Our
Coaches
Goals of the Training
Service managers that become certified in this course will experience the following:
- Increased labor and parts sales, which will increase their commissioned sales and income
- An advanced understanding of how to achieve service profitability and fixed absorption
- Managers will create a culture of training and constant improvement
The dealership service department will have an increase in:
- Increase in labor and parts sales per vehicle (hours per repair order)
- Improved employee satisfaction and lower turnover
- Improved customer satisfaction scores (CSI/CSE)

- Increased effective labor rate
Our Coaches
James Baumer
Coach
James is a trainer, coach, and has a passion for the auto industry.
James has been in the automotive industry for over 37 years. He started out as a Service Advisor and moved up to be a Service Manager. James worked within a BMW dealership that was ranked #1 in CSI and profitability for years within the Southern California Industry.
Within Jemas’ time at rhe dealerships he spent 21 years working and mastering the Chris Collins program. For multiple years James has been a member of our Elite Program. James has assisted in providing advise for growth within members.
James has been awarded numerous awards from BMW, MINI, Acura, Jaguar, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Land Rover, and many others. He has won dozens of awards for being the Service Manager Top Dog each month. James was awarded Top Dog of the year for 2019.
James has graduated top of his class from Starfleet Academy.
Charlie Dye
Coach
Charlie is a trainer and a Coach who has a passion to build Service Departments into a profitable department. Charlie has a strong passion for the industry with excellent customer service skills that directly change the culture and profitability within dealerships.
Charlie has over 15 years of automotive experience. Charlie started out as a Technician, moved in to the Service Advisor role, and into Fixed Operations Manager. Charlie had oversaw three dealerships increasing the business platform along with growing the service department to increase retention and CSI scores.
Charlie attended Farnborough College of Technology and received a Skilled Trade Certificate.
Chris Watts
Coach
Chris (Watts) is a trainer and a coach who has a passion for the automotive industry. Watts has over 15 years of experience within the automotive industry. Watts has grown from Sales, to Finance Manager, to Sales Manager, to Service Advisor into a Service Manager. Watts has worked to develop profitable, customer-focused Fixed Operations Teams.
Watts has work experience through in-person, hands-on, and distance coaching to help grow customer retention, bring profitability, and culture within the Service Department. He has developed struggling service teams into teams that have been nationally recognized multiple times for Customer Service and profitability. Watts has been awarded the Ford of Canada Peak and Summit award as a Service Advisor and Service Manager.
Watts attended Mount Allison University receiving a Bachelors Degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology.
Heather Knotts
Coach
Heather is a trainer and coach who has a passion for the automotive industry. Heather has over 10 years of experience. Heather has been a Porter, Advisor, Assistant Manager, Service Manager, and Service Director. She has been a support team for many dealerships helping train technicians, advisors, and managers.
Heather has been a leader in assisting multiple dealerships with in-house training. She has grown her Departments retention, profit, and CSI over the years.
Rob Rowse
Coach
Rob is a trainer, coach, and works within the Service Department with technicians, advisors, and managers to maximize performance, profitability, and customer retention.
Rob has over 15 years in the automotive industry. He has grown within the Service Department. Rob has been a Service Advisor, Service Manager, and Fixed Ops Manager for many brands. Rob has helped many Service Departments turn into being able to turn a profit and retain employees in a positive environment.
Cliff Honeycutt​
Coach
Cliff is a trainer, coach, and a service instructor whose passion is utilizing his experience, drive, and qualifications to lead automotive dealerships to build excellence, cultivate top performers, and exceed targets through proven strategies and operations by implementing the Chris Collins system for Fixed Ops.
Cliff has worked in the dealership world for over 25 years. He started in the warehouse/delivery and moved into management in 1999. Receiving awards for wholesale growth four years in a row. He also helped open a new import franchise point and grew to receive multiple awards in wholesale performance.
Cliff then moved to Parts & Service Director for a Hyundai dealership. He helped take the service department for losing money to being profitable with a low turnover rate. Cliff received awards of Achieving Outstanding Customer Service Scores.
Cliff graduated high school and attended Liberty University.Â
Grant Miles
Coach
Grant Miles is a trainer, coach, and production expert who works with advisors, managers, and technicians to maximize performance. Throughout all aspects of training, Grant is a consummate professional. He excels in being on the drive, in the classroom, and in one-on-one sessions. His interactive approach to coaching provides compassionate yet challenging guidance.
Grant has over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry. He has managed a department as Service Director that was one of the highest performers in the Houston market. His time spent in all facets of the Service Department provides his clients with the highest level of support and training. He has been recognized individually multiple times by Gulf States Toyota as a CSI Top 5 Assistant Service Manager, a leader and top performer for a Toyota President’s Award-winning dealership, and won regional Fixed Operations performance contests.Â
Grant also worked for one of the largest top-performing Lexus dealerships in Texas with Group 1 Automotive. As Production Manager, he managed a shop of 80+ technicians that produced monthly sales of over a million dollars.
Grant has a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas.Â
Mia Griggs
Coach
Mia is a trainer and instructor who uses her unique perspective of the industry to motivate and train service advisors and BDC representatives virtually and on the drive. After starting out in a BDC in 2010, Mia realized that not only was she passionate about cars, she was highly motivated to help her customers through empathy and open communication. After becoming a BDC team lead, Mia paved her way through the industry and eventually found her calling as a service advisor for multiple brands. She even helped a small independent shop hit a yearly record of $2M in gross profit for the first time in the shop’s history.
Having experience with both fixed ops dealers and independent shops gave Mia a well-rounded view of the automotive industry, which led her to start creating entertaining videos on social media about her experiences back in early 2020. After several of her videos went viral online in that same year, Mia was discovered by Chris Collins and was invited to be a guest on the SDR podcast, which then led her to become a writer and trainer for the team. With a younger generation of people entering the automotive workforce, Mia uses her humor and relatability to to connect with and inspire those she teaches, thus leading to immediate results and long-term success for service drives across the country.
Steve Steinert
Coach
Steve is a trainer, coach, technician, and service instructor whose passion is utilizing his experience, drive, and qualifications to lead automotive dealerships to build excellence, cultivate top performers, and exceed targets through proven strategies and operations by implementing the Chris Collins’ system for Fixed Ops.
Steve has worked in the dealership world for the last 26 years. He started out as a technician for Saturn. He then moved over to Honda and left there as a Service Director.
Before coming to work for Chris Collins he was a Reginal Fixed Operations Director for a large car dealership.
Steve has been awarded and/or won multiple awards and acknowledgments. He has won the Saturn Summit Award as a manager multiple times, the Honda Presidents award as a manager multiple times, Chris Collins’ Top Dog Service Manager Award multiple times, Steve was also part of the Chris Collins Collins’ Elite Group for 7 years.
He graduated high school and has received an ASE Master Technician certificate, ASE Advanced Level Engine Specialist certificate, Saturn certified master Technician and received EV1 GM certified electric car technician.
Chris Hogland
Coach
Chris Hogland is a Service Performance Coach, Trainer and Instructor who works with Service Advisors and Managers with hands on coaching visits, in person training and as a group course instructor.
Chris has over 17 years of fixed operations experience with progressive growth from Master Technician to Parts and Service Director of a multimillion-dollar luxury automotive dealership. His passion for the industry has been proven through leadership, management, director positions and setting dealership history records. He shares his knowledge and challenges with clients to develop a lifetime of confidence and loyalty within customers and increase profits.
Chris has been awarded the BMW Group Europe Incentive Trip for Top Fixed Operations Sales Growth. Also, he was recruited by Tesla Motors as a Field Service Technician during start-up.
Chris is an ASE Master Technician (Certifications A1-A8), ASE Advanced Level Engine Specialist (Certification L1), BMW Master Technician (Certification L1), and BMW Group Profiles in Achievement Parts and Service Director.
Chris holds a Master Technician status from BMW STEP and studied Automotive Technology at the Universal Technical Institute.
Christian Lafferty
Coach
Christian Lafferty is a Service Coach and Instructor who works with Service Advisors, Managers, and Dealer Owners. He guides them with his passion and knowledge through hands on training during dealership visits to build a lifetime of change.
Initially, Christian worked at a dealership that signed a contract with Chris Collins. He had unlimited access to people and resources who knew more about the automotive industry then he was ever aware existed. This experience changed his philosophy on all aspects of life. As a result of this relationship, his service sales were up over 50%, and his net profit rose by 300%.
Christian has over 19 years of experience in the Automotive Industry. He has worked in Service Management, as an Automotive Sales Consultant, and as a Service Advisor. He was also a Chris Collins’ Coaching Group Elite Coaching Member from 2015-2016.
Christian has received the Infiniti Award of Excellence for Service Advisors and Infiniti Award of Excellence for Service Managers. He also received the Chris Collins’ Top Dog Service Manager Award five times.
Christian holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Aurora University.
Vicki Johns
Coach
Vicki Johns is a Coach who works with Service Advisors and Managers by person to person coaching and in person training. She shows passion to her clients and passes on the knowledge she has received.
Vicki was born and raised with the auto industry in her blood as both of her parents were in the business. She started in the automotive industry in 1985, found her passion in fixed operations had has 32 years of progressive experience.
Vicki received the Chris Collins’ Top Dog Service Manager of the year in 2011, 2012, and 2013. She also received the Chris Collins’ Top Dog Manager Award 27 out of 36 months and won the Chris Collins’ $25k Service Manager Challenge.
Vicki has one year experience as a Service Advisor, 11 years experience as a Warranty Manager and 20 years as a Service Manager. She also has been a CSI/BDC Manager for one year and a Service Director for one year.
Vicki holds an Associate Degree in Criminal Justice and an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement.