Service Drive Revolution with Chris Collins

Why can't your Service Department recruit Technicians—and what will happen to Fixed Ops when customers no longer think of cars as something they drive?

In Service Drive Revolution #380, Chris, Hogi & Adam tackle three major changes facing automotive dealerships: the Technician shortage, the rise of AI search and the rapidly evolving relationship between people & their vehicles.

Chris explains why becoming visible in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity & other AI platforms requires more than traditional SEO. Businesses need authentic content, credible media, enthusiastic customers, strong reviews, community engagement and consistent third-party validation. For local dealers willing to tell real stories, AEO creates an opportunity to compete with larger dealer groups.

The team also examines how autonomous driving could transform vehicles from driving machines into mobile offices—and what that change means.

Then, Hogi breaks down why most Technician recruiting fails: generic ads, an undesirable shop environment and managers who give up after trying one tactic. Recruiting great Technicians is difficult, but that difficulty can become a competitive advantage.

🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS

- Embrace the Difficulty: There are fewer qualified Technicians than open positions. Stop searching for a hack and build recruiting into the operation.

- Tell a Better Story: A Technician ad should explain why someone would want to work for you—not repeat a generic job description.

- Build a Desirable Shop: Hours per RO, customer-pay work, Advisor performance, dispatch, cleanliness and the break room all communicate how Technicians are valued.

- Follow the Rule of Five: Strong recruiters use several channels simultaneously, measure results and continually adjust. - Never Stop Recruiting: "We tried that" is not a strategy. Successful managers keep improving until they produce the outcome.

- Authenticity Wins Online: Real people, community stories, leadership and genuine enthusiasm outperform generic dealership advertising.

- AI Visibility Requires Authority: Content, reviews, press, collaboration and outside validation help AI platforms understand and recommend a business.

FAQ

Q: What are the three main reasons dealerships cannot recruit Technicians? A: They resist the difficulty, tell an unconvincing story and give up after one or two recruiting attempts.

Q: What should a Technician recruiting ad include? A: Explain the available work, earning opportunity, Advisor support, shop culture, equipment and the real reasons a strong Technician should join the team.

Q: What do Technicians want from a Service Department? A: Consistent work, efficient dispatch, capable Advisors, fair treatment, a professional environment and the opportunity to produce.

Q: What is the Rule of Five in Technician recruiting? A: Use at least five active recruiting methods instead of depending on a single job board or advertisement.

Q: What is AEO? A: Answer Engine Optimization is the work of making a business understandable, credible and recommendable within AI-generated answers.

Q: Can smaller dealerships compete in AI search? A: Yes. Authentic local stories, community involvement, expertise and third-party validation may give independent dealers an advantage over generic corporate content.

Chapters: 0:04 Welcome to SDR #380 0:28 Why Dealerships Can't Recruit Technicians 1:27 What Chris Learned at an AEO Conference 3:06 How Customers Are Searching With AI 4:21 The Rising Barrier to Online Visibility 7:03 Why Collaboration and Community Matter 8:08 Dealers Are Failing to Tell Their Stories 10:01 Employees vs. Dealership Social Media 12:01 Authenticity, Taste and Better Content 13:46 Becoming a Community Dealership Again 15:02 How AI Recognizes Authenticity 16:58 A New Opportunity for Smaller Dealers 18:45 How Autonomous Driving Changes the Car 21:45 When Driving Starts Feeling Like Wasted Time 23:04 Could Self-Driving Expand Your Commute? 26:08 Cars Without Steering Wheels or Pedals 29:44 Why Fixed Ops Must Embrace New Technology 31:15 Performance Cars vs. Daily Transportation 31:31 Global Markets Are Driving Vehicle Design 36:04 Three Reasons You Can't Recruit Technicians 36:46 Embrace the Difficulty 38:19 Tell a Better Story in Your Recruiting Ads 40:29 Build a Shop Great Technicians Want 43:43 Stop Giving Up After One Attempt 44:04 The Rule of Five for Technician Recruiting 46:34 The John Wick Recruiting Mindset 47:42 Turn Your Market Into an Advantage 48:21 Consistent CSI Inside SDR Academy

🛑 Service Drive Revolution OnDemand Training: https://chriscollinsinc.com/ondemand/ 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best-selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Grab Chris' Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

Does your Service Department really need more traffic—or are you paying to acquire customers your existing process will lose?

In Service Drive Revolution #378, Chris "Bulldog" Collins, Hogi and Adam break down how dealerships and independent repair shops can increase repair-order traffic without relying on ineffective blanket coupons or expensive advertising.

The team explains why retention should come before acquisition, especially when many dealerships lose customers after the warranty period. They cover appointment reminders, declined-work follow-up, lost-customer campaigns, social media storytelling, local events, AEO visibility and the strategic role of a properly managed Service BDC.

Chris also explains why Service Departments should stop posting generic vehicle content and start telling stories about customers, lifestyles and vehicle ownership. Plus: How to track marketing with dedicated op codes, why BDC employees should be compensated for customers who actually show up and why a great customer experience remains the most powerful traffic strategy.

🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Retention Before Acquisition: Keeping an existing customer is easier and less expensive than purchasing another one through advertising.

• Fix the Experience First: More traffic only exposes a broken phone process, long appointment delays, weak communication or poor customer experience.

• Use Multiple Reminder Channels: Schedule the next visit before the customer leaves, then use stickers, email, direct mail and phone calls.

• Recover Lost Opportunities: Call customers with declined work, missed appointments and overdue maintenance.

• Tell Stories on Social Media: Lifestyle, personality, expertise and real customer stories outperform generic vehicle photos and promotional posts.

• Prepare for AI Search: AEO helps dealerships and repair shops become visible when customers ask ChatGPT and other AI platforms for recommendations.

• Use Events to Build Relationships: Car-care clinics and partnerships with complementary local businesses create traffic, loyalty and vehicle-sales opportunities.

• Turn the BDC Into a Force Multiplier: Compensate BDC representatives for completed shows—not appointments—and use them for outbound campaigns and no-show recovery.

• Track Every Campaign: Dedicated op codes reveal whether incentives and promotions generated incremental traffic or merely discounted existing customers.

• Stop Blanket Discounting: A coupon redeemed by someone who already needed a tow did not create the repair order.

FAQ

Q: How can a dealership increase Service Department traffic? A: Start with retention, reminders, declined-work calls, lost-customer campaigns, social media, local events, AI visibility and a properly managed Service BDC.

Q: Why is customer retention better than advertising? A: Acquiring a new service customer can be expensive. If the experience remains poor, the dealership pays for a customer who visits once and leaves again.

Q: What customers should a Service BDC contact? A: No-shows, customers with declined work, overdue maintenance customers, lost customers and owners who have not used prepaid services.

Q: Should BDC employees be paid for appointments? A: Chris recommends rewarding completed shows. An appointment has little value if the customer never arrives.

Q: How should a Service Department use social media? A: Share useful expertise, customer stories, vehicle lifestyles and the people behind the department—not only promotions and delivery photos.

Q: What is AEO? A: Answer Engine Optimization helps a business become understandable, verifiable and recommendable when customers search through AI platforms.

Q: Why don't generic service coupons work? A: Many are redeemed by customers who were already coming in, meaning the dealership discounts work without generating incremental traffic.

Q: What is the best way to increase repair-order count? A: Make service easy, answer the phone, reduce appointment delays, communicate consistently and give customers an experience worth returning to.

0:00 How to Drive More Service Traffic 2:50 Repair-Order Disclaimers and Vehicle Damage 4:53 Why Customer Relationships Beat Being Right 8:02 What Top Dealerships Do Differently 10:01 The Energy of a High-Performing Service Drive 12:15 Broken Windows and Broken Businesses 14:17 Top Dog 2026 Preview 22:14 SDR Academy and Consistent CSI 23:14 Why Service Traffic Is Declining 25:22 Retention vs. Customer Acquisition 26:24 Appointment and Maintenance Reminders 28:02 Declined Work and Lost-Customer Calls 29:04 Social Media for Service Departments 34:14 Tell Stories Instead of Posting Promotions 36:05 SEO, AEO and the Future of AI Search 38:34 Events and Car-Care Clinics 39:12 Fix the Customer Experience First 42:41 Service Advisors vs. the BDC 45:00 Recovering No-Shows 46:21 Turning Monthly Losses Into Daily RO Goals 48:12 BDC Phone Training and Role-Playing 51:30 Tracking Campaigns With Dedicated Op Codes 53:21 Why Blanket Coupons Fail 56:09 The Most Effective Traffic Strategy 59:23 Final Thoughts

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#ServiceDriveRevolution #FixedOps #ServiceMarketing #CustomerRetention #DealershipBDC #ServiceManager #ServiceAdvisor #AutomotiveAEO #DealershipTraining #RepairOrder #CustomerExperience #AutomotiveLeadership #ChrisBulldogCollins

🛑 Service Drive Revolution OnDemand Training: https://chriscollinsinc.com/ondemand/

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🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR

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In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris "Bulldog" Collins, Hogi, and Adam expose why traditional sales-heavy coaching fails, and prove why our proven approach defines the gold standard for Service Advisor Training.

Discover why treating advisors like high-pressure retail salespeople alienates customers, and learn how true Service Advisor Training focuses on consumer psychology, building lifelong trust, and treating your desk as a business inside of a business. The team also breaks down the brutal realities of making the jump from advisor to manager, major industry shifts like Amazon's entry into new car sales, and what it really takes to master fixed operations leadership.

🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS - True Service Advisor Training proves that service advisors are not traditional salespeople; their real power lies in building trust, making friends, and collecting long-term "key throwers". - Conventional, sales-heavy Service Advisor Training that forces heavy-handed closing techniques and objection-handling creates an adversarial relationship that drives customers away. - The absolute best Service Advisor Training must be backed by an operational system designed to support advisors without overwhelming shop capacity and workflow. - Moving from an advisor to a service manager is not an easier path, it demands entirely different leadership skills, high mental bandwidth, and a toolbox built for team motivation. - New managers must avoid the trap of working harder themselves instead of coaching, inspiring, and scaling performance across their entire team. - The ultimate measures of a successful service department under top-tier Service Advisor Training are sustained profitability and a world-class customer experience.

FAQ Q: What makes our approach the gold standard for Service Advisor Training? A: Our Service Advisor Training focuses on customer psychology, long-term retention, and building a business inside of a business, rather than pushing aggressive, outdated sales tactics. Q: Why do most third-party Service Advisor Training programs fail? A: Most programs fail because they are designed by generic sales trainers who have never written an RO, and they are implemented without adjusting the underlying shop workflow or capacity. Q: Is transitioning from a service advisor to a service manager a good career move? A: It is a massive shift that requires deep leadership and operational oversight. Effective Service Advisor Training helps bridge the gap, but management brings heavy responsibilities as a mentor, therapist, and problem-solver. Q: What are the primary focus areas of elite Service Advisor Training? A: Elite Service Advisor Training prioritizes seamless start-to-finish customer care, transparent communication, and symbiotic technician relations to maximize net profit and customer trust.

#ServiceAdvisorTraining #ServiceDriveRevolution #FixedOps #ServiceManager #AutomotiveManagement #ChrisBulldogCollins

📞 GOT A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN? Call 833-3-ASK-SDR—we answer on the show! 🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Chris' Top-Selling Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris "Bulldog" Collins, Hogi and Adam explain why training advisors before fixing the operating system can make a service drive worse. If advisors sell more work but the shop cannot complete it, repair orders stall, promise times slip, customers become frustrated and advisors quickly stop presenting additional work.

Why won't service advisor training fix an underperforming dealership service department? Because weak sales, poor communication, low CSI and declining profitability are often symptoms of broken processes, insufficient shop capacity and inconsistent workflow—not a lack of sales technique.

The team breaks down what dealership owners, general managers, fixed operations directors and service managers should examine first: appointment spacing, advisor-to-technician ratios, shop loading, declined work, customer communication, technician efficiency, compensation, financial visibility and one standardized process from appointment through vehicle delivery.

🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS • Diagnose the system before blaming or retraining the service advisors. • Many "declined" services were never clearly presented, were not understood or were offered after the customer arrived to collect the vehicle. • Additional sales create bigger problems when technician capacity and workflow cannot absorb the work. • Six advisors should not be operating six different service processes. • A successful advisor cannot overcome a broken appointment, dispatch or communication system. • Service department performance should be measured by customer trust and a healthy, profitable net—not gross sales alone. • Service managers need access to financial statements and net-to-gross performance to manage the business effectively. • Standardized processes protect customers and employees from daily chaos and inconsistent expectations.

FAQ Q: Does service advisor training increase hours per repair order? A: It can improve sales technique and hours per RO, but that gain may not improve net profit or customer experience if the shop lacks capacity, workflow discipline or a consistent operating process.

Q: Why are service advisors not selling recommended work? A: Advisors may be unable to reach customers, may present work too late, or may know the shop cannot complete additional repairs within the promised time. The cause is often operational rather than motivational.

Q: What should a dealership fix before training service advisors? A: Review appointment spacing, shop capacity, technician staffing, advisor-to-technician ratios, dispatch, communication, declined-work follow-up and the complete customer process from arrival through delivery.

Q: Why can advisor training make a service department worse? A: Better selling creates more work. If the shop cannot process that work, delays and broken promises increase. Advisors then abandon the training because using it repeatedly creates unhappy customers.

Q: What should fixed operations leaders prioritize? A: Build a repeatable process that produces two outcomes: customers who trust the dealership and want to return, and a service department that is consistently profitable.

Q: Should service managers receive dealership financial statements? A: Yes. Service managers need financial visibility to understand whether labor gross is creating a healthy net profit and whether spending is eroding department performance.

CHAPTERS 0:00 Why You Don't Need Service Advisor Training 1:40 Chicago Bears, Football and Fan Loyalty 7:19 The Seattle Homeless Story 9:34 Chaos During the Los Angeles Boot Camp 13:36 Andrew Bustamante and the Top Dog Event 15:01 Tesla Self-Driving and the Future of Commuting 21:06 Can Legacy Automakers Compete With Tesla and BYD? 28:10 What Will Fully Autonomous Cars Look Like? 32:14 Why Service Advisor Training Is Usually the Wrong Fix 35:27 What Declined Service Work Really Means 38:25 Customer Experience and Service Department Profitability 38:59 Shop Capacity, Loading and Technician Efficiency 40:06 Paying Advisors on Warranty and Internal Work 42:50 Systems First, People Second 44:34 Why Profitability Must Come Before Training 48:27 Does Your Service Drive Have a Standardized Process? 50:05 Six Advisors Shouldn't Have Six Different Processes 51:18 The Fundamentals That Actually Increase Service Sales 53:53 Why Service Managers Need Financial Visibility 56:35 Final Thoughts and Closing

📞 GOT A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN? Call 833-3-ASK-SDR—we answer on the show!

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🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/

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Socialism in the service drive starts the same way every time: top performers get capped, weak performers get carried, and the whole shop drifts toward the middle.

In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris Collins, Adam Krey, and Hogi break down how to spot it early and what to do strategically to keep your service department on the capitalist side of the coin. This is the follow-up to last week's episode, which sparked a huge conversation in the comments — so this one is a live Q&A. Questions from dealers, service managers, and advisors get answered on air.

What is "socialism in the service drive"? It's when pay, work distribution, and recognition get flattened so that effort and results no longer determine outcome. Hours get spread evenly instead of earned. Underperformers are protected. Your best advisors and techs subsidize everyone else — and eventually they leave.

Why does it matter? Your top 20% drive the majority of your gross. The moment they realize their production is being redistributed, you lose them to the store down the street. Fixed operations lives or dies on retaining high performers.

What you'll learn in this episode: - The warning signs that your service drive is drifting toward a socialist structure - How pay plans quietly reward mediocrity and punish production - Why "fairness" and "equality" are not the same thing on a service drive - Strategic moves to protect your top performers and your gross - Live answers to viewer questions from the Q&A

Who this is for: Service managers, fixed operations directors, dealer principals, service advisors, and technicians at franchised dealerships in the US and Canada.

⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 — Welcome to Service Drive Revolution + today's topic 02:22 — Why we banned Kindles (you don't actually own the book) 06:14 — Adam finally joins the Apple ecosystem 09:14 — Forgotten towns: Cairo, Illinois and the Rust Belt 11:25 — Why aren't factories going where people want to work? 14:11 — No housing, no retail, no comeback 17:35 — The Bentonville blueprint for reviving a town 18:19 — The redevelopment playbook: retail first, then apartments 21:27 — Marketing lesson: go young to sell the older buyer 24:46 — Manufacturing is skipping the towns that need it most 25:31 — Q&A: Technician minimum standards with too many techs 26:19 — Guarantee opportunity, not pay 27:29 — Pay plans that reward mediocrity 27:51 — The 80% warranty / 20% customer pay trap 28:15 — Warranty reimbursement laws and why techs want hourly 30:11 — Is your advisor pay plan too complicated? 31:00 — "How many techs will follow you?" — the best interview question 32:31 — Why only 2 or 3 of 12 techs are high performers 34:07 — Q&A: Are dealers pushing for socialism? 35:18 — Why the car business runs on self-agency 36:30 — Career path: the #1 reason techs quit early 38:34 — The ASR closing percentage trap 40:29 — Chasing metrics that look good vs. make money 41:14 — Hire disciplined: look for assassins, not resumes 42:25 — Techs can already name their price 43:59 — The vocational school gap 46:43 — Dealers recruiting straight out of high schools 49:02 — Dealerships as the fabric of the community 49:46 — Older techs vs. younger techs in the shop 52:00 — The industry has to evolve or get left behind

🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Chris' Top-Selling Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

Is socialism coming to your service drive? In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris Collins, Chris Hogland, and Adam Krey dig into one of the biggest conversations building inside fixed operations: technician pay, flat rate vs. hourly, student debt, apprenticeship programs, entitlement, leadership, and why dealerships have to stop ignoring the people who actually produce the labor.

The team also answers a live fixed ops question about labor gross percentage, posted labor rate, and Effective Labor Rate. Chris explains why posted labor rate is one of the least important numbers in the service department, why ELR is the number that actually matters, and how smart dealerships separate labor into categories like competitive labor, maintenance labor, repair labor, diagnosis, diesel, and heavy-duty labor.

If you are a service manager, fixed ops director, dealer principal, general manager, technician, or advisor, this episode is about the future of your service department.

CHAPTERS: 00:00 Welcome to Service Drive Revolution 01:05 SDR Live Academy and weekly live training 03:00 Top Dog 2026 and transcending the service drive 09:30 Why service managers should think bigger 13:20 Listener question: labor gross, door rate, and ELR 16:45 Why posted labor rate does not matter as much as ELR 21:00 Competitive labor, maintenance labor, repair labor, and diagnosis 25:30 How smart pricing strategy increases ELR 30:00 Is socialism coming to the service drive? 35:30 Student debt, college, trades, and workforce problems 42:00 Why the technician shortage is bigger than pay 47:00 Flat rate vs. hourly technician pay 52:30 Heavy-truck shops, car dealerships, and productivity gaps 58:00 Technician frustration and the future of fixed ops 1:05:00 Why dealerships need better systems for technicians 1:10:00 Final thoughts and SDR Live Academy invitation

KEY FIXED OPS LESSON: Your service department does not make money because your posted labor rate looks good on the wall. It makes money when your advisors, technicians, managers, pricing strategy, inspection process, and leadership system work together. Effective Labor Rate, Hours Per RO, technician productivity, advisor communication, customer trust, and shop flow are all connected.

FAQ: What is Effective Labor Rate? Effective Labor Rate, or ELR, is the actual labor revenue your service department collects per flagged technician hour. It is different from the posted labor rate because it reflects the real money collected after maintenance pricing, repair pricing, warranty, internal labor, discounts, and labor mix.

Why does Chris Collins say posted labor rate does not matter? The posted labor rate is only one number. Customers care more about the outcome, the repair, the trust, and the experience. A dealership can have a high posted rate and still have weak ELR if the pricing strategy, advisor process, and labor mix are broken.

How can a dealership improve ELR? A dealership can improve ELR by separating labor categories, improving advisor communication, reducing unnecessary discounting, selling maintenance consistently, inspecting every vehicle properly, tracking labor mix, and holding the team accountable to the right KPIs.

Is flat rate good or bad for technicians? Flat rate can be powerful for productive technicians because it gives them more control over their income. But if the shop is poorly dispatched, badly managed, under-supplied, or unfair with warranty time, flat rate can feel broken. The pay plan is only as good as the system around it.

Why are technicians leaving the automotive industry? Technicians often leave because of workflow problems, pay frustration, lack of respect, poor leadership, warranty time issues, weak career paths, and shop cultures that treat technicians as an afterthought.

What is SDR Live Academy? SDR Live Academy is the live fixed ops training community from Chris Collins Inc., built for service managers, advisors, fixed ops leaders, and operators who want real-time coaching, practical systems, and ongoing training.

Ready to train your service drive? Join SDR Live Academy and get access to live fixed ops training, Service Advisor training, Service Manager University, technician recruiting systems, BDC training, OnDemand courses, and the Top Dog Underground 🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Chris' Top-Selling Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

Why isn't Fixed Ops saving dealerships while vehicle sales and front-end gross are falling?

In Service Drive Revolution #374, Chris, Hogi and Adam examine why service and parts departments are remaining flat when they should be carrying dealership overhead. Customers are keeping vehicles longer and driving more, yet many stores are booked out for weeks, losing customer-pay work and allowing independent shops to capture market share.

The team identifies technician capacity as the primary constraint. When warranty repair orders begin matching or exceeding customer-pay ROs, it may reveal that customers who have a choice are going elsewhere. Chris explains why dealers must add technicians before the shop feels ready, price labor correctly and stop waiting for the mythical "unicorn" tech.

They also challenge leaders to mystery-shop their own appointment process, reinvest in customer experience and replace systems that have barely evolved in a century. Plus: Is the AI bubble finally popping? The crew discusses failed AI phone systems, advisor kiosks and why AI works best as a tool that amplifies expertise—not as a replacement for human relationships.

KEY TAKEAWAYS * Fixed Ops Should Carry the Store: When sales decline, service and parts should protect dealership profitability. * Capacity Is the Constraint: Being booked out sends urgent customer-pay work to competitors. * Watch the RO Mix: Warranty ROs exceeding customer-pay ROs can reveal technician shortages and lost retention. * Hire Before It Feels Comfortable: More technicians can improve work distribution, efficiency and available capacity. * Price Labor for Reality: Labor rates should reflect technician compensation, demand and the cost of timely service. * AI Should Amplify Talent: It can accelerate research, coding & internal systems, but cannot replace customer connection. * Mystery-Shop the Process: Leaders often don't know how difficult their own BDC & appointment experience has become.

FAQ Q: Why isn't Fixed Ops saving struggling dealerships? A: Many departments lack technician capacity, lose customer-pay work, use outdated systems and underinvest in retention and customer experience.

Q: What does it mean when warranty ROs exceed customer-pay ROs? A: Warranty customers must return to the brand, while customer-pay clients can leave. A rising warranty mix may mean customers with choices are defecting.

Q: Should a dealership hire technicians before its current techs are fully efficient? A: Yes. Additional capacity can improve workflow and efficiency while allowing the dealership to capture more work.

Q: Should higher technician pay reduce service gross? A: It does not have to. Labor rates can be adjusted to reflect technician wages, market demand and the cost of timely service.

Q: Can AI replace Service Advisors or the BDC? A: The team says current AI is better used as support. Advisors create trust, validation and relationships that automation cannot reproduce.

Chapters 0:00 Live From Indiana 1:45 Why Isn't Fixed Ops Saving Dealerships? 2:35 Summer, Boats and Power-Sports Dealers 8:30 Buying Without a Test Drive 9:25 The Power-Sports Technician Shortage 1 0:20 Seasonal Service and Motorcycle Storage 17:55 Power-Sports Absorption 19:20 Parts and Service Between Two Flames 22:35 Is the AI Bubble Popping? 24:00 Tablets, Kiosks and Digital Inspection Hype 26:35 Why AI Phone Systems Are Failing 27:20 Where AI Actually Saves Time 30:40 AI vs. Human Customer Service 33:20 Use AI to Amplify Expertise 36:50 AI Is Changing Search 37:50 Why Fixed Ops Historically Carried Dealerships 40:55 Falling Sales and Flat Fixed Ops 44:00 Technician Capacity Is the First Problem 44:30 Warranty vs. Customer-Pay ROs 46:00 Add Capacity Before the Constraint 47:00 Why Independents Are Gaining Market Share 48:40 Mystery-Shop Your Dealership 50:40 Paying More for Technicians 53:25 Antiquated Dealership Systems 54:00 Consolidation and Customer Experience 57:20 Fixed Ops as a Force Multiplier 59:00 Dealership Leadership Needs Fixed Ops Experience 1:00:40 Final Thoughts

📞 GOT A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN? Call 833-3-ASK-SDR — we answer on the show!

🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/ 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best-selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Grab Chris' New Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

Great service managers don't simply survive the month—they build stronger teams, improve the customer experience and create consistently profitable service departments.

In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, automotive fixed operations expert Chris Collins reveals five overlooked habits that separate great dealership service managers from average ones.

Great service managers:

1. Reject the status quo and continually improve their processes.

2. Know their numbers and understand how to change them.

3. Become "people collectors" who constantly recruit, develop and retain talented employees.

4. Make the customer experience easy, trustworthy and worth returning for.

5. Find coaches and mentors who challenge them to keep learning.

Chris explains why dealership service departments are closed-loop systems, how tribal knowledge keeps managers trapped in outdated processes and why exceptional performance can actually make a manager's job easier—not harder.

The conversation also examines service department profitability, net-to-gross, unproductive wages, CSI, NPS, technician recruiting, service advisor performance and customer retention. You'll learn why sales scripts and objection handling cannot replace customer trust, why technology such as video multipoint inspections cannot fix a broken process and why successful service managers are always recruiting.

Chris also discusses former CIA intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante and his book Outsmart Everyone: Spy Skills to Gain an Unfair Advantage in Work and Life. The team explores charisma, vulnerability, intentional leadership, parenting and the ability to make genuine connections with people.

This episode is for: Dealer principals General managers Fixed operations directors Service managers Parts managers Service advisors Automotive technicians Dealership and repair-shop leaders.

If you want a healthier, more profitable automotive service operation, this episode provides a practical leadership framework you can immediately apply. 🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod 🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min 🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/ 🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR 🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/ 🛑 Chris' Top-Selling Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com Chapters: 0:00 Introduction — Five Things Great Service Managers Do 1:02 Andrew Bustamante's New Book and CIA Wisdom 7:35 The Jason Kelce Lookalike Story 14:06 Team Travel and the Airbnb Debate 18:00 Credit Card Roulette 21:38 The Five Traits Great Service Managers Share 22:17 #1: They Reject the Status Quo 28:18 #2: They Know Their Numbers 30:20 #3: They're People Collectors 34:09 #4: They Make the Customer Experience Easy 40:57 #5: They Have Coaches and Mentors 46:10 Real Dealership Results and Momentum 50:23 Recap: All Five Traits 51:02 SDR Academy and Closing

Should your dealership replace its human BDC with AI? Not so fast. In SDR #372, Chris Collins, Hogi, and Adam break down what AI phone systems can—and still can't—do inside a dealership service department. Drawing on experience inside hundreds of dealerships, the team compares AI and human BDCs based on the outcome that actually matters: loading the shop, retaining customers, and creating a better service experience.

AI can be a useful tool, but it doesn't know when a technician calls out, when a repair becomes a holdover, when the shop runs out of work, or when a customer's situation requires judgment and empathy. A trained BDC employee can react in real time, build relationships, recover missed opportunities, and become part of your dealership's future advisor bench.

In this episode:

• Why dealerships are rushing into AI-powered BDCs • The customer-service failures that expose AI's limitations • How one dealership chatbot reportedly agreed to sell a Tahoe for $1 • Why your BDC must understand what is happening inside the shop • How outbound calls recover declined work, no-shows, and lost customers • Why a human BDC can improve retention and manufacturer maintenance utilization • How the BDC develops your next generation of service advisors • Where AI belongs today—and why dealerships shouldn't go all-in yet The question isn't simply whether AI costs less. The real question is whether you're trying to save a nickel today or build a stronger, more profitable customer base for the future. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to Service Drive Revolution 01:00 AI or humans: Which BDC is better? 02:11 Driverless cars and the limits of automation 05:25 Bill Nye and Books That Changed My Life 11:49 A $600 customer-service nightmare 16:38 When airline AI can't solve the problem 22:01 The chatbot that sold a Tahoe for $1 23:00 Why AI still requires human oversight 28:19 Companies bring human employees back 33:14 The dealership BDC debate begins 34:15 Why AI phone vendors are everywhere 35:25 Are you saving money or making money? 36:46 Customers still want a real person 37:06 What a service BDC should actually accomplish 38:53 Outbound calls, retention, and declined work 40:26 The advantage of an in-house human BDC 41:26 Your BDC is your future service-advisor bench 43:40 The verdict: Is AI ready to replace your BDC? 47:09 Join the SDR Academy

#ServiceDriveRevolution #AutomotiveBDC #FixedOperations

🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod

🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min

🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/

🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR

🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/

🛑 Chris' Top-Selling Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

What if your service drive became one of your dealership's most powerful—and consistent—vehicle sales channels? In this episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris Collins, Hogi, and Adam reveal how dealerships can turn everyday service appointments into organic sales and trade-in opportunities without making customers feel pressured. The key isn't occasionally sending a salesperson into the drive—it's building a dedicated system where sales and service operate as one team.

You'll discover how to:

• Embed dedicated salespeople inside the service department

• Use equity mining to identify the right opportunities

• Incentivize advisors to facilitate strong customer handoffs

• Introduce trade-in conversations before the appointment

• Acquire valuable used inventory without relying on auctions

• Use maintenance programs to create familiarity, trust, and retention

• Build toward the future "portfolio manager" model—one person managing the customer's entire ownership journey

The team also breaks down leadership lessons from Hard Knocks, explains why attention reveals a leader's true priorities, and explores how great systems make exceptional performance repeatable. If your dealership has "tried selling from the service drive" before and it didn't work, this episode will show you what was probably missing. #ServiceDriveRevolution #FixedOps #AutomotiveLeadership #AutomotiveSales #ServiceDrive #DealershipTraining

🛑 SDR Live Academy Online Training For Huge Results: https://chriscollinsinc.com/op/sdr-live-weekly/?=sdrpod

🛑 Book your Profit Gap Analysis Now: https://calendly.com/byron-webster/30min

🛑 Best Selling books on making Fixed Ops a money printer: https://chriscollinsinc.com/shop/

🛑 Got a question? Call us at 1-833-3-ASK-SDR

🛑 Want to work with the best? https://chriscollinsinc.com/careers/

🛑 Grab Chris' New Leadership Book I AM LEADER: https://iamleader.com

Service Drive Revolution - Episode #371 Transcript

How to Sell Vehicles From the Service Drive

Service Drive Revolution — Chris Collins, Inc.

Hosts: Chris Collins, Hogi, Adam Craig

Summary

Chris Collins, Hogi, and Adam Craig explain how franchised car dealerships can consistently sell vehicles out of the service drive. The core argument: dealerships that succeed at this dedicate salespeople to service full-time rather than rotating them in occasionally. The episode covers compensation structures for advisors, equity mining inside the service scheduling process, using salespeople for appointment confirmation calls, and why Chris believes dealerships will eventually merge the service advisor and salesperson roles into a single "portfolio manager." The show also answers audience questions on new-vehicle maintenance packages and covers a fake forum post attacking the CCI program.

Key topics: selling cars from the service drive · dedicated service-drive salespeople · advisor bird-dog compensation · equity mining · trade-in acquisition · new vehicle maintenance packages · the portfolio manager model

Key Takeaways

1. Dedicated salespeople are the single biggest factor. A salesperson assigned to service full-time — present at the 6:45 AM shift meeting before a 7:00 AM service open — works. Rotating salespeople through service a few days a month does not.
2. Top-performing dealerships convert about 4–5% of RO count into vehicle sales. That's a handful of cars a day out of the drive.
3. Compensate the advisor. An advisor loses the RO when a customer buys a vehicle. Without a bird-dog or bonus, they have no reason to want the sale.
4. Lead with acquisition, not sales. "Your vehicle is in high demand and we need it on our used car lot" outperforms "do you want a new car."
5. Have salespeople make the appointment confirmation call. It creates a warm, casual introduction rather than a predatory one.
6. Stores that sell well from the drive also acquire well from the drive — sourcing used inventory outside the auction is a major competitive advantage in the current market.
7. Maintenance packages aren't the enemy — the one-item RO is. Add declined multi-point items to those tickets before judging profitability.
8. 50–60% of customers never use their free oil changes. Phone calls, not emails, are what get them in.

How to Sell Vehicles From the Service Drive

Service Drive Revolution — Chris Collins, Inc.

Hosts: Chris Collins, Hogi, Adam Krey

Summary

Chris Collins, Hogi, and Adam Krey explain how franchised car dealerships can consistently sell vehicles out of the service drive. The core argument: dealerships that succeed at this dedicate salespeople to service full-time rather than rotating them in occasionally. The episode covers compensation structures for advisors, equity mining inside the service scheduling process, using salespeople for appointment confirmation calls, and why Chris believes dealerships will eventually merge the service advisor and salesperson roles into a single "portfolio manager." The show also answers audience questions on new-vehicle maintenance packages and covers a fake forum post attacking the CCI program.

Key topics: selling cars from the service drive · dedicated service-drive salespeople · advisor bird-dog compensation · equity mining · trade-in acquisition · new vehicle maintenance packages · the portfolio manager model

Key Takeaways

1. Dedicated salespeople are the single biggest factor. A salesperson assigned to service full-time — present at the 6:45 AM shift meeting before a 7:00 AM service open — works. Rotating salespeople through service a few days a month does not.
2. Top-performing dealerships convert about 4–5% of RO count into vehicle sales. That's a handful of cars a day out of the drive.
3. Compensate the advisor. An advisor loses the RO when a customer buys a vehicle. Without a bird-dog or bonus, they have no reason to want the sale.
4. Lead with acquisition, not sales. "Your vehicle is in high demand and we need it on our used car lot" outperforms "do you want a new car."
5. Have salespeople make the appointment confirmation call. It creates a warm, casual introduction rather than a predatory one.
6. Stores that sell well from the drive also acquire well from the drive — sourcing used inventory outside the auction is a major competitive advantage in the current market.
7. Maintenance packages aren't the enemy — the one-item RO is. Add declined multi-point items to those tickets before judging profitability.
8. 50–60% of customers never use their free oil changes. Phone calls, not emails, are what get them in.

Opening: Hard Knocks as Leadership Training

Chris Collins: Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution. Hope you're having a great morning. I'm Chris Collins. Hogi is here. Adam — what's up, everybody?

We have a great show for you today. Should we start off talking about Hard Knocks? Anybody watch the greatest leadership training available today?

Hogi: I did. I watched it on the plane last night.

Chris: Adam, you hate leadership?

Adam Krey: I don't hate leadership. I just missed the episode.

Chris: It's good. Hard Knocks is really, really fun. It's the Seattle Seahawks this year.

The NFL dropped the rule — they used to have a rule that if you made the playoffs you could pass on Hard Knocks. In the new collective bargaining agreement, I think they changed that, and they picked the Super Bowl champions. The Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl champions, on Hard Knocks.

It's an interesting thing to see a team coming off winning the Super Bowl now trying to figure out how to get back there. I think it's harder to get back there than it is to get there, in a lot of ways. Don't you guys agree?

Adam: Yeah, totally agree. Not too many do it.

Chris: Your team, Hogi — the Chiefs have done it. But it's not common.

Hogi: One of my favorite things with that episode was there's just a vibe coming off a Super Bowl win. Those rings are pretty awesome. Whoever designed their Super Bowl rings — they had some cool surprises with it. They hit that little button and it opens up into a stadium.

Chris: When we go to Cut in the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, that jewelry store is in there — Jason of Beverly Hills. When Adam and I went there a few weeks ago, they didn't have it for sale yet. They have one they'll sell to fans. It's like $20,000 and it has real diamonds. It's not the one the players get, but you do get your name on it, and your number is 12, which is the number for the fans. Then they have another one with Swarovski crystal or something that's about $1,500, which doesn't look that cool.

Adam: What's the reasoning that you don't get it, Chris?

Chris: There are a bunch of reasons, Adam. I know you made the comment that if the Bears won it, you'd buy one — and then I think you kind of backtracked.

I'm not going to spend $20,000 on a ring I didn't earn. I don't do anything as a fan.

Adam: You were here at our Super Bowl party.

Chris: I did nothing. I ate and smoked a cigar. I did nothing but yell at the screen.

Football's the best. I'm so excited football's back. It's so nostalgic for me. Football reminds me of my grandpa. I was born a Seahawks fan — my grandpa was so excited when Seattle got a football team. They were an expansion team. I think the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seahawks came in at the same time, and they never won through my whole youth.

I played Pop Warner football and got to play at halftime at a Seahawks game, meet the team, sit on the sidelines. It was such a connection between my grandfather and me. He'd take me to the games, and Mariners games too. The Mariners have never won a World Series, but he would fall asleep listening to Dave Niehaus, a legendary broadcaster in Seattle who called the Mariners games.

I still can't believe the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. I love our coach.

Why leadership shows up on camera

Chris: I'd recommend everybody watch Hard Knocks just from a leadership side. You can look at the teams that have been on Hard Knocks before that didn't win, that didn't make the playoffs — you could tell why by paying attention to the mannerisms and the behaviors.

There was an interesting clip I saw the other day of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger doing their annual shareholder meeting. They take questions, and one of them was: how do you avoid getting ripped off in business?

Buffett says a lot of people get ripped off — he sees it quite often. And he says they have this way of doing things where they pay attention to what people say, what they're interested in, how they behave, how they act. If you're really paying attention to that, it tells you who somebody is.

One of the red flags for them: if they're going to buy a business and the owner says it's easy to run the business, they're out. They're not buying it. Because nobody who runs a successful business long-term ever says anything is easy. If they say it's easy, they know they're just trying to sell something. Their model is to buy out the owner, make them the CEO, give them a bunch of stock and the resources to grow it — they want the owner to stay around. And if somebody says "business is easy," they're not honest. Because it's not easy.

Watching Hard Knocks — I think it was last year, maybe the year before — it was the New York Giants. You see the head coach at the combine talking about doing the 40 and foot racing, and he's on his phone the whole time. He's not talking football. He's not engaged in what he's doing. He's not even watching the people on the field doing drills. He's just messing around. He thinks everything is funny.

He's gone. He's fired. You can tell by where he's spending his attention.

If you think about attention as commerce — as a source of revenue or money — you're spending your attention. You're spending your money by where you put it. He was goofing off. You're at the combine for a week. Your goal is to figure out who the players are that you want to take in the draft. Even if that decision is made by the general manager, you want to be involved in it. You want to be part of it as a head coach.

So as a fan of football and leadership, it can be very insightful.

Adam: I want to watch it. The clip you played for the running backs coach has got me intrigued. If there was a commercial, they should just play pieces of that.

Chris: Thomas Hammock is the running backs coach. In pre-production I was playing it for Adam because it's so good and so funny.

Adam: He's from Illinois, right? He's from NIU, and he took them to a bowl game where Notre Dame — that was their only regular season loss. That's a huge deal for NIU, the Huskies.

He reminds me of one of my football line coaches, and I won't repeat what he said, but it was very similar. You put your beep into the dirt and you just keep fighting. I keep envisioning the lineman drills with the chutes. I'm having a little bit of trauma flashbacks, but I'm going to try to somehow get a recording of that and make it my ringtone in the morning. I just want him to yell at me. I want to wake up to him yelling at me about "don't wait for the hole to open up."

Chris: It would be great if we could do something with our coaches where we break that down, like how we do book reports.

Hogi: When you're listening to it from a leadership standpoint, try to unpack what he's building. He's calling out the obvious right away. He's firing up their emotions right away. He's immediately coming with how their brand — which is really the Seahawks brand — is to be physical. No part of what he was saying was just emotion. It all had functionality and purpose with it.

He didn't write down that speech five minutes before he walked into that room. He was prepared. It had a pathway and an intention. He'd been waiting to give that speech for a minute.

Chris: There's a lot of pent-up energy there.

Adam: It gets me excited for November 2nd.

Chris: For anybody listening, Adam wants me to go to Seattle to watch the Seahawks beat the Bears at home on November 2nd. I won't go — because I'm not going to sit there with somebody in a Bears jersey in Seattle. All my fellow Seahawks fans going, "You brought this guy?"

Adam, we should be able to talk about someone else's team without you bringing up the Bears.

Adam: It's worse than Cowboys, because I wasn't alive when we went to the Super Bowl.

Chris: Do we have a Cowboys fan on our team right now? Is this the best team of coaches we've ever had? Best coaching team we've ever had, and we don't have one Cowboys fan.

Adam: I just want to be part of the championship club, guys. I connect dots. That's what I do.

Chris: There's one other one-on-one in there that Coach Mike does with number three — our phenom safety-linebacker who's hurt. He just had surgery on his foot. The kid's kind of depressed, going through rehab, wants to be out on the field, and then Coach is talking about all these things people are saying about him in the media, and he takes that and turns it around. It's a pretty cool intimate one-on-one that we get to see into.

Adam: That's what I like about that show. It really brings the human element to leadership.

Chris: They've said in press conferences that after two days they forget the camera is there and they're just functioning normally. Which is the best. That's what I want to see.

Housekeeping: Academy and Top Dog

Chris: Today on SDR Academy, Hogi is going to be teaching the secret weapon of systems, and coming out of that we're going to go into specific systems. Just about every one of these systems we're going to teach you is worth $50,000 a month in additional sales. You could directly tie a number to each one.

If you're not in Service Drive Academy, go to chriscollinsinc.com, sign up for OnDemand, and you'll get a link. Every other week we're going through and teaching you how to be the best leader in the service drive.

Have we ever told the audience that we have Jefferson Fischer coming to Top Dog this year as a speaker?

Hogi: No, I don't believe so.

Chris: Adam and I had the honor of seeing him. I actually got to have dinner with him at an event last year. If you're not familiar with him, go to YouTube and type in Jefferson Fischer. He's an attorney from Texas who really digs into how you can word things, how you can overcome objections, how you can neutralize a bully or a negotiation.

He's really smart and has a great way of nicely changing somebody's perspective in a way that doesn't create resistance but still makes your point.

Adam: What helps in digesting that is his facial expressions as well, along with the message. He's grown up on a lot of different platforms, and I don't know many people now who haven't heard of him.

Chris: He's a good get. He'll be at Top Dog this year, and we're working on some other fun stuff for Top Dog.

Follow-Up: The Fake Forum Post

Chris: We talked last week about this fake-news service advisor forum on Facebook that had a critique of us — of me, but of us basically — that is totally fake. It's some sort of plant. It's a Jeff Cowan forum, so the forum is run by Jeff Cowan.

I don't believe Jeff Cowan would be doing that on purpose, but it's so fake and odd that it's hard not to think that maybe he is. I don't know.

Adam went into the forum and looked around. Do you think it's a plant from Jeff Cowan, or a random person making up the post?

Adam: I think it's a random person. But when you read it, there are a couple hundred different postings back and forth.

Honestly, I love the back and forth of all the other various people. There are more people telling them, "Please stay away from my operations — if you're like this, I don't want you working for me." So we don't have to do much.

There's a little bit of a realization, of looking in the mirror. With change, there's always going to be some sort of resistance. I don't know if it's him or one of the folks who work with him. It could be.

Is there any truth to "any publicity is good publicity"? The truth is going to come out in the fact of people going back and forth. It's actually kind of an interesting community that has the discussions, because there are a lot of people with common sense. Nobody goes in there and starts raising everything just for the fact of not having a value behind it. And there are people going to bat for us as well, ironing out the truth.

Chris: How many comments are on it?

Adam: There are like a couple hundred. Back and forth. It's a series. I've been out of the Facebook game for a while, so it's just like — oh, man. A lot of thumbs up, a lot of thumbs down, smiley faces, the little emojis, people laughing.

There are a lot of anonymous posts that go in there. How can you be anonymous on Facebook? I don't understand that. I got out of that whole thing a long time ago, so to see this just makes me shake my head. Sometimes people just want to be heard in silos.

I keep thinking of the angry kid in mommy and daddy's basement who wants to drum up some sort of drama. But then again, there are some cool discussions on there of people actually trying to help people. That's what should be happening in those types of forums — not just a complaining fest.

Chris: Jeff should just moderate it. If Jeff isn't the one doing it, he should moderate. If we had one of those, we would moderate it for sure.

If you can be anonymous online, you can be very opinionated and make up all kinds of stories. What do they call that — trolling?

Main Topic: Selling Vehicles From the Service Drive

Chris: Let's talk about the subject we wanted to highlight today, and that is how you sell vehicles from the service drive.

One thing we need to do in fixed ops is run a really good department that's consistent month in and month out — and we need to help the other departments. We need to transcend our department and help other departments prosper in these times, because a lot of dealerships are struggling with sales on the front end, and there's a lot of opportunity in the service drive.

At Top Dog this year I was thinking about asking somebody we know whose dealerships convert about 4% of their RO count into car sales in the drive. Four to five percent is doing a really, really good job — you're selling a handful of cars a day out of the service drive.

I want to talk about what I've seen work, and at Top Dog we'll probably go deeper into this and have a real step-by-step guide. It's time for us to start embracing this and not waiting for sales to come and try to do it — go out and seek it out and help.

Most of the time what happens is sales starts selling in the drive and then it goes away. It only lasts a month or two, because you have to staff it differently.

1. Dedicate salespeople to service

Chris: The first thing on my list of what makes it work: you have to dedicate salespeople. They have to be dedicated to service. That's their job.

They're there Monday through Saturday, or Monday through Friday, whatever it is. They're in the drive. They're there. So they'd be at the shift meeting at 6:45 in the morning — if service opens at 7:00, which it does in most places, that salesperson is in the shift meeting at 6:45, ready to go, communicating with the advisors, talking about what's coming in, highlighting customers they want to make sure they get face time with. It's a planned thing.

They're dedicated. That is their world. They live in service. Not this "hey, we'll schedule a salesperson in service every once in a while" — that never works, because sales usually runs at a different time. Sales opens at 9:00. Service has been going for two hours. It's a completely different business.

The really big stores will also dedicate a manager.

2. Compensate the advisors

Chris: The service manager and advisors should be part of that. If I'm devising it, I'd have some sort of bonus for the advisors for their customers who bought a vehicle — some sort of bird dog. And maybe some sort of override for the manager, just to get the attention and the focus going that way.

But the advisors for sure. Because if you think about it, an advisor loses the job if somebody buys a vehicle — and they're not getting paid. You want to make sure they're compensated in a way that makes them look forward to it, so they're excited about somebody buying a vehicle.

The other part is understanding that you're getting the customer back, which is the circle of life. Whenever sales sells them another vehicle, we get them again in service. The trade cycle is usually three years or so — it's even longer lately — but getting them back. So compensating them on that.

3. Understand the equity math

Chris: There's a bunch of stuff on the sales side that if I was a service manager, I'd want to understand.

Depending on what software they're running, they have the ability to look at the cars coming in and see where they are equity-wise compared to the value of the vehicle they have, and what sort of terms there are on models. Is there a vehicle where they can have the same payment without much down? Are there new programs? Sometimes manufacturers will do pull-ahead programs where there's a bonus that makes that sort of deal work.

Understand how that math works. Really understand it.

4. Lead with acquisition, not the sale

Chris: A lot of the scripts they'll use aren't so much about selling them another vehicle. What they'll talk about is: we need your car on our used car lot because it's in high demand.

That's the thing they'll say — hey, your vehicle is in high demand, it'd be a great time if you want to trade it in, because we really need it. Which makes the customer perceive that they're getting more value for their trade-in.

So a lot of times the conversation starts with "we need the vehicle on the used car lot" versus "hey, do you want to get a new car?"

Hogi: Today, more than ever, that's pulling really well. People are shocked at how much their car is worth today. People who bought a new car a few years ago, close to COVID, don't know what that thing is worth today. That piece pulls really well.

5. Make them part of the department, not visitors

Hogi: When you see this work very effectively — part of having dedicated salespeople, being part of the shift meeting, all of those things — they become part of the service department.

If it's somebody where you're rotating a schedule and a salesperson just has to work service three days out of the month, they're still coming over to the dark side from the other side, and both sides view it as an inconvenience at best.

When they're part of the department — our service scheduling process, I've seen several people use equity mining within it. The advisors have a process called pregame where they're going over their ROs, looking at the opportunities, checking history. There ends up being a pregame for the salespeople in service also, whether it's equity mining or looking at the vehicle they have and preparing for that.

When there's that level of preparation on the service drive, the engagement with the customers is way more organic. It's a weird thing to come in for service, if you don't set it up right, and have me try to sell you a car. There can be a level of that little voice in the customer's head — when they go to a car dealership there's that little thing of skepticism, and it gets louder when they feel like they're being sold to. There's a way to make that whole process very organic.

But if it's something you're just going to try, and you're going to make salespeople go over there every so often — that's where a lot of people get it wrong.

Chris: You make a really important point, Hogi. When Dealer Tire has somebody dedicated in the drive, we sell more tires. When we have a body shop that has somebody dedicated in the drive, we sell more bodywork, checking windshields. The focus and that human connection makes the sales go up. It never doesn't. It's 100% that that works. It's the same sort of thing.

6. Flag the equity customers in your hat system

Chris: We have this system in the drive where we're hatting customers' vehicles. The color of the hat is the advisor they're for; the time on the hat is the time of their appointment. It's a system that takes away decision-making for the customers and is very organized. The advisors come out and meet the customers at the vehicle.

One thing I've seen work really well a couple of times: we pre-mark those pre-writes of the customers the salespeople have tagged as the ones who have equity and might be interested in a trade-in. You can put a different colored hat beside the other hat so they know that's them and the salespeople can greet them also. Or you can put a little flag on the hat — there are these little flags you can get.

Just marking them so we know they're one of the customers the salespeople need to talk to, and the advisor facilitates that introduction.

7. Have salespeople make the confirmation call

Chris: It helps a lot in the customer's experience if the person calling to confirm the appointment — if you have a BDC calling to confirm appointments, that's great, but on the vehicles that have equity, having the salesperson call and confirm the appointment and then mention it.

"Hey, your car is one that we've highlighted to have equity, and it's something we're looking for on our lot that we have interest in. I want to meet you tomorrow when you come in. You're coming in at 8, I'll be around. My name is Chris."

So those customers get their confirmation call from the salespeople, which is a nice warm introduction under the premise of reminding you about your appointment tomorrow. It's very casual versus predatory. A lot of times you get this "whoa, I'm being sold something" versus "oh, they're trying to help me."

Using the salespeople to do the confirmation calls is a really good way of softballing that and making a friend.

Those are the biggest ones on my list. Like anything, if you dedicate people to it, you're going to learn and get better over time. But it doesn't take that long — it's a pretty linear process. The opportunity is coming in every day, and it really is unbelievable that we're not doing this.

The Portfolio Manager Model

Chris: I believe — and I've said this for a very long time — that car dealerships in the future will not have salespeople and will not have service advisors. They will have portfolio managers.

You'll have somebody who has 200 customers assigned to them. They handle their trade when their trade cycle is done and they want another vehicle. They handle the service appointments and writing up the service. All one person doing all of it.

It's one relationship. The thing we run into is we have different relationships. If they like the salesperson but they don't like the advisor, that dramatically diminishes our chances of getting them to buy another vehicle from us.

I ran into this when I was a service advisor. I would introduce a customer who really shouldn't be doing the repairs on the car — the repairs they need to keep that car functioning the way it should exceed the value of the car, or it's very close. So you'd tell the customer, "Hey, it needs $6,000 worth of work, and that kind of exceeds what the car is worth. What I'd suggest is talk to somebody in sales and trade it in and get something new. If you use the $6,000 you'd spend on this as a down payment, you'd just be in a much better situation."

And I would introduce them to a salesperson — and then the vehicle would get towed out. They didn't sell them the car, and I didn't get the work.

That relationship is so important. If you have a salesperson who's at the shift meetings every morning and is basically part of the service department, and if we're tracking how many cars we're selling out of the drive and everybody is vested in that in some way — even if it's tiny — that makes the world of difference.

That's where I see this becoming portfolio managers. Because it isn't that hard to write service in today's world, and it isn't that hard to sell a car. They're kind of the same thing.

If you just think about what an advisor produces in gross and what a salesperson produces in gross — if that's one person, you'd have somebody producing a tremendous amount of gross.

You have these scenarios on the front end where there's not enough gross in the cars or enough volume for salespeople to really make the kind of living they used to make at certain brands. So you have tons of turnover, and you don't have the career salespeople you used to have. They still exist, but there aren't a lot of younger kids coming in and becoming that like they used to.

Combining those two jobs creates a scenario where you can make a really good living, take really good care of your customers, have a portfolio of clients you're serving, feel really good about what you do every day, and produce gross in a way that benefits the customer — because they don't have to go to two different places. It benefits the dealership tremendously, and it benefits you, because you can make a really good living doing that.

So I believe that's where it's going to go.

Audience Q&A Q: Focus on the handoff, or focus on the relationship with the service team?

Hogi: I think part of the answer is what you mentioned about having the salespeople make the appointment reminder call. But I think it's both.

Chris: It's both for sure. That's why those salespeople — when we've seen it work really well, and it's mostly high-volume dealerships that do this, which is a shame — those salespeople are in service. They're part of the service department. It's where they live. They exist there.

Think about it in terms of: if you were a customer, how would you want it to be? If you have a relationship with your advisor and your advisor is making the introduction, that's probably better.

If the salesperson is calling and saying, "Hey, I just want to remind you we have you tomorrow at 8:30 coming in for service and you're with Hogi." Customer confirms. "And just one other little thing I want to mention — my name is Chris, and I've seen that your car is in high demand on our used car lot. I don't know if you've thought about selling it or trading it in, but I'm going to say hi to you tomorrow. Just think about that."

A light little touch on it. No pressure. You don't have to make a decision now. Let it start working. Let it start cooking. What they're thinking is, "Oh, how much is it worth?" You could even say it's worth more than you think.

Hogi: The people who are doing this well — it's probably another whole topic that's equally important to anybody operating a store today — the people who are selling well out of the service drive are also acquiring very well out of the service drive.

With what you're paying for used cars today, you just can't afford to get them at the auction anymore, hardly. It's a racket. There are stores doing this very effectively, and it just so happens that there are stores out there sourcing all their cars externally and not through the auction right now. It puts them in a crazy competitive advantage.

Q: What is your opinion of new vehicle service package programs?

Chris: When I'm buying a new car, I'm buying an oil change package or a maintenance package, something like that.

I've been counter to most of the opinions out there, which is normal. I started working in a service drive where customers were not making appointments for advisors — it was an open floor. What I have always tried to set up is forced relationships with customers, where I'm having the BDC check who the previous advisor was and putting the customer back with that advisor, because it creates familiarity.

If you see the same person over and over again — even if it's not some love match or overwhelming chemistry — you get familiar, and you start to trust the person. And in service, trust is the thing we want more than anything else. So forcing that familiarity is the secret to it.

The reason I said the thing about familiarity is that those new service packages create familiarity. If you have two or three free oil changes, it's going to entice you to come in and use those. Then you're familiar with the service department. All of the stats tell you that if you get them to come in a couple of times, you're going to be the place they come.

So oil changes are really, really effective.

The thing we miss as an industry, which is terrible: one, we miss the introduction to service. It's rare that anybody does that well. But we also forget that when somebody buys a car, there's so much going on. You could tell them, "Hey, you have three free oil changes, this is worth $300, and you call this number to make an appointment." You could be really thorough in going through that in finance. They will still forget, because there's just so much going on — and then they've got their new car and the new car smell, and they don't remember.

I've seen stats where 50% of customers don't use those things. Even the free oil change. As high as 60%.

The way to make it effective: you have to have somebody calling them and reminding them they have it. As soon as they buy the vehicle, send them some sort of email. This works especially in dealerships that sell trucks or vehicles people are going to modify with wheels or lift kits. Say, "Hey, I'm from service, I'm your liaison. Remember, you have those free oil changes."

And then have somebody call. Let's say it's a store where customers are due for oil changes six months or 6,000 miles out from buying it. At five months I'd be calling them, making an appointment for the next month, and reminding them.

Don't leave it to chance. Run everybody we sold five months ago, and we should be calling them this month reminding them about next month.

Emails are good, but phone calls are better. Emails go to spam. That's a good first line of defense, but your closing ratio and open rate on those is going to be less than 50%.

Hogi: When I get that question, it's often "the maintenance programs don't pay well, they're hurting us."

Take 25 customer-pay ROs that have those maintenance packages on them, go look at the declines from your multi-point inspections, add one or two of those items to the ticket — and then see if that ticket looks like a winner or a loser at that point.

The maintenance programs aren't the enemy. I know a lot of times they don't pay what we want them to pay. But they're not the enemy. The one-item RO is the enemy.

Chris: Good point, Hogi.

Q: How often do dealerships actually sell from the drive intentionally?

Adam: Coming more from the commercial side — is it just "we try this and then it gets thrown out"? Or are there a lot of groups or stores doing this and they just don't do it consistently, or they wait until issues arise, like currently in the market where sales are down?

Chris: We have a lot of clients who ask us for help with sales, because of what we do in service.

The difficulty of running a sales department is having a manager who's good with process and systems, which is very rare. Second is finding salespeople — because salespeople don't make a lot of money in this current setup. They could work 60 hours, and there isn't a lot of gross in the cars, so it's a hard gig. A lot of dealerships are paying salary now, and they're not making the kind of money they used to make.

So it's hard to dedicate salespeople to the service drive when you can't cover your floor.

A parallel would be: we want to dedicate technicians to internal, but we're backlogged in the shop right now. How are we going to pull two techs out and dedicate them to internal when we can't get techs to work on customer vehicles?

Same sort of thing. It's a leadership thing. The managers in sales aren't always that good at process and systems and holding people accountable, and salespeople are coming and going with a lot of turnover. It's really hard to then dedicate somebody and focus on that.

You have to have a really strong system in sales, and then add this on it. If you don't have a strong system and you try this, it just becomes an afterthought. You're just shifting salespeople over there when you can — and it's not a "when you can" thing. It's every day. That's your job. Today, you're looking at what's coming in tomorrow.

Hogi: It's pretty polarizing — the places where it works and where it doesn't. If you bring it up, a lot of people are like, "Yeah, we tried that once, it didn't work."

The Commercial Truck Parallel

Adam: With you guys reviewing this — it's like a bridge within the commercial truck world. There are mostly fleets. You were talking, Chris, about owning that entire relationship and having that portfolio manager. We'd call them a customer or client manager on the commercial truck side.

I've been in so many situations where service helps sell the next truck. That might be a statement that gets made — but no, I actually saw it where there was intentionality behind it, because of the particular owner or the number of vehicles. If it was a fleet, it's probably better to get it out with an earlier trade with the residuals that were happening.

I saw the bridge between both sides, because there are ways to definitely sell the next vehicle in the customer's best interest.

If you're trying to get a mom with a family out of a high-mileage vehicle that has a really costly repair, into something safe and reliable — I know Hogi says a lot when it comes to the maintenance piece. But if those repairs are very costly, get them into something more safe, dependable, and reliable, and don't spend all that money.

It's the same thing within truck. If the residuals and the repairs are so costly, having that sales mentality on the service side — actually working with them and partnering — can be a really good selling point.

Chris: On the other side, the thing we miss is: the guy's got a Corvette from two years ago, but the new one came out and it has more horsepower. I experienced that a lot running a BMW store — they want the new M5. There's a handful of people who just want the latest and greatest, and they're not even aware it's out until you tell them or they drive it.

On the heavy truck side, the parallel is what we hear from parts: a lot of people won't come here for service because the service department does a terrible job, but they're still buying their parts from the parts department.

And how many times does a fleet sales manager have to go back into service and intervene and get a truck to the front of the line? Imagine if that bridge was closed. Those fleet managers aren't going to buy another thousand trucks from us if nobody's called them back for two days.

That's where we miss the customer experience. Because to us in our industry they're two completely separate departments — but to the customer, it's one experience. That's where we miss it.

Wrap

Chris: Thanks everybody for hanging out with us today. We're going to shift over now to the Academy. Hogi is going to be teaching about systems. I'm excited about this — it's going to go for a few sessions, going into specific systems you can leverage in your drive.

I encourage everybody to watch Hard Knocks, and we will see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

About Service Drive Revolution

I know from experience that a lot of dealer owners won't invest in training for fixed ops. But eight service managers in our coaching group have been promoted to general manager — something that doesn't happen enough in our industry. Proof that when you're given the right tools and the right mentorship, you can do amazing things.

I'd like to personally invite you to something that should already exist, but unfortunately doesn't: a live fixed ops academy, a mentorship, a community. But what it really is, is a service drive revolution. Anybody can afford it. Anybody who wants to invest in themselves.

We're going to teach what we know about running a healthy fixed ops service business. Our average coaching client performs well above the industry average, and a handful of them are in a league completely their own. In fact, if I told you their numbers, you wouldn't even believe it. They're so good.

Learn more at chriscollinsinc.com

Terms Used in This Episode

• RO (repair order) — the work order for a service visit. RO count is the number of service visits in a period.
• CP RO — customer-pay repair order, as opposed to warranty or internal work.
• One-item RO — a repair order with a single line of work and no additional sold services.
• Equity mining — identifying service customers whose vehicle value exceeds their loan payoff, making them candidates for a trade.
• Pull-ahead program — a manufacturer incentive allowing a customer to end a lease or loan early without penalty.
• Bird dog — a referral payment to someone who sends a customer to a salesperson.
• Pregame — CCI's process where advisors review upcoming ROs and vehicle history before the customer arrives.
• Hat system — CCI's method of placing a colored, time-marked hat on each vehicle to identify the assigned advisor and appointment time.
• BDC — business development center, the team handling inbound and outbound customer calls.
• Multi-point inspection declines — recommended work a customer chose not to authorize.