Service advisors should not be in charge of building tickets — the job should be given to the ones who are working directly on the vehicle and who know exactly what they will need to do the job.
That was the advice from Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and North Carolina-based shop owner.
For example, the service advisor may not know that the part they’re ordering doesn’t come with bolts. So when it arrives, you have a frustrated technician who can’t complete the job because a new order has to be placed and time is being wasted.
“But your technician builds the ticket then all the parts are there,” Huh said during the session How to Run your Shop Stress-Free at last year’s Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo.
And it saves from having strained relationships in the workplace. “How many times are your advisors and technicians bickering about wait times?” Huh asked attendees.
A related issue to this is something Huh ran into — his service advisors were creating low tickets. It’s easier to sell the ticket to the customer if everything that’s needed isn’t included.
“So they’re going take time from the technician, which is ethically wrong,” he pointed out.
A shop may typically have more technicians than advisors so it only makes sense to Huh for the technician to build the ticket and take a load off the advisor. They have customers in front of them, the phone is ringing, then a technician is telling them they built the ticket incorrectly, then the phone rings again — it’s hectic and little details can get lost.
It takes leadership to implement this process in a shop, Huh acknowledged, and there will be backlash. The first chance the technician gets, he’ll put the ticket-building work back on the service advisor’s desk. Huh wants you to stick with this process if you implement it.
“This is all because you want to make more money, not less money, less chaos, less stress,” he said.
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Comments
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The technician’s job is to diagnose and repair vehicles . They are not paid to build tickets. Shops who have poor communication have this problem stated in the article. If the techs build the estimate then why have a service advisor? Service advisors should be properly vetted so they can perform their job. Techs will respect a good service advisor who builds tickets accurately. Train the service advisor to do their job properly.
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Exactly Why have a service advisor? I don’t. You shops that run assembly line type businesses with the tech chained to his box definitely would need service advisors. I have cut out the confusing advisor middle man, no managers, no shop formans, I just have technicians making money. Sure I may not make as much revenue as the assembly line type business, but I don’t have as much of an expense or a technician shortage issue either.
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I just wanted to state this fact. Today’s perception of our industry is you can not be a technician and shop owner and be able to do both effectively. I know that I would be a better technician if I did not have the burden of shop ownership to deal with, the same as I would be a better business owner if I didn’t have to deal with fixing cars. I may not be the best, but I am pretty good at doing both. Some days I am a rock star, while other days I want to punch the next old lady in the face that wants me to check her tires ( although I do have a procedure in place for them. Its “Please have a seat, I will be glad to check that for you when I get a minute.” Eventually everyone learns I do not drop everything for nobody.) I do not need to compete with the rest of you shop owners and boast about being the best shop or technician around. I do not need or want to be known as the go to shop or technician for every difficult fault on every make and model vehicle. All I want and need is my fair share of the pie that I worked so hard to receive, and I am getting it.
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I think the technicians should build the tickets and even go one step further and speak to the customers themself including selling the repairs and service needed.
I have been operating a 22 bay service center since 1994 and was very successful since the technicians start selling the jobs and building their own tickets . Sales grow to over $2.5millions in labor sales and $1.0 millions in parts and $1.4 millions in tires .Think when you goes to the doctor the nurse does not tell you what your problem is the doctor does . Most customers believes the technicians more that the advisors plus the technicians will be siting on the benches if they have to wait for parts or authorization for the needed repairs. Technicians are very smart and can explain to the customer what the vehicle needs and they know the value of the vehicle and the dollars associated with the repairs. good selling -
I am a journeyman technician, many years ago I had a back injury and could not work on the floor of the dealership I was working at , management gave me a service advisor job and as a technician I had the highest sales and the other technicians would line up for me to deal with selling the repairs required and arranging parts it was a win for the customer, the company and the technicians everyone won when having a experienced person at the front line so I believe the best advisors would be technicians who don’t want to twist wrenches any longer. I also owned and operated a tire shop for 11 years so I know both sides of the business. I sold my business to one of my guys and retired.
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Makes sense to me Desmond. If the technicians are sitting around waiting for authorizations, then they might as well be doing the advisor’s job themselves. Thats a big shop your running, thats a lot of responability and babysitting. Good for you.
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