In the two weeks before advisor training, pull each advisor's numbers, twenty repair orders per advisor chosen at random, a few recorded calls, the menu and prices advisors really quote, and the inspection form. Then arrange lane coverage, bring the shop foreman and parts manager in, and tell the advisors why the training is happening.
Why Preparation Carries So Much Weight
A trainer who arrives knowing nothing about your lane spends the first day finding out, or skips that and teaches the standard material. Both waste advisor hours you are paying for twice: once in the fee and once in time off the drive.
There is research on the point. In a survey of training professionals at 150 organizations, the activities that took place in the workplace before and after training were more strongly related to transfer than what happened during the training itself (Saks and Belcourt, Human Resource Management, 2006). Those are trainers' estimates collected by survey across industries, not measured behavior, and not dealership data.
What to Pull for the Trainer
| Item | What it shows | Where it usually lives |
|---|---|---|
| Per-advisor numbers, last 90 days | Who is strong at which step, against the store's own average | DMS advisor reports |
| Twenty ROs per advisor, random | The concern line, promise time, inspection, what was recommended and what was sold | DMS, plus the inspection tool |
| Recorded calls | How appointments, status updates and inspection findings sound | Phone system or call tracking |
| The menu and prices in use | What advisors actually quote, as opposed to what was approved | The advisor's desk |
| The inspection form, blank and completed | What technicians hand the advisor to work with | Shop or inspection tool |
Per-advisor numbers
Pull 90 days by advisor and by month. The useful ones are customer-pay repair orders written, hours per customer-pay RO (labor hours sold divided by customer-pay ROs), inspections completed and inspections presented to the customer, the close rate on recommended work (dollars or lines sold over dollars or lines recommended), and CSI by advisor if your manufacturer reports it that way. Add ROs written per advisor per day, because workload explains a lot.
Compare advisors with each other and with the store average, not with a number from a magazine. If a report cannot be pulled per advisor, tell the trainer. That gap is useful to know about. Reading an advisor's numbers for skill gaps explains what each figure points to, and the library's guide to service advisor KPIs defines them at more length. Save the file. It becomes your baseline.
Twenty repair orders per advisor, chosen at random
Twenty is enough to see a habit and few enough that someone will read them. Random matters more than the count. Take every fifth customer-pay RO from the last 30 days until you have twenty, or have the office pick by RO number ending. Do not let advisors choose. Include waiters and drop-offs, and keep a few warranty ROs in the set so the trainer sees how concerns are documented there.
Attach the inspection that went with each one. The trainer will read each RO for the same handful of things: is the concern in the customer's words, is there a promise time, was an inspection done, was anything recommended, was it priced, did the customer approve or decline, and is the approval documented?
Recorded calls
Three kinds per advisor: an inbound appointment or price call, a status update, and a call presenting inspection findings. Two or three of each is plenty. If your store does not record service calls, the trainer will listen live. Before sending recordings outside the store, check the consent rules; our guide to call recording laws for dealerships covers them, and it is general information, not legal advice. Recordings and ROs both carry customer information, so share them through whatever secure method your store uses for customer data, not as email attachments.
The menu and prices advisors actually use
Walk the desks and collect what is really there: the laminated sheet, the handwritten price list taped by the monitor, the manufacturer schedule, the op codes loaded in the DMS. If there is more than one version, send all of them and say which one is official. Price is a sore spot for customers. In the Cox Automotive 2025 Service Industry Study, which surveyed 1,974 vehicle owners, 45% of dealership customers reported a frustration with their visit; among them, 13% named finding out how much the dealership charges and 12% named a final price higher than the estimate. A trainer cannot teach a clean menu presentation from a menu nobody agrees on.
The inspection form
Send a blank form and ten completed ones from different technicians. The trainer is looking at what the advisor receives: measurements or just colored boxes, photos or none, notes a customer could understand. If half the forms come back with every box green and no tread depth, the first conversation belongs in the shop.
Covering the Lane While Advisors Are in the Room
Cars do not stop arriving. Settle the plan a week ahead.
- Protect the rush. Tell the trainer your heaviest hours and days. No session should sit on top of the early write-up wave or the late afternoon pick-ups.
- Rotate. Send advisors in halves, or one at a time in a small store, so someone is always at the desk.
- Thin the grid. If you can, book slightly fewer appointments into the session hours on training days.
- Decide who answers the phones. A cashier, the service BDC or an outside call center can take scheduling calls for a few hours. Pinnacle's own call center for dealerships lists inbound service calls among its call types, and it is one option among several.
- Do not use the service manager as the spare advisor. The manager needs to be in the sessions. See the service manager's role in advisor training.
Bring the Shop and Parts In Early
Advisors present what technicians write down and promise what the shop and parts can deliver. If the technicians hear about the training from an advisor, they will assume it means more upsell requests and more interruptions.
Meet with the shop foreman, the dispatcher and the parts manager before the visit. Tell them what is being worked on, and ask each for one thing they wish advisors did differently. Technicians usually have a list, and it tends to start with the concern line. Then ask for what the advisors need back: every inspection completed the same way, and a parts price and availability answer fast enough to reach a waiting customer. The library post on proper multi-point inspections covers the technician's side.
Two Things Training Cannot Fix, So Check Them First
Capacity. If the shop is booked out for days and technicians are already flagging full weeks, more sold hours turn into longer waits and broken promise times. Likewise, an advisor writing too many ROs a day has no minutes for a walkaround. How many repair orders one advisor should write gives a way to work it out.
The pay plan. If advisors are paid in a way that rewards volume written and ignores inspections presented or customer satisfaction, the training and the paycheck will ask for different things. Tell the trainer how advisors are paid. A good one will ask.
What to Tell the Advisors
Advisors read "someone is coming to watch you write service" as a verdict. Speak to them in person, about a week ahead, and cover four points.
- The reason, stated as a number or a behavior: "We complete inspections on most cars and present far fewer, and I want that fixed."
- That everyone takes part, veterans and the manager included.
- That their ROs and calls were pulled at random and will be used in the room.
- That afterward the manager will observe write-ups every week, and what that will look like.
Ask each advisor to bring one customer situation that went badly last month. It gives the trainer real material.
Where Pinnacle Fits
We run in-store Service Advisor Training. The page describes it as customized to the store's brand, OEM requirements and goals, and delivered through live in-store sessions that include reviewing recorded phone calls and observing walkarounds and live multi-point inspections. Customizing depends on the material in this article. Exactly what we will request for your store is something to confirm with us when you book; this checklist is our general advice for working with any trainer. For the visit itself, read what to expect from in-store service advisor training, or start from the Service Advisor Training Resource Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long before the training should we start getting ready?
Two weeks works for most stores. Numbers, ROs and recordings come first because someone has to pull them per advisor and the trainer needs time to read them. Lane coverage, the shop and parts meeting, and the talk with advisors can happen in the final week.
Should we clean up our repair orders before the trainer sees them?
No. The trainer needs to see the ROs as they are written on an ordinary Tuesday. Edited samples lead to training aimed at a problem you do not have. If the sample is embarrassing, that is the strongest case for the visit.
What if we cannot pull numbers by advisor?
Send department totals and say what is missing. Then ask your DMS provider or office manager whether an advisor-level report exists that nobody runs. If not, a hand count from the twenty-RO sample gives a rough per-advisor picture that is still better than none.
Do advisors need to study anything in advance?
Usually not. The useful homework is bringing one difficult customer situation and knowing their own numbers. If the trainer sends pre-work, keep it short and give advisors paid time for it. Asking for reading on their own time starts the visit with resentment.
Summary
Preparing for advisor training takes about two weeks. Send the trainer per-advisor numbers, twenty random ROs each with inspections attached, recorded calls, the menu in real use and completed inspection forms. Plan lane coverage around the rush without using the manager as a spare advisor. Meet with the foreman, dispatch and parts. Check capacity and the pay plan. Then tell the advisors the real reason, in person.
