6 Skills You’ll Need to Become a Successful Automotive Service Advisor
If variety is what you’re after, becoming an automotive service advisor is a great career choice. Your day-to-day tasks could range from liaising with customers and technicians, to sourcing parts or estimating collision damage in a range of workplaces as diverse as car dealerships, heavy duty truck repair facilities, and custom and specialty shops.
So how do you decide if an auto service advisor career is right for you? While other automotive careers tend to focus mainly on one skill area, such as mechanics, customer service, or finance, a service advisor needs a mixture of all of these attributes. It’s a challenging job, but with proper training, you can look forward to a rewarding career in an area you’re passionate about.
Want to know if you’re suited to become an automotive service advisor? Here are some the most important skills all good service advisors have.
1. A Good Automotive Service Advisor Has Polished People Skills
One of the most important elements of a sales advisor role is customer service. You will need to take customer bookings, provide estimates, and deal with suppliers, so being friendly and courteous is a definite plus. Auto service advisors also handle customer complaints, so being able to deal with unhappy customers politely and diplomatically is essential.
2. A Good Automotive Service Advisor Communicates Effectively
An automotive service advisor acts as a liaison between the technician and the customer, and needs to be able to communicate with both effectively. They must explain repair recommendations in layman’s terms to their customers, while also briefing mechanics on customer needs and managing repair schedules.
3. An Automotive Service Advisor Needs Good Comprehension Skills
Being a service advisor also requires comprehension skills. Mechanics will provide you with complex service recommendations, and it’s important you understand what you are being told. You also need to be able to listen to customers, and properly understand their questions and concerns to provide the best possible service.
4. Mechanical & Engineering Expertise is Essential to All Automotive Careers
For a service advisor, the key to good comprehension skills is having extensive mechanical and engineering knowledge. Whether you’re speaking to your own technicians, ordering parts, or looking over complex technical documents, the technical aspects of your automotive service training will definitely come in handy, but the learning won’t stop at graduation. As your career goes on, you’ll need to constantly refresh and update your knowledge in an ever-changing industry.
5. Automotive Careers Are All About Troubleshooting
The old saying that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong is often all too true in automotive careers. Parts will arrive late, repairs will run behind schedule, or customers might change their mind about a service request. As service advisors are involved in all aspects of shop business, troubleshooting is a huge part of the role, and you’ll need to be able to think on your feet and solve problems quickly.
6. Writing and Math Skills Are Important for Auto Service Advisors
Service advisors have to calculate and prepare estimates, so having good literacy and numeracy skills is basic requirement of the job. You’ll also need to order parts, take inventory, and send out invoices, so being good with numbers and writing goes a long way.
Does this sound like you? If so, visit ATC today and check out our auto service advisor course!
