Designed to improve the quality of service through voluntary testing, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) offers the service consultant certification (C1) test.

C1 certification provides shops with an opportunity to validate the knowledge of service consultant professionals and provide a sense of confidence to vehicle owners when they bring their cars in for service.

“In many shops, the service consultant is the liaison between the motorist and the service technician,” said Tim Zilke, ASE President and CEO. “While service consultants are not expected to diagnose and repair vehicles, they must be able to identify the components of the major systems that make up the vehicle, know their function and know how those systems relate to one another. The C1 test is the way to validate that knowledge and the ability to communicate it to customers and technicians.”

The automobile service consultant certification (C1) test contains 50 scored questions on communications, customer and internal relations, vehicle systems knowledge, sales skills and shop operations. To become ASE certified, service consultants must pass the C1 test and present proof of two years of work experience specifically related to service writing, not hands-on automotive repair.

Service consultants must retest every five years to retain their certification by taking the service consultant recertification (C1R) test which is about half as long as the initial certification test.