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Take Control & Run It Like You Own It
Posted on Jun 30, 2011 - 03:45 PM
Every day I hear service managers complain about their people. They can’t get their service advisors to answer the phone or greet customers in the drive fast enough. They tell me that they can’t get their advisors to call customers back or do a proper active delivery when they leave the store. They tell me they can’t get their technicians to consistently complete multi-point inspection reports and they can’t get them to keep their service bays clean and organized. I hear this stuff every single day and only one thing comes to mind and I want to just blurt it, but I know it will really piss some of them off…and maybe, if you say the things I just wrote, I may piss you off too…but here goes anyway - “ Who is running your store?”
I mean I go in stores all the time where the tail is wagging the dog. Hell, I’ve been in places where I can’t even find the dog…it is just one big screwed up ‘tail’. You know what I mean - advisors ignoring the phones and avoiding customers. Sitting on their chair instead of greeting customers at their car or talking to a tech while a customer waits to be acknowledged. And it’s not just advisors, how about the techs that don’t speak to customers when they are on the drive or how about the ones that pull estimates out of the air instead of using the service-pricing guide you pay for. And how about the advisors and techs that either sell too much to customers or not enough – and then there are the cashiers – evil, wicked, mean and nasty – every one I have ever met should not be allowed to talk to customers ever! In fact, you should make your service advisors do all cashiering and let the evil one stay behind the scenes to do filing and cashier accounting. My point is this – there is a lot of bad stuff happening on your drive that you probably don’t know about – in fact you can’t know about if you don’t spend time out there in the real world.
But so many of the service managers I meet are “office bound” – you know their butt has grown into their chair and no matter what anyone tells you – you don’t make money in your office – the money is on the drive and in the shop – so you need to get out there more if you want to grow your business, make sense? And anyway, I can’t figure out exactly what service managers are you doing all day in their office to begin with – I mean I have been a service manager and I always did my paperwork before we opened or after we closed for the day – you have to make hay while the sun is shining guys – and you can’t expect to succeed if you are letting everyone else control your future.
Get out of your office – you can play with your stock market investments, watch porn, buy and sell crap on eBay, talk to your friends on face book and twitter after hours, when you are done with your real job.
Here’s what I’m saying - It is time to get off your butt and get on the service drive. It is time to Take Control and it is time to start running your store like you own it. Grab the bull by the horns. Get in the game and let everyone at your store know that you are the coach of the team and that they are they players and that you have an announcement to make – that you have decided that you are now going to run the store and that you have a plan and that you will now be involved, engaged and entrenched in your business.
You have to let them know that you are now in charge – and that you have set clear expectations for each of them and that you will hold them accountable – and that this is not just a fad or a wild idea you came up with that will be forgotten about next week – you have to let them know that you have a fire in your belly and that you are going to be changing things around there – and that you are tired of the tail wagging the dog – and that you will be spending most of your time in the drive and the shop to make sure things get done the way you want them done.
Come on guys, you know this. You were chosen to be the manager for a reason: someone had confidence in you, they believed in you, they trusted you to protect their investment and make it grow – they saw something in you or they wouldn’t have put you in that position to begin with, right? I mean think about it - you were put there to run the show, to motivate the team, to maximize opportunities, to increase sales and profits, increase customer retention, maintain above average CSI and to – in general, get the job done. So with all of that being said – my message to you today is simple - It is time you get up, get motivated, get serious and focused and it is time you started doing what you are paid to do – run the friggin’ store instead of letting the store run you!
OK, by now I have got your attention, made you think about your past and your future, probably made you take stock, look around at your operation and hopefully if you need to change you will – or you totally disagree with me, and are so mad that you will stop reading this article right now, mumble some obscenities under your breath about how stupid I am and go back to “tail wags dog business as usual” – either way – I made you think, I made you get emotional and excited and that was my goal - what you do with this information after that is totally up to you. But I will tell you this, if you want to grow and you want to be the coach of a winning team, and if you want to make more money and increase customer retention and satisfaction – read on.
Cool, you are still reading. I mentioned this earlier but I have to say it again – Get out of your office. All of the money is made in the service drive and you have to start running your service department like a sales department. You have to stop complaining and start training. Your job as coach of the team is to make sure everyone knows how you want things done and what you want to accomplish, they have to know the goals. So start by leading by example – get on the drive and listen and watch what your people are saying and doing. Make sure they know exactly what you want them to do – clone them into “little you’s” …a different version of “mini-me’s” (I know, but I can’t help it…I am a frustrated stand up comedian, so work with me here ok?)
Get out there and let your people know in “no uncertain terms” that you are the one that will lead them and guide them, and praise them and bust them. Let them know that each month is like a game – and your success and theirs depends on winning more games than you lose. Let them know that you know…let them know that you know what is going on in your store, what your customers think, what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong and that you are the person that can and will make things happen. Let them know that when you coach them it is not a discussion or a debate – it is instruction – it is how you want things to be done and that there will be consequences if they don’t follow your lead. You are smart – don’t second-guess your decisions.
And when they disagree, don’t just tell them, sell them. I had a service advisor once that didn’t like that I wanted him to answer the phone a certain way. He didn’t like the way I wanted him to greet customers – and he didn’t like that I had set up a step-by-step process to write a customer up. He told me, (now get this), that he just wasn’t going to be able to do it the way I wanted…and that he will just continue doing it “his way.” Hmmm, that’s nice.
I thought about what he said and I told him, that I wasn’t angry or upset and I wasn’t going to lose my temper over this, so decided to try this another way – I said, “Here’s the deal, If you don’t do these things the way I want them we aren’t going to reach our goals, and I will most likely lose my job.” He said he didn’t see how that was going to affect him (nice huh?). My response was, (and I love this one and I bet you use it to someday in the future), “Here’s how it effects you, the day before they fire me, and I will fire you. Does that make sense?” Amazingly, after just a minute or two, he quickly came to his senses and told me he really kind of likes the way I wanted things done and that he will begin doing things my way immediately. Great idea there Einstein.
Hey. I am not saying to go out and fire your people. All I am saying is that technicians and service advisors are great people – talented people that we need to make this thing work, but they need a leader, a coach, a cheerleader, a checker and a teacher, and – that folks, is your job. You are the service manager and you need to make sure they all know how you would handle any situation, so if you aren’t there, they will do it the way you want it done. They have to know exactly what you expect and they have to know that if they don’t do what you want, the way you want it done, you will catch them and you will fix it – one way or the other.
So stop letting your people run your store. Take control – just do it, I know you can. Get in the game a little bit more and run your store like you own it – it is the most fun you will ever have and the rewards are awesome.
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