r/serviceadvisors

So i got hired into a service advisor role at an independant transmission shop. 10 years in dealership SALES+Finance experience. B.S. in business management.

I've been here just about six months. When I got hired I asked for $25/hr and he gave me $28. now that i have some experience i was thinking I'd ask for closer to industry standard pay. One thing to note is everyone here is basically salary, its an hourly wage but we all work 8:30-5 M-F. There is me, my manager/owner that has been training me, and 4 excellent technicians. owner/manager is also a very good master level tech, and will jump in for difficult diags. we do all work except alignments and wheels/tires. we rebuild a lot of transmissions and turn down most regular mainenance jobs unless its for a customer we know and like. I am responsible for all the regular advisor stuff, plus ordering and returning all parts and all scheduling and answering the phone.

My manager doesnt try to push any repairs or maintenance stuff that customers dont need, and has stressed to me how important it is to advise people on what they need, only after dealing with what their original concern is. He is completely un-worried about money, doesnt try to get extra work, and his reputation in the community is perfect. we have other shops refer stuff to us all the time. if we find out through diag that its not the trans and is actually something the refering shop does, we send them back to have the work done there. He's a super solid guy who explains things to me thoroughly, and works with my schedule since i am a single dad. sorry for the wall of text. its a great shop, and i really like it here, the hours are good. how much of a raise, if any at all, should i ask for?

I bought a used chevy cruze the oil pressure light is on and the dash reads 0 oil but the dipstick says otherwise it came with a bg pre owned vehicle protection warranty and I was told if i changed the oil the warranty would be void

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Just curious if any current or previous dealership service managers could give me some advice. I interviewed for a service manager role at a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and RAM dealership. It went well enough I need to seriously consider what pay I should expect, and what the day to day looks like as a service manager with these particular brands. Also curious if there is any thing you’d warn me about.

I have 5 years experience as a service advisor.
Prior to that I worked in the dealership’s body shop as an assistant manager for about 10 years.
Prior to that I was initially hired at this same dealer I’ve worked at over the last 15 years to wash the cars being sold.

Thanks for any advice!

Hi guys

About to join the industry, but after lurking around for awhile i'm starting to get second thoughts as it seems like a revolving door

Anyone have any advice on what i should expect? why is the turnover so high? if you could go back in time, what would u have told yourself when you first started?

I have noticed around a lot of Kia and Hyundai owners especially us seniors have a lack of understanding of the technology in the new Kia and Hyundai vehicles. There are so many aspects that the dealership cannot explain to you when you buy a new vehicle because they want you in and out and much of the great aspects of the vehicle go unused.

I am thinking g of starting a Car Technology Coaching Company. I am not looking to make a huge company but something that is a boutique service, not expensive but personal. I would go to the customers house so I can set up the features including garage openers. I would charge a flat rate for 90 minutes and hourly rate if longer. If there are multiple people in the house I can have everyone participate.

So if I averaged 2-3 customers per week I would be happy. Being a retired automotive engineer this interests me and I think I would be doing a service.

I am looking for any input if this is a good idea? Thank you!

what kind of average pay are tesla advisors seeing every month?? mainly in southern california. Currently with honda, but always been curious. and seems like they are hiring near me.

Just curious about those of you on here that are “Service Lane Managers” or similar roles?

I have been in this role now for about a year, and I did receive a slight bump in weekly compensation, but that’s it. I am responsible for training new advisors, filling in during time off, fixing mistakes/RO’s, cleaning up old RO’s, etc. but still a vast majority of my pay is based on hours I sell individually.

I have seen a steady drop off of my hours (of course) but am curious if this plan seems normal or just glorified lead advisor with more responsibility.

I’ve been in my position for a year at a GM dealer in nor cal and I’ve been able to get comfortable enough with the chaos to climb to the top of the leader boards consistently and handle some light admin stuff for new and used inventory while management is away or something. Suddenly (like within two weeks) the shop has lost 5 techs to what was previously a crew of 13 and everything is 3-4 days out. It’s terrible but I know it’s not all rainbows, hookers, blow and windfall so I’m wanting to solidify a side hustle with the resources I have. I see my self at this dealer long term and can only assume that there will be some big changes coming that will affect my bottom line.

Talking with the guy who trained me he jokes about running his own shop but I feel like that is way too much risk and can confidently say I don’t have enough management experience in the industry to take that big of a role. I don’t have the capital to start buying and selling fb market place finds but have been wanting to know what other advisors do with their skill set outside of the role of advising.

I was selling cars for about two years before making the change to service and have some retail management experience under my belt and with my schedule I have weekends dedicated to the hustle.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: I’ve been doing research on how to become an auto broker in CA and have raised the question of used car acquisition at my dealer and doing a ride along to goto auctions

How do you fellas and felletes deal with the stress of this job?

Been a service writer at a few different dealers over the last 6ish years. The current place i am at is like a revolving door for service writers. I have been loyal here for 4 years. Every six months a service writer either quits or is fired. We have 3 service writing desks and seems to always be an empty one at some point. I have "trained" about 5 service writers since starting here. Ive lost my patience with training new hires. I barely have time to write and take care of the customers. I usually write between 20-30 repair orders a day. And a fellow writer that writes about 8-12. While only being in the game for about 3 months. He does his best but hes older and slow. . Im burnt out beyond stressed and sick of being treated like a dog. Im not sure how management thinks this is okay. Ive laid out hints that im struggling and running out of mental capacity to keep this up. I dont know what to do. I get paid well because of the volume I do but im wearing so many hats. I do my own warranty claims, schedule and put customers in loaners. We don't have porters. So I pull cars around for customers, bag and tag vehicles myself. I also schedule appointments, answer the phone when paged. All while nearly always trying to train someone new. Any tips, advice from seasoned vets? Thanks in advance. Just a young man trying tk save for a house.

Currently an advisor at busy dealer. We have tonnes of appointments but don’t even make half the money we should be making.
The techs do literally what ever they want and there is zero consequences. To start, the drive through opens at 7:30 for drop off but techs “start” at 8:00. On a GOOD day, the first tech will stroll in around 9:30-9:45. Maybe another 20 mins will go by before the second tech shows up. With the trend continuing thought the day. Depending on the day all 7 techs might not be in until late afternoon. There will be 1-2 apprentices in roughly around 8:30-8:45 also (even tho they also start at 8:00) but that only helps so much.

Jobs such as diag and parts installs that the licensed techs need to be doing don’t get done on a timely manner. Oil changes take multiple hours to do. Upselling work in the drive through is often a bad thing as we can’t deliver on the work promised.
The techs also walk in every day and expect to be handed what ever gravy we have waiting. But refuse to do any of the actually dirty work. Diags sit and sit while the service manager feeds them PDI’s and upsells.

The service manager is afraid to do anything about how poorly the shop is run in fear that they will all quit because he believes there are no good techs out there. Meanwhile the pay offered for the techs is far below average for the area so it’s impossible to attract any good technicians.

Anyways I’m not really sure what else to do. I’ve considered going above the SM’s head and seeing if that will help. But after years of this being allowed to happen I’m not sure there will be any change

I'm the top advisor at my luxury dealer in the north east and I'm consistently leading in CSI which our pay plan is heavy on , but I am not happy at all our department has high advisor turn around and I'm tired of being tapped on the shoulder to train New advisors when I myself was thrown into the fire of this place I'm the this to get chewed out by management , however I also feel stuck in this industry I'm still in my mid 20s and am thinking about pivoting but have no idea where to go

Hello, looking for some guidance on what you may have gone into after advising? I currently work for one of the highest volume Porsche dealers in Canada, horrible environment and it’s making me hate advising over all… pay is a whole other thing.

What are some roles you have stepped into after advising??

Currently have what I somewhat consider my “dream job” as service manager at a high performance dyno tuning/fabrication shop. Been here about 5 years. I’ve learned a whole lot, and getting parts at cost is cool (I’m a gearhead myself, always will be)…. But I feel like I’m severely underpaid. My base salary is around $54k, plus commission (3% of profit on every repair order). I average roughly 8-10k commission each year. I work 8-5 mon-fri, hour long lunch break. I love what I do (most of the time), but I think I’m about ready for a chance. Prior to this I was an advisor at Toyota making roughly $85k.

Got a lil long-winded, sorry. What are other high performance shop advisors/managers making?

I am so tired of losing money because of CSI reviews that our completely are out of our control. whether it’s the coffee or waters in the waiting room that aren’t good enough, the type of snacks we have, the techs messed something up, or just wanting to complain or freak out about Mother Nature or something completely out of our control. It’s not fair and these people that leave this should be held accountable. Sorry this is just a rant about how much I hate CSI and the power that surveys have given customers. I coach about surveys at checkout as well, and send follow up texts before Mr.perfect says that’s why I’m getting bad scores.

Looking for 12–15 working service advisors willing to beat up an early product I’m building.

Use it for a couple of weeks, give me ~15 minutes of brutally honest feedback each week, and I’ll pay you for your time.

I’m bootstrapping this and would much rather hear “this is useless because…” now than after I’ve built the wrong thing.

DM me if you’re interested.

And while I have you: what’s the one thing you wish you didn’t have to keep track of during a busy day?