Should I hire another service advisor?

Hire another service advisor when your estimates already go out on time and customers still wait for a callback. The phones are the limit in that shop, and a second person at the counter fixes it. When finished inspections sit unpriced while your advisor is on the phone, a new hire inherits that bottleneck along with the desk, so fix the estimate step first. Most owners we talk to are trying to avoid the hire, which makes it worth knowing which problem you have.

Key takeaways

• Hire when the phones are the limit. Fix the estimate step first when pricing is.
• The estimate step is required work, so every ticket pays for it whoever writes it.
• A hire adds phone time and customer time without making any single estimate faster.
• Good canned jobs and a set parts matrix shorten estimates for everyone at the counter.

What are the signs you need another service advisor?

These point to a staffing problem, the kind a second advisor fixes:

• Customers wait for callbacks on estimates that are already written and priced.
• Nobody covers the counter when your advisor is at lunch or off, so drop-offs and pickups stack up.
• Customers call you for updates because nobody had time to call them first.
• Car count keeps climbing while estimates still go out on time.

One sign points the other way. When finished inspections sit waiting to be priced, the advisor is losing the day to estimate writing, and another advisor will lose their day to it too.

How do you know which problem you have?

Both problems look the same from the office. The phones ring through and the advisor looks buried. The difference shows up in the tickets.

Pick three ordinary days and track two things. The first is how long a finished inspection waits before the estimate goes out. The second is how often a customer waits for a callback about an estimate that is already written.

A long gap on the first number is an estimating problem. The inspection is done, the car is on the lift, and the ticket is stuck at the step where somebody looks up the labor and prices the parts. Our estimate turnaround checklist walks through where that time goes.

A long gap on the second number is a staffing problem. The estimate is ready and nobody is free to call. That is the job a second advisor does well.

Watch for one more thing while you are counting: findings that never get priced at all. A tech flags a leaking valve cover while the advisor is behind, and the line never makes it onto the estimate. That work shows up nowhere, which is why it is so easy to miss.

Why can't the estimate step just wait?

Because the law puts it in front of the work. California's repair statute says "The automotive repair dealer shall give to the customer a written estimated price for labor and parts necessary for a specific job," and "No work shall be done and no charges shall accrue before authorization to proceed is obtained from the customer."

The Federal Trade Commission gives car owners the same advice from the other side of the counter. It says a written estimate "should identify the condition to be repaired," along with the parts needed and the anticipated labor charge.

The paperwork does not end at approval either. California's invoice section says "All work done by an automotive repair dealer, including all warranty work, shall be recorded on an invoice and shall describe all service work done and parts supplied," with service work and parts listed separately. A price that was guessed at the counter has to hold up on that invoice.

So every ticket pays for the estimate step before a wrench turns. A car that waits for pricing is a bay that waits for work, and the tech's clock keeps running on nothing.

What does a second advisor fix?

Time with customers. A second person at the counter can check cars in and walk a customer through findings while the first advisor works a ticket. Shops whose car count keeps climbing eventually need that person no matter how fast the estimates get written.

A good hire also covers the hours the first advisor cannot. Days off and the first hour of the morning get easier with a second service writer who knows the shop.

What does a hire leave on the desk?

The lookups. A new advisor still opens the labor guide for every job and checks suppliers for every part. Two people doing that work in parallel handle more tickets, and each ticket costs the same as it did before.

There is a consistency cost too. Two advisors price the same brake job two different ways unless something keeps them aligned. A customer who comes back and gets a different number for the same work notices, and a shop that wants one price for one job needs its canned jobs and its parts matrix doing that work.

Then there is the ramp. A new advisor has to learn how your shop quotes before those estimates are safe to send, and the experienced advisor spends part of every day checking them in the meantime. Ask an advisor who has trained a replacement how many estimates they rewrote in the first month. That rework is the part of a hire nobody puts in the budget.

What does fixing the estimate step look like?

Most of it is setup that pays off on every ticket, whoever writes it.

• Audit the canned jobs. Common work should price from a template with the labor and parts already set. Our guide to auditing your canned jobs covers what to check.
• Set the parts matrix once. Markup decided line by line at the counter drifts. A parts matrix template keeps it consistent.
• Ask for findings that can be priced. A note that names the component and its position prices without a walk back to the bay. What a clean inspection note looks like shows the format.
• Take the writing off the desk. This is where AI drafting fits. Mechanica writes the estimate from the finished inspection with your canned jobs and your suppliers, and your advisor approves it. The details are in can AI write an estimate from the tech's inspection notes.

How do you compare the cost of each?

Use your own numbers. What an advisor costs you depends on your market, and what slow estimates cost you depends on your car count and your average repair order.

Two calculators make the comparison concrete. The ARO calculator shows what a few more priced findings per ticket are worth across a month. The shop break-even calculator shows how much new gross profit a hire has to produce before it pays for itself.

Put the two side by side. If the priced findings you are missing today are worth more than the hire costs, the estimate step is the place to start.

What should you measure after the change?

Whichever way you go, pick the numbers before you start so you can tell whether it worked. Four are enough, and every shop system can produce them.

• Inspection-to-estimate wait. The same number from the three-day test. It should drop within the first few weeks of a real fix to the estimate step, and it barely moves after a hire.
• Priced findings per ticket. Count the lines on the estimate against the findings on the inspection. A counter that keeps up prices what the techs find, and your average repair order follows that count.
• Declined work you can follow up on. A finding that was priced and declined is a phone call next month. A finding that was never priced is gone. A declined work log turns the first kind into revenue.
• Callback wait. The number that tells you whether you still need the hire. If estimates now go out fast and customers still wait for a call, the phones are the limit, and a second advisor has real work waiting.

Track them weekly for a month. The pattern usually settles the question faster than any argument at the counter does.

When is the answer both?

When the shop is growing. A counter that fixes its estimate step handles more cars with the same people, and then the phones become the limit. At that point the second advisor walks into a desk where estimates already price consistently, which makes the hire productive sooner. Hiring first reverses the order, and the new person spends the growth period learning a pricing process that is about to change.

A test you can run this week

1. For three days, note the time each inspection is marked complete and the time its estimate goes out.
2. Count the findings on those tickets that never made it onto an estimate.
3. Count the customers who waited for a callback on an estimate that was already written.
4. Compare the two waits. Whichever one runs longer is where to start.

For an owner's side of the hiring question, Craig Schmitke of Precision Automotive of Utah talks about his first hire and why he grows his own techs in The Mechanica Show, Episode 1.

More on running a counter that keeps up is on the blog.