Working for a Living | Servicing cars and their drivers

Eric Trotter, 43, moved to the Grand Strand from Troy, N.Y., 16 years ago – a welcome change from the snow and ice he was used to.

“I wanted my kids to see something different than where I grew up – looking at the Hudson River,” he said. “The Grand Strand was really appealing, and I had some family down here.”

Trotter, currently an assistant service manager – or ASM – at Myrtle Beach Kia, has long been in the automotive industry, starting at a small oil change company when he was still in New York.

“I was changing oil, and we would check over the cars and talk to our customers – pretty much a service writer, but there wasn’t that title there.”

He saw that there was good money to be made in this line of work and that he could take care of his family.

“The only other thing I know how to do was cook, and I couldn’t make that kind of money in a kitchen,” he said.

Trotter said he is well traveled when it comes to service gigs. When he first arrived here, he went to work for Precision Tune off U.S. 501 on two separate occasions, and later supervised the lube team at Sparks Toyota.

But he hit his stride at Myrtle Beach Kia, where he has been plugged in for nearly two years after a good friend who also works there told him that they were looking for service advisers.

“Kia is probably one of the less stressful places that I have worked as far as service is concerned,” he said. “I have a lot of leeway to do what I need to do to make the customer comfortable, and to handle any problem without having to go through four or five people above me to do that.”

His focus is on serving the customers and to be the face of the company for them.

His workday routine starts early.

“My alarm goes off at 5:30 and I normally crawl out of bed at about 6,” he said. “At that time my oldest daughter is heading out of the door to catch her bus. My youngest daughter is finishing up breakfast and getting ready for me to drop her off at the bus. Once I am done with my coffee and my morning edition of ‘SportsCenter,’ I go ahead and head out – drop her off at the bus stop – and I am off to work for the day.”

He is usually at Myrtle Beach Kia by 7:15 a.m. and is generally there for the duration until 5:30 or 6 p.m.

After a vehicle is checked out, Trotter lets customers know about the condition of their vehicles – the good and the bad news, if need be.

“Nobody ever wants to hear the bad from you, but it is part of the job – and I try to make light of it. I just want everyone to be safe when they are driving,” he said.

Trotter said he feels like a part of the family at Myrtle Beach Kia.

[Owner] Bobby Gale is probably the best principal I have ever worked for,” he said. “He comes in, stops and talks to you: He wants to know how your family is doing, how you are doing, and wants to know how everything at work is going. His daughter Jasmine is the same way.”

Trotter is not a big beachgoer.

“The most time I spend at the beach is on the golf course when I am in a sand trap.”

He said he tries to get out onto the links at least once a week – and has become addicted to the game after a couple of years of playing. His favorite place to golf is the Legends complex.

Trotter lives in the Market Common area with fiancée Gina Ross and daughters Alyssa, 16, and Aaliyah, 12. He also has son, Eric Jr., 18.

“We are focusing on getting the girls where they need to be so that they can make choices when they are adults,” he said. “I want them to be able to go through school and have a choice of which college they want to go to – and what career path they want to be on.”

Trotter and Ross enjoy cruises, and recently went to Grand Turk [in the Turks and Caicos Islands], Curacao and Nassau.

“I would love to live in Grand Turk or one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, but there are not enough golf courses there,” he said.

This story was originally published September 7, 2015 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Working for a Living | Servicing cars and their drivers."