The service advisor should organize the accurate pricing by primary concern, scheduled maintenance and needs discovered from inspections. Then there should be sub-totals and grand totals for all that needs to be done. The idea is to present a total cost for all the needed repairs and services. Then if the customer does not want all the work done, the advisor can quickly give the price for the items the customer wants for that service visit. Customers like seeing that the service advisor is well organized and does not have to go back to sum up a new price, but can give the new prices immediately.

Another pricing presentation method is to set up the repairs and services in a priority format, especially if the vehicle has a lot of needs. This will allow the service advisor to help the see customer what is needed now, and then if the customer does not want all the repairs on this visit, what can be planned for the next service visit.

The pricing organization should be done on either a form or just set up on a piece of paper. This can be faxed to customer if necessary for approval and it can be attached to the customer's copy of the repair order. All pricing, completed and not completed, should be attached.

I have designed an example of a pricing form in a format you may want to review. This can also be easily organized on a piece of legal pad paper in a format similar to my example form. Here is a sample of a filled out form . If you would like to experiment with this form, download it here.

Many service department computer programs have similar forms as these you can use, too. The main point is having something the service advisor can easily fax to the customer for review and can be attached to the repair order showing the details of any services completed and not completed.

© Copyright, 2007, J. Daniel Emmanuel

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