listening skills not needed anymore

[Brad Clayton]

It amazes me how much information can be lost from the customer to the service advisor to the RO to the tech. I have been thinking about calling all of my customers that aren't waiters, with the following scenario just to see what they really came in for and compare it to whats written on the RO.

 

"Good morning Mr. Smith, we are performing a quality control check on our dealership guidlines. I see you dropped your vehicle off this morning. To help us achieve the highest quality work standard possible on your visit today, may I ask the nature of your service and or concern with your vehicle?"

 

I would probably be floored by the inconsistencys between the customers comments and what actually made it onto print.

 

But this is every where nowadays. I went to eat tonight and ordered a cheeseburger club. The waitress came back over and asked me if I wanted cheese on it. Uhhhhhh........hmmmmmm, well yea I want a CHEESEburger club. Then she says it normally doesn't come with cheese on it. Well I guess that would be a hamburger club uh? So I ended up ordering a hambuger club and asked for cheese on it as well. I had to because her brain started to lock up and I figured it was the only way I would get my meal.

[Jim Warman]

"I'd like a coffee... without cream, please..."

 

I'm sorry sir, we're out of cream... you'll have to have it without milk..."

[mchan68]

"I'd like a coffee... without cream, please..."

 

I'm sorry sir, we're out of cream... you'll have to have it without milk..."

Luckily, I take my coffee STRAIGHT black (no cream, no sugar, no ANYTHING), so I don't have those problems.

[Keith Browning]

I can't sit in front of my service advisors when they call a customer. Sometimes they mince an explanation they were given mere seconds before they picked up the telephone. I try, with the best of intentions, to explain things in a mannor they and the customer can easily understand. I try, with the bst of my ability, to teach or show them how something works...

[Fredsvt]

I call it selective hearing/viewing.

 

I can be standing behind my boss as he's talking to a customer and he hears something completely different than what the customer is saying.

 

Then when you bring up a car/truck that's been looked at and give him the list of stuff you find, he'll selectively tell the customer what's wrong.

He only picks stuff that he thinks they'll do, even if there's some very important stuff to do or worse, if the repairs needed that he glances over make the vehicle unsafe or not worth repairing.

 

Sometimes as he's explaining to the customer what's wrong, what he tells them just makes me speechless. The idiocy and ignorance of basic concepts just reinforces my belief in where he should have kept working.

[Jim Warman]

The problem with the info (or lack of it) on an RO has been around since the SA at "Ogggs Igneous Wheel Company" chiselled "#00001" in the top corner of a stone tablet... And it has defied each and every attempted cure.

 

First thing in the AM, SAs can be a harried lot... knee deep in customers (customers that INSIST that the tech "can't miss the concern") that wont offer enough info, despite every effort at coercion.

 

SAs are no more than their title implies - some are, for various reasons, better than others - but they lack the familiarity that we share with these vehicles... But is that their fault? If they became as familiar as we are with the mechanics of being a mechanic, they would no longer be service advisers.... they'd be working in the bay next to us.

 

Customers... if I could actually talk to a customer by dialing the contact number he left, I might be surprised. Even in this day of cell phones, calling a customers contact number might make the horn on his truck honk.... Go figure.

 

Interpretation.... the human animal is NOT a good interpretor... no way - no how. Being offered too much info is no better than being offered insufficient info. Our brains will put a "spin" on everything it hears. And, since the English language has to be one of the most ambiguous on the planet, the spin will usually lead us away from the truth rather than closer to it. (if you don't believe that, please explain "wind, wind, whined, wined" and "ware, wear, where" to me).

 

So... what can we do to ameliorate this ever present problem? We may have to do something distasteful - like talk to a customer. Or go for a drive with him/her... this "personalization" will set us apart from other shops and add to our "curb appeal". Any little thing we can do to make ourselves look better to the customer is not a bad thing.

 

Lastly... each and every one of us works on a different level of comprehension... from using primarily single syllable words to trotting out a whole bevy of $5.00 bombshells... attempts to focus on a specific meaning for a phrase may create a certain amount of obfuscation as the listener reaches for his "Funk & Wagnalls".

 

OK... Now that you've hung on for this long.... What I was trying to say is that the problem has been around since the beginning of time. For the most part, we can deal with it on a daily basis... sometimes, though, we will need to take extrordinary steps (talk directly to the "patient") to deliver an effective and timely repair. This is where the professionals can separate themselves from the gresae monkeys....

[BrunoWilimek]

Originally Posted By: Jim Warman

"I'd like a coffee... without cream, please..."

 

I'm sorry sir, we're out of cream... you'll have to have it without milk..."

Luckily, I take my coffee STRAIGHT black (no cream, no sugar, no ANYTHING), so I don't have those problems.

I went through the drive thru at Tim Horton's once and ordered a tea with 3 teaspoons of sugar, no milk. I waited for it to cool down a little before drinking it several miles away and what did I get? A tea with no sugar and lots of milk. Yuk! I agree that it is sometimes a stretch from what the customer said and what gets written down, but sometimes it is the customer who is speaking a different language from us AND the SW. One man's squeak is another man's creak/rattle or something completely different. I agree that sometimes talking to the customer is necessary, but then again, not always. Good communication all around is the best, but seems to be in short supply some days.

[Brad Clayton]

I went to Dunkin Donuts yesterday, because America runs on DD, and ordered three donuts. Conversation goes like this:

 

"Good morning"

"Morning, I would like three donuts, please"

"Three dozen donuts"?

I chuckle lightly and reply,"no, three donuts please"

again he says "three dozen donuts"?

Now I'm getting a little put off, "no, THREE donuts, please"

"Ok sir, which ones would you like"?

 

I know I am dealing with a complete fucking idiot now, so I carefully and in plain English, call out each donut. This guy reaches for the wrong one everytime and I gotta correct him all 3 friggin' times!

 

So last but not least, I ask for an orange juice. I can't see the labels behind the counter. I ask what my options are <oh, boy>. He says "no pulp, calcium, low pulp".

"I'll have a NO pulp please"

What's he bring over? The one with friggin' pulp in it!!!!

 

Anybody ever been in a DD, in a long line, and listened to the crazy assed custom order of coffees being called out? I feel for them as they deal with this fellow. I mean all I wanted was three simple donuts.

 

I put the blame on the manager, truly, if the manager had a clue, then this fellow behind the counter would be out back picking up ciggarette butts in the parking lot.

[Aaron]

Somethin' to be said about part time employment.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bME2ld1pko0

[Clark]

My foreman is terrible at listening to customers. The last one I remember was a truck came in for low power. The customer says along with his concern, "You know, it HAS been awhile since I had the fuel filters changed, it could be that". So now a low power concern gets written up as "Line A: service fuel filters". And I get bitched out the next day when the truck comes back with 'the same' low power complaint.

 

I knew what the customer said because I spoke with him when he came back.

[Aaron]

Those are my favorite.

 

"Customer requests part x be replaced."

 

Replace part, and punt it outside. Customer comes back bitching that his concern isn't fixed.

 

Hey, pal, it says YOU wanted THIS part changed, and that's what I did.

[Jim Warman]

Aaron and Clark... these are the kinds of things that have been around since the first wheel rolled through AlleyOops fastlane - only now it's on steroids...

 

Clarks shop foreman is just one of how many people that go through motions in between paydays.... "This is the amount of effort it takes to keep me employed.... this is as far as I go....".

 

Aarons customer has been around for many, many years.... he was always smarter than the rest of us because he read HotRod magazine and he could identify more than 12 parts under the hood of the car (oddly, it is the same 12 parts that are no longer present under the hood of a modern car). Today he has the internet and all of them experts over in the monkeyhouse told him what the problem is - obviously the parts he wanted replaced were not installed coorectly and that is why his concern wasn't fixed.

 

But - let's digress... let's get back to the thrust of this thread... Communication.... That line on the work order needs to convey what can be a lot of info... It needs to describe the customer concern... it needs to help us rtecreate the customer concern and it needs to give us some assurance that we are, all of us, on the same page. That can be a tall order given the amount of "condensation" sometimes required...

 

Sadly, we can have shop meeting after shop meeting and this is one of the things that will be mentioned at each and every meeting - and nothing will ever change.

 

OK... let's not get maudlin....

 

So we have agreed that the RO in our hot little hand doesn't have enough info.... Are we going to waste a bunch of our time trying to decide what it is that the customer meant and the SA is having trouble describing? (And, realizing that most techs would rather avoid customer contact)... If you don't have enough info - go tell your SA... Make a punch - write it up as what you are doing - IF WE ARE TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM WE MUST DO THOSE THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE THE SYSTEM!!!!

 

Years ago I was a cub leader... even before my some was born, I was, at one time, coerced into helping to mold these young minds... We would arrange the lads in a circle and whisper something like "There is a stack of firewood by the gate - bring back six pieces" to the first boy. He, in turn, would whisper the message to the next and so on....

 

What the first kid heard is not what he repeated.... what that kid repeated was NOT what he heard.... Like the commercial said "and they'll tell two friends - and they'll....".

 

Loss of communication has been around for a long, long time... modern society is turning it into an art-form....

[Aaron]

My current favorite is when they just leave the heading for the job - no other information.

 

"CHECK ENGINE LIGHT TROUBLES"

"POWER WINDOW TROUBLES"

"POWER LOCK TROUBLES"

"ENGINE NOISE TROUBLES"

 

Gee, thanks guys!

[mchan68]

My current favorite is when they just leave the heading for the job - no other information.

 

"CHECK ENGINE LIGHT TROUBLES"

"POWER WINDOW TROUBLES"

"POWER LOCK TROUBLES"

"ENGINE NOISE TROUBLES"

 

Gee, thanks guys!

LOL be grateful you even have that. Our one resident advisor likes to write up work orders under the heading "Diesel Repairs" even when there's absolutely NOTHING to do with diesel engine driveability!!!! And then in the complaint field, there's NOTHING even written, just my number preassigned to the RO.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted By: Aaron

My current favorite is when they just leave the heading for the job - no other information.

 

"CHECK ENGINE LIGHT TROUBLES"

"POWER WINDOW TROUBLES"

"POWER LOCK TROUBLES"

"ENGINE NOISE TROUBLES"

 

Gee, thanks guys!

LOL be grateful you even have that. Our one resident advisor likes to write up work orders under the heading "Diesel Repairs" even when there's absolutely NOTHING to do with diesel engine driveability!!!! And then in the complaint field, there's NOTHING even written, just my number preassigned to the RO.

Been there, too, Mike.

 

Diesel repair and it's "Power windows don't work."

[Jim Warman]

Try this then..... if you get an RO and it says something like "check differential", your biggest decision should be what colour paint stick to use when you put the check mark on....

 

BTW..... you may expect to get in some sort of trouble for your efforts......

[Aaron]

HAH!

 

Or write it on the QC550 and Check it as green. LOL.

[mchan68]

HAH!

 

Or write it on the QC550 and Check it as green. LOL.

I don't even know why we even bother having QC550s, given that most techs (at my store) either check them off all greens, or don't bother checking them at all. Case in point. Even FWD or RWD vehicles get the transfer case fluid level checked GREEN, or CV boots on RWD vehicles. Or the hood light checked off on vehicles not equipped.

[Aaron]

I like having to fill one out for free on every vehicle that rolls through my bay.

 

Most of the time the advisor doesn't even bother to mention the fucking defects that are noted to the customer.

[Jim Warman]

Something that has gained me several customers over the years.... "By the way, ya know your spare was flat too, yeah?". Some of the simplest, littlest things....

[Aaron]

We have an advisor or two that you could tell 'em the car has 3 flat tires, and they'd neglect to mention it to the customer.

[Keith Browning]

Man! We sell a lot of work off of those and sometimes customers come back knowing they need something. Imagine that would ya? What kills me is that our management PAYS US .3 to perform them and there is always someone who still can't muster the effort to do it correctly. It amazes me!

[LARRY BRUDZYNSKI]

But if done correctly "Should" be a sales tool and a good indicator of the vehicles condition. If said vehicle needs a widget and a thingamijig. Which one is needed now and which one could wait until the next service. These are the tools that are misused and lack potential to make/keep customers. It kills me because most shops are flat rate and not only does the tech make money from upsells so does the S/A's. I guess they make enough money......Only my

[Aaron]

I had one that needed something, forget what it was, but it was circled in red pen, highlighted, etc, etc. There was NO missing it on the sheet. Guy gets his workorder and keys, leaves. Comes over to me and shows me the qc-550, and asks me what all the circling in red is all about.

 

 

All I could do was shake my head.

[Jim Warman]

Like Larry says... this is a sales tool... Every red circle on the QC550 should equal another entry on an estimate pad.

 

Look at it this way - why look to see if your customer has an "itch" if you aren't going to offer to "scratch" it...

 

It makes no sense to tell someone "your interocetor is broken..." and then walk away... <SUGGEST> the repair..... <MAKE> the sale or have someone make the sale for you... I thought that this was how we made our living?!?!?!