AutoFix AdvisorCast

Michael Doherty [00:00:01]:
This is the Autofix Advisor cast, powered by worldpack. Hey, welcome to another episode of the Autofix Advisor Cast with your host, Michael Dougherty. And we would like to thank our sponsor, Worldpack. Be sure to check out Worldpack Training Institute and Worldpack.com for the latest in automotive parts distribution and training to explore training programs that could and will take your career to the next level. Also, don't forget to mark your calendars for the 2026 World Pack STX coming up in 2026 in Washington DC. It will be a can't miss event so service of as Our nation. It's been a little bit, but glad to get back on the microphone and hopefully everybody's doing good. I've got a special guest today.

Michael Doherty [00:01:00]:
It's actually my aunt. It's not a blood relative, but it is a woman I'm proud to know and be part of my life. I've known her for over 25 years and I met her through a friend growing up in New York. And when I moved down here to North Carolina, that friend came with me for a couple of years and every weekend we'd go to see his Aunt Jay. So that friend no longer lives in North Carolina, but she still does. And I've always referred to her as my Aunt Jay and she's been very instrumental in my life, in my family, and just a great person. So I wanted to pick her brain today just about some car stuff and her views of being a female, going to an automotive repair shop, making a phone call, making the appointment, being at the front counter, being on the other side of the counter, and just her experiences. And unfortunately she does not have access to a laptop, desktop, microphone, headphones, all that stuff.

Michael Doherty [00:02:00]:
So I'm actually going to improvise and put her on speakerphone and we're going to hold that phone up to the microphone and hopefully it gives some good sound quality when she's on speakerphone. So we'll. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce Aunt J to the automotive world. Aunt J, how's it going?

Aunt J. [00:02:18]:
Hey, Mike. It's going great.

Michael Doherty [00:02:21]:
Good, good, good. Thank you so much for being a guest. And I guess just jumping into it, you've been driving cars since what, the early 90s?

Aunt Jay [00:02:30]:
Yeah, yeah. No, early 70s, darling.

Michael Doherty [00:02:34]:
Okay, okay, so just real quick, before we get into, I guess we'll call it the meat and potatoes, what are some of your favorite cars and what cars did you grow up around? Just, just loving. And I know you've spoken to me previously about you doing Work on cars as well, which I think is really cool.

Aunt Jay [00:02:53]:
I did not drive a car. I was not allowed to drive my father's cars. None of us kids work. We. None of us got a license until after we got married. So I. I fell in love with my husband's 67 Pontiac Firebird 4 on the floor. And once in a while, he would let me drive it, and it was fabulous.

Aunt Jay [00:03:20]:
And right after we got married, when I got a job, my first car was a, believe it or not, Ford Fiesta. And I was so proud of it because I got it all by myself, which was almost unheard of in those days. And he taught me how to change the oil, what to look for, and he taught me how to change a tire. He taught me how to do the air filter. There's a lot he taught me because he was afraid that if I was on the road, we did not have cell phones in those days. And if I had a car problem, I could fix it myself.

Michael Doherty [00:04:05]:
Understand?

Aunt Jay [00:04:06]:
There you go.

Michael Doherty [00:04:07]:
Understand? Understand also, I believe you told me in the past that also, you, on the weekends, we could find you at the nearest dragway. Is that true? The drag strip?

Aunt Jay [00:04:17]:
Oh, yes, most definitely. Yeah, we. He was very, very big on cars. He loved to take an engine apart and put it back together. In fact, he rebuilt the engine all by himself in his Firebird. And people were always coming to him with their engines, and he would fix it, never having to take it anywhere. Just. He was very good at it.

Aunt Jay [00:04:43]:
And so, yeah, we would go to the drag races quite frequently, and then the round track. I like the drags better than the round, but, yeah, we were always doing that almost every weekend. And if it wasn't cars, it was snowmobiles. Racing snowmobiles. And I used to race my snowmobile, and it was pretty neat.

Michael Doherty [00:05:08]:
Yeah, my dad had one. I wasn't allowed to really touch it until I think I was maybe 10 or 11 years old. Somewhere in there, the snowmobile. Because I grew up in upstate New York, Rochester, Buffalo area, you know, snow country, just like you. And I remember very vividly the first time he let me take it out with my sister, just around the backyard with me driving and her on it. I ran into a tree. So, yeah, look at me now. Look at me now, right? He made me dig it out and everything.

Michael Doherty [00:05:38]:
He said. He said. He just sat there and handed me the shovel and he said, yeah, you gotta learn, man. You gotta dig it out. You gotta dig it out and get back on it and it'd be all right. So it was a Arctic Cat 440 panther. It sounded so cool when he started up in the garage. And I, I couldn't wait for, you know, the, the next winter just to take it out.

Michael Doherty [00:05:54]:
But nonetheless, you've got, you've got automotive in your blood, right?

Aunt Jay [00:06:00]:
Yes. Okay, most definitely.

Michael Doherty [00:06:02]:
Gotcha. So probably quite a change from when you started driving to working on your cars to then, unfortunately, Uncle Donnie passing and not being around to help out with some of those things. But I'm sure you've had to make service appointments, bring your vehicle to the shop to get checked out, get that phone call of sometimes not great news, and here's what it's going to cost. And I'm just curious, you know, as you know, no disrespect as a single female, how have some of those experiences been either over the phone, making the appointment, being in the service area, getting, you know, dropping the car off, how, how were your good and bad stories with things like that?

Aunt Jay [00:06:49]:
Well, when I had to take my car into a garage the first time to have it serviced, when I would call them on the phone and I would explain to them what was wrong with it because I was a female, they would actually tell me that they would handle it. They couldn't take my word for it, even though I had grown up around cars and worked on them myself. So I would take the car in and lo and behold, it would be what I told them. And they were almost. Now this, this was in 2008 is when it started. And they made me feel, or tried to make me feel inferior. I'm a woman, I don't know anything about cars, yada, yada, yada. And a lot of times, and this is the God's honest truth, I would get overcharged because of being a woman.

Aunt Jay [00:07:53]:
And I had somebody say to me, don't take it to just one shop, try two or three and see what the price differences are. And there was a huge, huge difference. And I finally, after months, found someone that would not cheat me. He was a best friend of one of my husband's friends and he would actually take me back to look at my car when it was on the lift and show me exactly what was wrong with it and exactly how he was going to fix it and exactly what it would cost. So it took me a long, long time to find someone that wouldn't take advantage of me being a single woman.

Michael Doherty [00:08:41]:
So. So you definitely had trust with that individual just based on him bringing you back there and showing you things and treating you with respect and, you know, do you feel that if you didn't know him or he didn't know you, would you still be treated like that? Did you feel that he was being genuine and just wanting to help and do the right thing for you in your, in your situation?

Aunt Jay [00:09:06]:
No. I saw him with other customers and I saw his staff with other customers and they treated those people the same way they treated me. So he wasn't treating me special. He actually had respect for me and it was not a dealer.

Michael Doherty [00:09:22]:
Okay, so this, so this was an independent shop.

Aunt Jay [00:09:25]:
Yeah, it was a independent shop.

Michael Doherty [00:09:28]:
Okay.

Aunt Jay [00:09:28]:
And he was, he was very, very good. And it's still to this day, he treats me with respect. Very good. And if the thing of it is, if he couldn't fix it, he would tell me and he would send me to whoever could fix it. So he, he never tried to pull the wool over my eyes and fix it half heartedly. He was always upfront and truthful. But again, it took me a long, it took me many months to find someone that would not screw me over because I was a woman.

Michael Doherty [00:10:07]:
Yeah. And I'm so sorry that you had those bad experiences at other places. And it definitely shouldn't be like that. I mean, especially as, you know, service advisors, you know, when someone's calling in to make that service reservation, you know, I've had those experiences where I can tell someone has had a bad experience at another shop. And to be honest, just that feeling, you know, and asking them what, what happened? You know, why are you not wanting to go to the shop anymore? And a lot of the times they say it's lack of communication. The customer does, they tell me it's lack of communication. They drop their car off, they didn't hear anything that day. The next day they called to get an update.

Michael Doherty [00:10:48]:
They can't get in touch with their service representative. And then they've got to go down there and they found out the car hasn't been worked on. And you know, just things of that nature. So, you know, always remembering that, you know, when that phone rings, whether it's a, you know, guy, girl, kid, whatever, you know, you want to do the best you can to make them feel welcome. And, you know, from what I'm hearing, you tell me it sounds like you've had some bad experiences, probably more bad experiences than good experiences. And, you know, I know you've had your car at the dealership a couple of times for some recall stuff. And you know, I'm sure when you made the appointment, I'm not assuming, but I have to Guess everything was okay. But once you got there, probably not so well as well.

Aunt Jay [00:11:34]:
That's correct. Absolutely, absolutely. And I, I would rather deal with a smaller owned garage company than I would with a big dealership. In my experience, they don't treat me as an equal. They look down on me, they, they won't take my word for what I'm trying to tell them. It's like you're a woman, you're stupid, you don't understand cars. Stand to the side and we'll take care of it. So I would rather go to a much smaller individual company than a huge one.

Michael Doherty [00:12:14]:
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Aunt Jay [00:12:16]:
Yeah. In my, in my experience, I have experienced that, I have first knowledge of that. So that's what I prefer.

Michael Doherty [00:12:25]:
Okay. And I guess for shops out there, service advisors, you know, men, women, service advisors, I mean what's, what do you believe is the best way? Because I know there's obviously distinct difference, but you know, would you prefer to work with a male service advisor, a female service advisor? Like if you had your option, which one would you choose and why?

Aunt Jay [00:12:48]:
I would choose. If I had to do it all over again, I would choose a female advisor only because I don't believe she would treat women like they were beneath her. I think she would treat us equally and take our word for what's going on and not look down upon us guys, even to this day, they may not mean to, but it's ingrained in most of the guys that women don't know what they're talking about when it comes to an engine in a car and that's just not true anymore. It's just not true. So I wish that the engines hadn't got so complicated because me too, I would still be working on my own car if it wasn't so complicated. But now there's so many things that have to be removed to get to the problem where before you could just pop up the hood and there it was and you can't do that anymore.

Michael Doherty [00:13:55]:
Yeah.

Aunt Jay [00:13:55]:
You know, unfortunately women have to depend on these people and a lot of times they, they're not treated fairly.

Michael Doherty [00:14:05]:
Well. I will tell you, two of the shops that I worked for, independent shops, one had a female co owner and one had a female owner and those were women owned shops. And you know, we prided ourselves on being female friendly. And you know, at the time the shops that I worked at that had the, or the shop that I worked at that had the co owner that was a woman, we had a male service advisor, two male service advisors at One point we had a male and a female, then went back to two males. And then the other business that I worked at that was an independent shop that was owned solely by a female and we had male service advisor, then two male service advisors and then a male and a female. And I think having the diversification there, you know, having if you've got the option, you know, to have, if the shop is big enough and you've got enough technicians and you've got enough workload to support the staff with an extra service advisor, you know, having a male and a female service advisor, because I could see where, you know, maybe a female has had a bad experience and you know, might take her a little while to want to talk to a male service advisor versus a female, just to have a better rapport. And having those options, you know, in the industry I think is a good thing. But I mean all encompassing, you know, we should always strive to do the right thing.

Michael Doherty [00:15:31]:
That's integrity, you know, for the client and take care of the client, not judge them based on their gender, their race, any stuff like that. In topics that are taboo in my industry, a sex, politics, religion, we don't talk about those with clients. I've been trained enough that if clients bring those up, we try and disarm that conversation. But it does happen from time to time. But again, priding ourselves on being a female friendly shop and getting that message out there and I think it'd be cool too for shops host and I haven't seen a lot of shops do in a while but you know, maybe once a month, maybe a clinic, you know, maybe do a clinic and anybody can come. But you know, again, if we're focused on female friendly, you know, trying to get that out there that, you know, we, we are treating women equally as, you know, important and we should, I mean, my wife had two kids, I can't top that, right? So, but you know, you know, maybe doing, doing a, a clinic, you know, on a weekend or an evening where we're empowering anybody, you know, a new driver, an old driver, an intermediate driver, male, female, whatever, you know, changing a tire, checking fluids, you know, jump starting your car if you have to, just so that people are more familiar with their vehicles. And you're so correct. They've gotten so complex.

Michael Doherty [00:17:01]:
You know, most batteries now in vehicles are not under the hood. They're in the trunk of the car. They're kind of hidden, they're under one of the seats in the vehicle. They're not easily accessible. But when you open that hood you know, we can show you that. Here's where you would use a jump box and things of that nature. So just having a clinic to empower people about their vehicles. And I think that will go a long way, too, just in the community, you know, a shop that cares and wants to show people how to do things that maybe they're not too familiar with, but empowering clients to do things with their vehicles that maybe aren't so comfortable or have had a bad experience at another shop and just feel like, man, I just.

Michael Doherty [00:17:41]:
They feel like I'm stupid. I don't know about cars. I mean, would that be a cool idea?

Aunt Jay [00:17:45]:
That would be a most excellent, excellent idea if we could get shops to do that. Yeah, I think that would be excellent. Especially. I think you'd be amazed how many women would attend.

Michael Doherty [00:18:01]:
I think so, too. I think so, too. I mean, you know, the guys. I think that might be a pride thing, but, I mean, I remember growing up, you know, coming out in the garage on the weekends. My dad was always out there, man. 88 Monte Carlo doing breaks, his Corvette doing exhaust, tire, something. He had a best friend that lived not too far down the street that had a shop in town. And if he wasn't in our garage, he was at his garage doing stuff.

Michael Doherty [00:18:28]:
And just, you know, seeing him doing brakes and tires and whatever, like, I felt more comfortable being around cars, knowing about cars, because I grew up with that. So, you know, that's kind of ingrained in me. But again, for people that don't really know much about them, but maybe want to, but don't know where to go, I think having those little classes, you know, at. Not a class, but a clinic, you know, at an automotive shop, just, you know, to show people stuff, I think that'd be so cool. And hopefully we can just, as an industry, bring that back and offer that. And I would have to say there's some shops that do offer it, but probably not as common as maybe it used to be. So, yeah, I'm really excited to kind of bring that up and get your buy in, because, you know, I think it's important for people to know about what's going on, especially in an emergency situation. You know, if you got to change a tire, you got to do some of this stuff.

Michael Doherty [00:19:21]:
But. No, that sounds really cool. I appreciate your insight on that. Would you. If I have a class like that, would you drive up from Wilmington and come check it out?

Aunt Jay [00:19:30]:
Yeah, if you want to come get me. I don't have a car right now.

Michael Doherty [00:19:36]:
Yeah, we got more Than willing. Yeah, we go to a clinic. We got to work on that. We got to work on that. We got to figure something out. So I don't know, we got to, got to drive down there and check that out. But since I've got you on the phone, I also want to give a shout out to Shop Marketing Pros. For those of you know, for everybody listening who doesn't know about shop marketing pros that has an independent shop, you need to learn about Shop Marketing Pros.

Michael Doherty [00:20:00]:
Top tier marketing. For top tier shops, they are offering personalized marketing that helps your client get to know, like and trust you. All they do is independent automotive shops. They specialize in custom websites, SEO, search engine optimization, digital advertising and social media management. So check them out. Shopmarketingpros.com, phenomenal company, doing great things in the industry and the owners of that business actually teach classes as well in the automotive industry. So they're based out of Louisiana, but they travel all around. They've got a couple of dogs, rv, they're always out and about just helping the industry.

Michael Doherty [00:20:41]:
So I thank everybody for tuning in to this episode of the Auto Fix Advisor cast. And Aunt Jay, thank you so much for being a guest on my phone this evening and any, any, any comments about cars or anything cool in general you want to tell the audience, how.

Aunt Jay [00:20:59]:
About buying me a 57 Chevy? I can take care of that engine.

Michael Doherty [00:21:04]:
I tell you what, I tell you what, I will, I will give you $500 towards that acquisition when you're ready. I don't know how far that's going to go on a car like that, but I'm sure we can figure something out. And just hang on the phone with me for a minute, Jay. But again, this is Michael Dougherty for the Auto Fix Advisor Cast. Thank you for tuning in to another episode and I hope you have a great week and hope you keep your base full and again, just focusing on clients, doing the right thing, making clients happy and that's how you're going to get clients coming back. Always, always, always do the right thing. So Service Advisor Nation appreciate you. Have a great day.

Michael Doherty [00:21:47]:
Hey, thanks for listening to the autofix Advisor cast. If you're ready to take your shop to the next level, check out our sponsor, WorldPAC and the WorldPAC Training Institute, WTI. Big thanks to them for their sponsorship. Follow the podcast on social media for more insights and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Oh, and tell your friends we want to help the industry grow and help advisors love their jobs again. See you on the next Autofix Advisor cast.