Service Drive Revolution — Episode #373

Host: Chris Collins

Guests: Adam Krey and Chris Hogland

Published: August 24, 2026

Duration: 52:34

Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify

Running a modern dealership service drive is one of the most demanding leadership roles in the entire automotive industry. Most service managers are promoted because they were exceptional SERVICE ADVISORS or master technicians, yet managing a department requires an entirely different operational skillset.

While traditional management training focuses on administrative tasks and daily metrics, the highest-performing Fixed Ops leaders operate with a completely different mindset. As discussed in Service Drive Revolution Episode #373, true department growth requires breaking away from tribal knowledge and implementing intentional, long-term leadership habits.

Discovering what sets top-tier leaders apart helps Fixed Ops Directors, Parts Managers, SERVICE MANAGERS, and Dealership Principals turn chaotic, reactive service departments into predictable, high-margin profit centers.

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Why Traditional Service Drive Management Falls Short

Most service departments are trapped in a cycle of constant firefighting. SERVICE MANAGERS spend their days reacting to shop bottlenecks, managing customer complaints, and chasing short-term monthly targets rather than building sustainable operational systems.

The Trap of Tribal Knowledge

The vast majority of SERVICE MANAGERS learn their craft through tribal knowledge—copying the exact habits, processes, and mindsets of the managers they worked under earlier in their careers. When those legacy methods prioritize surviving over thriving, departments stall. Managers end up repeating outdated routines simply to keep the peace and maintain the status quo.

Reactive vs. Proactive Department Leadership

In a closed-loop environment like a service drive, everyday operational variables remain remarkably consistent. Appointments, check-ins, multi-point inspections, and shop dispatching follow predictable patterns. When leaders operate reactively, small friction points—like technician carryovers or delayed parts approvals—turn into daily operational crises. Great managers step back from daily firefighting to build systems that prevent bottlenecks before they happen.

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5 Things Great SERVICE MANAGERS Do Differently

Leadership Quality	Legacy / Average Approach	Great Service Manager Approach
Status Quo Mindset	Protects current routines to avoid ruffling feathers.	Rejects status quo; constantly seeks creative ways to improve.
Financial Mastery	Tracks superficial metrics without understanding financial drivers.	Knows exact leverage points to control net profit and labor rates.
Talent Acquisition	Recruits reactively only when short-handed or understaffed.	Acts as a “people collector,” constantly recruiting talent for the bench.
Customer Experience	Relies on aggressive sales techniques to overcome objections.	Focuses on hospitality, removing friction, and building long-term trust.
Personal Development	Assumes they have “arrived” and stops seeking feedback.	Invests in coaches, mentors, and books to continuously grow.

Operational Category	Artificial Intelligence (AI)	Human BDC Agents
Real-Time Shop Dispatching	Static scheduling; cannot adjust for technician carryovers or shop delays.	Dynamic scheduling; communicates directly with service advisors and shop managers.
Customer Emotional Connection	Rigid and transactional; struggles with complex or frustrating customer concerns.	Empathetic and adaptive; builds personal relationships and long-term trust.
Outbound Offense & Follow-Up	Limited to generic SMS or email blasts that often get ignored.	High-converting phone calls for lost customers, declined work, and no-shows.
Talent Pipeline Development	Provides zero career progression or internal talent creation.	Serves as the primary training bench for future high-performing service advisors.

1. They Refuse to Accept the Status Quo

Average managers focus on maintaining current performance levels. Exceptional service managers reject the status quo entirely, recognizing that maintaining a legacy process is a slow path to decline.

• Creative Problem Solving: They do not settle for average customer satisfaction scores or standard gross profit margins. They actively shoot for top-tier operational targets, such as achieving a 50% net-to-gross ratio.
• Embracing Operational Change: When bringing in external coaching, top managers do not defend old processes. They understand that to get a different financial result, they must execute different operational habits.
• Maintaining High Technical Standards: Aligning technical workflows with ASE certified standards guarantees that repair order execution matches the high quality promised during the initial customer write-up. 

2. They Master Their Numbers and Understand Financial Leverage

Great managers possess a deep, fundamental understanding of fixed operations accounting. They go beyond superficial vanity metrics and focus on the levers that directly control net profit.

• Controlling Unproductive Labor: They manage technician efficiency, shop throughput, and unapplied time to maximize effective labor rates.
• Aligning with Executive Goals: While average managers focus solely on minor product sales spikes (like tire volume), elite managers focus directly on net profit and customer retention metrics that align with general manager goals. Implementing structured Service Drive Systems ensures that financial targets are met consistently month after month.

3. They Are “People Collectors” Who Constantly Recruit

The best service managers recognize that their long-term success depends entirely on the strength of their team. They operate with a recruiting mindset 365 days a year, whether they have an open position or not.

• Building a Deep Bench: They maintain connections across the local industry, ensuring they always have technicians or advisors ready to join their team.
• Inspiring Loyalty: Elite leaders act as mentors, giving staff career opportunities that change their financial lives. Consequently, team members willingly follow these managers whenever they take on new department challenges.

4. They Possess the “Hospitality Bug” and Make Customer Experience Effortless

Top-performing SERVICE MANAGERS understand that customer retention drives long-term dealership profitability. They treat the service drive like a high-end hospitality environment rather than a transactional transaction counter.

• Building Trust Over Pressure: Customers buy maintenance when they trust the department, not because an advisor used aggressive high-pressure objection handling. Overcoming multiple objections on the drive functions as badgering and drives customers away to independent repair facilities.
• Executing the Fundamentals: They enforce basic hospitality standards—calling customers back when promised, conducting thorough walkthroughs, and taking decision fatigue off the customer’s shoulders.

5. They Invest in Coaches, Mentors, and Continuous Learning

The most successful leaders never assume they have “arrived” or mastered the business. They are fanatical about self-improvement, reading books, and surrounding themselves with experienced mentors.

• Seeking Unbiased Truth: As managers become more successful, fewer people around them tell them the plain truth. A trusted coach provides a fresh set of eyes, holds them accountable, and highlights operational blind spots.
• A Growth Mindset: Top managers view leadership as a continuous journey of learning. Updating your department’s playbook alongside competitive Advisor Compensation Plans creates an environment where both staff and managers grow together.

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Leadership and Financial Impact Across Fixed Ops

According to NADA workforce research, fixed operations departments that maintain high absorption rates provide the financial foundation required to protect dealership profitability in shifting markets.   When a service manager adopts these five unspoken leadership principles, the entire dealership benefits:

Performance Metric	Operational Impact of Elite Leadership
Net Profit Margin	Reaches top-tier performance levels (e.g., 50% net-to-gross) by eliminating waste and maximizing effective labor rates.
Department Retention	Eliminates turnover by creating a supportive, growth-oriented culture backed by ongoing mentorship.
Customer Satisfaction (CSI)	Stabilizes at the top of national benchmarks through effortless, hospitality-focused service processes.
Interdepartmental Synergy	Fosters cooperation between parts counters, service bays, and front-end sales departments.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Final Thoughts

Great service management is not defined by how well you handle chaos—it is defined by your ability to build systems that eliminate chaos altogether. By rejecting the status quo, mastering financial leverage, collecting great talent, prioritizing hospitality, and seeking out ongoing mentorship, you can transform your department into an irreplaceable industry leader.

Actionable Takeaway: Identify one legacy process in your service drive that your team maintains simply out of habit, and replace it this week with a proactive system focused on customer hospitality and shop efficiency.

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Ready to Strengthen Your Fixed Ops Systems?

Achieving and exceeding your goals is possible when you have the right systems in place. With Service Drive Revolution OnDemand, you’ll gain access to the proven systems that have made thousands of SERVICE MANAGERS IRREPLACEABLE. Start transforming your department today!

Need help updating your playbook? Let us know how we can support your team’s growth.

Book a 15-minute strategy session with our team. We’ll explore how to unlock your dealership’s real value.

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Service Drive Revolution – Episode #373 Transcript

5 Things Great Service Managers Do That Nobody Talks About

Service Drive Revolution

Hosts: Chris Collins, Hogi, Adam Krey

In This Episode

• Why legacy tribal knowledge limits service manager growth and department profitability
• The 5 unspoken operational traits that separate top 10% service managers from average leaders
• How to transition from reactive daily firefighting to proactive, systemized drive management
• Why high-pressure sales scripts fail on the service drive and why customer hospitality wins
• How elite managers recruit as “people collectors” to build a deep talent bench
• The power of ongoing coaching, mentorship, and continuous learning in fixed operations

Opening & Books That Change My Life

Chris Collins: Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution. Today we are going to be talking about the five things great service managers do that no one talks about. The five things great service managers do that nobody talks about. It’s a pretty insightful list. You will be very inspired and entertained.

Also, if you’re in SDR Academy after this, we sent everybody a video that is your homework. So, Hogi and I shot this video with this dealership model that we built and we simulated a process. And so please make sure you watch that before the top of the hour here when we start, as it will be very helpful and then bring your questions to the academy.

Also, everybody in the academy today is going to get a signed copy of my buddy Andrew Bustamante’s new book. It’s not out yet, but it’s called Outsmart Everyone: Spy Skills to Gain an Unfair Advantage in Work and Life. It is an incredible book. You can see we read it here because he came on Books That Change My Life yesterday and we talked about this book for I would say about two hours and it was an incredible conversation.

If you guys want, if I can find it, I will tell you my favorite part of this book. This is the book that I thought Bustamante would write someday and I think it’ll be a huge hit because he’s giving away so much great content in here. But one of the things in the book that he talks about is—and I’ll just read it to you guys—he says, “I had a phenomenal instructor at CIA who used to say, ‘We repel each other with our strengths and we connect with each other through our vulnerabilities.'”

Drop the book. Yeah. But yeah, we’re going to get a couple hundred of these signed and we will be sending them to the members of the academy, and then clients, and probably give them away at Top Dog, too. I think I have a long list of people I want to send the book to. I haven’t been this excited about a book in a long time. So, you guys will be getting them straight away. But really fun.

Hogi: You know what that quote reminds me of, Chris, is when we had him at Top Dog a couple years ago and how like just talking with people during the event and then weeks after the event, everybody kind of had the same thing like, “Man, that guy was so much fun to talk to.” And then there was another comment that like you were talking to him for like 5 or 10 seconds, he came up to me, and you know, they would say things like that, and then we were talking like we were childhood friends in like 30 seconds. Oh, the connection’s unreal. So like just his insights just through that quote. So what was it? We repel each other with our strengths and we come together with our vulnerabilities or something like that?

Chris Collins: We connect through our vulnerabilities, I think. I’ll read it again. Yeah, bro. Yeah.

Hogi: Like as far as charisma goes and the way that he makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room, it’s all here in the book. Like he tells you how to do it.

Chris Collins: And you know, I so I’ve hired Bustamante—me and my best friend Mike hired Bustamante more than a handful of times to just come to my house and spend a day or two with us working through understanding different things. And one of the things I had him do was critique me and like, you know, tell me the truth about how I interact with people and that sort of thing. I learned so much through that exercise. And what prompted it, Hogi, is watching him work the room at Top Dog. He’s not the kind of guy who’s like backstage and unapproachable. He was going to people; he was seeking people out to understand who they were and to make friends. And he genuinely is curious about people. It’s an incredible thing. He’s an incredible human being.

And well, I’ll read this and I’ll tell you one other thing. So, “I had a phenomenal instructor at CIA who used to say, ‘We repel each other with our strengths and connect with each other through our vulnerabilities.'”

So good. I mean, the book is incredible. Like you can just see our highlights, right?

So the other thing that—I mean, you know, in a way I’m super jealous of that because you know, his wife Ghee and him were in the CIA together. They met in the CIA, which the CIA encourages you to marry somebody in the CIA. Like they think that that’s a good idea or they figured out that that’s a good idea because, you know, you don’t have to live two lives. But they have two kids and they are so intentional as parents and so engaged, and these kids are so smart and so social and just really, you know, you go back to that quote from Jordan Peterson’s book: Don’t raise kids you don’t like.

They’re just so likable and so, you know, they just have like a glow about them, and you know, they work very hard at that. It isn’t by accident that those kids are the way they are, but they’re not leaving it to chance. They, you know, go to crazy lengths to give them experiences, to educate them, and we talk about that on the interview a lot.

And you know, there’s some things that he does as a parent that might be considered controversial and, frankly, surprised me when I encountered it in a situation we were in, but I agree with the outcome. Like I just think they’re incredible parents. So, I can’t wait to watch it.

Hogi: That’s awesome. It’s great.

Chris Collins: We go really deep into the book with—you know, it was hard too to not give it away, and he didn’t care. He was like, “Let’s talk about it.” So there was nothing that was off limits in that way either. And we didn’t—you know, I had two more pages of notes, but we had just gone for so long, I didn’t want to wear him out. But he’s just so smart, it’s incredible.

So yeah, we’ll make sure we get these out as soon as we get our hands on them. I think it comes out in the middle of September. Hopefully, we can get them a little sooner, but it’ll be around then that we get them. But we’ll send those out then.

First Class Flying & The Kelce Incident

Chris Collins: Kind of interesting story, flying back from Washington over the weekend. So, I was up at the lakehouse doing a little jet skiing—perfect, perfect weekend. It was like a little over 80, no wind, just incredible on the water sort of few days. And flying back from Seattle to LAX, I’m sitting in row four in first class and there’s a family. Now, I have a question for you guys before I get to my story that I think is funny to watch people navigate this: If you’re flying in first class, do you make your kids sit in the back of the plane?

Hogi: Um, I usually try to—if we’re in first class, I usually try to get them seats right like right behind us, somewhere where I can keep an eye on them.

Chris Collins: So, no, you’re making them sit back.

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah. They’re getting a little box of crackers and cheese, and you’re up there eating ribeye and maybe that’s steamed vegetables.

Adam Krey: I don’t know about that, but Shake Shack. I probably would. Mine are too small. I probably wouldn’t be going first class. But I took Payton once; we accidentally got bumped up to first class. I ruined her already.

Chris Collins: But that’s not the question though, Adam. The question is if you’re paying for a first class ticket for yourself and Brooke, are you putting your kids in the back or are they sitting up there? And let’s imagine they’re early teenagers in the back.

Adam Krey: Okay.

Chris Collins: So, this lady in front of me with her husband had a group of kids—I don’t know, five kids—and they’re all in the back. So, she’s sitting in front of me and they’re all in the back. And the first thing that I noticed that was just kind of odd is one of her sons, who I’m going to guess was like 13, comes up and he’s standing there staring at me. And I’m like, why is this kid staring at me? So, I smile at him. He smiles back, but he’s just staring right at me. Like, you know that he’s standing up, I’m sitting down. He’s standing up with his shoulder to his mom who’s in front of me and just staring at me. I’m like, “Okay, that’s getting weird, but okay.” So, then the mom—do you know where this is going, Hogi?

Hogi: I think I have an idea, but keep going.

Chris Collins: Yeah. I don’t know. How do you say this? If you have a beard, I guess you’re lumped in with everybody. But so she keeps looking at me really weird. And then Missy sees that she’s searching on her phone: Kelce. And so they think that I’m a Kelce brother again!

So, inside joke, everybody, if you haven’t heard the story already: I’ve been stopped quite a few times where people think I’m the Kelce brother that played for the Eagles, not the one that’s married to Taylor Swift—Jason. And so, like when my cousins were down here a year ago for the Seahawks game, this lady in a Mercedes literally runs me off of the road to stop me to tell me she’s an Eagles fan. I’m completely confused about why she’s talking to me about the Eagles and pulling me over, basically.

And my cousins are laughing; they think it’s the funniest thing ever. And I finally get away from the psycho and they’re like, “She thinks you’re Kelce!” And so they got me a Seahawks jersey that says “Kelce” on the back that has never been worn—it’s sitting in a closet. Never would I wear that. But I just think it’s so funny.

So this lady thinks, “How do you think that I look like that guy?” First of all, I look nothing—I’m so much better looking than that guy! So much better looking! I think that’s what it is, is that they just like go into the spell and they just assume I’m like the only celebrity they know with a beard. I don’t know. But yeah, so the whole time these people think—she’s looking it up on her phone, and even when she looks it up on her phone, she still keeps staring at me. And I didn’t know until we got off the plane. As soon as we were off the plane, Missy goes, “You know those people thought you were Kelce, right?” And I was like, “Oh, that makes perfect sense why they were being so weird and odd.” But pretty funny.

Hogi: Yeah. I was waiting for him to be like, “Will you autograph my jersey or something?”

Chris Collins: I would sign it Chris Collins, but I’m not signing an Eagles jersey—like, there’s no way. Either you’re going to wear one or you’re going to sign one, one of the two. No, I’m not doing either. My cousins get mad at me because I don’t wear Seahawk stuff really, but yeah, I’m not that guy.

Hogi: I definitely see it—the beard, and then from here to here, like the brow to the nose. And then if you had your glasses on, you know…

Chris Collins: Of course I had my glasses on; I was reading a book the whole time.

Hogi: Oh, you think the glasses make it confusing?

Chris Collins: No! I look nothing like that guy.

Hogi: That’s not completely true. I mean, okay, like if you think everybody with a beard looks the same, but…

Chris Collins: I don’t look like that guy! My hair doesn’t look like him, my beard is longer…

Hogi: Yeah, but your face isn’t…

Chris Collins: I’m Irish, I think. I don’t even think—I’m trying to think what those guys are.

Hogi: Well, Kelce’s probably Irish, right? Probably. Super funny though. I thought it was funny.

Adam Krey: Yeah, that is funny. I see it for sure.

Chris Collins: Really?

Adam Krey: I do. Sorry.

Chris Collins: I feel like you’ve got a dog in that fight because you’re a Chiefs fan and his brother plays for the Chiefs.

Adam Krey: Yeah, I’m a Kelce fan all around. I like both of them.

Airbnb Nightmares & Credit Card Roulette

Chris Collins: Funny. So, everybody’s really excited that I didn’t go on this trip to Indiana. Anybody want to guess why they’re so excited? So they can share an Airbnb in the worst part of town, they can all share a bathroom!

Hogi: Not true. Fake news. How many bathrooms are there, Adam?

Adam Krey: Two and a half.

Hogi: Yeah. And how many people? Three. Somebody’s sharing a bathroom. It’s not fake news at all; it’s direct from the source.

Chris Collins: I think it’s so funny that you guys are so excited to stay at an Airbnb. It’s my worst nightmare to be in an Airbnb. Like, I’ve done it before, or I did it a couple times thinking, “Oh, this is way better than a hotel, you can cook for yourself.” Yeah, you’ve got to wait for James to get out of the shower in the morning.

Hogi: We had a great schedule and it’s team building. Also, for me, I feel like I want the best, biggest bedroom, but I feel bad taking the best bed. So the whole guilt thing just ruins the thing for me, because if I take the big bedroom, I feel bad, and if I don’t take the big bedroom, I feel worse.

Chris Collins: Hey, Hunter does a good job on a selection of Airbnbs; he makes sure that everything’s equal. Adam, you were just telling me yesterday that it’s in a terrible neighborhood, that you’re waking up constantly to people yelling and screaming, and that even the people at the dealership were like, “Oh, you’re staying in that neighborhood?” So come on, let’s not…

Hogi: It’s character building!

Adam Krey: I don’t even think a lot of the coaches actually like it; I think they like the novelty of it because it’s just something different. But I’m kind of the opposite—I’m kind of on your side on this, Chris, because after traveling enough years, anything that’s predictable is better. But I think once you see the inside of a couple of Courtyards by Marriott, you’ve seen the inside of all of them. So I think there’s some level of it that I don’t know if they really enjoy it as much as the novelty of it and just having something different.

Chris Collins: Like the one time I went to—I’m trying to think of where it was, like Philadelphia somewhere—we stayed on like an animal farm. Like there were animals there, like goats and chickens and all kinds of stuff. And it was kind of a novelty thing because the house was interesting and that sort of thing. But once again, there’s one master bedroom, and then I felt bad taking the bedroom, so then I’m sleeping in a room with bunk beds that’s like for kids, and that felt worse. And then you’ve got to go downstairs to take a shower… And I’ve got the whole hotel thing figured out: you just tip housekeeping, it’s easy, it just works, you’ve got breakfast…

Hogi: I made us breakfast yesterday.

Chris Collins: Then the whole house smells like sausage and whatever, I don’t know. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have time to eat breakfast because I’m waiting for the bathroom to take a shower. That’s the other thing—hot water runs out. Like some of our coaches like to take long showers. You wonder what’s going on in there. Like, you’re not shaving your legs, I hope; why do you have to take such a long shower?

Hogi: It’s a new day, it’s a new age, Chris. I mean, whatever floats their boat if they want to shave their legs.

Chris Collins: So, then there’s a new game that you guys played that nobody ever offers to play when I’m around, which is credit card roulette.

Hogi: That’s probably accurate.

Chris Collins: Nobody has ever told me about this game, never offered to play this game, which was explained to me that what you guys did is everybody puts their credit card in the bill at the end. So, you went to some steakhouse and ordered porterhouses and probably drank a bunch of wine or whatever you guys did, and then the waitress kind of picks the card without looking. Card roulette, and then the one that they pick is the one that pays.

Hogi: Mhm. Yeah.

Chris Collins: I’ve never heard of that, Hogi. You’re saying it like it’s a common thing.

Hogi: It got me! It got me! First-time player, first-time loser!

Chris Collins: How much was the bill?

Hogi: I think it was like a couple hundred bucks, something like that. Yeah, a couple hundred bucks, something like that.

Adam Krey: We can play credit card roulette with you, Chris, but we have to pick the restaurant. Like, I’m not paying credit card roulette at Cut.

Chris Collins: Come on, Hogi! Isn’t the fun of gambling having high risk, high reward? We need to come to dinner in Oklahoma, we’ll play credit card roulette. If we’re in Beverly Hills, I’ll do the “where in my pocket is my wallet” or go to the bathroom. I like that move.

Hogi: Yeah, I love it when people do that and I was going to pay anyways. It’s like, dude, don’t worry about it, I’ve got it, you don’t have to go for 15 minutes.

Chris Collins: It’s so funny. Credit card roulette. So, don’t do it—nobody was ordering dessert and drinks and all that, I guess?

Hogi: No, no dessert.

Chris Collins: Like, I want to play credit card roulette with you guys, but let’s go for it—let’s order appetizers, let’s order some bottles of wine, let’s have some fun.

Hogi: Wouldn’t it be funny if Adam just always lost? I feel like that’s going to be a trend.

Adam Krey: That was the joke. Hey, as soon as we started playing, when Hunter brought it up, I was like, “Oh, I know which way this is going.” I even took the cards and tried to shuffle them, and then had the server shuffle them also. But yeah, I mean, she went right for Adam’s.

Chris Collins: Did you guys establish credit card roulette before you ordered or had you guys already ordered?

Adam Krey: Oh no, Hunter came up with it as soon as the bill showed up. Play a game, because I think Hunter already knew. If I would have known early on in the evening, I would have been like, “Okay, appetizers!” Made it interesting. I mean, I don’t even like bruschetta or whatever, but let’s get some calamari!

Hogi: I thought their gumbo was pretty good.

Chris Collins: Yeah, Indiana’s known for their gumbo.

Adam Krey: Hey, Hunter said a lot of people fly from Louisiana to Indiana to get gumbo. I don’t know if you knew that. You’ve got to try it. They make the pilgrimage; it’s the Mecca of Gumbo. Then play this awesome game called Credit Card Roulette; it’s the best thing ever.

Main Topic: 5 Things Great Service Managers Do That Nobody Talks About

Chris Collins: Oh, that’s so funny. That’s so good. Okay, let’s talk about five things great service managers do that nobody talks about. I think this is a pretty good list, this is a fun topic. And we have a front-row seat to this because we’re dealing with service managers all the time. we could have made a list that said “Five Things Bad Service Managers Do”—that would be almost a funnier list, I think. Sad, sad.

Five things great service managers do that nobody talks about.

1. They Don’t Accept the Status Quo

Chris Collins: The very first one that came to mind for me was they don’t accept the status quo. And what I mean by that is most service managers that we interact with have been trained through tribal knowledge. So what they know about running a service department, they know through watching the people that they’ve worked for before, but it really isn’t in line with an outcome or result.

It’s just in line with surviving and doing the thing that’s always been done in an effort to be safe and secure and not ruffle anybody’s feathers, not try to do anything outside of the box, basically.

And in a service department, it’s what we call a closed-loop system in the sense that in business, you have open systems and you have closed systems. A closed system is something that happens repetitively over and over again. And so in service, you know, we make appointments the same way, customers pull into the drive the same way, advisors, right? Like, it’s a closed-loop system. There’s no variables.

It’s not like if you’re going out into the field working for an oil company and there could be 20 different things going on with an oil well that isn’t working anymore, or if you’re a Navy SEAL and you’re going into battle, there could be all kinds of variables.

In service, there’s no variables; it’s very consistent. Like, the personality of the customers might be a variable. But the basic process is a closed-loop system—it’s the same. If you’ve been doing it for six months, you’ve kind of seen every type of personality. You’ve dealt with every sort of issue, you’ve had a comeback. You know, there aren’t really any new problems after you’ve been doing it a little while.

And so, the service managers that are really great, that are special, are focused on getting better and improving. They’re a little more creative. The problem with status quo is you’re not creative in the sense that you’ve trained your mind to maintain. You’re in the habit of maintaining a certain process and kind of a certain ideal. But in order to improve, you have to do something different. You have to be creative and try something new.

And you know, one of the things that we run into over and over again is we get hired, so we’re told like, “Hey, we’re not doing very good, our customer satisfaction isn’t very good, our profitability could be better, come in and help us figure that out.” And then we come in and then what happens is the manager proceeds to try to convince us that we should keep everything the same, not quite making the connection that if we kept everything the same, you don’t need us and nothing’s going to improve. In order to improve, you have to do something different.

And I think the best service managers understand and are looking for ways to do things different. They’re looking for ways to apply their creativity and to change. They’re looking for inspiration, and why not have the best CSI in the country? Why not be 50% net-to-gross? Like, why not really be shooting for something special? If you’re going to show up every day and you’re going to put in the work, why not do it at a high level? The varying degree of effort to perform at a high level versus just surviving is, oddly, a trick, because it’s easier to perform at a high level than it is to just maintain.

And people that are just maintaining won’t agree with that because of the aspect of not wanting to change, right? They’re so afraid of changing because they’re in a habit. But we could take you to lots of service departments where you would sit in the service manager’s office and you’d look at the service manager and be like, “Hey, you don’t do much,” and those are the high-performing ones.

Adam Krey: Yeah. It’s an interesting thing with thinking about this from a performance aspect. Being on your team enough years into it, I started kind of seeing it enough times where there’s that thing where a service manager has a record month, and a lot of times, if a service manager doesn’t have the right mindset and is kind of satisfied with the status quo, they do a thing where once they have the record month, they start complaining that, “Oh, now that I had a record month, my boss wants even more.” Like, yeah, we’ve reached the destination! “Can you believe it, Hogi? We made it to 350 in gross, and now that’s not good enough.”

And then it doesn’t happen very often, but the ones that have the right mindset that you’re looking for—and I don’t want this to get lost on people because there’s a ton of wisdom in what Chris said, and if you unpack this enough, you’ll truly realize it—that if you’re reaching for full potential, you’re not allowing the status quo. Like, things like that, it’s easier. There’s a world where if you’re reaching for full potential in customer experience and profitability, what you find is you control the things that you can control, and you’ll find yourself way more proactive than you are reactive, and I promise it’s easier. I get it when you’re in it, it’s not easy to see, especially if you’re kind of learning this game, but it is the truth.

2. They Know Their Numbers & Financial Leverage

Chris Collins: That’s really good. Yeah. So, they don’t accept the status quo is number one.

Number two is they know their numbers and they know their numbers to the degree they know how to affect the numbers. They know where the leverage is. They know how to reduce unproductive wages, they know how to increase the net. You know, they really understand and have tools in their toolbox for everything. And they’re constantly analyzing that, and they’re not surprised, but they understand the financial. They understand that they’re a production facility and what numbers matter in production, and then they’re driving those.

Hogi: Yeah. And if that’s something you struggle with as a manager, I know we talk about this from time to time—we definitely have spent time talking about it in Academy—but there has to be a fundamental understanding of business, that business is about growing in profitability and customer experience. If you’re tracking a lot of metrics and they’re not somehow improving those two particular outcomes, then they’re probably not the most important metric to track.

And in service especially, we’re guilty of chasing down a lot of things. Like, I always think it’s kind of funny when we ask an owner if the department had a good month and they go straight to the financial statement, but you ask a service manager sometimes if they had a good month and they’re like, “Yeah, tire sales are up!” It’s funny. You want to be on the same page with the boss.

Adam Krey: What I was going to say is or the different formulas of how they can calculate other different things to just get lost in the minutia when it’s really just that it should be simplified—just that simple profitability and customer satisfaction, whether it’s NPS or CSI. 100%.

3. They Are “People Collectors”

Chris Collins: So, they know the numbers. Number three is they’re people collectors. They know how to recruit, train, maintain people. They’re a teacher of people.

It is something you can see early on in somebody, like if they’re an advisor and you go to hire them and you say, “Hey, how many techs are going to follow you?” The advisors that become great managers will say, “Oh, two, but maybe three,” or give you some number. They know there’s people that are going to follow them. They understand that their success is based on the team that they have. And so they’re always collecting people.

They kind of know people in different places, they always have somebody on the bench ready to go. They’re not just hiring or looking for people when they’re caught short-handed in a way; they’re not overreacting to that. Like, they’re always recruiting, always looking for people. People want to work for them. So many times I’ve seen managers go somewhere else and people follow them; people are very loyal to them.

Hogi: I think once you’ve—I think a lot of people, what they love about the industry (and your story, Chris, is no exception to this), is the opportunity it affords people. And a manager a lot of times kind of gets a taste of being able to give somebody an opportunity in this business, and it is a life-changing thing for them—a career that they didn’t think they had the opportunity to get. If you embrace that, you start to see the power of influence.

And then, if you can take influence with you and you start to develop some sort of system that gets you the outcomes that you want out of the department, a system is way easier to move forward with influencers within it. Then things like, “How do I get rid of unapplied time?” or “How do I motivate my technicians?” or “How do I get my advisors to do walkarounds?”—you start to realize how elementary some of those questions are. The people collectors, it’s just a different conversation. It’s a different conversation with them instead of things like, “How do I get my advisors to do walkarounds?” It’s way more strategy and just a more fun conversation. But yeah, that’s probably one of my favorite ones on your list so far.

Chris Collins: Adam, you kind of worked for a people collector in Bruce. Like, I always was really inspired by him. So at International, Adam worked for this guy Bruce—incredible people collector, and kind of like what I was saying, he just knows people in different places, very interested in people, but also a great teacher and mentor.

Adam Krey: Yeah, for sure. I think that’s an important piece in anything that we do, I was just talking with a few of our clients today, and it’s just all about the connections and building those relationships. And I think within our transportation industry, people just lose touch that we’re still in the people business after establishing a process. It’s kind of that simple, right? We’re just people collectors, and don’t be quick to judge, but continuously just help and support them.

4. They Retain Customers Through Effortless Hospitality

Chris Collins: Yeah, that’s good. The next one is retain customers and making the customer experience easy. And I think that you have to fundamentally be a fan of customers. You have to like customers and have that bug.

I remember one time I was interviewing this girl that had been a general manager in some restaurants, and I was kind of asking her about how she built her team and what she would look for. And she just said this thing that to her made so much sense, but to the outside feels a little different: she said, “Oh, you can tell right away, they either have the bug or they don’t.” And I’m like, “What’s the bug?” And she’s like, “The hospitality bug. You either want to serve people or you don’t. You’re either a good host all the time or you’re not.”

Like, that’s one of the things that I love about our team: when people come here, everybody we have working here is a great host. They want to make sure that people have a great experience, and it’s very intentional and offensive. They’re not waiting for permission in a way, to the degree that Alex is making cookies, and it’s just a whole thing. But I think that you either have the bug to understand fundamentally that customers drive everything, the customer experience is the key.

So many times we have this conversation, and it’s like people live in one world and the real results are in another world, right? Like, people want to talk about video inspections, and it’s like, okay, but video inspections add a layer of complication. Now all of a sudden it’s social media in a way, and your techs have to be presentable, they have to know—there’s just way more to do than just doing an inspection with a piece of paper. And if you can’t do it with a piece of paper, you’re certainly not going to do it now with software.

People get caught up in this thing like, “Oh, well, you guys are saying that you don’t like video inspections.” And that’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying we’ve got to get good at the basics before we add on layers, because it gets worse, not better, if you’re not good at the basics, right? And so in that sort of thing, people are like, “Hey, we want advisor training.” And it’s like, you don’t want advisor training; what you want is a system that takes away decision-making for customers, makes them feel comfortable, builds trust, and they will buy.

I know that most dealers came up on the front end and they think sales training is the answer because it is in the front, but in the back, people aren’t buying because they don’t trust and like us, not because we overcame five objections. You can’t overcome objections in service. You’ve got one chance at it; if you’re asking them three or four times to buy, they’re never coming back—that’s badgering.

And so you have to fundamentally understand that what’s important is the customer experience, and that’s what drives revenue long term. You need people to come back; they’re going to spend more money if they like and trust us. And all the studies that are out there just go to show you that the younger generation now that are the car buyers are even more put off by the experiences that they have in car dealerships, and the retention from car dealerships to independents has gone down—even when you didn’t think it could go down anymore—and it keeps going down because they just don’t have patience for the shenanigans of the way we do it.

And so, you just see the managers that care about customers and kind of build everything around the customer experience, calling people back when we say we’re going to, and they’re just fanatical about the basics in taking care of customers and making it easy for customers. That’s the key, that’s what it’s all about—making friends.

Hogi: Yeah, it really is that simple, but we miss that piece of it a lot. And I think it comes from bad recruiting processes. I think a great service manager also knows you’re always recruiting, you’re never done recruiting. And if you’re not operating from that standpoint, chances are you let somebody on the team that you didn’t want to.

And it’s funny how many people have the story of—and when I’m visiting the store, I’ve learned it’s always the last person they introduce me to. So, we’ll make our way around the dealership, they’ll introduce me to the different people, and I can always kind of tell if they have this person on the team on the drive (which most people do because it’s the last person they introduce me to), and it’ll be like, “Oh, there’s Mr. Advisor. He has pretty good sales. He struggles with CSI because he doesn’t really like people.” Yeah, he doesn’t really like people!

It’s fascinating how many people have the story of that person on their drive. And you’ve got to understand the crux of this: there’s zero customer service training you’ll ever take that doesn’t say you have to have a burning passion for your customers. Like that old Emerson quote: “Who you are is so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.” Advisors need to understand that at its core. We need to understand that with who we’re allowing to interface with customers; if not, the independents are going to keep having record months, and they’re doing pretty good.

Adam Krey: Yeah, and I remember a store where the only way they would recruit is through some of the hospitality places like Chick-fil-A, if they had a really good experience. Like I’d even say our waitress last night was so good, I think we all looked at each other with a little bit of banter, but just the engagement, we’re like, “You think she could be a service writer?” She was awesome. It’s just those people that make those simple connections that pull off the anxieties and decision fatigue, for sure.

Chris Collins: Was she the one that was really good at credit card roulette?

Adam Krey: Yeah, I didn’t think Adam would have liked her at all, but apparently—maybe I got banned, so good! So nice that I couldn’t even see it coming, the sleight of hand, she put you to sleep!

5. They Have a Coach or Mentor & Never Stop Learning

Chris Collins: Then the final one on the list is that the greatest service managers have a coach or a mentor. They’re always learning, they’re always getting better.

It blows me away constantly when I’m around people that are really, really successful that they have a coach or they’ve had a couple different coaches. But even at the highest level—like I’m in this mastermind with a couple people that are billionaires, very, very successful. And one of the guys is in his late 70s, the sweetest man, and he owned Century 21, very successful in real estate and hotels and different things. And we had a speaker in that group that we’re in, and that speaker has been mentoring him for like 10 years or something. So think about that: in his 60s, he was already really, really successful, and he’s going out and finding a mentor that is helping him, keeping him on track, giving him a fresh set of eyes and opinions on what he’s doing.

Having somebody in your corner that is there to help you succeed and give you an unbiased opinion—sometimes the more successful you get, the lonelier it is and the less people will tell you the truth. And it’s really great to have some sort of coach or mentor that will tell you the truth and keep you relevant and your mind in the right place pointed in the right direction, because we can get distracted very, very easily.

And the other part of that, too, is just learning. Like, you can tell a lot about a person by the books they’re reading. I know I’m sitting in a library right now and I have a show called Books That Change My Life and I read a lot of books, but the reason why I do that is because it’s a cheat code. It really is a cheat code. And whenever you’re around people that are really successful, they’re constantly reading, constantly learning, and they love to talk about it and share what they’ve learned.

I was talking about Andrew Bustamante at the top of the show—I think he probably turned us on to five books, and he gave me a book yesterday that I’d never heard of that sounds absolutely incredible, I can’t wait to read it. But people that are successful are constantly learning, getting better, they have a coach, they have mentors, and they’re always seeking out people that have done it or people that have been around others that have done it.

And the clients that we have that are the most successful see us as coaches and understand that we’re in their corner to try to get the most out of them and help them get closer to their full potential. And that’s what they’re looking for: they want to be challenged, they want to be told the truth instead of going back to what I was saying before with the status quo.

Hogi: That’s good. Yeah, I think kind of a telltale sign of that if you’re trying to take inventory of that for yourself: one, seeking out people that are mentors. And some people don’t know how to go about that. Look for somebody with results that’s already getting results, because usually they’re the quiet, humble one in the back of the room, and seek those people out. Then you just have to be curious and focused on results, and you’ll find those people.

But it never ceases to amaze me, whether it’s clients or even coaches on our team, it’s the people that ask the most questions that move the fastest towards success. It’s a telltale sign of that, right?

Adam Krey: Glad you brought that up, Hogi; that was a good one that I was thinking the same thing. The curiosity always just helps breed more of the success and just shows a really good sign on building upon what they’re establishing. It’s awesome.

Chris Collins: Yeah, like I think the thing going back to the first one is a lot of people just want things to be done and they want to put up their feet and say “I won.” And that’s just not how life is. Life is about the journey and learning and constantly improving. And so in order to do that, you’ve got to get rid of that thing that you’re going to someday arrive or it’s going to be done and final. That just never happens. Nor is that the recipe for a fulfilling, great life. A great life is where you’re improving and learning and taking on new challenges, and you learn way more about yourself when you take on those challenges.

And to the mentor thing, too—I haven’t talked to you guys about this, but we’ve built in our software a tool that will do projections, right? So when we’re doing strategy sessions with new possible clients that we would help, we want to show them a projection and overlay our clients’ average performance. And once again, in tribute to our team and what we’re doing out in the field, I’ve had Mike double-check those numbers because I can’t believe that they’re real! I’m like, “No, they’re real, I swear.” He’s like, “Are you sure?”

I guess I just focus on the ones that are struggling more and I haven’t looked at the top of the group, but in our software we have what is it, the top 30% as a benchmark that comes up under your numbers. So it shows you where you are compared to the top 30%. I’ve been having Mike take it down and change it to 50% or even lower because the numbers are just too good to believe! And the problem we run into is people think that we’re doing something nefarious to get those numbers, which we’re not. And so you can’t even tell people upfront the numbers that some of our clients are getting because they just won’t believe it, which is a funny thing when you’re just talking about having a mentor or a coach.

Hogi: Can I add to that real quick, Chris? So like, I had a call earlier this morning with a client and their numbers are fantastic—they’re actually great. And it’s just awesome with our folks in the field and our coaches and what we do and how everything is. They’re like, “Well, you don’t understand, we’re…” They are panicking! They’re like panicking: “We need more, we need to do this!” You know, I’m like, “All right, great, let me continue to make that plan and grow it.”

And the same thing like currently where we’re at today in a store: once the momentum goes, I don’t think we could stop this momentum if we tried. I just can’t. It’s kind of that magic in what we’re doing and how we’re carrying it out: all of a sudden it just takes flight and just—what is it, keep pouring gasoline on it, it just keeps going. It’s pretty fantastic.

Chris Collins: I would say, too, like the thing going on there where you guys are, there were some stores that were struggling that weren’t profitable, and one of the stores was profitable for the first time just off of Hogi’s boot camp, right? Just off of training them on what the numbers mean and where the leverage is, and they just took that information, and in less than a month, they were profitable for the first time ever!

That to me is better than anything else that could exist in the world, that we can take somebody who’s just never been trained. I mean, it’s crazy to me in our industry that we don’t train service managers, we don’t train parts managers to really be effective on what matters. And yeah, it’s just nuts. But that to me is like the best thing ever. I’m walking on cloud nine when that sort of thing happens, when they do the work, too. At the end of the day, we’re just giving them the information and they’re doing it on their own.

And that just proves, too, how many talented people there are in our industry that just don’t have the information. Like, we keep the information secret from them for some reason. And I mean the impact we’ve had as a team on the industry in giving away—we give away better information than people charge for. That’s always been the goal, because I always feel so bad for managers that don’t understand what they’re doing and they’re chasing gross and just getting further and further behind. It’s crazy.

Wrap-Up & SDR Academy Call

Chris Collins: Well, we’ve got to wrap this up, but I’ll just recap the list really quick. The five things great service managers do that nobody talks about:

1. They don’t accept the status quo.
2. They know their numbers front and back; they know how to find the leverage and change those numbers.
3. They’re people collectors.
4. They retain customers and create an incredible customer experience; they know that the customer drives everything.
5. They have a coach or mentor; they’re always learning, reading books, looking for new ways, and seeking outcomes and results.

So, fun list. Great job, gentlemen.

Reminder to everybody: now we will take just a 10-minute break here, and then we’ll see you inside of the Academy. We’re going to be talking about the drive process. Hopefully you watched the video that Hogi and I made for you that we sent, and we’re going to kind of go through the psychology of how do you put customers in a buying mindset and retain them at a high level. It’s all about the psychology of a customer experience. So, we’ll see you guys in there in a few minutes. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. See you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

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About Service Drive Revolution Academy

I know from experience that a lot of dealer owners won’t invest in training for fixed ops — but eight SERVICE MANAGERS in our coaching group have been promoted to general managers. That doesn’t happen enough in our industry. It’s proof that when you’re given the right tools and the right mentorship, you can do amazing things.

I’d like to personally invite you to something that should exist already, but unfortunately doesn’t: a live Fixed Ops Academy — a mentorship, a community. It’s a Service Drive Revolution Academy. Anybody can afford it; anybody who wants to invest in themselves can join. We teach what we know about running a healthy fixed-ops service business. Our average coaching client performs well above the industry average, and a handful are in a league completely their own — if I told you their numbers, you wouldn’t believe it.

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• SDR Archives
• Fixed Ops Leadership Lessons Service Managers Can Use in 2026

Feel free to explore the linked articles above for deeper insights into each strategy. If you have any further questions or need additional resources, don’t hesitate to ask!