Pedler: Interview With a Service Advisor, Part Two: The Human Firewall

Many years ago, I was an 18-year-old parts delivery driver about to head off to college. I mentioned this to the owner and mechanic of a shop I regularly delivered to, and he said, "I'll give you the same advice I gave my daughter when she went off to college. When you get where you're going, the first things you need to do are find yourself a good dentist and find yourself a good mechanic."

When looking for a repair technician, finding a competent, knowledgeable one is only half the battle. Finding one you can trust is the other half. The repair industry has wrestled with a credibility problem since dedicated auto repair shops began operating more than 100 years ago. Since then, horror stories of unnecessary repairs and inflated invoices have left many vehicle owners wary.

To its credit, the vehicle repair industry is taking strides to improve its reputation. One critical role in this transformation is the service advisor.

If the Shop Were a Stage Production

If the modern repair shop were a stage production, the service advisor would be the director: cueing technicians, calming customers, managing scheduling, translating technical language, and absorbing tension from all directions. According to nearly everyone who has done the job, it may be the hardest role in the building.

Brad Palfreyman knows this firsthand. Brad is a service advisor at Performance Place in South Jordan, Utah. He spent nearly 30 years as a repair technician before moving into service advising. The transition gave him a unique perspective.

"When I was a mechanic, we'd joke that the advisors were up front just surfing Facebook," Brad said. "Then I became one. And I went back to my friends in the shop and said, 'Don't ever say that again.'"

The job, he quickly discovered, was nothing like it looked from the bay.

Managing in Both Directions

A service advisor doesn't just answer phones and write estimates. They manage in two directions at once. Up front, they manage customers who often arrive frustrated, stressed or anxious about money. In the shop, advisors manage highly skilled technicians who may be juggling 10-15 vehicles at a time.

"You're managing the customer, but you're also managing the technician," Brad explained. "All my guys have multiple cars going at once. My job is to keep everything moving." That means tracking parts availability, coordinating delivery times, updating customers, prioritizing safety concerns, and making sure the workflow doesn't stall.

It also means telling bad news. "When you call someone and tell them it's going to cost $8,000 to fix their car, that's a hard bullet for me to bite, let alone the person hearing it," Brad said.

The average repair ticket continues to rise, driven by increased labor rates, complex vehicle systems, and higher parts costs. For customers, that can feel overwhelming. For advisors, it means navigating financial conversations with empathy and clarity. And that's where trust is built—or rebuilt.

Trust Isn't an Accident

Today, progressive shops are attacking that credibility problem directly, and they're investing serious time and money into training their teams to do it. Brad's shop is one of them.

He has completed formal service advisor training through the Institute for Automotive Excellence and is now part of a coaching program called Empowered Advisors. The training is not casual.

"We record all of our phone calls," Brad said. "My coach listens to them and critiques everything—how I answer the phone, my tone, my word choice. They'll say, 'I can tell you were slouching in your chair.'"

It's not always comfortable. "It's hard to listen to yourself," he admitted. "But you pick up on mistakes you didn't even realize you were making."

The goal isn't aggressive sales tactics. It's clarity and confidence. Advisors are trained to communicate transparently, explain priorities, and ensure customers understand both urgency and options.

At the ownership level, the training goes even deeper. Performance Place participates in an owner peer group that conducts annual in-depth shop evaluations. Owners from across the country visit each other's facilities, interview staff, review processes, and provide candid feedback. "They talk to everybody," Brad said. "Technicians, advisors, the whole team. Then they come back with a list of what you need to improve."

It's not symbolic. It's accountability. "The owner of the Institute says if he catches anyone misleading customers, he won't work with them again," Brad said. "They're trying to change the industry." Fortunately for the driving public, they're succeeding.

Transparency as a Strategy

Technology plays a role in building trust, too. Every vehicle that comes through Brad's shop receives a full digital inspection report complete with photos, measurements, and explanations. Customers receive the report electronically, along with prioritized recommendations.

"There's total transparency in what we do," Brad said. "We measure brakes, check tire tread, inspect everything. Then we send it to the customer so they can make the best decision about where to put their money." That transparency pays off. The shop maintains a 4.9-star Google rating and often books appointments weeks in advance.

But even the best systems can't remove the human factor. "Everybody's different," Brad said. "Trying to match each customer's personality is the hardest part. As long as you figure out how they want you to talk to them, you can usually make them happy." These are next-level leadership skills developed over years.

The Technician-to-Advisor Transition

Not every technician can make the leap to service advising. "When I went to training and told them I used to be a mechanic, they said, 'Good luck,'" Brad recalled. "They say only about 10% of mechanics who become service advisors make it."

Why? Because technical skill doesn't automatically translate into communication skill. A technician diagnoses problems. An advisor translates them into language customers understand without condescension, exaggeration, or fear tactics.

Customers don't speak in torque specs and resistance values. They speak in budgets and deadlines. That translation layer is delicate work.

Changing a Reputation

Brad is candid about one of the industry's ongoing challenges: some shops still undermine trust through fear-based selling or unnecessary repairs. "We see it all the time," he said. "Customers come in saying another shop told them they needed $8,000 worth of work and shouldn't drive the car. We look at it, and maybe there's one real safety issue, and it's $500."

For ethical shops, correcting those experiences is part of the job. "You can only do a job as good as the part you put on the vehicle," Brad said earlier in our conversation. The same principle applies to service: a repair shop's reputation depends heavily on its commitment to honesty.

Shops investing in training, process, and transparency are actively working to shift public perception. And it appears to be working.

The Emotional Weight

Service advisors also carry emotional weight that rarely gets discussed. Customers are already having a bad day. They may be stranded, stressed, or wondering how to pay for unexpected expenses. Advisors absorb that frustration first.

"I think a lot of customers start out upset," Brad said. "They're mad at their car. But that comes out toward whoever is in front of them." The advisor's job is to de-escalate and reassure. "If you keep them in the loop, they're usually pretty good about delays," he explained. "As long as they know you're trying your hardest and you haven't ignored them, they'll work with you."

That constant communication, especially when parts are delayed or repairs become more complicated, is not incidental. It's strategic, and it's learned.

A Profession that Keeps Learning

In my conversation with Brad, one theme came up repeatedly: adaptation. Cars are no longer purely mechanical. They're rolling computers. Diagnostics increasingly require specialized software and digital tools. The skillset required to repair them continues to expand.

"The hardest thing about becoming a mechanic," Brad said, "is the ability to adapt. You'll always be learning." The same is true for advisors. As vehicles evolve, so do the conversations around them. That evolution makes training not just optional, but essential.

"Survivor" at the Service Desk

At one point in our conversation, I asked Brad: if the parts ordering process were a television show, what would it be? "Survivor," he said without hesitation. The answer drew laughter, but it also felt fitting.

Service advisors operate in a high-pressure environment where every decision matters. They balance cost, quality, timing, and trust, all while keeping workflow moving and emotions steady.

It's not glamorous, and it's rarely simple. But it is central to everything that happens in a repair shop.

The Invisible Skillset

When modern parts systems are praised for saving time, or when shops advertise digital inspections and online scheduling, the spotlight often falls on technology. But technology doesn't earn trust; people do.

Behind every estimate is a service advisor translating complexity into clarity. Behind every five-minute parts lookup is someone making judgment calls that protect both the customer and the shop. The job may be the hardest one in any shop.

And as shops invest more heavily in training, accountability, and communication, the industry is quietly rewriting its reputation, one conversation at a time.