5 Things You Should Know About How a Service Department Works

I've worked on a service drive for over 5 years now, and have found the biggest reason for unhappy customers is a lack of understanding on how the system works. This is not a knock on our customers, they shouldn't be expected to know everything about the process. It's our job as advisers to help them understand the things they need to know. Here is a list of five things customers should know about a service department:

Appointments

This is the biggest source of friction between advisers and customers. An appointment is simply a way for the service department to control how many cars are checked in on a given day. It does not mean there is a technician waiting, with tools in hand, for you to arrive. It would make all our lives much easier if it worked like that but it simply cannot and here is why:

Even though a customer will typically give us an idea of what is going on with their car, we really cannot know just how long the diagnosis and repair will take. Will your air conditioning problem be a 1.5 hour evacuate and recharge and check for leaks, or will it be a 6 plus hour evaporator replacement? My dealership averages about 50 cars a day, not including express oil changes, so if repairs on that day's cars takes even an hour longer each it causes enormous delays. This means that even though you have a 10am appointment, the 20 cars that have gone into the shop since we opened may have taken more than doubled the time they were expected to, and now your car won't be looked at till much later in the day.

Honesty

This is a tough one. Nobody likes to be taken advantage of, and since most customers don't know much about cars it is easy for them to think someone is trying to profit from their ignorance. When an adviser is telling you that your car, that seems to be running fine, needs over a thousand dollars of work it's understandable to be skeptical. Something I wish more customers would do is ask us to bring them into the shop and show them why we are recommending a repair. It builds trust in me, it allows the customer to learn more about their car, and it helps justify the costs when they actually see what needs to be done. If you, as a customer, don't believe what you are being told, have the adviser show you the issue, and if you still don't feel right get a second opinion.

Diagnostic Charges

Dealerships charge to diagnose a problem to protect their most valuable assets, the technicians. A technician is constantly going to expensive training to learn about the cars they work on and it never ends. We have a few at my dealership that have been doing this for over 20 years and they still go for week long training stints out of town. They do this so they can be an expert on finding out what's wrong with a car. Anyone, with enough time and tools, can replace most parts of a car. It takes a professional to know which part actually needs to be replaced in the first place! There are a lot of people that do their own repairs as well as independent shops that work on all makes that call on us to help them find the problem. The diagnostic charges cover the factory trained technician's time and effort for finding the problem for you. Most places will waive the charges if you have them do the work.

Warranty Work

I've met a number of people that think the dealership is financially responsible for warranty repairs. This is absolutely not true! The manufacturer pays the dealership for any and all warranty charges as part of the franchise agreement. It's a free repair to the customer and we still get paid to do it. It's a win-win situation! So why do some repairs get declined? Advisers hate telling a customer the repair won't be covered but we must be honest with the manufacturer just like we are with you. If your kid jumps on the center console and breaks it, then it wasn't a defect, so it's not going to be warrantied.

Mistakes

Advisers are human, techs are human, and our customers are human. This means mistakes will happen, a car won't be fixed correctly, and it makes for a very unhappy customer. We understand we will make these mistakes, and all we really want when we do is to have a chance to make it right. Please, if you're a customer and something doesn't go right, calmly talk to your adviser or the manager and give them a chance to make you happy. We know it's frustrating to spend a lot of money only to pick up your car and the problem wasn't resolved, and a good repair shop will take care of you. Some of my best customers are ones where we didn't do something right and it upset them. We earned their loyalty by taking responsibility and dealing with the mistake.