The service advisors who succeed in 2026 do the same things the good ones did in 1987, a consistent process, a walkaround on every car and a set time to call the customer, they just do it on an iPad, says Tyler Smith, a service advisor at a Kia store, on this episode of Fixed Ops Focus with Steve Shaw of Shaw Dealer Training Group and Dave Rogers. Tyler walks through his tools, his morning review of appointments, recalls and preloaded menus, a multi-point inspection even on warranty and recall visits, and how his company made the walkaround non-negotiable after seeing that the advisors who did it sold more wipers, tires and filters. He is paid on commission, admits money drives him, says caring about the customer matters just as much, and his tip for managers is to be on the drive and set realistic expectations.
Writing service in 2026 0:00
Steve Shaw: All right, all right, we are back again. Can you believe it, Dave? We're back again.
Dave Rogers: Amazing, isn't it? Another day.
Steve Shaw: They haven't kicked us off YouTube yet. So guess what? I got a comment, and a phone call, and an email, all those things people on YouTube do, and they're like, "Bro, what are you two old dudes trying to pull here? Talk to us about
writing service in 2026." It's a lot different than writing service whenever you and I did it. That might have been the '80s. I'm not sure.
So I brought Tyler Smith here. Tyler Smith is a world-famous, very good service advisor. He knows how to do the deal. We've talked, and he does know how to do the deal. Pretty sharp character. So I thought it might be fun to pick his brain and see what Tyler has to say. What do you think about that, Dave?
Dave Rogers: I think it's fantastic. Let me get my old-school notepad out. I'm going to start taking notes, and I want Tyler to school us on what it's like to be an advisor in 2026. I'm ready.
Steve Shaw: That sounds like a good way to start. Tell us, what's it like to be a service advisor in 2026?
Tyler Smith: It can be difficult, but it's also a good time. Every day is different. You never know what you're going to run into. But I think a big difference between now and when you guys were doing it back in the old ages is a lot of technology: iPads and iPhones, sending recommendations, Pass/Fails and all that fun stuff. I think that's a big difference.
Dave Rogers: We were talking the other day about the old days of handwritten ROs and stuff like that. You're in a Kia store. How many advisors, how many techs, how big a store?
Tyler Smith: We have about twelve techs, so it's a full shop back there. Three advisors, and our service manager is pretty involved as well. That's the size of our shop, but we tend to stay pretty busy. It's mostly a full shop all day, every day.
Steve Shaw: How many tickets do you write a day?
Tyler Smith: Roughly twelve to fifteen a day.
Steve Shaw: Okay, cool. Good deal.
The tools: Tekion, loaners and video inspections 2:16
Dave Rogers: Tell us about some of the tools you use in the service department. What kind of service write-up tools are you using?
Tyler Smith: We're on Tekion where I'm at, at the Kia store. We also use TSD Dealer for loaner cars and rentals and fun stuff like that. Email, obviously. And we actually text through Tekion, which is different. It's not a separate platform anymore.
Dave Rogers: Tell me about Tekion. How do you like it?
Tyler Smith: After almost four years on CDK, it was a bit of a change-up. There's a lot more going on on the screen at the same time. I wouldn't say it's any better or worse than CDK. It's pick your poison. They've all got their pros and cons, but Tekion could step it up a bit.
Steve Shaw: Well, there goes that sponsorship.
Dave Rogers: That's a good plug. We've got to get them on here so they can tell us how they're going to fix all this stuff. How long ago did you switch?
Tyler Smith: I went from CDK to Tekion about four months ago, I believe, because I switched companies.
Dave Rogers: Okay, so it's still new.
Do they have service lane technology, like writing up the car on an iPad, an electronic multi-point inspection sent to the customer? Do they have all that built in? How do you do with it?
Tyler Smith: Yep, that rolls right back into the technology. We can write the entire repair order on the iPad, or on your phone. You can also do it on the computer, but there's basically no paper until the end of the deal. And we have videos under the car for inspections that get sent directly to the customer, which most of the time is a game changer. Customers love it. They can see underneath their car. They can see firsthand what the technician is seeing, and why
we're telling them what they need to do.
Steve Shaw: Awesome. We did an episode the other day, you might have seen it, about how long your videos are. Are they two minutes, five minutes, or thirty seconds? How long are your tech videos?
Tyler Smith: A minute to two. You want enough substance in there to show what the technician is trying to explain, but you don't want to lose the customer's interest. So we try to keep it short, but long enough to get the information in.
Process, and knowing your techs 4:40
Steve Shaw: Awesome. So I'm curious, Tyler. I know you do a great job, and we've had conversations in the past. What are some of the things you do personally that have helped you become successful as a service advisor?
Tyler Smith: A lot of process. You've got to make sure you're doing the same thing. Obviously each car is a little different and each customer is a little different, but you really want to have the process down so you're doing the same thing every time, taking care of each customer the same way, with the same respect, patience and all that fun stuff. Then getting to know your coworkers is a big thing too. Make sure you know how their process goes,
what work the technicians like to do, and that you have rapport with them, so you're giving them the work they're good at and can take care of in a timely manner.
Dave Rogers: Good. So you mentioned twelve techs in the shop. How do you dispatch work? Do you have a central dispatcher? Do you use the computer, Tekion? How does that work for you guys?
Tyler Smith: The technician does have a "next job" button. But if nothing comes up, we might have stuff cooking that Tekion doesn't know about anymore because it's out of the queue. So, to backtrack a little, we do have a shop foreman who does a lot of dispatching for us. But sometimes he gets tied up underneath a vehicle, so all of us advisors work together as a team most of the time to make sure we're dispatching work to all our technicians properly.
Engines, warranty and customer pay 6:16
Dave Rogers: Do you have a lot of heavy work there? Engines and stuff, like some of the other stores on the East Coast?
Tyler Smith: Engines, engines, engines. Tons of engines and tow-ins. Transmissions sometimes, but a lot of that warranty extension on the engines with Kia.
Steve Shaw: How is customer pay with Kia right now? How are you doing with that?
Tyler Smith: Preventive maintenance is pretty good. We don't see a whole lot of mechanical repairs getting pushed through from inspections, from somebody coming in for an oil change or rotation. I don't know if that's because Kias just don't break as much as I'd like them to, or if the technicians aren't shaking them down as well. It could go either way.
Dave Rogers: That's one of the issues I see a lot of times in the Hyundai stores too. When you get into these big warranty jobs, the cars are stacking up and you've got engines that need to be done. Nobody's merchandising the car, as we call it. Nobody's doing the multi-point. You're just trying to put out the fire and get the customer happy on the warranty, and you're missing a good opportunity to upsell customer pay. Do you have anything in your process? What do you do differently from most people?
Tyler Smith: I know some stores won't even do a multi-point inspection on warranty work. Something we're big on is putting that multi-point inspection on even for warranty work. They're coming in for a couple of recalls? Let's still check out the vehicle. What does their cabin air filter look like? What do their windshield wipers look like? What do their tires look like? We try to touch base on all of those, even with all the warranty work coming in the door.
Steve Shaw: Are you making customer pay business a priority, or is it, "Well, we've got the engine, so it doesn't really matter, let's get that done and make the big bucks"?
Tyler Smith: Both. I'd say both are important. You want to make sure all the Kia stuff is taken care of per Kia, but you also need to make sure the customer is advised on what's going on with their vehicle. So we focus pretty heavily on both.
Steve Shaw: Do you have some sort of menu program? I know that's something you and I talked about a long time ago. Are you using menus in your store? How does that work at write-up?
Tyler Smith: Yep. We have SmartVMA, another platform I forgot to mention earlier, which is BG. So we do present those menus. I think I sold three decent menus today. Those hours stack up pretty quick, and it's always a good feeling.
A service advisor's day 9:06
Dave Rogers: So tell us about your day, from first thing in the morning on. You don't have to do every minute, but what's your day like in 2026 as a service advisor? Do you answer the phones? How does your day go?
Tyler Smith: The big thing, right in the morning, if I didn't do it the night before, is to see what customers are coming in for the day. See if they have prepaid auto care, where oil changes and rotations are prepaid. Check their recall work and any warranties they might have. Go over the concerns they have, so it's not a blindside when you walk up to them on the drive and say, "How you doing?" You already kind of know what's going on. Once that's taken care of, I usually go into my email
and make sure I'm not missing anything crazy, like missed calls from the evening before when we were all taking off. I like to get the VMA menus parked and ready to present to the customer, with the miles they might be at for the visit. Then customers start rolling in about 7:15, 7:30, and we're checking cars in and dispatching them and making sure customers are taken care of for the day. About 5:00, 5:15 rolls around, and it's time to lock up.
Dave Rogers: That was a big gap, man. That was a big gap in time.
Tyler Smith: Yeah, there's a lot of that. We have a BDC, a call center, so I don't see a whole lot of phone calls unless there are issues between those two parties.
Steve Shaw: Well, here's a question about that gap. Old-school Steve Shaw would say, "Hey, Tyler, when's a good time for me to call you with a status on your car, or to present it to you?" Are you all on text, in that system? How do you approach the customer from a promise time standpoint?
Tyler Smith: I try to get that right on the drive during check-in. "Do you need your vehicle back by a certain time today? Are you in a time crunch? What's your agenda look like? Do you work today? What time are you off?" If they're flexible, I try to hit quarter time and make sure I'm contacting them in a good amount of time, so I can find out when they need the vehicle back and let them know what we found on the inspection and all that fun stuff.
Steve Shaw: So you are setting a time to call them. If it's going to be there a while, you set a time and let them know when you'll be calling.
Tyler Smith: Absolutely. And like I said, I try to do that right on the drive.
Steve Shaw: Do you do texting too, to keep them informed? Is that one of your tools?
Tyler Smith: Yep. That's directly in Tekion. It's all online tickets, basically. You can go into their ticket, click the little text link, and it pops up the entire text history with that customer. You can see if they've already talked to the BDC about a certain time. If they haven't, you can text them if they don't answer their phone, or because some customers just prefer text.
The walkaround becomes non-negotiable 12:09
Steve Shaw: Awesome. Let me ask another question. I want to go back to some of the things you do to be successful. You mentioned process, and we just did a big episode about process improvement and developing processes. You've been in a couple of stores now. Can you talk about the difference between a store that's very process-oriented and one that's not so process-oriented? How does that affect you as a service advisor?
Tyler Smith: Where I'm at now, the Kia store, we're way bigger into walkarounds. That's one of the big parts of the process. But, backtracking on what I said a little bit ago, you make sure you're checking their history and seeing what they did in the previous couple of visits. "Did you just do tires? Did you do the alignment at that point?" So checking history and checking warranty is part of the beginning of the process. Then the introduction on the service drive, making sure you're doing a good walkaround,
and then contacting them at the proper follow-up time and all that fun stuff.
So I try to do all that.
Dave Rogers: So what makes you, as a young man coming into a new place, as the next generation of advisors, follow someone's process? Do you do it out of fear? How do you buy in? Because it seems like you bought into whatever the process is there.
Tyler Smith: I see it work. We're on a campus with Ford and Hyundai as well, and I've seen guys on those service drives, walking through the other stores, with higher-volume tire sales just from doing a walkaround. I see it being successful, and I want in on it.
Steve Shaw: Did your manager say, "This is non-negotiable," when you started? How did he approach you? "This is our process, Tyler"?
Tyler Smith: It's funny you bring that up. There used to be an advisor process that was just a one-sheet thing with maybe twelve or fifteen lines on it. Now, company-wide, we have an actual Bible, so to speak. One of the first things in it is doing the walkaround. Now it's non-negotiable. I think that's probably because they saw that the guys doing it have higher success rates selling wipers, tires, cabin air filters, engine air filters, even touch-up paint.
Steve Shaw: Did they ask you about it, or did they just roll it out?
Tyler Smith: Pretty much just rolled it out. They didn't really ask anybody's advice. They just said, "Hey, this is what everybody needs to do now," because only a select few were doing it.
Steve Shaw: So they took the best practices and made them company-wide. Okay, cool.
Tyler Smith: Right. They saw the success rates of the advisors who were doing it every time and wanted to roll it out company-wide. So for the people who weren't doing it: put your boots on, we're walking around that car.
Steve Shaw: So hypothetically, I'm Steve, a service advisor with a bad attitude, and I don't want to do it. Do I get walked out the door? I'm just curious what happens. How do they hold you accountable? That's really the key.
Tyler Smith: First thing would probably be a write-up, if I had to guess. Second, probably a little talk in the office with the managers, and maybe third strike, you're out. I haven't seen it yet.
Steve Shaw: So they're watching. They care about it. It's important to them. That's what you're saying.
Tyler Smith: 100%. And all the managers at each location on campus talk, so everybody knows who's doing the walkaround and who's not. I've heard about a couple of people, not at my store, not doing it already. There's a Buick location where it sounded like a guy got a pretty good chewing out for not doing one.
Steve Shaw: Well, we talk about this all the time. Are people being held accountable? I love that they did it. It warms my heart. We just talked about it in our last episode. So often we put something in place and don't follow up. So it warms my heart, one, that they did it, and two, that they're holding you accountable. And you're seeing the results of that effort. You're getting a bigger paycheck.
Tyler Smith: Yep. And going back to what you said about holding people accountable: sometimes in the morning we get a bit of a rush and we'll do a kind of half-ass walkaround, and we'll hear from the manager, "Make sure you're doing those walkarounds." He'll text the whole service drive.
Steve Shaw: Well, it's good to know he's watching. Go ahead, Dave.
Dave Rogers: I was going to say, is he watching the camera, or is he out there with you guys?
Tyler Smith: He's on the drive all the time. He's a worker bee with us. And I've had managers do the complete opposite, so it feels good having him on the drive, willing to help all the time.
Dave Rogers: That's good, man. We've had those conversations on some of our podcasts. That's the four-letter word some people don't want to do. Even if you're a manager, you've got to work. You've got to get out in the drive-through, get your hands dirty, be out there with the rest of the team, shuffling cars and moving people around. It sounds like you've got a good guy running the place.
Tyler Smith: Absolutely.
Daily checklists, and what drives him 17:40
Steve Shaw: What I was going to say is that I hear some cool stuff. You review your appointments when you get to work. You look at the tickets, any emails, any phone calls. So it sounds like you have a process, a checklist, that you go through every day, which again really warms my heart. You have a menu, and I loved what you said: you preload the mileage. So what's due, based on the time and mileage requirements, is all
ready, and I'm guessing your brain is figuring out how you're going to make that presentation. That's great stuff. Tell me more about what keeps you in that success mode. And here's another question you can think about: what drives you, young man?
Are you money-driven? What drives you?
Tyler Smith: Not to be cliché, but money. I like money. Everybody likes money. I like my outdoor toys, so I've always got to be able to work on those and put gas in them. If I want to have fun, I've got to work hard. That's one thing that drives me. I also have a good role model in my life, and he put a good work ethic in my head. That helped me a lot too.
I think that's a lot of what drives me.
Dave Rogers: How did you get into the car business? How'd you end up doing what you're doing?
Tyler Smith: I moved to Lawrence, Kansas right out of high school and moved back within about three years. I ended up selling cars at a little used car lot, and from there I sold John Deere equipment and a few other random things. I decided I didn't really want to get back into sales, but I did like the dealership life. So I figured I'd give service a shot, and it clicked.
Steve Shaw: That's pretty cool. What drives some of your other associates? I'm old-guy Steve, and we always hear that young people... maybe you're in between. You're one of those guys who loves money, and I love money. Are there other people in your store who are motivated differently?
Tyler Smith: Feeding kids, I'd say. They don't want to sit at home, so here they are at work. But we're all pretty similar. At our store we're pretty much only commission, so most of us are completely money-driven, I'd say.
Dave Rogers: You're 100% commission?
Tyler Smith: Yep. Well, there's X amount of dollars in bonuses each month if we hit all our percentages and numbers and all that fun stuff, up to about $2,200 a month, I believe. But other than that, all commission.
Steve Shaw: Well, it's good to hear. Dave and I always make fun of the pie-in-the-sky LinkedIn stuff: whatever generation, the younger people aren't motivated by money. They want time off. They want this and that. It's good to hear there are still people in the car business motivated by money, because it is a business where you can make a lot of money, especially doing what you're doing and working. It's great to hear that from you.
Tyler Smith: Looping back to what you said, a lot of people my age aren't money-driven. They want time off, vacations, sick days, whatever. But... I totally lost my train of thought on that one. I went on a rant.
Steve Shaw: We lose our train of thought too, and ramble off.
Dave Rogers: Steve's happy that you're one of them. If 50% of your generation can be motivated by money, then the car business will survive another fifty years. We'll be all right.
Steve Shaw: Well, if your pay plan is 100% commission and you're not motivated by money, you're probably in the wrong role.
Caring about the customer 22:03
Tyler Smith: I remember what I was going to say now. You've got to care a little bit. You've got to care about the customer, and care that their car is safe on the road. That's another thing that drives me: I do care about the customer and making sure their car is up to snuff.
Steve Shaw: Talk to us about that. Talk about CSI and how you approach the customer. We're all motivated by money, but I love that you brought in the customer service side. How do you approach it?
Tyler Smith: I try to make sure the customer's happy from the beginning. Even just a warm hello can change the whole thing. Then make sure you take care of them. Again, follow-up times and everything like that. Because in their head, you're just holding their car hostage. So talk to them through the whole process, because they might have some anxiety about it. Then, once it's all said and done: "Hey, how was your visit today? Is there anything I could do to make it better?
Did I give your car back in as good or better condition than when you dropped it off?" Stuff like that.
Dave Rogers: This guy's like the poster child for Steve Shaw training. I like it.
Steve Shaw: I was going to say, I don't know who trained you, but whoever that guy is, you've got a great mentor. That's pretty awesome. Glad to hear it.
Dave Rogers: I think you're right about the caring, though. You have to care about the people you're dealing with: your customers, your coworkers, and your professionalism. You're a professional at what you do. You care about your career, which I think is a great sign. It does sound like you had a great mentor and role model, because
when you get into this position... how long have you been an advisor?
Tyler Smith: Just under five years. Five is coming up pretty quick.
Dave Rogers: When I was an advisor in my late twenties, I had kind of thin skin. When customers came in fuming, yelling and screaming, you almost took it personally, because you were young and didn't know any better. I think you're ahead of the curve that way. It seems like you're mature and have a good grasp of what you're dealing with. But it is tough, having people come in, and sometimes it's just...
Tyler Smith: I'll put it this way: I don't necessarily hate those conversations, because I like a little bit of a challenge sometimes. If a customer comes at me sideways, I'm like, "Well, how can I simmer this down?" So I kind of like those conversations sometimes. But you do have the customer who's just relentless.
Dave Rogers: They're out there, and they're worse than they ever were with social media and the Karens on TV, and all the Kevins, in all fairness. I don't know what it is. They think they can walk into a business and act like an animal. I just don't understand it. So how do you deal with it? Obviously you don't have thin skin. You're handling it pretty well, and you've been doing it for five years.
Tyler Smith: As soon as somebody gets escalated, I always try to pinpoint what's going on first, because sometimes they just blow up and don't even tell you. So, "Okay, let's back up a step and slow down. What's going on?" That's usually how I start the conversation, and most of the time, not always, it backs them up a little bit. Instead of just screaming at you, they start explaining their side. And I've noticed, with technology in 2026,
a lot of people are a lot meaner by text message than when they come into the store, where the demeanor changes.
Dave Rogers: That's true. It's hard to read emotions. How many times do you get into a fight with family or friends about the way they interpreted a text? It happens all the time. That's the danger in emailing and texting customers during the day. You never know what you're going to get.
Tyler Smith: 100%. Every day on the drive is different, which is half the reason I love it.
What managers can do better 26:25
Steve Shaw: What are you looking forward to in the future? You're a young service advisor. Are you planning on sticking in the business and growing? What does your future hold, hopefully?
Tyler Smith: I'd love to be a service manager at some point, or get into training on the service drive. Those are my two goals, I suppose. It was funny: when you're getting hired, you say, "I want to be a manager." Well, everybody says that. Then my manager saw how I operated on the drive, came up to me and said, "I think you do want to be a manager." Yeah, that's what I told you.
Steve Shaw: Like a guy once said to me, don't ever forget your roots. I know so many guys who go from advisor to lane manager or manager, and all of a sudden it's, "Wait a minute, I've got to do something." Sometimes they forget what got them there. It really does sound like you've got a good manager out there working the drive with you, holding your feet to the fire and actually doing the deal. That sounds like somebody good to look up to.
Tyler Smith: Definitely. I agree with you 100%.
Steve Shaw: If you could say something to a service director, not your service director, because we don't want to get you in trouble, but to the general public, the GMs and service managers out there: what would make your job better? What's one challenge they could look at? What are your thoughts?
Tyler Smith: I could say a couple of things. One: if you're in a manager position, I think you should be on the drive at some point. I think that's important. And setting realistic expectations. You can't do a walkaround every single time, but you should.
Steve Shaw: So setting expectations and goals, and being available, being on the drive. Anything else you want to add?
Tyler Smith: Yes, being available is a big one.
Dave Rogers: I think he wrapped it up for us with the GM tip of the day. I'd rather have it from him than me. Everyone needs to hear what you have to say, Tyler. We don't always get a chance to sit down and talk to our people, and when we do, sometimes they're not honest with us. We're not going to send this to your boss. They'll never know what you said.
Steve Shaw: But I learned one thing, Dave. When did I write service? 1987. And now it's 2026, however many years ago that was.
There's one big difference. Everything Tyler said, I'd say we probably did back in 1987, '89, whenever it was, except you guys have the technology. Us old dogs were doing it all by hand. But the fundamentals of writing a ticket are probably pretty much the same today as they were in the 1980s.
Dave Rogers: You're probably right.
Steve Shaw: Awesome. Well, Tyler, it was great having you here, setting us old dogs straight. We appreciate you. I wish you the best in your career, and anything we can do to support you, you know we'll be happy to help any way we can.
Tyler Smith: Absolutely. I appreciate your time. Thanks for having me.
Dave Rogers: Reach out anytime.
Steve Shaw: You got it, man. Dave, good talking to you as well.
Dave Rogers: Hey, have a great one. Good seeing you.
Give your advisors a process they'll follow every time
Steve Shaw has spent over 40 years in dealership fixed operations, and the Shaw approach to service advisor training builds the write-up, the walkaround and the multi-point into one process. It has been proven in over 1,000 rooftops across North America, and customers buy failed items 76% of the time when the need is made visible.