Service Advisor Pay Plans

[JoeRocket]

Paying them on Labor only? Whole ticket? Or just certain items like CSI, ELR or Hours/RO?

[Moparguy]

Service advisors are paid to sell labor not parts. Our service advisors are paid a percentage of total department labor generated less policy adjustments. Each advisor has a specific percentage based on their skill and their time on the job. They are not paid a percentage of parts sales. We also pay weekly advisor spiffs for cash that is paid each Monday.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by Moparguy

Service advisors are paid to sell labor not parts. Our service advisors are paid a percentage of total department labor generated less policy adjustments. Each advisor has a specific percentage based on their skill and their time on the job. They are not paid a percentage of parts sales.

Soooo.....who goes to bat for the Parts department when ext-war or insurance companies try to send their own stuff? How do you keep the advisors from dumping parts to pad labor (as an example: requesting aftermarket chinese junk vs. factory parts which kills Mopar Loyalty %, gross and return allowance, etc)? How is the Parts Department represented? Is a Parts Advisor included via conference call when the Service Advisor calls the customer/ext-war/ins.? Or do the Service Advisors also fight for Parts Department out of the goodness of their hearts? Or is Parts just S.O.L.?



EDIT - After rereading my questions, it might sound like I'm picking on you but they are legitimate questions that I have so please don't read anything into them. My guys are paid like yours and they f*** us every chance they can to increase labor sales. I'm just wondering how it works everywhere else.

Thanks for taking the time.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

Soooo.....who goes to bat for the Parts department when ext-war or insurance companies try to send their own stuff? How do you keep the advisors from dumping parts to pad labor (as an example: requesting aftermarket chinese junk vs. factory parts which kills Mopar Loyalty %, gross and return allowance, etc)? How is the Parts Department represented? Is a Parts Advisor included via conference call when the Service Advisor calls the customer/ext-war/ins.? Or do the Service Advisors also fight for Parts Department out of the goodness of their hearts? Or is Parts just S.O.L.?

I'm on Joe's side in this debate.

My belief is pay plans invoke behavior and if the Service Advisers aren't paid for selling parts then they won't - often to the detriment of the store and the customer.

It's like the old 70% Rule Chrysler used to have when determining whether a major component should be repaired of replaced. You can bet it the Service Adviser is not being paid on parts he/she will always recommend a repair even though that may not be in the customer's best interest.

I also think it's tricky when dealing with how you pay the Service Advisers for writing up warranty repairs. If you pay them nothing you can end up with CSI issues and if you pay them too much you can run the risk of having them up-selling warranty repairs.

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

EDIT - After rereading my questions, it might sound like I'm picking on you but they are legitimate questions that I have so please don't read anything into them. My guys are paid like yours and they f*** us every chance they can to increase labor sales. I'm just wondering how it works everywhere else.

Thanks for taking the time.

I like your style and I think I've commented in the past you remind me a lot of our old member Ralph - he could always be counted on to express his opinion in a colorful fashion.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by XDCX

I'm on Joe's side in this debate.

To be fair to Moparguy, I think I remember him stating he is a Fixed Ops Director. Just as *90% or more of GMs come from Sales, *90% of FixOpDirs come from Service. It's only human nature to not consider things you don't have experience with.

If this is indeed the case, then I totally understand his position. If he came from Parts, well....














* Disclaimer - Yes, I know I pulled that percentage out of my @ss and I can't back it up with statistics. That number is based on my personal experience, but I can't help but imagine that I'm not too far off on the national level.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by JoeRocket

To be fair to Moparguy, I think I remember him stating he is a Fixed Ops Director. Just as *90% or more of GMs come from Sales, *90% of FixOpDirs come from Service. It's only human nature to not consider things you don't have experience with.

If this is indeed the case, then I totally understand his position. If he came from Parts, well....

If you're referring to me, I've never worked retail service or parts.

I started off selling cars while I was in college and then started with Chrysler in the Service and Parts division as a District Manager. My later jobs with Chrysler included Customer Relations, Sales and Service Contracts.

Concerning your figures, I'd bet they're pretty close to being accurate. In my experience the overwhelming number of GMs and Dealers come from the sales side of the house.

[Cdever5]

Originally Posted by Moparguy

Service advisors are paid to sell labor not parts. Our service advisors are paid a percentage of total department labor generated less policy adjustments. Each advisor has a specific percentage based on their skill and their time on the job. They are not paid a percentage of parts sales. We also pay weekly advisor spiffs for cash that is paid each Monday.

So who sells the parts? Your service writers are the best parts salespeople you got.

[ohiobuckeyes]

Service Advisors at my store at paid a base salary which is 40% of there total annual pay. Then 60% commission based on the Total Hours Turned (Customer Pay, Warranty and Internal.) Also paid $2.00 for every Chrysler Oil Change Contract they sell.

So it works out to around 33,000 year.

[CarguyCO]

I'm not a service guy....but I'm still stuck on this part:

So it works out to around 33,000 year.

I would no way in heck take the amount of chit they get from customers all day long...and salesman....and their bosses.....etc...for 33k per year...I wouldn't do it for 33k for 1/2 a year....

But hey..that's just me....

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by CarguyCO

I'm not a service guy....but I'm still stuck on this part:



I would no way in heck take the amount of chit they get from customers all day long...and salesman....and their bosses.....etc...for 33k per year...I wouldn't do it for 33k for 1/2 a year....

But hey..that's just me....

I think $33K would be a little light for a metro market that has a higher cost of living but I bet it's fairly representative of the rural markets.

And like you, I agree that a Service Advisor has to put up with a lot of crap and deal with a fair amount of pressure. It's definitely not a job I'd want to do everyday.

[Moparguy]

Been away for a bit, but yes I cam up the ladder from sweeping the used car lot to dealer principal on the fixed ops. side of the street. Although I did some spend several years selling, I always has a strong sense of commitment to Service and Parts. Having worked in every capacity of dealership life in my 39 years with a family owned company, I have gotten my hands dirty often and taken my fair share of both tech (level 1 and 2) and advisor training. As previously stated, we pay Service advisors to sell service (labor) and we pay Parts advisors to sell Parts. There is no crossover commissions paid to sell parts by Service advisors. If your advisors are bringing in aftermarket parts to protect service labor, you have got a management problem in allowing this. We sell Chrysler OEM parts at an excellerated pricing schedule. Service guests expect to pay more at a dealership and sometimes we do discount those parts to keep our guests happy, but that is the exception...not the norm...and not without the Parts dept. Ok before hand. Our advisors have the authority to keep the guest happy when needed. Parts and Service need to stand on their own and advisors need to stand on their own too when it comes to earning their paycheck each week. Service sells service, Parts sells parts.

[Moparguy]

On another note...does everyone know how to meet the loyalty requirements set down in Dealer Standards even when you are selling aftermarket parts on Chrysler vehicles. This is a process that should be revealed in the Area 51 section as it does not really adhere to the stricken Dealer Standards proceedure...but it can be done. Let's face it...Chrysler does not make every part needed to fit a guests needs, and the dealer cannot stock every OEM part in house all the time, and we can't always keep the vehicle overnight to wait for the part to arrive to keep the repair order Chrysler loyal. But there is a way to keep the repair order loyal while keeping the guest happy and get the job out on time. There is a secret to Chrysler repair order loyalty thT not every dealer is aware of. Oddly enough it was told to me my a Factory Service and Parts Rep. off the record...of course.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by Moparguy

On another note...does everyone know how to meet the loyalty requirements set down in Dealer Standards even when you are selling aftermarket parts on Chrysler vehicles. This is a process that should be revealed in the Area 51 section as it does not really adhere to the stricken Dealer Standards proceedure...but it can be done. Let's face it...Chrysler does not make every part needed to fit a guests needs, and the dealer cannot stock every OEM part in house all the time, and we can't always keep the vehicle overnight to wait for the part to arrive to keep the repair order Chrysler loyal. But there is a way to keep the repair order loyal while keeping the guest happy and get the job out on time. There is a secret to Chrysler repair order loyalty thT not every dealer is aware of. Oddly enough it was told to me my a Factory Service and Parts Rep. off the record...of course.

That sounds like a great thread for AREA 51.

Please let me know if you need any help getting it started.

[tallymopar]

We pay our advisors on gross so they do not discount. We also have a tiered percentage of gross to force them to get the low hanging fruit that normally is left on the table.