Service Selling: Do the Math

Take a minute and calculate your average parts and labor sales per customer pay repair order. It is probably $200, $300, $400 or more – which means every time you see a customer in your service lane, on average, they are going to spend that much money in your store. Now calculate your average gross on customer pay repair orders…usually about 70%+ on labor and 40%+ on parts. In other words - every time you look at a customer in your service department, that’s how much money they are worth to you – do the math – there is a lot of money in your service lane.

Now take this into account. About 85% of all of your service customers call your store to check price, see if they need an appointment, see if you have the parts, whatever…they call first. I have to say it again – 85% of all of the customers in your lane spending how ever much money you just calculated…called first. So for a minute, pat yourself on the back about how good you did…I mean, your store is busy, customers called first, you got them in and they spend money…good job, right?

Well, before you break your arm with all of that patting, figure this out. How many times a day does your phone ring compared to the total number of customer pay repair orders you write? How many times does the phone go unanswered because your advisors are – just too busy? How many times do they answer, blurt out a price and hang up? How many times do they actually try to build value, give customers features, benefits and advantages – and how many times do they actually ask customers if they would like to bring their car in – it’s called an invite – how many times do they do that?

Want to know? Call your store, I dare you. Call and pretend to be a customer –we call it ghost calling. Ask for service and see how long it takes to answer. See how professional your advisors sound and see if they get your name. See if they give you reasons to do business and see if they ask if you would like to schedule a time to come in…and if they don’t, then you have work to do.

My point is this. Your service department should be run like a sales department. Service advisors should be service sales people that know how to answer the phone, ask for the business and give customers reasons to come in for service. Your service manager should be a service sales manager that is constantly helping your service sales team increase sales, negotiate to close more deals and ensuring that today’s customers return in the future. This isn’t rocket science. You do it every single day in your vehicle sales department – why not do it in your service sales department? Think of it this way if it helps – the average gross profit from about 11 customer pay repair orders is equal to the gross you make on the average car sale and remember, your service sales people see a lot more customers than your sales department does – so get serious about selling service…it pays great and the opportunities are endless.

The phone is ringing.