The Trainer #156: The Customer Interrogation Process
Dealing with intermittent symptoms/concerns is not a job most shops look forward to. The fact is, they can and should be handled properly. This doesn’t mean when the repair order is placed in the hands of the technicians, but instead at the front of the shop, when the service advisor is conversing with the client.
In this episode of The Trainer, Master Diagnostician and Motor Age Technical Editor Brandon Steckler discusses the processes he implements in the shop when faced with intermittent concerns.
According to Brandon, it’s his belief that intermittent concerns don’t truly exist. He challenges those who disagree with this statement: “It’s almost always when we discover the operating conditions and ambient conditions necessary to flush the fault to the surface that we learn to display the fault, almost at will.”
A huge factor in successfully and efficiently solving seemingly intermittent faults is all about asking the right questions. One’s pertaining to several factors like the examples described below:
• Frequency of the fault?
• Weather conditions/seasonal faults?
• Elapsed time from engine-start that fault is exhibited? • Related symptoms?
• Duration of symptom?
• How to make the symptom go away?
• Driving conditions when fault surfaces?
• Who is the driver/Does fault only occur with certain drivers?
Taking the time to ask a few key questions like the ones above, give the technician answers that will serve a valid starting point for reference. For instance, allowing him or her to reference wiring diagrams that will correlate seeming unrelated symptoms to perhaps a shared reference point to voltage supply or chassis ground.
Stick with Brandon on this episode of The Trainer and find out what it takes to leverage the power of the customer interview. Learn that an investment of 15 minutes or so can turn the dreaded “intermittent fault” concerns into opportunities for your shop to shine as the go-to shop for tough diagnostic and driveability concerns that left other shops in agony!
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