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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]:
And I can tell you from my experience that my customers really appreciated that we had our eye on this ball, that we were the ones doing all the work for them and showing up for them and saying, okay, here's what your maintenance schedule looks like. Educating them about normal service versus severe and then laying out a plan for their vehicle. This is Shop Talk Her Way with JeanAnn SaintGrace. Have you gotten a maintenance mindset in your shop? I'm going to talk a little bit about that today and why you should have one. This is JeanAnn SaintGrace. Welcome to this episode of Shop Talk Her Way.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:42]:
I'm so happy to be here with you today. And as always, this topic comes right out of conversations that I'm having with my coaching clients right now. And it is about a maintenance mindset. Now what is that? That is having your whole team have an eye towards helping a customer maintain their vehicle. That means that we need to be aware of how they drive. We need to be aware of how, what their maintenance schedule is on their vehicle. And we also need to know when and how to recommend those services. And don't get me wrong, this is a challenge, right? I am not going to say this is easy, but again, I'm not asking anybody to do what I haven't done.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:01:33]:
And how do we, how do we start this? This is definitely something to talk about if you're updating your DVI process or if you just want to shift focus or bring new focus into your services. This would be a lunch and learn. This would be probably more than a morning huddle and it might be a couple, it could months worth of lunch and learns maybe to get everybody on the same page to know when and how we recommend maintenance services. So how do we start? Okay, dbi. Hopefully you're doing a dbi. If not, at least you're doing a paper courtesy inspection. Whatever your checklist looks like, this should be on it. Now we're talking about things like cooling system services, brake fluid exchanges, servicing differentials, transmissions transfer cases.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:30]:
When do we do tune ups? When do we recommend air induction cleanings? All of these maintenance services that are not broken, things that need repair, but things that need attention on a regular basis over the course of the vehicle's life. So when we're setting up our dvi, we definitely want to have a spot somewhere close to the top, somewhere around where they're checking the odometer of where are we mileage wise. Now if we're, we've got to really be aware and really be on our game because some Things are recommended every 20,000 miles, some every 30, 45, 50, 60, 90, 175. They're all over the board, right? So one of the things that our advisors really need to get good at is knowing the maintenance schedules of these vehicles as they come in. If you have an information system, hopefully they're on top of their game and they're giving you good information. My personal preference, and I am a nitpicker, and you guys all know that, is that I always went either to the manufacturer's website if they posted that information, or into their owner's manual. And I did this because even our information systems are not always 100% complete. And the other thing that we need to be aware of is a normal maintenance service versus a severe maintenance service schedule.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:04:05]:
And I hate to break it to everybody, and most of you probably know this, most people drive under a severe driving schedule. The normal service schedule almost is non existent. So we've got to be very aware of how we're treading these waters to make sure that we're again educating our customer, knowing our information frontwards and backwards, and having good information to work from. So there are so many moving parts to this that it feels complicated. But if you start with a new customer with the owner's manual or the manufacturer's information, then you can start to piece together a maintenance schedule specifically for them. And I did this by finding a place in my shop management system where I could keep a note with the vehicle that came up every time that showed me when certain things were due and when they had when they were due again. So for example, if it was a cooling system Service and the first service was due at five years or 100,000 miles, and the second service was due at three years or 50,000 miles, then I wrote that down, I wrote down what type of coolant it was, and I wrote down if we had done it when it would be due again. And this sounds like a lot of work, but once you kind of get in the groove of it, and if we're asking our, our advisors to work in a low car count, high average repair order model, they should have time to do this.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:36]:
And if we sit down and do it right the first time and do it once, then going forward with it, it works. And we've made a wise investment of time in our customer and in our customer's vehicle. So that's where it starts. It starts at the front counter with an advisor who has done their due diligence and is got a good framework to work from. Next it goes to the technician. And the technician, when they validate or verify the odometer reading in the dvi, they should also have a next box that says maintenance scheduled maintenance question mark, so that they know that if it's coming up on 30, 60, 90, 100, 105, wherever they're at in their maintenance schedule, that they're aware of it. And that's something that they should be looking at as they're looking at the vehicle. So when they get under the hood, they're checking all the fluids, they're checking to see if these services have been done.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:06:36]:
If you can tell, if you don't have records on the vehicle, then we'll talk about the conversation we're going to have with the client. But that's down the road. But they should be giving very clear information on what and when things are due. And I want to caution you that we kind of have to have. We need to have rules, and then there's going to be exceptions to the rules. Right. We know that nothing in this business is as straightforward as it should be. But I want to caution you that something I ran across a week or so ago with a DBI Live was they checked that the fuel filter was green and it was a Ford F150.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:07:21]:
And I'm like, I don't think this has a fuel filter. And sure enough, when we looked it up, the fuel filter is integrated with the fuel pump and it's not serviceable over time. So my recommendation to that shop was they should only check that box if it is equipped with a fuel filter. If it's not equipped with a fuel filter, there should either be a note that says the fuel filter on this vehicle is not serviceable, or is serviceable with the fuel pump, but is not a regular service item, something like that, that they can drop down and use that checkbox. Otherwise they should just leave it off. The dvi, we don't want to be checking green boxes for a filter. We can't see it's not serviceable, that kind of thing. And I think that logic kind of follows along with your cooling system services, your other fluids.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:08:13]:
We want to make sure that we can check them. And if we check them, then we have a standard within the shop for when and how we recommend those services. Something that's a little tricky. Along with things like the fuel filter would also be your transmissions. So so many of our transmissions now don't have dipsticks, or they have a port for the dipstick, but aren't equipped with a Dipstick, or it's sealed, whatever the thing might be about that. So we have to be careful as we are going through these vehicles that we are servicing the transmissions on the schedule and letting them know, again, this, we cannot check the transmission fluid on this vehicle due to no dipstick sealed unit, whatever it might look like. But we don't want to be marking something green when we haven't been able to check it. We need to mark it in that case, maybe yellow and have a conversation with the customer about, hey, have you had the transmission service, when was the last time? That kind of thing.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:09:18]:
But we never want to mark something green when we haven't physically been able to check it. So I want, that's kind of an overall thought on the dvi, but especially when we're working on these maintenance items is we can't always know if or when they've been done. So we need to tread very lightly on these and never, we should never be doing this anyway, but never hard selling things that we don't have full knowledge of. So, you know, the technician does the DVI and we get it back to the front counter and on the front counter now our advisor has the ticket back in their hand. They're going through the dvi. They can see, obviously, you know, the conditions of certain fluids. We know if we can or cannot see the transmission fluid, we know if there is or is not a fuel filter, et cetera, et cetera. And how do they then present this to the customer? There's probably multiple ways to approach this, but for me there's going to be an A or a B.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:10:19]:
The A situation is this is a long time client. We've seen this car before, we know the maintenance schedule and we know what's been done to it. And in that case then we can just follow along with the maintenance schedule and do the things on time as they're doing as they're needed. If we don't know this car and it's the first time in, and let's say it's at, I don't know, 65,000 miles and say it's six years old. So if we've got a cooling system service that's recommended every five years or 100,000, it's in that five year mark. So how I would recommend we approach the customer is, hey, Mr. Customer. We haven't seen this vehicle ever before, so we don't have any service records on it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:11:07]:
But one of the things that was due at the five year mark is the cooling system service. Now from the Condition of the coolant, it looks okay, the level's fine, but by the manufacturer specification it is due every five years. Have you had the service done and if so, when? Right. And if they don't know, then we go down the next rabbit trail. If they have had it done and it's fine, if they know when, then we can hopefully make a note that it's due again at whatever mileage in whatever time. Now, if they don't know if it's been done, here's the sticky wicket, right? We can recommend it and I do recommend that it be written up. If you have the test strips and you like to use the test strips and you agree with testing fluids that way you can then say, well, we've tested the fluid and this is what it looks like. Here's the freeze protection, here's the cooling protection, here's the mix of water and coolant.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:12:14]:
And then given a recommendation that way, and especially if you're in a cold climate where things freeze, then freeze protection is going to be key. And that's something you'll probably focus on more in the fall. If we need to defer the service, then we can recommend, hey, you know, the freeze protection doesn't look great, but we're going into the summertime, we can do this in the fall, right before winter and make sure you're in tip top shape or we can do it now for you. That's up to you to decide. If the customer is a little like, I don't know what to do, then that's the time for us to step in with more education. What does the cooling system do? What are the features and benefits of serving a cooling system regularly and on time. This is where your advisor needs maybe some extra training to know what all of those things are and how to present them. And again, we're never going to hard sell anybody, ever.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:13:14]:
But we all know that a cooling system service can help keep the overall condition of the cooling system in better condition longer, less chances for radiators, plug up heater cores, etc. You know, and at the same time we're doing a good check on the hoses and the hose clamps and making sure everything's good. So why we have all the reasons why and then we just have to allow the customer to make a decision based on the information that we have shared. So again, no hard sell, just point A to point B. If this, then that and it should. I mean really, I've been thinking about maybe we all need to make or somebody needs to come up with a flow chart that says, okay, if the conversation goes this way, go this direction, it goes this way, go this direction. And that would give our team and our advisors a place to move from a solid foundation to say, okay, here's what we would recommend. And you know, it's important that these services be done.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:19]:
And sometimes we also have to tell them, you know, the manufacturers are a little slow on these things. You know, there are transmission fluids that are lifetime fluids and the lifetime of that transmission if it's never serviced is like 70,000 miles. And they're looking at a $10,000 bill. So if the manufacturer doesn't necessarily recommend is incumbent upon us to say, hey, we have seen, we know the industry is talking about whatever words you want to use, that these transmissions fail unless they're serviced. And even if a transmission service runs 5 or 600, even $700 because of how expensive these fluids have gotten, they can do that 10 times before they get to the cost of a transmission. So to err on the side of caution, to ensure the life of that transmission, it's a good idea to recommend it earlier rather than never. Okay. And the customer might give you a little heat for that and be like, well, the manual says this and it's like, then we need an something to overcome that objection.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:15:31]:
And the objection to that is the manufacturers don't always have a reason to recommend fluid services. In fact, they have reasons not to. There's statistics about cost of ownership, there's statistics about hydrocarbon off gassing. There's all these things that they're trying to hit that are not necessarily beneficial to the consumer. And we also have to remember that, bless their dealership's heart, they have another profit center which is selling new vehicles. So if they get a transmission in that's out of warranty, their two options are going to be, well, we can fix it and it's going to be this much, or you can invest that money as a down payment on a new vehicle. They have those options. Most of us in the aftermarket do not have an opportunity to sell them a new vehicle.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:16:26]:
And it doesn't behoove the customer to just drag out along goodbye on a vehicle. Why not help them keep it in top shape? The other thing that we can talk about with maintenance mindset is we can then help the customer if they decide to sell the vehicle as a private party. We've got records that they have done accelerated service on this vehicle and that it is in tip top shape now. That adds value, that adds confidence, that Adds a lot of things that the customer might not have had otherwise. And it's weird to think that we have to do better than the dealers, but we do. They have a totally different business model than the aftermarket does. So we have to do things differently. And it kind of honestly sticks in my craw a little bit when people are like, well, but the dealer this and the dealer that, or we are not the dealer.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:17:32]:
We have a totally different business model. We are not bound by some of the things the dealers are bound by. Being a franchise essentially of a major manufacturer, we can help the customer have a better ownership experience by helping them to get these services done, maybe a little sooner, maybe on time, but with an understanding of we can do this sub $700 service several times before it adds up to the cost of replacing this transmission. So getting your whole team aware and thinking about what does maintenance look like, what services are considered maintenance and then how do we sell them is key to all of this. And I can tell you from my experience that my customers really appreciated that we had our eye on this ball, that we were the ones doing all the work for them and showing up for them and saying, okay, here's what your maintenance schedule looks like. Educating them about normal service versus severe and then laying out a plan for their vehicle. And I cannot tell you how valuable it was to my customers that we could give them a 6 to 12 month forecast of the work that was coming up on their vehicle so that they could budget for it. And they understood if I quoted a cooling system service or a timing belt today, that in six months the price might be a little bit different.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:19:05]:
But it was better that they had at least an idea of what was coming up over no idea at all. And all of a sudden be faced with a multi thousand dollar bill because it all piled up and now it's all due at the same time. So getting this shift, this maintenance mindset into your team is so key to providing excellent service to our. And I would argue that this is, this is the path to greatness. Everybody is looking for someone to take some of the weight off of them. And that might sound a little, I don't know, maybe it's not our job, but it is our job because this is our specialty. And it's also a place where we can be their expert, their trusted advisor and help them to understand the cost of their, the investment needed in this vehicle to keep it in excellent running condition and then also to have something to sell at the end of the day. And the other thing that came out of this maintenance mindset in my shop was that we went from having customers with breakdowns to customers with regularly scheduled service and almost no breakdowns with the dvi, with the maintenance and catching it ahead of time.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:20:33]:
A lot of times we curtailed the emergency breakdowns that, that we saw. And it was powerful for me as an advisor and as a human being to see them, you know, get all caught up on their maintenance if they were behind, and then have, you know, three or four oil changes where all they had to do was change the oil and rotate the tires. And that was something to celebrate. It was an accomplishment. And a lot of them, and especially our lady customers, really appreciated that we were there to help them navigate this. And they knew that we were invested in their well being, their safety, their budgeting, their financial well being. And it gave them something to fall back on. When we, when we did have to sell our shop and turn it over to different hands, it was in a lot of ways heart wrenching because we weren't, we're going to be there to be that for those people.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:21:41]:
That was honestly the hardest part. And I still stay in contact with some of them today. And that was over 10 years ago. We, we forged such a relationship of tr that we, you know, became friends and, and stayed in contact with each other just because we had built such a strong relationship. And when, you know, we're talking about leveling out our, our sales, you know, so we don't have high highs and low lows. If we're able to take these maintenance services and schedule them out into the future, do exit scheduling like I've talk. This starts to level out our car count. This starts to level out our average repair order.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:22:28]:
This starts to level out our sales earnings over time. And the customer can also have a predictable experience. And when you start to take out the fear of a failure or a breakdown, the fear of an unexpected repair, and they can actually plan for these things, then it builds trust with your company. But it also takes a lot of the fear out of them coming into the shop. If they know that they're going to be met by a friendly face who has every, every desire to be in their best interest. That shifts the whole dynamic of the relationship. We've all been on the counter and had that person come in talking about how another shop screwed them or how they're, they don't trust anybody or there's some kind of a fear bubbling, then we can help to calm those waters by saying, you don't need this now, but you're going to need it in six months or you do need this item now and you need this item in six months. These are not selling strategies so much as being good advisors and giving good advice.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:23:43]:
And it helps to build loyalty, it helps to build this relationship again that we're talking about. We're actually in the relationship building business. We fix cars. Absolutely. But we're also building trust. And when we talk about trust, I always like to bring up worldpac. They were one of my trusted advisor trusted partners in our shop, bringing us excellent quality parts and service to help with, you know, building this relationship and keeping our customers on the road. They are the kind sponsor of the podcast along with World Pact Training Institute who also offers a tremendous amount of training opportunities for the aftermarket.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:24:29]:
They are our trusted partners and they bring in top notch instructors to do both, you know, free weekly training for both technicians and business owners. And then they also have paid training that's more technical and can be in an evening or a weekend depending on the location. And they do charge for those. But when you think about the cost, I think their, their prices are pretty good and they have an investment in building knowledge and loyalty within our industry. So I thank WorldPAC and the WorldPAC Training Institute for being not only an excellent partner to the aftermarket, but to be the lovely sponsor of Shop Talk Her Way. So this is going to be a little bit of a shorter episode. I just wanted to kind of get this out there, get you guys thinking about what can kind of maintenance mindset can you build in your shops and how does this help take your business from good to great? It's always your shop your way so you might have a new idea about how to implement this. If you do, please share.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:25:40]:
Please throw some comments up on YouTube or Facebook or wherever you listen to the podcast and let's build a conversation around this and get all of our shops doing better and serving our customers better. There's no doubt that there's room for this kind of service within the industry and it's a win for everyone. It's a win for the customer and it's a win for the shop. Does it take a little bit of extra work? Yes, it does. But when we're building these low car count, high average apparel order models, this can be an excellent part of your work mix. So as a coach, I'm always here to answer any questions. I'm also here if you ever want to explore setting up monthly coaching or sorry, weekly coaching for you or your service advisors through Auto Fix Auto Shop Coaching. We're here to build a coaching plan that is tailored to what you need.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:26:41]:
Whatever is at the top of your mind and the top of your concern is what we talk to you about. And we're always here to help answer your questions or explore the possibility of us working together. So don't forget to like and share these episodes. Don't forget to throw some comments out there. My contact information is in the show notes, so please don't ever hesitate in reaching out. I'm always here to help anybody in the industry that wants to do better and wants to learn more about how they can grow their business into their shop their way. So thank you so much. Again, this is JeanAnn SaintGrace with Shop Talk Her Way.