Why do Service Advisors (Service Leaders) fail to deliver outstanding and memorable customer experience on the service floor?

Service Advisors are the movers and shakers of your business. They are the face of your dealership. They are the firm foundation and strong pillars of the Best-in-Town experience. They are the greatest influencers of future vehicle sales.

Here are the Top 5 reasons why Service Advisors in your dealership fail to deliver outstanding, heart-touching, memorable and Best-in-Town customer experience on the service floor:

1. Lack of Connection:

The number one reason behind poor or average customer experiences is the failure of Service Advisors (Service Leaders) to build strong connections with customers on the service floor. There’s a key difference between being in contact with customers and truly connecting with them. While Service Advisors may interact with customers, they often fail to establish a meaningful, deeper connection. They neglect to invest the time and effort needed to fully understand their customers’ needs, challenges, and concerns. What are they thinking? What is their body language saying? What do they like or dislike?

True CONNECTION is rooted in emotions and empathy. To deliver a memorable, heart-touching, and “best-in-town” customer experience, Service Advisors must build an emotional bond with customers by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them, understanding their feelings, body language, and challenges, and taking ownership of their pains and problems. This emotional connection is what elevates the customer experience from average to exceptional.

2. Poor Communication

Service Advisors (Service Leaders) often fail to communicate clearly or consistently with customers regarding vehicle status, costs, and delivery times. It’s important for Service Advisors to actively listen to customers’ VOC and provide them with the proper solutions. I passionately believe that one of the most powerful ways to elevate your relationships – whether personal or professional –  to world-class is to become insanely good (Steve Job term) at listening.

To make this process more transparent and to earn customers’ unwavering trust, Service Advisors must explain the work details, which you will perform on their cars, tentative estimates, and promise delivery time before the commencement of the job. Additionally, a thorough debriefing should be conducted after the service, outlining the work completed, the final costs, and future maintenance recommendations. Effective communication can transform a mediocre customer experience into a world-class customer experience.

3. Lack of Empathy

As mentioned above, a true CONNECTION with customers is rooted in emotions and empathy. Service Advisors (Service Leaders) should be emotionally intelligent to understand their customers’ emotions at a deeper level, as every car owner has some emotional connection to their vehicles. They must look for ways, or opportunities to give heart-touching experiences on the service floor and make a strong emotional connection with them. So, they can remember their sales or service experiences throughout their life.

4. Not Keeping Promises

A promise is a promise and customer service excellence always begins with keeping those promises. In fact, “80% of great and world-class customer service is about keeping promise.” Living up to your promises with your customers will build trust and create stronger emotional bonds. However, some Service Advisors (Service Leaders) make promises they can’t keep – whether it’s unrealistic repair timelines, unfeasible discounts or free diagnostic checkups. This leads to disappointment, frustration, and dissatisfaction for the customer.

The way forward is simple: If you realize you can’t meet a promise, contact the customer immediately. Apologize sincerely for the delay, explain what caused the issue, and outline the steps you will take to make it right. Being transparent and proactive helps preserve trust and minimizes negative experiences.

 5. Lack of Service Culture Training

Service Advisors (Service Leaders) should never stop learning. They must always be thinking, learning, improving and curious because the market is changing, competition is changing, technology is changing, customers’ needs, wants, desires, frustration, fears, anxieties aspirations, inspirations, and possibilities is always constantly changing.

Many Service Advisors do not receive ongoing training on the service culture and the latest customer service techniques, technological advancements, and problem-solving skills. Without continuous learning, they fall behind on best practices for handling customer interactions on the service floor. So, Service Advisors must approach their positions as one of continuous education and learning.

Improving in these areas is key to delivering a more remarkable, memorable, heart-touching and Best-in-Town customer experience on the service floor.

ABOUT MOAZZAM

Moazzam is an automotive consultant & Leadership Coach and has hands-on experience in Sales, After-Sales, Customer Relations, Marketing, and unparalleled skills in business planning. His core strengths are Best-in-Town dealership framework, dealership operations, customer experience and customer delight. In 2023, he published his first book, Beyond Exceptional: A Practical Guide for Service Advisors to Achieve Service Excellence and Customer Delight; it’s available on Amazon in both hard-cover and Kindle form. Sign up for our newsletter for updates, insights, and other great content that you can use to up your EX and CX A-Game.