Your service advisor’s day starts the minute the shop comes into view on their drive into work. I start scanning the parking lot as soon as I can see it. Eager anticipation for the day fuels my stroll thru the parking lot as I search for any new cars that were dropped off the previous night. Upon entering the shop, I collect any overnight drop envelopes and turn on the lights.Once the shop is opened, I turn on the air compressor, tire machine, tire balancer, check the oil drain containers and the alignment rack.
Next up on the morning check list is verifying the shop supplies we use daily to service your cars such as brake clean, penetrating oil, fluids, and filters. Keeping our supplies properly stocked helps us work as efficiently as possible on vehicle repairs.
Next thing you know and its almost 8am and time to open. The front door gets unlocked, Keurig and heater/air conditioner are turned on and the pens and countertop sanitized. Now the real workday starts. As the technicians start arriving, I can hear their tools clanging and banging around as they prep their bays and toolboxes for the jobs that are ahead of them for the day.
The day has started and the chorus of impact guns in the background are a soothing sound I have grown to enjoy. They sing the sweet melody of vehicles being repaired/serviced. Customers start arriving to drop off cars and pick up completed vehicles from the previous day. The smell of fresh brewed coffee fills the air as a customer makes a morning cup of joe before they face the day. What lies ahead is the great unknown that ushers in the challenges of the day.
Like any repair or service industry things do not always go as planned. A rusty bolt breaks, wrong parts get delivered, brand new part fails, delays in shipping, needed parts that no longer are available, and many challenges can arise out of nowhere. Multi-tasking and problem solving are some of a service advisor’s best attributes. Those skills translate to your car repair continuing to move in a forward direction.
Most of the day is filled with answering phones, and educating customers on repairs, locating the correct parts, washing vehicles, researching answers to customers questions, and making sure our team runs like a well-oiled machine. Just like the engine in your vehicle our team relies on each person and part to perform at a high level.
As the day starts to wind down into the late afternoon it is time to start checking in with customers and informing them on the progress our technicians have made on the repairs to their vehicle. This update can be done via a phone call, text, photos, email, or a combination thereof. After completing customer updates, we go through our notebook from the phone calls of the day and confirm we got back to each customer to assist them to the best of our abilities. Due to the large variety of repairs/services we complete here at Douglas Automotive, we get questions all over the board, some that take research and others that can be answered right away. That being said, no question is unwelcomed when it comes to your vehicle.
As the workday winds down its time to take one last walk through the parking lot, taking an inventory of what got completed and what is next in the rotation for tomorrow. Asking ourselves: Do any cars need moved? Are all the windows up? Cars locked?
After the lot is walked and all the cars for the day are picked up it is time for some end of day tasks. Similar to the start of the day, we go around and turn off all the lights, equipment, heaters/air conditioners, push in the tire display, clean and sanitize the waiting room, and make sure the overnight drop box is stocked with envelopes and pens. Once everything is completed its time to lock up and head home to our families.
Give Bryan a call at our Grass Valley Location @ 530-802-5278
Give Jeff a call at the Nevada City Location @ 530-265-5120
