AutoFix AdvisorCast

Michael Doherty [00:00:01]:
This is the autofix Advisor Cast powered by worldpack. Welcome to another episode of autofix advisorcast with your host me, Michael Dougherty. Sponsored by worldpac and the worldpac Training Institute, this podcast is your go to source for service advising and automotive industry insights. Be sure to check out www.worldpac.com for the latest in auto parts distribution and www.wtitraining.com to explore trading programs that can take your career to the next level. Stay connected with WorldPAC Training Institute on their Facebook page and join the community at the STX Training and Expo by following this group. Also, don't forget to mark your calendars for the 2026 STX World Pack event this coming August at the Gaylord Hotel in Washington, dc. It will be a can't miss event. So service Advisors hope everyone's having a great week.

Michael Doherty [00:01:05]:
Hope everybody's helping clients and helping your shop and just learning learning more. Great stuff. So in this episode I would like to talk about new clients. New clients and capturing them from either walking in your business, them calling in via phone, or them sending you an email. And this week, especially where I work, we've had all three different things, which is great. I love coming in on a Monday morning and checking the email and seeing new client appointment requests and that is always exciting because it lets you know that your marketing is working and that is important too. Our shop that I work at or the shop that I work at, we've had a change in marketing and so far it's been pretty good and we've been seeing more client online appointment requests. We're trying to modify the system a little bit because right now the only thing that the client can do is just pick a day and a time.

Michael Doherty [00:02:09]:
And that isn't always a guaranteed appointment. And we've had some people over the past, I'd say maybe week or two that we've had to call and let them know that we don't have a opening on that particular day and time, but they'll always work with them and try and pick an alternate date. So this coming week we're hoping to get with the content creator and fix that so that we can have appointment opening options. You know, what's your first choice date and time, second choice date and time, third choice date and time and followed up by letting them know that, you know, we want to help where we can. So looking forward to getting that underway. But new clients walking into your business and really showing them the value of your business, I think that's great. When they walk in, in person. I think that's the easiest way to really get a great relationship with them is when you see them for the first time in person again as a new client.

Michael Doherty [00:03:07]:
So is your shop clean enough? What I mean by that, is the back area where the technicians are, Is it clean enough where you are okay with taking a client back there? Or do you have to have a team meeting and you know, maybe fix a couple things in the back that are maybe a little unsightly, piled up, trash, parts laying around. And I know most shops, you know, don't operate like that, but there are a couple that probably, you know, could use a little tidying from here and there. And you know, when you've got that new client in front of you, bringing them back in the shop and showing them, you know, the crew, the lifts, the equipment, maybe your parts room, all the things you've got in stock, the specialty tools, I mean, really letting them know, showing them that they made the right choice and coming in your front door to do business with you. And chances are that probably isn't the first shop that they stopped at, meaning yours. You know, if they're going to shops in person, they've probably been to maybe one, two or three before, you know, they make their decision of where they want to take their car and what's going to be the best fit for them. And anytime a new client comes in, we always offer them a drink, a snack. Hey, do you have to use the restroom by the way, if you have a second? Mr. And Mrs.

Michael Doherty [00:04:23]:
Jones, I'd love to show you the back of the shop. Love to introduce you to some of the technicians that we work with and you know, again, show you why you made the right choice to come in. You know, let them know about the warranty that you offer. And I know most shops these days, they do a three year, 36,000 mile warranty, parts and labor, which is backed by a lot of, you know, confidence and you know, showing them, telling them that and again, making them feel welcome in your establishment where you're doing business and bringing them back in the shop again, meeting technicians, maybe having a quick conversation about their car, handshake, high five, whatever you want to call it, but just making them feel comfortable and again, that they made the right choice to come in your front door. Right. And I've also had the situation where I've got a new client or, I'm sorry, an existing client that's checking in in the morning and a new client may walk in and I can't address them. Immediately, but I'll motion to them, hey, I'll be with you in just one second. If you'd be so kind to have a seat in our comfy waiting area, you know, grab a snack, grab a drink, we'll be with you as soon as possible.

Michael Doherty [00:05:29]:
And you know, just acknowledging them when they walk in the door and I think that's very important too. So again that's for walk ins and people that call in or new clients on the phone, you know, if they've never been there before, finding out how they heard about you, that is really important and especially that helps with marketing to tracking where you're new client flow is coming from. You know, was it a referral? Did they see your awesome reviews on Google and they decided to give you a call? Were they referred by a coworker or a family member, things of that nature. But again, when they're calling, you know, again breaking down and letting them know the value of what you have to offer. And people, again they buy features and benefits so you know, letting them know your warranty like again with a client that walked in, letting them know that you've got ASE certified technicians, that you've got loaner cars available. If you don't have loaner cars available, maybe a shuttle service, maybe a complimentary Uber ride, you know, again taking into consideration their daily needs as well when their car is not with them and it's with you at your shop. You know, again just showing them value, offering value, not just hey, you know, let's make an appointment. But you know, why answering the why.

Michael Doherty [00:06:45]:
So I think that's important. People that email, those typically are people that don't really want to have phone contact or come in the door to see you in person. I've learned that over the years if they're emailing you specifically if they're a first time client versus calling or coming in depending on where they are, obviously if they're in a couple mile radius that might show up. But the ones that email predominantly just like email communication and they're still again a way to get value across there, you know, after you've made the appointment, confirm the appointment, letting them know again about your warranty, about loaner cars, about a shuttle service, just it sounds like easy stuff but again just delivering, delivering value. And forgive me, just kind of a quick drink here, real quick, my throat's getting a little dry. So again, value. Why are you in business? Why are you, what can you do for them? Why do they want to come to your. Why would they choose to come to your shop over another shop in separating yourself from other shops.

Michael Doherty [00:07:48]:
And I think telling them about value is really important. We, you know, we know that they're there because there's something wrong with their car, but there's more to it than that. So again, I think that's important to tell people. But in any event, this week we've had at the shop that I work at a whole just mess of cars, a whole mess of cool stuff. We've got a M5, an F10 M5. Not cool for the client, but we've got an F10 M5 with a little over 100,000 miles on it. He had taken the car to Meineke and was told by a Mini key technician that the rear differential is causing his noise in the rear and that the differential has to be replaced. We did verify that and oh my gosh, that is a very expensive unit.

Michael Doherty [00:08:30]:
But happy to help him, happy to get that car back on the road for him. I have another BMW 535 diesel that ended up needing a rear differential. So two differentials this week. This one was identified by the technician as having the rear axle seals leaking from the differential. And once the technician got the differential out and started the repair process and the teardown to replace those rear axle seals for the differential, he noticed that there is a good amount of metallic in the fluid that is coming out. And obviously if the differential's out, you know, let the client know what's going on. And in this instance he wants to buy a differential and do the right thing and get the car replaced or get the car repaired. So again, a couple differentials, a transfer case on a 2008 BMW X3 that's having an issue, no leaks, nothing like that.

Michael Doherty [00:09:24]:
But this car has 100 and maybe 20,000 miles on it and got that price sat out today and let the client know what was going on and doing that. So just a couple different things. But with regards to, again, showing value in your shop to clients, I think that's extremely important. And I'm just spit balling a little bit, it's been a long day. But again, what separates your shop from other shops and how can you get clients to take note of that? And again, showing them your shop if they're in person, introducing them to a couple of team members over the phone, explaining the warranty that you offer, loaner cars, shuttle service, all that great stuff, and email as well, you can deliver those messages. But one thing that was brought to my attention from one of the earlier podcasts that I did was write ups, write ups for client concerns, for diagnostic or evaluation time. You know, if we get a client that calls in and says they have a check engine light on, you know, a couple, couple great questions. And I think some place, some shops have them already formatted already for clients to fill out a form or whatever.

Michael Doherty [00:10:38]:
But I like, rather than saying, hey, Mr. And Mrs. Jones, I'm going to send you a form again, connecting with them, you know, that you care and asking those questions. So for a check engine light, you know, a couple questions I would ask, and I always do. How long has that light been on for? Some people might say it just came on today, it's been on for two weeks and I've had the. It's been on for a year and I just need to get my state inspection done. Wow, that is going to have a couple of codes. But again, how long has it been on for number two, have you, has the car been driving or acting any differently since that check engine light has been on? And I don't think a lot of places ask that question.

Michael Doherty [00:11:20]:
I think that's a very important question. And when I ask that question, most of clients say, hmm, they say, yes, something is going on or no, and if it's yes, something is going on, when is it happening? Is it happening on cold start? Is the car misfiring? Is it acting weird when you're driving the car, does something happen? Like, well, how does it feel different? What's going on? And really get that information from them that's going to help the technician get to a better evaluation point for noise concerns. I'm sure people have seen commercials over the year on TV where, you know, they have their car at a place and they ask what the noise is and they come up with all these crazy noises. But honestly, yeah, for noises especially, you know, are we talking about rattles? Are we talking about squeaks? Are we talking about knocking? What is the best way for our technician to replicate that concern? Is it going over uneven road surfaces? Is it turning one way at full lock at a sharp angle? You know, when you're turning, you know, how can we, how can we get the best information from the client to get that information to the technician? And again, transfer of information, very important, very important. So asking the right questions. And most people, well, not most people, but most clients. My what I experience is you have to extract information from them, especially if they've had the vehicle or another shop, they usually don't tell you. So that's a great question to ask too, especially With a check engine light or suspension noise or whatever.

Michael Doherty [00:12:49]:
Have you had the vehicle anywhere else recently to be evaluated? And if the answer is yes, has that shop performed any repairs to the vehicle? Have they replaced any parts in an attempt to fix the issue? And for the people that clients that tell me that they do want to get that information out and get it to the technician, those are some of the first things the technician is rechecking. You know, lower control arms that were just replaced and maybe the bolt wasn't completely tight. If they've got a pulling concern and they had suspension work done, you know, was the alignment maybe not done right, things of that nature. So just trying to discern and define what exactly is going on with their vehicle and getting that information them is taking that information from them is very imperative. So that's at least my experience. But be curious to know what your experience is when asking questions for diagnostics or noise concerns or whatnot. So again, just pretty easy stuff, but just trying to cover some topics that haven't talked about in the past. And it all boils down to communication.

Michael Doherty [00:13:53]:
So just trying to find out, again, service advisors out there, what kind of questions are you asking your clients when they're in for diagnostics or suspension noises or et cetera? I've had a couple clients over the years that come in and when they drop their car off, they'll say, hey, don't roll any of the windows down. And that's a red flag right there. So we always like to at least put one window down, you know, just to make sure a key doesn't get locked in a vehicle or etc. But for the people that tell us, clients that tell us don't put any windows down, that's always kind of a red flag to me. You know, why, what happened? Had a couple years ago, a lady come in with a Mini Cooper, and she kind of let the vehicle, for a better word, die out in her yard. And it had been one or two years since she had come in. Battery was completely dead. Car got towed in.

Michael Doherty [00:14:43]:
The windows were down maybe 3 or 4 inches on each side. And you want to talk about mold. Wow, that was an interesting situation. So she ended up, I think, salvaging the car, selling the car, didn't want to fix the car, but it was Mini Cooper and also had rear windows as well, little quarter windows. But in order to replace the window regulator assemblies, the whole back of the car pretty much has to come apart. And that is a nightmare. If you've ever had to do one of Those before. Seen a technician doing one of those before.

Michael Doherty [00:15:14]:
I don't care what all data says, the labor time for that job needs to be at least one to two hours more than what it calls for because again, all those trim pieces that have to come out and just you have to be super, super careful removing all that stuff to do the rear window regulators. But in any event, yeah, I'm hoping everybody's having a great week in the service advisor world. And here in North Carolina, we're in a Raleigh area, we had a state fair that came through and that runs for about a week and a half. It's a North Carolina State Fair. And historically, over the years that has been a slower time of the year for us. When that fair comes through for some reason, car count kind of dies down a little bit. People are going to the fair and this particular time it's almost like the fair wasn't in town. It's just an increase of cars.

Michael Doherty [00:16:04]:
And again, I think some of the new marketing's helping out with that. But it didn't, it didn't replicate like previous years. So we were glad to have the car count up for the week and doing business and making people happy. Had a lady in earlier this week with a 2006 Honda Accord. Nothing crazy, but she loves that car. And little old lady, I believe she qualifies. And when I say old, she may have had a ticket stub from the Titanic. So I'm not sure, but very nice, sweet young or old lady.

Michael Doherty [00:16:38]:
06 accord, she was in two weeks ago. The alternator had failed. And the reason the alternator failed was because the radiator side valve cover was leaking oil into it. So when she was in two weeks ago, she got the alternator done and then came back this week to have the valve cover on the radiator side and the firewall side that was leaking fixed. So she's a happy camper. I called her probably maybe four hours after she picked up and paid, thanked her for her business again, wanted to make sure that she was happy with the work performed and you know, just again, thank her for her business just being genuine. And she was just ecstatic. She says, wow, I can't believe you called me just to make sure that I was happy.

Michael Doherty [00:17:18]:
I mean, you never know how someone's going to take that. And maybe it was a little premature on my end calling her maybe four hours after she left. But I just, you know, I wanted to follow up quickly, not because for a better word, I felt that I needed to, I wanted to and just you know, maybe going a little extra effort but just want to make sure she was happy and she was. And she's going to write us a review and that's awesome and she can tell some of her friends about us, give her a couple business cards. But that 06 accord really looked good and she took good care of it and I'm glad that she got the work done with us and then we could give her a great warranty and peace of mind for three years and 36,000 miles. So good stuff there. But again, I hope everybody has a great week and upcoming week and I hope your bays are full and you're making clients happy. And thank you again to our sponsor worldpack.

Michael Doherty [00:18:14]:
Really appreciate you. Thank you for sponsoring the autofix Advisor cast. Couldn't do it without you. And we A shop that I work at actually gets, I think it's six now, six WorldPak deliveries a day. That is pretty crazy. Used to be like three and I think they got more help because they got more busy. But in any event, thank you WorldPak and service of Azer Nation. Have a great day.

Michael Doherty [00:18:38]:
Thank you so much. So expanding on talking about value, how can we get our customers to see value in doing business with us in the shop that we work in or work for? For the customers that are walking through the door, their new clients, I think it's really important to bring them in the back of the shop, show them where their vehicle is going to be worked on almost. If you would paint the picture, Mr. And Mrs. Jones Thomas over there is going to put a seat cover in your car and a floor mat. He's going to bring your vehicle in, he's going to put up on the service rack and we're going to do the best job to check out your vehicle and let you know exactly what's going on with it. And then we're going to provide you with an estimate and then we're going to talk about it and you're going to get to make great decisions about your car and we're to help you out. And again, for those new clients that are walking in the door showing them the value, showing them why they don't need to go to another shop, letting them know about the warranty that you offer.

Michael Doherty [00:19:41]:
Most shops these days offer a three year, 36,000 mile warranty, parts and labor. I think that's great. That is still better than to my knowledge the dealers, maybe not everywhere, but at least the dealers in my area, I think they're doing like a one Year parts and labor or something like that, maybe a little bit more. But to be honest, I'm not keeping up with the dealers too much on their warranty. But worldpack also gives a great warranty to us, you know, the shops, the consumers that we're buying parts from. And we get probably six deliveries a day I think now from worldpack. So thank you worldpack, we appreciate that. Helps us get the cars out quicker and get the work done more efficiently.

Michael Doherty [00:20:20]:
But again, showing value to the new clients that are coming in your door, showing them the rest or the, the clean waiting area, the drinks, the snacks, wireless Internet, all that good stuff. But you know, just showing value. And when you've got somebody on the phone and it's a first time client, keep in mind for that phone during for it to be a first time client, they found you one of a couple ways. It was either a referral from a family member, a friend, a coworker, they either did their research and saw your awesome reviews hopefully on Google and decided to give you a phone call and see if the hype is real. And most shops these days it is. So that is good deal, good job. Tell the shops that are getting great reviews and asking for reviews, that's really helping you out. And again, when you're on the phone with them, letting them know that they don't need to keep calling and shopping around.

Michael Doherty [00:21:19]:
Mr. And Mrs. Jones, you know you are going to be making a great choice coming in and setting a service reservation with us to do business. We're going to take great care of you. Tell them about your warranty, tell them about your ASC certified technicians, tell them about your loaner car program if you have one. Let them know about shuttle service if you offer that. If you don't have loaner cars, maybe some places do rentals, but just all the things that really separate you from the other businesses. What, you know, what, what makes, what separates you, what makes you the best shop in town.

Michael Doherty [00:21:53]:
Why do they want to do business with you? You know, you don't have to call around eight other places. Mr. Mrs. Jones, we got you and here's why. And label out to them, you know, X, Y and Z. I mean that is your time to really let them know why they should be doing business with you. And what I was talking about with the marketing part of it, I forgot what the exact statistic is. But when that phone rings and it's a new client, I believe that phone call in marketing dollars is somewhere between 300 and $400.

Michael Doherty [00:22:23]:
And that blew my mind, I learned that probably two months ago in a class that I took at the ASTA conference here in Raleigh this year. And they said it was roughly 3 to $400 in marketing dollars for your company to capture that new client, for them to call you. And just that alone kind of changed my perspective on how much I really need to sell the value, show the value, talk about the value of the shop and why they should do business with us. And I was great. It was great to hear that information. I've never heard anything like that before. No one's put it to me like that before. And it makes sense.

Michael Doherty [00:23:04]:
And again, tracking where that marketing is coming from for the clients that email you, those are typically clients that don't want phone communication, that don't want to come into your store to just talk to you. And there's a large group of people that are like that these days, and that is fine. But there's still a way to get value across on the email side as well. You know, once you've answered their primary questions, letting them know that again, you know, there's things that you can offer them, you know, again, loaner cars if they need transportation, shuttle service, your warranty. Again, letting them know that they're going to be taken care of. And here's the things that you can offer, not just emailing them back to say, yeah, I can get you in tomorrow at this time or date, or giving them a quick estimate, but again, just the value in what your shop has to offer. And I think that is very underutilized these days that not a lot of service advisors are telling clients, especially new clients, about the value of everything that your business that you work at or for has to offer that client. And when you're done with that conversation and you've had that value conversation with them, I really don't see them wanting to call another shop or shop around.

Michael Doherty [00:24:19]:
You know, you're. You're building value and you're starting a relationship with them on the phone, in person, or at email. And that was really good. So just things of that nature, but all good stuff and thank you so much. 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.

Michael Doherty [00:24:50]:
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.