AutoFix AdvisorCast

Michael Doherty [00:00:00]:
This is the Autofix Advisor Cast, powered by World Pack. Hey, Service Advisor Nation. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Autofix Advisor Cast with your host, Michael Dougherty. Hopefully you're taking care of yourselves and your co workers and your clients and everybody, because it's your job though. Seriously. Hope you're all doing good, guys and gals. So today I wanted to talk about. We're going to.

Michael Doherty [00:00:35]:
We're going to talk about the world. The word grow G R O O W Getting Rid of old ways. A lot of shops that I've spoke to lately are kind of still stuck in the, I'm not going to call it Stone Ages, but I think they're just scared to change, scared of technology. And you know what? I was too. I was so used to using the same point of sale system for, you know, almost a decade. And then one day they said, hey, Michael, you know, we're gonna change this. We're gonna go to this new software platform. It's gonna be great.

Michael Doherty [00:01:16]:
There's gonna be digital vehicle inspections. You can use your phone to put pictures on there, you can update clients and, you know, it's new technology. And I was like, okay, yeah, sure. And like, I was frightened. I was frightened because I'm so used to doing it a certain way, right? And I was like, oh my gosh, like, how, how's this gonna work? You know, and it worked out great. It worked out great. So, you know, again, I think there's a lot of shops that are using old methods or maybe the methods have just been working and they're okay with the results that they're getting. And I don't think they know that there's new ways out there to still, you know, do business and do it better, make it more efficient, make it more fun, you know, just again, improve things along the line of just, you know, doing the same thing and getting the same results.

Michael Doherty [00:02:09]:
So this episode is called again, G R O O W Getting Rid of Old Ways. So, you know, for you guys and gals out there in Service Advisor land, right, you know, raise your hand if you've heard this, right? You know, we, we don't need that new system. We've always done it this way, right? And yeah, no one's actually raising their hand because they're too busy, you know, rolling their eyes. So, you know, let's break it down. Sticking to the old ways, right? I mean, feel safe. I felt safe again with that point of sale system that we had for, you know, 10 plus years. I mastered It. I was.

Michael Doherty [00:02:46]:
I was the man at it. And then they said, hey, we're going to change it up. And I was like, crap. But again, you know, you know, let's break it down, you know, sticking to the old ways. Feel safe until.

Michael Doherty [00:02:56]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:02:56]:
It costs you your time, you know, money, good people and good customers, right? So quick fact. According to the Automotive Management Network, shops that modernize just one process like digital inspections can increase average repair orders by up to 20%. And again, you know, I mean, part of that DVI technology was incorporated into the point of sale system that we moved to. And before that, literally, it was, you know, a sheet of paper. It was the outline of a vehicle. And, you know, the technician would write on it, you know, radiator leaking, engineer filter dirty. And this, you know, piece of paper, you know, started off pretty clean. And by the time I got it back, you know, maybe, you know, went through the oil change process too, you know, it was disgusting.

Michael Doherty [00:04:00]:
It was smeared. I couldn't make out some of the writing. There's pieces missing. You know, I'd have to go back to the technician, you know, hey, you know, you know, this thing that you just handed back to me, you know, could you tell me what this says? Or do you know what this is? Or, you know, so again, you know, I'm used to the old school methods, right? But again, you know, clinging to old habits, right, Isn't just annoying, it's expensive, right? It can cost you again, you know, it can cost you your time, your money and, you know, customers. So here we go. So handwritten arrows and sticky notes, right? Just talking about that. So, you know, if your workflow still depends on, we'll call it Finding Bob's Sticky Note on the Counter. You're not running a shop, you're running a scavenger hunt.

Michael Doherty [00:04:53]:
Yeah, I'm pretty notorious for sticky notes. When I worked at the shop, I had two monitors. Each monitor was kind of outlined with sticky notes. Just things, you know, some of them were passwords. Not for anything critical, but, you know, call this person back, write this down, do this. And, you know, I probably burned up a sticky notepad, probably one a week. So, truth be told, you know, that was me. That's how I did it.

Michael Doherty [00:05:19]:
For the most part. Shame on me, right? But you know the solution, right? Embrace your shop management system. Use digital inspections. Make work visible. If you can't track it, you can't fix it. And I can't say that enough, again, right? Make work visible. If you can't track it, you can't fix it.

Michael Doherty [00:05:41]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:05:43]:
Also I've talked about shops having a morning huddle. Some shops still treat the day like it's a free for all tech show up. The service advisors guess chaos rules, right? Not a good business model. Five or ten minutes of a daily huddle in the morning saves 50 minutes of confusion later. Again, super important to have that huddle in the morning.

Michael Doherty [00:06:08]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:06:09]:
Make time for it, share who's doing what, right. Big jobs, little jobs, holdups, part status and you know, that'll help reduce comebacks and it will uplift shop culture.

Michael Doherty [00:06:22]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:06:23]:
Very important to have those morning meetings and communication.

Michael Doherty [00:06:29]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:06:29]:
So the old way, right. You know, we wait for the customer to call us for an update. I hope not a lot of shops are doing that. I hope no one's doing that. But again, as a service advisor, if customer has to call you for an update, I feel that, you know, we have failed. You know, it's our responsibility to always keep the client updated. And you know, great way to do that is set time markers and get used to those time markers, right. So I would say, you know, 10 o', clock, 2 o', clock, 4 o', clock, right.

Michael Doherty [00:06:58]:
Three times a day, abide by those times again, whatever times you want to make, but pick three, stick to them and let the clients know.

Michael Doherty [00:07:06]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:07:06]:
I'm going to call you around 10am, 12pm, 2pm and you don't have to say that but you know, just say, hey, I'm gonna, you know, when they drop off the vehicle, hey, Mr. And Mrs. Jones, you know, look for an update for me around 10am this morning. And again, just to confirm, do you want to email, do you want to text, do you want a phone call? What's your preferred communication method there?

Michael Doherty [00:07:27]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:07:27]:
Don't just assume, find out what their preferred communication method is and when you call them at 10 o' clock to give them the update, congratulations, you've just built credibility. And not only that, but before you end that call, let them know the next time that you're going to update them.

Michael Doherty [00:07:44]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:07:44]:
Hey Mr. And Mrs. Jones, great conversation. I'm gonna update you again today at 2 o'.

Michael Doherty [00:07:48]:
Clock, right.

Michael Doherty [00:07:49]:
And the more consistent you are in doing that, it's awesome because there's not a lot of places that do it and they're gonna wanna come back to you just because you're doing that. Most places are the black hole of communication and I say that it's a lot of the dealers, not independent shops. I feel like the independent shops focus more on, you know, the customer and whole. They have more time to do that in the dealership setting. I'm not bragging on the dealers. It's just I. I was in the dealership life for a while. I updated clients.

Michael Doherty [00:08:24]:
I actually had a board. I had highlighters, pens, whatever. I was the king of updating people. I pat myself on the back for that. Other people were not. And I was fielding phone calls. I was looking up in the system at that time. You know, the system that we were using at the dealer was called adp.

Michael Doherty [00:08:42]:
And you would type in the client's last name or their phone number. And I would quickly find out, okay, this particular person is paired with service advisor Chris or this person's paired with service advisor Mike or, you know, Bob or whoever was the service advisor on duty that day, aside from me. And 99% of the time it was the other person. And they were saying, well, I haven't heard anything. What's going on my vehicle. Great question. Let me please put you on our brief hold. I will see if Chris is available or Bob's available or John's available, whoever, to get in touch with you and give you an update.

Michael Doherty [00:09:14]:
So again, you know, let's make sure that we are doing our job to update clients. Imperative, imperative, imperative. But again, the old way, right? We wait for customers to call us for an update or worse, show up unannounced just to check in. If you've had that happen to you before, I guarantee it's happened once or twice in your career and it was embarrassing us all. Get out. Because either their car has not made it into the shop yet and you didn't call them to let them know that, and they pull into the parking lot and they see their car in their parking lot and they assume that it's done. And then you've got to have that great conversation of saying that we haven't even had it in the shop yet, which is not a great conversation. Or they show up again unannounced and their car is up on the lift being worked on and it's not going to be ready for another two, three, four, five hours.

Michael Doherty [00:10:08]:
Because, hey, there was a part that we're still waiting for or, you know, something else is going on with the vehicle. But again, you know, getting, you know, when that happens, when they walk in the door and you look at them, you've got that kind of like during the headlights look, like you're thinking subconsciously, you know, what are you doing here? Your car is not ready yet. And you know that, but they don't know that because you never called them to tell them that. And that's not a great situation. So please, please, please be proactive. Set clear expectations. When they drop off the vehicle, let them know the time that you're going to update them. And then again, once you have that conversation moving forward, update them or tell them the next update that they will receive and stick to that.

Michael Doherty [00:10:51]:
Do that, please. People, that night drop vehicles, super imperative. Call them, let them know, hey, just confirming I received your envelope with the key in it for your night drop and I'll have an update for you at X time. Mr. And Mrs. Jones, today, again, just because they dropped it off and they're not there in person doesn't mean that you shouldn't still follow suit and update them. So again, you know, make it a priority. If they've dropped off the car overnight, use the night drop, put the key in there, they got an envelope.

Michael Doherty [00:11:23]:
Once you pull that out somewhere in the morning, routine call that client and confirm, hey, I have your vehicle, I have your key. I'll update you at this time. Don't just assume because they're not there that you shouldn't update them. So again, proper expectations there. But again, being proactive, setting clear expectations, calling, texting again, you know, know, we don't want them showing up unannounced or calling and finding out that their car is not ready yet. Right, that's for us to explain that to them proactively. But yeah, the, the G R o o W mindset again, you know, getting rid of old ways, you know, it doesn't mean flipping the shop upside down overnight. Again, you know, it's, let's call it, you know, pick one thing at a time, Pick one thing at a time to implement or tweak and in making it that it's better.

Michael Doherty [00:12:21]:
You know, this, this thing that we're picking this week to implement or do is going to make it better than last week.

Michael Doherty [00:12:28]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:12:29]:
You don't have to implement five or 10 changes the first week, you know, just one thing. Concentrate on it, focus on it, implement it. Get everybody on the team on the same page. And once everybody's doing that thing, move to the next thing, but create a list, come up with a list together, things you want to implement to do things differently. And again, you know, little tweaks, small changes have a big impact.

Michael Doherty [00:12:56]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:12:57]:
And everybody's voice needs to be heard. Yeah, you're gonna get that one person that's gonna say something that really just either didn't add value to what you're trying to do or is unrealistic. But don't shoot them down, right? Because if they have an idea next time they're not going to say it because you made them feel inferior.

Michael Doherty [00:13:15]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:13:15]:
Don't do that to a team member. Hear everybody out, put a suggestion box up, whatever you want to call it. But again, small changes lead to big impacts.

Michael Doherty [00:13:25]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:13:27]:
And I guess ultimately.

Michael Doherty [00:13:28]:
Right.

Michael Doherty [00:13:30]:
You know, a quote that I saw from actually Henry Ford, it says if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Again, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Embrace technology, embrace things that are going to make your life easier in the shop, as a service advisor, as a technician, working together.

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

Michael Doherty [00:13:57]:
And you know, again, you know, just implementing new things to increase efficiency, make your job easier, make clients happier. And when you're doing those things that increase your efficiency, you know, it gives you more time to really build that relationship with the client. You know, get to know them better, get to know what's going on in their world. And yeah, I know we're not psychologists, but to a degree, yeah, as a service advisor you kind of are right. It's, it's a multi role but again, it gives you more individual time to build that relationship with that client. When you've got tools that are working with you, some of them are going to be AI again, communication in the shop, the digital vehicle inspections. But yeah, I mean, just, you know, try new things and you know, talk as a team. Come up with a list and just get to it, you know, it's going to make things better for you and the shop.

Michael Doherty [00:14:57]:
Promise you. But Service Advisor Nation, thank you for tuning into episode of the Autofix Advisor Cast and I hope you keep those base full and thank you again. All right, see you later. Bye. Hey, thanks for listening to the Auto Fix 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.

Michael Doherty [00:15:21]:
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.