountable to.
Myth: It takes at least a year before a service advisor can be a top producer.
Fact: If it takes that long, you simply hired the wrong person, did not train the person to be successful, or the person has no goals and desire to perform. If a new service writer is not meeting or exceeding your minimum standards within ninety days of their start date, it is likely they never will. If this is a concern for you, change your interview practices and/or your training program.
Myth: Finding a great service advisor is next to impossible.
Fact: The average service writer makes $65,000 annually, gets two weeks paid vacation, and has a benefit package that rivals some of the largest industries. An employment package like this puts them in the top twenty-five to thirty percent of income earners in the country. It allows them to have a house that will average 2300 square feet, and drive a new vehicle in the thirty-five thousand dollar range; and if they have a spouse that works, add in another vehicle, and another eight hundred square feet of house. With all that said, you can’t find these employees? You need help with your ads, your interviewing techniques, and help in knowing how to sell a marvelous, highly satisfying and rewarding career like service writing.
Myth: A great service writer rarely makes a great manager.
Fact: You’re right! Not if you pull them out of their job writing service one day, and throw them in the manager’s chair the next without any coaching. The mistake I see here is we constantly put people in management because they understand the technical side of the business, are well liked, and appear to want to go the extra mile. The first and most important things to look for in a new manager are their ability to lead, make decisions, and make those who surround them better. These are things, just like on the technical side of the business, that can be taught and learned by a willing student. To develop tomorrow’s leaders from today’s service writers, you have to teach them how to lead and make good decisions as they perform today’s job. Teach them to prepare for the next step up the ladder while they occupy their current step.
Myth: Service writers can handle more than fifteen customers a day.
Fact: Not if you want to have high survey scores, high customer retention, high closing ratios, high customer paid sales and maximum profits. I say this in nearly every meeting I conduct and have said so for years. If you allow your service writers to write more then fifteen repair orders a day, then forget about the high numbers in the fore mentioned areas. If you choose that path, you are now limiting your service writers to be high volume clerks. Yes, you can and will make some profits off the high volume sales template as that is the very way most dealerships allow their service writers to work. However, the other numbers simply will not be there – for one reason: lack of time. If you want to have high survey scores, customer retention, closing ratios, hours per repair order and maximum profits, you must give your writers the time to sell and work with the customers. You only have the right, in my mind, to expect high numbers in all categories if you limit and control the number of tickets written in a day to fifteen or less.
Myth: Service writers will not do what is asked of them, like walk around vehicles and memorize word tracks, nor do they respond well to authority.
Fact: No, they do not respond to weak leaders and weak leadership. If that is your problem, then your problem is clearly a question of you or your manager’s ability to lead and command respect. Think of your service writers as vendors. It is a business deal. You require them to do what you ask and they either do it and get to remain on your preferred vendors list, or they do not do what you require and you find a new vendor. Easy to do. Read the third myth again.
Myth: It takes a special service writer to be able to handle high line vehicles, because high end customers are different.
Fact: High line customers are rarely different than the non-high line customer. As a matter of fact, they many times are the same exact customer. Literally. For example, I drive a Mercedes, my wife drives a Ford. Furthermore, look at the very street I live on. There are fifteen houses. Each driveway has either a Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porche, Tesla or Lexus in it. In addition, on each of those driveways is Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai or Honda. Regardless of which vehicle we drive, we simply want to go to a place where they are enthusiastic, caring, honest, can get the job done, and through their skill and approach, make us want to return for future visits. My CFO is a perfect example. She drives past her Infinity dealership when she needs service to do business with the Toyota dealership simply because, in her words, “I get better service at the Toyota dealership.”
As I have noted many times, I am a student of history. In studying history, I have seen time and time again that once a myth is dispelled great advances routinely follow. In the future, whenever you hear something that sounds like a myth, or hear an excuse from your staff and those in the business that impedes your ability to advance, question it, challenge it and test it before succumbing to its restraints. Then you will be poised to break free from the myth’s chains that bind, and achieve advances that will make your Dealer Principle happy. Because in the end, it gets down to one simple fact, like being married: if the Dealer is happy, everyone is happy – and that ain’t no myth.
