When dealership leaders ask, “Am I paying technicians enough?” they’re usually thinking in terms of dollars per flagged hour. But here’s the truth: pay isn’t the #1 reason technicians stay or leave your shop.
The customer technically pays the technician—the dealership is simply the middleman. That means the real question isn’t about hourly rates. It’s about the systems, culture, and leadership you put in place.
In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris Collins and Christian Lafferty break down what truly keeps technicians engaged, loyal, and productive.
1. ADVISORS Make or Break Technician Retention
Techs don’t leave for $2 more per hour—they leave because they’re frustrated. And nothing frustrates techs more than weak SERVICE ADVISORS.
- If ADVISORS can’t sell, techs stop doing inspections.
- If ADVISORS don’t communicate, techs get discouraged.
- If ADVISORS don’t perform, techs follow the good ones out the door.
That’s why strong advisor training is one of the best technician-retention strategies you can invest in.
👉 Related: Are You Ruining Your New Service Advisors?
2. Parts Departments Need to Step Up
Nothing kills a tech’s momentum faster than waiting on parts. A proactive PARTS MANAGER isn’t just “serving Service”—they’re a critical partner in keeping techs efficient.
Ask yourself: Would you rush a 38-cent nut across town to a body shop, but ignore a tech waiting on brake rotors? If so, you’ve got the wrong priorities.
3. Systems Are Everything
Lost keys. Cars double-parked. Wasted steps. Broken dispatch.
Every gap in your systems adds up to one thing: tech frustration.
Shops that tolerate weak systems inevitably lose their best people. Shops that run tight, efficient systems? They become magnets for high performers. 👉 Related: Top Fixed Ops Performers: What Car Dealership SERVICE MANAGERS and ADVISORS Do Differently.
4. Training Isn’t Optional
If you aren’t sending your techs to training—and creating a culture where development matters—you’ll eventually lose them to a shop that does.
👉 Want to know how to grow entry-level techs into long-term performers who stay? Read How to Train Quick Lube Techs into Master Technicians
5. Shop Culture Matters More Than Hourly Rate
Technicians don’t just want good pay. They want to work in a culture where:
- Performance is recognized.
- Top techs set the tone.
- Collaboration and knowledge-sharing are the norm.
In high-performing shops, techs help each other because they know everyone benefits when the whole team wins.
6. Watch the Warranty-to-CP Mix
One of the biggest mistakes MANAGERS make is being slow to add techs. What happens? Shops get overloaded with warranty work, customer-pay jobs disappear, and techs stop making money.
And when your best techs can’t flag hours, they’re gone.
👉 Want proven ways to boost CSI and profitability at the same time? Read Boosting Service Drive Revenue: Proven Strategies for Service Advisors and Managers
The Real Answer: It’s About Leadership, Not Just Money
Pay is the easiest part of keeping technicians. But leadership is what creates the environment where great techs want to work—and stay.
If you want to win the tech game, stop obsessing over hourly rates. Start obsessing over:
- Training ADVISORS.
- Building partnerships with Parts.
- Fixing broken systems.
- Protecting shop culture.
Because in the end, he or she who has the most tech wins.
Full Video Transcript
Today on the big show, we’re going to talk about: are you paying your tech enough? It’s a question that everybody needs answered. Are you paying your tech enough? We’re going to go through it in a deep way. Punch it right in the face and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution.
Sometimes I just feel old. I went to Home Depot over the weekend and I get that. Are you wondering what I’m doing in? I’m trying to figure that part out and how that connects. You actually going to a Home Depot? Okay. There’s two reasons why I’m going, but this isn’t the story. I need a rotary sander for this thing I’m doing, and I was thinking about getting a toolbox for the new place. Yeah. Okay. To put the tools in, right? That makes sense, and keep everything organized. So, I go and I get there and then I realize I don’t have my readers and I can’t see anything without my readers anymore. There was a time where they would help when I was reading a book. Now I can’t read the ingredients on the back of a solvent can, which are Home Depot writing, like the price thing. And so then they have this stupid thing on the iPhone that’s like a magnifying glass, but it never lines up with what you’re trying to look at. I just felt so old, like I almost drove home to get my readers and come back.
Yeah, I’m having the exact same experience. And for years I had 20/20 vision. Like I just didn’t need any glasses at all. And then in the last few years I got the cheap readers. It was when I moved out here, which was 2020, when I started using reading glasses, and now reading glasses are just kind of becoming glasses. And where it hit me is that you and me and a couple of people went out to dinner last week. And my thing is usually when I look at a menu, because it’s kind of a darker place in a restaurant, right? So I turn the light on on my phone. Me being the technical person that I am, I didn’t know there was some sort of a magnifying glass thing, but I might download that. But I usually can turn the light on and then I can see the menu. And I turn the light on and I still couldn’t read the menu. So I just went with the steak. But yeah, so that’s been happening to me more and more. Like I even feel weird now that I don’t have my readers in front of me, ‘cuz I know that if I try to read something… I have readers in every drawer of every place I exist. I literally have like 15 pairs. Yeah. You never know. Yep. I have them in my bag. Like I never want to not have them around. Yeah, they are. But for some reason I don’t have them in the car and like why I would go to Home Depot without them, I don’t know. You just don’t think about it until you need them. Yeah. I’m starting to think I’m probably going to end up with bifocals in the next year or so.
October 23rd and 24th is a very special day. Tell everybody what it is. Oh, that would be our annual Top Dog event. And there’s something special about this event. What’s that? It’s going to be the best event ever that we’ve ever done. For sure. I’m convinced. Yeah. Chris Voss is gonna be one of the speakers, but we got some fun speakers. You watch his master class? Uh, maybe. I’m in a mastermind with him. That’s right. You know him, don’t you? Yeah. Um, yeah. So, you’re in a mastermind with him, but I thought that his master class was really well done, but he’s pretty he’s pretty great. Yeah. And I could listen to him talk all day long. And all the stuff kind of makes so much sense. But man, talk about a guy that practices what he preaches. It’s a lot of psychology. It’s all mental. I love it. At the highest level. If you don’t negotiate right from his thing, people die. We’re working on getting In-N-Out Burger again, too. So terrible to have to have In-N-Out Burger. That was a big highlight. Yeah, it’ll be fun. So mark your calendars. Don’t you think In-N-Out is a California treasure? They left California, but they started. You know, every business has left California but us. Except us. We stayed. Just waiting for you to give me the wink. Pack up and go. It’s time to move. But, yeah, it’s going to be good. It’s fun.
Anything in the news? Let’s have a look see. All right. So, this is interesting only because I didn’t even think that they would have this position, but Tesla had their North American service director that was just in charge of all the service all around. Pierro Landalfi has left. So, I didn’t even think that they cared about service at Tesla that much, but they actually had somebody that was in charge of it. So, he took off and left. I don’t think that they’ve named his replacement yet, but it’s super interesting to me because if you’re a service director, where do you think someone would go? Somewhere else in the automotive industry. Nope. This guy went to a place called Nimble, which is a robot company. So, he’s a tech guy basically that was in charge of service. So, I thought that that was really interesting.
Man, this whole thing is just kind of fun. Let’s see. There’s some good deals going on. Ford, not a recall notice, but they’re releasing 2027. I always think that this is a new thing, but I don’t know, maybe it’s not. They’re calling these things BEVs now instead of just EVs. What’s the B stand for? Battery. But I don’t know. I don’t know why they had to add a letter, but it’s going to be a $30,000 battery electric pickup coming out in 2027. So, I think that that’s interesting that people are still kind of moving forward. There’s also in the news, kind of like a thing that looks like it’s becoming a theme: a lot of the auto manufacturers moving production into the United States. Wonder why. I if I had an idea, I would say that it’s, you know, that was expected. Toyota, Nissan, Honda.
Isn’t it? Do you ever do you ever think about the fact that this stuff that Trump is doing is not historically stuff that a Republican would do, that he acts more like a Democrat? Yes. And I think that you would offend people by saying that, but it’s just a fact. I’m sure you offend people just by talking about it, but I still find it fascinating. So, I didn’t think about it until you said it, but there’s definitely certain things. I’m assuming I’m okay to say this on the thing, but like his approach towards marijuana is democratic more than republican. There’s other Is he undoing that? So, I think so. I think that that’s he’s at least working on some of the legalization. Just for the record, I don’t smoke weed. It’s not my thing. But, you like that I did the turn to the camera to say that, just to make sure in case they wondered. So I think there’s a few things like that. You don’t drink? Yeah. So I don’t I don’t do weed either. Yeah. You don’t do anything. I do In-N-Out Burger, which turns out is the most unhealthy of all those things. Um, but yeah, so I hear what you’re saying, but I never thought about it before then. Yeah. Like, I think people are so polarized that they’re not paying attention to what’s going on. But yeah, what he’s doing is way more what the Democrats talked about doing for a long time, and the Republicans were like, “Fine, take the jobs overseas, like corporate profit.” And he’s like, “No, this is this is about the middle class, you know.” Yeah. Bringing the jobs back. It’s interesting. It is very interesting. Well, I do think that our country gets better if people are more playing to the political middle because neither side completely can. It doesn’t make sense mathematically that one side would be right or wrong all the time. The middle’s where it lives. Well, I mean, what’s funny is the people that are against him. Well, it’s like here, it’s like the government here wants to fight Trump. And so, basically, by fighting him, what they’re saying is we’re pro-crime, which they kind of were pro-crime because of Soros and the DA and all that, but like that’s a crazy thing to say. Like, we’re pro crime, screw Trump. Like, I don’t know. It’s just funny. But if you walk, I mean, you know, this not just a punch start to a joke, but like I walk home regularly and the city is pro-crime. Yeah. The city is pro-crime, and we want, how do we get how do we get to that and how do we defend that? It just doesn’t make sense. Yeah. I think it’s very, very interesting. I’m all for like whatever we do to have law and order in a world where like the working citizen, me and you, like that we would have more rights than a criminal. Common sense. We’re just talking about common sense. Like, just basic stuff, not it’s not divisive. Like, how could it be divisive to say we should have rules and stick to them? No. Like, yeah, that’s the um all of that, right? Like so, we live in a world where, like, if I’m, however, like, even I affect like the way I dress based on the lawlessness that exists. We were talking about a couple of weeks ago, like that I have a watch, and you’re like What, you have a watch? I’m like, yeah, I have a watch. Why don’t you wear it, ‘cuz I don’t want to give it to somebody like, and it’s just sad that that’s the world where it exists. But like Law and Order, it’s a cool place to live. Yeah, me too. I miss it.
Okay, talking about our big subject today: Are you paying your tech enough? So, the first thing Christian would like to point out is who’s paying for the tech? The customer. The customer pays the tech. The techs are the cost of sale. Like we’re selling time that is produced by a tech. So the customer is paying for the time. So techs are a percentage of what the customer is paying. Who controls that pricing? The service manager. Yeah, we do. So the customer is the one paying the tech in a sense, right? Don’t you think if you just start with that and wrap your head around it, the rest of the list gets easier? Yeah. I never understand when people are like, “Oh my god, I was talking to these techs and they’re making $32 an hour.” And it’s like, I’d pay 34 then. I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you. Like, I don’t want to be the lowest in the market when it comes to techs. I want to have good techs that work. And, you know, like that’s where you want to have talent, and you got to pay for talent. And I just wouldn’t, I don’t see myself in a scenario where I lose techs over two bucks.
But more importantly than that is I don’t think that the hourly wage that techs make is really the difference. They will say that an hourly rate matters what they make, but techs don’t quit over hourly rate. They quit over a bunch of other stuff. And so I think the thing that we want to kind of help everybody understand is that it’s really not about the hourly rate. It’s about a bunch of other things that add up to keeping good techs and recruiting good techs.
The first one is the advisors. If you don’t have good advisors, the techs get discouraged. They stop doing inspections and they leave. They just leave. And you know, how many times have we interviewed a good adviser? We say, “How many techs are following you?” And they’re like, “How many do you want?” 25. Yeah. Because techs want to work for good advisors. So if your advisors aren’t good, they’re not well-trained, they’re not veterans, and you allow low performance, incompetence, indifference in your advisor staff, you’re going to lose techs. It’s all there is to it.
Then what about the parts department? The parts department has a big influence on the techs having a parts manager that’s proactive with the team. They see themselves as assisting the technicians. And this is always said like in the office with the door closed: “Well, you know, service is my biggest customer.” Parts managers will say that. Yeah, but whenever somebody says that, it’s always like, okay, but what you’re saying and your actions are two different things. Why don’t you just show that without saying it in a sense? Oh, yeah, for sure. Like it’s more about the action versus the thought process. I’ve said this before, but I think it bears repeating is that it’s the most interesting thing to me when the parts service relationship is analyzed that we will take a 38 cent nut that we’re making seven cents in gross on across town and deliver it to a body shop, but we won’t take a set of breakout rotors into the shop for a tech. Yeah. Like that’s the if we look at that and like, okay, so that doesn’t make sense and then try to kind of blend it all together. It reminds me of what was going on in the early 2000s. You remember when George W. was president and he had an assistant that came in every day and she gave him like the reports on like the coalition that was working in Iraq and one day the assistant comes in and says, “Uh, Mr. President, I’ve got some terrible news for you. Uh your coalition report today we had a casualty. Uh, we lost a Brazilian.” And W just starts looking down, shaking his head. He turns all white and he says, “That’s terrible. I can’t believe it.” And the assistant’s like, “What’s wrong? What is it that’s got you bothered about this?” And he looks at her, he says, “How much is a Brazilian?”
The next one is systems. It’s a theme in Service Drive Revolution, isn’t it? Lost keys, where they’re parked, double parked, like all of that brain damage. The systems affect the technicians and matter. And I would contend that most of the time the same ones that will tolerate indifference and underperformance from advisors are the same ones that tolerate bad systems. Yeah.
The next one is training. You got to send them to training. You got to train. You know that’s a big part of it. Culture is a part of it. Having a culture of performance where actually flagging hours matters that the people in the shop that have the largest voice are the ones that are performing not the ones that aren’t performing.
So you know the culture, another one too, is the warranty to CP mix. What happens a lot of times is managers want to keep techs, so they don’t add techs. And what happens invariably is the traffic starts to increase and then the only customers that can get in are the ones with warranty. So then the techs are only working on warranty work and they’re booked out three weeks. The customer pay work goes somewhere else. Yeah. And if you’re making a hundred bucks an hour, it doesn’t matter. If you’re buried in warranty work and electrical diagnosis is going to pay a third of what it should, you’re in trouble. Yeah. The rate doesn’t matter at that point.
The other thing is like good techs want to work around other good techs. Like there’s a certain mindset with that too. That’s, you know what’s my favorite about that is watching the collaboration, like the way that they work and exchange information so freely. Like I’ve been in a few shops where you can tell that it’s a culture of performance almost, and they understand if they share information with each other, everybody books more hours. The worst are to where it’s like you go into a shop and one person has all the knowledge and then you got to kiss the ring to get the knowledge and everything like that. Like it’s funny how that free flow of information between the two tells you what kind of shop you have.
And just to kind of wrap this up is I had somebody ask me a little while ago about should you hire somebody back that left? And I was like, well, who is it? Oh, it’s a couple techs that got offered more money. They went to the dealership. The dealership was a mess and they want to come back because they couldn’t flag any hours there. It was a disaster. Would you hire them back? And I was like, I absolutely would. I just would without a doubt. Yeah. But that happens. Like your systems and the people that you have are what create the environment for good technicians to want to work there and thrive 100%.
So that’s the answer to are you paying your techs enough? I wouldn’t think just about the money because the customers are the ones paying the techs. I would think about what are you doing as a leader to create an environment of performance and a culture that the best technicians want to come work for you. That’s right. Pay is the easiest part. Yep. And he or she who has the most techs wins. Amen. We’ll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.
Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We’re uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don’t miss out. If you have a question you’d like us to answer on the show, call 833-3-ASK-SDR and we’ll answer your question on the show. That’s 833-3-ASK-SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com. I’m Chris Collins, and I’ll see you in the next video.
🔗 Related Resources:
- Are You Ruining Your New Service Advisors?
- How to Train Quick Lube Techs into Master Technicians
- Boosting Service Drive Revenue: Proven Strategies for SERVICE ADVISORS and MANAGERS
- The 9 Reasons Why Service Managers Fail (And How to Avoid Them)
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!
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