SERVICE DISPATCHER

Service Dispatcher — Sanderson Lincoln

The Service Dispatcher is the hub of the service drive. This role owns the flow of work from the moment a customer arrives to the moment the RO closes — assigning jobs to the right technician, keeping the shop moving, and making sure nothing sits unseen. The dispatcher protects both shop productivity and customer satisfaction, and should be able to hold the schedule, the technicians, and the service advisors to the same standard.

Key Responsibilities

Work Distribution and Shop Flow

• Dispatch incoming repair orders to technicians based on skill level, certification, current workload, and job complexity
• Monitor the dispatch board continuously throughout the day; rebalance work as jobs finish, stall, or get added
• Prioritize comebacks, waiting customers, and vehicles on loaners or rentals ahead of routine work
• Sequence jobs so that parts, lifts, and specialty tools are not the bottleneck
• Flag vehicles approaching promised time and push for status on anything running behind

Communication

• Keep service advisors informed of job status and any delay — early, not after the customer calls
• Serve as the primary link between advisors, technicians, parts, and the Service Manager
• Receive and route technician questions, parts holds, and approval requests to the right person
• Conduct or support shop morning huddles and end-of-day carryover review

Scheduling and Capacity

• Maintain daily and weekly shop capacity plan; advise on appointment load and overbooking risk
• Coordinate with the service advisors on same-day and emergency appointments
• Balance technician hours across the week; identify and report unassigned capacity
• Manage the long Saturday opening and the Monday–Friday 6:00pm close so carryover does not bury the next day's shop

Documentation and Compliance

• Ensure repair orders are properly opened, coded, and assigned in CDK before work begins
• Verify clock-on/clock-off discipline and accurate technician time on every RO
• Support warranty documentation standards, including proper technician notes for warranty claims
• Track and report on jobs awaiting parts, approval, or sublet work
• Use CDK and TCC together to confirm dispatch status and work through reconciliation or reporting gaps between the two systems

Performance and Reporting

• Monitor technician efficiency and productivity; report outliers to the Service Manager
• Maintain records of comeback and rework jobs and route them for review
• Provide end-of-day and month-end dispatch reporting on completed work, carryover, and shop performance

Qualifications

Required

• High school diploma or equivalent
• Minimum of 1 year of experience in an automotive service department
• Working knowledge of CDK and TCC, or the ability to learn and adapt to new technology quickly
• Strong organizational skills and comfort managing competing priorities under pressure
• Clear verbal and written communication
• Ability to read and interpret repair orders, technician notes, and basic shop documentation

Preferred

• Prior dispatcher, shop foreman, or service advisor experience
• Lincoln or Ford product and warranty process familiarity
• ASE certification or equivalent technical background

Skills and Competencies

• Decisive under load — makes sound calls quickly without losing sight of the customer
• Fair and consistent — distributes work by skill and workload, not by relationship
• Technically literate — knows enough about the work to route it sensibly
• Detail-oriented — nothing gets lost between the advisor, the technician, and the customer
• Composed communicator — absorbs pressure and relays it accurately rather than passing it along

Working Conditions

• Work is performed on the service drive and in the shop office
• Frequent standing, walking, and exposure to shop noise, vehicles in motion, and standard shop conditions
• Occasional lifting up to 10 lbs, and recurring use of a computer and phone
• Regular Saturday coverage as part of a rotating schedule

Performance Measures

Success in this role is measured by shop efficiency and productivity, on-time delivery against promised times, carryover volume at end of day, comeback rate, and service advisor and customer feedback on communication.