Troubleshooter: Service commission, payment, and regret

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Getting auto maintenance and repairs is usually a pretty routine and painless affair. You get a warning light or email reminder, make an appointment, get to the shop, let them take care of things, and pick up and pay. What’s to think about? But based on some consumer feedback at the service desk, there are a few things to consider before, during, and after any repair transaction. They may not disrupt your current or future business dealings with a particular shop, but they have ended many good long-term relationships.

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Depending on staff turnover, you may complete a considerable number of transactions with the same service consultant/advisor. The industry norm is that these positions are compensated with a base-salary and commission mix. In many cases an advisor’s base rate is little more than minimum wage, and often 75% of their gross pay is made up of commission dollars. High-selling advisors in large, busy dealerships can gross close to $100K.

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Troubleshooter: Service commission, payment, and regret Back to video

In factory retail stores or dealerships, commissions are paid on retail labour (sometimes including a parts bonus), seldom on internal fees (to the sales department for repairs or reconditioning) and never on manufacturer warranty repairs. Why exclude the last two groups? Dealer owners and carmakers don’t want to be treated like everyday customers, always wondering if those recommended items were really necessary, or just some aggressive up-selling. Smart managers will include some type of customer satisfaction rating to pay plans to ensure advisors don’t chase clients away with excessive repair suggestions.

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To be sure, not all of the ‘up-sells’ you might get at the service counter are questionable. Providing a hub and wheel stud polishing or abrasive cleaning, for example, takes extra time during a seasonal tire change-over and is well worth any small fee a shop might levy because it reduces the risk of wheel nuts loosening or unwanted vibrations cropping up. The question to ask your consultant anytime an unexpected recommendation comes up is, “who’s getting more benefit/value out of this service; me or you?” If they can’t justify their offering to you, particularly in terms of better or more reliable function, then simply pass.

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The regret part of some transactions can occur when a customer provides an authorization for a repair, then later changes their mind and wants to defer that service. When a service advisor contacts a client with an estimate or recommendation, the vehicle is usually in the shop and on a hoist with a technician waiting to either proceed with said repairs or park the vehicle outside. As a good percentage of facilities only have one workspace per technician, and have technicians paid on a per-job (not per-hour) basis, so everyone is always interested in maximizing their efficiency. This means that within minutes of receiving an OK from the customer, anything requiring disassembly usually starts getting disassembled. Calling back as little as 15-20 minutes later to say you’d like to put that job off is likely to get you a “sorry, we can’t do that” response.

The solution to this is to consider all your options first before giving an authorization. If this means asking for a few hours or longer to think about it, ask for it and take it. If a shop values you as a customer, this won’t be as much of a stumbling block as your regrets in giving an OK and then having second thoughts will bring.