Many dealership leaders pay close attention to their posted labor rate, but far fewer understand the impact of their effective labor rate.
The difference between the two can quietly cost your service department thousands of dollars each month. While many dealerships assume an effective labor rate should naturally fall below the posted rate, that mindset often leaves profit on the table.
In this episode of Service Drive Revolution #369, Chris Collins, Adam, and Hogy discuss why successful dealerships think differently about effective labor rates, the common mistakes that widen the gap, and how SERVICE MANAGERS can build processes that protect profitability.
What is an effective labor rate?
Your posted labor rate is the amount displayed for customer-pay labor.
Your effective labor rate reflects what your dealership actually collects after discounts, pricing adjustments, maintenance packages, warranty work, and other labor mixes are factored in.
Many SERVICE MANAGERS are surprised to discover just how large the gap between those two numbers can become.
Instead of accepting that difference as normal, dealerships should understand what’s causing it and look for opportunities to improve it.
If you’re working to improve your Fixed Ops performance, check out Chris Collins’ blog on Fixed Ops leadership and profitability for additional strategies that strengthen dealership results.
Stop assuming your effective labor rate has to be lower
One of the biggest myths discussed in this episode is the belief that an effective labor rate should always be lower than the posted labor rate.
Chris challenges that conventional thinking.
With the right pricing strategy, labor mix, and operational processes, dealerships can achieve an effective labor rate that meets—or even exceeds—the posted labor rate.
The first step is changing the mindset.
Once SERVICE MANAGERS understand that higher effective labor rates are achievable, they can begin identifying where unnecessary revenue is slipping away.
Quick lube can quietly reduce profitability
Quick lube departments bring valuable traffic into the dealership.
However, when discounted oil changes make up a large percentage of repair orders, they can dramatically lower the overall effective labor rate.
The problem isn’t offering maintenance specials.
The problem occurs when low-priced oil changes become the majority of the department’s workload without creating additional repair opportunities.
Successful dealerships use quick lube visits to build relationships, complete thorough inspections, and recommend needed maintenance—not simply process vehicles as quickly as possible.
Competitive pricing isn’t always the answer
Many dealerships price nearly every service competitively because they believe lower prices attract more customers.
Unfortunately, pricing every repair, maintenance service, and diagnostic procedure as a traffic builder often lowers profitability across the entire department.
Different types of labor deserve different pricing strategies.
Rather than treating every service the same, dealerships should evaluate maintenance, diagnostics, repairs, and competitive services individually to ensure each contributes appropriately to the department’s financial health.
Give advisors the right tools—not unlimited discounts
Another common issue happens when SERVICE ADVISORS have unlimited flexibility to adjust labor times or pricing.
Most advisors aren’t trying to reduce profitability.
They’re simply trying to take care of customers using the tools available to them.
The real issue is usually a lack of standardized operation codes, labor guides, and pricing structures established by leadership.
When advisors constantly modify repair orders, the customer experience becomes inconsistent, checkout takes longer, and effective labor rates suffer.
Strong SERVICE MANAGERS build systems that make it easy for advisors to present accurate pricing the first time instead of negotiating every repair order.
If you’re looking to become a stronger SERVICE MANAGER, Chris Collins has several leadership articles that explore accountability, process improvement, and dealership performance.
Consistency protects profitability
Another overlooked issue is inconsistent labor times.
If technicians or advisors estimate labor differently for the same repair, profitability quickly becomes unpredictable.
Standard labor operations help create:
- Consistent pricing
- Better customer communication
- Improved advisor confidence
- More accurate expectations
- Stronger financial performance
Consistency doesn’t just improve profits.
It also builds customer trust by creating a more professional experience.
Fleet work deserves careful evaluation
Fleet customers often negotiate discounted labor rates.
While those relationships can generate significant business, dealerships shouldn’t assume lower pricing is the only way to retain fleet accounts.
Many fleet customers place greater value on responsiveness, communication, and turnaround time than simply finding the lowest labor rate.
Providing an exceptional experience often becomes a stronger competitive advantage than reducing prices.
Leadership shapes profitability
One of the recurring themes throughout this episode is that effective labor rate isn’t simply a pricing issue.
It’s a leadership issue.
SERVICE MANAGERS who create clear pricing policies, standardized processes, and consistent advisor expectations protect both profitability and the customer experience.
When leadership removes guesswork, advisors spend less time adjusting repair orders and more time building customer confidence.
The bottom line
Your posted labor rate tells customers what you charge.
Your effective labor rate reveals what your dealership actually earns.
Closing the gap isn’t about raising prices across the board.
It’s about improving processes, eliminating unnecessary discounts, standardizing labor operations, and creating consistent pricing strategies that support both customers and profitability.
For dealerships focused on long-term Fixed Ops success, improving effective labor rate may be one of the most impactful financial opportunities available.
đź”— Related Resources
- Top 5 Mistakes SERVICE MANAGERS Make That Hurt Their Dealership
- Service Department Menu: 6 Tips to Increase Service Profit
- 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!
FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Intro and Robo Hogi Innovation
Welcome everybody to the big show. We’re coming at you live. This is pre-recorded, so you’re seeing it live, but it’s pre-recorded and we’re trying a new thing that I don’t quite know how to explain. So, if you’re listening to this at some point, maybe go check out YouTube and just see what’s going on. Most definitely. How would you explain this, Hogy? What’s happening right now? Well, I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I can’t see it; I just see you guys. You can’t move your head too much, Hogy. You can’t move.
The Creative iPad Setup and Viewer Choices
So, they’ve made like an iPad Hogy. Hogy with a cowboy hat and a polo shirt. I like Robo Hog. This all comes because Adam’s here because we’re interviewing somebody for a coach, and so he flew. You’re just here for a day, right? Yeah. So, he’s here for a day, but he was here in person, and so now they’re trying to make it like Hogi’s here in person. It’s a very creative group we have here, but I don’t know if it works. I don’t know if it works. I like the effort.
Preparing for Indiana and Pre-Recorded Content
There’s things I like about it, and then there’s things that are very disturbing about it. I was thinking the same thing. I’m confused. So, you will have to make your own decision as the viewer. You’ll have to decide what you think about this. If there’s one to watch, it’d probably be this one for sure. We’re talking about today the gap between the posted and effective labor rates. We see this all the time where we’re talking to somebody or we go into a store, their posted labor rate is $200 and their effective is 99 or 101. It’s like it’s so far off.
Finding the Light in Service Department Turnarounds
And we will talk about the debate on hey, should your effective labor rate be higher than your posted? Should it be lower? Where should it be? We’re going to talk about that. So, that’s the subject today that we have. We’re going to Indiana next week, so that’s why this is preempted, why we’re pre-recording it. Yee-haw. Yee-haw. We had something I was going to talk about, but I can’t talk about it. So, I don’t really have anything to complain about. You can complain about that, the fact that you can’t complain.
Strategy and Systems Over Constant Struggle
I don’t disagree with you that I probably shouldn’t, but I want to. Yes. I guess conformity is not fun. Sometimes you—I’ll tell you sometimes instead of winning the battle, you win the war. Yeah, I like that. Hogy Robo Hogy. I’ll tell you what’s fun. You want to know what’s fun? What’s fun? Fixing service departments is fun. That is true. Let’s just talk about what happens when a service department is struggling and then it starts to kind of find its legs. Well, I was going to say see the light and it starts to get its balance and then it starts to kind of like—you know the thing that makes me the happiest to hear people say once they kind of start to get their sea legs a little bit?
Proactively Raising Kids in High-Stress Careers
What? I didn’t know that we could have fun. Yeah, I would probably—don’t you always love that, Hogy, when somebody’s like, I didn’t know that it could be fun? Always. Like, yeah, they get it. They’re starting to get it. It can be fun. Like, I don’t—I think people think, well, I know people think that it has to be hard. And for you to be successful, you have to struggle and you have to carry this load and it’s got to be difficult and you got to yell at, you know, your spouse and beat your kids and kick your dog and whatever. And it’s not it at all.
Escaping Late-Night Work and Fading Heat
It doesn’t have to be like that at all. You just have to have a strategy and a system and some friends, and you got to try some new stuff. Well, we’re not really trying anything. We’re doing stuff, but to the person sitting in the manager seat, it’s, you know, you’re just trying some new stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The industry does have a high divorce rate, but it doesn’t have to. Yeah. Like, I don’t know. I thought that was all, you know, that’s one thing that’s kind of a running joke because it’s so hard and you take it home, you know.
Household Leadership and Mutual Spousal Goals
That’s one thing that I admire about both of you. You got pretty good marriages and you’re pretty dedicated to your kids and, you know, you’re active in that part of your life. You’re not blaming the fact that your kids are degenerates on oh, I worked all the time or whatever. You’re proactively trying to make your kids not degenerates. You’re contributing to society by raising some good kids. That’s a big deal, I think. But it does. A lot of people do fall back on that like for sure. Yeah. And it’s fun.
Asking Staff About Role Obstacles and Feelings
There’s moments, but it’s overall I think it’s fun. Don’t you think, Hogy? Yeah. For sure. Let’s pretend that we’re in a marriage that—let’s say we married our high school sweetheart and we’re struggling. Our service department that we’re running is losing money. CSI’s down. Come back from lunch, there’s 12 voicemails. You’re just fading heat all day. Customers are out of their minds. Your boss doesn’t even like barely talk to you anymore because he’s fading too. Or she.
Oklahoma Workshops and Romantic Sunsets
And then so I think that I think this is how it goes, but maybe you guys can tell me your ideas on this. So, you go home and your wife’s like trying—she’s legitimately trying to help you. She’s like, “You work too much.” And you’re like, “Leave me alone, honey. Stop telling me I work too much.” And then you slam the door, hop in the car, and go back to work. And you go back to work at 9:00 at night and you have 12 voicemails to get away from that conversation. And the advisor says, “Oh, I can’t believe you came back. I still can’t find this customer’s key.”
Bonding Through Outdoor Work and Truck Washing
Yeah, they’re in the lobby. Leave me alone. You don’t understand. That’s the divorce rate I think comes from that. I think I hear that a lot just in general from a lot of people, whether it’s service departments or just—it’s you don’t understand. They don’t understand. What is there not to understand? Or the way that I’ve always kind of looked at that is if I’m the leader of the household, then it’s my job to get them to buy in. And if I have goals, then we should have mutual goals.
Principal Partners and Middle School Behavior
They should be involved in those goals. I should be communicating to them what I’m struggling with and make them a part of it. And usually like I’m always surprised like how my significant other just has like great ideas sometimes that totally catch me off guard that I would have never thought of on my own because I’m just too focused on what’s in front of me. I agree. I think it’s the same thing at like a service department, too. If you’re sharing those common goals with the team and implement the process and curate all that, you can have fun sharing the success.
Getting Ahead of Stress with Communication
What were you going to say, Hogy? Oh, no. I just—yeah, getting the different perspectives. From them and then when they’re involved with them. I think that’s one thing we’ve been talking about as a team is when we’re first starting with a client and talking to all the different players on the team. We experience it where people are almost confused that we’re asking them what could make the department better and what are obstacles they have in their job and stuff like that to be able to deliver better results and a better client experience.
Aligning on Family and Business Budget Goals
And then they’re almost taken back or surprised that someone’s asking them because nobody ever has before. Yeah. Isn’t that amazing that they’ve probably worked there for three or four years and no one’s actually asked them about like their role position or just a single thought about or feeling on the environment or just how are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What’s going on, Adam? How you doing? Does Andrea ever like—do you ever get to that where you’re like, “Honey, just leave me alone. You don’t understand what I’m going through.”
Gesture Head Movements with Robo Hogi
No. But she’s more psychologically advanced than that. So, she kind of knows where I’m at a lot of times and then takes different angles at it. So I don’t really get that opportunity that much. Like what does she do when you just go out in that big huge workshop you have? How many square feet is that workshop? See, it’s so big he doesn’t even know, that big Oklahoma workshop. 3,200 feet. So as big as the library basically. What does she do when you’re out there just working on a car trying to forget about life?
Exceeding the Posted Door Rate Target
Does she bring out like ribs and cornbread? What happens? Yeah. I guess like sometimes she’ll—I usually try to come in for dinner, but sometimes she’ll bring food if I’m like in the middle of something. She’ll bring food out. I don’t know. I try to get her to come out there. So like facing the west, there’s really pretty sunsets looking out the back of the shop. And so like in the evenings a lot of times I’ll try—if I’m out there, I’ll try to get her to come out there.
Mindset Shifts Away from Tribal Industry Knowledge
I was hoping you’d make it romantic. This is perfect. So yeah, I mean that’s romantic, right? I’m working in the shop and she’s watching the sunset. Oh, I thought you—I can picture it now. You keep working. That’s not romantic. It’s the Oklahoma dream. So funny. What about you? What does Brooke do? Yeah. She—it’s kind of similar. Like she just knows to where there’s not like—I don’t know. We kind of just go hang out with the kids.
Quick Lubes as Lowest Common Denominators
Like we’re outside quite a bit and we’re clearing some trees. So we’ve always got outside work to do. But so you bond through cleaning a little bit of outside work. Yeah. And like I’ll be washing the truck. She’ll take the kids outside and—don’t touch the truck, kids. Dad will lose it. You had better pick me up in that truck in Chicago. It better not be a rental car. Expedition. I’m married to the Expedition now. No, it’s—is it a Lariat? What is it called? A Lariat.
The Four Types of Labor Pricing Strategies
See that right there? It just—you just hurt its feelings. It just—I got a text message truck. Great. Yes. But I mean I would agree. I think you have that match. It sounds like Hogi’s got the same thing. It’s just, you know, there’s not—they want to be a part of like the solution in the sense of that planning in a way. So there’s really like, oh, you don’t understand. We don’t have conversations like that. Brooke being a principal probably helps with a lot of that.
Compromising Effective Labor on Chemical Programs
I think she probably gets a lot of practice. I know. I get like Hogi said, she’s—what did he say? Psychologically advanced. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You know, if I’m acting like a child or a middle school—well, you are like a little—you’re just another one of the junior high kids. Oh, every time somebody’s like, “Oh, she’s a principal.” You probably give her a lot of practice. I’m like, “Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.” But, no, it’s just, I don’t know.
Unbuilt Op Codes and Advisor Ticket Edits
I mean, there’s—we engage in those conversations both about like work, but it’s—I think a lot of it’s just about the family, just growing the family and more interested in the kids, and I think that helps the outlet of any of the stress really. I don’t know. But, yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I find that it’s important to get ahead of it. And when I—whenever I find myself getting in that mindset, I just tell her like, hey, I’m trying to figure some stuff out. So, if I seem a little moody, it has nothing to do with you.
Unfettered Advisor Desking vs Sales Floor Rules
And then she’ll be like, “Well, what are you trying to figure out?” And then I tell her, and then she’ll give me—she gives it—she’s really good at giving me space, but she’s also really good at talking. And then if I start to have ideas, I’ll bounce them off of her. And then, you know, then you have to explain to her, you know, she knows nothing about what we do. So you—that that part is hard, like explaining the basics when you’re trying to in the thick of it. Yeah. Yeah. I think I’ve tried to do that more in the last couple years.
Eliminating Labor Deductions to Back into Estimates
Yeah. Yeah. And you’re like, “Ah, well, if I think if they’re interested, I give the opportunity trying to explain because we’ve been doing it—I feel like we’ve been doing this most of our careers, right? And working with people and trying to better, whether it’s a process, people getting to see the light or whatever the—I would say like the full potential can be in anyone. Try to kind of break it down. And I think if our significant other is interested, you give them that chance or anyone for that matter that’s curious.
The Time Priority of Modern Fleet Relationships
Like my mom’s always curious about some of those things. I try to break it down and explain. It’s like, yeah, it’s sometimes it’s hard to explain, but what you just pointed out there is you will share what you’re trying to work with. You get ahead of it in that sense. I’ve tried—I’ve actually—I don’t want to say try, but I’ve been more intentional on that more frequently in the last like few years with Brooke and it’s helped. Do you guys sit down and do goals? Yes.
SDR Academy Leadership Session Preview
Yeah. Budget goals, family goals is the magic because if you’re on the same page about the overall what we’re trying to accomplish, it makes everything else kind of fall into place. It’s funny because now I keep thinking just like about service departments and business. It’s fairly similar. Writing them out, talking through them, discussing communication. Yep. Yeah. It’s all the same. Were you going to say something, Hogy? No, I was just agreeing. I said, “Yeah, no, for sure.”
Promoting Service Managers to General Managers
I just can’t get over the Robo Hogy see as your face. We can’t see your hand. So, I know you got to gesture with your head, too. Gesture with your head. Yeah. Like Hogi’s always really good at like explaining stuff with his hands. So now this is going to be like facial expressions. I will say you have a wonderful smile, my friend. Yeah, you look good. Cowboy hat looks good. It’s funny. Okay, let’s talk about the gap between posted and effective labor rates.
Exceeding the Posted Door Rate Target
So, we have a little list here of the things that can make that gap pretty wide. And I will say off the top, if I’m shooting for posted versus effective, I want the effective to be higher than the posted. Some of you just ran off the road or fell out of your chair when I said that, but it’s totally true. Your effective should be higher than your posted if you’re doing things correctly. Yeah. I’m probably like with everybody that just fell off the road a little bit because it’s—I’ve yet to see a lot of folks get over their posted.
Mindset Shifts Away from Tribal Industry Knowledge
It’s always like a trying to shoot for 85% is like the hardest target from what I’ve seen. So I can see why people would fall off the road. We got—we got plenty of examples for them to see of over their posted. It’s actually not—it’s not that hard, right, Hogy? No, it’s pretty easy. No, not at all. Yeah. Yep. So, I’ll just—it does take—oh, go ahead. Oh, I was just saying it does take a different way of thinking. Like if you’re just—the mindset, and hopefully—hopefully those are some of your takeaways from this episode is, you know, the tribal knowledge of the industry will definitely keep you from it and send you in the wrong direction.
Quick Lubes as Lowest Common Denominators
Unfortunately, I think we see for people coming onto the program that’s more common than, you know, them being anywhere close to their door rate in effective labor rate. But, but yeah. Well, yeah. One of the first things they learn when they come on the program is how important effective labor is and what they’re selling. I want to add one thing because I was with everybody that just fell off the road. And Hogi just said something really crucial, I think, is the mindset, right? So, guide or what most people will say in the industry is being 85% close to the door rate as being that—maybe that’s the problem.
The Four Types of Labor Pricing Strategies
The mindset isn’t where it should be to, to Hogi’s point, get higher than 85% or 100%, get well over your posted door rate. Yeah. So, it starts with believing that it’s possible. And then once you do that, it’s pretty easy to figure it out. So, there’s probably two that are really big that create this gap. The first one is a quick lube. So, if you have a quick lube and it’s more than 50% of your traffic and you’re discounting your oil change—so let me say you’re doing an oil change for $39.95 and your effective labor rate on that oil change is zero or it’s 10 bucks or whatever.
Compromising Effective Labor on Chemical Programs
You’re just running those dudes through. Like if you’re writing 100 ROs in a day and 50 of them are that for a couple reasons. One is the quick lube isn’t built to sell more. So you’re just doing more of the lowest common denominator and that’s a huge mix of the work is at a loss, you know, and so a really busy quick lube will do that to you. You had me at discount. That hurt me. Yeah. Then the second one is if you’re pricing everything like it’s competitive labor. So we look at it as you have four different types of labor.
Unbuilt Op Codes and Advisor Ticket Edits
You have competitive labor. Now competitive labor is meant to drive traffic. You have diagnosis, you have maintenance, and you have repair labor. Most of the time, diagnosis, competitive labor, and maintenance will all have an effective labor rate lower than the posted. The idea is that like, you know, a brake fluid exchange or brakes or batteries or anything like that drive traffic. And so that’s, you know, that’s the thought process is everything’s competitive. We’re trying to be competitive on everything.
Unfettered Advisor Desking vs Sales Floor Rules
And so if everything’s competitive, then everything is at a loss, right? Because we’re trying to drive traffic through pricing in that way. So that’s the other big one that happens. So one is a really busy quick lube that is, you know, 50% of your RO count. And then the other one is that the way you’re pricing everything is to be competitive. And a lot of times it’s shocking when you look at the effective labor rate on different maintenance items and let’s say they’re on a chemical program.
Eliminating Labor Deductions to Back into Estimates
So they’re with Justice Brothers or BG, whatever it is. By the time you actually figure out what your effective labor rate is, it’s shocking how bad it is. You know, nobody’s doing that math. And if you did do the math, you’re like, “Well, I can’t charge $300 for that,” or you know, and so you compromise through the effective labor rate and you don’t understand how to price those, how to set them up, that sort of thing. So those are the big two. Then there’s—Hogi came up with this one—is just when the advisors can discount and willy-nilly change times and prices, which happens a lot, Hogy, right, when they don’t even have op codes set up?
Standardizing Software Configuration and Labor Ops
They’re just making it up as they go along. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the thing with it too is usually why the advisors have the ability to adjust tickets is because the leadership hasn’t set up the software. The op codes aren’t built. They’re not right. You know, there’s all these different things and they have to go adjust the tickets every single time they cash a customer out, which really is a detriment to your customer experience. It sucks for the customer and for the advisor because the advisor is trying to like, you know, bridge the gap and make small talk or whatever while they make the price right while they’re trying to cash out the customer and like all of those things.
Protecting Technician Pay and Customer Experience
But yeah, it’s just gotten so far out of control where it’s just the norm. I’m also surprised at how many dealers and GMs are surprised to find out that their advisors have the ability to adjust tickets. And, but it is interesting like, and if I ever get pushback on it too, one of my favorite conversations with it is like asking GMs or dealers like, “What would happen if—what would happen to your gross if the salespeople got to desk their own deals?” And they’re like, “Oh, well, my gross would go away. No, we don’t do that. We don’t do that.”
Fixing Labor Times and Fleet Rate Agreements
That’s what’s happening on the service drive. So, it is an interesting thing and it’s not, you know, a lot of times the advisors don’t even know the damage they’re causing. Like, it’s 100% on us as a leadership to set all that up. But, yeah, that’s a lot of times that’s not a popular one when I bring it up, but it’s 100% the best practice. Like, I get it. I know there’s a billion different extended warranties and you have different labor rates for different things and all that stuff, but like at the end of the day, you can set up labor types and labor ops and there’s some admin work and dialing all that stuff in, but it’s 100% worth it.
The Time Priority of Modern Fleet Relationships
Like there’s been times we’ve, you know, turned that stuff off. And if you’re like thinking about like working towards doing that, go fix all that stuff first. Like don’t just walk in one day and flip it off. Go ask advisors, hey, what are the things you’re having to adjust the most? They’ll tell you. There’ll be a few of them and go fix the most common ones and then, you know, then flip the switch and you can kind of dial it in from there. But like turning that off, it’s not uncommon to see a $20 jump in effective labor rate just turning that off.
Building Turnaround Systems and Community Support
They don’t know what they don’t know. And they’re just trying to take care of customers the best they can and as quick as they can. And, yeah, and it’s a big hole in the bucket for sure. The thing too to just reiterate there is what invariably happens is the techs get paid what they get paid and then what we’re collecting is what gets trimmed down to hit the estimate or hit the price or whatever it is. And nobody goes back to the tech and says, “Hey, can you do this for less?” because that isn’t how it works.
SDR Academy Leadership Session Preview
And so it automatically is lowering your effective labor because they’re just lowering whatever we’re collecting for that time. And so they’re trying to back into an estimate or back into a price by lowering the labor. And if it’s the quickest way to do it, they don’t go back to parts and ask parts to lower either. It’s usually if they can do it, they’ll, you know, they’ll just take it right out of the labor because it’s easy. I think it’s devaluing the customer experience of what you’re shooting to offer at the end of the day. For sure.
Promoting Service Managers to General Managers
Another one that doesn’t happen that often, but we have seen it, is the times aren’t set. So like the times are different for repairs depending on the tech or the advisor that you get. Like they’re just making up the times also, like I don’t know, what do you want for this job kind of a thing in a book or referencing anything. Yeah. And I don’t think we see that as much, but you do see it. And then the last one I had on the list was fleet. Like a lot of times we have these pre-negotiated labor rates with fleets that bring it down.
Understanding Fleet Customer Value and Pricing
Especially if you’re doing a lot of fleet work. They’re our best customer. We have to give them the best price. Yeah. We’re going to lose them if we don’t do it for $99.95 or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. The thing with fleet too that has been proven time after time and if you walk people through this conversation is the fleets at the end of the day, it’s still about a relationship and your ability to get them taken care of. Like they want somebody that they can call when something’s down, when they need something urgent, like they want a go-to person.
Time and Efficiency in Fleet Service Operations
And, yeah, and they just want to, you know, on the fleet side, it’s all about time. There’s way less emotion than dealing with the retail public. It’s just having systems and processes where you can get, especially in the shop, where you can get that stuff in, get it taken care of, and get it back to them. Yeah. I think now more than ever, wouldn’t you say, Adam, now more than ever on the fleet side, it’s less about price than it is about time? Just like you said, man, it’s the connection. It’s the value that you’re providing them, you know, experience.
The Importance of Communication and Vision in Partnerships
I think it goes back to what we were kind of starting a little bit earlier with relationships in general. It’s the communication. It’s sharing that vision with them and building that partnership. So, 100%. Yeah. That’s good. So, that’s our gap between your posted labor rate and your effective. And you should be shooting to have your effective higher than your posted. And that is very possible to do, higher than your one-hour posted labor rate. Yep.
SDR Academy Session Topics and Mindset Overview
And then coming up after this on Service Drive Revolution Academy at the top of the hour, what are you going to be talking about, Hogy?
We’re going to talk about mindset and leadership. A little bit of intro to some leadership topics and mindset. It’s good. So, mindset leadership, and it’s kind of coming out of financial statements. And so, if you’re not in the academy, go to chriscollinsinc.com and sign up for on-demand and you will get access.
Accessing On-Demand Content and Joining the Live Show
You probably could get access before it starts if you’re not in there. Get it. You’re going to have like a 10, 15-minute break here in between, but we will be going live there in just a couple minutes.
And beyond that, we hope everybody has a great week. Thanks for hanging out with us, and we will see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.
Promoting Managers to General Managers Through Mentorship
I know from experience that a lot of our dealers/owners won’t invest in training for fixed ops, but eight service managers in our coaching group have been promoted to general manager. Something that doesn’t happen enough in our industry. Proof that when you’re given the right tools and the right mentorship, you can do amazing things.
And I’d like to personally invite you to something that should exist already, but unfortunately it doesn’t.
Joining the Fixed Ops Academy Revolution
And that’s a live fixed academy, a mentorship, a community. But what it really is is a service drive revolution. Anybody can afford it. Anybody that wants to invest in themselves. We’re going to teach what we know about running a healthy fixed off service business. Our average coaching client performs well above the industry average, and a handful of them are in a league completely their own. In fact, if I told you their numbers, you wouldn’t even believe it. They’re so good.
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.
