Handling difficult automotive service calls

Feb. 24, 2015
One of the challenges we face is effectively communicating what is involved in a repair. I challenge you to find ways to close more of those “price shoppers” because most are really information shoppers.

People hear what they want to hear. It’s a cliché because it’s true. One of the challenges we face is effectively communicating what is involved in a repair.

Let’s start from the beginning: the phone rings and a potential customer is on the other end asking for a “quote” to replace a component on their car that you have never seen fail. As a good service advisor you ask them what leads them to believe that part is bad.

In most cases it quickly becomes apparent that one of several things is behind the call. The car is misbehaving and a web search landed them in a blog where alleged experts with handles to protect them from having to stand behind their ridiculous assertions spout about how all repair shops are a “rip off” and you can easily solve your problem with a bottle of some snake oil or the other. (Legitimate chemical companies please don’t write me nasty emails. You know what I am talking about.)

Another strong possibility is that they currently have their car at another shop and they don’t like the answer or estimate they received for the repair. I will get back to that in a minute.

The next most likely is that someone told them that if a car acts a certain way it is always a fuel pump or fill in the blank with whatever condition you want. In some cases the caller is just not your customer. They are a train wreck looking for a location to happen, but in most cases they simply don’t know what to say when you pick up the phone.

Customers understand that cars are expensive. They also have a good handle on what is in their checking account. What many cannot get their head around is that there are very rarely two ways to repair something correctly that are significantly different in cost.

They also have a hard time understanding the craft involved in not only performing the nuts and bolts part of our job but particularly the fine art of pinpointing the root cause of their problem. So instead they ask you how much it will cost so that you are on the same page with them – guessing.

As I see it here is where the whole thing gets tricky. I am going to ask you to put on your consumer hat and imagine a medium to big-ticket item you are considering purchasing. If you called up the business you were considering buying from and said, “How much?” you would expect some kind of answer, right? What do many of our management trainers tell us? Get the appointment.

Here is what I suggest: get the rapport, get the trust and then get the appointment. To tell them, “I can’t tell you that without seeing the car” is not a good answer. Let’s see if we can figure this out is a much better one. It takes longer, not doubt about it.

We spend a good amount of money marketing to get people to call us. Do you believe that your advertising is so good that people will just call and say, “I don’t care what it costs, fix my car. That web ad was so good I know you are the best, most honest mechanic I could hope to find.”

In your dreams they might say that. Even if you are the best, you and I both have to show them that we are good and we are here to truly help because they have no clue what goes on once the car gets in the shop where “they” work on it.

Potential customers need to have a sense of what repairs to their car will cost. It’s not easy but if it were everyone would do it – another true cliché.

I challenge you to find ways to close more of those “price shoppers” because most are really information shoppers. But be careful because they are like all the rest of us. They will stop listening to you when they hear what they want to hear if you do not choose your words carefully. 

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