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Shop Talk Her Way is where former shop owner and coach JeanAnn Saint Grace opens up the books on what it really takes to run a profitable, sustainable, and well-balanced auto repair business.
With decades of experience in bookkeeping, operations, and leadership, JeanAnn brings an honest, no-fluff approach to shop management — all from a woman’s perspective. From financial systems and staffing to communication and culture, she shares insights that help shop owners (and especially women in the industry) take control, build better businesses, and enjoy the ride.
Whether you’re turning wrenches, balancing the books, or scaling to your next location, you’ll find encouragement, strategy, and a healthy dose of “you’ve got this” in every episode.
Shop Talk Her Way is an AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching production — helping shops thrive, her way.
Thanks to WorldPac and the WorldPac Training Institute (WTI) for sponsoring Shop Talk Her Way. Visit worldpac.com for the latest in auto parts distribution and wtitraining.com to explore training programs that can take your career to the next level.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:00]:
I cannot tell you how this revolutionized our business. This took our business from good to great, but it also took us from breaking even to profitable because it put all of us, every single one of us in the shop, from me who was advising to all of my techs, we were now focused on the holistic care of this vehicle, not just fixing the broken thing that the customer identified and hoping we might find something else. This is Shop Talk Her Way with JeanAnn SaintGrace. Hi, this is JeanAnn SaintGrace. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Shop Talk Her Way. Today we're going to talk about something that is shockingly controversial. Everybody's got an opinion.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:51]:
I'm going to give you mine. I'm also going to hopefully give you some pointers for actual implementation. But the topic for today is dun, dun, dun, dun, digital vehicle inspections. Or if you're not doing a digital inspection, than a courtesy inspection, which would be on a piece of paper. So this could include a rant. I'm not gonna lie. This is one of my soapbox non negotiable things that if I were running a shop today, I would insist on this being done. So I'm not asking you guys to do anything I have not done in the past or would be willing to do today.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:01:29]:
And this literally is one of the hills I'm willing to die on. So I know everybody's got an opinion about these inspections, and for the purpose of this, I'm just going to say dvi, but I'm talking about any kind of courtesy inspection that you perform for your customers on any vehicle that comes in. And I know there's controversy about do we pay technicians? Do we not pay technicians? I don't want to get into that because that is a shop to shop decision. And I have my own opinion. But again, it would vary on the shop. So please don't get caught up in the pay thing or any of the controversial stuff about this. I just want you to really dial in on the message and what the purpose is. Okay? So just like when I'm talking to you guys about being leaders in the shop, I'm putting on my leadership hat and I'm going to tell you the big why.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:24]:
Okay? The big why is this. If your customers own a house, that is their largest asset, their second largest asset is their vehicles. And if they don't own a home, then their number one asset is their vehicles. And everyone relies on their vehicles, whatever it might be, whether you're a mom getting kids to school and getting herself to Work of a commuter that you need to be in your car to get to work. If you're in the trades and you have a work vehicle and you need that to be on the road on time every day, then it doesn't matter. This is for all customers, okay? We are their expert. We are the ones who can tell them what their asset needs. And we need to.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:03:28]:
In the process of elevating our industry, we need to deliver this level of service. And it's not just fixing broken things anymore. We know that we can go broke fixing broken things, okay? And it's a disservice to our customers if we're not telling them about the maintenance that they need and repairs that are going to be coming up. We're their expert in this field and they rely on us. If you're building rapport, if you're building relationship, if you want these people to be coming back to you month over month, year over year and spending their hard earned dollars, we need to give them value and we need to give them service. We're elevating past that. We work on their cars. What we're doing is helping them to invest wisely in their asset.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:04:19]:
And I know there are people out there like, why is it our job? Because it's our job. Because their safety, security and livelihood depends on the condition of these vehicles. And we're the ones with our eyes on it, and we're the experts. Now you can argue that, you know, let the quick lubes handle this. I'm going to argue let's not do that. Right? Let's not do that. I've had shops in the past tell me, well, I don't want to do oil changes. And I would argue that you can't afford not to because this is how we build a relationship with these people, with our customers, to get them understanding how their vehicles work and how they need to be taken care of.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:10]:
Okay? So as I've told you before, I want my shops to be a total car care solution. If you don't do tires in house, then you should partner with a tire shop. If you don't do alignments in house, you should partner with an alignment shop. If you don't do transmission repairs, you should have a transmission shop that you trust and that you can do work with and that you can rely on to serve your customers. So we are their network for all things automotive. It'd be even better if they need tires, we tell them, hey, you're gonna need tires. Next oil change, we're gonna get that set up. For you, I got you a quote.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:47]:
And the next time you come in for oil change, I'm gonna have you drop it off all day. We're gonna do our job. We're gonna get it to the tire shop, get it back. You're gonna drop it off and pick it up here, and we're gonna. We're gonna, you know, collate the bills, and you're gonna pay us. One stop shopping, right? This is what we should be doing. So this is part of this Total Car Care solution is the dbi. And it is critical to the service that we're providing.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:06:12]:
Now, I did also see an argument about this, talking about free inspections. This inspection is not, quote, unquote, free. It is included with every service that we do. It is included with every service that we do. It is a value add, not a freebie. Okay? Having said that, the goal of the DVI is to inspect and inform. It is not designed to go on a fishing expedition. It is not designed to tear things apart.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:06:47]:
It is purely to inspect and advise. Okay? So if we drive a vehicle and we notice there's a brake shake, or we notice there's a noise, or we notice this or that, if that is outside the scope of work, then that gets noted on the DVI as needs more attention, right? That is not. Let's go on a fishing expedition to find the noise. When we're not authorized to do that, we're notifying our service advisor through the dvi. They're going to advise the customer and let them know what additional work is going to be needed to check that specific problem. If it's a brake inspection, if it's a fluid inspection, whatever it might be, we're just inspecting and informing. Unless it's related to the customer concern that the vehicle came in for. Okay? Don't go taking things apart.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:07:36]:
Don't go doing anything you're not authorized to do. Big red flag, right? Don't do anything you're not authorized to do. Because the minute you think you're going to pull a wheel to do a. To look at the brakes during a vehicle inspection during a dvi, and you don't have authorization to pull that wheel and you break a lug nut, guess who owns that baby? You do. Okay, so that's a very specific instance, but you get my drift, right? Don't go taking things apart. Don't go pulling things off. The DVI is designed to be a quick, yet thorough inspection. And so the overarching why is to serve our customers, to.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:08:20]:
To have their safety, their Budget their investment in their vehicle. Our number one concern. That is the number one overarching thing. If your advisors get pushed back at the counter, you just tell the customer, look, it's incumbent on us to let you know where the vehicle is. And if you're here for a check engine light today and we inspect the vehicle and we find something more important than fixing the check engine light, if that's not a safety or a running issue and that can be pushed off for a couple weeks, but say you need something important like brakes, or we find coolant leaking that could possibly cause an overheat and engine damage, then we want to focus your investment there, not necessarily what your concern is. We will evaluate your concern. We will give you estimates for that. But we want to make sure that we avoid a breakdown for you and that we're giving you the best possible advice that we can.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:09:19]:
Okay, that's overcoming that objection. We don't do this. We don't work on a car without doing this. This is something that we add on as, as a service to our customers. Okay, that's all you have to say? If they still freak out about it, they might not be your customer. They can decline it, I suppose. Do you want them to know? Do you want to continue? That's a judgment call on Yalls part. That's not my decision.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:09:51]:
I would try to get them on board with this. Now, the next layer of why we do this is the byproduct is sales. Like that's what we're here for, right? The byproduct is we have found other items that the vehicle needs, we have inspected, and now we are informing the customer of the additional investment that is needed in their vehicle at this time. We are not hard selling them. We are not scare selling them. We are purely reporting the news. And I'd really like our advisors to really get that idea into their lexicon of we are here to inspect and inform. When you create estimates and prepare and present the DVI and the customer's concern, you are advising them and informing them of where their vehicle is.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:10:43]:
And let's face it, less and less of the population has the mechanical knowledge to know where their vehicle is. They don't know where the coolant is, they don't know where the brake fluid is. They don't know what to look for when something's going on like this. I'm going to say an overwhelming number of people do not. And that, that that space is getting narrower over where it was, say, 30 years ago. So it's incumbent on us as the expert in the field to give them this information. If we don't, we are remiss if we don't write up every single thing that's on that DVI and give them estimates to repair it. We are our jobs.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:11:27]:
And again, if the technicians take the time to do the DBI and your advisor is not writing everything up, then they've wasted the technician's time. So anything that is yellow or red on the DVI should have an estimate. If it's maintenance and it's coming up, if it's within 5,000 miles, that should be yellow. And the customer should be advised that that's due at their next service. Okay, I'm throwing a lot at you guys, but, but we have to follow the bouncing ball. Like stuff's going to come up, we'll talk about it, we'll keep going. So the, again, the overarching why is service? The secondary why is because it improves our sales, it increases sales, but it should not be a sales tool. It is simply an information sharing time.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:12:17]:
Okay? No customer should ever feel like we're hard selling them, like we're trying to scare them into spending money. I mean, there are times when we have to talk about safety and the risks of a breakdown or the risks of an accident. If we have suspension issues or tire issues or braking issues, right. We have to impress upon them how important these things are. So there's a, there's a boundary there, right? There's a way of saying things that doesn't necessarily scare them, but informs them of where we are and what the implications or the consequences are of not doing certain repairs. And that's legit. But I am never asking an advisor to hard sell, to fair sell or to do anything like that. Everything that we do should be from the frame and reference of service.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:13:05]:
So the next thing is, what should this DVI look like? It should be a clear, concise, multi point inspection that hits things like when is their next oil change, Are the lights all working? Is there any body damage? What do the tire pressures look like? What do the tires look like? Are all the mirrors there? Do we have any warning lights if we drive it? And driving is part of customer concern. I'm not saying we need to drive every car. If we drive the vehicle and we notice anything, it should be noted on the dvi. Then we go into checking all the fluids, doing a visual inspection for leaks going underneath the vehicle as well. Like once the vehicle is lifted, going underneath, checking the undercarriage, checking the alignment or not alignment. But Suspension parts, all of those things, everything underneath the vehicle. And that's how it should be laid out. It should be very logical and your technician should be following it step by step by step.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:13]:
So as owners and managers, we need to think about this looking like a NASCAR pit stop. We start with this. We do this, we do this, we do this, we do this in a logical order. So anything that needs to can be checked while the vehicle's on the ground. That's the top part of your dvi. The next part's the undercarriage. Then it goes back to the advisor. Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:35]:
We shouldn't be lifting the vehicle multiple times. We should not be pulling the vehicle in and out, racking it multiple times under the purviews of the inspection. It should be very methodical. They can build muscle memory when it's possible. We should have canned jobs or canned notes. Forgive me, canned notes built into the dvi. So where they can drop down and be like, the coolant is full and clean, the coolant has an odor to it and is discolored, the coolant is low, suspect a coolant leak, need further inspection or whatever that looks like. We should have multiple options for canned notes where we need to.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:15:11]:
And then if they need to fill in any gaps, then they can do that for you. You know, for the text that maybe, maybe you have a language barrier. Maybe their English isn't their first language. We can engage translate to talk, you know, the talk to translate into the notes. There's a great add on out there called Detect Auto. They also allow talk to text and their AI for DVD DVI add on is amazing. If you're using Shopware or techmetric, I advise you at least look at Detect Auto to help you to increase the speed and the efficiency with which you can process your DVIs. I think it's amazing.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:15:56]:
It's borderline magic. But that's, that's an aside that is not paid. That is my personal view of Detect Auto. I think they have some amazing products and it's worth a look. But anyway, the, the DBI should be laid out where it makes sense. It's in a specific order. And your tech should be doing it step by step by step, not jumping all over the place and getting out in the weeds. This needs to be something that is repetitive, thorough and relatively quick.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:16:28]:
Inspections should probably take 20 minutes to 30 minutes per vehicle. And you know, if you're working on a model where you have lower car count, higher average repair order, this, this 20 to 30 minutes per car is not a problem. Right. If you're a small shop and you're doing five to six cars per day, it's an hour. No, it's 2, 2ish hours of tech time. It's time well spent if we can advise our customers of what they need and give them a thorough evaluation of their vehicle. I'm also a proponent that we have two levels of dvi. We should have a full blown DVI.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:17:08]:
If we're doing something on the vehicle that requires us to lift it, including our 5,000 mile services, aka your oil changes, that should be a full inspection with a look see at the brakes. And if the brakes need further inspection because they're getting thin, we see cracked rotors, we see, you know, some kind of odd wear in any of the system, then that's a further inspection. But it should at least have a look at the brakes. But if we're not bringing the vehicle in for something where we need to lift it, say in California, if you're doing a smog inspection or if you're doing a check engine light that doesn't require us to lift the vehicle, then we can do a Mini dbi. And the Mini DVI should be everything up until they have to lift the vehicle. So that's everything I listed up until we have to get it off the ground. So fluids, lights, wipers, tires, lights, oil change, sticker, upcoming services and then, and it should be like identical up until that point. They just stop at the point where they would lift it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:18:15]:
So this is my, this is my caveat because there's a lot of shops that tell me, oh, if we haven't seen a vehicle or if we've seen a vehicle in the last three months or 5,000 miles, we don't do another inspection that will get Jean Ann on her soapbox and tell you why that's a terrible idea. And I will do that. Now. If we only do inspections when it's quote unquote convenient for us or because we saw the car 5,000 miles ago, you and I know a bulb can go out at any time, a leak can start, a fluid leak can start at any time, a tire can go down at any time, a suspension part can fail and start to wear tire at any time, etc. Etc. Etc. Right? Anything can happen at any time. So even if the vehicle was here yesterday, the customer took it and they're bringing it back today for services, we should be doing at least the min, those, the Mini DVI to make sure we didn't have a bulb go down, we didn't Have a leak start, etc.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:19:20]:
Etc. Okay, and the big why. So back to the whys. The big why on this is because we want to give the customer a consistent customer experience. There's nothing worse than a customer going in and being like, well, you did an inspection last time, why didn't you do it today? Am I not that important? What's your problem? Right? Because the customers will get used to this DBI process and they will start to wonder, why did you do one last time and you charged me $2,000, but today I'm not getting one and you're just shooting me out the door. We don't want that to happen. Here's my, here's my example, right? If you've ever been to Texas Roadhouse, the restaurant, they have the best rolls in like honey butter, cinnamon butter. It's the best.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:20:14]:
So if you enjoy that part of the experience that every time you go to Texas Roadhouse, you get hot rolls and the super good butter, and all of a sudden you walk in there and the waitress walks up and is like, let me take your order. And there's no bread rolls. You're going to be like, wait, where's my bread? So this, the DVI is the good rolls and butter of the automotive world. We want them to have that consistent experience. We want them to know that this is important enough to us that no matter what we're doing this inspection and keeping them informed. Again, total car care solution, right? We want to be in that mindset. We don't want to give them any reason to think that we don't have their best interest at heart. And that means we want to make sure they don't have a turn signal out or a tail light out or a reverse light out, whatever it is.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:21:10]:
This is the level of detail that we're working to and this is how much we care about them. We don't want them to be out on the road and get a ticket because they don't. They've got a light out or something or get in, God forbid, get in an accident because their turn signal wasn't working. And I'm. There's going to be the people out there that say, well, they should have a light on. They should know, okay? It's our job to inform them. We are the expert. We are their total car care solution.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:21:41]:
I just want you guys to start that level of thinking. And it doesn't matter who they are or what they do for a living or how much they know about their vehicle. This is our job. This is Our responsibility also next layer down the the big why is for the customer, the secondary why is this liability. If we check that vehicle and we've gone through all the lights and we've gone through all the flows and we've done all of our jobs, if something happens, the minute they leave the property, the minute they pick up their keys and drive off the lot, we know where that vehicle was, where the conditions were of all of these things. So if suddenly they have a bowl bout, they've got a tire go down, we know that. We checked all of that and it was good before it left. And that stops the since you worked on my car stuff.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:22:38]:
Those calls we've all gotten right. Since you did the oil change, my radio quit working or why didn't you guys check this bulb out? Well, it was working when it was here, so we'd be happy to take care of that for you. Let's schedule a time and get you in. But the DBI reflects everything that we inspected and that it was working when it left here, no questions asked. We've just taken out the huge unknown and those phone calls of why didn't you tell me? Or you missed this or whatever it might be. So back to thorough car care solution. Total car care solution. Total concern for customer well being right now with, you know, with the modern technologies that we have, having multiple DVIs is not a problem, right? We just copy and paste, you know, duplicate, whatever.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:23:31]:
However your software works, we can set up multiple DVIs very easily. And like I said, hopefully whatever you're using supports canned notes to save your tech's time and your advisors too, when they're filling out the, the inspections. And we want to make it as easy as possible, but also as thorough as it needs to be. If you're doing a paper inspection, you just want to have a very clear, concise check mark form that you can edit when needed. And everybody does it, keep a copy for you, give a copy to the customer, everybody's happy, right? And the next layer of this is that your advisors need to be presenting the DVI to the customer. That doesn't mean texting it off into the atmosphere, letting them look at it themselves and never discussing it with them. That even though it's super convenient that we can text or email those DVIs, it is still incumbent on our advisors to spend the time reviewing that with the customer. And I always advise my advisors that I'm training and working with and owners that part of their policy and process be to let the customer know before we talk about Anything else? That there are good things happening with the vehicle.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:24:55]:
Your brakes look good, your coolant looks good, you're caught up on your 30k services, whatever that looks like, you're not due for an oil change for another 4,000 miles, whatever that is. We want to give them two or three really good things that are going on with the vehicle that are not a concern. So if you're having to sell, check engine light work or diag or a full brake job, we want to start off with, hey, we did an inspection and these are the good things that we found. So that way the customer knows the vehicle has value and it's worth something. Right? So then the next part of that is for the, for your advisor to then review the red and yellow things and give them a good solid set of information about those. If you have those fancy little videos that explain why a certain system is important or what the mechanical job of that service is, and you can send that in a text link as well. Awesome. Great.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:25:54]:
If not, then your advisor needs to be prepared to discuss the features and benefits of that system and why it's important that it be fixed. And this goes a little bit deeper. Just kind of an aside, if you guys aren't doing this already. When you prepare your estimates, I advise you to have the customer's concern number one in your system. Second would be any safety concerns that we found in the dvi. Third would be anything that's broken that's not safety related. And fourth would be maintenance services. So that when your advisor is going through their presentation, they're presenting it in the order that is good for your customer.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:26:36]:
Most important is their concern. Although sometimes those can flop if a safety item outweighs their concern, then we need to flip flop that and explain to them why. Then work your way through the process. Okay. Sales process is totally separate. But just as an aside, when preparing the information off of the dvi, that's how I recommend you do it. So we've presented the DVI to the customer, they've got a copy, we've reviewed it, we've given them estimates, and now we're ready to proceed with repairs. The DVI is now complete and it becomes a historical document.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:27:11]:
Right? But this point, this part is so important, I cannot tell you how this revolutionized our business. This took our business from good to great, but it also took us from breaking even to profitable because it put all of us, every single one of us in the shop, from me, who was advising to all of my techs, we were now focused on the holistic care of this vehicle, not just fixing the broken thing that the customer identified and hoping we might find something else. Right. So this is part and parcel of building the relationship with the customer, being their expert. It all ties together. And this is a critical piece of this puzzle. Okay? And I guarantee you, you have time. If we have to adjust your car count down to facilitate this, I can guarantee you that if this is done right, the byproduct will be that your average repair will increase.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:28:17]:
I had a client down in Houston, they ran a busy shop. They were doing a tremendous number of cars per week. They all got on board, doing a DVI, their tick, their average repair order went from about $330 to about 550 in just a couple of weeks by implementing this process. And they were a high volume shop and they were huge. Like they were a big shop. So they had the, they had the manpower and they had the team and they got the results. So I guarantee you that if you do this right, your average repair order will naturally go up without having to hard sell, without having to do anything but inspect and inform. Okay? And if we can get our whole team thinking about what's best for the customer, then this is a natural outcropping of that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:29:16]:
I also advise you to be open to your team, asking them periodically, do you guys have any suggestions? Do we need additional can notes? Do we need to add another layer to this? Are we missing something? You know, get their buy in? Is this thing in the wrong place? Should we move it? It's a living document. It should be something that you will periodically review with them, see if we need to add something and then move forward. I also, as a very small detail, you know, there are places where, you know, we can't check transmission fluid, we can't check this, we can't check that. If it's a normal part of the inspection and it's not something we can access that I recommend you, this part is not accessible. So if there's no transmission, dipstick could not check fluid. No dipstick and not equipped with dipstick, whatever that note is. So not that we didn't check it, just that we physically can't. So there's always going to be limitation.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:30:17]:
But we're going to advise the customer of why we didn't do that part. Okay. And that again should be a consistent thing. We're just going to put that note in over and over again. The transmission doesn't have a dipstick. So why am I beating this drum? Because I think this is a key part of your business model. And whatever challenges you're having with your team buying in on this, at some point we have to get, we have to get to the point where it is what it is. And this is one place where, if your leadership devolves into because I said so, then that's where you have to go.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:30:59]:
That's how important this is. I am violating my because I said so leadership mold. Because we've worked through. This is what's best for the customer. This is what's best for the shop. The natural by product is additional sales without additional vehicles. And if it devolves into because I said so, this is the one place where that can come in. That's how important I think this is.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:31:26]:
And again, if, if we're, you know, part of our business was college town, right? So we had kids who were away from home, then we. That was easy to communicate with the parents. If you have fleets, this is a tremendous value add because most fleet vehicles need to have periodic inspections. We're doing it anyway. We, we've got you covered. And fleet is a whole different story to some degree, but it helps them have a record of where that vehicle was the day that it left. And it's not by the driver because, you know, some, some people that are driving company vehicles aren't paying attention to this stuff. They don't have a process to check fluids, to check tires, to do that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:32:17]:
Not every company has that. So wear their eyes and ears, especially if it's, you know, a big fleet and the owner doesn't have their hands on it. But even if it's a small fleet, even if it's an electrical contractor that's got like five vehicles, chances are they don't have time to keep track. So we're keeping track for them. Again, we're their trusted partner in their fleet management. And I encourage you guys to do that. Make that part of why you should bring all of your fleet vehicles to me. We will give you first in, first out service because their business depends on it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:32:54]:
That's, that's what we give value as. We don't give fleet discounts. That's probably a whole other subject for a whole other time. But don't get fleet discounts. Just give them really, really good service and be their partner in maintaining their fleet. Again, that's probably one of their biggest investments is their fleet. So I know I am passionate about this because I firmly believe that this is the thing that saved our business. It shifted our mindset into service, customer service.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:33:29]:
Taking care of the vehicles, inspecting and informing for the customer. It served this high level purpose and the results were high level. Okay? And I wish, of all the things that I know now, I wish that we had been doing this from the ins, from the inception of our business. If we'd been doing this the whole 15 years, the business would have looked totally different and been much more profitable in those early years before we started this. So honestly, I don't care what it takes. If you have to buy tablets, if the guys need to use their phones, if you need an add on for a translator, overcome every objection to getting this done. That's how important it is. And I guess I'll go ahead and stick my foot into the tech pay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:34:17]:
If your techs are paid hourly, then doing that, they don't get credit for this because they're going to make up the hours, wherever that is, they don't get additional hours for this. If you have flat rate guys and you're asking them to do this, there's some wiggle room there. But if you take, go back to my customer who went from 330 to 550, they picked up almost two hours of labor worth of stuff to do. So the average repair drill will pick up the, the repairs will pick up. Their time and hours produced is going to pick up as a natural byproduct of all of this. It shouldn't be a heavy lift to do that. If you have a mix of like high level skilled techs and you know, techs that are your oil changers and your nuts and bolts guys, then focus more on having them do your inspections. You know, there's, there's the take on this of the rack attack.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:35:23]:
I personally did not do that in my shop. A lot of shops have a lot of success with that because all the DVIs get done in the morning first thing. Your advisors are working on that. Why additional diagnosis goes on that works probably better in bigger shops where you've got a lot of lifts available over a smaller shop. But that's a, that's an option. I'm not saying it's not. And there's shops that are having a lot of success doing the rack attack style DVIs. So you know, you have to figure out how to fit this into your shop your way.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:35:56]:
Right? It's your shop your way. But finding a way for your team to make this work is, is intrinsic to your business. If you're, if you're low on car count, if your average repair order is low, these are the ways that we pick this up without you having to get additional cars. And I would argue that a lower car count, higher average repair order model is a good one. It's my personal, that's what I would lean towards depending on how you're set up. I know that might be other people have opinions about it. For me, I would prefer to see my advisors have to process eight to 10 cars a day instead of 20 and do a really good job. Spend time with the customer, educate them, answer their questions, not feel rushed off their feet to get off the phone with them so they can move on to the next one.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:36:58]:
We have to remember that whatever energy that we're presenting to the customer, they're receiving. If we approach the customer with a calm, relaxed, we're here to inform you, we're here to help. These are the things that we found your customer is going to respond much better to. Hey, Mr. Customer, I'm about to go out to lunch and I got to get this done. And so now you need to make a fast decision because I don't have the time to mess with you. That energy is going to come through. So if we can slow down our advisors, give them the time needed to spend with each and every, each and every customer.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:37:34]:
That's what we need to do. Because a calm, cool, collected advisor is going to have much better success than one who's run off his feet, constantly in chaos, always on the run. Okay, so this is a great place for me to take a breath and talk to you about the sponsors of the podcast, which is WorldPAC and WorldPAC Training Institute. WorldPAC, of course, quality parts, service delivery, wide reach for getting you the things that you need. Absolutely. A wonderful partner for your business. Worldpac Training Institute is a value add, not a freebie. See where I'm going with this? A value add.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:38:19]:
The additional value of WorldPAC is they do offer WorldPAC Training Institute training and one of the super valuable things about it is every week they have a one hour free business class. I also just did a little deeper diving. They also have one hour lunchtime technician classes that are free. So if you're looking for an easy place to get your team an hour of training a week, this is a great place to do it. They had some really great topics coming up over the next few weeks. I encourage you to at least go check it out. Different skill levels, different information. You know, if you're a euro shop or you're a domestic shop, maybe not everything is for you, but there's a lot of good stuff there for for your team.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:39:13]:
So definitely go in and check out World Pack Training Institute. If you're not doing business with worldpac for parts, I encourage you to see what they can offer you. And I thank them greatly for sponsoring the podcast that makes all of this possible. So back to your DVIs. Please, please, please don't, don't get stumped with this. If you hit an objection, work through it. If you need to move it slightly in a different direction, pivot. But please do not give up on this.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:39:48]:
If you're not doing these right now, I encourage you to develop one a hopefully get software that supports this. If you, if you have a shot management system with one integrated, that's awesome. But there are add on solutions out there as well and they're, they're as numerous as, as the stars in the sky. I don't have a particular preference. If I had my hands on them and I could tell you the ones that I prefer, I would. But definitely go out there and do the research that you need to do to find one that works for you and your team. The next level would be get it set up the way you think it's going to work. You know, get buy in from your team.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:40:31]:
Also, if you need to create one, have them look at it, do a lunch and learn with them, do some brainstorming and get it organized the way that you want it. Again, if you're implementing for the first time, I recommend that you do some training on this. My buddy Jeff Compton, the jade mechanic he loved at his shop, when they shut down operations at noon on Friday and they did training on Friday afternoon, if you're not willing to do that, then either an evening or a weekend, have a couple of vehicles lined up, have everybody do each vehicle and then, and then go through the process. How does this work for you guys? Do we need to move things around? Can we agree at what point we have a leak, a seep or something else going on? When do we recommend shocks? When do we recommend struts? How deep do we go before we stop and say the customer needs, we need more time to check this out. All of those things should go into that training. And again, I promise you, I promise you that if you make this investment and you get your team on board, the benefits will show up. It's, it's secret sauce. Honestly, between the last podcast with your, your exit scheduling and this one, these are the two things that will take your business from good to great and make it much more profitable, much more enjoyable and, and you're going to Give better customer service to your people.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:42:03]:
Okay? So once your, your training is complete, do whatever you know, fixes to the DVI and implement, implement, implement, implement. Every car, every time. Now, caveat. There are a few times when doing a DVI might not be feasible. Somebody stops in for wiper blades and they're just, I'm in a hurry, I just need a set of wiper blades or. Okay, fine, we're not going to take the time to do a dvi. But I will tell you that when we did smog inspections in California, we did the mini DVI on every smog inspection. And if you want to think about it this way, before you do an inspection, before your team drives a vehicle, they should be checking the fluids anyway.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:42:55]:
They should be checking the lights anyway. They should make sure that the base, it's safe to function, to operate the vehicle before they step off the property. If the oil's low, if the coolant's low, if any of these things are an impediment to operating the vehicle, that should be addressed before it goes anywhere. So we're doing something we should be doing anyway. We're just writing down the results. So again, and how much time does it take to check the underhood fluids? Five minutes. Okay, there's five out of your 20. What does it take to check the tire pressures? There's five of your 20.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:43:33]:
You can tag team the lights. Have one guy driving the lights and another guy checking for him. There you go. By that time, once you've got it up in the air, you do the undercarriage good to go, right? There's ways to make this very quick, easy, and, and make it work for you and your team. Team. So with all of that being said, I assure you this is one of my soapboxes. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate. Please feel free to give me whatever feedback you, you have.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:44:06]:
If I've been unclear and you want clarification, I'm always here to answer your questions, to give you feedback. You can hit me on my Facebook page. My email and contact is in the show notes. Feel free to shoot me an email if you see it on Facebook and want to make a comment. I'm always looking for the comments, so I will respond to you. Send me a dm. I'm checking those, those requests. Send me a friend request.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:44:32]:
I am completely accessible. If you have a question, you want to have a discussion, we can do that. Okay. So in addition, just as I said, all of my contact information is in the show notes below. There's even an option to set up a 30 minute meeting with me to do a discovery call if you think you like coaching. I work for Auto Fix Auto Shop coaching. We're small but mighty. We believe in giving the customer exactly what they want when they need it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:00]:
You're, you're coaching your way. We're here to give you what you need. If something's on fire, we talk about that. If you want to talk numbers, we do that. Whatever you need, that's what we do. Okay? So thank you for spending an hour of your time with me. I truly appreciate it. I do welcome your feedback.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:21]:
I hope you guys realize how heartfelt all of this is to me. Because every tech out there, every advisor, every owner, you're doing yeoman's work out there, you're serving your people, you're taking good care of your customers. And we need to start to love this industry the way, the way that it needs to be loved. And if we put the love in, our customers are going to feel that and they're going to love us back. So hopefully that, that part of it gets a little easier. We can't fix parts yet, but we'll work on that, right? We'll find some way to take on the world and get, get the parts availability, pricing and, and reliability up there. But I thank you all for everything that you do for our industry, for being good, good, you know, purveyors of the automotive industry, taking the time to listen to this, improving your shop, taking care of your team, it's all critical to us getting our industry up and where it needs to be. So this is JeanAnn from Shop Talk her way and I encourage you to make your shop your way.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:46:23]:
Have a wonderful day and I'll see you next time.