Service advisors are the people at the shop who talk to you about your car and help set up service. In this episode, they’re being told to focus on getting you scheduled.
Unmet expectations are when customers believe the repair process will happen a certain way (timing, communication, outcomes) but the shop’s reality differs. The host argues this usually happens because the shop didn’t clearly explain the process up front.
This means car repairs don’t always follow a perfect schedule. Things like extra problems, parts arriving late, or multiple cars being worked on can shift the timeline.
Diagnostic vehicles are cars the shop is checking to figure out the problem. That troubleshooting time can take away from other cars waiting to be repaired.
The check-in process is what happens when you arrive—usually you tell the advisor what’s going on, and they get your car and paperwork started.
Term
service order
A service order is the paperwork the shop uses to document what you want done and what they plan to do. It helps the advisor track the job and communicate clearly.
This is a specific auto shop location the host talks about. They explain how changing the parking and check-in flow helps customers and technicians stay organized.
Here, “parking lot” isn’t just where cars sit—it’s where the shop controls the order of arrivals. The goal is to keep cars from being parked randomly so check-in is smoother.
The host’s point is that how the shop runs its steps matters. If the process is organized, customers and technicians waste less time and things go smoother.
A staging area is a specific spot where the shop puts cars after they’re checked in. It helps the technicians find the right car quickly instead of searching around.
Key tags are little labels on the car keys that tell the shop what to do next. The episode explains that different colors mean different statuses so cars don’t get mixed up.
“Waiting” here means the customer is still at the shop while their car is being handled. The shop uses a tag system so the car gets returned to the right place when it’s ready.
Term
backed in
“Backed in” means the car is parked in reverse into a space. The shop sets it up so the customer can drive out easily when their car is ready.
LIVE
This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.
It's your weekly Blitz with Chris keeping you in the game.
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the weekly Blitz, the podcast that helps
automotive repair shop owners build more profitable shops, stronger teams and
better lives. I'm your host, Coach Chris Cotton, owner of AutoFix AutoShop
Coaching. If this is your first time listening, thanks for joining us.
If you've been here with us for a while, welcome back. Today, we're talking
about something that sounds incredibly simple, but I can almost guarantee
it's costing your shop thousands of dollars every single month. It's the
telephone. It's not your website. It's not Google. It's not your labor rate.
It's not your parts margins. It's the phone. Specifically, it's what your
service advisors believe their job is when they answer it. Because after
listening to thousands of recorded phone calls over the years, I've learned
a thing or two. Most service advisors think they're supposed to answer
questions. They're wrong. The phone call has one objective. And so let's start
with this biggest mind shift. When I'm coaching shops, one of the first
things we implement is weekly phone call reviews. Every week, no exceptions. I
don't care if you listen to five calls. I don't care if you listen to 50, but
somebody, whether it's you, your manager or your coach, needs to be listening.
And here's how we score those calls. It's either pass or it's fail. There
isn't a 93%. There isn't a, well, they did pretty good. It is pass or fail
because there's only one question that matters. Did we secure the appointment?
That's it. Not did we answer every technical question. Not did we sound
nice. Not did the customer compliment us. Did we get the appointment? If the
answer is no, then it's a massive failure. And I know that sounds harsh, but
let's think about it. Imagine you're playing football. You move the ball
99 yards. The hardest part of marketing is getting the yes on the phone. And
that's where most of us screw it up. Anyway, you move the ball 99 yards. The
crowd's cheering. Everything looks great. And then you fumble on the one yard
line. Did you score? Nope, you did not score. So the same thing happens on
every phone call every day. The advisor gives great information. They explain
everything perfectly. They answer every question, then hangs up and says, well,
give us a call if you decide, right? No, you did not do your job. One thing I've
learned through listening to the phone calls. A lot of times we just forget to
ask for the appointment. You know, I had to take a hard look in the mirror
recently, actually coaching Piper through it. About 30% of the time we just
never asked for the appointment. And it's something that I've coached them to
do. It's something that I've told them to do something that I've asked them to
do. You know, I kind of got busy, didn't listen to a couple of phone calls for a
couple of weeks. And then boom, we stopped asking for the appointment. Next, I
want you to stop being an information desk. One of the biggest mistakes
service advisors make is they believe customers are calling for information.
They are not. They're calling because they have a problem and people with
problems need someone to guide them. Your advisor isn't a receptionist. They're
not Google. They're not chat GPT. They are a guide. They're taking somebody who's
frustrated and leading them towards a solution. That means taking control of
the conversation, not dominating it, but leading it. And I think there's a huge
difference. Think about going to the doctor. Imagine you tell the doctor your
symptoms and they say, well, what do you think we should do? That would be
ridiculous. Customers want leadership. They're actually relieved when someone
confidently says, here's what we're going to do. And that's exactly how a
service advisor should sound. What I want you to do is I want you to train your
people to guide the customer through the process. The phone conversation should
feel like someone leading you through an airport. Every step is obvious. Every
expectation is clear. There shouldn't be confusion. guessing.
The advisor should naturally guide them. Something like, Hey, perfect. Let's
get you scheduled. What day works best. What time works best. Excellent. When
you arrive, here's where your park. Here's what happens next. We'll check the
vehicle in. We'll perform our inspection. We'll contact you before any repairs are
made. Notice what's happening. The customer is simply following directions.
That's it. And you're leading them. This is leadership. Hey, everybody, before
we get back to the episode, I want to thank our friends over at Shop Marketing
Pros for sponsoring the weekly Blitz. You know, one of the biggest mistakes I see
shop owners make is spending thousands of dollars to get the phone to ring and
then losing the opportunity because nobody has trained the person answering
it. That's you. Think about it. Great marketing doesn't stop when someone lands
on your website or finds you on Google. Great marketing continues the moment
your service advisor says, Good morning. Thanks for calling. That's why I always
say your service advisor is one of the most important members of your marketing
team. Every phone call is a chance to earn a customer or lose one. The team at
Shop Marketing Pros understands that better than anybody in the business,
they specialize in helping independent auto repair shops generate more of the
right phone calls through professionally designed websites, local SEO, Google
business profile optimization, digital advertising, social media and content
that actually converts visitors into customers. If you're investing in
marketing, make sure you're partnering with people who understand this
industry and know how to keep your base full. I want you to go right now, visit
shopmarketingpros.com and learn more about how they can help your shop
attract more of the customers you actually want. The biggest thing that
your service advisors do is set every expectation up front. One of the biggest
frustration customers has is unmet expectations. And that's usually
because we never gave them any expectations to begin with. Most of that
is self-inflicted. We simply fail to explain the process. And so here's
something every advisor needs to communicate. Your appointment time is
not the time your car goes into the shop. I want you to listen to me say
that again. The appointment time is not the time your car goes into the shop.
No waiters for dyags, etc., etc. Your appointment time is the arrival time.
It's your booking time to spend with the service advisor to check your
vehicle into the process. Customers think auto repair works like getting a
haircut. I have a 10 o'clock appointment, so my car starts at 10. That's not
even close to reality. Auto repair is fluid. Every technician is working on
multiple vehicles. Repairs uncover additional repairs. Parts arrive late.
Parts are wrong. Parts are crap quality. Warranty companies delay
approvals. Customers show up early. late. Customers don't
show up at all. Tow trucks appear unexpectedly. Diagnostic vehicles become
major repairs. Nothing in our business happens exactly on schedule, except
for the arrival appointment with the service advisor. That's normal. So
explain it. Mrs. Jones, your appointment is your arrival time. That's when we'll
greet you, perform the check-in process, gather your concerns, inspect the
vehicle, and get it into our workflow. Customers appreciate honesty. Surprises
create frustration. Expectations create confidence. And if you set those
expectations up front on the phone before they come in, now you also have
to reinforce those expectations at every step because what happens? Customer
blinks and they forgot everything you told them. In our industry, we need to
tell people this time is just your arrival time. Next, I want you to think
about the arrival because arrival matters more than you think. Recently, we
made wholesale changes at Firestone of Durango on the arrival. We completely
redid our parking lot. We chained it off so customers couldn't just park or
drive through it randomly. And we created dedicated customer arrival spaces
right in front of our entrance. Why? Because process matters. Now when
customers arrive, we already know exactly where the vehicle is. We greet
them. We complete the check-in. We can get the photos taken, get the mileage,
verify concerns, review authorizations. And then this is what happens next. The
vehicle moves directly into the bay or into our staging area. No digging around
the parking lot. No walking around in the rain. No wondering whose car is whose.
No wasted technician time. Simple systems remove chaos. The other thing we did is
we have two key tags that we use on our customer's vehicle. Green is waiting and
that car needs to be returned to the front of the shop. Backed in when we say
so. That way the customer can leave and pull straight out. The ones with the red
tags are not waiters. And then those cars go back into the parking area around
the side. Here's the key. Customers only use those spaces if you tell them.
Firestone of Durango has been around for 40 years. People are used to parking
willy-nilly. They're still doing it. It's probably going to take us a year to
get this process taken care of. But we just have to educate them. But the other
thing is when they make their appointment, we got to tell them. All right.
Customers only use those spaces if you tell them. And that's why when you arrive,
please park in one of our customer arrival spaces directly in front of the
building. Simple, clear, professional. All of this takes me into scheduling just
a little bit. Scheduling isn't math. It's probability. All right. I want you to
think about that. Scheduling isn't math. It's probability. So let's talk about
something that drives me crazy as a shop owner. No shows. Drives me bonkers. And
here's the reality. Every shop has patterns. Maybe your shop averages two
cancellations a day. Maybe three, maybe one. If you go back and look at the
history, track it. Know your numbers. Because once you know the average, you
can schedule accordingly. Let's say your shop needs 15 cars per day to hit the
budget. But historically, two appointments per day don't show. What
should you schedule? 15? Absolutely not. You should schedule 18, maybe 20,
because you're scheduling reality, not fantasy. Airlines figured this out
decades ago. Hotels figured this out. Restaurants They
understand human behavior. Shop owners often don't. Stop building your
schedule around perfection because nothing we do is perfect. You need to
build it around history, the data that already knows the
answer. All right, if you track it and measure it, you can fix it. Let's get
back to it. The phone call is the first sales process, right? And here's
something I want every owner listening to remember. The sale doesn't start
with the estimate. It starts with good morning or it starts however you
answer the phone. We had to completely switch our phone call answering
process because, unfortunately, there's a Firestone Complete Car Care, which is
a corporate-owned store. All the ones that have that name is a corporate-owned
store on Durango Road in Las Vegas, Nevada. So we would get phone calls from
people in Las Vegas, Nevada saying, hey, is my break job done? Where's my car?
Where's this? Unfortunately, we get bad Google reviews for that place that I
can't get taken around because Google sucks. Yeah, I said it. The robots won't
let you take down reviews from other businesses that end up on yours. So what
we did, the process is, thank you for calling Firestone of Durango, Colorado.
How can I help you today? Or my name's Chris. How can I help you today?
Because we'd get five minutes into a phone call when we're looking for cars
and be like, hey, sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Customer. Don't mean to sound stupid,
but we can't find your car and we have no record of you. So if you say
Durango, Colorado upfront, then the customer goes, Colorado, I meant to
call Las Vegas, Nevada. Think about how you answered the phone. Think about how
that works in your process. So anyway, the phone call is the first sales
process and it's where the trust begins. Confidence begins, professionalism
begins, expectations begin. If advisors can't confidently schedule an appointment,
don't expect them to confidently present a $3,500 estimate later, right?
Everything builds from that first interaction. That's why I tell clients
all the time, stop listening only for friendliness. Listen for leadership.
Did they guide? Did they assume the appointment? Did they confidently
explain the process? Did they remove uncertainty? Did they ask for the
business? These are all coaching moments and they're worth listening to every
single week, all right? I'm going to talk about this a little bit further next
week on how to coach your service advisors through this and how to coach
and teach them, all right? So if you take only one thing away from today's
episode, I want it to be this, the purpose of answering the phone is not to
answer questions. It's to gain slash earn the appointment. Everything else
supports that objective. Coach your advisors, listen to calls, score them
pass or fail, guide the customer, set expectations and explain the process
from start to end. And remember, customers aren't looking for someone to
simply answer the phone. They're looking for someone they can trust to solve a
problem. I want you to become that shop. I want you to become that advisor and
I promise you'll see your closing ratio improve, your schedule becomes more
predictable and your customers arrive with confidence instead of confusion.
Thanks for listening to another episode of the weekly Blitz. Today's episode was
helpful. I want you to share it with another shop owner or service advisor who
needs to hear it. And if you're ready to build a shop that's more profitable,
more organized and less stressful to own, we'd love to help. I want you to go
to autoshopcoaching.com to learn more about autofix autoshop coaching. Until
next time, keep learning, keep leading and keep fixing the things that matter
most and always remember, rise and grind everybody. Have a great day.
About this episode
Phone calls in auto repair aren’t about answering questions—they’re about earning the appointment. Chris Cotton argues service advisors should treat the call like a guided process, not an information desk, and coach them by listening to recordings and scoring each call pass/fail based on one outcome: “Did we secure the appointment?” He also reframes appointment time as arrival/check-in, since “Auto repair is fluid,” and shares how Firestone of Durango redesigned arrival and key-tag flow to reduce confusion and wasted time.
Most service advisors think their job on the phone is to answer questions.
They're wrong.
In this episode, Coach Chris Cotton explains why the only objective of every incoming phone call is to secure the appointment and how that one mindset shift can dramatically improve your closing ratio, increase car count, and create a better customer experience.
Chris dives into why shop owners should be listening to phone calls every week, how to score calls using a simple pass/fail system, and why service advisors must confidently guide customers through the scheduling process instead of simply providing information.
You'll also learn why appointment times don't mean what customers think they mean, how to properly set expectations before a customer arrives, and why successful shops intentionally overbook based on historical no-show rates.
If you want more cars showing up, fewer scheduling headaches, and service advisors who sound like trusted professionals, this episode is for you.
In This Episode
✔ Why every phone call should be scored Pass or Fail
✔ The only purpose of answering the phone
✔ Why service advisors should lead—not simply answer questions
✔ Setting expectations before customers arrive
✔ Why appointment times are actually arrival times
✔ Creating a smooth customer check-in process
✔ Scheduling based on probabilities instead of hope
✔ Why your phone process is actually part of your marketing
Key Takeaways
"The purpose of answering the phone isn't to answer questions. It's to secure the appointment."
"Customers don't need another information desk. They need someone willing to guide them."
"Every phone call is a sales opportunity long before an estimate is ever written."
"Appointment time isn't when the repair starts. It's when the relationship starts."
"Don't schedule perfection. Schedule reality."
Memorable Quotes
"If the appointment wasn't scheduled, the phone call failed."
"The best service advisors don't wait for customers to lead—they confidently guide them."
"Your service advisor is one of the most important salespeople in your business."
"Hope is not a scheduling strategy."
The Weekly Blitz is brought to you by our friends over at Shop Marketing Pros. If you want to take your shop to the next level, you need great marketing. Shop Marketing Pros does top-tier marketing for top-tier shops.
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