Here’s the upsell that costs you nothing in workshop grief. No cars pulled back off the ramps at ten to four. No service advisor watching their CSI score go out the window. Air conditioning servicing runs itself. The technician sets the machine going and gets on with the rest of the job. Yet most departments barely offer it. In this episode, Simon Bowkett lays out why that’s a missed opportunity and how to fix it. He starts with belief, because a service advisor who thinks air con doesn’t really need doing will pitch it exactly that way. Then he works through the whole process and the word tracks that make it land. This is about turning a quiet job into steady profit without piling more pressure on an already stretched team.
What’s covered:
• The real reason air con servicing beats most red and amber upsells: the machine does the work
• Why a stone through the condenser is diagnostic work, not a service, and why that distinction protects your credibility
• The five touchpoints to sell it, and why you pitch at more than one
• The SWAP format that lets the technician’s video do the selling for you
• Killing the ‘I hardly use it’ objection with the boiler analogy
• Why the word ‘re-gas’ is costing you money and confidence
• The promise-me close that banks the sale twelve months out • What gets measured gets done: a simple leaderboard for air con servicing
Simon Bowkett, Skippy to most of the trade, runs Symco Training and hosts this show. He’s not a technician and says so, but he’s sat on enough Monday-morning service counters to know where the process falls apart. His job here is the sales and belief side, and he hands the technical weight to the people who fix the cars.
If you’re a head of business, after-sales manager or service advisor, this is a quick win hiding in plain sight.
About Symco Training:
Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only in spiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon’s words ‘real world’, it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal.
To find out more visitwww.symcotraining.co.uk
Hi and welcome to another episode of Selling in the Motor Trade. In partnership with Kizana, improve your margins with real-time, data-driven, retail valuations backed by the largest rule of data set in the UK. There are an evidence-based guide valuations for main dealers, car suit markets and independence. Along with Simco training, where we took about training in the real world, what's happening in the market today, not 10 to 15 years ago. Together, we're going to share tips and ideas on how to sell more cars, improve your service and parts operation, and generally put more profit into your department, dealership or dealer group. Now I'm your host, Simon Boca, or some of you might already know me as Skippy. Firstly, I just want to say thank you for the people who've dialed in right from the beginning of this because we're past 250 episodes now and interviewed so many great leaders in the motor trade. Thank you for taking the time. For people who are new to this, please ask and just subscribe. You can't believe what it does to the algorithm and gets this podcast out to as many people in the motor trade as we can. So on this episode of Selling in the Motor Trade, I'm going to look at some quick wins in the service department, in the after sales department. We know we're under pressure all the time to improve red and amber upsell work. But also in the real world, on the floor with technicians, with service advisors, work shop controllers, we know the pressure that causes sometimes. We've all been there where everything's gone smoothly, okay? We've done a pre-call, okay? When the customers drop the car off, okay, we've set the agenda, we're going to carry out a complimentary vehicle health check, okay? It's gone to the workshop, we've done the video. It's a great video on it, okay? The customers watched it, the service advisor tries to get hold of the customer, can't get hold of them until 2.30 in the afternoon. The customer says, yeah, go on, let's get those brake disc done and the pads, obviously. Okay, we'll get the tires done, I want the air conditioning serviced, okay? And by the way, I'm picking the kids up at 3.30 at school, so I'll be there at 4 o'clock. And the stress that causes where the technician has already got the car off the ramps, it's been cleaned, it's out the back. We've got to go and get that car again, we've got to bring it back into the workshop, okay? A service advisor sitting there thinking, I'm just going to get slated on a customer satisfaction index score. My net promoter score is going out the window. In fact, I heard on a recording a service manager saying to a customer, at least he tires really do need to be done, okay, they're right on the legal limit, but listen, just go to the quick fit or tires on your drive or black circles or something like that. And the head of business is like, why the hell is a service manager telling a customer to go to a competitor? And of course, I know exactly why. That service manager knows the grief that's going to cause with the tech, workshop controllers, getting the car cleaned again, and what's going to do to the customer satisfaction index scores that he's been beat over the head with all the time to get that improved. So this is where we need to make sure your VHC, your vehicle health check system is working and the processes are working right. But let's talk about a quick win, something you couldn't place that a lot of that grief goes out the window and I'm a huge fan of air conditioning servicing. And the reason why I say that is, it's something that it's not smoke and mirrors, okay? It's recommended by most manufacturers, okay? Lots of customers don't do it until there's a problem with air conditioning. But from the whole back of the workshop, we can actually set the machine up. It does its job and the technician can continue on to do other parts of it. So today I want to talk about air conditioning servicing and how it might be a quick win in your service department. What we're going to do is talk about the whole process from start to finish, including all the word tracks, who should say what on the videos when we set the agenda, the service advice, what they should do on the upsell call and when they should do it. So firstly, if you want our full process and how to put air conditioning service into your business, send me a message, okay, and we'll make sure we'll get one through to you, okay, from start to finish everything you need to do to get it up and running. And it's a quick win that doesn't put the stress on a already understaffed service department, okay? But I would start with making sure your people in your business know why air conditioning should be serviced, okay? Too many times I get service advisors thinking, well, does it really need to be done? It's cold anyway, okay? You get technicians saying, well, actually, well, I wouldn't do it to my car, okay? In fact, I have some service advisors that only talk about air conditioning servicing when the customer's got a problem with the air conditioning, because I got to tell you, that is not air conditioning servicing, okay? That's diagnostic work for air conditioning, and I'll tell you servicing will not fix it most of the time. If customer comes in because their air conditioning's not working, okay? If you just service it, a stone has probably gone through the condenser, okay? It's leaking out gas all the time there, and that's going to need diagnostic work to find out where the leak is, probably to replace the compressor, and then it has to be regassed and so forth. That's not going to do it. Air conditioning servicing and diagnostic work, two different things, okay? So if you're a head of business, regional director in and after sales world, okay, in the service department, in other countries around the world there, okay? Go and have a look at how much air conditioning service you're doing, okay? And see, is it just diagnostic work when the customer's asked for it? Because my car's not getting that cold, or are we regularly offering it to every customer when it's meant to be offered, just to maintain that health of it, okay? So the first thing I would do is, does the air conditioning need to be serviced every, I don't know, two years, a lot of manufacturers recommend? Find out and actually explain to a service advisor why it should be done. Now you might think, well, how do I do that? Again, that's part of what we do day in and day out and we start with belief, because if a service advisor doesn't believe it needs to be done, keep knowing yourself, if a service advisor believes that a tyre with three millimetres on it has got plenty of life, I wouldn't do it in my car, they're never going to offer it to a customer in exactly the right way. So again, speak to us, we can talk to them, and this is not a sales pitch for us to come into the training, or I tell you what, just go to Claude, go to chat, GPT, hit the little microphone button and say, hey, listen, in a land rubber business, how often is it recommended to service the air conditioning system? And I'll come back and say, actually it's recommended every two years and I'll tell you exactly why, or get them to listen to this. But the first time air conditioning should be air conditioned regularly is because the gas that's in the air conditioning system carries the oil to lubricate the compressor. If the gas leaks out anywhere, there's nothing to carry oil to the compressor, and the compressor is the most expensive part of the air conditioning system. And that's the message we need to get out to the actual customers. Now also, please bear in mind, this podcast goes out to about 6,000 people every Thursday around the world. Big old chunk of people listen to this will be in the UK and Ireland, but we have people listen to this in America, Canada, Australia, so please make sure the regulations right in the state or the country you are in. Sometimes we can put a leak detecting dye in the system to see if there's any leaks down the track. Yet some countries say, ah, we're not allowed to do that anymore, we just have to pressure test the system there. Most of the time your machines will do both anyway, but please check the legislation where you are when you're listening to this. So if we were training this and installing this process into your business, we'd start off with making sure everyone, including the technicians, you have to be licensed to do this, actually know how air conditioning systems work. Okay? Now, this is not a physics school test or anything like that, but if the engineers need to make a gas cooler, they have to compress it, okay? By compressing that gas, okay, it actually, there's less space for the molecules to spin around and bump into each other, therefore not bumping into each other, there's less friction. Friction creates heat, otherwise explain to me, and then what happens is less space, less friction, less heat, the temperature will cool. That's why the engineers have to compress the gas to start with. Now, I'm going to talk about any gas, including oxygen. Think about an old fashioned bicycle pump. If you pump the bicycle pump up, the pump itself gets very hot. That's because when you mechanically maneuver the molecules in any gas, they all get excited, vibrate more, create more friction, more heat. So that's where the pump itself gets very hot, but if you felt the air coming out of the back of it, it'd actually be cooler. So the air conditioning system is a sealed unit, and the gas in it, what we'll do is we'll go through the compressor. That's the round thing that spins around really, really fast. We'll compress the gas in it, it gets hot to start with, and then the engineers will put it through a condenser right at the front of the car. That's the bit if you'll listen to this first time and you don't know mechanically that much, and oh, by the way, I've never been a technician, okay? Please speak to the technicians who've been through all the proper training on this. If you're a service advisor and they'll point out that's the condenser at the front, looks like a radiator, okay? That's where the pollen filter is. It's on the cabin side of it, and it stops nasty bacteria building up in it. That's why every two years, our manufacturer says we must change that as part of the two year service. They'll point out to these things. And make sure you're going to speak to nice Nigel. You know the technician there, they'll take the time to show you. That's the pollen filter. He takes it out of the, I don't know, behind the glove box in that jazz. He'll show you how filthy it is when it has been changed compared to a brand new one that's nice and white, okay? He'll point out there's a nasty bacteria that builds up in the air conditioning system, okay? That's why we put a clean air, anti-bacterial spray through the system to kill the nasty bugs there, okay? The pollen filter, it has to be done, or micro filter, depending on your brand, every two years. I imagine because the OEMs are protecting themselves to make sure that the nasty bacteria doesn't build up. Anyway, back to how it basically works, okay? They have to compress that gas, okay? But the gas then goes over, is a sealed unit, okay? But the gas carries the oil to lubricate the compressor. But also, there's hoses, seals, and o-rignes throughout the system. The oil does another job. The oil makes sure that the o-rignes don't dry up, because those o-rignes dry up, okay? Actually, they might get a leak in it. And if the gas leaks out, okay, there's nothing to carry the oil to lubricate the compressor, okay? But actually, that's where air conditioning can be. It's not too bad, not too bad, not too bad. And then the drop off can be sudden, because think it's true. If there's a minor leak in the system, the gas starts leaking out. There's no gas to carry the oil to put an oil film over the o-rignes. Now my understanding of this is, because the gas we use nowadays, and listen, I don't care if it's R21, R321, AMBs and all that, customers don't care either. When you have a look at our sales process, we're going to talk about the same gas that Audi recommends, the same gas that Honda recommends in the system, okay? The molecules are so small, the oil prevents the gas leaking through those o-rignes and the seals in the system there. Kind of, think about it this way, have you heard the analogy of the boiling water and the frog? You had a pot of boiling water, a frog jumps into it, okay? It'll jump out straight away because the nose, it's hot, okay? I shouldn't be in here. But if you get a pot of water, that's cold, put a frog in it and slowly bring it up to the boiling point, apparently the frog will sit there and boil itself to death, because it gets warmer on slowly and doesn't realise it. Now I don't know why anyone would want to do that for that poor frog, okay? Maybe they want to eat frog's legs, I don't know, okay? But it happens slowly, they don't realise the change. That's the trouble with the air conditioning. The air conditioning system there, it gets colder and colder, colder, because I want to go back to that gas. It's a gas that's leaked out and it's replaced by air. If you condense any gas, it will get a cooling effect, not as much as the refrigerant gas that's in there, okay, but we'll still get a cooling effect. That's what people won't know the difference for a while and that's why most manufacturers recommend it's done every two unit, okay? Let's also talk about this leak detecting dye that may or may not be available in your country, okay? The leak detecting dye is a fluorescent dye that's put in the system, so the technician can get the black fly, put all over the system there to see where any of the leaks are there, because if there are some leaks there, that's not going to be good for the long-term health of it. So, first thing I would do is, okay, we got to get technicians, service advisor, service managers, believing this is not just a profit opportunity, okay, but this is something that really should be done for the customer to keep the health of the car, because otherwise they might get the issue a lot further down the track. So let's have a look at the whole process from start to finish, and again, if you want this, if you have all the word tracks, okay, I'm going to go through it roughly, never use our words word for word, it's the idea, the meaning that makes sense of it. We have five parts of touch points with the customer when they drop the car in general. We've got the booking and all the prequel, okay? Now, some places have got big booking systems, the centers where it's all booked in century layer, or you're a service advisor, you might be taking the booking as well, okay? By the way, we're going to do a prequel. The prequel is when we put the car, could all in the customer to make sure they're turning up on Tuesday morning at 8.45, okay, where we're making sure that they've got their license, the locking wheel nut. We're making sure we reconfirm the bits we're doing on the car there, okay, making sure that we can't put a dog in that service loan car there, and so you don't have that battle when they actually turn up, and that haven't got six points on their license, can't take the car, all that stuff you can nip in the bud on a prequel. But also, it might be the time to start talking about the air condition service, and we might just say, listen, our record show here that the air conditioning hasn't been serviced over the last couple of years. We didn't do that for you last year, did we? I'd love to ask that question first. We didn't do that air condition service for you last year, did we? Now, we do that because just in case the record's aren't up to date, there's nothing worse that we've offered the air conditioning service, and they said, yeah, hold on, you talked to me about that last time, I've got it done last year, okay, are you just trying to sell this to get extra money all the time, okay, that's why I'd love to ask that question. We didn't do that for you last year, did we? No. Have a listen, Land Rover recommends it's done every two years. There is a nasty bacteria that built up the air conditioning system, now part of the two-year service will do the pollen filter as part of the service there. But what I'll do is I'll make a note here to get the technician to do, see what he recommends. Now, service advisors, listen, let's, sometimes we might do the pitch of air conditioning service right then, if you've got time, okay, now the reason why I'm going to split this and talk about it and my pre-call and when they drop the car off is because sometimes when they drop the car off, you haven't got time, okay. I'm going to cover it at both sides there just to make sure I've had a chance to talk about it to the customer. If you're ahead of business, listen to this, a dealer principal and if you've not come up the after sales side of the business, yeah, just go and sit in the Monday morning, okay, from eight o'clock to nine thirty on the service counter, that's a busy old place, okay. And customers just throw in their cars and they're the key trucker saying, okay, get the kids to school, okay, here's the keys. And I just leave that with you and we haven't got a chance to talk about everything they should do. Now, again, we do try and spread out the times, so the service advisors have got time to talk about setting the agenda in the real world. Let me tell you guys, you tell a customer come in at quarter to nine, you can tell them all day long, they'll still turn up eight thirty or nine o'clock. It's just how it's going to work sometimes and if anyone says no, ask them when's the last time they've worked on the counter in the service department, okay, now don't take that the wrong way. I still want to try and spread the time, so you have got time, but let's start talking about on the recall, okay, so our record show, the air conditioning has been a survey of the last couple of years. We didn't do that last year, last year for you, did we, all right, I just landed over recommends it's done every two years because the air conditioning system, naturally, the gas would permeate through the hoses, the o-rings and the seals, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just visits. That's how it works. Tylendrover recommends that all the gas has to come out in environmentally friendly way. They need to pressure test the system to make sure there's no leaks there. We plan to shoot with fresh gas, the same gas that Toyota recommends, okay, they'll put a leak detecting dye in the system to make sure there's no leaks down the track. Now the gas carries the oil to lubricate the compressor and make sure all the seals and the o-rings, okay, there's an oil film over them, so the gas doesn't leak through all the seals. Now that normally works out at 279 pounds, but because we've got the cut in the dealership, on the ramps, the technician can do that for you for 149, should we get the technician to do that whilst the vehicle's being serviced. So that might be a pitch you might want to do that, okay, if you've got time. Okay, then we've got the dropping the car off. When we drop the car off, okay, we're going to do all the bits of serviced has to do, your loan car, locking wheel nuts, okay, if you're a manufacturer that still has an old fashioned serviced book, okay, make sure they've got the book is in the glove box where is it, all that stuff there, okay. But then, and while your vehicle's with us, say, we're going to carry our complimentary vehicle healthcare, which will look like this. Now there'll be three different colors on it. If it's green, it means it's as it should be. If it's amber, it's something that's going to require attention before your next scheduled service. Now if it's red, it might need immediate attention. It might even be a MOT failure or an NCT test failure, okay, whatever country you're in, if it's going for that. But what I'll do is I'll pop a call into you once the technicians have a chance to carry out that complimentary vehicle healthcare. Or I have to hear your phone numbers for you in 5, 5, 6, let's not forget your own. From time to time, the technician might want to send you a video on something they want to draw your attention to. I've got your email address here, siamenatkickertenalong.com, is that the best email address, okay? I love to set the agenda and tell customers we're going to carry out the complimentary vehicle healthcare, laminate it, let the customers see exactly what we're going to do there. You're going to find time wipes, your service advice might then say, oh, also, a record show the air condition wasn't serviced last time we did it, we didn't do that for you last time. Okay, well listen, Toyota recommends it's recommended every two years, because there is a nasty bacteria built up in the air conditioning system, okay, in fact by the way, here's one I don't know if I'd really want to say to a customer, but apparently it's the same bacteria that causes lesion ayes disease. Now that's crossed the line to scare mundering for me, but if you get that musty smell in an old air conditioning system, that's what it is, okay? That's why I'm guessing most OEMs, I put the pollen filter as part of the two year service on that one. Now again, this is where I'm going to get comments back and say, oh, no, it's for this reason, that reason. Guys, bear in mind, I'm not a technician, okay? I've never been on the tools directly, okay, but I've spent enough time in the service department and asked lots of questions, okay? Now, so we've got the prequel, we've got when the book dropped the car off. Now, if you haven't got time service advisors that either those calls, you have a choice. You can go through the full what's required and what's recommended there and then and secure the sale. We love that because the technician knows when the car comes in, hook it up for the system straightaway and get it doing its job, but you might say, have a listen, what I'll do is I'll ask the checkmission, see what they recommend, okay? Now, never forget, use the credibility of your technicians. They're the ones, they're the experts that fix things. Service advisors, I would never say, I recommend getting it done. I wouldn't say we recommend getting done. Dave the technician, Dave the expert, he's the person that recommends getting it done. So we've got the prequel, we've got the drop off, okay? And we've got the bidiot, technicians, okay? Technician videos, this is an ongoing piece. We've got to work it getting better all the time, but I want our service advisors not just say it's recommended to get the air conditioning service. We've got to build up what? At Simco Training, okay, we use the swap analogy. This is what the technicians see. This is why it's occurred. This is the outcome if you don't fix it, and this is what I propose, okay? And this is on any part of it, okay? If you want to focus on tracking, okay, this is what I've seen, okay? The tyre has got 1.7 millimetres on the inside edge and 3 millimetres on the outside, okay? This is why it's occurred, okay? With the potholes that tend to be breeding on the roads in the UK at the moment, actually the tracking is out on the vehicle and it's wearing it unevenly, okay? This is the outcome if you don't fix it. If we just put new tyres on it today without sorting out that tracking for you, you're going to prematurely wear the tyres out. So what I propose is not just getting those front tube tyres changed, which is close to the legal limit on the inside edge, but we recommend getting the tracking done first to make sure you get the maximum life out of the new tyres, okay? Here comes the air conditioning, okay? The record showed the air conditioning wasn't serviced in the last couple of years. That's what the technician seemed, okay? Then, it's recommended serviced every two years. So what I really need to do is take all the gas out and environmentally friendly flight. Pressure test the system to make sure there's no leaks in the system, okay? I'll put a leak detecting dye in the system, make sure there's no leaks in the future. Again, if you do in your country, okay? We plan to do a fresh gas, the same gas that Audi recommends, okay? I'll do the pollen filter, it's part of the service today, which is already included in the service costs today. But also, I'll put an antibacterial spray to the whole system, make sure there's no nasty bacteria is built up there. See, the gas naturally permeates through the hoses, the seals, and the o-rings in the air conditioning system. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just physics. That's how it works there. And after a couple of years, you might notice a drop off in not just cooling performance, but more importantly, okay? If there is a leak in it and a drop off of that gas, there's no gas to carry the oil to lubricate the compressor, and the compressor is the most expensive part of the system. So that's what process. We want the technicians on the video just to give some credibility of what should be done. And that helps the service buyers, that's so much more when they're actually making that cool. Okay, now we're talking about three times we could actually sell this air condition, okay? Prequel, when they drop the car off, or winder, service buyers are making the vehicle health check call. So let's look at this vehicle health check call, ring ring, hello is that Mr. and Mrs. Customer. Yeah, hi, it's Simon calling regarding the complimentary vehicle health check that we said we'd do to your car. Now David, your technician expected 38 points on the car as you thought most areas are green and as they should be. There's one area which is there by nothing to worry about now, but it's the rear two tires at 3.5 millimeters on them. They're just not going to make it to your next scheduled service. Now he has identified one area is red and that is the air condition and really does recommend that needs to be done on this visit. So what he needs to do is he needs to take all the gas out in environmentally friendly way, pressure test the system to make sure there's no leaks in the system replenish with fresh gas, the same gas that Ford recommends, okay, he'll then put a leak detecting dye in the system and also oil to lubricate the compressor. Now the oil will also pull a film over all the o-rings, the hoses and seals on the inside to make sure no gas leaks out there in the future. Now that normally works out at 2.99 but because it's in the dealership on the ramp, David could actually do that for 2.49 and it's not going to affect your pick up time of 4.30 this afternoon. Should we get David to do that air condition for you while the vehicle's with us? So we're telling them why. We're backing up what the technicians already said, okay, and we're asking for the business. But let's look at the objection handling. You might get someone saying, well, I hardly use my air conditioning, okay, just leave it. First technique might be, you know what, a lot of my customers said they hardly use their air conditioning and there's no point doing it. Till I found out it's the inactivity causes issues, not the activity. It's like your boiler at home. People don't get issues with the boiler in the middle of winter where it's been used all the time. Now it's the start of winter where it's been off for six months or whatever. Same as the air conditioning system. You see, if it's not been used, it's the inactivity causes issues, not the activity. If the seals, the o-rings dry up, that's where the gas will leak out. Of course, if the gas leaks out, there's no oil to lubricate the compressor, the most expensive part of the system. So I'd hate to think down the track. We're asking for a lot more money to work to other parts of the air conditioning system than 249 to get the air conditioning serviced. Isn't worth spending a little bit now, as opposed to a lot later? Oh, there's something else I need to mention there. You might notice I'm not using the word regas at all. Regas. Here's why. In the UK, where I live, you drive down the road, you have lots of places like QuickFits will say, get air conditioning regas from 99 pounds, okay? We're not just doing a regas. What we're doing is, we're actually putting oil in the system, okay? Leak detecting dye in your country, if you can do that, okay? The pollen filter's probably part of your two-year service anyway. In antibacterial spray, we're not just topping it up. In fact, in the UK, I think you could go to HealthFins. And for something like 89 pounds by a bottle of air conditioning gas, it always, it's mad. I was just selling it to any customer of the street, okay? Maybe they have stopped the selling now. They should do because your technician has to be licensed to deal with air conditioning refrigerant, but actually, the HealthFins will just sell it to someone. They can just play around with that in their garage at home. Are they going to take all the gas out in an environmentally friendly way? I don't know. We're not just doing a regas. It's an air conditioning servicing that we're actually doing for it, okay? Now another objection, okay? No, no, no, I'll leave that. Listen, David does recommend that it's done every two years to maintain the performance of your air conditioning. Can I ask you, is it the cost of that air conditioning service? Or is it a time frame to do it that you're not sure about? Guys, it's normally cost, isn't it? And then you've got the option to say, well, listen, on this occasion, why don't we just do the air conditioning service and leave the antibacterial spray until another time there? So what we'll get David to do is take all the gas out environmentally friendly way. Fresh to test the system. That's the important bit, okay? Replish with fresh gas, the same gas that Vauxhall recommends, okay? Put the leak detecting down there so there's no leaks down the future. Should we get David to do that for $1.99? At least he got some options to go. Now the last bit, if they still say, no, no, I'll leave it, we can pull out of our hat the promise me. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Customer, would you do me a favor? If we don't do it this time for you, would you promise me? We get the air conditioning service 12 months down the track when we see your car again. So with that one there, even if we don't do it this time, and by the way, if you haven't been doing air conditioning servicing, that's going to happen because people aren't used to it. So whilst you're not getting the sale this time, you might get it for 12 months down the track. Guys, air conditioning servicing is not just for the summer hot periods we are now, okay? But just wait till people come and say it's not working as cold as it should do, okay? It should be done all year round. And when people say, well, come into winter, I don't really need it. Never forget, it's the inactivity causes issues, not the activity. It's like your boiler at home, but I got issues with the boiler right in the middle of winter where it's been used all the time. It's the start of winter where it's been off for six months, okay? Guys, air conditioning service, it's not smoke and mirrors, okay? The reason why I love it, okay? The technician, wheels and machine over, sets it up and the machine takes all the gas out in a environmentally friendly way, okay? It will replenish it with the fresh gas, okay? It'll cleanse it as it needs, okay? It will top it up with the oil, the right amount of oil it needs to do. It crushes tests the system there. It'll put that leak detecting diant, depending on what system you have and more importantly what country you're in. It's good profit opportunity because from efficiency point of view, the technician can continue to do the rest of the service while it's doing its job. Now, the other bit is I'd look at incentives, okay? What incentives does your service advisor have for offering this? Is it part of, they get paid on the red and am work individually, okay? Is it part of the pot? Now, that's something that only you can decide but make sure there is incentive and the last thing, even more than incentive, measure it. Whatever gets measured, hence improve. Put a simple lead table in with your service advisors on how many air conditioning services they actually talk about. So, from start to finish, let's make sure we talk about on the pre-core. When they drop the car off, okay, let's sew the seeds on it or go for the sale on it. Make sure the technician mentions it in the video in the swap format. This is what I've seen. This is why it's occurred. There's the outcome if you don't do it and this is what I recommend or propose. Hence the swap there. The vehicle health check call, make sure we explain why it should be done and deal with the objections you're inevitably going to get as a service advisor. And when people say, no, I'll leave that air conditioning service, okay? Don't just say, okay, because if you just say, okay, without going through one of those objection handling techniques, you're telling the customer, you know what? I'm not even sure if it should be done. And then, you know what? We just have issues in the start of summer. And by the way, I'm recording this at the moment where it's sweltering hot, okay? We've had a heat wave in the UK, which is lovely. As an Aussie living in the UK, I'm not going to complain about it. But so many times customers come in and say, hey, it's not working. Air conditioning is not working. I always go back and have a look at when was it serviced and it wasn't. And that's now a diagnostic issue. It's not a servicing of what we should do. Now, again, we can actually put a thermometer in the air conditioning, what temperatures come back down to, okay? And see if it needs it or not. There's so many different things that your manufacturer might recommend. So still do what your manufacturer recommends. But most of them recommend every two years, okay? Make sure that everyone in the business understands why it should be done and the importance of it. Anyway, listen, this is a, this whole module, okay? Reach out to me, okay? Walk from start to finish. We'll talk about how to implement it in your business, okay? And how you can actually get a quick win on this. And we'll talk about something else next time. We want to talk about tires. If you want to get into the tire business, want to help. Anyway, that about does it for now. And I'll see you next time. That just leaves me to say that all details of this episode and other episodes on the selling in the motor trade can be found on our website simcotraining.co.uk Go there to get a copy of our book, Words That Sell Cars. Go there to sign up to a free trial of our sales fitness online sales training program. Easiest way to get hold of me is Simon Bokett through LinkedIn.
