Service Advisors are the bridge between external customers and service technicians. They transfer customers’ doubts and concerns to the technicians and determine the repair timeline. For the most part, Service Advisors have the last word on which internal customers should be sent home when they are not helping achieve the levels of excellence required.  

Our guest, Brittany Schindler, GM at Rod’s Japanese Auto Care, realized there was another way to ensure their Service Advisors do what they need to do for external customers to say yes, and work with technicians as a team to be the best shop in town: training. She has over 10 years of experience in the industry and is the recipient of the AAPEX 2021 Service Advisor of the Year Award. 

In this episode, we talk about the workforce’s growing tendency of switching jobs every 5 years, the new paradigm where the competition is not between companies but between industries, and how shop owners are dealing with it. Brittany shared her thoughts on the importance of leadership training for every internal customer, not only for leaders, and how she ensures employees use it to grow and improve their contribution to the company. We also talk about Service Advisor’s role, Brittany’s strategies to enhance their performance, and more.  

Tune in to episode 16 of Maximum Octane, and grasp a different perspective from Service Advisors’ role, relevance, and proper training. 

Some questions I ask:

• You are huge on training. It’s one of the most important things we can do for internal customers, and it also benefits external customers. What are some of the things that you do with training? And why is it so important to you? (7:54)
• When you send anybody in your company for training to ensure they got something out of it, what are the things? (11:24)
• You train everybody to be a leader. Could you talk a bit about that? (14:23)

In this episode, you will learn:

• Brittany comments on industries competing between them to attract internal customers (4:37)
• About Brittany’s love for training and its positive impact on every internal customer performance (7:36)
• Why Brittany treats every internal customer as a leader (14:05)
• About why Brittany decided to build a giant toolbox for the company’s Service Advisors (19:01)
• The importance of scripts and role-playing in training (28:15)

Resources

• Rod’s Japanese Auto Care website
• Connect with Rod’s Japanese Auto Care on Facebook
• Connect with Rod’s Japanese Auto Care on Instagram