If you decide to become an automotive service advisor, you will have access to a wide range of job opportunities. For example, you might find work in an independent garage, or perhaps even a prominent car dealership. Wherever you decide to work, your role will ensure that you are the first point of contact for customers when they come in for auto maintenance and repairs.
As a service advisor, you’ll be the person consulting with customers on any work their car needs, and relaying information back and forth between them and the service technicians who will perform the repairs. You’ll be putting together estimates, informing customers about warrantees and giving them other recommendations that might apply to their vehicles.
Since you’ll be greeting and speaking with customers on a daily basis, it’s important to consider ways that you can help make these interactions as successful as possible. Read on for a few tips that will boost your automotive service advisor career.
1. An Automotive Service Advisor Must Have Great Communication Skills
By the time that you’re finished your service advisor training, you’ll develop some pretty detailed automotive knowledge. A good service advisor will have a general idea of what might be wrong with a vehicle by listening closely when customers describe their car trouble. After speaking with customers, the service advisor will inspect the vehicle and speak with the technician about the specific repairs that might be needed.
With strong communication skills, you’ll be able to listen and speak to customers in a way that they’ll understand, and you’ll also be able to effectively transmit important information to a mechanic in the technical terms he or she will understand. Not all customers understand technical automotive terms, and your ability to pinpoint issues based on their descriptions is one of the ways that you can deliver great customer service.
2. A Certified Automotive Service Advisor Stays Current on Auto Trends
The automotive industry is always evolving. In fact, the features and specs found on a particular vehicle model can change every couple of years. In order to provide confident customer service, it’s important to continuously learn about fuel efficiency, safety, infotainment systems, and anything else that affects what goes into building today’s vehicles. By staying on top of new auto technology trends, you’ll be able to diagnose your clients’ car issues much more confidently.
Reading automotive news and following trends will also keep you informed on any manufacturer recalls that occur. If you work at a location that handles recall repairs, you’ll be able to better inform customers and help them save money on repairs for parts that have been recalled.
3. A Good Automotive Service Advisor Is Always Empathetic
In an automotive service advisor position, having empathy means understanding that customers aren’t always in the best mood when they head to a garage or dealership to get their cars fixed. Experts know that after a certain amount of time on the road, car parts tend to work less effectively, or perhaps break altogether. Although this is a well-known fact to auto industry professionals, clients who rely heavily on their cars in order to get around can become stressed at the thought of having repairs done.
By making an effort to be patient with each and every client, and delivering high-quality service no matter how frustrated the customer may seem, you will show them that their car is in good and efficient hands.
Are you ready to kick start your service advisor career by receiving hands-on training at a state-of-the-art institution?
Visit CATI for program details, or to speak with an advisor.
