[68Impala]

Hey guys,

There is a shop here in Santa Barbara willing to train someone to do Service Writing in their shop.

Do any of you know what a Service Writer does? I cant find any infomation, and I think I may be interested in applying

Thanks
68

 

[engineman302]

re ;service writer

a service writer is the first person a customer see's when they have a problem with there auto , they listen to the customer about there complaint and get the vech.info and make the work order to give to the mechanic. its a fairly good job,people skills are a must. down side to it is the world is full of none mechanicly minded people and that makes it hard to deal with them when ther car is broke. somtimes they just dont under stand.good luck to you.imp:

 

[Linda R.]

Yes good luck most thankless job at a garage.

 

[Ghetto Jet]

I use to work in a garage, between helping my boss, mounting/balancing tires, and pumping gas I was the service writer. It must be a big place if that's all they have you doing. Don't worry, most people just hand over their credit card not questioning how much the bill is. If someone gives you problems the head mechanic or owner should step right in to handle it.

 

[Restore60s]

Service writer

Are you going into a dealership? If so it could open a door for advancement. Most service writers make a decent salary and a commission. On top of that some dealerships have programs from the factory to offer bonus money for selling needed repairs.
As stated you will be the first person to greet the customer some may want a oil change and some may come in really mad because their car has been in the shop 20 times. You will have to bend over backwards to each customer to let them know you are there to assist them. When you put 200% into each customer even the one's that may be upset will change their attitude and you will find when they need something done they will ask for you because of the trust you have developed with them. Service writers can move into management positions, shop foreman & by watching and learning from tech's in the shop even becoming a line tech themselves. But you have to take care of your tech's just as much as a customer. Getting proper time for them and making an effort to sell work for them if they find a needed repair. You can always do extra's for customers by every once in while taking one's car to clean-up for them. It really pleases a customer that might have been angry to show back up with a fixed car and it detailed. Test drive cars yourself if it is a problem vehicle and make sure the complaint is gone before you call them, don't always take the tech's word. They fix alot of cars and sometimes over look something. A car that may not be completley fixed let them know you still want to keep working with it to make sure it's fixed and offer a loaner vehicle if they have them. Most important do not be influenced by service writers who just don't care and there is a least 1 in every shop.

 

[engineman302]

:welcome: i worked at a chrysler dealership for about 2 years, and what Restore60s just said is 110% true.

 

[helrazr3]

i was a service writer for a few years, and all above is good advice. you definatly have to be a people person and not afraid of doing a little salesman work. the biggest thing to remember is that most of the people(not all) have just spent a lot of money for a car that now needs to be fixed, so there not in a very good mood to begin with. if you can deal with that and keep a positve outlook when all seems doomed than its the job for you. and you can advance if you choose to in most dealerships.

i enjoyed it when i did it but i got bored after a while because i was young and wanted to try other things.

 

[willowbilly3]

People like to spend money to buy cars but don't like to spend money to fix them. You will be dealing with people who are neutral to totally outraged but seldom with a happy person. It is a challange and your biggest problem IMO, is going to be communication. The customer spends 15 minutes telling you about the percieved symptoms and you have to encapsulate what they said hoping the tech will have any clue what the customer described. Most service writers put "noise in left rear" or something like that and then the tech has to take it from there. Quick test deive, NPF( no problem found) nail customer minimum shop charge, then wonder why customer is pissed off after 3 or 4 visits. If the dealership doesn't have a QC man (quality control) to go on test rides with the customer I would forget it unless you like frusterating jobs.