Service Advisor Training

Our SERVICE ADVISOR TRAINING provides the foundational knowledge every advisor needs to be successful. The training is focused on four main topics: the Guest Experience, Advisor and Departmental Mathematics, Communication Skills, and Skills Development.

Guest Experience

The Guest Experience Foundations Training course outlines the process segments needed to improve the Guest Experience, the Employee Experience, the Workflow and Sales Process, and the Culture. This course dives deep into each process segment, the ‘why’ that we are working to attain to, and the specifics of how each process is executed. Upon completion of this course, the advisor should understand what success looks like and how to achieve it.

The Guest Experience Mindset training introduces connecting with our guests by using the Walk-Around as a Talk-Around. Then covers building rapport throughout the visit, guest satisfaction, and CSI. Finally, this training outlines how to communicate and present service work with a guest-focused approach.

Advisor & Department Mathematics

Service Department Mathematics covers baseline terms and topics that advisors need to understand to be successful in executing their job. It introduces the business problem relating to profitability, how to address that business problem, and how to monitor progress on a daily and monthly basis. Training topic areas included:

  • How & Why—What We Sell Affects Our Business
    • Effective Labor Rate
    • Sales and Gross Profit
    • One-Hour of Labor Analysis
  • How to Drive Effective Labor Rate
    • Wildcards
    • Maintenance Menu
    • Labor Grid
  • Keeping Score Each Day
    • Scoreboard | Games | Advisor Incentives
    • Guest Satisfaction
      • Up-Front Commitments to a World-Class Guest Experience
      • CSI Mathematics
  • Keeping Score Throughout the Month
    • Looking at Monthly Numbers: MTD vs. Tracking
    • Spotlight Daily Tracking Sheet Breakdown
    • Spotlight Data Breakdown Document

This training builds on MATH-101 Service Department Mathematics training. It was designed to help advisors understand how to optimize their pay plan. Topics included:

  • Review of Mathematics 101
    • Understanding Pricing: ELR, Sales and Gross, One-Hour of Labor Analysis
    • Affecting Pricing: Using the Maintenance Menu and Repair Labor Grid
    • Tracking Performance: Daily with the Board
    • Tracking Performance: Monthly with the Spotlight
  • Maintenance Menu Deep Dive
    • Manufacturer vs. Dealer Recommendation Schedules
    • Understanding the Cost of Ownership
    • Prioritizing Menu Items
    • Mathematics on the Impact of a Single Menu Item Sold
  • Understanding Technician Pay
    • Hourly vs. Flat Rate
    • Tasks Flat Rate Techs Get Paid to Complete
    • How Flat Rate Pay Influences Behavior
    • Being Your Tech’s Favorite Advisor
  • Maximizing Your Pay Plan
    • Pay Plan Philosophy
    • Pay Plan Categories You Cannot Afford to Miss!
    • Understanding What Your Job is About
    • Habits for Top Level Performance

Communication Skills

Our Communication-101 course takes advisors for a journey to experience the anxieties and confusions guests can feel when coming into the dealership for service. We discuss the barriers this creates in communicating effectively with our service guests. After identifying the barriers, we discuss ways to overcome them. Communication-101 concludes with a discussion about where and how we can add value to the service experience. Highlights include discussions about hospitality, differentiating ourselves in our business, and earning trust.

In COMM-101 we discussed ways to communicate value to remove the barriers that can exist between us and our guests. COMM-201 Advanced Advisor Communication outlines the ways advisors can best communicate with their guests in detail. Several action items are presented and explained to highlight the areas of opportunity for us to communicate valuable information and do it consistently.

Advanced Advisor Communication Outline:

  • Review of Communicating Value
  • Educating our Guests
  • Presenting Service Work
  • Making Plans for Guests
  • Preparing for our Guests
  • Managing Production

Skills Development

This training is part one of a two-part training course built to develop Service Advisor skills. Part One of the Skills Foundations course introduces a map to organize skillsets into groups. We introduce the focus mindsets that link with each of the skillset groups. Then use a group discussion format to discuss how specific mindsets connect with how advisors and associates focus their behaviors to support each skill group.

Both Skills Development courses focus on developing the soft skills that make the biggest difference in their job performance.

“Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center has all concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).”

– A Study of Engineering Education, by Charles Riborg Mann

Advisor Skills Development 101 training set the foundation for mindset and focus points for developing advanced advisor skills. Advisor Skills Development training discusses each skillset group in detail. Within each of the five skill groups there are multiple action points advisors can use to develop their skills—33 in total.

Advisor Skills Development Training Outline:

  • Review Advisor Skills Foundations Training—Mindsets and Focus Points for Success
  • How Skills are Developed—A Look at How our Brains Develop Skills
  • How Good and Bad Habits are Formed—Strengths Ranking Survey Breakout
  • Breaking Down the Skills—A Deep Dive into the 33 Action Points within the Skill Groups
  • Advisor Skills Self-Assessment