I walk into a brand new store with an already established team in a week. I’ve been a tech, advisor and service manager before but it was always a team where I came up through the ranks. This time I’m new to them and they’re new to me.
If you had a new service manager coming in, on day 1, what would you want them to do? Open to whatever. I can feed them, gift them all a 10mm (ha!) Or something else useful. Or?
This is a team that didn’t like the previous guy. He didn’t trust his techs, didn’t quite understand the shop. Genuinely, I want their lives to be easier but for day 1, I just want an icebreaker. .
Don’t be grandiose about making changes or being different. Don’t do too much to introduce or seem like you rely on your experience because it’s probably a lot less valuable than you think. Try to take in the experience in front of you as much as your own.
For example, I’ve had a number of SVMs come in with experience at domestic or Japanese brands… German luxury cars and customers aren’t the same.
Don’t make yourself a big list of things to fix, but when small, but achievable fixes are possible, jump on them, check them off the list to show you take action.
This is going to sound goofy… but watch the first season of Ted Lasso.