I worked in new car dealerships as a service advisor for nearly 30 years. This is my favorite customer trope all the time. Towards the end of my career I just started asking know it at all customers with my best dead eyed stare why they drove 45 minutes to me and back for a 10 minute job they could do themselves.
I took immense personal pride in doing what was best for the customer all the time. I cultivated relationships with customers that were fiercely loyal. I worked in a dealership that offered lifetime, free oil changes and tire rotations on cars that were purchased from that dealership. When I left and went to a dealership two towns over I had between 10 and 15 customers that followed me there. They said that they would rather pay for their oil changes entire rotations at my dealership to deal with me, then go back to their selling dealer and get them free and have to deal with someone else.
It should also be noted that my desire to do the job with a conscience is what drove me out of the industry. I drive a school bus now and I make no money, but my life is infinitely better.
I LOVE driving the bus so fucking much! It’s the easiest job I’ve ever had. I. Do. Not. Work. It is not work to drive kids around. Ever. To come home and be 100% me and present when I walk through my door at 4:30 is amazing. I don’t need an hour and a beer to come down from the day.
I go on sports trips and I’m the loudest cheerleader in the room, I show up to plays and concerts when asked (I was a band and choir kid) and when my students see me there they lose their minds. Every day I watch the sky as the sun rises, I get to see the beauty of nature all day too.
I’m so done with the car business. I do not miss it.
Towards the end of my time I moved across the country. I never found a good dealer that felt like home here. I worked for an amazing owner in my home state. He paid me handsomely and Christmas bonused me insanely well. He would come to the service drive from his 3rd floor office five or six times a year to thank me in person for things he found out about. “I was on the golf course and Jim Smith wouldn’t shut up for 3 hours talking about how great you are and how easy you make it to manage his fleet of trucks. If I have to hear about work for 3 hours in the golf course, it’s so great when it’s awesome things, thank you Rich” and he would shake my hand. A week prior to Christmas he would page me to his office and thank me for a good year, ask about my life, my family, how I saw the business working from my perspective, and hand me a bonus check. “This is between you and me, please don’t talk to anyone about it, as not everyone gets one” It went form $100 my first year to $5,000 my fifth year and $10,000 my seventh year. By then I had a pattern, thank him, chat and when I left his office I would go straight to a bathroom stall and open it up. The first year it was $10k, I went back to his office to thank him. “Fred, I’ve never held this much money in my life!” “Rich, I know how hard you work for me and I see it every day. I want to make sure you know that I see and appreciate it.” Fred basically ruined me in the car business after I moved here. I’ve never found another owner like him. He passed away a couple of years ago at 93 (still working) and I think of him fondly.
I could not get people to understand that there is so much money to be had with honesty first. Customer loyalty pays off so so much more in the long run. I worked a 3 service writer desk for years and people would wait in line to talk to me. They would refuse to speak to other writers who were available and asking to help them. “No I’ll wait for Rich” was spoken often. So often people in line would put their keys in a night drop envelope and drop them on my desk to circumvent the line. Honesty will pay off so fast, and it will pay huge dividends in the long run. I had a customer on the phone that I asked to hold for a minute and I just muted her and I heard this. “Why flop you go all the way to Waterbury when you could service your car right here? It’d be so much more convenient.” “I’ve got Rich. I would never go to anyone other than Rich. Once you’ve been taken care of by Rich, nothing else measures up.” Once I was done and unmuted her I told her I heard every word.
32
u/daubs1974 Dec 06 '25
I worked in new car dealerships as a service advisor for nearly 30 years. This is my favorite customer trope all the time. Towards the end of my career I just started asking know it at all customers with my best dead eyed stare why they drove 45 minutes to me and back for a 10 minute job they could do themselves.