Kindness in Service Lanes

TAMPA, FL – Service advisor Sandi Nguyen of Courtesy Toyota here, spots a white-haired woman stepping out of the driver’s seat of her blue Camry and planting her 4-pronged cane on the service-lane floor.

With clipboard in hand, Nguyen escorts the oldster to an air-conditioned service lounge, offers her a seat and asks her what needs to be done for her vehicle today.

Oil change? Why not review the printed service menu, suggests Nguyen who keeps several at the ready. The customer reviews options for tire balancing and rotation, tune-up and detailing, while Nguyen records mileage and vehicle information. She returns to the lounge, offers a complimentary snack and finalizes the write-up form and signature.

Nguyen promises the $24.99 oil change with factory filters and oil will be ready in 30 minutes or the customer gets her money back. She beams at the customer and dashes off to the next appointment.

“Our advisors write up every vehicle with a clipboard on the service driveway or in the customer lounge,” says Bradley Schafer, Courtesy Toyota’s service director. “There is no reason for the customer to go into their small little confined offices – I call them vaults.”

With $6 million in service department labor sales, Schafer recognizes Nguyen and eight other service advisors are the ambassadors of the dealership. Greeters stuff their clipboards with daily specials and menus to help reduce the load of 130 repair orders a day.

Schafer notes the repair order count is up 27.9% in first-quarter 2006 over like-period in 2005, in large measure due to over-the-top courtesy processes at Courtesy Toyota, part of the Asbury Automotive chain, with 127 dealerships across the country.

Service advisor Sandi Nguyen <i>(left)</i> helps customer.

The dealership is doing something others can emulate, says a spokesman for Toyota’s Southeast region.

Courtesy ranks among Toyota’s top 50 in all operations – among the 1,300 franchises. It is a 10-time winner of Toyota’s President’s Award for excellence, despite an ever-increasing supply of customers.

What is good news for Toyota – sales are increasing 300 to 400 cars a year at large dealerships – is also an added burden for service departments that must scramble to better utilize their space and handle greater loads of customers. Schafer came from a competing dealership 16 months ago to meet the challenge.

Schafer promptly hired Joyce Miller as the customer service manager, promoted Nguyen from cashier to service advisor and converted all nine advisors to a system where by 33% of their pay is based on Toyota’s report on customer satisfaction surveys.

The advisors earn $40,000 to $100,000 a year. “Advisors won’t stay here if they remain at the low end of the pay scale. We know it is a stressful job, but we expect excellence,” says Schafer

He meets twice a month with the advisor and greeter team from 60 to 90 minutes on a wide range of issues. “We listen and talk as a group because collaborative leadership works best in the long run,” Schafer says.

Wayne Phillips, a National Automotive Dealers Assn. 20-group leader and a former Ford-Volkswagen-Subaru dealer, suggests the first car a customer buys may come from advertising and marketing, but long-term loyalty is made or broken in the service lanes.

“It isn’t about price; the bigger issues are trust and satisfaction,” says Phillips. “The better stores have wireless Internet hookups, sodas, donuts, snacks in the customer lounge. They meet the completion time as promised or give a customer a loaner car to go home and come back later.”

Dealerships compete with storefront oil-change shops and tire centers that might be located closer to a customer’s home. But dealerships can offer more, including effective service advisors, says Phillips.

“Smart service directors are re-emphasizing the role of advisors,” he says. “On average, they produce more gross sales than any employee in the dealership.

“If they become the consultant who promises to prolong the life of the car or keeps the vehicle from breaking down on a lonely road, the customers will drive across town to maintain that relationship,” he says.

When the job on the elderly woman’s car is complete, Nguyen comes to the service department with her clipboard and fresh smile. She sits down next to the customer and announces that in addition to the oil change, a seatbelt problem was fixed, eliminating a secondary visit. She take the credit card and runs it up to the cashier, saving the woman the trip. Then Nguyen takes her to a washed, waiting Camry.

Some days the team takes its lumps. People complain the lounge seats are too hard, the donuts are gone or the TV is tuned to the wrong channel. Many customers are upset that something is wrong with the vehicle and fearful the price will escalate. Kindness, according to Nguyen, helps win over a fair number of people.

“Everything we can do to make the transaction easier for customers we do. Customers are our most important asset,” Nguyen says. “I like helping people. This is the best job I’ve ever had.”

What skills are important for an advisor? The California Occupational Guides list these assets: