The Fastest Way To Increase Your Pay

The Fastest Way To Increase Your Pay

By

Eric M. Twiggs

 “So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key” The Eagles

It was the year 2000 and “Andrew” was working as a part time pizza delivery person in Naples Florida. Every other Friday, he would deliver a lunch time order to Auto Europa, the local auto repair facility.  Over time, Andrew and “Scott”, the shop owner, became friends. 

One fateful Friday, Scott was summonsed to appear in court and had to leave the shop. He noticed that this particular Friday was his busiest Friday ever. 

(By the way, how do your customers know to show up when you’re the most shorthanded?)  When Andrew arrived with his typical pizza order, Scott greeted him with an unusual request.

“Andrew, I have to leave right now!  Can you answer the phones for the next few hours while I’m gone? I’ll give you a free oil change for helping me out.” To which Andrew replied: “Sure Scott no problem.  I’ll do my best.”

Later that day Scott returned to the shop expecting the worst.  What he found caught him by surprise.  Andrew had scheduled three appointments for the following week and converted one of the incoming calls into a $1,500 sale!  Scott was so impressed that he hired Andrew to be his full time service advisor.   

Andrew was promoted from part time pizza delivery to full time service writing. By doing a great job on the phones, Andrew found a way to increase his pay!  

There are two lessons that can be learned from this story:  1. Remember to ask your local pizza delivery person if he’s ever considered a career in automotive.   2. Being great over the phone is the fastest way to increase your pay!  

Today we will focus on being great over the phones!  Stay on the line and you will learn the two keys to increasing your pay. 

Understand The Math

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that according to a recent Experian Automotive report, 68% of all customers call an automotive repair facility first before visiting. 

The bad news is that based on the results of the random phone shops conducted by Randy Somers in his service advisor classes, only 4% of the service advisors offer to make the customer an appointment.

To put this math in perspective, for every 100 advisors in North America, only 4 are answering the phones correctly. (4/100=4%) 

If you understand the math, you will see that being great on the phone can give you a competitive advantage, and increase your pay.  Let’s suppose you have a $450 ARO and by following the ATI phone script, you invite one additional customer per day to your shop. 

That would work out to $2,250 per week of additional revenue ($450 X 5) and over the course of 52 weeks, you would pick up $117,000. ($2,250 x 52) Understanding the math will inspire you to improve your focus on the phones, and ultimately increase your pay. 

Record and Review Your Calls

In his best-selling book Outliers, The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell addresses the following question: “What separates the top performers from the rest of the pack?”  Through his research, Gladwell discovered that the top performers in any arena engage in “deliberate practice.”

Deliberate practice is when you perform a task, get feedback on what you did wrong, and then perform the task again the correct way.  He concludes that consistent deliberate practice is required to become a world class performer.

Are you a world class performer when it comes to the phones?  Recording and reviewing your calls can move you in that direction.  Listening to how your service advisor is executing the script and then providing corrective feedback is the key.

It’s a bad thing to be a part of the 96% of shops in North America that aren’t inviting the customers to visit.  It’s even worse to be in this group, and not know that you’re in this group!  Recording and reviewing your calls will solve this problem, and put you on the path to becoming world class. 

Summary

So, whatever became of Andrew the pizza guy?  Today Andrew Farrar is the Owner of Auto Europa in Naples Florida.  His focus on answering the phones correctly, changed the trajectory of his career!  Once you understand the math, and record and review your calls, you can increase your slice of the pie as well! 

Sincerely,

Eric M. Twiggs

The Accountability Coach

www.autotraining.net

PS. Email etwiggs@autotraining.net to receive a recording of what a great phone call sounds like!