Building customer satisfaction with clarity and consistency

Jason Hladyniuk, service advisor training specialist with RPM Training jumps into the podcast this week to talk about important touchpoints for service advisors and those who might have to lend a hand when things get super busy at your shop.

You can also watch the video version on the Indie Garage You Tube Channel. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Welcome to the podcast, everyone. I'm your host, Andrew Ross. Now uh everybody who's been working in uh this industry knows, I think by now, how important uh you know that that service advisor role is and then being able to effectively do their job. Uh but one of the things that we haven't talked much about is uh that the uh you know, well, it's great to have you know a full-time service advisor there all the time. Sometimes they're not available or they're super busy and somebody else has to jump on the counter. Maybe it's you, the owner, maybe it's one of your techs, uh, and and uh you know being able to have that still uh result in a great customer experience is is super important. So here to talk about that is Jason Ladniak uh from RP training. Uh yeah. And uh uh you know the the the he's a he's a you know full-time focused expert on on you know helping shops uh make sure that that excellent customer experience is is repeatable and consistent. Uh is that how's that for an intro, Jason?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Hey, I love it. That's perfect, Andrew. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

So, you know, I mean the reality of the world is that you know, shops have been sometimes they're super busy, and you've got, you know, your your your main service advisor is on the phone with one customer, somebody else maybe comes in and somebody else has to jump in, but but uh you know, and that can can lead potentially to a really variable customer experience if they don't if they don't get the right touch points, right? Um, so what what is somebody, what what is everybody, I guess the full-timer as well as somebody who's jumping in to fill that role, what do they need to be really focused on? Um if there's like a top three list or I don't know, I don't hate I don't want to oversimplify it, but there's things, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yes, yes. And and number one for sure is having a structured process. Um when when an advisor isn't is not there all the time, or someone from the shop has to come in, whether it's the the owner or whether it's a technician, what happens there is that the experience can be different for the client. And we've run the risk of what I call a multiverse. Depending on who who's at the counter, the experience could be if you have three different people at the counter, it could be three different experiences for the client, right? And inconsistency really hurts business. So if we have uh if we have an advisor that's really behind and someone else has to jump in on the counter, they have to follow process, they have to be aware of what the intake process is, or you know, if they're caching someone out, what that process looks like. And you know, when we talk about if you're cashing somebody out, we talk about that next appointment. Is that happening? Uh sometimes when someone has to jump in and they're not really aware of that process, the best thing is to do is just greet the customer, read the client, and say, hey, so and so will be with you in five minutes. Are you okay to wait? Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Fair. That's fair. Yeah. If you really don't, if you really, if you're really not comfortable with what the process is, and if you don't know how to, and you mentioned you know, caching, somebody, if you're somebody that you know hasn't hasn't done that and and you're working in the shop and you're not comfortable with the process and you don't know how to do it, like physically how to how to do it, you should probably not try.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Right. And and we we have all so we have uh we all have the best intentions, but what's happening there is that it's it's creating inconsistency, right? And so if if someone does need to jump in, um, you know, it's still keeping that service up, but just greeting the client and just saying, hey, you know, let's, you know, or you know, maybe grabbing keys from a client because they have to get going, but then letting them know that you know our service advisor will be contacting you if they if he if he or she has any questions, that kind of thing. Not getting so involved, but passing taking the baton, but then bringing it back to the to the professional on the counter, the one.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I mean, I just you know, as as as uh you know, regular listeners to this podcast will know we're always trying to be real about it, you know, and and in the perfect world, you know, one customer shows up at a time, and the uh well-trained uh RPM training certified service advisor. That doesn't, it's not actually a thing, but you know, how about a well-trained service advisor can greet them right away and and take their uh you know, have the conversation about what their needs are are with their vehicle and and do all that in an organized, super simple, uh and consistent fashion. But in in in the real world, as we say, that doesn't always happen. People come in all at the same time because the weather's bad and nobody's car starting, or the tires are you need to switch over your tires because it just snowed. And it's all happening at the same time. Um and maintaining that consistency of experience is super important to uh to to the the customer satisfaction level. I mean, uh you know, we haven't really talked about that, but that's that's really what's at at the core here, right? That customer experience and having uh consistency, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Right, and and advisors, uh, we we have to have boundaries and we have to guide the client. What happens is that if if a client doesn't understand the requirements for for the appointment and think they can just show up, what it does is it puts stress on the advisor, and now we're adapting to the client, whereas the client needs to be adapting to our way, our process. Because when an advisor is fully in control of the experience, it's gonna be the best experience for the client, it's gonna be the best experience for the business and the technicians, and it's gonna be the best experience for the advisor, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Right. So that's that sounds like point one is is like control that conversation, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah, you you have you there you have to be clear about requirements. For example, if if someone's calling in and they need a seasonal tire changeover, what are the requirements for that? Um, one of the things should be a wheel lock. Having discussions on the wheel lock uh while making the appointment, and then instructing the client that the wheel lock needs to be, say, in the cup holder. And if the wheel lock's not in the cup holder, the vehicle doesn't come into the shop. Right? So what happens is that when we when we discover, when we when we ask these questions for the client, we're slowing the process down. And this will be the perfect time when the client says, I don't know what a wheel lock is. Ah, perfect. So now we can take the time to educate them of what it is. Um, and then it gives them time to look for it rather than the day of the appointment, or when it comes into the shop for the tire changeover, and then we're trying to get a hold of that client because we can't find their wheel lock. Right. So, and again, if clients don't know, they don't know. If they don't know about their wheel lock or they didn't, they don't know they have to put it in their cup holder, how are they supposed to know? So then, and they don't know what we go through in a day. So when the car comes in, all of a sudden there's frustration, you know, uh minutes turn into you know you know, minutes turn into a lot of minutes, turned into a half hour, and we still haven't got the wheels off and trying to get a hold of the client.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yeah, and and you know, and and that's a great example because we've all uh very familiar with situations where even when that hasn't been left where it's supposed to be, you know, and the car ends up in the bay anyway, even if that's not what process should be, and you have a tech looking for it, maybe not finding it at all in the vehicle, and now they're looking for well, do I have uh something other way to get this off so I can get this done for the you know, and now you have a three-hour tire change operation, right? And right and and the potential for damaging. It's just it goes off the rails quickly, but at the at the at the beginning is where the problem is, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Like at that point, and it's and yeah, and again, it's it's it's controlling, it's guiding the client through our process. This is this is how we do business, this is how we offer our level of service, and these are the requirements that you need to do in order to do business with us. And so we we set those expectations as professional advisors, we set those expectations, requirements with our clients, get agreements so that way it ensures when they drop their vehicle off, they know what's expected of them. And with that, the process will go a lot smoother, just with a simple ask, right? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Sure, yeah. So uh uh, you know, that's a good first point. What what's the the the next next most important thing that a service advisor needs to execute? Uh when uh we'll talk just on intake, shall we say?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Uh on intake is um well, I would say that uh when we are when we're talking to clients, uh uh we have to have this understanding that clients are driving the unknown. And we might assume they know what we're talking about, or we might assume, like, for example, Andrew, I've taken many phone calls in my career. Someone will call up and say, Um, my car is vi uh has a vibration at 80 kilometers an hour. I need to book in for an alignment.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Right.

unknown 9:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

And so doing things, you know, be being the judge, jury, and executioner of what the problem is on their vehicle, right? Right away.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Right. Yeah, right. And and and they do this because either they've gotten advice from a friend or a family member, maybe they've googled it. Um, but when they when they ask for something like that, they're they're really not sure what they're asking about, but they don't want to be duped. Maybe they want to, you know, they're a little intimidated and they want to think, hey, I'm you know, I'm not, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm I'm not gonna let the shop talk down to me. I'm gonna let them know. And so when we get uh appointments and feedback from that from clients, that is a real opportunity to to slow it down and say, okay, wait a minute here. Because if the client understood what what was happening with the vehicle, they probably wouldn't be asking for an alignment. Right, right. They would be asking for probably look, you know, for a road test looking at maybe tires being out of balance or or who knows. Now, the alignment might have been the the reason why, the first reason why the vibration is being felt, because the tires are worn, right? But it's it's also similar to if clients really knew uh how to service their vehicle and what's required, they would be doing it. Like if someone really understood the importance of, say, a timing belt, for example, if they really knew what could happen to their vehicle, they're probably gonna not delay that timing belt service, they're gonna go ahead. But as advisors, when we recommend things, we have to we have to think that clients are driving the unknown. And if we don't explain things in a way that they understand, hesitation is the is the client's default.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

They don't know. So they'll they'll delay decisions, right? But once we get once we get them to that level of understanding, then the light bulb goes off. It's like, oh, so this is what can happen if I if I don't change my timing belt, and actually my car is like 10,000 kilometers overdue for it. Does that you know that's that's what I see. I I have in my career, I've had people delay things, and I never really understood why, right? And sometimes, like I would assume maybe it's budget, maybe it's this, but it wasn't until I was started asking clients, well, may I ask, you know, um, you know, have I been explaining myself, okay, do you have any more questions? Opening up that door for feedback, making them comfortable, and start building on that relationship, right? It's it's very similar to going to the doctor. Like when I go to the doctor now, it's rushed. And it was rushed five years ago. But you get in there and they're so busy and they're just gonna quick, quick, quick checking things, and then they're like, okay, well, like it's to the point now, Andrew, where I go when I go see my doctor once a year, I actually write things down that I want to ask them because as soon as I get in there, if they're not, but imagine if the doctor slowed everything down and just write, because maybe I'm a little nervous about going to the doctor, maybe I'm a little intimidated, maybe I'm worried about my health, just like somebody be worried about their car. So the stress levels up here. The doctor calms things down, we have a conversation, we start to slow the process down, and then they start asking me, is there anything else? Or do you know I this is what I recommend? Do you have any questions on this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

I mean that's not terrible advice for the customer either, you know, to write these things down and and to come in and say, look, you know what, I noticed I've had this, I noticed I've had that, and and I've noticed I've I've had this, you know, uh uh because uh, you know, even again with the best of intentions, uh it's it's it's it's not bad advice to give the customer, even if they said, you know, hey, look, I'm calling you because I'm I'm here for my tire changes, and be like, hey, look, you know, uh, is there anything else? And they'd be like, oh no, that's fine, that's just that. So, well, if there's anything else that you come up with, like, we're gonna reach out to you before your appointment. Uh if there's anything else, like write it down in between if if you think of it and and just communicate and we'll take a look. You know, we're gonna give your vehicle an inspection anyway, but if there's something specific, then then uh you know, let us know. And a lot of that is is is a consequence of built trust over time, though, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, it it absolutely is. And and reminding clients, like for example, um, I'll ask clients about their wiper blades, right? If they're coming in, say, for a maintenance service or they're coming in, say, for a tire changeover. It's been a long winter here in Ontario. How are the wiper blades? Oh, thanks for for mentioning that. My wiper blades stink, right? Like, please go ahead and change them, right? So there are things that we can slow that process down, understand that the client is really driving the unknown, and they need our expert guidance. And sometimes we have to slow it, we need to slow it down and and and ask questions to get feedback. Uh, because when we think of this is another interesting point, is when clients call the shop, they're really cold calling us.

unknown 14:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Right. And who likes cold calling? I a lot of advisors I talk to that sometimes they don't want to call people because, like, well, it feels like a cold call. Well, your your clients are actually doing that because A, they're not sure who's gonna answer the phone, B, they have no idea how busy you are, and C, they might not really even know what they're asking for. They just know they need an oil change, for example. Well, what does that mean? So they could be a little nervous about making that call. Um, so we need to we need to bring that stress level down and make sure that we make time for that client. And that's where things happen, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Sure, yeah. In a lot of cases now, you know, a vehicle will say, you know, uh, time for an A service or time for a B service. Or, you know, visit your service, visit a service shop now, which nobody ever wants to see. Um but but it doesn't, you know, the car is telling them that. And and you know, good on them if they're going to the independent that they trust, there's hoping. Um, and not not, you know, maybe the the affiliate dealer of that that manufacturer. Um, but yeah, they may not know, it may not tell them. It may just be like, look, I'm trying to do what my car tells me to do. And and but I don't know what that means. Like, what's an A service? You know, what's a B service? Right. Uh right. And so being able to walk that customer through and as you say, slow that process down, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

When when when we get to a point in relationship, and um when there's a uh question about a vehicle, so a client, whether they're having problems with the vehicle, whether you want to buy a new one, you know, whether they're just looking for some advice, where we know we're we're operating at a high level is when that client has no hesitation and they know who they're gonna call. So it's like Andrew's my Andrew's my shop, Andrew's my guy, I'm gonna call them. I have a question, I'm thinking about buying a new car, or my car is making a noise. But think about um a client that's not sure where to call. That the relationship isn't there yet. So if they're if they if they hesitate and think, well, I went to this shop last time and uh I don't think they really did a great job. So now I'm gonna call this, that just adds to their stress because they don't know who to call, they don't know who to trust. And the way to build relationships is just that the more touch points we have with our clients and the more time we spend with them, the more the relationship, the more comfort that client has with us. It's not transactional anymore. We're actually asking them about their baseball game or remembering the you know the last time they were in about what we talked about, right? That's relationship. And once we get that relationship built, not only are we top of mind when something, when something vehicle related comes up with our clients, but now they start to refer their friends, their neighbors, their family to our shop. And now that that grows our business.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, and grows the business, right? And and so uh so just uh you know, we're we're we've got a few minutes left here. I know we talked about sort of the intake process here. What about the you know, the cashing out process, which is where we kind of started out with our conversation here? I mean, how should that look at its best?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Well, the the cashing out process uh uh should be um with with with the the with with our day, with our uh with the the the age that we live in, uh, you know, with e-transfers and things like that. Um a lot of that communication can be done on the phone, be done text messages, be done video call, or you know, be done through email. But what we want to do is we always want to go through all the work that was performed today, right? So we want to go through that invoice. We also want to talk about the things that are up and coming. So important, right? Um, and then maybe what we want to do is or if because this this is a big one for shops where there's lots of hesitation on is actually booking that next appointment for the client. A lot of shops struggle doing that, they feel like they're being too pushy. But as professionals, this timing belt, for example, needs to be changed, you know, and we recommend that it needs to be changed within, you know, within the month or whatever. I'm gonna offer an appointment to that client. So making that next appointment really should be part of the the caching out, right? So reviewing what the work that was done, um, you know, reviewing things that are up and coming, and then also putting the plan together of what needs to happen now, what can happen at next service, you know, kind of road mapping it for the client. We should never leave a client to figure out their vehicle on their own. We should always offer appointments. We should always offer our next communication. So if a client says, you know, I don't want to book the next appointment right now, I would be like, okay, not a problem. What I'll do then is I'll uh I'll uh reach out to you and say, you know, in the next couple weeks just to see where you're at with your schedule, and then maybe we can plan to book something. I'm never leaving them alone.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Right, right. That's a really great point because, you know, I think oftentimes, you know, a customer on their way out having paid whether it's a big or a small bill, and then being hit with, you know, potential recommended work or a few hundred dollars or up to you know, maybe more than a thousand dollars worth of work to be done, is kind of like, oh geez, you know, I just paid you, you know, 400 bucks, you know. I don't I don't know that I want to like promise another bill like right away, because I'm my you know my wallet still needs to like catch its breath or whatever, and and uh and then they don't book it. But then if you don't reach out to them and remind like this is actually real work uh that needs to be done, um in to my mind, and this is you know for the benefit of of maybe everybody, uh it brings potentially brings into question in the uh the mind of your customer, well, was this really required work? They didn't follow up with me, they haven't they're not tracking me down saying, like, you know, we told you about this work that we really, really think you need to do, and it's six weeks later now, or it's two weeks later, but we're not gonna be able to get you in for three weeks anyway. Like, we really recommend that you book this because it's you know it's gonna get worse and it's gonna cause other issues if we don't get this taken care of.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Um then you start to wonder. I mean, I had an experience again decades ago where it was recommended, I had service done. This is back in I'm gonna say this is the 80s. Uh uh recommended uh steering rack work. Got recommended only one time. It didn't fix itself.

unknown 20:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

And I'm and even back then when I was, you know, young, I was like, well, I know it didn't fix itself, but they didn't seem to like ever mention it ever again. So like like why not? I mean I knew it was a big job, but I was like, why not? Is that it it's it's that because it fixed itself or it wasn't really required to begin with, and they just wanted to get a big bill, but now that I said no, it's it's like, oh, I guess he didn't fall for it or something. Yeah, like these are the thoughts that went through my head. Whereas if they'd said, you know, we told you about this six months ago, it's not getting any better, like it's not safe.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Right. And that that's that policy, that's that process, right? Of uh and and and when we talked uh at the top of the the the uh the podcast about uh other people jumping in, well, this is where this can happen. So uh uh as an advisor, I've recommended that we do your steering rack. Let's say I'm off that day, someone's covering the counter, the client comes back in and there's nothing mentioned because they didn't check history.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

So again, it's it's it's processed and uh and then those questions, you're absolutely right. Do I really need it? Again, clients are driving the unknown. My steering seems fine. Do I really need that? Um we need that we need to be there to guide them. And and Andrew, uh, the one thing that I'm really passionate about is that you know, service advising, it's not about creating work, it's about bringing clarity to the work that already exists but hasn't been understood yet. And how we get clients to understand is taking the time and and being consistent. No, I don't want to do the steering rack now. No worries. I'm gonna follow up with you within a month. Or, you know, maybe the client doesn't even want that. The next time they're in for their next service, we bring that conversation up again. Right? We're getting, we're trying to get because again, it's not about selling. That work already exists. We just need the and and when we know that clients, uh, when they're driving the unknown, that hesitation is their default. Once we bring light to the unknown and