Anyone a Service advisor at a dealer?

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Service advisor psychological evaluation:

1. Would you rather stab Grandma or shoot Grandpa?
2. What weight oil is best for muffler bearings?
3. How long should you leave the Summer air in your tires?
4. What synthetic oils cause bearing skate?
5. How many times can you say "They all do that" before your mouth falls off.


Ohhh the dreaded bearing skate. How many Harley owners got dinged with that one.

 

[dwcopple]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: SLCraig
Funny to see this thread, one of my good buddies just took a service advisor job at the local Porsche dealer. He seems happy so far.

That's probably the best way to do it. Work at a high end brand service dept. Most of the customers you'll deal with will be loaded, so they won't complain too much if you present them with a work estimate for a couple of grand.
BINGO. Porsche is a different world compared to Joe Blow's GM/Ford/Chrysler shop

 

[Rolla07]

i know someone who is a service advisor. salary plus commision. he's been there awhile so i guess salary is alright. seems to me they upsell aka charging 10$ more per oil change for bulk syn in place of dino..seems alot of their labor times are exaggerated..aka 30 mins to change a cabin air filter (takes not even 2 mins) i asked for an alignment and the guy told me i needed shims etc etc..alignment price 79$.. after his estimate= $330..i told him to forget it..if ur good at sales and can upsell i say go for it..its like any commission based job..of course you upsell or sell things with better margin on them.

 

[rjundi]

Service Advisors are why I dread dealerships. The upsells are always there.

I recently had a warranty PS pump replacement on a Acura MDX. They called me saying the serpentine belt was cracked and could change it for $50. The problem was it was just changed 20k miles before by prior owner when I bought vehicle. I was more annoyed by the "cracks" statement.

Also I got a quote for $300 to align my car since it was "rusty" by dealer. They said tires wearing funny. I said skip.

My wife gets a flat a few weeks latter and the tire place who does free alignment check getting new tires said it in tolerance and gave us a printout. They said nothing difficult about aligning the car they could see and it was $70 if needed.

I think it is a sharky job. You likely won't be successful without the "upsells" of changing power steering fluids or those additives etc.

 

[edwardh1]

people get pixxed at jiffy lube, I did when they told me I should change my air filter every 15,000 miles, and showed me the air filter from the car. My civic was brand new and had about 3500 miles on it!!!!!

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Service advisor psychological evaluation:

1. Would you rather stab Grandma or shoot Grandpa?
2. What weight oil is best for muffler bearings?
3. How long should you leave the Summer air in your tires?
4. What synthetic oils cause bearing skate?
5. How many times can you say "They all do that" before your mouth falls off.


Chrysler trains their service advisors to do #5 pretty well! We bought a ford and a jeep from the same dealer. While the Ford had significantly less problems, they were always willing to help and do ANYTHING under warranty. When it came to the Jeep ... "they all do that".

Case in point - the jeep's engine was knocking and drinking oitl at 1 quart / 650 miles ... they all do that. (3.8)

 

[Spector]

All the reps I have dealt with it seems to be the employer that dictates how well they can do their job. If $$ is the bottom line and emphasized to the extreme by the owner then upselling, poor service cannot be helped. Sad part is, it seem every time I find one that is trustworthy and is interested in customer service they either move on or the dealership is sold and a new crew takes over. My Ford dealer, had the car 9 months already 2 new service managers all claiming to be customer service oriented. Well, not based on my experience so far.

 

[Spazdog]

I've been a service advisor in the past.

I hated it.

I would go to the schedule Monday morning dreading working service. (please be parts counter, please be parts counter, please be parts counter...) DRAT! Service Advisor.

I must have been pretty good at it. I often got scheduled during peak sales hours.

Spiff was better at tires and service. I liked the paychecks. But I would have rather been at the parts counter anyday.

It just seemed like such a continuous juggling act. Keeping the tire installers on task, organizing the work flow with the techs, fielding calls, ordering parts, explaining to customers that just because I'm charging them 4 hours of labor that doesn't mean their car will be ready in exactly 4 hours, trying to explain why I cannot warranty just a compressor on an A/C repair and why they need the accumulator etc...selling selling and upselling.

The advisors that were just bovine fecal artists did better than than I did. Oh, but some of the things they said to make those sales

 

[SLCraig]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: Doog
Service advisor psychological evaluation:

1. Would you rather stab Grandma or shoot Grandpa?
2. What weight oil is best for muffler bearings?
3. How long should you leave the Summer air in your tires?
4. What synthetic oils cause bearing skate?
5. How many times can you say "They all do that" before your mouth falls off.


Chrysler trains their service advisors to do #5 pretty well! We bought a ford and a jeep from the same dealer. While the Ford had significantly less problems, they were always willing to help and do ANYTHING under warranty. When it came to the Jeep ... "they all do that".

Case in point - the jeep's engine was knocking and drinking oitl at 1 quart / 650 miles ... they all do that. (3.8)


When I had my Neon in warranty back in the day, the local Dodge dealer bent over backwards to help me out with warranty claims and warranty concerns. They were open late and would fix anything on my car no questions asked. They even replaced some bushings in my front suspension and my car was on lowering springs at the time..

Every dealer is different, as is every car.

 

[surfstar]

I just thought of a new career opportunity - Anti-Service Advisor.

You're a consultant who advises customers at dealerships as to which service they actually need! You charge 50% of the $ that you save them.