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This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:00]:
I don't know. That's part of it.
David Roman [00:00:03]:
We didn't do that for the last one either. I don't think there's any graceful or manly way to look clapping.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:16]:
Can you give us a couple of demos?
David Roman [00:00:18]:
Just. Yeah. You look like you lick walls. You. I think it's verified, though. Once you start watching me clap, I.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:36]:
Would feel a lot better. I probably wouldn't feel as bad if it wasn't the bathroom walls you were licking.
David Roman [00:00:41]:
But that's gross. The best thing that came out of COVID was not having to shake people's hands. And now they come up to me and I go, oh, little fist bump.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:54]:
I actually prefer. I mean, I like a handshake, but I think a fist bump is pretty cool.
David Roman [00:00:59]:
Handshake is. Listen.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:05]:
Our listeners are going to be upset if you don't say, listen, dear.
David Roman [00:01:09]:
No, that's when I'm trying to be condescending. See the difference? I'm just saying, listen, I'm in the bathroom with these mother effers. I see what they do in there and what they don't do in there.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:25]:
You caught on to what he just said, right? I see what them boys do in the bathroom.
Matt Ruffman [00:01:30]:
The questionable part is, is he paying attention to them not washing their hands, or is he actually trying to sneak a peek of what's going on in there?
Lucas Underwood [00:01:40]:
He is a little funny now, but I don't mean.
David Roman [00:01:46]:
Anyway, all I'm saying is I don't want touch anybody's hands ever.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:51]:
Don't worry. When Jeff gives you a bear hug, he won't be touching your hands.
David Roman [00:01:55]:
Jeff?
Lucas Underwood [00:01:56]:
Yeah. He's promised everybody that he will get a picture of him giving you a bear hug at this event. And you can't let him down.
David Roman [00:02:04]:
I throw elbows.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:07]:
I'm sure you can throw whatever you want at Jeff, and they're pokey.
David Roman [00:02:14]:
You might be into it. I don't know. I like things poking at me, things attached to. Listen, I'm trying to hug me. You'll get the claws.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:31]:
The bear claws. This is the extent of this.
Matt Ruffman [00:02:38]:
When I listen to the show, it starts this way. And I'm like, there's no way. This has got to be played up some. But no, this is me and my service writer on a daily basis. This is how we do.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:50]:
That's what we try to explain to people. It's like they're like, oh, they're not very serious, and you're not exactly on a topic. Well, I mean, this is us sitting around talking.
Matt Ruffman [00:02:58]:
Correct.
David Roman [00:02:58]:
You know what I mean?
Lucas Underwood [00:02:59]:
And this is what it sounds like if you're in our shops. And unfortunately for our clients, this is what it sounds like.
David Roman [00:03:03]:
No, it's so much worse. He's mean to his staff. Mean?
Matt Ruffman [00:03:07]:
Oh, I've talked to a few of them, yeah.
David Roman [00:03:10]:
Can you see the PTSD in their eyes?
Matt Ruffman [00:03:13]:
If I knew all their names, we could probably have fun. But I only remember Eric. Right?
David Roman [00:03:18]:
Poor soul. He trembles and he's like. He's not around, is he? He's not around.
Matt Ruffman [00:03:24]:
What is your service advisor's name?
Lucas Underwood [00:03:27]:
Which one? Jade.
Matt Ruffman [00:03:28]:
Or must be Jade.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:29]:
The purple and blue dudes kissing behind you right now. Dead serious. You just missed Mike Allen and Justin Morgan.
David Roman [00:03:39]:
This is why we don't have the curtains. This is why we keep them down.
Matt Ruffman [00:03:47]:
So Jade was in the same class I was in this morning, right? Along with Eric and a couple of other guys.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:52]:
Yeah, Malin's class.
David Roman [00:03:54]:
Introduce our guest.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:54]:
Introduce yourself.
Matt Ruffman [00:03:55]:
So, I'm Matt Ruffman. I own east side Automotive in Greer, South Carolina. Took over the shop after working there for 13 and a half years. Two years ago, October 1.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:06]:
Nice. And so you were in class. Malin Newton's class. On service advisor to technician communication.
Matt Ruffman [00:04:13]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:14]:
And you met two of my employees. Did they say, like, really bad things or just semi bad things?
Matt Ruffman [00:04:19]:
Oh, no. Which one?
Lucas Underwood [00:04:21]:
Eric.
Matt Ruffman [00:04:21]:
Eric speaks his mind.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:22]:
Yeah.
Matt Ruffman [00:04:23]:
But Malin asked for input. Or not input, participation. And so it seemed to be mostly me and Eric, because did Eric get a participation trophy?
Lucas Underwood [00:04:36]:
He's really been gunning for one for.
Matt Ruffman [00:04:38]:
Most of his know, I did have to step out a few minutes early to do this. If nothing else, he participated with patting Jade on the back with anything that must have pertained to, like. Or. There was another one where they were talking about what technicians should do. And he just looked straight around her at one of the guys, and I was like, you can see my guys would do the same thing.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:02]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:05:02]:
I brought one of my techs with me. He is determined to embarrass me.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:09]:
Why is he not in here?
Matt Ruffman [00:05:11]:
He Is in an electrical class. I didn't know I could bring him over, but he was determined to, and I know what it was. So a few weeks ago, he started bank's dad. It's turned into, hey, son. Or, good job, son. Slightly embarrassing. I walk out on our first break earlier. We're kind of in a separate area.
Matt Ruffman [00:05:34]:
I walk down to the side, and I thought I saw him based on clothing.
David Roman [00:05:37]:
Right?
Matt Ruffman [00:05:38]:
I holler out, Brando. Nobody responds. I said, hey, son. Three or four of them turn around. I went, Brandon's not down there. I was like, he wants to embarrass me. I'm going to take care of it myself. Is what's going to wind up happening.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:53]:
Exactly right.
Matt Ruffman [00:05:54]:
But he is determined to do it and I haven't done anything yet. But in the mastermind chat, I was going to let everybody know, look, when he goes for this, just roll with it and I will play it up and act like I am so petrified of what the response I'm going to get.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:08]:
Oh, dude.
Matt Ruffman [00:06:09]:
Because he wants to play it up with, he gets paid in company bucks and that he has to pay to use the bathroom and stuff. And he started this with Eric yesterday. And Eric's like, well, this is what I'd say. And he starts looking at me and I'm like, Brandon, look, we're actually talking to Eric about a diag we're struggling with right now. Let's lay off a little bit of.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:33]:
This for the, you know, you've given David some ideas, company bucks and paying to go to the. Listen, listen, I am going to give you a piece of advice about, though, especially when it comes to Porta John's things like, don't. You don't charge them to go to the bathroom. You charge them to get out of the bathroom.
Matt Ruffman [00:06:49]:
Okay, well, what we discussed was charging. Is there a certain amount for every time he rolls a toilet paper?
David Roman [00:06:55]:
Yeah.
Matt Ruffman [00:06:55]:
50 cent of flush. If I have to go get a plunger. Because 50 cent of flush.
David Roman [00:07:01]:
Yeah. No, I need to encourage flushing. Flushing is a good thing. There's nothing worse than walking in. That hasn't happened in a while. But I've had employees in the past that they hadooping the turd into the toilet. They may or may not wipe. I don't even know.
David Roman [00:07:19]:
They may shake whatever's hanging on loose and then out the door they go. And that's it.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:25]:
This is really important. You've got to define hadooking because our listeners don't know what that is.
David Roman [00:07:33]:
Do you know what a Hadooken is?
Matt Ruffman [00:07:35]:
I know what my service advisor told me the other day, but I don't know how careful I should be with it.
David Roman [00:07:43]:
It's from a video game, Street Fighter two.
Matt Ruffman [00:07:46]:
No, we're talking about Duke.
David Roman [00:07:51]:
There's a character in the game, easily the most popular fighting game ever. You were born in the.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:04]:
But I mean, I'm not like, as far back as you were.
David Roman [00:08:07]:
Okay. The game is still being released today. You can get it on PC Street Fighter Six. I got a copy. It's very good. Anyway, there's a special move, and the guy blasts out this ball of powerful energy, and he screams out Hadooken when he does it. So I had a tech who used to tell me he's like, oh, I'll be in and out of the bathroom in a few minutes. Really? He's like, yeah, I'm going to Hadoop in that turret.
David Roman [00:08:34]:
I'm going to spread them all butt cheeks. And just had Duke and that turret out there, and I'll be out in a minute.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:39]:
30 seconds later, he's out, and you're like, dude, no, you didn't wipe well.
Matt Ruffman [00:08:45]:
I mean, as long as he knows it's a white flag, he's probably good to go.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:48]:
Right? So people don't get mad at us. We'll get serious.
David Roman [00:08:56]:
Nobody's ever said, hey, keep it serious. I don't think that comments ever come up.
Matt Ruffman [00:09:00]:
If it was too serious, you probably would have lost my attention.
David Roman [00:09:03]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:03]:
All right. We met a while back, correct, here in one of the groups. And you recently joined the ASOC mastermind.
Matt Ruffman [00:09:15]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:16]:
And the shop has seen a whirlwind of change.
Matt Ruffman [00:09:20]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:21]:
The last few months. Let's start with why there needed to be a change.
Matt Ruffman [00:09:28]:
So, as Lucas and I talked at one point, there was a time I lost my only tech in the shop, first week of January, early this year. That was right after I had hired a service advisor. So at that point, it was just me in the shop. We interviewed a few people. We could not put a package together that was making them want to move. As much as we tried, we just couldn't nail it down. And I think the biggest thing was, there were times where we were offering better. I don't want to talk them down to dollars, but a better package.
Matt Ruffman [00:10:11]:
And with especially one of them, a known quantity, because he knew my service advisor, so he had somebody to reference how it was working with me, but he had a known quantity where he was, and he asked a lot of the right questions. He asked, what's your car count? What's your average Ro? How do you do this? How do you do that? Now, he's very old school. It was all written where he came from, because he does now work for me months after that. But that put me in a position of working a lot of weekend days, at least 12 hours a day, most days. And then we had a string where for 42 days, I did not take a day off. And they were twelve to 16 hours days, including weekends. And the biggest problem there was that was just to keep up. That was between me helping my service advisor do it the way we want it done and really drill that down.
Matt Ruffman [00:11:07]:
Between doing that and then paying attention to the books and trying to reply to Facebook messages, it still was turning me into a 60 to 65 hours tech on average. And I say on average, there were weeks I turned more. There wasn't a week where I turned less than 57 working those kind of hours.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:32]:
And we kind of had a talk that this didn't really seem sustainable.
Matt Ruffman [00:11:36]:
No. And another thing is those were billable hours. We were doing a lot of diagnostics or testing and inspection that at the end of an hour I feel for the customer and hey, I just need 30, 45 more minutes. I'm just going to do it. So in reality, I was putting in more hours. I wasn't charging for those exactly. My production was there if we were billing for it, right, but it wasn't sustainable. I was exhausted, I was getting burnout.
Matt Ruffman [00:12:11]:
And I think the biggest thing was also you'd look at the end of the month and you're going, for all the work I'm doing, where's the money? Where's the money? And not just like, where's the money for me, but where's the money? So we can really start setting aside to get into things we don't do, be it ados as we see more of them and tool up for that or afford to come to events like, know, where are we going to be able to set aside that money if we're making ends meet? Plus a little, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:12:47]:
Not enough to cover, not actually earning a living.
Matt Ruffman [00:12:50]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:51]:
Just earning money.
Matt Ruffman [00:12:52]:
Correct. And so in looking through that, I came across the changing industry podcast. It popped up, I believe, as a short in my YouTube, listened to a couple of those, went to the YouTube, started watching some of good old YouTube shorts and started listening to some of them. And I was like, man, this is like, everybody does things a little different because I would talk to my service advisor daily and I'm like, and I'll be honest, I was like, I'm not saying that everything this guy says is Bible. There's different ways to skin a cat, but to come up with the same result. And I said, but these are some ideas we really need to look into. At that point, I still didn't know there was Facebook group of ASOD. So then I found a podcast, went back to the beginning, binging it forward.
Matt Ruffman [00:13:41]:
At this point I'm on episode about 34, right? But found a Facebook group, started talking with you. We spent a Sunday evening for probably a solid 2 hours messaging, sharing some reports and some.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:57]:
I remember that first, and I so connected with that first message because you asked me about back office and how to put the information in. I remember that. And the reason I connected with it was because what you said was something I remember saying at one point, well, I just need to do this and I'll fix this. If I just put this information in, then it'll be fixed. The first thing that came to mind when you reached out to me was, well, what are you trying to accomplish? What is it that you want to like, where are we now and what is it we're trying to accomplish?
Matt Ruffman [00:14:32]:
Right, right.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:33]:
And I think that's one of the biggest benefits of the Facebook group and this network of people that we've got around us is because if we can understand what it is, where you want to go and what you're trying to accomplish, boy, that's a whole different conversation. As opposed to, here's the answer to your question. And it didn't have anything to do with me. It's just like I've been taught to ask, like, what are you trying to accomplish? Where are you trying to go?
Matt Ruffman [00:15:00]:
Correct. It's like the podcast where you had the guy that I want to hit 1.2.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:04]:
Right?
Matt Ruffman [00:15:05]:
Why do you want to hit 1.2? What's it going to do for you?
Lucas Underwood [00:15:07]:
Exactly.
Matt Ruffman [00:15:08]:
And you were pushing me, what is this going to do for you? The biggest thing is going to relieve stress. It's going to build up a reserve, and then once we've gotten where we want, we're comfortable there. It could allow for whether it's changes. I'm a flat rate shop. I know a lot of people are getting away. It could allow for a much easier transition to look into that. It's going to allow for tooling training. I don't have all the answers.
Matt Ruffman [00:15:39]:
I'm not perfect when it comes to working on a car. So if I didn't feel like I needed the management leadership classes this weekend, I would still be in here taking lab scope.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:52]:
So we started making changes.
Matt Ruffman [00:15:55]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:56]:
Tell me about the changes we've made and what you've seen change in the business.
Matt Ruffman [00:15:59]:
So the main thing we changed, Lucas and I was to implement, we changed three lines on my parts matrix and that was it. Just three lines. And it drilled in that we need to bill appropriately, build value with the customer, which is something my notes had always done for the customer.
David Roman [00:16:21]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:16:21]:
I was good about expected result, actual result, and kind of walking a customer through without doing a novel, but a little two sentences drop down two sentences to get to where we were. But if that took me two and a half hours, it was still a 1 hour charge. Yeah.
David Roman [00:16:44]:
Boy.
Matt Ruffman [00:16:45]:
The one time I've always changed something like that. And the easiest example, because it happened recently, is that we would test for fuel pressure on a Tahoe.
David Roman [00:16:55]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:16:55]:
We have no pressure relay circuits are good. We put in a test relay, it's good. And the next step for us is we need to test power and ground current draw at the pump. We're only 15 minutes in, but that's a three, 3.2 hours RNR. We stop, we contact the customer. This is what we need to RNR, and this will allow us to test for power and grounds. If you have a wiring issue, we may be calling you back because those can be hard to trace. But this is where we need to go.
Matt Ruffman [00:17:29]:
If we open it up, and this is something you may hear and want to change a little bit, but if we open it up, we have power and ground, and maybe even we apply a separate power and ground to make sure we got full voltage, full current, and that pump won't run. We know we need a pump on a Tahoe. It's going to be a pump, a relay and a fuel filter. If that is what we find and you approve where I never have to put the tank back in, then we're willing to knock that RNR down to a 1 hour testing and inspection. And then we'll do a separate RNR line with the parts for the actual repair.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:08]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:18:08]:
Because we're still spending time testing wires, ground circuits.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:12]:
Well, so what we do in my shop is then, if we're in that situation, we do our level one testing routine. Go back to the client. Mrs. Client, here's what we found, is we found that all the electrical systems down through the control systems up top, the PDC, power distribution center, et cetera, et cetera, are good. Now, unfortunately, I cannot access the top of the tank without removing the fuel tank. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and write you an estimate for fuel pump replacement, which is the most likely direction that we're headed if we need to replace the fuel pump. It does come with 36 month, 36,000 miles nationwide warranty. And during this, we're actually going to go ahead and load test all of the circuitry.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:50]:
We're going to verify that we do have good power and ground to the pump and that the pump still does not run, at which point we would replace the pump. Now, Mrs. Client, there is a potential that while we're in here, we may find that this is what's going on. It could be a Wiring issue. And if that were to be the case, you wouldn't be charged for the pump because the pump wouldn't be needed. Does that make sense?
Matt Ruffman [00:19:08]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:08]:
And so that's how we handle it.
Matt Ruffman [00:19:10]:
And that's actually hearing it sounds a little bit better than we're going to re break it down into separate lines.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:16]:
Right. Instead of having to explain to them why this is on here and what's there, we're just telling them like, hey, we're going to do the testing because I have to remove this to do the testing.
Matt Ruffman [00:19:24]:
Correct.
David Roman [00:19:24]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:19:29]:
Hold on.
David Roman [00:19:30]:
It sounds like that too. By the way, if you listen to stupid phone calls, they sound just like that to the T radio voice and everything. Anyway, do you listen to my phone calls? You send them to me. Listen to this. This guy started yelling at me. He was mean to me. He was Moon.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:48]:
Hey, I just want to be. I need you to listen to me for 1 minute. If you ever imitate me and make it sound like Sheldon Cooper again, Cooper.
David Roman [00:20:01]:
From Big Bang, you're going to need new teeth.
Matt Ruffman [00:20:06]:
That is the show. Typically when we are eating lunch sitting down together.
David Roman [00:20:10]:
Yes.
Matt Ruffman [00:20:10]:
Big Bang gets put on.
David Roman [00:20:13]:
I'm going to ruin Big Bang for you. Watch it without the laugh track. Okay. I'll send you a clip.
Matt Ruffman [00:20:19]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:20:20]:
It's off putting. The cadence of the show. The cadence of the show is somebody says a line, somebody says another line, joke gets thrown in. They pause. If the laugh track isn't there, it's like this doesn't feel natural at all. This is weird. And then line lost, second line, joke, laugh track. Wait.
David Roman [00:20:47]:
They wait and then they go. The cadence really, really creepy without the laugh track. So the laugh track in there makes sense. You're like laughing along and saying, oh yeah, take the laugh track out. Or have you seen the episode? What are you doing on your phone? We had a whole conversation about this. It's weird. What are you doing? What is that? He's doing it too. Watch an episode of Friends without the last track.
David Roman [00:21:15]:
It's really weird.
Matt Ruffman [00:21:16]:
So I was the type that in the shop, before I purchased the shop, I would have my little Bluetooth speaker. ANd unless we were backed up, it was me in an eight base shop by myself. I loved it. I had to run to the place and my former owner was no longer in grow mode. He was headed toward retirement. And so, I mean, it worked out great. I loved it because if I had a car that was going to type a lift, it wasn't, put it together and push it out next door. And so that was great.
Matt Ruffman [00:21:47]:
But he always made fun of me for being the one that, rather than music, I got tired of the same music. I binged friends from season one, episode one to the very end.
David Roman [00:21:57]:
Watch it without the laugh track.
Matt Ruffman [00:22:00]:
But that was always his thing. Every time he heard it, he'd walk by me and he goes, I can't stand laugh tracks. That was first thing it triggered when.
David Roman [00:22:08]:
You said that you don't notice it while you're watching it, but if you watch it without the loud track, it's like, I don't know the cadence, there's a specific cadence to it, and then afterwards, you can't not notice it. And then it gets weird and you can't. It ruins the show for you. So I was hoping to ruin the show for you. You'll never watch it the same again. You'll think it's terrible, and you're like, oh, this is awful.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:34]:
Speaking of music and listening to the same music over and over again, Eric listens to the exact same soundtrack. I don't think that there are ten songs on. Yeah, Terry has.
David Roman [00:22:45]:
Is it good music or is it, like, really. Is it butt rock? Yeah, I imagine butt rock, yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:53]:
And it drones on and on and on. And Terry has the most awesome set of playlists. And so every day it's something Terry really? Oh, yeah, dude. He's got his music nailed down to a T. Everybody in the shop's moving and grooving, and, like, if Terry's not there, I just go in there. I'm like, dude, please turn your music. You're ruining the mood. It's awful, you know?
David Roman [00:23:17]:
So the only thing different than what he does is, I don't call it level anything. If it's a suspected fuel problem, if it comes in as a no crank or a crank, no start condition. We have no crank or crank, no start condition testing, and it's usually like $200 and we're going to check 50 different things. If it is a fuel pump problem, then. Or we have a suspected fuel pump problem, maybe we have codes because of the fuel pump module, something like that. We'll have a specific circuit testing, or we'll tell them, hey, we're going to start with this. And then the next set is to pinpoint the issue. We're going to do a little bit of extra testing.
David Roman [00:24:00]:
We will go to the harness and just stab it. Now you can check for power and ground. The other thing you can do is you can load test the wires and you can do a voltage drop test stabbing the harness. No need to drop the tank. I can do a current RaM test that tells me whether pumps. And if it is kind of running, then the next thing is voltage drop test. Hey, voltage drop test passed. It's kind of running.
David Roman [00:24:27]:
We have power and ground, otherwise it wouldn't run at all. We have bad pump done, done and done. I don't have to drop Jack. That whole conversation you had there, nothing.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:37]:
Call his clients.
Matt Ruffman [00:24:39]:
I've heard that. I've heard that. And we had some pushback since we switched to Shopware. They feel like we're not going to call them. But even in the text we send them, we send them the DVX first and we let them know. There. These are your results. We're going to work up an estimate.
Matt Ruffman [00:24:54]:
We'll be in touch shortly. We immediately go to estimate making to take as little time between them as possible.
David Roman [00:25:00]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:25:01]:
And once it pops up and tells us they've looked at it and our estimate is complete, we give it a couple of minutes from knowing they've looked at it. We send it over with prices we put on there. Once you've had a chance to look this over, we'll be in touch with you. We'll give you a phone call. We'll be happy to discuss our findings with you. Yeah.
David Roman [00:25:24]:
I've ran testing. I don't know if it's a customer based thing. Maybe it's a customer base, maybe it's a southern thing. I don't know. I'm just telling you, him and I like 20, $30 off on our Aro. I don't call my customers at all. At all. They get text messages.
David Roman [00:25:41]:
Hey, you're going to get an estimate. It'll look like an Amazon cart. That's what I tell customer. It'll look like an Amazon cart. You have all your notes there. If you have a question, call me, but if not, I don't want to talk to you.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:53]:
Issue that we have is that we have an older client base.
David Roman [00:25:57]:
Yeah, I could see that. See if we have an older customer, we know because they don't open the DVI. They don't open the DVI. You can see it's marking yellow and you're waiting and waiting and waiting. At that point you do call them and they're like, I didn't get a text message. You're like, okay, let's run this through.
Matt Ruffman [00:26:17]:
And what we've seen there is we're asking them up front first, what is your preferred method?
Lucas Underwood [00:26:22]:
Method of contact?
Matt Ruffman [00:26:23]:
Yeah, not method, payment method of contact. We ask them that. The younger crowd, and I would say even up to about 55 at this point, especially because we're in a business area, Michelin North America headquarters. I can see from my parking lot.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:40]:
Yeah.
Matt Ruffman [00:26:40]:
So they're used to using technology. Most of them will even say, I'm in conference calls all day. Shoot me a text. If I really question something, I'm going to call you.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:49]:
Yeah, for sure.
Matt Ruffman [00:26:50]:
But short of that, I'll respond, no problem.
David Roman [00:26:52]:
See, we don't give them the option. Like, I don't want to have that conversation with the customer. I'm going to dictate the terms of service. This is the way we do it. I'm going to send them to you. I'm going to send you a text message. Everything's by text. If you want to see it through email, it's in your email inbox.
David Roman [00:27:06]:
Because I send it both ways. Every single time you get a text, you get an email. We blast. Blast. That's three clicks. Done. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want you clogging out my phone calls.
David Roman [00:27:18]:
I don't want to have any of that. Now if you have a question or if there's a complication, hey, I've got to drop the tank on this because there's no way for me to get to the harness on this thing. It's $450 for me to drop this tank. I'm just telling you. Also it's $450 for us to verify that there is power and ground on the circuit. It is going to cost you $1,152 if it turns out that pump is bad. But the minimum charge is going to be $450. That's what we're telling you.
David Roman [00:27:49]:
Okay, go ahead and do it. Okay.
Matt Ruffman [00:27:53]:
In that instance, do you still want them to, once you get off the phone, go to their phone and click approve?
David Roman [00:28:00]:
Yes, almost always do we tell them, go ahead and click approve? But I just wanted to give you.
Matt Ruffman [00:28:06]:
The breakdown and that's what we've been doing. I just want to get input because we are currently on day five with Shopware coming from Mitchell.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:14]:
Just changed. Yes, just changed.
Matt Ruffman [00:28:16]:
Just changed. And we're trying to nail down how we're.
David Roman [00:28:23]:
Of. I wouldn't say pushback. If you get a lot of non compliance, that's when you need to switch. Like change it up a little bit. You're expecting the customer to do X, they do Y. Something's wrong with your system consistently. Now, I'm not talking about the one off or the one that you remember. You need to keep metrics.
David Roman [00:28:45]:
Just keep like everything went smooth. Pull up all your rOs. You can pull up all your invoices and go, smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth. What went wrong here? Okay, that may just be a one off, but if you're seeing what went wrong. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Went wrong. Smooth, smooth. Okay, now you've got an issue.
David Roman [00:29:02]:
You see what I'm saying? Now something in the process is off. And so switch it up because you're going to have to tailor it to your customer base. You're going to have to switch it to whatever they prefer. Having that conversation up front is fine, but a lot of times people will say one thing and do something completely different. They'll tell me, yeah, text message is fine. And then never open their text messages, ever. Like, I sent you seven texts. Yeah.
David Roman [00:29:28]:
Did you open any of them? No. Or, I didn't know what to do. It tells you what to do. It says, click here and then there's a link.
Matt Ruffman [00:29:39]:
Yeah, but not everybody.
David Roman [00:29:42]:
No. I want to know what most people do. Not everybody.
Matt Ruffman [00:29:45]:
Correct.
David Roman [00:29:46]:
Okay. There is no such thing as not every. There is no such thing as everybody. That's an impossibility. Impossibility. We're looking at a bell curve. I don't care about the outliers. We chop them off.
David Roman [00:29:57]:
Don't look at him for approval. He doesn't know.
Matt Ruffman [00:29:59]:
I'm not looking at him for approval right now. I'm looking at him going, man, me and him are along the same line. I'm actually having fun getting you worked up a little bit right now.
David Roman [00:30:06]:
I'm not worked up. This isn't worked up. He hasn't seen it worked up. I'm looking at a bell curve. The fat part of the bell curve is all I worry about. Chop off the ends. That's it. And if we're doing one standard deviation, that's 16% one way, 16% the other, and you're only worried about the middle 68%.
David Roman [00:30:31]:
That's it.
Matt Ruffman [00:30:32]:
Sounds good. So we always need to also ask them, would they like us to make them aware of any safety or reliability concerns.
David Roman [00:30:39]:
There you go.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:40]:
That's exactly what you do every single time.
Matt Ruffman [00:30:43]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:44]:
That's your permission to do your DVI. That's your permission to do your DVI.
David Roman [00:30:48]:
So we want permission.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:51]:
Yes.
David Roman [00:30:52]:
Permission, yes.
Matt Ruffman [00:30:54]:
Is it your car? Let me ask this.
David Roman [00:30:58]:
It's not my car, but this is my shop and my process. If you want this car to come into my shop, then I'm going to do XYZ. You don't want that. There's a shop fix shop right down the street. They'll be happy to.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:10]:
You are going to get sued. Okay, it is my qualifier. But this is how I qualify.
David Roman [00:31:15]:
Right?
Matt Ruffman [00:31:16]:
And it is what allows them to know what you're going to do and you can turn them away.
David Roman [00:31:20]:
If they don't want to do things, I just tell them, hey, we're going to look the whole car over.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:24]:
You're going to get he dad voices them.
David Roman [00:31:26]:
No, I don't dad voice unless they need it. I just tell them what's going to happen. I don't say, hey, would you like me to. No, I don't make. Would you like. Who is that? Why are you waving to people? There's 8500 people have walked by here. Several of them are kissing each other and they're flashing you all sorts of nonsense going on there. That's the only person you wave to because she's awesome.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:53]:
That's MB Dowd.
David Roman [00:31:54]:
Who?
Lucas Underwood [00:31:55]:
MB dowd. She's the new vice president of ASTA. She's awesome people.
David Roman [00:32:00]:
Wow.
Matt Ruffman [00:32:01]:
Yeah, she's really cool, well connected.
Lucas Underwood [00:32:04]:
She runs Casey's tire pros and is just an absolute rock star human being. Just really cool people.
Matt Ruffman [00:32:11]:
Let me ask you this though. When we're talking about permission to do a DVI versus. Hey, we're doing it. It's our shop. If you were to do an added service, this was talked about in the class earlier. Such as we washed and vacuumed their car. The way they worded it was the customer was so happy. Oh my God.
Matt Ruffman [00:32:31]:
I can't believe they washed it. I'm the customer that nobody washes my truck unless it's approved. My truck's ceramic coated. My bike. Ceramic coated.
David Roman [00:32:40]:
Crazy. That's why I don't do any of that nonsense.
Lucas Underwood [00:32:42]:
Crazy Frank Hewengard. Remember that?
David Roman [00:32:46]:
With a.
Lucas Underwood [00:32:47]:
No, no, the guy with the issue. Because we cleaned the inside of his car and it smelled like cleaners and he was going to die because I put cleaner in his car.
David Roman [00:33:02]:
One good thing that shop fix does is they push the quick clean. The quick clean is inside windshield. So they do the glass on the inside, they wipe down like the. Why do you keep mats and stuff like that? What's that? Why do you keep. Is it bothering you?
Lucas Underwood [00:33:18]:
No, it's not bothering me.
David Roman [00:33:19]:
I'm just curious.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:20]:
You've never ever said that name on this show, ever. And you said it four times today.
David Roman [00:33:25]:
Is it on your mind, maybe. I don't know. We just went to ratchet and wrench. He was a keynote speaker. I wanted to watch his keynote speech. What? We didn't say, where'd we go?
Lucas Underwood [00:33:38]:
We went to get bit by a rattlesnake.
David Roman [00:33:40]:
Oh, yeah. We went hiking. Oh, that was fantastic. Never mind. That was so much better than the keynote speech. It was well worth it.
Matt Ruffman [00:33:48]:
But I'm also the type. Have we had my tech in here? He was doing trip check on the truck we were bringing up here, and he said, it needs a belt. I said, do it. I don't care. Well, it's not correct. I don't care. You said, belt takes ten minutes. Put a belt on the truck right when he gets a belt.
Matt Ruffman [00:34:05]:
And I said, oh, wait a minute. By the way, let me let you know before I get frustrated. The part number and the writing on the belt should face the radiator on my truck. And he looked at me, and I said, trust me, you don't want me as your customer.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:18]:
And I get that.
Matt Ruffman [00:34:19]:
I said, but you have to also understand that as a technician, there were times I would take a belt off. When I realized I put it on backwards, my OCD would kick in, and I would take it off and flip it around.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:31]:
That is a huge benefit until the paint wears off, because then you can look at it. Know what the part number is? If it's your own truck, if you're capable of changing your own belt. And it makes life way easier, even if you have to lean around the side or go over here.
David Roman [00:34:46]:
What are you talking about?
Lucas Underwood [00:34:47]:
Until you memorize the belt number, and then you just know the belt number.
David Roman [00:34:50]:
What nonsense are you saying? What are you talking about?
Lucas Underwood [00:34:54]:
We say you can see the number on your belt.
David Roman [00:34:56]:
You can see it whether it's backwards or forwards.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:58]:
You can't read backwards.
Matt Ruffman [00:35:00]:
Well, that's because you're from North Carolina and South Carolina, we're taught to read both.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:04]:
That's right. You just lay up.
David Roman [00:35:06]:
Apparently not, because you're like, hey, it's got to be facing this way, otherwise.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:10]:
This dude's under the hood.
David Roman [00:35:11]:
You put the wrong belt in my car. What are you talking about? It's backwards. Like, what are you saying?
Lucas Underwood [00:35:17]:
I could believe so would say that.
Matt Ruffman [00:35:20]:
I'll say the biggest reason I got in the habit of doing that was it was always. If you were removing the belt for a component doing an alternator, they always wanted it to run in the same direction. So rather than ever grabbing tire chalk.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:31]:
Makes a good point.
Matt Ruffman [00:35:32]:
I always knew that if I put it on and it was facing that way. I never had to chalk it.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:37]:
Unless.
David Roman [00:35:37]:
Only matters with timing belts though. Timing belts you're supposed to put like if you reuse them, which I don't know why you would take flipping timing belt off a car and then put it right back on. That is insane to me.
Matt Ruffman [00:35:53]:
It's only got 1000 miles.
David Roman [00:35:55]:
No, I touch, I replace. That is the hard and fast rule. Again, we're talking about one standard deviation. 16% of the time I don't do it. 84% of the time I am replacing that sucker. $32 timing belt. And hey, we're doing a water pump and we just ran into those like a Ford something or another. And I knew the water pump had to come off.
David Roman [00:36:20]:
I build it incorrectly.
Matt Ruffman [00:36:21]:
Yeah, the Ford 35.
David Roman [00:36:24]:
No, this was like a 116 or something like that. A little baby Ford. The water pump is not timing belt driven, but you have to remove the timing belt to get the water pump off. And I knew it. Because there's a tool and we have the tool and I knew it. And for whatever reason, I didn't include the timing belt. I ate the time belt. The tech takes the time belt.
David Roman [00:36:44]:
Off he goes, hey, you want me to put this back on? I'm like, no. I mean, is it like brand new? He's like, okay then no, for sure. No. Anyway, we ended up eating it.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:55]:
There are a lot of truck guys that are just like that. Even gasket placement, right? Gasket, what, like twelve valve Cummins, if they would get underneath the hood of their truck. Because you know what I'm talking about, where they've got individual valve covers. I do.
Matt Ruffman [00:37:14]:
But we have like two diesel customers, right? I'm a Ram 1500 hemi. Right, but I know what you're talking about.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:21]:
They would sealer, right. Well, anything like that, if anything's sploging out. Or like those valve cover gaskets, when you tighten them down, there's a stop on the bolt, but it's got to have an oring on it for the stop on the bolt to actually work. And so we would have clients show up and be like, you tightened my valve cover gaskets down too much, walk out. And sure enough, you can see him pooched out just a little bit. It's going to leak oil if I leave. Okay, hang on. I get you set.
David Roman [00:37:46]:
Well, he's technically correct. That's what the stops are there for. That's a sloppy.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:51]:
It's because you're sloppy.
Matt Ruffman [00:37:53]:
That's because a processor procedure wasn't followed exactly what? Processor procedure.
David Roman [00:37:59]:
Processor procedure. No. Yes. I mean, if you want to be that exact on it. If you want to be that exact. A lot of it comes down to the technician. Like you leave it up to the technician. I have a tech who does not want spluging.
David Roman [00:38:12]:
He doesn't want to see any spluging. And so he'll tighten, it's splogious and he'll wipe.
Matt Ruffman [00:38:20]:
Well, that's Fine. But I'm talking about if you're over tightening the thing, the bolt, and it's rolling that seal, it doesn't have to be a written shop policy or processor procedure on how to do it. Valve Cummins. But if they know they're supposed to do it to OEM spec and use Mitchell data wherever your spec is, then they didn't follow the procedure.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:43]:
Yeah, 100%. And that is the shop process for us, is that you're to torque the bolts.
Matt Ruffman [00:38:48]:
Correct?
David Roman [00:38:48]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:49]:
That's all there is to it.
David Roman [00:38:51]:
After the change, I would do the torque to spec, but I would do when necessary. I don't know, it really depends on the car.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:03]:
That's just it. When necessary becomes a problem is because if there is a torque spec, it's to be followed, is the rule. Because if you do it, there's a.
David Roman [00:39:12]:
Torque spec for literally everything on the car.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:15]:
Are you spitting truth? Is that what that was?
David Roman [00:39:18]:
Did that come out? Does something come out? I am spitting truth, I'm always spitting.
Matt Ruffman [00:39:23]:
So there is a torque spec for everything. But there are times where if we're going through a Mitchell all data procedure for repair, they won't list a torque spec for every bolt. It'll say reinstall hose and put screw back in bracket. It may not say what the torque.
David Roman [00:39:41]:
For that I've never seen. There'll be ranges where it'll say like 84 inch pounds to 116 inch pounds. It's like, okay, well, that car, it's like, that's just get it tight. It's whatever.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:55]:
The problem for me is that if we have a rule that says, not all the time, but sometimes we want you to do this, what ends up happening is then we forget or we don't follow it, and we think, or they say, well, the one time was this time. Well, yeah, but this one time caused a problem. It doesn't matter if you.
David Roman [00:40:13]:
Well, then that becomes the rule then. Hey, for example, if I put bolts into your parts list, you better flip and replace the bolts. There's a reason why there's bolts in your parts list, because they're not reusable. If the OE information or if it comes in the box or the information says do not reuse, make sure that it's blue glued.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:38]:
At least.
Matt Ruffman [00:40:40]:
If it's Torque to yield, it's replaced. Don't even. Blue glue.
David Roman [00:40:45]:
Yeah, I mean, sure, it depends on what it is. There's some things that are like, why is this getting thrown out? This is stupid. And a lot of times is that it's not torque to yield. It's just that it came with lock sealer from the factory, and now that you've removed it, it has broken that lock seal. Boys.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:04]:
That GM yellow stuff, that's awful, dude.
David Roman [00:41:07]:
Well, that's what I'm saying. It's like, well, we can reapply the chemical and put it back in there.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:12]:
I don't know. That yellow stuff, I don't think you can find anything quite like that. That's some real.
David Roman [00:41:17]:
The yellow stuff has a spec. Like, somebody makes the yellow stuff. It's not gold, I agree, but it.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:23]:
Goes on and it's like dried caliper bracket. It's like glued to the bolt.
David Roman [00:41:29]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:29]:
And it does not perform the same. You put red loctite on it. You put whatever you want on it. Does not perform the same.
David Roman [00:41:35]:
Because it's like you put green or orange.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:37]:
It'll work when you start backing it out. Here's the thing, is that it doesn't release even with heat. It maintains that resistance the whole way out as you're taking it out. Man, that stuff is tough.
Matt Ruffman [00:41:52]:
Oh, yeah. And it's wire. Wheel it off.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:56]:
Yeah. I ain't trying to do what they did to me, to somebody else.
David Roman [00:42:02]:
Well, that's what I'm saying. GM a lot of times will put that yellow stuff on there and then not say that the bolts, even that needs to be replaced. Ford, however, will put a tiny dollop of blue and say, that's not reusable. Why the not? It's not torque to yield. I should be able to.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:20]:
When you build shitty cars, you kind of got to.
David Roman [00:42:22]:
That's true.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:22]:
You got to.
David Roman [00:42:23]:
Anyway, we just blue glue and then back in. There it goes. Everybody's got a thing of blue glue until I run out of blue glue. Then they use a red glue. But what about the marker, the tamper?
Lucas Underwood [00:42:41]:
Oh, yeah.
David Roman [00:42:42]:
We started using that for oil changes, bolt markers.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:45]:
Yeah, we use it for steering, suspension, brakes. Most all of that gets marked. We mark everything, especially alignment adjustments and whatnot. Really? We had one recently that came back.
Matt Ruffman [00:43:02]:
I've had a tech that did, but I didn't require it. Oil change would probably be the one big one I'd like to see us start doing.
David Roman [00:43:12]:
It's not for the customer. It's not, the customer is tampering with it. It's that your tech forgets to tighten the flipping drain plug. And that's why you force them to put the glue on there. And it forces them.
Matt Ruffman [00:43:28]:
Well, not only that, but should the car come back and that thing's been moved.
David Roman [00:43:33]:
Yeah.
Matt Ruffman [00:43:35]:
If you trust your customers not out there trying to wreck their motor to get you buy one, then, you know.
David Roman [00:43:41]:
That'S what I'm saying. That so rare?
Matt Ruffman [00:43:44]:
No, it is, and that's what I mean. My customers in my shop, there's not one that I would expect to do something like that.
David Roman [00:43:50]:
I'm saying the tech will forgot to tighten that drain plug way before the customer is going to walk in wanting an engine.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:55]:
We had a client who came in and we told them about worn steering components in the front end. They said, no, we want to go ahead and do the alignment. And then they come back with new components in the front end and said, hey, my alignment, my alignment's out. You didn't align it correctly. It should be under warranty. That's OD. All of these pictures are showing where those marks were. Now they're gone.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:21]:
What do you think is up with that? They just assume another tech is going to sick.
David Roman [00:44:26]:
Yeah. What a dirt bag. Who does that?
Matt Ruffman [00:44:30]:
There's plenty out there.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:32]:
So after you got into the mastermind.
David Roman [00:44:36]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:37]:
And that just happened last week, wasn't it?
Matt Ruffman [00:44:40]:
This would be week three of entering.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:42]:
Holy cow.
Matt Ruffman [00:44:43]:
Accountability.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:43]:
Seem like it's been three weeks.
Matt Ruffman [00:44:44]:
No, I've been on two Zoom calls.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:46]:
Okay, so what has changed with the shop? Because one of the first things we talked about is you need to take a damn day off.
David Roman [00:44:53]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:54]:
Because the thing that stood out to me was you got horses, right?
David Roman [00:45:00]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:01]:
And you had not been up with the family to see the horses in what, a month? Two months?
Matt Ruffman [00:45:07]:
Six.
David Roman [00:45:08]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:45:08]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:09]:
And so you had not done that, but that was important to your wife and that was important to your kids.
David Roman [00:45:13]:
Correct. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:14]:
And that was a big deal. And so one of the first things we talked about was like, no, the cards are going to be there Monday.
Matt Ruffman [00:45:22]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:22]:
Take the weekend.
Matt Ruffman [00:45:23]:
That particular message, when I told my dad about it, he said, print it out, tack it to the wall in your office so you don't forget it is tacked to the wall in my office.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:32]:
And so how did it feel when you did that?
Matt Ruffman [00:45:35]:
Scary.
David Roman [00:45:36]:
Because what were you scared of?
Matt Ruffman [00:45:38]:
Well, I knew I could turn revenue on weekends.
David Roman [00:45:41]:
You just wanted the extra money I was worried about.
Matt Ruffman [00:45:45]:
Well, what if we slow down? Let's get it while we can get it. I don't want to upset the customers. Even though all of them knew we had given them days long timeline. Because when it was just me in the shop, there were times we had 19 cars there from replace a transmission in an NV 200 to front brake vibration. So anything in between. And some of those jobs with inspections turned into more. The biggest thing was in trying to hold deadlines. We were not always doing our inspections or not paying as well of attention to stuff.
Matt Ruffman [00:46:21]:
We were worried more about telling them only what was dead safety. Not everything we found.
David Roman [00:46:26]:
You know what the ironic part is?
Matt Ruffman [00:46:29]:
We make more doing that.
David Roman [00:46:31]:
Yeah. So there wasn't even that. That's costing you more money in the long run than waiting to fix the car and leaving it for the weekend. Does that make sense?
Lucas Underwood [00:46:42]:
Yes. You were trying what's best for the client.
David Roman [00:46:44]:
Yeah, well, that for sure. But you were pushing to work Saturday and Sunday to try to get that revenue in case we slowed down and then doing the very thing that was going to cause you to slow down by not doing the inspections, correct? Yes.
Matt Ruffman [00:47:00]:
And I will say, until the podcast, I had never heard of a 300% rule. We always looked cars over. But the mentor, prior owner, however you want to look at that, and everybody does things a little different. This is not to. I mean, he was successful. If he knew a customer, there were times where it would be present. This, that's the most important, the safety and only this, because if we tell them everything, they're not going to do anything.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:35]:
Oh, man.
Matt Ruffman [00:47:36]:
That was how I was, in essence, trained. Now, a lot of times I started breaking that pretty quickly because my thought in my head was always as a customer, client consumer, if I brought my truck in and you could make money doing $1,000 worth of brakes, $1,500 worth of brakes and not tell me about some valve cover gaskets that are seeping, that are not right. Now, rear output seal on a transmission and my shocks and struts are starting to leak depending on the age miles of my truck. If you told me what it was going to cost to do all of that, that might be the kicker for me to go trade the truck.
David Roman [00:48:24]:
Yeah.
Matt Ruffman [00:48:24]:
So to me, you might lose that 1000 or $1,500 brake job, but you just gain trust in the client to.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:31]:
The fact that you would tell me that you would give me that information. And we talk about that almost every episode. Would it be okay with you if he didn't tell you? If he saw something wrong?
Matt Ruffman [00:48:42]:
Not at all.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:43]:
I mean, that's what you're paying him for. You want to know.
Matt Ruffman [00:48:45]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:46]:
That's why you're going to see him. You talk about you don't have to.
David Roman [00:48:48]:
Worry about any of this nonsense anymore since COVID It's fantastic. Hey, every new car is $70,000. And that should have used car you were looking at before COVID is now $35,000. So how about you pay me the ten grand to fix your shipbox?
Matt Ruffman [00:49:02]:
And we've seen much more approvals of way higher mean to the point that I look at some of this and I'm like, I told you, you're going to have to drive this car for this length of time to break even because I want to do right and advise them on what we're doing. And if they make the decision, look at your car, we're happy to fix it. That's what we do. That's what we're here for, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:49:28]:
I guess the big question I have, and I've never asked this, I never asked it by messenger or anything else. You did take the time off.
Matt Ruffman [00:49:35]:
Oh, yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:37]:
What was the takeaway from the time off?
Matt Ruffman [00:49:39]:
So not only did we take the weekends off because you were doctor's orders next six weekends.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:44]:
Yeah, dude, I was like on that.
Matt Ruffman [00:49:47]:
The only evenings I am There late now and it's not touching a car. This is getting shop wear going. This is getting the ideas and information shop marketing pros is going to need from us ready for them. But if I'm going to stay late, it is Monday or Wednesday when my daughter has karate.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:11]:
Amen.
Matt Ruffman [00:50:11]:
She gets out at 730. I'm locking up 730 to 745. I'm home. When they're home, we're having dinner together. I beat them home on one karate night. Like the first or second week after we talked, my youngest, four years old, walked in the house first and I was sitting at the island eating a snack. And she looks over, her face lights up and she turns back out toward the garage and she goes, mama, Daddy's home. And that right there was.
Matt Ruffman [00:50:41]:
That was two things. It was a good feeling, but it was a kick in the balls that I'd been doing some things wrong that I needed to make sure I was there for her. Same thing there with the mastermind group. Part of that was no more than three meetings missed in a six month period, right? The second week my daughter was getting her yellow belt.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:04]:
Oh, man.
Matt Ruffman [00:51:05]:
And my wife tells me, she goes, it's at 630. I said, zoom starts at seven. And she goes, they always do the belts first. I said, if I have to, I will go back in the parking lot and fire up the iPad and do the zoom from the parking lot if I have to. I will be there when she gets her yellow belt.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:23]:
Amen, buddy.
Matt Ruffman [00:51:24]:
And weekends I went in one day, I believe, since we talked, and it was this weekend, trying to help a customer. That has been the most understanding customer I've had in my career, even before buying it and trying to help her, knowing that I had a short week. And so that was where I felt like I'm off Thursday and Friday, right? And I was allotting myself about 4 hours. Not a long period of time, right? I'm going to wake up, I'm going to get to the shop at eight, and then I'm going to be home by noon. My wife and kids tend to lounge around till noon on a weekend, so I'm home by the time they're ready to hop in a jeep and head to the mountains or go over to the barn.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:11]:
So what does mom think about all this after the change?
Matt Ruffman [00:52:16]:
Well, there was a couple of times she told me to go back to work. She could tell it was still on my mind. But no, in all reality, it has been a break for her. I think even one or two of the times I threw the kids in the Jeep and just took them for a ride for an hour and gave her a quiet time that she didn't have in those 42 days because she was never either not working or dealing with the kids.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:41]:
Right?
Matt Ruffman [00:52:42]:
That is the one thing, if you can't do that, find what to fix or find someone to help you find what to fix to allow for some time off.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:56]:
We don't often realize the impact that it has on those around us. And just like her having time off too, because by you deciding I'm not going to take time off, you decided she wasn't going to take time off. Because that's a full time job, buddy. It is taking care of the young and is a full time job.
Matt Ruffman [00:53:11]:
And to that point, I came to her a year and a half ago and I said, if we sell my little hot rod BMW that we had boosted to the moon on E 50 and we sell your Murano, we can go look for a Jeep Wrangler for you, right? And she looked at me and she said, but you love that car. And I know buying an item doesn't fix time at the shop and away from the family. But I told her, I said, you have stood behind me starting taking over a business. You have been the kids taxi. You are still working a full time job. You have been the one there at the house when I'm at work till ten or eleven, right? You're putting them to bed, you're cooking them dinner. I said, you have wanted a Jeep for ten years. It is your turn.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:59]:
Amen, buddy.
David Roman [00:54:00]:
And she got it and was sorely disappointed in the quality craftsmanship vehicle so far. Leaking oil and coolant.
Matt Ruffman [00:54:10]:
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
David Roman [00:54:11]:
TICKING NOISE that's a 36 rocker. Don't worry about it.
Matt Ruffman [00:54:15]:
Two liter turbo. Two liter turbo. So it's going to puke coolant everywhere. But we bought it one year old, 8500 miles in the color she asked for. It was a Sarge green Rubicon. And she knew I was looking. She knew I looked at that one. But I threw her off by sending her three or four other jeeps.
Matt Ruffman [00:54:36]:
I found. My sister took me to pick it up. We brought it to the house. Big pink bow. She was ecstatic. She was disappointed when it had to go in for the warranty paint on the hood, for the bubbling that they do right. And she lost it for three days and was disappointed.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:54]:
So I guess the next big thing we got to ask is, did the business fall apart?
Matt Ruffman [00:54:59]:
No, it's done better.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:02]:
Imagine that.
Matt Ruffman [00:55:04]:
And here's the thing with those three price matrixes we did, and just making sure my notes were always good enough not to say that one didn't slip through the crack, but my notes were always, I attempted to write them in a way that built value to a customer. And I did that even before I took over because I didn't want Larry coming out and asking me, why do we sell this? I would take a trouble tree, print it and write results and circle yeses and no's, and work through it and circle what it said, replace right and turn that in. And that also gave us history if.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:38]:
We ever had to go, yeah, go back and save.
Matt Ruffman [00:55:40]:
And so my notes were always pretty good. But if you have good notes, you built the value to the customer. It makes charging for proper timing of finding the, if we're going to go three C's complaint cause and correction, finding the correction, charging that time is much easier when you can show the customer why you're charging it. When you do that and you slightly change your margins on parts, it allows for the numbers to just sort of work themselves out. We're not necessarily making more on a week or per. We're not necessarily making more per text weekly output. If we were to have ignored a couple of things. But when I ran the estimate the old way, I took probably ten or 15 old estimates, and then I ran them with the way you and I talked.
Matt Ruffman [00:56:43]:
And on average, there was about a $50 difference to the customer, which is somebody needs to pay for this. But for me to have the life that the customer wants to have, to be off with their kids, to have a solid vehicle, to have time or funds to take a ride to the mountains or down to the beach.
David Roman [00:57:08]:
Right.
Matt Ruffman [00:57:09]:
For that to happen, somebody has to fund us. And at the same time, and I've talked with my techs, it's not like when I started making some changes, I told them what was going on and I said, you have to understand, this is not to put another Harley in my garage. Not that it wouldn't happen, but I want to share this with everybody here. I wish my thought right now, and there's some shops pushing this, I feel that in my area, there should not be a reputable shop under $200 an hour. That is my feeling when I look at what other trades are charging.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:51]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Matt Ruffman [00:57:55]:
And when I tell a technician that, he goes, well, the dealer only charged this. And I said, well, here's what $200 an hour would allow me to do for you. And then it puts a different perspective to the tech.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:09]:
So let's say that there's a listener as we wrap up here, let's say there's a listener, and he's working six and seven days a week, and he's working 12 hours a day, and he's just going nonstop and he's doing it because if I don't do this, I'm not going to be able to take care of my client. I'm not going to be able to get this done. I'm not going to be able to make enough money. What would you say to them.
Matt Ruffman [00:58:36]:
If the client is willing to leave over you not getting it done in a reasonable time in this market of being backed up? Sorry, then. Hope you can edit good, David.
David Roman [00:58:56]:
I leave it all, keep it organic.
Matt Ruffman [00:58:58]:
But if they cannot understand that, they're not really your client.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:02]:
Amen, buddy.
Matt Ruffman [00:59:03]:
They're not going to take care of you if something happens. And that's something you told me. What I've also found by going home earlier, I'm more productive. I can do the same amount of.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:17]:
Work in half the time.
Matt Ruffman [00:59:20]:
I can do the same amount of work and leave at 530, we say we close at five. And the way we do it, it's not walking out the door at five.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:27]:
Yeah, it is.
Matt Ruffman [00:59:28]:
We close at five, and we all go out there. We pull cars around, we shut gates, we pull doors down. 15 minutes. If I stay an extra 15 to input some stuff into an excel file, that's on me. But if I'm out the door at 530, I come in the next morning, I'm awake, I'm alert.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:43]:
Yeah. Yank beat.
Matt Ruffman [00:59:46]:
I've had comebacks on myself. I've had less since making sure I was alert and awake at the shop.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:54]:
Amen, buddy. Awesome. Thank you for being here, brother.
Matt Ruffman [00:59:57]:
Yes, sir.
David Roman [00:59:59]:
You. It.