Professional Service Advisors are Action oriented. They don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what is The Right Thing To Do because they already know what the Right Thing To Do is.

These Advisors have a sense of Empowerment and that leads to Empowered Action.

Empowered Action by definition is when one has the ability to do something with the Customers Best Interest in mind and does so with the  support of Management and Ownership.

How can you go wrong with that?

The best chance any employee (or Manager for that matter) has for success in taking care of the Customer  is devising a thoughtful solution(s) for concerns or problems that are important to the Customer, not the Dealership.

Don't we get it backwards sometimes? We start focusing on what we perceive to be the concern or problem instead of finding out what is of concern or is a problem for our Customer(s).

Empowered Action followed by rigorous follow-up will get results. Every time.

Lets take a look at two different Advisors.  Achiever Andy and Freakin' Fred.

Freakin' Fred has been writing 1.2 HPRO for months. He has been allowed to stay at ABC Motors because "it's too hard to find someone else." His method of taking care of Customers starts with the standard "Do you have an appointment?" or "Can I help ya?" He does nothing to go out of his way for any Customer because he does not think to do so.

Grandma Pastinky comes in and it is her pleasure to have Freakin' Fred take care of her service needs.  During the writeup, Grandma says "By the way Fred, during my last service visit, they forgot to top off all of my fluids. The bottle for the coolant was empty when Grandpa Pastinky checked it. And, no one stamped my book. I told them it was in the glove box."

Here is exactly why Freakin' Fred is at 1.2 HPRO.

First, he does not look at the history to see if something had been done in the past. Second, he does not take a walk back out to the vehicle, open the hood and see if he notices anything.

If he had done that, he might have noticed the coolant bottle being empty and the line of coolant spray marks across the hood insulation from the water pump leaking and coolant being sprayed all over by the serpentine belt.

Nope. He merely nods and writes on the repair order "Top off fluids." And, guess what? The book never gets stamped. But that's minor compared to what happens next.

Grandma is sitting in the waiting room. The tech takes a look at the car, notices the coolant leak is coming from a leaking water pump, gets an estimate together and gives it to Freakin' Fred.

What does Fred do?

He walks into the waiting room and tells Grandma that she now has a $437.00 water pump replacement and it's going to take most of the day.  Does Grandma want to wait for it? "I don't think so Fred" she says. In fact, Grandma is distrustful and feels like Freakin' Fred is trying to take advantage of her.

Contrast that with Achiever Andy. His HPRO is consistently above 2.3. He is a Solutions Provider. He takes Empowered Action all of the time because he knows how to do so. He is constantly going out of his way to make the Customer experience better.

Freakin' Fred comes back into the writeup area and says to his pal Andy "What a pain Grandma Pastinky is. She never buys anything. And she is always complaining...whine, whine, whine." Andy asks what happened and Fred tells him.

Andy says to Fred "Let me see the repair order. If Grandma Pastinky buys this repair, you can buy me lunch." Fred reluctantly agrees.

First, Andy makes sure that the other things Grandma came in for are taken care of. He stamps the book, and he verifies the other service work is completed and  the fluids are topped off.

He then goes to his Service Manager and says "Hey boss, I'm going to take care of a situation and give Grandma Pastinky a rental for one day. She is having some extra repair work done." The SM of course says "Go for it."

Andy then takes Grandma out to her car and shows her what is going on. He assumes the Role of Advisor, which means, he goes out of his way to Advise Grandma her best course of action and tops it off with "And I've already arranged for you to have a rental car for the day, no charge."

He also asks Grandma if she would like for him to call Grandpa Pastinky and go over the details.

Grandma leaves the vehicle to be repaired. She goes  home and a little while later she comes back with Grandpa Pastinky.

Andy remains calm and patient. He explains the need for the repair and why it would be best to have it done now. Grandpa Pastinky thanks him for taking care of them and leaves the car to have the water pump replaced.

Later, he enjoys his free lunch, courtesy of Freakin' Fred.

Andy is totally confident that he can provide a Solution for any possible scenario  any Customer could or would ask of him. Why is he confident? He has been Empowered to Take Action in the Best Interests of the Customer and Trained to do so.

Freakin' Fred has these same "magical powers" as well. Yet he continuously fails because he does not use them. Ever. It does not occur to him to be Solution Driven or to take Empowered Action.

Andy succeeds. Fred does not.

Does Fred work at your Dealership?