Service Advisor to Tech Ratio for Heavy-Duty Shops

What's the ideal service advisor to technician ratio in a heavy-duty repair shop, and how many parts people do you need per technician? It's often overlooked how many support staff a heavy-duty technician actually needs, and I've seen shops that are way overstaffed and I've seen shops that are way understaffed, and the biggest reason we see both of those is that people don't actually know what the ideal ratio is.

So they either overwork their staff, which leads to higher turnover, an unhappy culture, and at the end of the day customers that are not as happy because they don't get communicated with well enough, which is the number one reason customers leave shops. Or they carry too much support staff, and that eats into the profit margin of the shop, which is a direct hit on your bottom line. This guide is the ideal numbers for both roles, and what happens when your shop doesn't match them.

The service advisor ratio

The ideal ratio of technicians to service advisor is five to six technicians per service advisor. That works out to, call it, $240,000 to $300,000 a month of invoicing per service advisor.

So if you have two service advisors, you should be able to invoice $480,000 plus a month with those two, up to about $600,000, and at that level you're running 10 to 12 technicians.

A really good service advisor is worth it. They work hard, it's one of the most difficult jobs in the company and one of the fastest-paced, and a bad service advisor can cost you a huge amount of money. So when you're doing the math on whether you can afford one, remember that it doesn't take many extra billed hours in a month to pay for a service advisor's wage.

The staffing ladder

Here's how it stacks up as the shop grows.

At two service advisors and 10 to 12 technicians, there's going to be a service manager in the picture supporting those advisors, but that service manager is mainly dealing with the tough conversations and managing the people in the shop. They're not building every work order. The two service advisors should be able to manage 10 to 12 technicians on their own.

Once you start getting over 12, you can push a little bit beyond that, but the service manager is definitely going to need to get more involved, building some work orders, really supporting those advisors in their roles. And if you're going to try to scale up to 14 to 18 technicians, you definitely want a third service advisor to keep pushing those numbers.

Parts people

Parts is pretty close to the same. Your service advisor to parts person ratio is usually about even, so about five to six technicians per parts person. You can usually stretch parts a little bit more than service, maybe six to seven technicians per parts person, but it depends on a few things:

• Your vendor relationships, and how quickly you actually get parts
• How much of your ordering you're able to do online
• How efficient your shop management system is

The combined parts and service role

Some shops don't have dedicated parts people at all, they run a combined parts and service role. I don't advise it in the heavy-duty industry. It's much more common in automotive, where the parts ordering is more streamlined, faster, all online, and the parts get to you way quicker.

If you are running a dual setup, it's likely a smaller shop, and you can usually run two to four technicians per person when that person is doing both parts and service.

Can you stretch it? Yes. You can always stretch these things, you can work more hours. But your customer communication and your customer service are going to start dropping off, and there's a fine balance between keeping a high level of customer service and doing everything really well on one side, and overworking your team until the service level they're able to provide falls off on the other.

What understaffed and overstaffed look like

When there isn't enough support staff, this is what happens. Estimates don't get out in time. Customers don't get touched as frequently. Technicians don't get everything they need, parts are late, and technicians end up standing around waiting for the service advisor. That last one has a big cost on its own, because every hour a technician spends waiting is an hour you didn't sell. I wrote a whole guide on how to schedule technicians so that doesn't happen, and the ratios here are the other half of it.

When there's too much support staff, at the end of the day it eats into the profit margin of the shop, and that's a direct hit on your bottom line.

The goal is maximum technician productivity with the minimum necessary overhead staff, while still keeping a very high level of customer service, so your customers come back and new customers are happy they stayed with you. And you don't necessarily need to optimize for the fewest employees. You need to optimize for the highest profit. Sometimes that means adding an employee, and the result is higher profit. Sometimes you're overstaffed and the result is cutting an employee and bringing in some new tools, while keeping the same high result.

The software question

So how do you make these jobs more efficient? A lot of it comes down to which shop management software you're running. Some of them are faster, some are slower, some take longer to review work orders, and some make it difficult to even look at the stats you need to run a high performance shop. There are several good ones out there. There are also several that weren't built by people from the industry, and it shows.

Here's the test. One service advisor should be able to close $300,000 a month in revenue and manage a fully stacked team of six technicians doing over $45,000 a month per technician. If you're not confident your team can do that on your current shop management system, take a look around.

That's what ShopView is built for. Fewer clicks, faster navigation, instant invoicing, so your service advisors can do the job faster. What may have taken three service advisors to do before, with ShopView there are instances where you can do it with two. And if you can save a full service advisor's wage, that shop management system you think you're saving money on is actually costing you extra people to manage it.

So consider the system you're on. Look at the load times, make sure it's lightning fast, and make sure your team has the tools to make the profit the company deserves, because that's what leads to higher wages for the employees, a better work culture, and a winning team that everyone gets to be part of.

Check your own ratios

Run these against your shop this week.

• Technicians per service advisor. Target: 5 to 6.
• Monthly invoicing per service advisor. Target: $240,000 to $300,000.
• Technicians per parts person. Target: 5 to 6, stretch to 6 to 7 if parts come in fast.
• If one person does parts and service: technicians per person. Target: 2 to 4.
• Over 12 technicians? Your service manager needs to be building work orders too.
• Heading for 14 to 18 technicians? Plan for a third service advisor.
• Monthly revenue per technician. Target: over $45,000.
• Are technicians standing around waiting for the service advisor? That's your understaffed signal.

If you're under the ratios, the cost is showing up as late estimates, customers who aren't being called, and technicians waiting. If you're over them, it's showing up on your P&L.

The pushback I hear, and what I'd say back

"I can't afford another service advisor." It doesn't take many extra billed hours in a month to pay for a service advisor's wage. If your technicians are standing around waiting for work orders because the advisor you have is stretched too thin, there's a big cost to that too.

"My team can handle more than five or six techs." Can you stretch it? Yes. You can always stretch these things and work more hours. But your customer communication is going to start dropping off, and communication is the number one reason customers leave a shop.

"We run one person on parts and service and it works fine." In a smaller shop, two to four technicians per person, it can. Past that, I don't advise it in heavy-duty. Automotive gets away with it because the parts side is all online and fast.

"Fewer people means more profit." Sometimes. Sometimes adding a person is what gets you more profit. And sometimes you're overstaffed and the answer is fewer people plus better tools.

The bottom line

Five to six technicians per service advisor. Five to six per parts person, maybe seven if your parts come in fast. Two to four per person if one person is doing both, and only in a smaller shop. A service manager once you're at two advisors, and a third advisor once you're scaling up to 14 to 18 technicians.

Count your technicians, count your support staff, and see where you land. If you're under, your customers are already feeling it. If you're over, your margin is. Either way, now you know the number. And once the support side is right, the fastest way to grow your heavy-duty shop is the next thing to read, because these ratios are what let you add technicians while still keeping a very high level of customer service.