I’m a new advisor, was a tech for a while. These videos are seriously phenomenal and I seriously can not even begin to say how much these videos have helped me this past month! Amazing work 💯
As a service manager, for a Chevrolet dealer, my department splits the gross profit of customer pay parts sales with the parts department via a transfer at month end. We currently charge $100.00/hr for diagnostic, our posted repair rate is $129.00. The idea to charge $150.00/hr for diagnostic makes an abundant amount of sense to capture the lost parts gross. I appreciate the info! I do think diagnostics are becoming MORE prevalent with the advent of more and more creature comforts IE; more modules/harnesses. Though, it could be a regional phenomenon. We are located in upstate NY (Salt belt) and the amount of corroded terminals and harness' that we see are overwhelming. A chaff in the middle of a sealed harness takes time to isolate and unravel. Regardless, I like the thought process!
I don't do diagnostic because a diagnostic means your going to find definitive problem within rhe alloted time. I use analysis! Scan & Extract Analysis , Powertrain Performance Analysis. Analysis means your going to check out what rhe problem maybe with in or not the alloted time allowed
9:10 Okay wait a second… what shop did this guy work at!? Diagnostics going down!? Cars are becoming more sophisticated by the moment. diagnostics have gone through the roof 😂
Only at dealerships because people complain about everything since they think everything is covered by warranty. He is right cars are getting better however customers don’t care about cars and how they drive all they care is about their phone apps working on cars entertainment system.
I strongly disagree. I currently work at an auto mall that houses a range of brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Genesis. While I’ve recently worked with other brands on our campus, I originally started with Mercedes-Benz in 2020. Before that, I was a technician at a local independent repair shop for 5+ years. Cars are not becoming more reliable-quite the opposite, in fact. It almost makes me wonder who’s backing these claims. We regularly encounter issues even during PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection for “new” cars). As a service advisor, I know firsthand that evaluations are a core part of our work. Once the warranty expires-usually around the four-year mark-is when the real challenges begin and real money is made. Modern vehicles are becoming increasingly complex, and even dealer-certified technicians with extensive training often struggle to diagnose and resolve issues. This is true across five brands I’ve worked with, both new and used, and was equally consistent at the independent shops. Take a look around, nobody in this industry is hurting for customers. Lol
My general concern is that I work for an hourly shop, and I get paid hourly. My problem is they roll over the diagnostic time into the repair time but I diagnose 10 cars a day and only fix 2 of them so I only get paid to diagnose 2 cars but did ten and it only shows I did two hours . The tech that repairs all my diagnostics gets the diag time and I look like crap. But my raises are based off of productivity. So I look like shit and the other tech looks great because it’s rolled over
That sounds like a tough situation... I wish I had a magic answer for you, but I don't. Techs are in demand and always needed - maybe it's time to explore?
@@Chriscollinsinc, this is the only industry where technicians who knows the most gets paid the lest and ball joint popping guy who has no clue or brain for diagnoses gets paid the most. Can you imagine a sergeant who goes to school and gets experience getting paid less. Just this industry however not many guys know how too diagnoses and that is the problem number 1
Here's the thing. People think taking their vehicle to get diagnosed at a dealership is like a dentist or doctors appointment. Or a plumber or electrician coming to your house and you paying $175.00 an hour for them to figure it out. Sometimes it's clear cut what the problem is. Other times it takes time to do all the testing to figure it out. You can't expect any trying to make a living work for free because hey your you and so important. Take you car down to the local mechanic who is going to screw you over because he has no clue.
So you are “providing a service” by sending a car to a dealer and then charging your customer double for the diagnosis that you didn’t actually perform?
Actually question... if they buy the repairs should the customer get the diag fee applied towards repairs or on top? I generally like to apply it to build a relationship with the customer just curious, I can do this by absorbing the cost into the repair part management, or negotiation with the tech and of course that only applies if they buy a decent size repair, what you guys think? Is that losing money or is that building relationships in the average scenario?
I prefer to charge the diag fee on top. The customer knows coming in that they are vouching for the diag fee. To absorb the diagnostic fee, either your technician suffers, or your ELR does. I think if you treat the customer fairly, you can win their business regardless
No. Time spent is time spent. Time is money. Unless you are inflating the repair to absorb diag time. But that's a bit shady. Just charge for your time. That's easy to explain and justify.
You and the Service Manager can offer whatever promotions you want but I hope the tech is getting paid for the diag. You're selling his time, skill and labor. Not the other way around. You don't have a right to it, it's his. His job doesn't hinge on your existence, yours hinges on his. Diag is the most critical part of the process and a skilled tech may get an hour but saves the customer X amount more than that. Repeat repair attempts, multiple shops, etc. As a service writer you should be focused on making the customer realize the "value added" by a correct diagnosis, not discounting the already least profitable part of the job. Whether you build it in or give it away is almost irrelevant. By hiding it YOU'RE conveying to the customer there's no value in the diagnostic. Why would they want to pay for it when they've been trained not to?
I could see the reason for the question. I consider the diagnosis charge as a separate charge. A good service advisor will be able to explain the reason for it before any work starts.
You should use it as a tool and not rigid but ALWAYS make sure your boys get paid for their time! Sure, a huge bill knock off an hour. Pwrsoanly I do not like to create a precedent of "waiving the diag, rather I can knock an hour of labour off.. End of day does the customer really care as long as they are saving money and are happy..
Like the fact that you use the term "route cause analysis" an ISO term, however most mechanics have very limited if no idea of what it means. What is commonly practiced, is what I call "process of elimination" meaning, replace this, try that until the problem goes away, and all at the vehicle owners expense and profit for the shop. After auditing a vast number of shops my (GENERAL) findings were conclusively evident there was a lack of Auto Repair Shop Owner ethics, lack of Tech experience, knowledge and incompetence, hash but true! Why should any customer be expected to pay labor plus parts for an incorrectly diagnosed service? Shops charge and get away with this ALL the time by making up excuses like, "it needed changing in any case". VEHICLE OWNERS BEWARE: be very specific with the repair shop, (that you will only pay for diagnostics and repairs cost when the route cause of the problem has been identified and fixes the problem". If the shop is wrong, they own the bill.
When you go to doctor and you have a problem they do the test and give you a pills however pills are not working. Do you go back to him and tell him everything that you wrote above and ask for your money back or you go and ask him for help and different solution for problem? If you head any idea how diagnosing a problem on vehicle can be complicated you would have never wrote what you did.
The day that a Service Advisor tells me well my rate is 100, but I need to charge you 150 because you're eating into my profit is when I say see ya, I'm taking it to the guy down the street. Bye.
Job and skill pricing can easlily be used without conflict with the right set of skills. An advisor that gets a customer tangled up in this mess just does not have the skill set. Yet.
Yeah thats why you dont mention profit when talking to customers. It sounds greedy, you say "hey so our diagnostic starts at $150" and thats it. You dont start going on about "oh well our normal hourly rate is $100 but because of our profit margins the 1 hour of diagnostics is going to be $150" dont talk about hours, dont talk about profit. Should be rule #1
I’m a new advisor, was a tech for a while. These videos are seriously phenomenal and I seriously can not even begin to say how much these videos have helped me this past month! Amazing work 💯
As a service manager, for a Chevrolet dealer, my department splits the gross profit of customer pay parts sales with the parts department via a transfer at month end. We currently charge $100.00/hr for diagnostic, our posted repair rate is $129.00. The idea to charge $150.00/hr for diagnostic makes an abundant amount of sense to capture the lost parts gross. I appreciate the info!
I do think diagnostics are becoming MORE prevalent with the advent of more and more creature comforts IE; more modules/harnesses. Though, it could be a regional phenomenon. We are located in upstate NY (Salt belt) and the amount of corroded terminals and harness' that we see are overwhelming. A chaff in the middle of a sealed harness takes time to isolate and unravel. Regardless, I like the thought process!
Absolutely. Repairs is the easier part. Diagnosing what needs to be fixed is where a good tech earns their worth.
I don't do diagnostic because a diagnostic means your going to find definitive problem within rhe alloted time. I use analysis! Scan & Extract Analysis , Powertrain Performance Analysis. Analysis means your going to check out what rhe problem maybe with in or not the alloted time allowed
We still see plenty of electrical issues here at the dealer.
Yea as a tech im going to spend one hr and then tell you I need more time when I still haven’t found the problem
9:10 Okay wait a second… what shop did this guy work at!? Diagnostics going down!? Cars are becoming more sophisticated by the moment. diagnostics have gone through the roof 😂
Only at dealerships because people complain about everything since they think everything is covered by warranty.
He is right cars are getting better however customers don’t care about cars and how they drive all they care is about their phone apps working on cars entertainment system.
I strongly disagree. I currently work at an auto mall that houses a range of brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Genesis. While I’ve recently worked with other brands on our campus, I originally started with Mercedes-Benz in 2020. Before that, I was a technician at a local independent repair shop for 5+ years.
Cars are not becoming more reliable-quite the opposite, in fact. It almost makes me wonder who’s backing these claims.
We regularly encounter issues even during PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection for “new” cars). As a service advisor, I know firsthand that evaluations are a core part of our work. Once the warranty expires-usually around the four-year mark-is when the real challenges begin and real money is made.
Modern vehicles are becoming increasingly complex, and even dealer-certified technicians with extensive training often struggle to diagnose and resolve issues. This is true across five brands I’ve worked with, both new and used, and was equally consistent at the independent shops. Take a look around, nobody in this industry is hurting for customers. Lol
This whole video says it all!!
My general concern is that I work for an hourly shop, and I get paid hourly. My problem is they roll over the diagnostic time into the repair time but I diagnose 10 cars a day and only fix 2 of them so I only get paid to diagnose 2 cars but did ten and it only shows I did two hours . The tech that repairs all my diagnostics gets the diag time and I look like crap. But my raises are based off of productivity. So I look like shit and the other tech looks great because it’s rolled over
That sounds like a tough situation... I wish I had a magic answer for you, but I don't. Techs are in demand and always needed - maybe it's time to explore?
@@Chriscollinsinc, this is the only industry where technicians who knows the most gets paid the lest and ball joint popping guy who has no clue or brain for diagnoses gets paid the most.
Can you imagine a sergeant who goes to school and gets experience getting paid less.
Just this industry however not many guys know how too diagnoses and that is the problem number 1
I would like to see a channel where the guest was the main!
Here's the thing. People think taking their vehicle to get diagnosed at a dealership is like a dentist or doctors appointment. Or a plumber or electrician coming to your house and you paying $175.00 an hour for them to figure it out. Sometimes it's clear cut what the problem is. Other times it takes time to do all the testing to figure it out. You can't expect any trying to make a living work for free because hey your you and so important. Take you car down to the local mechanic who is going to screw you over because he has no clue.
So you are “providing a service” by sending a car to a dealer and then charging your customer double for the diagnosis that you didn’t actually perform?
To be fair the customer could have taken it to an OEM dealership to begin with.
Maybe... But is a McDonald's burger worth $8... Not really... But here we are.
Actually question... if they buy the repairs should the customer get the diag fee applied towards repairs or on top? I generally like to apply it to build a relationship with the customer just curious, I can do this by absorbing the cost into the repair part management, or negotiation with the tech and of course that only applies if they buy a decent size repair, what you guys think? Is that losing money or is that building relationships in the average scenario?
I prefer to charge the diag fee on top. The customer knows coming in that they are vouching for the diag fee. To absorb the diagnostic fee, either your technician suffers, or your ELR does. I think if you treat the customer fairly, you can win their business regardless
No. Time spent is time spent. Time is money. Unless you are inflating the repair to absorb diag time. But that's a bit shady. Just charge for your time. That's easy to explain and justify.
You and the Service Manager can offer whatever promotions you want but I hope the tech is getting paid for the diag. You're selling his time, skill and labor. Not the other way around. You don't have a right to it, it's his. His job doesn't hinge on your existence, yours hinges on his.
Diag is the most critical part of the process and a skilled tech may get an hour but saves the customer X amount more than that. Repeat repair attempts, multiple shops, etc. As a service writer you should be focused on making the customer realize the "value added" by a correct diagnosis, not discounting the already least profitable part of the job.
Whether you build it in or give it away is almost irrelevant. By hiding it YOU'RE conveying to the customer there's no value in the diagnostic. Why would they want to pay for it when they've been trained not to?
I could see the reason for the question. I consider the diagnosis charge as a separate charge. A good service advisor will be able to explain the reason for it before any work starts.
You should use it as a tool and not rigid but ALWAYS make sure your boys get paid for their time! Sure, a huge bill knock off an hour. Pwrsoanly I do not like to create a precedent of "waiving the diag, rather I can knock an hour of labour off.. End of day does the customer really care as long as they are saving money and are happy..
so sick. love the vibes
This was a Great!!!!!! One!!!
Ha!!! Get them drunk! I love it , same reason casino's give free or very cheap booze at the tables. 🎉
Like the fact that you use the term "route cause analysis" an ISO term, however most mechanics have very limited if no idea of what it means. What is commonly practiced, is what I call "process of elimination" meaning, replace this, try that until the problem goes away, and all at the vehicle owners expense and profit for the shop. After auditing a vast number of shops my (GENERAL) findings were conclusively evident there was a lack of Auto Repair Shop Owner ethics, lack of Tech experience, knowledge and incompetence, hash but true! Why should any customer be expected to pay labor plus parts for an incorrectly diagnosed service? Shops charge and get away with this ALL the time by making up excuses like, "it needed changing in any case". VEHICLE OWNERS BEWARE: be very specific with the repair shop, (that you will only pay for diagnostics and repairs cost when the route cause of the problem has been identified and fixes the problem". If the shop is wrong, they own the bill.
More of a reason to get service done at your local dealership...
When you go to doctor and you have a problem they do the test and give you a pills however pills are not working. Do you go back to him and tell him everything that you wrote above and ask for your money back or you go and ask him for help and different solution for problem?
If you head any idea how diagnosing a problem on vehicle can be complicated you would have never wrote what you did.
Commenting on the video for the algorithm
The day that a Service Advisor tells me well my rate is 100, but I need to charge you 150 because you're eating into my profit is when I say see ya, I'm taking it to the guy down the street. Bye.
There is dynamic to things and the way you say them, but its all about the way you say things.
Job and skill pricing can easlily be used without conflict with the right set of skills. An advisor that gets a customer tangled up in this mess just does not have the skill set. Yet.
Yeah thats why you dont mention profit when talking to customers. It sounds greedy, you say "hey so our diagnostic starts at $150" and thats it. You dont start going on about "oh well our normal hourly rate is $100 but because of our profit margins the 1 hour of diagnostics is going to be $150" dont talk about hours, dont talk about profit. Should be rule #1
How to get a job in Canada as a service advisor all the way from india
choose a major city and apply to work before moving there