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We have some amazing service writers at my job. Numbers dropped today on who makes the dealership money. Two service writers stand out. Each literally made our dealership over 1 million in revenue for the year.
One service writer throws work to techs that can handle what needs to be done, and works magic with the customers.
The other service writer….. If someone needs an alignment, he writes it as a re-align. Even if its a brand new alignment job. They take equal amounts of work but the tech makes way less.
He also cuts a techs hours on a job after its done to make customers happy. Our boss never says anything because he brings in a lot of money like I mentioned.
Has anyone else seen this?
I have to be honest the guy treats me really good. He is always pairing me up with someone to learn alignment, radiator flush all sorts of stuff.
I’m wondering if some of the thin skinned babies I work with don’t like him because he’s no nonsense so they spread rumors about things like the alignment work.
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I had issues with a service advisor who did this she was a lovely girl it made the customers happy but it really did screw you over was never major things you’d get 0.8 for a service that is normally billed as 1.3 but losing a few of those 0.5’s really add up over the month, she’d also bill down upsells in order to sell them but it made the upsell not worth our time in doing (from an efficiency point of view)
If the service advisor isn’t doing what there supposed to I’d talk to your workshop controller If you doing the work you should be able to bill the hours in full why should you take a hit to your paycheck to make the service advisor look good?
We have a parts guy that is either going to get in line now or get canned. It is coming to a head that all the shops are having issues due to parts. At least one person has been a major flaw to my shop purposely ordering wrong parts etc and it has come back to bite him that is the one that might get fired. Other then that and our lack of shop tools we really don’t have too many issues. Though they are really pushing me to get faster.
They can here couldn’t say for sure in the states, just keep an eye on how many hours a day your billing I tend to jot them down in a notepad over lunch and at the end of the day and keep a tally of hours sold each week kind of like a little competition with myself where the only winner is me.
I have seen all sorts of service writers in my 20yrs. I have had some really talented writers, which are few and far between(as hard or harder to find than a good tech), and a mix of average to poor to incompetent to crooks, and even a few drug addicts. The good guys shoot straight with the customers, let them know what we see, and leave it to the customer to decide. They can close a sale effectively with the right amount of labor for the job, and get return work lined up, and get you good quality parts. I have a couple of decent ones where I am at now, thankfully. I have had some who were out right crooks, diagnosing from the counter, and selling stuff not needed, or selling the wrong stuff. I walked out on a shop for that, zero tolerance for that behavior and will not have my name tarnished by them. I have also seen blatant incompetence by service writers, ordering incorrect parts, goofing off, etc. Finally, I have seen service writers who feel the need to underbid work at our expense. This is nothing short of theft as well. If they want to discount stuff, take it out of the shop’s share. If it’s a charity case, consult the tech, and even then, it’s optional. To just reduce labor to get a sale, it undermines the credibility of the other service writers, and hurts our paychecks. You can usually bet it rarely hurts that service writer’s check. When there is what appears a gross error in book time, then a competent writer should consult with the tech and determine what is right. That includes over and under on the labor. It amazes me to hear that there are idiots out there who resort to this. Yep, passed the ASE C1 test years ago, as well. I have played service writer, tech, and management all in the same week at an old job, so I have seen different angles of it. It also lets one know what is expected, and hence I hold a high standard to service writers. If they won’t do their job, 86 them.
[quote=”Pitt” post=123243]Can a service writer bill down stuff? Like a techs hours on a job and upsells?[/quote]
That’s all they do at my work. The boss and the 2 service writers he trained (even though he has no training) do it regularly. The newest guy is trying not to screw techs but also not getting enough money for the time he pays, so he gets yelled at for letting the ELR go too low. Like upselling something that pays me .5 but he only gets $15 for it, Making the ELR $30/hr instead of the $100/hr it’s supposed to be.
They go the other way most of the time though. It starts with bringing the car in for diag. IF there is any diag time quoted, it disappears if a repair is sold. Usually that doesn’t happen though because cars that need diag are normally written up and dispatched for free. Almost everyday I’ll have a car I’m looking at and I’ll ask how much diag time was quoted so I know how to proceed with it. 90% of the time the response is “I didn’t tell them anything”.
Another thing they do, we’ll use a Lancer Evolution Clutch job as an example. They’ll quote say $1000 to install a customer supplied clutch for the 10 hours of book time. Then the losses start to mount. Car comes in and it’s too low to get on a lift and has all kinds of aftermarket skirts and sails lip extensions and takes forever to set up on the lift. Then it has a aftermarket downpipe in the way that has to come off the turbo’s hot side and bolts are seizing up and have to be dealt with that would never be touched if the parts were stock. Then I open the box with the clutch in it and it’s a multi-plate race car clutch that takes more setup time that a stock type does. Then it turns out they forgot I needed 5 quarts of various gear oils for the job that are ALWAYS needed. It gets worse but you see where I’m going with this.
So There’s $400 of additional expense already but they “can’t” call the customer to get more money, don’t ask me why/they can’t tell me why. So I end up taking 12 hours or more to do the job while service guy makes everything cheaper than it’s supposed to be to keep the price at the quoted $1000. Juggling of the books, it’s called. They can make the numbers whatever they want.
How do I make sure my billing is done properly and I’m not getting screwed on flat rate. Any suggestions?
Just say the magic words like you mean business!
http://youtu.be/ambeIQB6AGkIt helps if you’re holding a weapon in a threatening manner at the same time.
[quote=”Fopeano” post=123509]Just say the magic words like you mean business!
http://youtu.be/ambeIQB6AGkIt helps if you’re holding a weapon in a threatening manner at the same time.[/quote]
Hahahaha that’s awesome.
[quote=”Fopeano” post=123509]Just say the magic words like you mean business!
It helps if you’re holding a weapon in a threatening manner at the same time.[/quote]
Be holding a 3lb hammer. Or a rubber face hammer. Or tell them to come here a minute and ask them to hold something up under the car then go to lunch. All of these ways are effective.
I have always wanted to slap my service writers because they never ask the right kind of questions and never enough of those right kind of questions.
Simple things like does it only do it when its raining. Does it only do it on one section of road. Does it only do it when you turn and which direction. Does it only do it when going reverse at 30mph and slamming on the e brake while snapping the wheel over. You know things that might help diag just a little bit lol.
My foreman is real good at nitpicking time he is the only one out of 4 different dealership shops though. My real suggestion for you Pitt is to sit down and talk with your boss if it starts to happen.
Ask the service writer for another copy of the ro say you spilled oil on it if you have to. Then you can take it up and show your boss cause without proof since the boss tends to deal with service writers more and they are the face of the business he is less likely to invoke change. But, if you go up to him with 6 ROs where time hasn’t been quoted right or where they don’t quote parts etc things will change because ain’t no boss going to put up with losing money when its laid out in front of them with a plan on how to fix it.Do ya know flat rates for jobs your doing?
Give me list normally things you day in and out
I break it down and show how see itThis stuff was happening at our dealer when we 1st reopend under the new ownership. It didn’t take long before the techs just said EFF it and started flagging straight time on R.O. that definitely started grabbing attention. Also what worked for me a few times in the past on customer pay jobs is, I would print out the book time for the repair. Highlight the time and attach it to the r.o. that’s way they know why I didn’t flag what they “say” I should flag and I put what I should be getting paid. I get help the customer out but I don’t do agree with you taking money out of my pocket without my permission you know?
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