There are plenty of articles, resources, and recommendations out there for how to pick a top quality Auto Technician to bring your vehicle to; even guides on how to tell if a repair facility is top notch, or bottom rung – So why is there very little information about how to determine if the Service Advisor at your repair shop of choice is any good?
This will start off a five-part series on the top qualities you should be looking for in the Service Advisor you deal with at your automotive repair facility of choice. We will cover the five most important things your Service Advisor should be doing that single them out as going above and beyond the typical slick salesperson, or greasy ex-mechanic.
TRAIT #1 – Is your Service Advisor an advocate for your vehicle health?
Webster’s Dictionary defines an advocate as:
One who supports or promotes the interests of a cause or group.
All too often, it is forgotten in the Automotive Industry, that we are to be speaking on behalf of the vehicle sitting in the bay. It has no voice, it cannot ask for help with problems in a language that a regular driver understands. It communicates in a different language.
Imagine your vehicle as a person who has limited vocabulary, no medical experience, and may be in a foreign country; who is suddenly expected to explain the nature, and detail of why they are ill. In such a case, you would need a doctor, a trained translator, and possibly a witness to any strange goings-on that led up to the illness.
Who is the advocate for your car’s cause?
Does your Service Advisor speak for your car?
Who does your car have that is acting as doctor, translator, and witness? Someone that will have its best interest at heart? Someone who just wants to make a quick buck? Someone who has no clue, and doesn’t care as soon as you and your car are out the door?
A quality service advisor knows enough to understand the jargon and terminology a technician uses, and the ‘language’ the car speaks, to interpret for you and present full, and unabridged information to you.
You’re the vehicles’ ‘loved one’ who is checking on it while it is in the hospital!
Just like a medical doctor approaching a family of a sick patient, the Advisor must be able to speak for the vehicle, and make recommendations for how to properly bring it back to full health. This means they need to be able to tell you news you don’t want to hear.
Imagine if a doctor needed to inform you that your husband needed a heart transplant – but he ‘felt bad’ about delivering the bad news, and instead told you it would be okay if they instead just give your husband a pacemaker; or just presented ways to address your husband’s issues with nervous leg shaking.
Sadly, this occurs all the time in the automotive industry – someone just like you will bring in a vehicle with an engine in poor condition, and instead of a frank, honest conversation about engine condition, and the need for replacement – the Service Advisor suggests a band-aid ‘repair’ to the engine that will nurse it along to the ‘next shop’ who will ‘deal with it’… or worse yet – they avoid the engine issues entirely, and tell you not to worry, or tell you it’s ‘not worth fixing’ and they sell you some other, unrelated repair!
What makes that ‘Advocate’ Service Advisor different?
A top level Service Advisor will tell you about complete repairs to the car, that encompass your current existing issue, any other issues of equal importance that were found, and any upcoming issues the tech sees.
They will present this information in a way you can understand, and will stress the importance of dealing with all related issues so that you don’t have to return for repeat issues, or don’t have to ‘double spend’ your money on labor or repairs that can be done together.
If they can explain how things got in their current state, they will do so, or offer the technicians educated guesses on the same information.
In this way, they are trying to act as a translator, health provider, and witness to events – and share all that information with you the consumer, so you can make an informed decision on repairs.
Most importantly, they will be more than ready to have those hard conversations, about vehicle condition and overall repairs, and will tell you, honestly, if repairs should be performed, if bad situations can be fixed, or if the vehicle is beyond saving.
If you don’t have someone who is willing, and able; to speak for your vehicle and give voice to it’s needs… Maybe it’s time to find someone better.