What and how do you pay your Service Writer?

MINI4U · February 13, 2015

We are in the process of getting a new service writer and wondering what other shops pay.

I looked up the average pay and median was $42k up to max $69K. We are a small shop with 2 techs and don't want to start out too high.

blackstone1 · February 13, 2015

We use a full commission. The only guarantee we give is hourly. If the adviser doesn't sell, they wont make more than minimum. Make a back loaded pay plan, monthly and quarterly bonuses!!

mspecperformance · February 13, 2015

blackstone, what is their hourly rate.

MINI4U · February 13, 2015

That is interesting. When we were interviewing one of the dealer service writers said it was 100% commission. We had done previously salary of $3735. per month with a bonus calculated when we went over 50k in sales for the month.

mspecperformance · February 13, 2015

$3735 seems steep for a base salary and commission over 50k.

KMS · February 13, 2015

You have to be careful with commission. This is one of the reasons why we all are in business at independent shops. Customers are getting sick of getting taken advantage of at the dealerships. I have these conversations with new customers daily. You don't want to put excessive pressure on your service writers. Your service writers are the face and voice of your business. Keep them happy. I do agree with not over-paying them. We do salary plus commission with a majority of their pay coming from salary.

MINI4U · February 13, 2015

What are you paying?

MINI4U · February 13, 2015

Our last guy was not as good at sales as I feel he could have been so he ended up making about 50k. The guy we want to hire says he currently makes a little more than that but is payed hourly with some kind of bonus system which made me wonder what other shops do.

Edited February 13, 2015 by MINI4U

KMS · February 13, 2015

On 2/13/2015 at 7:09 PM, MINI4U said:
Our last guy was not as good at sales as I feel he could have been so he ended up making about 50k. The guy we want to hire says he currently makes a little more than that but is payed hourly with some kind of bonus system which made me wonder what other shops do.

Salary is around $50k, then the commission is matrixed by percentage of gross profit. The higher the profit each week the higher percentage they make. They must hit above 60% gross profit though before commission will start.

5 Star Auto Spa · February 13, 2015

50K salary for the CSA? Is he/she working 40 hours/5 days a week? If working 40 hours/5 days a week that breaks down to $24/hour before commission. We aren't able to afford quite that high of a salary/pay rate for our CSA. Our CSÁ's start out at $12/hour + 5% commission on parts and labor sold over the base sale. It typically comes out at around $16/hour at our current volume.

KMS · February 13, 2015

I believe that is way to low to pay a service advisor, but our service advisor works 50+ hours a week. It is worth it if they are really good. He also takes care of all the front end including parts.

MINI4U · February 13, 2015

So do you have an office person or does he do that as well as service write? We have a front office person so our writer wrote up estimates, ordered parts and answered the phone when the front office person was busy on the other line or cashing out a customer.

KMS · February 13, 2015

He greets the customers, writes service, writes estimates, sells service, cashiers, manages parts, answers phones, writes thank you cards, and manages the shop.

Mario · February 13, 2015

Service advisors even at the dealers around here make $12-$15 an hour. I have a few friends who work as SAs at dealerships. $50k seems crazy to me for a 2 tech shop. If your advisor is going to make $50k, what are your techs making, $75-100k?

5 Star Auto Spa · February 14, 2015

I was thinking the same thing as Mario in terms of how much technicians would have to be making if the service advisor is making that much, especially for a 2 technician shop. I guess if the sales numbers justify the salary than its not an issue......

MINI4U · February 14, 2015

Sounds like his service writer is doing two jobs so it does not seem unreasonable to me.

mmotley · February 14, 2015

I currently pay my SA hourly. The plan is to move her to 100% commission once she has enough experience and training. Commission will be based on hours sold.

KMS mentioned being careful as to not wanting your employees to over sell just to increase their paychecks. I think you can probably offset a lot of this by having strict recommendation intervals (ie, filters every 15 or 30, trans every 30, etc.). Hopefully you trust your employees not to over sell, but it's still something to monitor.

I've chosen to base their pay off of hours produced so I can easily calculate GP on labor and parts. If both the SA and the tech's pay is tied to labor hours, I can calculate my effective labor rate, then figure out the percentage that is GP.

mspecperformance · February 14, 2015

I know you techs out there hate to hear this but a SA worth his/her weight should actually make more or close to a tech. Remember a SA is the face of the shop. They are the people who greet customers, manage the front end, estimate and sell service, etc. Essentially they are and can be the manager of the businesses.

mmotley · February 15, 2015

On 2/14/2015 at 11:27 PM, mspecperformance said:
I know you techs out there hate to hear this but a SA worth his/her weight should actually make more or close to a tech. Remember a SA is the face of the shop. They are the people who greet customers, manage the front end, estimate and sell service, etc. Essentially they are and can be the manager of the businesses.

Much agreed!

FROGFINDER · February 16, 2015

When I retired in Sept 2014 the top service advisor made $1800.00 ish per 5 1/2 day work week.

mmotley · February 16, 2015

On 2/16/2015 at 1:49 AM, FROGFINDER said:
When I retired in Sept 2014 the top service advisor made $1800.00 ish per 5 1/2 day work week.

When I left the dealer, the bottom SA was making $60k a year. Most were making 6 figures. 100% commission. All based on hours sold

Richard Ehler · February 17, 2015

Selling without standards is stealing. Therefore, that should not be an issue. A combination of hourly or salary, sales goals, gross profit goal, and month end bonus works well. Salary or hourly should not be so high they are satisfied. Your pay for advisor should be about 10% of sales.