Service manager help

Well I'll be starting my new job next week. Going from a level 1 mechanic to the hot seat of the service manager position. Could use some advice key tips. Anything you have learned over the years to help keep everything rolling in a positive direction. It's a new company to me. I'm learning what I can about the equipment line. Have been working on key questions to have answered while talking with customers on the phone. Been practicing deep breathing exercises to increase my patience. I'm older and have watched customer service go completely out the window over the past 20 years. My key will be to provide the best customer service possible because the lack of decent customer service everywhere I go drives me up the wall.

So what key tips do you have fro the new service manager with only a ton of mechanical and computer skills?

All I can suggest, have a full bottle of patience pill at hand. In the interest of getting the customer up and going again when they're in a jam, offer alternative repairs until the correct fix can be done. Sometimes thinking outside the box is good! It depends whether the breakdown was self inflicted.

Just remember to blame every thing on the mechanics (;

Make sure to listen to customers there is so much information that gets lost up front that never gets to the mechanic and hence causes the job to be harder and the original complaint not taken care of don't be afraid to say "hold on or slow down a bit so that I can write this down" Ask some questions about how it came to be broken what was it doing making any noises ect, it makes the customer feel like your actually listening. Nowdays the phone answerer seems to only be there to get you in the door they know nothing and figure the mechanics will just hook up the computer

Ask how people want to be contacted if I give my cell phone don't call the shop phone and delay the job because no one answered - its with listening again

Just be direct and Honest when you need to check something out make sure to call the customer back in a very timely manner it should only take a few minutes to get an answer

Repeat customers that have built up a relationship of trust are where the money is at

Your way overthinking it, I was a service manager for many years and just act normal and treat everyone like family and the rest will work itself out. Don’t sugar coat anything, be honest and up front but compassionate towards the situation and don’t start drinking the first day LOL

Reuben Frazier said:

Don’t sugar coat anything, be honest and up front

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This is it. Put yourself back to the time you had to take your problem to their shop.
Be straight up. Look 'em in the eye and make sure they hear your side.

If it’s a Cat dealership, try to attend the Flagship Leadership Program. It’s a great experience for new managers.

Great points thankyou. I passed on the cat offer. One of my key goals is to make sure the whole story makes it to the mechanic. While I was a mechanic the worst thing was when I was done with the job and the supervisor said did you fix problem b too. I would look at the work order and problem b was not there and noone told me about problem b. I have some other ideas as well to end that kind of issue. Treating the customer how I would want to be treated is goal #1. I understand getting the machine up and running quickly is key but in all my years fixing it right the first time was my way. To have the customer come back to finish a job may not be in the cards working at a premier dealer sorry questionable wizard. I do think there may be times where that would work but when I'm done working on a machine it's done

The fact that you care this much already puts you in the top 20%.

My point is, there are areas of a machine that could be designed or refined so they don't have repeating problems. The replacement part is no better than the original. Case in point: I had a Deere 13.5 L engine with 5000 hours throwing a code for "vane actuator travel range out of limits." Construction dealer troubleshooted and said it needed a $6000 turbo. The main part of the turbo that made air pressure was far from worn out. No parts available for the worn areas. Machine is to be sold in the next 1000 hours. Components were designed to last XXX hours before failure. So I ran an idea past the second opinion ag service manager (who also said it needed a turbo) about a way to mechanically limit the actuator travel range. He said "go for it." Worst you're out is labor. So I fabricated a small piece of metal with set screws to limit the actuator arm travel. 200 hours later, no code. Deere has a marketing agreement with Borg Warner to be sole supplier of all turbos for that application. We, the customer were locked in with no alternative turbo suppliers. Monopoly in the market. I've seen this many times with the evolution in equipment, where refinement of replacement parts was stopped, and the customer had no choice but to upgrade to later model equipment to possibly gain reliability. But then your into the next round of engineering fumblings. Service departments have a policy to work within OEM guidelines with absolutely no regard to customer budget. Charge away. If I have a tech out to troubleshoot high resistance connections that operate the electric radiator fan on a Deere 1445 mower, and they install the same relay that the OEM used (which was too low of capacity), the problem repeats itself. These are just a couple of the latest issues I've had to deal with where OEM defined repairs wouldn't cut it.

Questionable wizard those situations I agree with I thought you were talking about a more questionable fix to a problem that was temporary to fix something to save a customer a week of down time then have to go back and fix it right with correct parts when they were available. For example jbweld on oil pan because pan was out 2 weeks. I've worked with some cob kings so my mind goes right to things I've seen that are not right. Like a breaker bar zip tied to a fan shroud to keep belt tensioner tight

What lines of equipment and what experience do you have with those? A great relationship with the regional managers of those manufacturers will go a long way.

There are band-aids to keep a customer going when parts are a distance out. Then there are customers who shouldn't be in the business, and the only way they will get the message, are painful repair bills. I have no problem with that. I categorize equipment owners in several groups: Those that buy new or really clean used, keep the machines a very long time, and give that machine every repair it needs to have a very long service life (mines, quarries, etc.). At the other end of the scale, there are the rapists. Those that buy something at the auction, or new for only one job. No maintenance, little greasing, no oil changes, and will change the oil right before it goes back to the auction (deceptive practices). There are variations in between the best and worst owners. I work for an owner who will buy very clean, low hour used machines. Give them decent maintenance, but cut corners on oil quality, filter quality. Give the machines good repairs early in life, but as the machine gets higher hours, really start cutting corners. And has the goal, that when the machine is sold, they've spent the least on it, and gotten the most out of it. It will leave a basket case. He has a convenient case of amnesia when selling it to the next buyer. He may not lie, but if the purchaser doesn't ask a specific question, problems won't be disclosed. Richie Brothers is the perfect place to make problems disappear!

I have experience with equupment from 3 phase generators to excavators and everything in between. New line isn't really a new line but new manufacturers. I've worked with case Cummins deutz kubota wacker jlg multiquup genie kamotsu. Samsung Hyundai Ghel. idk im sure I missed some. I worked for a rental company where I got alot of experience on multiple types of equupment

Are you going to be a service manager for a dealer shop or an end user shop?

A service manager at a retail shop is not a mechanic even if that is how you started out, the job is administration. You schedule people to jobs, oversee all shop costs and incomes, build and administer safety programs, comply with all government regulations, be the dish rag for the sales force to clean up all their messes and finally to be the company representative for all external issues that might reach the ears of the general public. Basically you are going to hand all the repair issues over to other people trusting that they have the smarts and work ethic to take care of the problems with minimal supervision. You likely will have a small staff to do billing and warranty claims that you will have to manage. You will have to do what you can to maintain some kind of morale in you people and be able to suppress the emotional baggage that will happen all around you. You will develop a thick skin or get ground into shop floor and swept away.

A service manager at an end user shop is different in that you are still a mechanic, handling a large share of the repairs and maintenance. In addition you will have to maintain some kind of tracking system for the iron and another for the employees. You likely will not have any staff to maintain those tracking systems. You will be responsible for the costs and repairs but not for the maintenance budget which will be shoved down your throat by a clean clothes no nothing body sitting in an office maybe miles away from you who has little idea of how the company actually produces a product or makes money. You will catch a lot of blame for things that happen through no fault of your own and will have to develop a thick skin and a willingness to stand your ground when the fault lies elsewhere.

Both jobs require a deep understanding of people, their psychology, capabilities, work ethic, needs, wants and finally their personal goals. Did I mention about a thick skin?

I ran an end user shop with 15 mechanics this will be a dealer shop with 18. Thick skin for sure. I'm aware of the hot seat I'm about to sit in. Salesmen are the worst making unreachable promises then pushing it to the service department that's fun.

Midnightmoon,

Reading your initial posts again and considering what John said, the service writers should be taking care of those initial customer calls and gathering the critical info the field techs need. Or, the field dispatcher.

The SM should take the 60 thousand foot view and surround themselves with a quality team. Stay out of the weeds. Let your team do that stuff. It’s easy to get spread-out in many directions.

I watched many great Cat Techs move into SM positions and fail. Then we terminated them. We should have provided a parachute or a way out. But, people being people, pride & personalities, it never worked. Too much of a bitter divide between shop labor & management. The SM position is the most difficult role inside a dealership.

Our best service managers were never mechanics. They came with strong administration backgrounds from other industries. I know how that sounds. But, they had the lowest mechanic turn-over and had the best quarterly numbers. We would still burn the good ones out and they would leave in 4-5 years. No matter how much money and professional development the dealership spent on the compensation package. Then, go through the entire cycle again.

What a brutal industry.

Service writers never happened around here in the heavy equipment fields. They are all over the auto industry. The common personnel scheme is a shop foreman, field dispatch, administrative secretary, warranty claims writer and service manager. There is little to no training for the position. It is sink or swim. I have worked for a couple of long time service managers that carried the respect of the crew and owners. The usual mode of discharge is that the company changes hands and then requires pay cuts or upper echelons start interfering with in the daily operations, "because they know better."

There is little overlap in the skill sets of a good service manager and a good mechanic.

The good service manager will be able to tell when the bad mechanic is trying to rob customers on jobs. A field mechanic is basically a service manager for his assigned jobs and doesn't have the people head aches.

How this job is set up goes like this. I'll be answering phone identifying work to be done. Scheduling what mechanic will do the work and manage the mechanics to get the job done. I will be scheduling and managing all road calls. Along with whatever else it takes. The company wants someone who knows mechanically work. May not be the same structure as a normal service manager but most dealers In the equipment business I've worked for are similar to this. Actually my last 3 bosses were mechanics in a previous life