Calculating the Number of Customers a
Service Advisor Should Handle Per Day

Why does this matter?  Customer service is the issue.  If we do not have adequate staffing to handle customers, then the customer will not receive the quality of attention they deserve.  This will create repeat repair and customer satisfaction problems due to poorly written ROs from service advisors rushing repair order write-up creating a lack of symptom details or service requests on the RO.  This will also result in lost customer pay income, as I note at the end of this article.

Calculating the Time to Process One Customer RO, Start to Finish

Task/Item	Average Time Needed
Service Write-up	10 minutes
Process RO to go into shop	5 minutes
Preparation and Calling of Status Report to Customer, Selling Service	10 minutes
Review RO Over Phone When Completed	5 minutes
Vehicle Delivery	5 minutes
Total Time Needed per Customer	35 minutes

Calculating Number of Customers per Service Advisor

Number of Hours Available for Work	10 hours
Total Time Needed per Customer	35 minutes
Hours Available Divided by Time per Customer	17 customers per day - MAX!

You can add or subtract tasks for the Service Advisor, but the average number of customers will always be between 16-20 customers per Service Advisor per day.

Some Service Advisors who work on commission may be afraid they will lose money with less customers.  The fact is they are already losing money because customers will not buy things from people who are rushed or do not seem to care due to a lack of time.   In most cases, the average sale per RO for the Service Advisor will increase with less customers.  The Service Advisor will end up making more money because they will have a better, more loyal customer base who will not only return to them for more service, especially out of warranty, but will refer their friends.   This is a trackable fact!

© 1999, Daniel Emmanuel