Close

Customer Detective Work

March 30th, 2016

One might say the most challenging part of being an automotive service technician at Oil Changers is diagnosing a problem before it can be fixed.

Cars are made up of a bunch of complex systems. There usually could be a number of reasons for any given symptom. So, it’s challenging to track down the actual cause of the problem and it can be frustrating for the vehicle owner because it can take time and money to get to the bottom of a problem. If it’s not something obvious, it’s easy for the customer to focus on the fixing and not the diagnosing.

Let Oil Changers introduce you to something we’ll call ‘Customer Detective Work’ – that is helping your technician find clues to what’s wrong.

We start with the detective basics: What, Where and When. Play along with me; You come in to Oil Changers and your car is making a funny sound…

    • Q: Where’s the sound?
    • A: Around the right front wheel.

 

    • Q: What kind of sound?
    • A: Kind of a clunk, clunk sound.

 

    • Q: When do you hear the sound?
    • A: When I turn and accelerate.

 

  • Q: Right and left? Forwards and back?

Do you see where we’re going? You’re gathering additional information to help your technician know where to start. Based on your car and the tech’s experience, he’ll know where to look and can start with the obvious suspects.

You can see how that would be more helpful than dropping the car off with a note that says “making a funny noise”.

If the tech can experience the problem personally, he’s better able to make a diagnosis and repair, and then test to see if the repair solved the problem.

Ask us for details.

Oil Changers
PO Box 16686 Hornby
New Zealand 8441
03 3442374

www.oilchangers.co.nz