I was reminded of the opening line of Charles Dicken’s book, A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” The world has struggled with COVID-19 in every way, and it has affected and infected millions of people and their families. It also affected everyone in the world as it pertains to their way of life. When it first started in the United States, and we decided to basically shut the country down, I believe everyone had some real sense of nervousness about the unknown. How would we get the items we need just to survive and what did it mean for our way of earning a living? Very quickly, we discovered auto repair was an essential business, and we were able to stay open and service the brave men and women who had to put their own health at risk to serve others.
The new normal in the auto industry
If I’m honest, that made me feel both proud and scared for our industry. Then people started to make personal decisions for themselves and their families as to what the new normal looked like. Then the government injected money into the economy to keep things going. The third part of this perfect storm is that car manufacturers slowed and almost stopped the production of new vehicles. With that also came the slowdown and stopping of production foam which is needed to make parts for the new vehicles.
After a few months of panic and not knowing, we quickly discovered that the automotive repair business was sitting in a really good position for sales growth. Customers got the money they were not originally expecting from the government. A large segment of the population could afford to leave the vehicle with the repair shop since they were working from home. The dealerships were empty of both new and used vehicles for sale. Fast forward two years later, and not much has changed with supply and demand, but once it does, our business model will change yet again.
Can employees still overcome objections?
The days of having a customer drop off the vehicle for as long as you needed and saying, "Go ahead and fix everything" are now starting to change. Inflation has hit our economy, and families are spending an additional $600 a month on the same items to run their households as they were last year. So now the approval calls are starting to sound a little different. Now the service desk is starting to hear, “I can’t do everything today, so which one, two, or three items can wait?” They also hear, “I’m back to work, so I need my vehicle back sooner rather than later.” So, the service desk had two years of historical sales without insulting any service desk personnel at a time with the least amount of resistance. The economic forecast for the rest of 2022 and 2023 shows us that it is changing as I write this article. Sales growth is slowing, and I believe most service desk employees are out of shape when it comes to overcoming objections.
Aspects of selling we need to get back into shape
It happens to all of us. If you don’t use it, you lose it. We haven’t used it for about two years, and now that we need to start overcoming objections again, we need to get back in shape. If you have new employees that haven’t sold service pre-covid, making sure your service desk is well-trained will become one of the most important items for your business.
Know how to answer these two questions
The two questions that have plagued our service desk since the first independent shop opened are, “How much?” and “How long?” If you have a seasoned service desk, they can hopefully go back to their prior training, so they are prepared to answer both questions without any hesitation. Remember the goal is to remove all the no’s from the conversation. With the software, we must assist with parts procurement and matrices built into the estimates so we can quickly answer the “how much” question. Working with the team, we can offer different types of work schedules that accomplish two goals. Providing faster service and offering the employee more time off. I am obviously talking about a four-day workweek. This way, we can answer the “how long” question.
Shop your business again
Items we also need to get back into shape that I am not hearing when performing secret shopper calls are to start shopping your business again. Remember that buying is still done on emotion, so it’s important to bring back selling features and benefits. I think we all can agree that new cars are not going to become readily available. Having the discussion of choosing to perform the services is good for the car and the family as the availability and prices of new vehicles are going up by twenty percent this year alone. Maintaining and keeping the current vehicle reliable and dependable should remain a top priority. I have also not heard much mention of warranties. With inflation, you should have adjusted your labor rate, but did you consider doing anything with your warranty? Are you still the best in your town? Should you consider raising some of your services if not all of them? Is your service desk discussing your awesome warranty when selling? It now becomes a talking point when customers are deciding where to spend their money.
The best way to measure service desk success
So, what can we use to measure and see if our service desk is getting back and staying in shape? A tool I like to use that does a good job of measuring the performance of the service desk, and technicians’ estimates is the Estimator Conversion Report. Assuming other aspects of the business are correct such as the receiving of the vehicle and a proper inspection of the vehicle, the technician should have the opportunity to create a good estimate. Knowing the current conditions of the economy and the industry standards, you can then measure the conversion rate of what is sold versus the estimate written.
With this data, you can then see if you are at, above, or below the national average. Are there some employees drastically different than the rest of the team? How are the technicians doing in creating estimates on the same type of vehicle and mileage? From this, you can then discover what is broken and what are the training needs. A year ago, I’m not sure this report is as necessary as it is today when customers are being more discretionary with their dollars, and we only had to ask, and we were pretty much guaranteed the sale. Heading into a slowing economy and uncertain changes in our industry, this report has quickly moved up into the front of necessary tools in your toolbox.
This, along with performing weekly observations on the service desk, should help discover if the advisors are selling features and benefits and identify buying personalities. Are they overcoming objections such as time or money? Getting back and staying in selling shape will be very important in 2023 and 2024. Homing in on our techniques using both objective and subjective tools will help.
