How to get your service advisors to build customer trust to boost retention rates

Why is it that some retailers are growing their customer base and others are experiencing a decline? Let’s begin by asking the following questions: Who has the most face-to-face and phone contact with your service customers? Who do your customers need to trust to advise them regarding the proper maintenance and repairs of their vehicles? And who must the manager trust to ensure every customer is given the highest level of service possible on every visit to their service department?

The answer to all of these is, of course, the service advisor, who has more contact with your customers than any other employee.

So, I ask you: how much time and capital have you invested in your advisors to provide them with the tools and skills necessary to fulfil their mission? I find most retailers spend more resources training sales teams to sell more vehicles and F&I products than they do their service team on how to keep customers coming back, which will result in more vehicle, service and parts sales.

Eight-step process

It all starts with training, and the action plan below provides an example of a training plan to provide customers with a higher level of service. Let’s look at each of these steps individually. Meet and greet the customer of course is crucial to getting off to the right start.

Some common greetings are “Can I help you?” or “Do you have an appointment?” These are unacceptable since they call for a “yes” or “no” response and provide very little information.

How about: “Good morning and welcome to ABC Motors, my name is Don, what brought you into our dealership today?”

We must investigate what customers’ wants and needs are and we do so by asking questions that begin with words like: who, what, where, when, how, why and tell me about…

The answers to these questions will enable an advisor to select the correct product/service in our next step on our road to a sale. Consider this example: a customer comes in and the service advisor asks: “What bought you to our dealership today?”

Customer: “My steering wheel has a vibration.”

Service advisor: “When do you feel the vibration?”

Customer: “Every time I hit a bump.”

Service advisor: “How fast are you driving when you feel the vibration?”

Customer: “It happens at any speed.”

Now the advisor repeats the answers to these three questions back to the customer and asks for confirmation.

The customer now realises the advisor understands their concern and the advisor has the information needed to list the primary concern on the repair order. The trust factor has begun in a very positive way.

Products and services

Step three is reviewing the ‘primary concern’ with the customer and then selecting any other products or services that are either recommended by the manufacturer or are needed based on the condition of the vehicle.

The phrase “When was the last time…” is a simple way to move on to our fourth step, which is to give a feature/benefit presentation of your product or service. This is where most advisors fail miserably because they usually present a feature of a product or service but not the benefits.

For example, nobody wants to buy tyres, but they do want to buy the safety, performance, handling and better fuel economy that new tyres can bring. Customers see you care about their wellbeing and the trust factor just moved up another notch.

Closing the sale

Step number five brings us to asking for the sale, and we do so assuming the customer will always say yes. Too many advisors simply offer a product/service, quote a price and ask the customer if they want it, which usually results in a negative response. A better option is to say “my recommendation is…” and “you need this because…” and “you will benefit from…”

As an example, you might say: “The good news is we can rotate your tyres and check your alignment while you’re here, and I’ll have your vehicle ready for pickup by 5pm. I just need your okay and we’ll get started.”

Experience shows that such a presentation will result in a closing ratio of 40-50% on maintenance services, but that is still a long way from everybody saying “yes”. If we hear “no” then perhaps we did not do a good enough job in explaining the benefits of the product/service. So, review those with the customer once more and ask again.

Step seven is to review your vehicle health check process. Show the customer the VHC form and say: “As a courtesy to all of our customers, we will perform this multi-point vehicle health check to make sure you leave here driving a safe and reliable vehicle. I’ll be sharing the results with you later today.”

Note, though, that when the advisor calls the customer, the first item to review is their primary concern, asking for approval to complete that repair. Only then is that followed by the VHC presentation.

Always start with a review of a few of the ‘green’ items. Give the customer a compliment. Then review the ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ items then give your feature/benefit presentation.

For example: “The technician states your belts and hoses are in good condition, there are no visible signs of any fluid leaks; I wish all my customers maintained their vehicles the way you do. However, he did notice some abnormal outer wear on both of your front tyres and he recommends a four-wheel alignment. The good news is we can do that for you today for only £90 and I’ll have your vehicle ready for pick up at 5pm. I just need your okay and we can get started.” Do you think the trust factor is still growing?

Lastly, advisors should always be the one to deliver the vehicle back to the customer and should review the ‘three Cs’ – concern, cause, correction – for each item on the repair order. Make sure the customer clearly understands them, thank them for their business, say you look forward to seeing them next time and plant the seed as to when that will be.

This is an ongoing process that must be repeated – everything I’ve just outlined here is part of the ongoing process of building trust with our customers.

YOUR EIGHT-STEP TRAINING ACTION PLAN

• Meet and greet the customer
• Qualify their wants and needs
• Select a product or service that satisfies their wants and needs
• Give a ‘feature benefit’ presentation on the product or service
• Ask for approval
• Overcome objections
• Present a vehicle health check and explain benefits
• Conduct an active delivery of vehicle back to customer

By Don Reed, CEO of DealerPRO Training, which he founded after 27 years as an automotive retailer