Would you say you have the Morning Routine Of A Millionaire Service Advisor?
Welcome to Service Drive Revolution.
Today we are going to talk about the Morning Routine of a Millionaire Service Advisor. We’re gonna explain what are the things that you should be doing every day to be successful, to build your clientele, and become a Millionaire Service Advisor.
Christian Lafferty is here with me today and we will go over what it takes to truly be an unstoppable force on your service drive.
Before getting into the daily morning routine of a millionaire service advisor, we just want to preface this by saying that Christian and I are so excited to talk about this!
Christian commented about this saying,
“I’m so excited for this because there’s a couple of nuggets that you do as a Service Advisor that I really like, but mostly I just wanna see what kind of questions arise from this conversation.”
Morning Routine Of A Millionaire Service Advisor:
1) The first thing that you want to consider is the coffee. Let’s talk about coffee first.
When I’m trying to think about all the top performing advisors, whether any of them didn’t drink coffee, I could only think of one. So the day’s gonna start with some coffee, when I was a Service Advisor, I did not work out in the morning. I worked out at lunch.
It’s really hard to work out in the morning. If you’re a Service Advisor you could workout in the morning, but you’d be getting up at four. So the first thing is, when you talk about the morning routine for success, I think about coffee because it definitely helps in moderation!
2) The way we dress and present ourselves.
I think that having a little interest and care for the way you dress is gonna separate you from everybody else. I’ve told this story here many times where my buddy, Johnny, who’s still at the dealership that I originally wrote Service for. He’s a Service Manager now and Johnny once told me that he thought I was a douche bag because I wore a suit to work!
But what I remember about wearing a suit to work was that people assumed I was the manager, even though I was a kid that’s right. People assumed a certain authority about me. I’m not insinuating that you wear a suit to work. However, it really does impact people’s perception of our character because people eat with their eyes.
When you put a little care and thought into the way you dress, these will leave a lasting impression for those people you are barely meeting for the first time.
It’s not always just about how it feels or tastes, it also is how it looks and we lose some authority when you are trying to gain trust from customers looking like a slob. A lot of service advisors look like slobs. It’s very common which is why this is second on my list regarding the morning routine of a millionaire service advisor.
3) Don’t go crazy with your cologne/perfume!
The next thing is don’t wear too much cologne! Just wear a mild cologne because there are customers that are allergic to cologne or offended by it. I wouldn’t go too heavy on cologne and things like that, but I would wear one that is a little milder going to work and not to the bar. Do not forget that people are very sensitive to scents and everyone’s palette is different, we can never guess what might smell good for someone. So as part of your morning routine of a millionaire service advisor, just make sure you don’t overuse your fragrances.
4) Repeating Affirmations
As part of your morning routine as a millionaire service advisor, you’re gonna wanna stop for a minute, look in the mirror, and repeat some affirmations. I love affirmations and you need to ask yourself right now,
“Do you do affirmations?”
Because the words we tell ourselves ultimately dictate the reality of our future.
We want to think for a couple minutes in the morning about what it is we’re trying to accomplish. Maybe it’s not framed as an affirmation, rather we’re just reminding ourselves every morning about what we are aiming for.
One that you might want to remind yourself of is,
-I connect with customers on a deeper level.
-I prevent unforeseen surprises for my customers.
Selling is the easier part because it’s all about building trust. Having said this, you just want to remind yourself what your purpose is made up of. If you connect with 2 or 3 customers on a deeper level every day, over time it’s a big number.
By adding affirming words into your morning routine of a millionaire service advisor… You should be writing well over $1,000,000 a year in parts and service. It should be closer to two if you’re extremely good at what you do. But there are Service Advisors that have been over 4 million in parts and service in a year, even knocking on five.
So think of yourself as a customer collector and connect with customers on a deeper level so that they trust you exponentially. You want them to throw you the keys and trust the diagnosis the technicians give it. We have to maintain that equity with them.
The next item on my list of the morning routine of a millionaire service advisor is definitely one of my favorites!
5) Get In Before Anyone Else
The next thing I had on my list is you want to get in earlier than anybody else. I say this from experience because I was always the first one there!
I had a key to the place and I was there before the manager, most of the time because he didn’t show up until 10. My biggest tip is to get in earlier than anyone else because you’ll be at an advantage!
Once you’re in, make sure to get the night drops. Additionally, the thing that you wanna do with night drops is to create an R.O. and call the customers.
I know a lot of times we’re thinking it’s not a great idea to call them in the crazy hours of the morning. However, we’re going to wake them up and it’s okay to wake them up. I have found that it is a pleasant surprise because it takes away the worry.
Think about it, what’s gonna happen if they’re gonna wake up? They will just do their morning, and then they’re gonna call around 8:00 A.M when we’re at the peak of helping customers. Because we were able to address the situation during our less busy time, we’ve just saved time for later. When we have night drops, calling and wondering what’s going on with their car, it just adds unnecessary stress.
So let’s get ahead of that, avoid this issue, and let’s get a repair authorization! If they’re in warranty, then it’s gonna be in warranty. But if they’re not, let’s get some sort of authorization.
Even if it says what happened on the night drop, I still want you to tell me. I do this because it might sound different than what the customer writes. Further, I’m gonna let them know that their check engine lights are on so we can have them give us something to work with.
The thing I’m thinking in my mind is, as a millionaire service advisor, I want to have enough work where when my technicians come in, the momentum starts. There’s nothing worse for the shop than a technician coming in and standing around for 20 minutes. Making sure they have work will set the tempo for the rest of the day.
Another reason why you want to come in early is because…
If your technicians come in and they have tons of work that is already authorized. It’s just going to create momentum in the shop.
From here, the technicians are gonna be more productive, morale is gonna be higher, and they’re just gonna feel good about their day.
As the millionaire service advisor, I’m setting the tone because I’m the first step in a technician fixing anything…
-I gotta create a repair order.
-Make sure I get an authorization.
-Get good descriptions of the problem.
I’ll have to communicate it in a way that makes the technician efficient and helps them understand the issues at hand. Therefore, getting the repair authorizations and writing those night drops allows for this success process in the service department.
Those night drops become work for the technicians that might be coming in early. So write those night drops, get in there early, and get those repair orders. Let’s set the technicians up to win and by setting the tone and the pace for the day, they’re gonna be more productive.
Here’s another reason why I built myself the morning routine of a millionaire service advisor.
I don’t remember people beating me ever! I remember my stupid boss was like,
“Chris is hogging all the night drops.”
Then what would happen is then he had his assistant manager who would come in at 8:00 A.M, get the night drops and divide them up between the Service Advisors. However, it would be lunchtime and the repair orders hadn’t been written yet.
From here, customers are calling in and soon they went back to me asking me to write all the night drops. I cared enough to get the customers there and get them authorized!
6) Review History Of Incoming Appointments
The next thing that you do is you’re gonna review the history of your incoming appointments. For example, I would go through all of my appointments and I would review history. I have a general idea of what’s coming in and what they’re due for maintenance wise. I’m not even writing that down because I’m just looking and analyzing everything.
Also the other thing that I’m doing is reminding myself of the customer’s name. When I review the appointments in the morning, it reminds me that Christian is Christian. So hen I walk out to the car, if I’m like,
“Hey Christian, how are you doing?”
It automatically makes Christian feel like I remember him and we’re friends.
What I’m trying to do is put him in the script or the mindset that we’re friends. I’m also trying to remind myself of the name. I did a lot of things like that to try to remember names to make people feel good. By having that personal touch, I’m setting myself up to remember what maintenance they’re due for, and this allows them to trust us.
So when they’re standing in front of me, I don’t have to do that awkward thing where Service Advisors leave the customers clueless. In conclusion, I’m reviewing the history of incoming appointments so that I can mentally prepare myself for the crazy ride of the day.
7) Prioritizing Everything From The Day Before
When you’re doing your log sheet digitally or on paper, the next morning, I’m making everything from the previous day a priority. If there was a holdover, I’ll move that to the top of my log sheet.
I wanted these at the very top because what if these holdovers didn’t get seen. I want them diagnosed right away, but I’m putting holdovers at the top of my log sheet because I want them to be a priority. My reasoning behind this is that they’ve been here a day already and that’s holding up loan cars and customer’s perception.
This isn’t wine. They’re not getting better with time.
8) Communicate With The Head Porter
The next thing is I will go out and I will tell the head Porter that I’m waiting for a towing.
I will go to the cashier and I will tell them that I’ll take any incoming calls. That was always a thing on my list of morning routines. Additionally, I would go to the cashier, whoever’s answering the phone and be like,
“Hey, if you have anybody with a problem or you’re having a hard time getting an advisor for somebody, give them, give them to me.”
The other thing is you could do the same thing in parts. For example, you could tell parts,
“Hey, if anybody calls in and they need help with a labor quote, just take a message and give it to me. I promise you I’ll call them back within the hour.”
I’m soliciting from the porters, the cashier, and the parts department. Then once the doors are up and I’m attacking the drive.
I’m going to the customers and I’m not letting them come to me. We lose equity with the customers if they gotta come inside and find you. I’m going out to the car and I’m meeting them at the car, I’m training my customers to wait and I’m coming out!
9) Interrupt Patterns
The other thing is, I’m pattern interrupting. I’m trying to be different from all the other Service Advisors.
When I’m approaching a customer, I’m not asking them,
“Did you have an appointment?”
“What brings you in today?”
“Hey Christian, how’s it going?”
What I do is, I automatically just start my walk around and I gain control. I would ask them,
“Hey, where are you headed today?”
As we’re walking around the car, we’re measuring tread. Furthermore, I’m talking about the things that are attached to our customer’s identity. The true question is understanding what sort of things are attached to the customer’s identity.
When you figure out the customer’s purpose, you begin to unravel and understand their position in this world. The customers would see a change in their posture, we would see their eyes get a little bit bigger, and they would lean in towards us with interest.
When I’m doing the walk around, I could care less about the commodity. We have to understand there’s nothing special about the vehicle.
Anybody can service these vehicles. However, what’s special is the relationship we have with our customers and how we make them feel.
The equity that we have and trust we build by treating someone like a friend will benefit us in the long run.
I’m trying to be a pattern interrupt and I’m trying to put them in the frame of a friend, not in the frame of a consumer/customer. I’m trying to be different from everybody else when approaching people for the first time.
My morning routine of a millionaire service advisor comes with 2 patterns!
These patterns are two things.
-I’m going to attack the drive and write what I need to write.
-After I write, I’m going to contact customers that I wrote up previously because they don’t expect it.
I want to interrupt patterns in the sense that I’m positioning customers as a friend.
I’m gonna update them before they have to reach out to me. This can be as easy as a simple text message.
Anything just to reassure them that we know what’s going on and that they don’t have to call us.
Ultimately, this builds for a completely different experience than any experience they will have anywhere else. Also, doing this builds a ton of equity and trust because they just relax throughout their day.
Closing off my morning routine of a millionaire service advisor…
It’s all focused on how we can deliver, be different, and create a scenario where customers are key throwers! We haven’t let them down because we’ve built equity with them.
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