UTMC

so...

there is an opening for a service writer at a dealership. IIRC, several of you hold/have held such positions, so I ask:

besides good customer skills, is there any specialised knowledge required ?

any advantages and/or disadvantages to such a job ?

what am i overlooking ?

what kind of salalry & benefits should I expect to be offered ?


it would be a return to "retail" hours, which sucks. I'll miss my weekends (after 20+ years of M-F 9-5) but i expect i'll still have most nights & holidays off.


feel free to PM me if there is anything you want to keep confidential (or, at least, off a public site).

thanks in advance for your input and thoughts.

-mike

I'll PM gsglbc. Among other things, he's the service writer at a BMW/Husqvarna motorcycle dealership here in SoCal.

He has great people and mechanical skills, which is definitely a plus here.

PM on it's way

What is this "service writer" you are talking about?
I am unfamiliar with the term and so is Wikipedia.
Is it some manner of author of service-related items?
If so, why would he need good people skills for that?
Or is it just a fancy term for what elsewhere is known as "Hey you!", or "Customer service rep"?
If the latter, why is it a "writer"?
I'd mildly like to know!

Patience, good filters, and a strong liver for after work. People will lie, cheat & swindle, and then there are the customers. Expect to make about 1/2 to 2/3 what a mechanic makes. If I still had shoulders, I'd still be wrenching.

DerGolgo wrote:What is this "service writer" you are talking about?

From what I understand, you deal with customers who bring theiir bikes to be repaired/restored/upgraded/have chrome bolted on.

"This is what we're gonna have to do, this is our labor charge, parts will be this much, here's how long thisa should take. You don't need this for another 10,000 miles, but you may need this once we get into the gearbox. I recommend you do this now, and that later."

Right, gsglbc?

if the shop is big enough to have one, the service writer is the person the customer deals with when they bring in a bike for repair. They act as the go-between/interface between the customer and the mech. The service writer writes the service order which is what the mech uses to guide the repair process. It should indicate what specific repairs or diagnosis is required and how much time the customer has authorized to be spent before further authorization is required. Mechanics make the best service writers simply because they have the skillset to translate the customers complaints into specific problems/problem areas to be addressed by the mech. There is simple stuff like tire changes, tune ups etc and then there is more challenging stuff like performance/functionality problems that could involve several systems. A good service writer should be able to save the mechs a good deal of time otherwise spent on simple diagnosis. In smaller shops the service writer also often doubles as the parts person, both for the customers and the shop mechanics. That's a pretty big knowledge base all by itself.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Look two posts up if you don't believe me.

Never forget the BH box.

Long long ago when I worked as a parts guy at B******* Honda, a shop owned by Mafia guys with long memories, our service writer used one of the blank squares on the work order, the little ones that always seem to turn up on forms, as the "BH Box." Sometimes he would write "bh" in the box. Once in a long while, he would write "BH" in the box. If the customer ever asked, he would tell them it stood for "B******* Honda," which was ridiculous since the company logo was preprinted huge at the top of the work order. Back at the parts counter and in the service bays, everyone knew that "BH" stood for "Butt Hair." The customer had been a butt hair at the counter. Al almost always managed to stay polite and seem accommodating to the customer, but he knew that when the work order went back with the bike, vengeance would be his.

At the parts counter, "bh" work orders always "missed" that week's cut-off for parts ordering. In the service bays, the bike would wait until things got slow. If a mechanic spotted a nearly-worn-out camchain tensioner while doing a valve adjust, oh well, just button it up. The guy can come back in a month when the motor gets really noisy.

A work order with "BH" in the box really got special treatment. Parts were ALWAYS "backordered from Japan," and when we finally got them, the fun really began in service. Techs would punch in to the job, then maybe go do a scooter tune-up with the meter still running on the bh's bike, have a smoke break, and then start working on it. The final invoice always reflected a few extra hours spent on "rusty bolts that had to be removed" and lots of extra $$ for "genuine Honda replacement bolts." Maybe a phone call to authorize a "stuck front brake caliper rebuild" and "replacement pads" on a nearly-new bike. If the bh ever asked, Al had plenty of worn out brake pads behind the counter.

Can't say I'm sorry that shop went tits up, but I can say that the people who got special treatment usually deserved it.

You'll want to know the brands you fix, their weak points, parts availability and their maintenance schedules. You'll also want to get an eye for detail and look for scratches and damage as well as worn parts when taking in the bike, both to CYA and alert the customer to any needed work he may not be aware of, like corded tires, metal to metal brakes and totally blown fork seals. I see these things every week.

You should get an hourly rate and some form of commission on parts and/or labor sold. You'll also need to know Lightspeed (or whichever other computer program runs your shop). Generally, it is better to underpromise and overdeliver rather than the other way around.