Automotive organizational leaders are constantly searching for the next competitive advantage. We all know that it’s the little things that add up to be what separates your dealership from the competition.

At the heart of any dealership’s success and sustainability are vehicle sales as well as closing on a high number of maintenance and repair service opportunities. If you are interested in growing repair and maintenance service sales, you’ve arrived at the perfect opportunity.

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Podcast Transcript for Appointments and Reservations Suck!, below:

Jeff Cowan:

Well, hello everybody. Jeff Cowan here from Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk, and I’m back with yet another new addition to my podcast entitled, Right Service, Write Your Own Paycheck, the path to making over $100,000 a year when writing service in the automotive industry in Australia, Canada, and the United States of America. And you know, at this very recording, less than 80% of you are doing that. Less than 80% of you doing that job are making $100,000 a year and I don’t get it. So what are we going to do?

Jeff Cowan:

Well, number one, keep watching and listening to these podcasts. Go to my website, automotiveservicetraining.com. Automotiveservicetraining.com. And between those two things there, you’ll get all the techniques, methods, processes, information that you need to put yourself in the $100,000 a year club. Because just over 20% of the people right now doing that job are making $100,000 a year or more. So if you’re not one of those people, that means you’re doing something wrong. I’m going to show you how to do it right.

Jeff Cowan:

So we’re back with the series of podcasts where I’ve been taking your questions. The most common questions that I get when I’m doing conventions, workshops, and from your texts and emails that I get every week, your most common questions you have, and I’m answering them through videos that I’ve shot at live events or somebody shot as me. And we’re going to stick with that today. Today, we’re going to answer the question, Jeff, why do you think appointments and reservations suck?”

Jeff Cowan:

Jeff, why do you think appointments and reservations suck? Because I want to go on record right now and tell you that, yes, I indeed believe that appointments and reservations suck. Now, with this video you’re getting ready to watch here, you’re going to find out why appointments and reservations are so bad. This was, again, taken from an event I did at the NADA Convention a few years back. If you like the video and want to get the whole thing, go to NADA.org. They own the video. You can purchase it there. They’ve got thousands and thousands of videos from over the years from the best speakers in the world. All kinds of stuff there. I mean, it’s a real treasure trove. So you should check it out if you never have. But to answer your question, Jeff, why do you think appointments and reservations suck? Watch this video. And you will find out my answer. Have a great week and I will see you next week. Take care.

Jeff Cowan:

Okay. But if you were to call around, some of you know I’ve been in business for 32 years. All right? So I started the business by doing walk-around. So the first 15 years on my business, you couldn’t see my name anywhere, unless it said walk-around right beside it. Because at that point in time, nobody was doing walkarounds on the service drive. So I built a business on that. So if you call people today and say, “Hey, what do you know about Cowan?” “Well, he’s the walk-around guy, right?” Well, so most people think our whole process is based on the walk-around and it is a big part of it. I mean, we talk about it, but it’s never been the basis of our program.

Jeff Cowan:

The basis of our program is simply this: take control, set the expectation, because if you set the expectation, you can manage that expectation, if you manage that expectation, you can exceed it every single time. It’s important because it’s not a question of whether or not there’s going to be expectations when these customers come in. The only question is, are we going to work off their expectations that you don’t know what they are? Or are you going to tell them what to expect? So keep that in mind. The whole premise is setting expectations.

Jeff Cowan:

Now, I’ve got a question for you. Who in here has appointments and reservations that you offer on your service drives? Come on, raise your hands. How many people we have here? That’s what I thought. We got about 75%, 80% of you. Well, from this point forward, I’m going to make a big suggestion to you, and here’s what it is. I want you to stop offering appointments and reservations, and here’s why. Appointments and reservations kill sales. Appointments and reservations kill survey scores. Appointments and reservations kill customer retention, effective labor rate, and morale.

Jeff Cowan:

I don’t know if we have any service managers in here, maybe a service advisor if we’re lucky, but let me ask you a question. When a customer sets up an appointment or reservation for nine o’clock and they bring their car in, what do they expect to have happened to their car at nine o’clock? It’s going to go in right now, right? Does that happen?

Crowd:

No.

Jeff Cowan:

So let’s think about this. Big moment right here. Here’s what you paid for. So I’ve only been working with this customer for three minutes, and now I got to tell them, no matter what I say, we were just kidding. Now you can stand there as polished as want and say, “No, the nine o’clock appointment was to talk to me so I could ask you questions so I could determine.” “Well, that’s not what they told me on the phone.” So think about this. We start out the whole transaction by backpedaling and, in their mind, lying, misleading, cheating. And we wonder why they won’t buy service from us. Okay, so appointments and reservations kill these things.

Jeff Cowan:

Let me tell you why. Appointment reservation has been defined by the general business community to mean right now. I make a hair appointment to get my hair cut because this just doesn’t happen. Okay. Get my hair cut at three o’clock. I show up at three o’clock and they sit me in the chair. Means right now. If I make a reservation to go to Ruth Chris tonight at seven o’clock, I show up at seven o’clock, they sit me in the chair at seven o’clock. It means right now.

Jeff Cowan:

So that’s the problem with those words. So since they don’t work, what are we going to use? We’re going to use this: check-in time. Because check-in time has also been defined by the general business community and it’s been defined to mean, “You’re going to have to wait.” For example, I might have a doctor’s appointment at 10 o’clock in the morning, but they want me there 10 minutes early to get checked in because after I get checked in, I’m going to what?

Crowd:

Wait.

Jeff Cowan:

Wait. What am I waiting for? My appointment? When I go to the airport to fly out of here tomorrow, they want me there two hours early to get checked in because after I get checked in, I’m going to?

Crowd:

Wait.

Jeff Cowan:

And what am I waiting for? My reservation. So check-in time means you’re going to have to wait. Now, when you start setting up check-in times, every time you talk to a customer, you have to explain what it means. This is important because see about four or five years ago, I developed this.