Auto Repair Staff huddles are a crucial factor in encouraging employee teamwork. Listen to our YNR roundtable discussion on regularly rounding up your Technicians, General Managers, and Service Advisors to make sure you are all on the same page.
Why Are Team Huddles Important?
Brian kicked off the clip by outlining why we don’t want to neglect staff huddles. When we do not meet hourly with our employees, the negative effects can trickle down to customers. Not communicating with your Technicians and Service Advisors? Then get prepared for chaos! Gaps in your customer service game, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, a loss of revenue will occur. Brian noted that when customers complaint about pricing, the issue usually starts with poor customer service experiences.
Second, Brian gave examples of key components from our Huddles SOP. When huddling, you may want to work with a board system. Of course, the General Manager must call the meeting to order, and employ a timer so the meetings do not last too long. Primarily, these meetings involve Service Advisors at the front counter. Occasionally, you may want to call together your technicians in order to resolve issues, or make sure everyone is on the same page.
Next, Brian asked YNR Member Leon’s take on staff huddles. Leon, an experienced shop owner, recognizes the value of this ritual. It allows him to stay in the know about how each job is progressing. Understanding such details as the need for more parts and the timeline until he can report back to the customer is crucial.
Ready For The Next Step? Book Your FREE Strategy Session!
Your auto repair shop lacks direction. Maybe your business plan has stalled out, and you aren’t meeting your goals. You need an experienced automotive industry coach to help you. Then why not schedule a FREE business strategy session with You Net Results guide Brian Gillis? You’ve got nothing to lose, so sign up today!
Here’s one of our handy Service Advisor tips. Are your service advisors asking the right questions up front? This is mission critical to avoid having to call customers back when your Technician finds something unexpected with a vehicle and has questions of their own. Don’t risk painting your staff as incompetent. That’s a recipe for wasting time and money. Ask the right questions up front!
Service Advisor Tips – Call Recap
Brian opens up the clip by presenting Step G in the Getting Acquainted / In Person Counter Contact form. This is probably the most important step in the process. All the Service Advisor Tips and voice tricks mean nothing if you are not listening, asking questions, and verifying the customer’s vehicle problem. Remember, at the end of the day, our customers have problems, and it’s our job to solve them.
What do all of our service advisor tips boil down to? We must gather as much information as possible from the customer. Brian confirmed this to be true with our guest Nick, who is an A Tech. When a Service Advisor doesn’t gather enough information and pass it all on to the Technicians, we’ve got big trouble.
Repeating the customer’s problems back to them builds their confidence in us, as well as helping us avoid missing an issue later. Nick verified that he has had many questions for Service Advisors immediately after receiving work orders. For example, he may not know how long a car’s transmission has been slipping. This question should have come up when the Service Advisor initially talked with the customer.
Learn More – Get Your FREE Strategy Session
Does your auto repair shop lack direction? Perhaps your business plan has stalled out, and you need an experienced automotive industry coach to help you. Then why not schedule a FREE business strategy session with Brian? You’ve got nothing to lose, so sign up today!
Learn how to document auto repair shop systems the YNR way – using Action Flow Charts! Never again wonder what the steps are to any repair process your team must complete. Brian reviews a sample brake job checklist form to demonstrate how technicians and service advisors can confirm every task is completed. Do you want to download Action Flow Charts that your team can customize for your shop? Get the whole package here!
Action Flow Charts to Document Automotive Systems
Brian starts off by recalling a customer in his former shop. When they brought an error to the staff’s attention, everyone worked together to fix it. After that, they had a customer for life. In fact, that customer’s word of mouth brought a lot more business in. Just one interaction caused an explosion in revenue!
But how? The staff fell back on their systems to resolve the problem. Those systems were meticulously documented using Action Flow Charts. Therefore, everyone knew the chain of command. Everyone in the shop wrote down their tasks, so going back in time to find out what when wrong was easy.
More applications
Moving on, Brian suggested a great way to ingrain Action Flow Charts into your staff’s culture. Do you hold weekly one on one meetings with each staff member? If not, then why not? When your meetings take place, you should add an Action Flow Chart review to your agenda. Pick one from your folder, and make sure your technician or service writer knows it front to back. When you do this, you will have a strong gauge on how knowledgeable they are.
Next, Brian showed an example of the ABS Brake Problem Initial Analysis form. When using this form, technicians will not miss any potential causes of the customer’s brake problems. The YNR group were well versed on the form, and found great success with them. They all use Action Flow Charts every day, and they teach it to their staff.
Ready For The Next Step? Book Your FREE Strategy Session!
Your auto repair shop lacks direction. Maybe your business plan has stalled out? Not meeting your goals? You need an experienced automotive industry coach to help you. Then why not schedule a FREE business strategy session with You Net Results guide Brian Gillis? You’ve got nothing to lose, so sign up today!
Why Are Team Huddles Important?
