#1 COCHRAN AUTOMOTIVE TRAINS
SERVICE LEADERS FROM WITH IN

#1 Cochran Automotive Group is training its top-level service advisers to become service managers through a yearlong apprentice program.

The Monroeville, Pa., dealership group started a service manager apprentice program in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is training its second class of 10 advisers.

“It’s hard really anywhere to find talent,” said Ian Shinderman, corporate parts and service director for #1 Cochran. “We’re training them up to the next level. Our ultimate goal is that we don’t have to go outside the group to find a service or parts manager ever. We want to promote from within constantly.”

The program, which has aided employee retention and service department financial performance, was developed after #1 Cochran realized its service advisers weren’t ready to step up to fill management roles when they became available. #1 Cochran has about three dozen dealerships representing 19 brands in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“We had in the past [been] trying to promote up from within advisers into management roles and we were finding there was a gap in their knowledge from being a good, top-quality adviser to being a service manager,” Shinderman said.

Those knowledge gaps included advisers who didn’t understand the expense side of the business and/or how to lead people, Shinderman said.

“We started to look at ourselves and go, ‘Why are we setting them up to fail and how can we make it so that they are successful?’,” he said.

So #1 Cochran prioritized a way to grow and develop its existing service team and established a training curriculum.

Advisers submit an application, a résumé and a personality profile and they interview with senior-level management to be considered for the program.

The off-site monthly training includes instruction from #1 Cochran personnel and external teachers from dealership consulting company NCM Associates. Advisers learn to comply with manufacturers’ policies and procedures for warranty work and to understand Cochran’s expectations of service managers and the business development center’s role in driving service traffic.

The final class, taught by NCM instructors, focuses on customer satisfaction and on how a service manager should work with an automaker representative.

Throughout the training, Cochran gives the advisers readings and assignments and sometimes surprises them, asking them to create PowerPoint presentations and deliver them.

“We want them to be growing and developing and be able to talk intelligently in front of people,” Shinderman said. “We want them to be put on the spot so that they can make quick, easy decisions [and] if we can kind of develop that early in their process, we feel that they will have upward growth within the entire organization.”

#1 Cochran marked the program’s first wave of graduates with a celebration at a downtown Pittsburgh restaurant.

All graduated from the first training, which ended in November. Five of the 10 apprentices were promoted into service manager roles across the group, two moved into assistant service manager jobs and two became lead service advisers, Shinderman said.

#1 Cochran in the first quarter started the second round with 10 more apprentices.

“Our goal is from those 10, do we have homes and positions for them, maybe not right now today, but as we look at it, if we have a store that’s underperforming ... we have somebody that retires, someone that leaves, we are actively building our bench for management,” Shinderman said.

The program is producing benefits for #1 Cochran. Through the first four months of this year, the group’s service and parts department gross profit was up 123 percent year over year, Shinderman said. The department’s customer pay labor rate also has risen about $10 in that period.

And the program is aiding retention. The group’s service adviser retention rate currently is 96 percent across all its stores, up from 89 percent in January through April 2024.

#1 Cochran Automotive ranks No. 50 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 21,822 new vehicles in 2024.

The group in January bought a Mercedes-Benz-Ford store in Youngstown, Ohio, from Fred Martin, renaming the dealership Mercedes-Benz of Youngstown-#1 Cochran Ford Austintown.

How one service adviser progressed to leadership

Bryce Harper, 23, completed the first wave of the service manager apprentice program and became service and parts manager at #1 Cochran Hyundai Monroeville, in Pennsylvania, in January.He had been a service adviser at #1 Cochran Buick-GMC Monroeville for three years.

“I definitely knew I wanted to progress within the company to a leadership role,” Harper said. “When the opportunity presented itself for service manager training, I submitted an application.”

Harper joined #1 Cochran after graduating from high school in Murrysville, Pa.

“It really stuck out that #1 Cochran came with the goal to promote from within, to kind of develop the talent they had existing rather than go outside for talent,” Harper said. “That’s something that made me think I want to be part of this organization long term.”

Harper said he appreciated the hands-on training from the group’s warranty and business development center leaders, along with the training from NCM instructors.

“It definitely gave me a lot of insight instead of going in blind,” he said.

One service adviser reporting to Harper is now in the management training program.

“The auto industry is known for quite a bit of jumping between auto groups, but the #1 Cochran company being able to put investment in growing their existing talent shows where the company’s morals are,” Harper said.