The phone rings dozens of times every day in an auto repair shop, and almost always on the other end is a customer with a problem that needs solving.

For many service advisors, those calls can feel like high-pressure sales opportunities. They’re a chance to do some impressive closing work, overcoming customer hesitancy to move a product, and increase ticket averages.

According to Guy Roberts, director of operations for employee products at Shop Fix Academy, that mindset is short-sighted and may be holding shops back.

“The whole gist of it is, you’re not selling, you’re guiding,” Roberts told attendees during a presentation at Tekmetric’s Tektonic training conference earlier this year.

It’s a simple shift in thinking, but one that Roberts believes can transform not only customer relationships, but also advisor confidence, shop culture, and long-term profitability.

A Weight Lifted

Roberts has spent nearly two decades in the industry. He started as a service advisor in Nashville, Tennessee, later moved into management with Aaron Stokes’ multi-shop operation, and now oversees training programs through Shop Fix Academy, including the SalesFix advisor-training platform.
Over the years, he’s noticed the same struggle repeatedly surface among service advisors.

“They think their job is salesperson,” he says. “They think their job is to convince customers to do repairs.”

That belief often creates unnecessary pressure.

Roberts remembers feeling it himself when he first stepped into the advisor role. Many advisors believe they must persuade customers to spend money, and that pressure can make every customer interaction feel like a battle.
But when advisors begin viewing themselves as guides rather than salespeople, everything changes.

“My job is just to help you make the right decisions, make the proper decisions, make a very well-informed decision on how to take care of your vehicle,” Roberts says.

When he presents that concept during training sessions, advisors often respond immediately.

“I see so many advisors in that class that just breathe a sigh of relief,” he says. “There was a weight lifted off of them.”

The Education Gap

Part of the challenge, Roberts says, stems from a misunderstanding of the value shops provide. Many advisors struggle with recommendations because they are unsure whether customers truly need the services being suggested.

“A lot of service advisors and technicians don’t feel like people have to do the things that we’re recommending,” Roberts says. “So they feel like I’m trying to convince people to do things they don’t need to do.”

In reality, many maintenance recommendations exist to help customers avoid larger expenses down the road, such as fixing a small leak before it becomes a major failure or replacing fluids before excessive wear occurs. Those services rarely generate excitement, but they often save customers significant money over the life of their vehicles.

Roberts believes advisors must first become convinced of that value themselves.

“If you like what you’re driving, why not get as many miles as possible out of it?” he says.

That perspective turns recommendations into education rather than persuasion. Instead of convincing customers to buy something, advisors are helping them understand the consequences of various choices.

This shift also gives service advisors and technicians the ability to use the vast technical knowledge they have to build relationships with customers by taking complex technical findings and converting them into information customers can actually understand and use.

“I always liken it to your Aunt Donna,” he says. “You got a 60-something, 70-something-year-old lady who doesn’t understand all the technical aspects of a vehicle, but my job as a service advisor is to help her understand.”

That means avoiding jargon and focusing on practical outcomes. Rather than overwhelming customers with technical details, advisors should help them develop a plan.

“Whether you can get them all done now or do them in stages, my job is to understand how to figure out what that plan is,” Roberts says.

Ask Better Questions

According to Roberts, becoming a guide begins before any recommendations are made. It starts with asking better questions during the initial conversation.

Before a technician has even inspected the vehicle, advisors should learn how customers view their cars and what they hope to accomplish with them.
“What are your plans for this vehicle in the future?” Roberts says advisors should ask.

The answers provide critical context. A customer who plans to trade in a vehicle in six months may make different decisions than someone hoping to pass the vehicle down to a teenager in a few years.

Once advisors understand those goals, recommendations become more meaningful.

“We can get this thing many years just by taking care of it and taking care of all these little things that need to happen.”

Let Customers Decide

One of Roberts’ most practical suggestions is also one of the simplest. After presenting recommendations and explaining their value, stop talking.
“Let’s just present it all,” he says. “If you want to do it all today, here’s how much it is to the penny, and then stop talking and let that customer make a decision.”

Many advisors rush to fill silence or immediately begin addressing objections before customers have fully processed the information. Allowing customers space to think communicates confidence and respect.

When customers do hesitate, Roberts urges advisors to look deeper than the words being spoken.

“Oftentimes that’s just them saying, ‘I don’t trust you,’” Roberts says.
After all, the underlying issue still exists. A leaking water pump will eventually need repair somewhere. The real question is whether the customer trusts your shop to perform the work.

Training the Front Counter

Making this transition doesn’t happen overnight. For many advisors, strong communication skills do not come naturally. That’s why Roberts believes ongoing training is essential.

Too often, shops invest heavily in technician development while neglecting the people handling customer interactions.

“We focus on training our techs because we expect our technicians to fix every car right the first time,” Roberts says. “What we don’t do is expect our service advisors to engage and have a great phone call with customers on every phone call.”

Instead, advisor training is often sporadic, consisting of a seminar once or twice a year. Roberts argues that consistency matters more than intensity.
“It doesn’t have to be hours on end,” he says. “Fifteen minutes a day.”

That can include practicing scripts, reviewing recorded phone calls, role-playing difficult conversations, or simply studying communication techniques.

If owners and advisors can just understand how to be a better communicator and dig into that, everything else is easy,” he says.

The Competitive Advantage

When advisors stop acting like salespeople and start acting like educators, customers notice. They feel heard, they feel respected, and they feel empowered to make a choice.

The result is stronger trust, deeper loyalty, and more repeat business. It also creates a healthier experience for employees.

“If their people can go to work happy to be helping customers rather than miserable because I’ve got to convince people to do things they don’t want to do, it’s a totally different mindset,” Roberts says.

For shop owners, the takeaway is straightforward: invest as much energy in developing communicators as you do technicians. A perfectly repaired vehicle matters. But so does the conversation that earned the customer’s trust in the first place.

“If you focus on the front counter and hold people accountable to that standard consistently,” Roberts says, “you’re going to see huge differences in what happens on the front counter.”

And in an industry built on relationships, that difference can pay dividends long after the phone call ends.