I am not quite sure why, but most people new to the profession of Sales and Service Advising feel like it is up to them to create their own word tracks or scripts when beginning a new career representing a new product.  Many believe that if they use a co-worker’s or predecessor’s words that they will sound scripted and not believable or authentic to the customer.  Even when given professional word tracks most choose not to use them again fearing that it will make them sound robotic or phony.

The danger in this line of thinking is; how long will it take your new hire to develop their own word tracks and how many customers will they burn through before they discover what works and what doesn’t work?  If a Service Advisor is just helping 15 customers a day times 5 workdays (75 customers a week) times 4 weeks (300 customers a month) times how many months?  At what cost?  Several thousand dollars easily, let alone the cost to your customer satisfaction survey scores and customer retention.

The biggest problem with letting the Service Advisor develop their own word tracks is that they are usually designed around what the customer wants to hear rather then what the customer needs to hear.  This is the reason so many Service Advisors are average at best.

Let me show you what I mean.  I will list one of my favorite word tracks and explain to you why it works and how it is far better then what most Service Advisors who create their own use.

Customer Question at Drop Off:  “When can I expect to get my vehicle back?”

 Average Service Advisor Word Track:  “I will call you in a little while and let you no something, it should be a few hours.” Or worse “Call me in a little while and I will let you know.”  The problem with either of these word tracks is, what is a little while?  Fifteen minutes? An hour? Two hours? If you leave it up to the customer to answer those questions their time will rarely match yours and they are sure to start calling the Service Advisor way before the Service Advisor has any information.  When the Service Advisor instructs the customer to contact them in a little while, that is simply an invitation to get a telephone call from that customer every hour on the hour.  Besides, both of those answers do not tell the customer anything concrete plus you surrender the control of your telephone causing numerous and unnecessary incoming calls.  A Service Advisor working with only fifteen customers a day that uses one of the above responses will generate forty-five incoming telephone calls a day at three minutes each for a total of two hours and fifteen minutes on the telephone. 

Professional Word Track for the Same Question:

 The Realistic Expectations Technique®

“Mr. Customer, let me explain to you, how, when diagnosing a concern like you have just described, what the timetable is for completing the repair.  About 50% of the time we are able to get it diagnosed, repaired and back to you by the end of the day.  However, sometimes as we get into it, we find that it is going to take a little longer than expected or that we don’t have a needed part in stock.  This would mean that you would need to leave the vehicle overnight or pick it up and bring it back tomorrow when the part arrives.  In even rarer instances, if a needed part is not in the area or it is on back order, it would mean that you pick up the vehicle and bring it back in a few days so that we could finish the repair then.  Unfortunately, I won’t know where we stand until our factory-trained technician gets your vehicle in our state-of-the-art shop and gets it hooked up to our computerized diagnostic equipment.  Once he determines what the problem is, I’ll call you and let you know where we stand.  Since your vehicle will be going into our state-of-the-art shop in about an hour and it will take our specialized technician at least one hour before he is through diagnosing it, I would expect a telephone call from me between 10:00 and 10:30,  fair enough?”   

The difference here is that the customer can now plan their day around what will really happen, not what might happen.  With this word track they know first thing in the morning that they may or may not get their vehicle back today.  They now have all day to make alternative transportation plans if they need them.  This is much better than finding out at the end of the day when you have no loaner cars left, your car rental agency has no cars to rent and they have no way home.  Also, they have a predetermined time when you will contact them so they can make sure they are available. A  Service Advisor that instructs their customers to wait for their call by giving a time will generate only twenty out going telephone calls at three minutes each for at total of one hour instead of the two hours and fifteen identified above.  That alone puts one hour and fifteen minutes back into the Service Advisor’s day!

Just as important is that customer understands that their vehicle is not going directly into the shop but instead, is “in line” to go into the shop.  And best of all, the Service Advisor is now in control of the entire situation and has a much better opportunity of exceeding the customers expectations.  The person who is in control of a given situation has placed themselves in the position of controlling the outcome.

So, if a well thought out and tested professional word track is the best option, where do you get them and where in a presentation should you use them?

You can get them from a field expert or you can create your own.  The basic test for writing one is, does it answer the who, what, when, why and how of the situation.  The basic test for when you need one is at any time the Service Advisor needs to talk or interact with a customer.  Getting and maintaining high customer satisfaction scores, high customer retention and increased sales just does not happen.  It is gained through knowing what, when, where, why and how to communicate with a customer.  I believe you can say anything to a customer you choose, after all it is not what you say, but how you say it that counts. 

Jeff Cowan

President

Jeff Cowan's PRO TALK®, Inc.

Copyright 2005, all rights reserved.

Fixed Ops Magazine, August 2005