department and all of the staff within it were known simply as 'the back.' The technicians were truly grease monkeys, there were no service advisors and the service manager was really just a shop foreman, the top mechanic who could fix anything. As the importance of the service department was being recognized as a means of keeping the customer within the dealership for future sales and customers began expressing their satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the service that they received, it became apparent that this traditional service operation needed to be changed.It was at this time that service writers were introduced, primarily to keep the technicians turning wrenches, producing labor in the service bays instead of speaking with customers in the service lane. The service manager was still primarily a shop foreman who instructed writers to write technician-friendly repair orders. Service writers soon realized that they were, in fact, ”selling” service and they evolved into service advisors. As advisors they began to develop a business unto themselves, scheduling customers, dispatching work, ensuring proper repair order close-out and began to handle some of the issues that arise in any service department, from customer concerns to development of future business.

It was at this time that service managers began to emerge that had never worked on a shop floor. Advisors who demonstrated an aptitude for handling technician concerns as well as customer concerns while maintaining consistently high service sales were promoted to service managers with the mandate of taking this success through the entire department. Many service departments today operate utilizing one of these two managers, that is the technician service manager and the advisor service manager. Those dealers who have recognized that the service department is the soul of their operations have taken the service manager to a new level. With more aftermarket service facilities in any given town or city than franchised dealerships, customers have more choices and, in turn, have learned to expect more from their service facility. Every service operation, dealer or aftermarket, is doing more and more for their customers to ensure they are completely satisfied and continue to do business with them in the future. This 'new' service manager has a completely different set of responsibilities than his predecessors. In most cases he is not a technician and has little, if any, technical knowledge. His/Her primary responsibilities are to ensure customer satisfaction and for marketing. Yes, marketing!

Due to the ever-increasing competition for a customer’s service business, the service manager must be keenly in tune to customer's current expectations and attempt to predict what their expectations will be in the future. Only by meeting and exceeding customer expectations can any service department expect to continue earning a customer’s business, but there is more to it than that. The service manager has to find creative and effective ways of ensuring that the entire customer base is aware of what processes and procedures are in place to ensure that customer expectations are constantly being met. It is also his/her responsibility to facilitate the necessary changes in the service operation as customer expectations change. Customer expectations today are higher than they were five years ago, and five years from now, what we are doing today will seem prehistoric. It will be the service marketer who leads his/her market with innovative customer satisfaction measures and creative methods of delivering that message that will survive and thrive. Determine where in the evolutionary scale you fall and ask yourself, 'Am I following the market, on pace with the market, or leading the market? ''Shop Foreman' Service Manager? 'Top Advisor' 'Service Manager?' 'Master Marketer' 'Service Manager?'