Selling Service

Author: Global Administrator
December 09, 2011 10:45 AM

Fixing cars, fixing them right the first time is in every technician’s blood. Techs have to be part detective, part diagnostician, and part mechanical engineer. And where two or three techs are gathered there’s sure to be talk about this or that fix, a solution to a vexing problem, or the latest TSB.

But there’s more to the job than technical expertise.

You have to sell yourself to your colleagues, your employer and your customers. Those soft skills such as getting along with coworkers, clear communication, and a pleasant can-do attitude are the extras that earn trust and respect--extras that turn any service job into a true profession.

How do you wow your customers?

Comments

All comments are moderated and will not show immedately.

Dec 26, 2011 [12:56 PM] - Dennis

Professionalism and soft skills are high on the list of every educator of young entry-level technician and seasoned technician. Building a team environment is crucial to any automotive industry business from shop to parts store. Credentials are an important part of customer confidence building. ASE is a portable credential without manufacturer's specific or focus. This doesn’t mean that the ASE technician cannot perform the work correctly or that a certificate from a manufacturer ensures that the technician can do the job any better. The commitment by the professional technician, service advisor, and parts person is what makes the customer experience over the top. Great teamwork is what builds customer confidence in any automotive industry supplier of services or goods. Customers experience too many inspections mishandled by shops. If one interviewed customers about these inspections the most common response is “They just want to sell me something”, and ”Wish they would just do the work I brought the vehicle in for and not pressure me to purchase more service." Show and tell to the average consumer is viewed as just a “sales gimmick”. Consumers would rather have any items of concern found by the service center mentioned, quoted and put into an order of importance. If the customer’s confidence is high and they really patronize your facility they will schedule the repairs based on your advice and in accordance to their budget! Thanks for listening!

Dec 18, 2011 [5:00 PM] - Daniel

At my dealership, we display our upfront, low cost prices of services we perform when they walk in the door. In addition, we display my service manager's ASE & Mitsubishi manufacturer certification, my ASE Master & L1 certificate as well as my Mitsubishi manufacturer certification. This ensures our customers that their vehicle is in the best hands possible and that professionalism is not just what we advertise, it's who we are.

Mitsubishi has a mandated 27 point inspection sheet that we fill out both on paper when we perform basic services (i.e. oil changes) and a computerized vehicle inspection report that we can print out showing them color illustrations of worn out components that they can also have emailed to them directly. If the customer is waiting in our customer lounge area, we bring them into the shop and show them their vehicle and any components that need immediate attention. Because of our hands on, upfront, "treat you like family" style of business, our CSI scores are the highest not just in our immediate district but in the entire U.S.

Submit a comment:

Click to subscribe to this blog.

Name:

E-mail:

Comments:

Subscribe me to this blog post.

Enter security code:

Archive

Selling Service

Comments