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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation
They are talking about this topic: General Skills
The quotes below are about this issue:
Customer service skills are essential and yet are sometimes lacking. This is particularly true for service managers, but also for technicians.
| "Sometimes it's the perfect thing to do to have them talk directly to [the customer], so it's helpful if they can understand interpersonal skills better than some of them do. We know which ones not to put in front of the customer." | Metro |
| "We look at what most of the entry level jobs are. They're working on the lube rack, or they're a greeter, or they're a driver and, you know, a greeter or a driver is obviously going to be talking to the customer." | Metro |
| "So I think the communication skills, just dressing and tucking your shirt in, thanking [customers] for their business, those are things that don't even involve fixing the car or truck." | Metro |
| "With our customers too, I mean, it used to just be pick up the phone and call them. Now, it's like, do you prefer that we text you, e-mail you, or call you. Everybody's got their own preference. Some want a text message when their car is done, some want us to call them, others—no don't call me, e-mail. So it's how you prefer that we communicate and every customer is a little different. So that communication link...they do their scheduling. It's not call up and make an appointment, it's go on the internet now and schedule your car appointment of when you're going to get it worked on." | Metro |
| "You know, our saying at the school has been for years, 'We're not a repair industry anymore, we're a service industry, and our job is not to fix the car, it's to fix the customer.' So what it takes to fix that customer is soft skills—how to talk to them. I know that's tough for the younger generation student coming in. They don't realize that." | Metro |
| "But just to get back to the soft skills...can they deal with customers? Can they deal with their fellow employees? Can they have a little common sense? I know we can't train that, but that's part of it too." | Northwest |
| "I don't know if any schools teach any customer service. Because in a service place you've got to have soft skills. You've got to be personable with the customer, know how to talk to them on the phone. You've got to have the technical background so when they ask you, 'Why did my water pump fail?' you have some sort of an answer for them other than just, 'It broke.'" | Northwest |
| "I think if there was more soft skill training and more customer awareness in how to handle situations—so they're not going to just say, hey, I've got to run and talk to somebody—that they can think on their feet quicker. That would be a huge part of what I would look for." | Northwest |
| "Q: Is the customer service side such a big deal? A: Yeah...that's huge." |
Northwest |
| "Like a service advisor position. How do you teach that? I mean, there's no college or after high school program for that. Someone who meets the customer and sells them the service that they need...it's nice to have knowledge of cars and stuff too, but what really makes a good service advisor is that they're conscious of little details." | Northwest |
| "Our best advisors don't come from the shop. They come from the sales department. Because they know how to meet and greet, they know how to qualify, they know how to shoot new feature benefits, they know how to close, they know how to do presentation. They don't need to have all the technical know-how. But they know how to sell." | Northwest |
| "The service advisors have got to struggle with that. They basically need to have a sales background...It's hard to get them. And if they're really into sales, they're probably going to do something else." | Northwest |
| "The service manager should be the kind of coach. The service advisor should be that full-service manager. They should be able to organize the shop and know the technical side, and have that skill. But the service manager should be out in the shop, and talking to the customer, and making sure everything is running smoothly." | Northwest |
| "I can see that when we have a person that's been working there and goes on to something else, there's a section of people that we don't see anymore. So they kind of keep their friends and little networking stuff that leaves then too. But it's a big part of the business, I think, to keep building that network no matter where it's coming from. You have to keep it going." | Northwest |
| "I guess I haven't seen social media take over too much, but really just the word-of-mouth advertising. That's always the best thing. So when you establish the rapport with a customer, hey, tell your friends. That's definitely something that we try to preach. And then the continuing education of those people is just the product knowledge, mainly just being able to educate our customer really kind of gains their trust and establishes a nice relationship." | Northwest |
| "Work ethic, productivity, communication and people skills are important." | Northwest |
| "Customer service skills, interacting with the customers, whether it be as simple as answering the phones...it still boils down to being able to interact with the customer." | Northwest |
| "It is important to have that rapport." | Northwest |
| "If the car comes in and we have no idea what we can do, we send them to the manufacturer, because I will not waste time trying to figure it out. It just isn't worthwhile. And consequently, I have a very happy customer because they've gone to Chrysler or Ford or whatever, and come back. And they've not spent that much money figuring it out." | Northwest |
| "We need employees who can interact with the customer." | Southwest |
| "People skills are pretty important." | Southwest |