Shop Fix Academy Podcast · 2026-06-29 · 37 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
48 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
This episode breaks down the core competencies that drive revenue for automotive service advisors, challenging the industry myth that deep technical knowledge is essential. Communication emerges as the dominant skill - defined not as talking, but as active listening and genuine conversation. The hosts emphasize that most advisors hurt themselves by talking over customers, using corny jokes to mask nervousness, or making up excuses rather than admitting what they don't know. They discuss the importance of internalizing scripts so they sound natural rather than robotic, comparing it to a musician practicing scales until they can play artfully. Practical techniques covered include the "no update update" (calling customers to manage expectations even without new information), preparing mentally before high-ticket sales calls by reviewing the RO and anticipating objections, and balancing communication channels - using texts selectively and always following written quotes with a voice call. The episode targets service advisors, shop managers, and shop owners looking to increase ticket values and customer satisfaction without requiring technician expertise.
Advisors with technical backgrounds tend to try fixing the car over the phone rather than facilitating a visit, make assumptions about problems before getting full information, and attempt to sound like experts using jargon that confuses customers and signals distrust.
Use a simple script like 'Great question - let me get you an answer on that. Can I put you on a brief hold?' rather than making up information or taking long pauses, which makes you sound dishonest.
Texts should only be used sparingly for updates; always follow a text quote or estimate with an immediate phone call to walk through it and answer questions, since text-only communication has the lowest clarity and highest misinterpretation rate.
Calling a customer proactively even without new information to manage expectations - for example, 'Bob's still diagnosing, no clarity yet, can I call you back in an hour?' - prevents incoming calls and keeps customers feeling heard and informed.
Review the RO completely, understand the customer's history and what they care about, anticipate what pushback or objections they might have, then call when you're mentally ready to guide them - never while scrolling through notes or bringing up information during the call.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
A handful of genuinely useful tactical observations (no-update update, pre-call research before delivering estimates, trust as the root of price objections) are buried under substantial banter, repetition, and obvious advice like 'communicate well' and 'don't lie to customers.' The ARO math is illustrative but elementary and amounts to filler.
That is just a deflection mechanism to go. I don't know that I trust you
The too much money is actually you didn't do your job in the beginning
The reframe of 'I'll sell it' and 'too much money' as trust deflections rather than genuine objections is a non-obvious and useful insight, but the rest of the episode recycles standard sales-training wisdom - scripts need to feel natural, listen more, follow up proactively - without any contrarian or first-principles argument.
That is just a deflection mechanism to go. I don't know that I trust you
The too much money is actually you didn't do your job in the beginning
Both hosts are genuine former practitioners - one a 10-year technician turned advisor, one a 15-year advisor turned manager - with real hands-on experience, which grounds the conversation. However, they are now primarily selling their own coaching program, and the episode ends as a thinly veiled sales pitch, reducing their standing as pure operators.
I was a technician for 10 years and then moved into the service advisor position only because the shop I wanted to work for didn't have a spot for me as a technician
I was paid, uh, $29,000 a year... there was no onboarding process. There was no training. It was literally, hey, here's the phone
There are some concrete numbers - $29K starting salary, 200-300 cars/month advisor throughput, a $94 Toyota oil change coupon, $600/month training cost - and the $200 ARO increase claim gives a headline figure, but it comes entirely from their own program with no external validation, client names, or case study depth.
the average advisor in six months will increase their aro by how much? Average advisor will increase their aro by $200
$100 times. Let's go the low end. 200 cars, that's a $20,000 increase in that month
The co-host format produces an easy, collegial rapport, but questions are mostly leading and collaborative rather than probing; claims like the $200 ARO increase go entirely unchallenged, and the final segment dissolves into an explicit promotional pitch for their own product with no pushback whatsoever.
if you're out there and you're stuck at a certain revenue level...we have tools and we've created a program, uh, for you
The Berg, that's his name. First name, the last name Berg. My name is Guy
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
$240,000 should be the baseline for a service advisor, but instead it seems like a dream to many shop owners. In this episode Berg and Guy investigate the phone calls that drive your business and how to change your front counter to actually bring in profit. They dive into the systems that will protect your liability, basic objection handling that will save your $8,000 tickets and how properly training one advisor can generate over a quarter million dollars for your shop! Get the structure and clarity your shop has been missing with Shop Fix LITE . Learn the systems top shop owners use to consistently increase profit and build stronger teams at Shop Hackers Conferenc e. Explore Shop Fix Academy Events led by operators who have solved the same profit, leadership, and operational challenges you’re facing now.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Did you ever listen to yourself on phone calls?
Speaker B: Oh my gosh, I sound like that
Speaker A: when they are actually used, they sound
Speaker B: like they're reading the advisors don't treat it like it's art.
Speaker A: Have you ever done this? And I've done this once. It burned me once.
Speaker B: That is big. That is. That is massive. It is just a deflection mechanism to go. I don't know that I trust you. Welcome to the Shop Fix Academy podcast. I'm your host, the Berg.
Speaker A: The Berg, that's his name. First name, the last name Berg. My name is Guy and uh, we're going to talk a little bit today about service advisor.
Speaker B: Right, Service advisor.
Speaker A: And that's where I started 15 years ago as a service advisor.
Speaker B: Love it.
Speaker A: How about you?
Speaker B: I was uh, actually a technician for 10 years and then moved into the service advisor position only because the shop I wanted to work for didn't have a spot for me as a technician.
Speaker A: And did you go by Berg? No. No, I gave you that name.
Speaker B: You gave me that name.
Speaker A: You went by Mike.
Speaker B: Never Mike. Guy Roberts.
Speaker A: That's a hot button.
Speaker B: Guy Roberts. And I like to push. Never mind.
Speaker A: Never call him Mike. He's Michael or he gets angry.
Speaker B: This is a mic.
Speaker A: This is a mic. So, so what makes a good service advisor?
Speaker B: Yeah, I think let's talk about that. Like the attributes of a great service advisor. And we've seen, I mean especially with you in sales fix program, you've had a ton of advisors come through that program and we can kind of highlight some of those and spotlight those. But like what are the top attributes of a service advisor in your opinion?
Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Um, I think, um, and just coming up as a service advisor, being a manager of service advisors, definitely the advisors who were the most successful were great communicators. That's the, um. I think the biggest attribute of a great service advisor is communication. Just great communicator. And I think that a lot of shop owners feel like you have to have a lot of auto knowledge. You have to have a lot of knowledge about cars to sell work.
Speaker B: Oh yeah, that's in. Back in the day that was, that was the truth, right?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Because nobody trusted anybody unless they knew all the things and they can run out to the car and tune the carburetor real quick and you know, send them on their way. Yeah, the full times, full service, uh, with the Mayberry Gomer.
Speaker A: Gomer pile.
Speaker B: Gomer pile.
Speaker A: Yeah, let's get off Gomer. But yeah, so definitely my experience and I don't know if this was your experience, because I'd love to hear you coming from the back to the front.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: As well. As a technician going into service advisor role, what were. What were some of the things that you struggled with?
Speaker B: Well, a. I struggle with technicians that didn't do the full inspections.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: And I was telling customers half the story of the car, I felt a lot of times. So I struggle with that a lot coming from the technician world.
Speaker A: Okay. And you felt like you had to lean on your technician knowledge a lot.
Speaker B: 100%. The biggest thing I struggled with is when a customer called and said, hey, I've, uh, got this going on in my car. I wanted to fix it. Yeah. I wanted to fix that sucker Right. Over the phone. Do this, do this, do this. And you, you know, and it's hard to shift that gear to that communicator.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: Because you're facilitating and trying to get them over the curb. You're trying to get them into your store. You're not trying to fix the car over the phone.
Speaker A: Correct.
Speaker B: They don't want that.
Speaker A: They don't.
Speaker B: The car's still broke.
Speaker A: Exactly. And they don't understand a lot of what you're saying. Right. I'll just say, uh, a lot of what has connected with service advisors, being in sales fix and talking with advisors. Many advisors who don't have that auto background have been phenomenal salespeople. Phenomenal.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: I didn't have auto background. M. I don't feel like I was an amazing salesperson, but I did a really good job. And I feel like it was leaning on. Actually, I know it's because of just the way I communicate with people. Because, I mean, think about your aunt Donna. Right.
Speaker B: She.
Speaker A: My aunt Donna. 70 something years old. And you're throwing out words like hydroscopic fluid, you know, because. What does that mean?
Speaker B: M. What is.
Speaker A: I don't know. She doesn't either. And she doesn't care. Right. Customers just want to know, you know, how much and when do I get my car back.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: But they do want to understand what's going on, right?
Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, they want to feel safe. They want to feel like they can trust you.
Speaker A: Correct.
Speaker B: They want to have that relationship. They don't care about all the terms. They just want to know, can I trust this guy?
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And car knowledge does not make trust necessarily. Right. Oftentimes we talk over their heads, customers heads, and they're just thinking in the back of their head, how do I get out of this conversation?
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: So that's what's going on with that.
Speaker B: Absolutely. So what are some other. So communication.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: It's interesting because communication is 80% visual. Yes. Which means you have to be even more of an effective communicator over the phone because they can't see you.
Speaker A: True. Absolutely.
Speaker B: So getting those scripts down and just knowing how to communicate and how to talk and. Yeah. Scripting is so, so crucial and it's not done right.
Speaker A: I mean we hear it in sales fix all the time. Uh, when scripts are actually used, which is not that often.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: When they are actually used, they sound like they're reading.
Speaker B: They. That's the biggest problem with scripts. The advisors don't treat it like it's art.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: If they turn that script into an art, that they're actually owning that and that's their masterpiece, it would completely change the difference of a script.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: It has to be turned into art because they have to own it.
Speaker A: Yeah. Make it their own for sure.
Speaker B: Absolutely.
Speaker A: Absolutely. And those are some of the things that we teach is taking those scripts and internalizing them on your training time, not while in the moment and in, uh, in the call with the customer. Internalizing them. So it naturally comes out of you. So you know, when you, you know, you can liken this to anything. Let's just use music for example. And a musician, you have to do your practice and you have to learn uh, all the parts and all the different tools. Like if you're a guitar player, all this, all the, the scales and uh, understand melody, things like that. You can't just.
Speaker B: I have zero melody.
Speaker A: You do have zero melody. We're going to have him sing a little bit. End of this, actually. You played the intro, didn't you? Yeah, the intro music. No, uh, but it's, it's exactly like that. Learn the parts, you know, learn drummers. Learn your rudiments. Learn all the, all the tools on your tool belt so it comes out of you.
Speaker B: And listen back, uh, like after you played it, like you've got to. That's practice. It's art.
Speaker A: Did you ever listen to yourself on phone calls?
Speaker B: I hated it. I hated it. But when I did, I got better. So I was like, oh my gosh, I sound like that.
Speaker A: Yeah. I thought I was doing X, Y and Z. Oh yeah.
Speaker B: In your head you make up these stories. You're like, I sound like this. You know, it's just not true.
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: Yeah. But listening to them. But it was interesting. When you listen to recordings, you actually listen to the customer. And I never felt like I listened to the customer.
Speaker A: Well, you feel like it was because you were trying to think of the next thing to say.
Speaker B: Yes, I was trying to fix their car.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I was listening a little bit to them, but it's like, what's the fix? I already know this. You drive a Toyota Camry, it's gonna be an ignition coil. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A: Well, that's interesting. So that's something that, as a technician moving to the front counter, that you're gonna struggle with because you're hearing what they say.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Speaker A: M. Like, uh, I know exactly what that is.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Spark plug. I know.
Speaker B: It's seen 100%.
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker B: Yeah. I'm already building the estimate in my head.
Speaker A: Yeah. Nice.
Speaker B: Which. The price would come out for sure. A lot of times. Okay. Uh, which is also a mistake to give a price because you don't know.
Speaker A: Nope.
Speaker B: You just. You don't know what the car needs over the phone.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Come on. I thought I did. I was a technician.
Speaker A: That's true.
Speaker B: I didn't know. So. Communicating, listening. I think a lot of advisors fail on the listening part. They don't take time, and they don't pause after the customer. Guys, when you listen to your own store and you listen to your advisors, it's just. It's never a good day. No, it's never a good day. But they constantly talk over the customer. Constantly. I'm like, guys, just slow down, pause, think, listen.
Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And I do hear a lot of the corny jokes.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: Are you sitting down, Mr. Smith?
Speaker B: You know, oh, my gosh.
Speaker A: And I. I feel like it's. It's, uh, it's. Please, God, don't say that.
Speaker B: Don't.
Speaker A: But I feel like it is. It is. It's because you're nervous. Uh, most often it's because you don't know what to say. And you're absolutely. You're. You feel like you're being a good communicator by tying things together with little corny jokes. Um, please don't do that.
Speaker B: Please, no corny jokes.
Speaker A: Have a conversation. Just have a.
Speaker B: Just have a conversation.
Speaker A: Simple conversation. That's right. The advisors who don't have auto background, a big struggle is, uh, they feel like they need to lean on auto knowledge. And when they don't know the answer to a question a customer has, there's these long pauses where they're trying to. Because they're trying to think of the words to say because they want to sound like the expert.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah, right. All the time.
Speaker A: And I remember listening back to a specific I have a specific advisor of mine. M sitting her down and having her listen to herself. When she didn't know what to say, there was these long pauses. And what it sounded like when you listened to it is she's trying to make up something.
Speaker B: Oh boy.
Speaker A: Right. And it sounded very dishonest. She wasn't being dishonest. She just.
Speaker B: Do not make up a story. Don't. Do not lie to your customer.
Speaker A: Easy script for that.
Speaker B: Oh man.
Speaker A: Great question, Mr. Smith.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Let me get an answer for you on that. Can I put you on a brief hold?
Speaker B: Absolutely.
Speaker A: Really quick. Sounds very natural. Yeah, sounds very trustworthy, you know.
Speaker B: Mhm. In. On, on the lying topic, like customers would call in, you make up all these different excuses, blah, blah, blah. Just tell them the truth.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: They would much rather know that you forgot to order the part and that's why their car is not getting out of the shop for sure. Hey, I'm sorry. I'm human. I messed up. I did not order that part. I missed the cutoff. I'm sorry. Every time they were. They just worked with you because you, you talked to them like another human being.
Speaker A: Correct.
Speaker B: Do not tell stories.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: It never works out.
Speaker A: It doesn't. It always leads into a deeper hole and a deeper hole and a deeper hole. And uh, we've all been caught with those, those, those things.
Speaker B: Another one, another thing that, uh, um. A great advisor. When a customer calls in and says, hey, you know, have y' all checked out my car yet? Oh, all the time. It's like, oh yeah, I was just about to call you.
Speaker A: They always say that. I was thinking about it.
Speaker B: Please do not do that. Just go, hey, let me check on this. I know they were getting super close. Let me call you back in. Can I call you back in five minutes?
Speaker A: Have you ever done this? And I've done this once. It burned me once. Have you said, yeah, Mr. Smith. They're actually, they actually already pulled it around and it's still sitting out there. And the customer drove by, saw their car, that's why they called.
Speaker B: I had a customer actually do that, but he was walking in the door on the phone with me.
Speaker A: Oh, I've never had that happen. Tell me what happened. Um, tell me all about it.
Speaker B: Burke's face got real red.
Speaker A: Oh yeah. Backpedaling.
Speaker B: Oh. I just, I ended up just apologizing like, love it. I'm so sorry. I learned a big lesson on that one.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Big loss.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: The no update update.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Speaking of communication and.
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker B: All the ways not to communicate.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: No update update. So many advisors are scared of that.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: What do I do? Or, or, or the um, when things are slow, calling a customer, just doing callbacks.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: But yeah, the no update update is wonderful. As long as you have a script for it.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's great for me. Like the, the no update update. The technician's still back on the safari trying to figure out the car.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: Has no clue what's going on.
Speaker A: But wait a minute, I thought you on this. So we're not in Africa. It's an actual safari.
Speaker B: It's an actual safari. That's what I call them. They're on, on these massive safaris. They have no clue where they're going. On this car. Yeah.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker B: Maybe they're under the dash with the wiring harness broken out. I don't know.
Speaker A: Does Chevy make a safari? That's what I thought. That's what I thought you meant.
Speaker B: There have been some safaris. On safaris.
Speaker A: On safaris. Gotcha.
Speaker B: Okay. Um, but the technician has no clue where. They haven't figured out what's going on. Well, advisors are a lot of times scared to call the customer and just tell them like, hey, I have no idea what's going on with your car.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: When in fact they need to do that.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And they need to go, hey, um, Bob's back there on the car right now. He hasn't figured it out just yet. Can I call you at this time? Managing expectations.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker B: Is the biggest thing. So the no update update. Just saying, hey, Mr. Customer, I know about you, I hear you, I feel for you and I'm communicating about the process and just managing those expectations.
Speaker A: Especially when it's. The car's there for multiple days, even though you told the customer, you know, it's dropped off on Monday, this is gonna, we'll have it ready for you on Friday. Yeah, they're still thinking about it. Wednesday, they're wondering, are we still on target for this? This is a great time to use texting, but leaning too much on texting. Talk about that for a minute. I've experienced that.
Speaker B: Oh yes.
Speaker A: On the sale, on the update. I never hear the voice of the advisor at all when I've brought my car to a shop and it's just, you know what I mean?
Speaker B: Here's this, here's this, here's this, here's this.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Texting is like the least communication you can possibly do. If you think about communication as a whole, like it's 80% visual.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Well, texting is just. Oh, just got A text. How many times have you misread a text?
Speaker A: Oh uh, yeah.
Speaker B: Especially from your wife. Yeah. And you're like oh I didn't mean it like that.
Speaker A: Correct. But it's all caps. Berg.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Why were you yelling at me?
Speaker B: I wasn't, I was just excited.
Speaker A: You were yelling. I saw it.
Speaker B: I was excited.
Speaker A: Well I mean different. They send you a quote over a text. Oh yeah. I'm in this industry and some of those quotes I really, I need some
Speaker B: help and I don't even, I can't even, I can't make heads or tail of this and I'm in the industry.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: And I'm trying to read through it and decipher it. You. Yeah. You don't even know.
Speaker A: Yeah. So keeping those. Shoot a text with the quote, call immediately. Hey, I just sent you a quote. Do you have any questions?
Speaker B: Absolutely.
Speaker A: Uh, maybe a text here and there to update now if you prepared me
Speaker B: as a service advisor. Hey, by the way, I'm going to send you a text. It's going to read like this. Here's how it's going to flow. This is what it's going to look like. I need you to look at it first. You might be confused but I need you to call me as soon as you get that and I'll walk you through it.
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker B: Yeah, that's completely different.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: It's so communication. But managing expectations. Yeah, those are in my book. Those are the top two.
Speaker A: Yeah. I love it.
Speaker B: If you can do those two. Well you, you are on your way to being a great service advisor.
Speaker A: Yeah. Managing expectations is not handled well in shops. It's really just don't hear it. Yeah, I mean we get calls all the time. Sales fix calls are uploaded and even calls for um, our certification. I want them to send their best stuff in. It's clearly not their best work.
Speaker B: Oh my goodness.
Speaker A: That they're sending in. I hope maybe it is their best work. I don't know but it just doesn't sound good. Right. It's not good conversation. It's not clear. You know, there's no advocation for the customer. Um, it's, it's order taking, it's reading what's on an RO to a customer and checking the yeses and no's.
Speaker B: So that kind of brings us to, to maybe a third point which is preparedness.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Talk to me about an advisor prepared because like you're managing a million things like the parts just went wrong on this car. That car went south. There's another thing I've got to call Mrs. Smith back.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: You're managing a ton of things like how do you get prepared? In a moment you've got a $8,000 invoice that gets put in your lap. As a service advisor, what does that preparedness look like?
Speaker A: Processes for sure. You have to have processes, but being less reactionary and more proactive with everything. So a lot of wasted time is on taking incoming calls all the time because they're not doing the outgoing calls. Mhm. And I know.
Speaker B: So hold on, go ahead. For everybody listening out there, that means if you're not doing the updates properly correct. You're gonna have an influx of inbound calls which puts you on a defense in a reactionary state, which takes more time.
Speaker A: So think about it. When you take an incoming call, you don't know who it is. You got to bring up the customer's information. Hold on just a sec. Mr. Jones, let me look, let me bring up your ticket.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: This, you know, maybe it's not your customer, it's the other service advisor's customer. Let me talk to Berg and get some information for you. Whatever. There's a lot of wasted time before you get to the whole reason why maybe they called was what's going on with my car?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: When on the front end. If it's like, okay, at this time I going to call these three customers. 90% of the time you're going to get a voicemail. You're going to leave a simple voicemail script. Okay. Uh, just giving you an update on your car. It's still in process. You know we, we're still on track to have that done by the end of the day for you. I will give you a call when it's ready to go. Sure. That's it. That took 10 seconds.
Speaker B: Sure. Would you also send a text message?
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker B: In today's if you're taking, if you
Speaker A: send a text, make a call.
Speaker B: Perfect.
Speaker A: Uh, calls are great. You know, oftentimes uh, that's a great Send a wolf.
Speaker B: The fax, the text, the email, the letter though. Oh, woof.
Speaker A: We need to cut to the clip of the office right here. But yes, that's uh, is to get to your point. You have so much going on as a service advisor. Let's say you got 20 cars in the shop at one time that you handle. Four of them are drop offs that you've got to get checked in. Another four are, we have to get parts ordered for them. Another four are in process and some of those may be snowballing into other issues. That you've got to call the customer and sell more work to.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And some of those might be being wrapped up. We've got to get the QC done and call the customer and let them know it's ready to go. So you're thinking, as an advisor, I've got all of these cars at different levels and different sections of the process. I've got to keep straight up here. You gotta make that time and knock these things out and have a process.
Speaker B: So that's number one in preparedness.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: There's so many, uh, service advisors that rush into selling an, uh, $8,000 ticket or $4,000 ticket, and you're not really selling. I don't really like that word. You're educating.
Speaker A: You're guiding.
Speaker B: You're guiding them on what the vehicle needs. There's a whole reset process for that. Oh, for sure. Because you got all these other things that you're managing and juggling to talk to me about that reset process.
Speaker A: Yeah. So you've got an $8,000 ticket, but what happens most often, even $3,000, $1,000, you're in the middle of all those things. So what happens is you're picking up the phone, you're dialing the customer's number. Does that even do that anymore? This is very 19, uh, 87. Uh, you call the customer. The phone is ringing while you're bringing up the RO and reading about.
Speaker B: Oh, so you hadn't even reviewed it.
Speaker A: You haven't even reviewed it. And we hear this in the calls.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: I mean, when they upload these calls, we can hear it.
Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker A: Hey, Mr. Jones. I'm just going over your ro here. Make all those noises. They do it so often.
Speaker B: Let's see. And then we're going to go.
Speaker A: Uh, yeah, the technicians said.
Speaker B: I'm not sure.
Speaker A: Yep. They're reading technician notes. The technician says that blah, blah, blah. So before you do that, just bring up the R.O. get yourself situated with. Okay. Mr. Jones came in. Uh, we talked about his car. He loves this car. Here uh, are the things going on with this car. Here are my options. What's some pushback that he might give to me. I need to prepare for that. Okay. Now I'm gonna call. I'm gonna pick up the phone, I'm gonna call, and I'm ready to go right out of the gate.
Speaker B: Do you feel like an advisor should know what the customer is willing to do before they call the customer?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Like, if you're a great service advisor, this is a big deal. If you don't know on that you're about to dial and go over that ticket. If you don't know, you should do a pre call to that call to find out. Uh, what is the appetite to keep this car for a long time? If it needs a lot of this work, you should have done that on the check in.
Speaker A: On the check in, I was going to say. Yeah.
Speaker B: Uh, all of that should have processed through there. And if you don't know what the appetite or where the customer is going to go, what the journey is with this car, you should make that call first before bringing in the estimate and prices.
Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Very quickly. I would not bring those questions up before you're about to deliver the news of what the car needs.
Speaker B: Oh, 100%.
Speaker A: Because, I mean, think about what that sounds like.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Hey, Mr. Rosenberger, um, how much do you like this car before? You know, don't do that. What are your future plans with this car? Because I've got a list. You know what I mean? So, yes, very quickly, after the car's checked in, it's kind of like there's some questions I should ask the customer. Mr. Jones, what are your plans for this car? Just while we're doing this inspection on the car, uh, just want to know what are your future plans for the car? How long are you wanting to keep this car and just lead that customer? Oftentimes, customers will say, I want to drive it till the wheels fall off. I love this thing. Most people, when they buy a car, they picked a car because they like the car. We treat customers like most of them absolutely despised the vehicle, and they're ready to sell it at a moment's notice. Right?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So, uh, that. And that's not the case.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: I mean, you like your car, right?
Speaker B: They brought the car to you to fix, for sure. They didn't bring it to the dealer to trade in.
Speaker A: That's right. But they revert to that. Uh, I'm just gonna sell it. And then you're working on it again in six months, nine months, ten months, ten years later. Because that is their response to them not trusting you 100%.
Speaker B: That is big. That is massive. It is just a deflection mechanism to go. I don't know that I trust you, guy.
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: I'm gonna do some more research.
Speaker A: The go to responses are, I'm gonna sell it. I need to talk to my wife. I need to talk to my husband. Most often they don't. No, but you should have a response for that. I can give your husband a call Right now. I can give your wife a call right now, you know, uh, or just blatant. I'm um, not going to do that today.
Speaker B: And a great way. Just a pro tip here to advert that is on the initial, like, hey, I'm going to send you the inspection. Do you also want me to send it to your spouse?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And if they say no, no, no, just send it to me, then I know they're the decision maker and they don't need to talk to the spouse.
Speaker A: Correct, Correct.
Speaker B: So just a little pro tip there.
Speaker A: Also, oftentimes they'll say, oh, that's just too much money. And oftentimes that is not the case. Yeah, that is. It could be the case for sure, but oftentimes it's not the case.
Speaker B: 90% of the time I think we've discovered it's not the case.
Speaker A: It's a response because they don't trust you.
Speaker B: The too much money is actually you didn't do your job in the beginning.
Speaker A: Yes. I think if they're saying it's too much money, there's something that you didn't
Speaker B: tee up and there's nothing you can do necessarily to overcome that yourself.
Speaker A: Correct.
Speaker B: Now you need to hand that ticket to the manager and go, hey, they told me it was too much money. Mhm. Well, now the manager has to go, where did we lose the trust factor for them to say no?
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: And so somebody else needs to take a second or third swing at that. Because the money part is actually about the trust part.
Speaker A: It is. There isn't a magical script that always works with people and, you know, hypnotizes them to accept it. It's honestly just you connecting with a customer. That's it. They just need to lower their guard and say, I trust you. I trust what you're telling me. It might get to a point where it's like, gosh, I can't do all that. It's not in my budget. Well, let's figure out what is in your budget. Absolutely. Um, and let's get you a path to getting this taken care of because we want to get you in your car longer. We want you to drive your car for a longer period of time, more miles to your car. Cars are not investments. You are investing in miles in the car. So Berg, tell me about when you became a service advisor. You didn't get that position as a technician.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So what was your training like?
Speaker B: Well, I was paid, uh, $29,000 a year.
Speaker A: Hey, that's a little less than me,
Speaker B: but not much and, uh, there was no onboarding process. There was no training. It was literally, hey, here's the phone. Here's our phone number. Here's the parts suppliers. Good luck.
Speaker A: Wow.
Speaker B: Uh, yeah. And I sat next to somebody that was like in, in the shop for 15 years. So he'd been there for a long time. All the customers knew him. He would give away so much money, it was ridiculous. That's why they loved him 100%. Why they loved him. But, uh, it was four years before I got training. Who. Four years. And I begged for it. Like I wanted the training. And I. Shop owners, train your people.
Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Speaker B: Train your, send your people to training. The second that I got training, all of these concepts that we've talked about today, all these things, they're so fundamental. From taking a store from 500,000 to 5 million, for sure. Like the things that I learned in just the first training, the pause effect, the building the relationship in the beginning. What is the plan with your vehicle? There were so many fundamental things that I learned in one day of training. The ARO jumped like a hundred dollars the next month. Training is so crucial to the business because it's all of these little things. Like, we've probably given what, 10 or 15 little pro tips on this call, for sure. Just a little bit. But imagine, uh, immersing, uh, somebody, a service advisor in that training.
Speaker A: Consistent. Yeah, we did. Same experience. I sat on the front counter, sit next to her, just do what she does. And it was terrible. I tried to quit three months in and was talked back into hanging in there. Luckily, the owner recognized that we've let you down. We need to support you. Um, and service advisors want that, right?
Speaker B: Absolutely.
Speaker A: Because when customers are upset about what's going on, it's all projected onto the service advisor.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: And you're taking that on. But what I learned was regular training was good for me. It, it helped support me, it helped ramp up my performance. As far as, you know, the metrics, hitting the metrics, increasing my aro. I mean, we were doing regular training once a month.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: Uh, but we did learn that, hey, after that fire hose of training on a four hour training after hours sure was fantastic. And we, we grab some things like drinking from a fire hose. Right. You get what you need.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And the rest just hits the ground.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: But between those two trainings, you revert to old habits.
Speaker B: Right. Um, every time.
Speaker A: And so many shop owners don't want to invest in training and they want to send their advisors to a weekend retreat or something to get Just all this information crammed into their head. Right.
Speaker B: You think about it, they get the most impact on a weekend and like that. They see that impact the next week.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: That just trails off so fast.
Speaker A: It does.
Speaker B: They're like, I need to send back to another weekend.
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: But if they just maintain that level of training every week in little bits. Little bits. It's little tips every single week.
Speaker A: So let's do some math. Let's do the fun stuff.
Speaker B: Oh, uh, let's.
Speaker A: Calculator time.
Speaker B: Oh, guys. Bringing out the calculator.
Speaker A: So if you are a service advisor, even if you feel like your advisor is good enough, Right. They've got a good aro.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: With training, with focusing on the things that they need to be focusing on. Even if it's things that you know, as an advisor, like you say, I know this stuff. Like, we get this all the time. I know this stuff. Then we hear their phone calls and we hear that they're not doing the things right. So if they can focus on it and be always aware of the things that they should be always working on.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: You are going to increase your aro.
Speaker B: Love it.
Speaker A: So let's do a little fun math. Right?
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: Did you know the Average advisor handles two to 300 cars a month? Okay, Google it. Two to 300 cars a month. So let's say if you increase your ARO by 100 bucks, that's an oil change nowadays, right?
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: Coupon oil change I got at Toyota was $94, uh, a few weeks ago. So $100, that's nothing. $100 times. Let's go the low end. 200 cars, that's a $20,000 increase in that month. $20,000.
Speaker B: Which is a little bit of training.
Speaker A: Just a little bit of training. If you can sell one more thing. Right. And selling one more thing not because you have this velvet tongue and you are great at talking people into things.
Speaker B: It's.
Speaker A: I've built a rapport. I have great, uh, workflow practices. I have good scripts in my head that I naturally use all the things that go into training. I understand profitability. I build profitable tickets. Right. You may be great at communicating, but you suck at building a profitable ticket. You don't understand gross profit, dollar per hour or whatever. Now you understand those things. You put all these things together and your aro goes up. Even if as an owner, it's like, oh, they're doing good enough. Good enough is not good enough. It shouldn't be good enough. And I wouldn't want my advisors in my Shop to feel like they're good enough. I want them to be hungry for more.
Speaker B: Absolutely right. It's the art of service advising it is. And you constantly work on yourself and you constantly improve you all the time. And I would argue that your advisors should want to train. If they don't, that's a sign of somebody punching a clock versus actually wanting to do this as a career.
Speaker A: So if they're paid commission.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: Let's put the. Put those numbers in there.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: Now, I just increased what I sold this month by $20,000. 100% minimum. Right. What did I do for the year 20. 20,000 times 12. $240,000. Do the math. Right. Quarter of a million dollars more by one advisor increasing their arrow by $100.
Speaker B: Sure. Not doing any more work. Just polishing some skills.
Speaker A: The skills. Just dialing things in.
Speaker B: Guy, why do you think that shop owners don't focus on training as much as they should?
Speaker A: I feel like they look at that cost of training. Um, so let's say training is $600 a month to train your people. They look at that as. They don't see the immediate return on that.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: And so we did a little bit of math there. Um, let's say you're spending that $600 a month. I think they get panicky. I think they look at, uh, the bills that they're paying. I think they look at their P and L and they look at where they can cut. I think they have advisors who maybe are not taking the training seriously that.
Speaker B: That right there.
Speaker A: And they feel like they're wasting money.
Speaker B: They compare the money that they're spending and then they look at Johnny over in the corner going, sorry if your name's Johnny.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Not picking on you.
Speaker A: We love you, Johnny.
Speaker B: But Johnny's over there in the corner going, I don't want to do this. Or just punching the buttons, click into the videos and not applying anything because again, he's just doing this to punch a clock. Not a career.
Speaker A: Correct. And I'll tell you this. When I've. And none of this is rocket science. Right. I've sat with many a shop owner and talked about this engagement. How do I get my service advisors engaged? And I always ask this question, tell me this, has your advisor been with you a long time? Have they been in the industry a long time? If yes, they often say, I know this stuff. I don't need training, boss. Right. And that's just not true. Right.
Speaker B: Honestly, it's managing the expectations on the interview.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker B: Of the owner Initially correct, going, hey, how responsive are you to training? Like I have a training program. Do you want to be trained on a weekly basis?
Speaker A: That's a great indicator of if you're hiring a good person, right?
Speaker B: Absolutely. But they don't even talk about that in the interview process. Like if I'm going to go work for somebody, I want to be poured into, I want to be made better for sure. And so if you have a training program, oh yeah, sign me up.
Speaker A: And if you've got someone who doesn't need it, say they don't need it.
Speaker B: That's a good indicator of been to a lot of training. Like it's a, you know, I feel like most of the training, I've already mastered a lot of it. Like, hold on.
Speaker A: But most shops already have people on the front counter, right?
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: So now the way that person responds to being trained is an indicator of do I invest in this person or do I move on and get somebody? Now I can have that interview process. If this person is not open to training, I can interview someone and start the conversation out with, I would love to pour into you in regular training. Is that something that you're interested in? When I talk to shop owners about this and I talk to them about how they delivered the training, oftentimes they want the easy button they want. I just want to buy the training and give it to them and say do it on your downtime and then walk away and do something else.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: It doesn't work, Don't. So don't even try it.
Speaker B: Right, Absolutely.
Speaker A: Uh, so if you, number one, have to hold your people accountable and there is no training company out there that will do that for you.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: Because at the end of the day accountability looks like the person who hired who does the hiring and firing. That's the accountability piece.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: The manager, the owner, that's the accountability piece.
Speaker B: 100%.
Speaker A: A training company can only support that. Yeah, uh, right, that's it.
Speaker B: And just provide the tools.
Speaker A: Provide the tools.
Speaker B: You've got to be the one reaching into the drawer, pulling the tool out
Speaker A: and actually provide visibility. Yeah, that's the extent of it. Visibility to are my people doing the training or not? And then at the end of the day, that is the owner or the manager's responsibility to hold them accountable to what the expectations. Absolutely. The other question that advisors have is I don't. When am I, I don't have time to do this. And that's as a result of hey, I bought you train and do it on your downtime.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: There is no downtime, right?
Speaker B: As a service advisor, Absolutely.
Speaker A: You have to make time for it, you have to make space for it.
Speaker B: Has to be important enough to you.
Speaker A: Yep. You have to tell them, I've created space. Here's the time you're going to do it. Mornings are great. I love mornings. If you open at 7, come in at 6:30. If you open at 8, come in at 7:30. Watch one training video and then go about your day. If you're doing that every day. Little bits.
Speaker B: Oh sure.
Speaker A: We treat our advisors like they are computers. M. If I just sit berg in a chair and tape his eyes open and then put, put a screen in front of him and play all this stuff, he's going to get it and then he's going to perform forever and I don't need training anymore and I can cancel the training and he's just going to perform. Is that reality? And this is why I say it's not rocket science. Most owners are like, this makes complete sense. It's kind of a. Well, yeah, duh. But that's how they treat it. Right? That's how they treat it. So if you treat it like something that is just an ongoing thing, that's not gonna end right. You're just always gonna work on yourself.
Speaker B: Sure.
Speaker A: Um, that is, that's where you're gonna
Speaker B: get Rockstar Advisors guy, what a great conversation today on Advisor. You know, secrets of the Advisor, if you will. If you're out there and you're stuck at a certain revenue level, you know, 30,000amonth, $100,000 a month, $300,000 a month. We have tools and we've created a program, uh, for you to get your advisor to that next level to build that trust with your customers. Because at the end of the day, better communication, better preparedness, better uh, all the things that we talked about today, all of that matters so much to get you to that next level and your advisor set next level. Can you talk to us about that program that we built?
Speaker A: Yeah. It's designed to be uh, a program that comes alongside you. It doesn't replace you as far as accountability, but it comes alongside you and it does all the heavy lifting of content, uh, training content. Most owners and managers are not great trainers. That's okay. You're not here to be a great trainer, but it comes alongside you. It gives you the content, it gives you the game plan, it gives you a path to success.
Speaker B: I love it.
Speaker A: And um, yeah, that's what we're.
Speaker B: And the average advisor in six months will increase their aro by how much?
Speaker A: Average advisor will increase their aro by $200.
Speaker B: That's crazy.
Speaker A: Yeah, it's nuts.
Speaker B: $200. Do the math on you, uh, y'. All.
Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Speaker B: 200 cars a month, $200 increase in ARO. It's $40,000 a month.
Speaker A: $40,000 more on average. It's crazy.
Speaker B: So if you're sitting there, guys, there are ways to get out of the spot that you're in, and that's what this podcast is created to do, is just give you those tips and propel your shop to that next level. Because it's shop fix. We fix the owner, fix the shop.
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