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I want to talk to the tech
We have a small shop, my husband is the tech, I run the office. Periodically a customer will stop in to schedule but insist on talking to Greg to explain to him what problems he/she is having with their vehicle. Since Greg is the only technician at our shop, it is often not possible for him to be interrupted to talk to a customer. Yesterday a customer stopped in, asked to speak to Greg. I explained he is working on a vehicle at the moment and isn’t available and asked what I can do to help him. He proceeded to explain to me the issue he was having with his vehicle, ending with, Greg will know what I’m talking about. As I’m taking all of the information down to put on the RO, I ask the customer what day he would like to bring it in and he responds, I don’t know because I don’t know if I should drive it or have it towed. Based on the information he provided to me I suggested the vehicle be towed in to avoid further damage at which point the customer asked again to talk to Greg to be sure it needed to be towed. Greg was working on another job in the shop involving heavy suspension repairs and was not available. The customer, upset because he couldn’t talk to “the tech” left without scheduling the appoitment.
How can I approach customers differently to help them understand that they don’t necessarily need to talk to the tech when scheduling? How do I express that I need all of their issues on the repair order so when Greg does bring in the vehicle, he has all of the information in front of him and can properly test and recommend repairs?
Any suggestions?
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6 Replies
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My first response blew-up or disappeared waiting for the site to load. I
multitask a lot. Came back & poof it was gone.
Anyway, our response is “Will this be Visa or MasterCard?” Is it not
“fair” to charge for the Tech’s time?
We explain that we’re saving them money by taking all these notes
beforehand. If they truly NEED to talk to the tech, it’s billable at our
diagnostic rate.
Attachments:
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Rob Hopp wrote:
> My first response blew-up or disappeared waiting for the site to
load.
I
> multitask a lot. Came back & poof it was gone.
While it may sound like a canned reply…we are working on this along
with a number of other things. We are determined to make significant
improvements here. Please be patient. Thanks!
Tom and Deb
Admin
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Cheryl:
As shop owners we often spend too much effort on things that cannot be
changed easily or at all in some cases.
Your most efficient way to address this is to let him talk to the tech
after you have tried and he still insists. That is…if we are talking
about something that occurs once in while.
If this happens constantly, then ask yourselves if you are growing
enough to add an employee who can help both in the shop and up front
in situations like this.
In the long run the business will do the best by making almost all
customers happy even when their demands are not what we may like. It
is hard to accept that stopping and talking to a customer is more
profitable (in the grand scheme of things) than to not stop and keep
working on job.
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This is an idea I will share with Greg. We are a small, Mom and Pop shop. Greg is the tech, I run the front office. So, I do approach the customer as the Service Writer. This customer has been here before and I believe is aware that I am the contact person for scheduling, repairs, authorization, etc. Sometimes I feel certain customers would just prefer talking to a man.
Thank you for your idea though. I’m going to work on implementing that type of form/program for those that insist on talking to Greg.
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Hello just joined today and boy can I relate to
this post ! Being a female in the service
industry has its obstacles to say the least !
My husband & I own a shop, 4 techs plus the two
of us. Customers tend to feel females dont know
a thing about auto repair I can say I have
stunned many I have been around the industry
for many years (grandfather, father, 2 brothers
all mechanics then I married one) there are
some customers that insist on speaking to a
tech but you do in my opinion need to intercept
as many as possible and gain the confidence of
your customers as well as avoid interrupting
the tech, there are many times stopping them to
speak to a customer isnt possible . Although I
have no definite solution not sure there will
ever be a perfect solution gaining your
customers confidence to me is the key.
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Thanks for your response! There are times I have to refer to Greg (tech) but most times I’m able to answer the customer questions. I guess it’s all about “training” our customers and proving to them that I do know what I’m talking about and am quite capable of doing my job as the service writer/office manager.
Thanks again! If you ever want to “chat” about daily shop stuff, please give me a shout at gcauto@dejazzd.com.
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