AutoFix AdvisorCast

Michael Doherty [00:00:00]:
This is the autofix advisor cast, powered by Worldpac. Thank you for tuning in. This is your host, Michael Dougherty of Autofix Advisor cast. And in this episode, I would like to talk about building and retaining relationships with coworkers, the co workers that I have worked with, some of them, it's been over a period of 15 years, and there definitely has to be trust when working with people for that long. What I mean by trust is knowing that the information that is being provided to you by the technicians as a service advisor is not something that you would second guess. Last week, I had a client come in with the vehicle, and when the client came in, he did not have an appointment. No big deal. Be happy to get him in.

Michael Doherty [00:01:04]:
Always help the client. Right again, building and retaining client relationships. If you could have seen the look on his face when he walked in, he was very afraid. He kept saying, my car is not acting right. It's hesitating. He was shaking. I actually walked out to the front lobby and the hazards were on in the vehicle. So that told me right away that that's the type of scenario that I'm dealing with with this particular vehicle, with this client, that it's that much of an emergency.

Michael Doherty [00:01:39]:
I very rarely can count on one hand how many times over the years a client has come in with their hazards on. And I understand that we get clients sometime that call and say that they want to bring their vehicle in. What would we recommend? Tow it, drive it. And it depends on what's going on, obviously. But I can't recall the last time that I had somebody come in with their hazards on. So I knew that the concern that this individual had was very. So he got an Uber, he left. I sent the client a text link for authorization to dig into the concern.

Michael Doherty [00:02:18]:
And when I asked him the morning when he dropped off what the concern was, he really couldn't describe it. He just kept saying over and over, drive the vehicle. Drive the vehicle, Michael. You'll feel it. You'll see what I'm talking about. And when I had the morning meeting that morning, I had mentioned in the morning meeting that the client's description wasn't all there. So asking the technicians at that point, because I wasn't sure who I was going to pair the vehicle with or dispatch the vehicle to out of the three technicians that we have and just letting them know upfront that the information provided wasn't going to be the best information because, again, the client just didn't know how to describe the concern. But in any event, the vehicle was test driven by the technician.

Michael Doherty [00:03:03]:
The report that I received back from the technician stated that he checked for faults, did not see any relative to the client's concern, and they test drove the vehicle that he didn't feel anything odd. And also, a side note, I don't know what you want me to do with this. The technician did not see the look on the client's face when he dropped off that morning. I did. Just so happened maybe five minutes before I was getting ready to leave to go to lunch that day. And in episode one, I talked about self care for service advisors and that I usually. Orlando, not all the time, take lunch. So from episode one, I'm doing better self care.

Michael Doherty [00:03:47]:
I'm taking a lunch break. Yay. So I asked the technician if he was done with the vehicle, and then I wanted to test drive it. He said, sure. So I got in the vehicle. It was a very nice day. I put the windows down about halfway front and rear, turned off the radio, turned off the h vac, and really just wanted to tune into anything that I felt or heard of that might be weird. And I know sometimes people have noise concerns or just things that, again, you know, depending on the weather situation, as long as it's not raining outside, you know, put the windows down a little bit, turn off the radio, turn off the h vac.

Michael Doherty [00:04:25]:
Really listen to what the vehicle is telling you. And when I drove this vehicle, I think I got maybe half a mile down the road, came to the stoplight, and when the light turned green, I just took my foot off the accelerator. I didn't accelerate at that point. I apologize. I took my foot off the brake. I didn't accelerate at that point. And usually when the cars in drive, you take their foot off the brake, the car kind of starts to go a little bit. As long as the cars in drive, this, it did not.

Michael Doherty [00:04:53]:
It felt weird. As I began to accelerate, acceleration really wasn't there either. And I'm going up a hill a little bit, but still. This is a 2017 BMW X 328 I S drive. So, four cylinder, turbocharged rear wheel drive vehicle, not a heavy, heavy vehicle. I still feel the four cylinders underrated in those vehicles. But in any event, again, under acceleration, it just didn't feel like it wanted to go. It felt like the brakes were dragging.

Michael Doherty [00:05:29]:
Honestly, that's. That's my first gut feeling. It feels like the brakes are dragging, or maybe the e brake's on, and I look down at the parking brake, and the light is not on to show that it's engaged. No, worries and I'm continuing my drive. I come up to the next stoplight and I was able to reproduce what I did at the first stoplight. So I got to my destination for lunche, got out of the vehicle, texted the technician and said I was able to duplicate what I felt was a hesitation. It really feels like the brakes are dragging. I'm going to finish my lunch and return to the shop and could you please recheck the vehicle when I get back? And the technician replied, okay.

Michael Doherty [00:06:18]:
So got back to the shop, left the vehicle running and went inside. Told the technician that vehicle was outside running. He was in the process of working on another one. So I went outside, shut it off, brought him the key. Probably about 20 minutes later I walked in the shop and the vehicle is up in the air on the service lift. And I walked over to technician and I said, hey, what do you think? What did you find? And with the vehicle up in the air on the service lift, he was unable to just move the passenger and driver's front wheels. Tires couldn't spin them, no unsprung weight on the vehicle, could not spin or move the front wheels or tires. The front brakes are locked up on this vehicle.

Michael Doherty [00:07:01]:
So I'm really glad that I went with my gut and decided to drive the vehicle on behalf of the client had I've called that client and said, hey Mister Jones, misses Jones, we checked out your vehicle. My technician test drove it, wasn't able to duplicate anything. No stored faults for anything that might be drive train related. You can come pick up your vehicle. I would feel absolutely horrible if they got down the road and something got worse because of that. And the reason that I mention having worked with technicians for so long and having that trust, it's paramount. And I don't really feel that the technician wanted to overlook that vehicle. I don't feel that he was rushed to check out that vehicle.

Michael Doherty [00:07:49]:
I don't know what happened, but I'm glad that I was able to drive the vehicle and just for myself know that it really didn't feel right. Something was wrong. It ended up the hydro boost unit is failing and that's a very, very expensive part on those vehicles. The client ended up wanting to do the work, put a parts deposit down, we ordered the part and this coming week were going to do that work. And ive had several transactions with that technician over the year where I just didnt feel that maybe he was really invested in figuring out the client's concern or maybe thought it wasnt a great ticket to start with. And that maybe to be honest, he just didnt care. And that's the exception, not the rule. I've worked with these people for a very long time, and this particular technician, everybody has their good days and their bad days, but in that moment I felt obligated, I felt obligated to test drive the vehicle.

Michael Doherty [00:08:46]:
And as I had mentioned in episode one, as a service advisor, you are the first and last line of defense for your client. You are your client's advocate, you know, your client advocate. You want to give them the best experience possible. And they need to feel that. They need to feel that genuine care and being a service advisor, that is your job to make them feel that. And I guess, question for service advisors out there. Do you guys or gals drive client vehicles from time to time, or do you just take the technician's word I for what they're looking at? And again, it's case by case scenario, but in this particular instance, this was a seasoned technician that said he drove the vehicle and he didn't feel anything weird. And I just don't know how that was possible.

Michael Doherty [00:09:42]:
And I'm not judging him for that, I honestly am not. But maybe his thought process wasn't on that car at that moment. Maybe his thought process was somewhere else and he just, you know, drove the vehicle. I don't know how far he drove it. I wanna say it was maybe 2 miles. I feel like when I got in the vehicle, it said like 2.4 miles on the tripodometer. And when I check in a vehicle, before I write it up and send it back to the technician, I always reset the tripodometer to zero. And the reason I do that is because I wanna know that they test drove the vehicle as part of a drivability concern, or just a concern in general.

Michael Doherty [00:10:18]:
And how far they drove it tells me how much further I need to maybe drive it myself or look into that. But, and also I like driving client vehicles. It gives me a chance to just kind of give it a, not a shakedown, but after I get a job back from a technician, if it's been a big job that we did, and reason for that, I would say engine cooling system work, drivetrain work, brake work, suspension work. Again, anytime I get in a vehicle after I drive to drive it from a technician working on it. And again, I'm coming from, you know, I'm the last line of defense when I call the client to say, mister, misses Jones, great news, your car is ready. I really want to know that the issue has been resolved and that's just my integrity in doing the job and want to make sure that the client's going to be satisfied and also that I'm preventing a comeback possibly, you know, is there a noise after we do the suspension work? You know, we do a steering rack. Again, I'm in the vehicle. I'm radio off.

Michael Doherty [00:11:16]:
H vac off. Steering wheel all the way to the left, locked. All the way to the right, locked. Just listening, you know, is there a popping sound? Is there anything that might be an issue before I give this client a call to tell them that their vehicle is ready? So, again, are you driving vehicles? Are you allowed to drive vehicles at your shop? Is that a policy? Is that not a policy? And I don't drive everyone, you know, ones that we have for quick services, maybe an oil service or maybe, you know, air filter, cabin filter, something like that isn't as paramount for me to drive, but also during the vehicle check in process or the walk around. I mean, there's so many opportunities there just to, again, you know, radio off. H vac off. Listen to the vehicle. It will talk to you.

Michael Doherty [00:12:05]:
I promise it will. And on a lot of bmws, for people that work with BMW specifically, you've got the passenger and drivers front lower thrust arms, or I think they're called traction start arms, but they've got separate bushings. And over time, those bushings go bad there. They tear and they cause excessive movement on the arm. And I can't tell you the amount of vehicles I've gotten in for people that have those. And just moving the vehicle in the parking lot a couple hundred feet and hitting the brakes and you hear a clunker, you just have that. That feel. You can feel that they're bad.

Michael Doherty [00:12:40]:
And on the vehicles that I feel that on the check in process, when I'm parking the vehicle, actually make a note to the technician saying, hey, I felt or I heard something in the front end. And if the vehicle's not in for a front end concern or a noise concern, again, it's not something the client asked us to check out. Chances are they don't even know about it. And it's an opportunity for your shop, again, showing the client that you care. Now, they may not buy the work, but at least they know about what you heard or what you discovered. And I think that goes a long way because you're doing more than what you're asked to do by the client. It builds a great relationship and trust. And again, with the coworkers having that trust once in a while, maybe going out with the technicians to get food for lunch or just going back in the shop.

Michael Doherty [00:13:39]:
If you have a little bit of time talking with them, maybe with a vehicle that they're working on now, if they're doing an engine rebuild, I wouldn't recommend that. But if they're doing a service or a maintenance and they're draining oil and you see them maybe texting on their phone, hey, good time to go back there and just chat with them real quick about that vehicle. Hey, was there anything specifically that you saw that maybe the vehicle wasn't in for? Could you let me know on the vehicle checking or the DVI? So, great things there. Also, one of the reasons I like driving clients vehicles is it gives me product knowledge, and proc knowledge is paramount, especially when you're talking with people about their vehicles. The proc knowledge portion comes in from driving so many vehicles and saying, you know, I've driven that vehicle before. I've, you know, the brake pedal should feel like that, or the suspension, you know, might make that noise, or. And again, I mean, paraphrasing, but just driving different vehicles just to get familiar with them. And a lot of newer vehicles, and by newer, I say, like, you know, we'll call it 2025 year models that are already out 24 23s that we're not seeing so much of.

Michael Doherty [00:14:48]:
But, you know, maybe for in between oil change from their warranty work, from the dealer and whatnot. Also great thing to tell people, too, is a lot of people don't know in the service advisor realm, Magnuson Moss act, that is in place, and it prevents a dealership from denying the client warranty work on their vehicle because they had their service or maintenance performed somewhere else. So if you have a client that has a new vehicle, you are able to perform the service and maintenance on that vehicle. And if they go back to the dealer just to have their warranty concerns fixed, the dealer cannot deny them their warranty. And I think that's a great also way to let clients know, you know, advertise that on your website or, you know, when a client comes in to drop off a vehicle, hey, mister and misses Jones. Have you gotten any new vehicles in the family? And, you know, they might tell you, yeah, I got a one year old, whatever, whatever, who's doing the service and maintenance on it. Oh, we have to do it at the dealer. No, you don't.

Michael Doherty [00:15:53]:
And here's why. And when you tell them about that Magnus of Moss act, and they look it up again, product knowledge. And I've had so many clients come in and do service and maintenance. And while we're doing the service and maintenance, we may see something that is under their warranty and bring it up to them. Hey, this is starting to leak coolant or this is starting to leak oil. And if they have that newer vehicle that might be going out of warranty, invite them in. Invite them in to do a going out of warranty check over. And because the dealer is not going to tell them about some of this stuff, I've definitely had the phone call of hey, Mister and misses Jones.

Michael Doherty [00:16:33]:
Thank you for bringing your car in for the oil service. By the way, we noted that, you know, your coolant pump is leaking or the oil pan gasket's leaking, and they'll say, wait a minute, I just had this car at the dealership a month ago going out of warranty, and they didn't tell me about any of that stuff. And now it's a battle. It's a battle between them and the dealer. That's never a good situation. So why not get it in, check it out for them? It's not all about making money. It's about building those relationships and letting them know that you care. So again, I kind of refocused on episode one, but for the coworker part of it.

Michael Doherty [00:17:08]:
Do you trust your coworkers and what they're telling you? Have you had those situations where you feel obligated to go drive the client vehicle to check it out for yourself? Or maybe the information you've gotten back from the technician you don't feel is the right information, and it's not insulting to go back and say, I don't agree with you. It's okay to disagree. Have a conversation about it, not an argument. Right. A conversation is to find out what's going on and there's nothing wrong with it. And also it's how you present it. Yeah. If you go back there as a service advisor and go, yeah, that's definitely not it, and you need to check it out again.

Michael Doherty [00:17:45]:
Yeah, good luck. You're gonna get in an argument for sure if you go back there and say, hey, I got your write up, I have a couple questions. Could you explain to me your thought process on this and why you think this is what's going on? And again, it's okay to disagree respectively, with one another, but communication and trust with coworkers, and that is very important. One cool thing I actually got to do this weekend is go buy the local Porsche dealership. And the reason I did that, I didn't do it. During business hours, of course, because I'm not ready to purchase yet. It's going to be a long time for that. But it's a goal.

Michael Doherty [00:18:26]:
It's a goal. It's a cool goal. I'd love to get a 911. I think it's so fascinating how over the years, Porsche's been able to still retain the classic 911 look and just make little tweaks and modifications. And one of the dealerships nearest, they have a shark blue. This blue is fantastic looking. I mean, really just eye catching. It's called shark Blue on a 911.

Michael Doherty [00:18:54]:
And just to go honestly, touch it, you know, touch it, put my hand on it, look at the window sticker, cry a little bit and make a goal, make a goal to want to get that car. Probably going to be definitely a CPO, certified pre owned down the line, but just having access to go see cool things like that locally and, you know, what are you driving as a service advisor? What's your current, what's your daily, what's your daily vehicle? What are you driving? What project cars do you have? What vehicle or vehicles would you like to have in the future? And knowing that it's tangible, it's reachable, set a goal and go check it out. Go look at it. Take it for a drive if they'll let you. But episode two. This is Michael Doherty from Autofix Advisor cast. I hope you have a fantastic day. Go service Advisor Nation.

Michael Doherty [00:19:46]:
Alrighty, y'all. Hey, thanks for listening to the Autofix advisor cast. If you're ready to take your shop to the next level, check out our sponsor, Worldpac and the Worldpac Training Institute, WTI. Big thanks to them for their sponsorship. Follow the podcast on social media for more insights. And subscribe so you never miss an episode. Oh, and tell your friends, we want to help the industry grow and help advisors love their jobs again. See you on the next autofix advisor cast.