Service Advisors: In here

[RedVenom48]

Ive been in the Automotive service industry for what seems like forever, though on the calendar it will be 14 Years this January. Been a technician in some capacity for 13.5 years. I like working with my hands, and working on my own cars and trucks is actually therapeutic. But Im starting to sense internally that I may be ready in a few years for a career change.

Ive lately been envisioning becoming a service writer, and it seems to me that a service writer at a Ford dealer, possibly a Ford dealer that has a commercial service division would be appealing.

Higher volume stores can support more work, but on the other side I can see why that would lower the amount per car one could make. Of course, Ive always focused on the technical pay aspect as thats how my paycheck works. I suppose the idea of CSI playing a part of my paycheck is a little disturbing. relying on techs your really have no control over being a part of the size of your paycheck seems scary lol.

What are the in's and out's of the typical service adviser pay plans? Whats a good pay plan? Whats a shit pay plan?

 

[03Sssnake]

@black99lightnin can probably give you the details

 

[Zemedici]

A few years of writing experience here, few years with parts as well.

Hours are long, longer than techs hours, and you'll be working weekends.

However, money is nice, and you work with your head vs working with your hands. Every single tech turned writer role I've seen was successful, as you know how to communicate with the techs most effectively.

You'll get to see what its like from the other side of the glass now

Go for it. You already know what the dealership life is like. Its as simple as taking care of people, and keeping it real with them.

Pay plans vary greatly dealer to dealer, but all of mine were small salary and large commission basis. Certain 'levels / goals' to hit : ELR , CSI , Parts Margin, etc.

 

[patc84]

i started as a tech, than moved to service writing. Its def longer hours and weekends, like stated above. It will easier for you to adapt based on having shop knowledge and communicating with the shop. The few things that made me leave the dealer industry. The mental abuse you incur from customers (screaming at you over stuff you have "0" control over), also your upper management (who really don't care about you, you are a number, that's it.), CSI surveys- can suck a fat ****(that can determine your pay/bonus/job security.)

Pay is good when you have a good week. just my few cents.

 

[SHOdown220]

This may be long winded but bare with me. I was a technician for small independent shops for several years as well as a honda tech for few years. I made the switch 5 years ago to writing. I've worked in 3 dealers as a writer since then, 2 honda stores and 1 ford store. Working for ford as a writer was the worst decision I've made in my career and I can't help but recommend against it. Granted, my dealer was probably most of my problem, but I also had several issues with the way ford ran their service side of things. They make it overly complicated for very basic things.

I'll give you an example, honda came out with an airbag recall that was several months away from parts being available. They offered customers rental cars for the time being. So the process was this: Write repair order and put customer in a rental with company of choice. Customer drives rental until parts are available. Return customer and complete repair, then close repair order and give sublet to rental agency. Ford did the exact same thing and offered customers a rental. My process was this: Write repair order and have customer sign waiver, put customer in rental. Fax signed waiver to yourself, email waiver and request approval from ford for rental. Wait 2 days for approval code. Have customer return rental every 2 weeks. Close repair order and give sublet to rental company. Open new repair order and repeat authorization process. This goes on every 2 weeks for 4 months until parts finally arrive. Honda total repair orders -1 with about 15 minutes of time invested. Ford total repair orders - 8 with about 45 minutes per repair order.

Again this may be dealer specific but my typical turn around time to have a customers repair completed with Honda is usually same day, unless parts are ordered then its next day. With ford it was 3-5 days for minor repairs. 4-6 weeks for big repairs. Also honda honestly treats their customers better and offers much more assitance in getting repairs covered than ford.

Each dealer is gonna be vastly different in how they do things, how they pay you etc etc. Find a good dealer and a good pay plan and you can make a lot of money and be happy doing it. CSE sucks big time. it really sucks to lose money because someone fills out a bad survey. That is honestly the worst part of the job and it can turn your day to shit real quick. You can't please everyone and you will get bad surveys, you just have to keep your head up and try to get enough good surveys to offset the bad ones.

As far as pay goes, the plans will be vastly different between dealers and you have to find one that makes sense to you. My first dealer payed us 4.5% on parts and labor, and .5% for every goal you hit for the month (goals being cse over 91, effective labor rate, dollars per ro and discount %). This means you could make for the month anywhere between 4.5%-6.5% of your total parts and labor sales. At my particular store a good advisor did 80-90k in sales, average was 60-70k. This was a high volume store but also 14 advisors to split the work between. With spiffs a good advisor made about 5.5-6k a month, with the top guys making roughly 7-7.5k

At ford we had a terrible pay plan, $3 per hour sold, plus $50 a day salary, plus .50 cent for ever hour other advisors sold. This equated to our top advisor selling 120k month making about 4500. Garbage pay plan.

My new store is extremely generous. Base pay is 7.5% with a 2.5% bonus if you sell over 70k and have CSE over 91. That means you can make 10% of total parts and labor sales. Average advisor sales 55-60k, good is 70-80k and top advisors selling around 100 or more. Our top advisor made 12k last month with spiffs.

Hope this helps

 

[AustinSN]

These guys are pretty spot on, but I will touch on what Josh said. I have seen bad advisors that were technicians, just because they couldn't deal with the customers screaming at them.

I remember one lady came in for a LOF and tire rotation, I asked her if she had her 60k done last time she was in and I was berated (loudly) on the drive, in front of 20 techs about how I couldn't do my job and look up her history from last time. She was a walk in-waiter... All I had was a clip-board in my hand. I had 2 techs come and tell me they are glad they are technicians because they can't deal with the verbal abuse. That lady was ****ed up though. She was well known throughout the dealership and I apparently handled it so well that she became my customer.

The CSI can be bullshit too. I lost out on $500 because this lady had come in for an oil change with a different advisor, they said they tested the battery (I found the RO, it wasn't tested), and the battery failed like 2 days later. So when I picked it up, I just so happened to get what should have technically been a come-back and she just so happened to get a survey too.

I can't remember our payment plan exactly. We had a $1000 base monthly, got a very small percentage of our total gross (included parts), as well as a percentage of our total work, and any lines added for rec'd work were an extra 2%.

The reason I left was for a better employment opportunity and I wanted less hours. They tell you it's only 55-65 hours per week but that's not always the case.

Most guys were knocking back $60-$90k. If you are willing to jump head first into it, BMW service writers make a lot of money. I have a buddy who manages a BMW service department out here and his top 4 advisors made over $150k last year.

 

[Double"O"]

I hope you get paid better than I did...the service writers including myself made 400 a week...no comission, nothing...400 a week...no bonus, nothin. Sucked ass.

Our service manager pulled 55k a year, and we were part of a 7 store automotive group.

I did actually like my job most times. But some of the customers demanded some crazy shit that I had no control over. I quit that job the day I started nursing school and the rest is history.

 

[1wild-horse]

**** that. You get b.s. from each end and make less. At least in my neck of the woods that's how it works. You can put me in that category as the guy who wouldn't be able to take a customer screaming at them about something on their car they can't begin to understand.

 

[03cobra#694]

i started as a tech, than moved to service writing. Its def longer hours and weekends, like stated above. It will easier for you to adapt based on having shop knowledge and communicating with the shop. The few things that made me leave the dealer industry. The mental abuse you incur from customers (screaming at you over stuff you have "0" control over), also your upper management (who really don't care about you, you are a number, that's it.), CSI surveys- can suck a fat ****(that can determine your pay/bonus/job security.)

Pay is good when you have a good week. just my few cents.

Don’t bypass the profanity filter. Say thank you.

 

[BigPoppa]

Well, you could look at opening your own small shop?

 

[SHOdown220]

**** that. You get b.s. from each end and make less. At least in my neck of the woods that's how it works. You can put me in that category as the guy who wouldn't be able to take a customer screaming at them about something on their car they can't begin to understand.

From my experience most of the writers make more than techs, well the good ones anyways. Only real exception was the diesel tech at the Ford dealer. But that's mostly because he ripped off every diesel customer that came through the shop all while sitting on his ass smoking while his hourly assistant did the work for him lol

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

Not to hijack but a related question. What qualifications are required for that job? I have been an estimator for 4 years and have written over 15k vehicles in that time. I cant really move on to your typical big name body shop because I dont have the credentials or time as an estimator. I think the average time I saw was 8 years they wanted. I worked in sort of a niche corner of the market.

 

[SHOdown220]

Not to hijack but a related question. What qualifications are required for that job? I have been an estimator for 4 years and have written over 15k vehicles in that time. I cant really move on to your typical big name body shop because I dont have the credentials or time as an estimator. I think the average time I saw was 8 years they wanted. I worked in sort of a niche corner of the market.

Not really any qualifications, more about related experience honestly. It's kind of a difficult job to get into without experience as most dealers want 2-3 years. Most dealers during the interview will want to see your previous sales numbers, Cse record, effective labor rate, number of repair orders, dollars per RO etc. I got lucky as I only had technician experience but a dealer gave me a chance and I got my foot in the door and proved myself.

 

[gmtech]

Tech to Service Manager here and I can tell you writers can make good money if they apply themselves. They do have to deal with shitty customers and I also apply pressure on them to perform. CSI is a joke IMO and I’ve lost several bonuses because of stupid peaople. Everybody wants it fast, free and on their terms.

 

[patc84]

Don’t bypass the profanity filter. Say thank you.

I wasnt trying to bypass and or know what that filter is/does. I didn't want to spell it out. my bad/.

 

[Mpoitrast87]

5 year service advisor here. 4 1\2 years with Nissan and 6 months with Honda. It CAN be a good job. If parts and the techs do their job correctly it can be smooth. But that almost never happens. One of our advisors was a tech for 15 years and a advisor for 7 months. He prefers this over being a tech. And he now understands the frustrations advisors go through with techs not doing what they need to do. But, Customer satisfaction is the worst thing to be created. It will make you or break you. Anything less than a perfect score is unacceptable to most dealers. It sucks because 90% of the questions have nothing to do with the advisor at all. Example: “how are the amenities in the waiting area”, “how friendly was the cashier?” “Was your car cleaner than when it came in?” all these questions effect you and only you and it’s your fault if it’s not a perfect score. What everyone said about money is pretty accurate. My dealer is 5.5% off gross parts and labor and goes up to 7% if I hit CSI bonus. Pay plans constantly get changed at a lot of dealers. The plan I’m on now is worse than what it was before I started from what I’m told. I’ve also heard ford is one of the worst companies to write service for. Not sure why. I feel like with all the fleet vehicles that come in you could make a killing.

 

[SHOdown220]

5 year service advisor here. 4 1\2 years with Nissan and 6 months with Honda. It CAN be a good job. If parts and the techs do their job correctly it can be smooth. But that almost never happens. One of our advisors was a tech for 15 years and a advisor for 7 months. He prefers this over being a tech. And he now understands the frustrations advisors go through with techs not doing what they need to do. But, Customer satisfaction is the worst thing to be created. It will make you or break you. Anything less than a perfect score is unacceptable to most dealers. It sucks because 90% of the questions have nothing to do with the advisor at all. Example: “how are the amenities in the waiting area”, “how friendly was the cashier?” “Was your car cleaner than when it came in?” all these questions effect you and only you and it’s your fault if it’s not a perfect score. What everyone said about money is pretty accurate. My dealer is 5.5% off gross parts and labor and goes up to 7% if I hit CSI bonus. Pay plans constantly get changed at a lot of dealers. The plan I’m on now is worse than what it was before I started from what I’m told. I’ve also heard ford is one of the worst companies to write service for. Not sure why. I feel like with all the fleet vehicles that come in you could make a killing.

My thinking was also a lot of fleet vehicles would make killer money but they purposely neutered our pay plan because of those big tickets. We didn't make anything off parts and only $3 per hour sold. So I could sell a $7000 diesel ticket but only make $15 off off it for example. Not to mention the extra work you have to do filing the claim with the fleet company and then getting payment. I work less hours and my work is 10X less stressful and I make twice the money since I left Ford. Not to mention having to tell customers parts wouldn't be available to fix their 1 month old cars for 6-8 weeks. Or the fact Ford stops making parts on cars usually around the 10 year old mark. I can get any part I need for any Honda but can't get parts for a 2008 mustang? Never again would I even consider working for Ford

 

[Zemedici]

My thinking was also a lot of fleet vehicles would make killer money but they purposely neutered our pay plan because of those big tickets. We didn't make anything off parts and only $3 per hour sold. So I could sell a $7000 diesel ticket but only make $15 off off it for example. Not to mention the extra work you have to do filing the claim with the fleet company and then getting payment. I work less hours and my work is 10X less stressful and I make twice the money since I left Ford. Not to mention having to tell customers parts wouldn't be available to fix their 1 month old cars for 6-8 weeks. Or the fact Ford stops making parts on cars usually around the 10 year old mark. I can get any part I need for any Honda but can't get parts for a 2008 mustang? Never again would I even consider working for Ford

The dealership you worked at seemed like a joke compensation wise. My brother's a writer at a dealer I worked at, and he was a tech at the other dealership I wrote at.

We both made good money at both spots.

 

[Mpoitrast87]

My thinking was also a lot of fleet vehicles would make killer money but they purposely neutered our pay plan because of those big tickets. We didn't make anything off parts and only $3 per hour sold. So I could sell a $7000 diesel ticket but only make $15 off off it for example. Not to mention the extra work you have to do filing the claim with the fleet company and then getting payment. I work less hours and my work is 10X less stressful and I make twice the money since I left Ford. Not to mention having to tell customers parts wouldn't be available to fix their 1 month old cars for 6-8 weeks. Or the fact Ford stops making parts on cars usually around the 10 year old mark. I can get any part I need for any Honda but can't get parts for a 2008 mustang? Never again would I even consider working for Ford

That’s the other thing that drives me nuts. The second the dealer sees you making a lot of money they change the pay plan so you make less. Like wtf? The only reason we work is to make as much money as possible.

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

Sort of funny that after reading this thread I was on Craigslist looking at job postings and found a service writer job for a smaller shop where the owner sounds desparate to get someone in their. I sent him my resume and he replied quickly interested in bringing me on so Im going to meet him today to talk. Looked up the shop and it is small but legit and nice and been in business for 25 years. The guy is offering pay between $1200-1500 per week! That is way more than I was making before and hours are likely less demanding.