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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]:
What do you think?
David Roman [00:00:02]:
Hi, everybody.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:06]:
That is the worst thing you've ever done the entire time we've done this.
David Roman [00:00:10]:
Good evening. Or whatever time you're watching this.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:16]:
Are you trolling someone?
David Roman [00:00:20]:
I don't troll. That's terrible.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:23]:
You are a pretty terrible even being, apparently, Stan Stokes. Buddy, how are you?
Stan Stokes [00:00:30]:
I'm good. A little cooked, as we all are on the last day, but seema goes.
David Roman [00:00:37]:
On to, like, they have a Friday night event.
Stan Stokes [00:00:43]:
I don't know where they get the juice from, but my juice is gone, man. The days of rolling in and out and in and out and in and out. Just.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:51]:
Do you think this is a good show for, like, a standard shop owner or a technician to come to. You've been to shows for years and years. Yeah, right?
Stan Stokes [00:01:01]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:01]:
Not calling you old or nothing. I mean, kind of, but not like.
Stan Stokes [00:01:04]:
Almost 20 years, man. Not every single year, but been in the space here for probably 20 years. It can be overwhelming. I think a lot of small businesses today, we get in our cocoons. I mean, I'm guilty of it. Covid made us really guilty of it, working from home and running around in our t shirt and flip flops, you know, all the time. But obviously, in automotive repair, you got to go into the shop. But I think it just depends upon your personality.
Stan Stokes [00:01:38]:
Some people suck this stuff up, but if you're an introvert, oh, my God, you're probably going to freak out a little bit because it's just so overwhelming.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:45]:
Yeah. And we've had a couple of our followers that are introverts that I've had to really push and be like, hey, come to one of the real homie kind of family reunion, filling ones first, get to know everybody and get a network built around you because you want to have people, you know, I was talking to Mark about that yesterday, and then we talked about our dinner last night. We went to a dinner and had kind of like a change in the industry meetup. And one of the things that we said was, hey, let's make sure that next year we have a meet up for the podcast. And then when we invite people, let's make sure they kind of know where their tribe is at, you know what I'm saying? Because there's a lot of industry people here. There's a lot of manufacturers, there's a lot of salespeople. There's a lot of other stuff here, and that's great. And those are great resources for those who might want to come, but also think that that can be overwhelming to somebody who doesn't know any of these people for sure.
Stan Stokes [00:02:38]:
My wife would not come. She's very introvert.
David Roman [00:02:41]:
Right.
Stan Stokes [00:02:41]:
She'll tell you, hey, I don't want to go that, right. I'm completely opposite. But you learn as you get older that not everybody flies the same colors.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:52]:
Of course.
Stan Stokes [00:02:54]:
But to answer your question, I think, like you said, if you got your tribe with you and you come with a group, it can get a little confusing because it's just so massive. I mean, I've heard things like, this is one of the largest conventions in the world. I don't know the numbers this year, but, I mean, it's been, well, excess, what, a hundred thousand people?
Lucas Underwood [00:03:15]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:03:16]:
You know, spread across, what, two or 3 miles here, and then you're in Vegas. So you got to throw that in the mix. And this year, we're thrown in with the f one. The f one. I mean, what other stimulation can you have? We got it all going on, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:03:29]:
F one made it tough. F one made it tough because it's been hard to get around. It's been hard to navigate. That's not anything on Apex or Sema or anything else. Not their fault, man.
Stan Stokes [00:03:40]:
I walked from palms on my first day. Yeah, I got in the uber. We went about 200 yards, and we just stopped. Yeah. 30 minutes did not move. I was like. And I felt bad for the uber guy. He's got to make his money.
Stan Stokes [00:03:56]:
I said, you know, I'm just going to walk. I mean, you can see. Didn't realize that. That's pretty far. Cut. 40 pound bat back on me, start walking. 20 minutes, 30 minutes. A two mile walk.
Stan Stokes [00:04:08]:
Yeah, by the time I got here, I was done. Can't stand on my feet anymore. But, yeah, it's been really cool. There's so much to take in. There's tons of education. You cannot do it all. I think if you come with the show with the intentions of hitting it all, if I was to give anyone any advice, do your homework. Plan what you're going to do out in advance versus just kind of, because if you wing it, man, you'll be cooked.
Stan Stokes [00:04:35]:
Trying to go from SEMA to Apex. Take the time to look at the schedule, map out what training you want to go to, what events you want to go to, because if you don't, you're just going to be. Don't you think?
Lucas Underwood [00:04:47]:
Oh, yeah. And the other thing that you've got to do is you have to get a map of the strip, and you got to get a map of the venetian, and you got to get a map of the convention center.
Stan Stokes [00:04:56]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:57]:
Because otherwise you're going to get lost.
Stan Stokes [00:04:59]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:59]:
Right. And that will overwhelm you. So if you've got a map, you can kind of plan out your routes and know where you got to walk to and everything else.
David Roman [00:05:07]:
Sounds like too much planning.
Stan Stokes [00:05:08]:
Well, they've got good apps. They've actually done much better job of these apps.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:12]:
Now.
Stan Stokes [00:05:15]:
A couple of years ago, they didn't work real well, but now you can kind of gps in the building, so you get a little bit better. The one thing that kind of stumped me this year is as you go into the halls, the vendor and display halls, the directions are terrible. I'm looking up for trying to figure out signs, and they've got so many different business units, especially here at Apex. Right. And real small prints was really hard to figure out. Well, what section of this 50,000 sqft is business or applications or things of that nature? Did you notice that, too?
Lucas Underwood [00:05:47]:
Yeah, a little bit. But I mean, for me, I knew where I was going and I knew I wanted to go see this person or I wanted to go see that, and I wanted to talk to this person or that person. So I kind of already had an idea of where they were and what they were doing, and so I knew that's who I wanted to talk to, you know what I'm saying? And that goes back to what you were saying, kind of plan out, know.
Stan Stokes [00:06:08]:
What you want to do, especially if.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:09]:
You'Re a shop owner and you're thinking.
David Roman [00:06:10]:
Hey, what do you tell a shop owner has never been here before, or tech that's never been here before?
Lucas Underwood [00:06:15]:
Buckle up, buttercup.
David Roman [00:06:18]:
Get overwhelmed the first year and then the second year, you'll have an idea like, I wish I would have XYZ.
Stan Stokes [00:06:24]:
And don't put too much pressure on yourself to do it. You're not going to be able to do it all. I think you just accept going in. You know what? I'm going to do a few things. I'm going to take it all in, but don't feel like, well, I've spent so much on because it's a big expense to come out of here. And I think when you're spending money, especially as a shop owner, if you're bringing a couple of guys out, you're thinking about, oh, man, I got to get these guys out in, I got to maximize their time. Don't wear them out. Let them soak it in.
Stan Stokes [00:06:53]:
I think the biggest outside of the training, it's that you get to collaborate with people in your industry. Yeah. And I think that's probably where the biggest things are out of these kind of conventions is you get to meet like minded people, your group, and then you don't feel like you're out on an island like a lot of guys do.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:13]:
And that's one of the things that we want to do, is build a little bit of a network here. So when they come here, they know the group of people that's here, and they have a way to connect with those people and go to dinner. That's why probably on one of the first nights next year, we'll have a dinner or a meetup where everybody can get together. They can all know somebody. We'll invite vendors, we'll invite everybody and say, hey, let's just go to dinner.
Stan Stokes [00:07:35]:
Have y'all done that before?
Lucas Underwood [00:07:37]:
So we've always done something called the Asog dinner, and the Asog dinner is a scholarship dinner. And we're going to work on some scholarships for this, too, and set it up to where it can help them and get them here for those who couldn't afford.
Stan Stokes [00:07:50]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:50]:
We're going to put some stuff together for that, but we're going to do one a little bit different here, where it's not the scholarship dinner, it's not the speaker dinner. Yeah, exactly. Just to meet up and let everybody get together and walk around and shake hands. That way when you're walking up and down these halls, you have some connections. Give them some time. We're going to tell everybody, hey, either bring a business card or a way people can connect with you. That way somebody you really connect with, you can say, hey, man, like, hey, I'm thinking about going over here. We're going to go to dinner.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:19]:
So you're not trying to do everything alone, right?
Stan Stokes [00:08:22]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:23]:
And then what does that do? That expands your network.
David Roman [00:08:25]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:26]:
Think about that, because when you get to know somebody, like, you know, Bill. Bill came in, introduced you to us. We talked. Now, I know you, and you've introduced me to other people. And so it just, you know what?
Stan Stokes [00:08:37]:
Yeah. Well, maybe you guys ought to have changing the industry hats so we all know, hey, I know you know me because I listen to you on the.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:44]:
Yeah, that's it. I'm going to get David a tattoo that says changing the industry right there on the top of his forehead.
David Roman [00:08:49]:
I love it on my forehead.
Stan Stokes [00:08:51]:
Yeah, I think a little bit further up. Yeah, kind of like maybe he's got plenty of space up there to work.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:56]:
Yeah, absolutely. That's a damn good idea.
Stan Stokes [00:08:59]:
You remember the first did you ever have a full set of head when you were a kid?
David Roman [00:09:04]:
Like, 22.
Stan Stokes [00:09:05]:
First time you got, like, sunburned on the top.
David Roman [00:09:09]:
I don't sunburn that well. I don't sunburn.
Stan Stokes [00:09:14]:
Good for you. I remember my first time. You do not forget your first sunburn on the crown. I mean, it was brutal.
David Roman [00:09:23]:
On the other hand, because I own a shop, I didn't clear the backing plate on the brakes of a car one time. So it's a thin piece of metal on the wheel, rotor comes off. So that's just a thin piece of metal. The bottom part is, it's sharp. And I walked right into it. I walked right into it, and it cut the skin and then shoved the skin up and then embedded brake dust into my head. And so when it healed up, it was still this black spot on my forehead from the brake dust that had jammed itself into my scalp.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:07]:
I have had some.
David Roman [00:10:07]:
Really? You have no idea what I'm talking about. You hit your head without any hair. It hurts worse.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:13]:
Oh, no cushioning.
David Roman [00:10:14]:
There's no cushion.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:15]:
But you see these holes?
Stan Stokes [00:10:16]:
You see those holes?
David Roman [00:10:19]:
You are also a baby.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:21]:
Here's the deal, is that I have hit my head. You know me, I move fast, and oftentimes I'm not really paying attention to what I'm doing. And so I was the world's worst. I'd turn a corner in the old shop, because when we had our old shop, there's like doors and pathways, and I'd walk in and a card be up and I'd be on the telephone. I'd like pop my head on a tire and hit it so hard, like I leave a tire imprint on my face. And I will never forget I was walking into the back bay one time, and I was going with a purpose, and one of the lift arms was stuck out, and I did not see it right. The lift was up in the air, they were cleaning the floor. And I turned the corner and I walked square into that thing.
Stan Stokes [00:11:03]:
And they don't move?
Lucas Underwood [00:11:03]:
No, it left a backwards l imprint on my forehead. And I hit so hard that my feet kept going and my head stopped.
David Roman [00:11:13]:
Dude, I just knocked you out, straight.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:15]:
Down on the ground.
David Roman [00:11:16]:
Yeah, I haven't been knocked out, but I've hit my head pretty hard.
Stan Stokes [00:11:21]:
I'm not going to tell you about the time I got knocked out, because you won't believe the stories.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:25]:
Okay, I want to hear it now you got to tell it.
Stan Stokes [00:11:31]:
I guess my daughter, oldest was eight or nine. What do all little girls want? They want a rabbit. So we got sort of furball and she wanted to let it out in the backyard one day. Since then. Okay, go ahead. It's very interesting when you take a nice, calm little rabit out of a cage and introduce it to the outside world, they change and they become very quick to move. And so we set it. Little girls are just squeezing the hell out of the bunny, right? So, honey, let it go.
Stan Stokes [00:12:08]:
Puts it down. He's going to be fine. He kind of looked up down the steps and we had this playground kind of area. Yeah. And of course, my daughter immediately starts, daddy, dad, go get the rabbit. Go get the rabbit. So I'm out like Elmer Fudd out, know, running around. And he would stop.
Stan Stokes [00:12:32]:
Have you ever tried chasing rabbit? It was pretty real difficulty of it. So, you know, he'd stop. I'd slowly try to crawl my way up there, and as soon as I reached down, he'd bolt off. We had this tree with this limb that hung out at about 5ft above ground. And when you're chasing something on the ground, you're looking down. And I'm full tilt running, trying to catch this, and I churn and bam, I hit the limb out cold. If YouTube or Facebook or TikTok would have been down around then, that would have been a moment. I mean, I was out.
Stan Stokes [00:13:19]:
I woke up, I was like, what's going on? I caught the rabbit, dad. But you got knocked out.
David Roman [00:13:26]:
She caught the rabbit.
Stan Stokes [00:13:27]:
She caught the rabbit.
David Roman [00:13:28]:
Holy moly.
Stan Stokes [00:13:29]:
Yeah. So that's my only claim to fame of being knocked out.
David Roman [00:13:33]:
I've got a couple.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:34]:
We probably do.
Stan Stokes [00:13:35]:
Imagine seeing this old guy trying to, you know, daughter, you do anything for your kids, right?
David Roman [00:13:41]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:13:42]:
Go bang your head against that tree and try to catch that rabbit.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:47]:
That left a mark.
Stan Stokes [00:13:49]:
It hurt. You don't realize how much it hurts till you do it.
David Roman [00:13:54]:
That rabbit would have been rabbit stew by the end of that day. And, like, we're not keeping the rabbit. Deer. We'll cook this rabbit. I'm going to eat it.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:03]:
Look at what it's done.
David Roman [00:14:05]:
Look what it's done.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:07]:
Stan, tell us about you. You've got a pretty interesting career that you've had here. Where did it start?
Stan Stokes [00:14:16]:
Oh, my gosh, man. How much time do we mean?
Lucas Underwood [00:14:20]:
We'll be fine. There's at least 4 hours left on the SD card.
Stan Stokes [00:14:24]:
I have been so blessed in my life to have had the opportunity to travel the world. My dad was in the military, was born in Charlote. What's interesting, I was born in Charlote and I'm back in Charlote.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:37]:
That is pretty cool.
Stan Stokes [00:14:38]:
Carolina, right? Yeah. And at an early age, we were overseas. So I'm talking in the last time I count it was well over 40 moves in my life.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:53]:
Holy cow.
Stan Stokes [00:14:54]:
Yeah, a lot of moves. But dad was in the air force, and he was specialized in addiction and back, so this was maybe the 70s when they're really starting to feel the effects of addiction in the military. And so he was involved with setting up these treatment centers.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:15]:
Okay.
Stan Stokes [00:15:16]:
And in the military, you replicate everything. So everything's on the fourth, 5th ward. So he was just responsible for running from base to base and setting up these programs. So we were never anywhere for any period of time.
David Roman [00:15:29]:
Right.
Stan Stokes [00:15:30]:
And so that was probably really cool as a kid. As I look back now as an adult, the things I got to experience as a kid, like going to Athens, Greece, at the age of eight and seeing the ruins and going to Rome and going to Italy and Spain. I mean, I would much more appreciate it today if I was to go back. But as a kid, I remember, like, man, that's kind of cool.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:52]:
We don't appreciate those things. And it's always sad because later on in life, all of a sudden you realize the opportunity you were given and the things. And I think hindsight is 2020, but we always kind of have that nostalgic. That stings a little bit. I miss that.
Stan Stokes [00:16:08]:
Yeah. But just moving all around, I had a choice, right? You either get to know people or you just sit around and do nothing. And so naturally, being an extrovert, it just went into overdrive being in that environment. But school was tough just because we moved so much. I probably redid three years.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:32]:
Holy cow.
Stan Stokes [00:16:33]:
Just because we move and get backed up and move and then come back to the states. But we lived some pretty cool places. It was pretty neat. And I think when you get an opportunity to travel the world, you realize it's a lot of different cultures out there, man, and we're not all this way. And I'm very grateful that I was exposed to the things that this country is beginning to embrace. Right. And so I think Europe was probably the most impactful. You just saw so much diversification, so many nationalities of people.
Stan Stokes [00:17:07]:
And so I think that gave me a real open know and then guess around. We were living in Washington, DC, and there used to be this thing called a newspaper that people would get delivered to their homes.
David Roman [00:17:24]:
What's that?
Stan Stokes [00:17:24]:
Yeah, a newspaper. It's this printed thing on paper, and there was one called the Washington Post. It's actually still around. But when we were stationed at Andrews Air force base, I started delivering the Washington Post. And I never forget, you have those moments where you realize, this is one I want to do one day when you grow up. Well, f 15 and four s and all your top gun kind of planes would roll out at about 430 in the morning for their routines. And I remember as a kid sitting there going, I want to fly plane. I want to fly jets one day.
Stan Stokes [00:18:00]:
And so I knew right then I wanted to do.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:03]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:18:04]:
And so I set on a course to, I want to be a pilot and went to military school. You probably heard of Oak Ridge Military Academy at Kernersville. And that was my journey. That's what I wanted to do. I want to go into military school then I want to go to the naval academy, and I wanted to be a top gun. And lo and behold, things change in our. And I was very blessed to get the opportunity to go to ember riddle Aeronautical University down in Daytona. Well, there's nothing like taking a kid and getting him away from his parents and getting away from military structure in.
Stan Stokes [00:18:43]:
You know, my first year took off, and I had some challenges with my eyesight and some other things that just, someone just came out and told me, man, I don't think the policy is right for you.
David Roman [00:18:57]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:58]:
I bet that sucked.
Stan Stokes [00:19:01]:
Yeah, it did.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:02]:
Stung a little bit.
Stan Stokes [00:19:05]:
My brother in law is an orthopedic surgeon. He says this all the time. He says, not everybody's meant to be a doctor, right? Not everybody's meant to be these certain things. But, man, I knew what I wanted to do, but that was a big blow. And I think when you have these events in your life, you're only going to go left to right because you're not going to stay where you're at. And I think for me, as I look back at my life, and I mean this really hard, I learned more from the bumps and bruises than I do any. I remember the successes. We all have our wins, but I remember the most lessons, and I don't even call them failures anymore.
Stan Stokes [00:19:44]:
I like to use the word opportunity. Those are opportunities to make a decision on something different. And it was about then that I switched gears and got into cells. Do you remember the fitness craze of the might?
Lucas Underwood [00:20:09]:
I was barely born in the 80s.
Stan Stokes [00:20:11]:
So the 80s were all about, remember the fitness and what do they call it, aerobics came out. Sure, man. Fitness centers popped up everywhere, and I was bartending, and this big bodybuilding guy kind of came in every day to have a drink. And we kicked it off and started chitchatting. He goes, you ever been in sales? No. He goes, man, you got the gift to gab. You need to be in sales. Sell him what? Oh, fitness.
Stan Stokes [00:20:40]:
Fitness is where it's at. Fitness memberships. And so that's where I got my career in sales, was selling fitness memberships. And that just evolved and went on to other things. But fast forward, another turn of events. Ended up going through a divorce. And I was very comfortable working in manufacturing applications. I was very fortunate to get around software and that kind of stuff at an early age.
Stan Stokes [00:21:12]:
And the company I was working for shut down the division I was in right about the time I was going through the divorce. Really tough time, career, and then family hit and I'm right south, you know, and don't know what I'm going to do, right? And this thing called Google had popped up. I know I'm dating myself here, but that wasn't too long ago, that was. And the headhunter came up to me and he said, don, you're good at sales. You ought to check this thing out called the Internet advertising marketing. And so since then, this is what I've been doing, is really embracing the advancements of all the stuff as a business owner. And this is why we consult with business owners so much, is that prior to digital marketing was easy. It was print, radio and tv.
Stan Stokes [00:22:13]:
That's it. You ran an ad in the paper, you had your yellow pages. If you had the money, you did some tv and radio. Think what we do today. All the avenues and channels. And so I've just spent the last 20 years now engulfed in that area, and then for the last ten years, really consulting the industry and shop owners on how do you operationalize all this stuff? Does that make sense? Right? I'm spending money, I'm driving leads to my business. What are you doing with the lead? What's the customer journey look like? And I'm not going to do my info commercial, but again, just chitchat, trying to answer your question, kind of this evolution we all go through. At this point in my life, I really just enjoy giving back.
Stan Stokes [00:23:04]:
I love helping people and see people prosper, and if I can be a part of that, great. But I think that's probably the point where I'm at in my life. Does that make sense?
Lucas Underwood [00:23:16]:
Of course. You said some things yesterday that were pretty interesting because we talked about two aspects in that shop setting. Because you said, I analyze conversations. That's what I do. I use AI to analyze conversations. And then right after that, somehow we got off on a different subject. And you said, oh, I do that too. And I said, well, what do you mean you do that too? And you said, well, I analyze and do competency testing to verify if an employee is a good fit for their role.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:52]:
How did you get from all from there to there?
Stan Stokes [00:23:55]:
Great question. So some of you guys that have been around maybe remember a company called Yodel. Yodel was really the pioneer for local search and websites. You're shaking your head. And I was very fortunate to go on the ground floor with those guys.
David Roman [00:24:12]:
Wow.
Stan Stokes [00:24:13]:
And I was an older guy, but I knew what a script was. I'd been on the phone my whole life. My mother was an entrepreneur. And I remember in 7th grade, going over to her business and listening to her on the phone, she had a pitch, she wrote it down, she memorized it. Here's the funny thing, man. I still remember that damn thing. If I was to see her and think, I could probably remember that script because I heard it every day, I would go in that. I think when we got in with Yodel and we started being able to record conversations for the first time, a business owner had some insights that they never had before.
Stan Stokes [00:24:52]:
I don't think they knew what to do with it, but they all of a sudden had it. And you could quantify your marketing, which was beautiful. Oh, you mean if somebody calls me to track, and you track that back to my revenue and my RoI? Oh, yeah, it's the greatest thing. And so as we started launching that product and getting out, especially in this industry, people call us up and go, I don't know that marketing is working for me. This isn't working for me. And I go, why's that? I just don't have any customers. And as a marketer, usually when something goes south in a business, the first person you want to put the bullet to is your marketing guy? Yeah. And so I sat back and I said, you know what? We got to figure out a way to be proactive instead of reactive to these types of conversations.
Stan Stokes [00:25:46]:
And so 15 years ago, I started listening to conversations between the consumer and the business owners when they were calling, what they were asking, what was going through, because we were on the defense as a marketer to say, no, it's not the marketing. Listen to all these calls. We're driving you great leads. But as a shop owner, I'm not making any money, so I have nobody else to sacrifice except you. Does that make sense?
David Roman [00:26:13]:
Yeah, it happens all the time.
Stan Stokes [00:26:19]:
As this industry just continued to evolve, everybody and their brother was doing digital. Everybody and the brother is recording phone calls. And I started just looking as a consultant and saying, you know what? We've got this conversion rate in our industry, and conversion rate is how many telephone calls does it take for that customer to show up at your shop? They call it a lead to customer conversion rate. We've heard all about it. And so I started studying these numbers about ten years ago. And what do you think the industry average is?
Lucas Underwood [00:26:50]:
David's going to know the answer to that.
David Roman [00:26:52]:
Oh, I don't know. It's probably really low, like 10%, 11% higher than that.
Stan Stokes [00:26:58]:
30 is about that number as an industry. Now, where did I get that from? The platforms out there, your kakuis of the world, your myshop, all of the different CRM systems out there. I even had a conversation, Tony, from Autoshop Solutions, and across the board, they're hovering between ten and 30. And so what it started leading me to is like, I don't accept that number. Why do we have to accept three out of ten? That's a big expense to get three. Yeah. And so we kind of started approaching it to, what's going on with that conversation? And let's look at it from, let's dissect the consumer behavior.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:42]:
Okay.
Stan Stokes [00:27:44]:
What are the characteristics of a caller? What's the conversation? What's the underlying tone of the conversation? And that's just morphed over the years of us being able to very accurately understand what's going on in that conversation. And we whittled it down to, there's only two types of people. Three. Three types of callers. Only three. And people look at me like they go, what do you mean only three? There's only three types of callers to a shop. One, your current customer booking an appointment. That's a layout.
Stan Stokes [00:28:19]:
The other one is, do you fix, or how much is. I'm going to say that again. Do you fix, or how much is. That's how they all start. Or there's a story that gets back to do you fix and how much is. Now, how do we know this? We've listed a million telephone calls.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:36]:
A million?
David Roman [00:28:41]:
Is that the three?
Stan Stokes [00:28:43]:
That's only three. So how much is, do you fix, or can I make an appointment?
David Roman [00:28:48]:
Okay.
Stan Stokes [00:28:49]:
Those are the way every call starts.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:53]:
How did you listen to a million telephone calls?
Stan Stokes [00:28:56]:
So these systems, there's technology out there with transcribe calls, and we wanted to figure out, as a consulting group, how can we operationalize this stuff and help a shop owner and create good training content to help them increase that number. Well, the first thing we had to do is we had to understand the conversation. So using some technology, AI is doing a lot of this today, but basically, I'm looking for this in a transcript. Did that happen? And we call this an SOP. Right. An SOP is a standard operating procedure of the way your talk conversation should go. Not how you have it, but as long as you do these certain things and there's really four buckets, have a good greeting, have some discovery, ask for an appointment, and close nicely. And those are kind of the four components of this SOP.
Stan Stokes [00:29:50]:
Does that make sense?
David Roman [00:29:50]:
Of course.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:50]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Stan Stokes [00:29:51]:
And so we wanted to go and look at the conversation from that perspective instead of just, did they show up or not? It's. Why are they not showing up?
David Roman [00:29:59]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:30:00]:
Right. Yeah. It's a long time, but there's technology out there that lets us scan calls, kind of group a. Call me, for example. I'm not going to listen to a call that's solicitation. I'm not going to listen to a vendor calling in the enterprise guy bringing you out batteries next week. So we kind of created two buckets of conversations. One are unqualified calls.
Stan Stokes [00:30:21]:
Right. And then we're talking about two conversations in a shop. One is coming in to do business with you, and then one is reviewing the recommendations. Those are the two primary conversation between the consumer and the shop. One, can you help me? And then two, how are you helping me and what are you doing and how much it's going to cost. Right. And I think we said this yesterday, there were two critical events that have changed this industry, and we're trying our best to kind of wake people up to that. Okay, and how do we know that? Because we listening to these conversations and looking at the industry.
Stan Stokes [00:31:05]:
Well, what do you think those two big things were? The number one thing was consumer behavior changed. And when did consumer behavior change?
David Roman [00:31:14]:
After Covid.
Stan Stokes [00:31:15]:
Covid?
David Roman [00:31:16]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:31:17]:
You're a shop owner, right? Prior to Covid, were you investing to create a nice environment for your customers to come and sit and have some refreshments and somewhere nice to sit?
David Roman [00:31:27]:
Technically, I banded that, but yeah, that was originally prior to Covid.
Stan Stokes [00:31:33]:
You need.
David Roman [00:31:36]:
Nice waiting room.
Stan Stokes [00:31:37]:
A nice waiting room. And how many lot of money was spent on that? And then all of a sudden, Covid hit, are people waiting anymore for their cars? No. So consumer behavior shifted there. Well, what did that mean to the business? My interaction with you went from this to a phone call. I know you can't see me because face to face now was on a telephone call and conversation, the job skill just changed drastically.
David Roman [00:32:13]:
Yeah, definitely.
Stan Stokes [00:32:14]:
You with me? Because I can take Mark, for example. Mark's great. If that customer walks in the door, it's his domain and he's got. Yeah, but you put them on the phone all over, completely different, all over the place. The next thing that happened that really impacted the business. What technology really impacted this industry? That's consumer facing cell phones, texting from our industry.
David Roman [00:32:42]:
Oh, I don't know.
Stan Stokes [00:32:43]:
DVI.
David Roman [00:32:44]:
Oh, yeah, right.
Stan Stokes [00:32:46]:
The way we communicate with the customer about recommendations.
David Roman [00:32:49]:
Sure.
Stan Stokes [00:32:50]:
What was the old way we used to do it?
David Roman [00:32:51]:
You have to call them. Call them and go through the.
Stan Stokes [00:32:54]:
Try to paint a picture to them. So what does DVI do? Gives you this digital inspection with pictures on it. Well, who's reviewing that? Servicevisor is. Where is he reviewing that? On the phone. Right. So that's what we were talking about yesterday. These two dynamics have really changed the way. Do I have the right person in the right seat on the bus? Yeah, let's talk about the.
Stan Stokes [00:33:22]:
And so as a result of this, as we kept back and we're going, wait a minute, we got this great technology that analyzes our phone calls. Our platforms are telling us all that we've got great coaches in the industry that I can hire to come in and train my staff. This technology gives me all this transparency. But that number hadn't changed. That's interesting. A 30% hadn't changed, but we got all these tools out there.
David Roman [00:33:52]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:33:54]:
So it's just a process of an elimination, and when you peel all that stuff back, what are you left with? People. And our industry is full of some great coaches. I mean, there really are. We have some of the best talented people teaching our servicevisors to technicians, top performers. And again, I was just sitting back as a consultant, scratch my head going, we got all the ingredients here, but why is this number not changed? And so we were really fortunate to get involved with the group that we all know what a personality assessments are. The disc. And personality is very different from inherent traits. And we wanted to be able to, if we could figure out and predict the potential of a service advisor or a technician or a manager or anyone in the shop's potential of being a top performer.
Stan Stokes [00:35:00]:
Now, why did we do that? I can get my car fixed anywhere, can I not? So the only competitive advantage you really have is what your people and you as a shop owner want. What you want. The best of the best.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:16]:
Absolutely.
Stan Stokes [00:35:18]:
Well, I'm going to go back to. You've hired how many people in your lifetime?
David Roman [00:35:22]:
Dozens upon dozens upon dozens.
Stan Stokes [00:35:24]:
Now, when you hire someone, how do you hire them? What is your primary thing that says, this is going to be a good fit for me?
David Roman [00:35:34]:
Usually the interview.
Stan Stokes [00:35:35]:
Interview?
David Roman [00:35:36]:
Yeah. Me personally, I use behavior type questions. I want to set the framework. I want to tell them, this is the behavior I'm looking for. Tell me a time where you have exhibited that behavior. This is the behavior I don't want. Tell me a time where you didn't do this, that kind of thing. That's.
David Roman [00:35:56]:
My interviews are structured.
Stan Stokes [00:35:58]:
How much of that was gut?
David Roman [00:36:01]:
How much was it gut? Well, that's the whole point. I understand what you're getting at. Typically, that's what the shop owner is like. Well, I just feel like they're going to be a good.
Stan Stokes [00:36:11]:
Right. Your resume looks good. You got the track record. Now, what has happened in the last couple of years with our staffing resources going sideways? Right. There's not a lot of fish in the pond anymore. Yeah. So that's probably the third big thing that's happened. And so we were trying to figure out a way.
Stan Stokes [00:36:30]:
Okay, I would rather be proactive with you versus reactive. And reactive is. My numbers are down, car counts down, Aro is down, got a bad review. We operate in reactive state of our business. And I keep coming back to, well, it's our people. That's our only play is our people. So can we figure out a way to help shop owners predict, predict with some really strong data behind it, said, this guy is a great, or this person is a great fit for this role. So we started doing some research, and we were very fortunate to come across a group that's done 30 million assessments that measure inherent traits.
Stan Stokes [00:37:19]:
Now what do I mean by inherent traits? If you think about the one struggle in this industry, if you had to summarize it, it's conflict. Now, why do I say that? Nobody wants to fix the car, right?
David Roman [00:37:34]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:37:34]:
Nobody wakes up in the morning, go, man, I hope I can have some brake issues today so I could call some shops around. Right? Yeah. Outside of the dentist, we're like number two. Did you all know that? Of the things you don't want to do.
David Roman [00:37:47]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:37:47]:
So we are automatically in this uncomfortable, conflict type scenario. And you've been in this business, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
David Roman [00:37:55]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Stan Stokes [00:37:56]:
And again, all the consumer knows to say, do you fix and how much is, do you fix this kind of car? How much is it going to cost? And we are you as a shop owner probably said, guys, you can't give out price on things. We don't know what's really going on with the car. So what do we have? We have a conversation of conflict every single time. Right now, if you came into the shop, I'm in a little bit more control because I have you in my domain. So the conflict thing changes a little bit. Right? I can read your body language, see about mine. But the phone conversation, who's in control?
David Roman [00:38:31]:
Yeah. Client, consumer.
Stan Stokes [00:38:32]:
Who's got control on the phone call? The consumer does. You at the shop, who's got control? You're here. You're my domain. So again, these shifts. So when you take comfort for conflict, wouldn't it be great if you could measure someone's comfort with conflict? Because they're not going to tell you that in an interview, are you?
Lucas Underwood [00:38:50]:
They always tell you how good they.
Stan Stokes [00:38:51]:
Are with it, man, I'm great with people. Are you good on the phone? Oh, yeah, no problem. Yeah, right.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:56]:
Minds me of will.
David Roman [00:38:58]:
Yeah. What will. He was great. It was good.
Stan Stokes [00:39:03]:
Have you ever been out and we'd get out of the shop for a little bit. You ever went to a restaurant and you're waiting along with 50 other people and the person up there that's supposed to sit you their head down? Yeah. They're not paying attention. And what does your temperature do? Goes up and you want to kind of like, start throwing things at them. Dude, wake up. Right. Well, there's an inherent trait that measures that. Now, you probably have witnessed this in some of your staff members, right.
Stan Stokes [00:39:31]:
Are you aware of your surroundings, what's going on? While you're also juggling a conversation? So these little things have a real impact in conversion rate. And I'm just using two. There's a whole bunch of them that we look at. And so we were very fortunate to find an assessment that was built for this industry that allowed us to predict the best of the best and compare and contrast those to each other. And it's spot on, really. It's scary how spot on it is. Bill, that was down here the other day, we did a podcast before, and I had no idea what he was going to say. I'll never hire another person without doing so.
Stan Stokes [00:40:27]:
When you kind of combine those ingredients to what's going on and things we're learning and analyzing all these conversation, it all comes back to, do I have the right person in the right seat on the bus? Well, now, what's happened with our pool of people and resources? So what's going on in the shops now we're moving people around. You ever brought somebody to the back, to the front? Right. How good were they when they came to the front?
David Roman [00:40:55]:
Usually it's a disaster.
Stan Stokes [00:40:57]:
It's a disaster, yeah. And what happens when it doesn't work out for them? Did they go back to the back?
David Roman [00:41:02]:
No.
Stan Stokes [00:41:03]:
Now you lose them.
David Roman [00:41:04]:
Right.
Stan Stokes [00:41:04]:
And that was probably someone that really fit good in your culture, and they've been a long time, and now you kind of got this culture thing going on. Right. Well, wouldn't it be great? Before you did all those shifts, you could kind of take an assessment and look at things? Somebody brought up a really interesting thing the other day and that it didn't dawn on me. But DVI requires a lot more collaboration between technician and service advisor. So let's say, are you a detail oriented person? Yeah. Are you? No. Okay, so let's say that he's the tech, he's got a very powerful tool in his hand called DVI, and he probably takes a lot of pictures because he's a detail oriented guy. Right?
Lucas Underwood [00:41:46]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:41:47]:
And you're going to draw things out and you're going to do it because that's how the DVI trainer told you how to do it. What did you just say? You're not a. So let's say he throws up on the report to you, 40 pictures. What do you do with all that?
David Roman [00:42:03]:
Probably ignore 38 of them.
Stan Stokes [00:42:07]:
So what do we have going on right here?
Lucas Underwood [00:42:09]:
Conflict.
David Roman [00:42:10]:
Conflict.
Stan Stokes [00:42:11]:
Compatibility. Right. So again, remember I said two big changes? Consumer behavior and technology had an impact in our culture. DVis had a huge impact between technician and service advisor. And it affects your culture and you don't realize it, and you get that tension because you're trying to put a quote together. He's upset. Why did you not give him all that? I gave you everything you needed. You heard that one?
David Roman [00:42:38]:
Yeah. Conversations happened. Yeah, I took the picture. Why didn't you quote this out? I don't know what I'm looking at.
Stan Stokes [00:42:44]:
Then what happens? The technicians stop doing such a thorough inspection because service advisor, man, he's not sharing everything with them. So these are kind of the dynamics that's going.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:56]:
Vicious cycle.
Stan Stokes [00:42:57]:
Vicious cycle. And so if we can help. Be proactive on that, man. It's a big game changer.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:08]:
You've created a company or an organization that does these competency tests or these ability tests.
Stan Stokes [00:43:18]:
Assessment tests.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:19]:
Assessments. And what percentage of the people are in the right place?
Stan Stokes [00:43:29]:
I don't know if there's a percentage of that. It's hit or miss. Generally, it takes you about a shop owner about 90 days to figure out if you got the right person, right? Unless something just is underlying and you don't pick it up and then it just blows up one day. Right, putting out fires, it's not about what percentage of the right person. It's more about figuring out where are their strengths and weaknesses. Now, let me peel this back a little bit further and connect the dots for you. I want the best of the best as a shop owner, and I'm using my gut and my visual and my observation of what's going on to measure that effort. Effort turns into output.
Stan Stokes [00:44:21]:
Output turns into performance. Which one you want, a big p or a little p? Big P. Right. So the other piece of this puzzle is, if I can predict, how do I measure that? How do I know that this was right? Just like I know I made a good hire. How do I measure his effort? How do I measure his output? So we've built a platform that we'll be launching next year that does just that. It predicts, and then it measures every key aspect of their role. So as a business owner, they're staying reactive, I mean, proactive to what's going on in the business instead of reactive.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:04]:
Instead of letting it turn into a festering bull.
Stan Stokes [00:45:06]:
Yeah. Now, have you ever had a coach come in in your organization? You've heard of shop owners where they have a coach come in? Sure. It's like, man, it was great. And then three months later, it just kind of fizzled.
David Roman [00:45:17]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:45:17]:
Ever scratched your head on that one or. They had a great coach, but the coach really didn't connect well with them. The situation we were just describing, there's great coaches out there, but not everybody works well together. Well, what if you could create some type of compatibility between the people you're bringing into your shop to consult and train your team that they're compatible with your team? How cool would that be?
David Roman [00:45:45]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:45:47]:
So there's so many different ways to leverage this insight, and I think we're just beginning to get on the surface of it. We really are. But that's a mouthful. I know.
David Roman [00:46:02]:
What are the mechanics behind the assessment and then the phone call? Are you tapping into their voip?
Stan Stokes [00:46:17]:
How is it doing this? Yeah, so everybody's pretty much got some type of call tracking system.
David Roman [00:46:22]:
Okay.
Stan Stokes [00:46:23]:
So we just kind of pinch that line, bring it into our call analytics platform, and then forward it onto the shop so it doesn't disrupt the business at all. And then our technology analyzes that conversation with an understanding of what an objective is. There's only one objective. Booking an appointment.
David Roman [00:46:44]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:46:45]:
And I think that's where some of our secret sauces came in. Over the years, we have figured out what those KPIs are to get to a booked appointment.
David Roman [00:46:53]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:46:54]:
Right. And so we're measuring that conversation. You all want to book the appointment, but what I really want to know is why I didn't book the appointment. Specifically, why I didn't book the appointment. And then I want some training material around that that complements his inherent trait. I'll give you a perfect example. Comfort with conflict. What's the number one reason people do not book an appointment with a shot.
Stan Stokes [00:47:21]:
Would you like to take a shot at it if you were to.
David Roman [00:47:24]:
David, they didn't ask for the appointment.
Stan Stokes [00:47:27]:
That's what everybody says.
David Roman [00:47:29]:
Okay.
Stan Stokes [00:47:30]:
And it's not. I used to think that, yeah. It's unable to agree to an appointment time.
David Roman [00:47:37]:
Oh, jeez. Are you serious?
Stan Stokes [00:47:39]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:47:41]:
Interesting.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:41]:
It's so funny he says that. Okay, and I'll tell you why. Here's why I think it's funny he says that. So I've been doing this thing where I'm adding auto ops into the shop's website, and I've been working that in, and I've been extremely strict with our times. And our rule is that you drop off first thing in the morning. No if, ands or buts about it, right? Eight, nine or 10:00, that's all I've got. I don't have any other openings you drop off or you can drop off the night before, but the deal is you have to drop it off in the morning. I try and have it back to you by the end of the day.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:14]:
And so when I said that to Stephen, who runs auto op scheduling, he's like, man. He's like, I got to be honest.
Stan Stokes [00:48:22]:
With you, it's going to be tough.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:23]:
He's like, you're hurting yourself. And so my biggest thought was like, I've been doing this for a while. And the story behind me is I had three bays. And I'm really learning that the things that worked in three bays don't exactly work in ten bays in the same way. And so here I am, I'm looking at it and I'm saying, okay, I don't necessarily feel comfortable with the idea of stepping out to just letting them schedule whenever. And he said, but look, listen, here's the deal is it's not necessarily about them expecting their car back. It's that, well, this is the only time I can drop my car off. This is the only time that works for me.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:05]:
This is the only time. And he said it's about convenience for them.
Stan Stokes [00:49:08]:
Keyword you just said.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:11]:
And so we talk back and forth. And he's like, I'm not telling you you have to bend and convey or conform to their demands. I'm just telling you that you have to set up something that fits their needs and then explain to them how it fits into your thing.
Stan Stokes [00:49:29]:
And it has nothing to do with fixing a car. No, I'm going to say that again. It has nothing to do with you explaining to. I didn't ask you how you're going to fix my car. But I'll be damned if we don't want to tell people how we're going to fix our car on the phone. Stop telling people how unless I ask you. And you know what percentage of the population really wants to know how?
Lucas Underwood [00:49:51]:
Very 19%.
Stan Stokes [00:49:53]:
Yeah, but I'll be damned because again, let's do a lot of conversations. We move from what and why into how we need to learn how to address the why. And the why is very simple. It's a scheduling issue. I don't want to be inconvenienced. And our behavior as consumers demand it. What Amazon do to us. You mean I can't have this right now? And you can hear it in the tone.
Stan Stokes [00:50:26]:
What do you mean you can't look at my car today? You right?
Lucas Underwood [00:50:29]:
Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:50:30]:
Who put that one in us? Amazon. Yeah. I can get on my phone, order that, and I'd be here this afternoon. 03:00 so we have been trained as a society for immediate instant gratification. And as soon as I have a block on that, I'm pissed.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:54]:
Even if you could turn that into something else because you've had that block now it stops them from even wanting to do business with you.
Stan Stokes [00:51:05]:
So what are we all trying to do? We're trying to do what you just said. Well, let me. Because when I share that number with people, it's all about unable to greet appointment time. They take that nugget and they go, well, we're just going to eliminate that problem. As a shop owner, you're all about eliminating problems, right? So I'll hear shop owners when we're going through training. I'll fix this right now, Stan. Well, what are you going to do? Don't ever tell them they can't bring it in. Bring it in right now.
Stan Stokes [00:51:31]:
Okay. And you go and put them where? Yeah, because all the service provides the process, guys. Right. What do you mean, boss? Boss just wants to solve the problem. He doesn't know how he's going to solve it. So now what we are seeing is we're seeing this conversation shift from, well, can you just bring it on by now?
David Roman [00:51:51]:
Right.
Stan Stokes [00:51:51]:
That would make logical sense. Right. But then we started studying what percentage of those showed up going to give you a new KPI. First is booked appointment rate. Never seen that as a shop owner. We're going to show that to you. The next one is a show rate. So what percentage of the people you confirmed an appointment with on the phone, what percentage of them do you think don't show up.
David Roman [00:52:21]:
After you've shift to bring it down?
Stan Stokes [00:52:23]:
Right now, whatever the scenario is, you were able to overcome the unable to greet appointment time. You locked in something with them on the phone.
David Roman [00:52:33]:
I put around 80%. Well, we have an online scheduler and we can see how many people, if they don't show, they get marked as a no show. So we can track how many no shows don't show up. Sometimes they reschedule. But the no shows, I mean, we can see how many no shows. We're not operating at the volume of a bill, nalu, though.
Stan Stokes [00:52:56]:
I'm not.
David Roman [00:52:57]:
So I have fewer opportunities, but I can imagine maybe half.
Stan Stokes [00:53:03]:
It depends upon two things. One, it depends upon if it's an immediate need. Unplanned engine, lights on. I'm getting that fixed. Right. Schedule maintenance. I'll wait a couple of days, but if I've got an emergency, depends upon what the need was, how long the booked appointment was out. It'll kind of move all over.
David Roman [00:53:21]:
Yeah, I can imagine.
Stan Stokes [00:53:22]:
But again, you just kind of start peeling these layers back and what we're trying to help shop owners. Let's first just get some awareness there. What is these KPI things you've never looked at as shop owner? Let's help you look at them. Understand a, is it really impacting your business? Because if you're a shop that. And here's another great thing that we've been looking at. How much of your business was new versus retention customers. Did you know the percentage? Do you think most shops know that mix?
Lucas Underwood [00:53:55]:
I think shops, the SMS systems typically provide us a number.
Stan Stokes [00:54:01]:
Now, it's there, but are we looking at it? No, that's my point. It's the data is there, but are we looking at it?
Lucas Underwood [00:54:07]:
Yeah, not as many as should be by any means.
Stan Stokes [00:54:10]:
If I'm a shop, that's 80% retention. I'm not doing a lot of marketing and my customers are going to be a lot more flexible because they want me to fix you're weight on your guy, won't you? Yeah, you're weight on your guy, but if it ain't your guy, you're going to be. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. So again, those are some other things you have to kind of look at is what's your mix like? Are you 60 40? Are you 50 50? Are you 2080?
Lucas Underwood [00:54:35]:
So let me ask you this then, because you say, well, you still have no shows. Is there a scheduling tactic that you've seen more effective than another, I guess.
Stan Stokes [00:54:48]:
Is in the conversation, believe it or not. Okay, um, the last time you went to the dentist, and I'll use dentists because they do a very good job.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:06]:
Oh yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:55:06]:
Of their appointments, don't they? You get that text reminding me. We all shake our hell, man. If I don't show up, he's coming and pulling my teeth out of my head.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:14]:
Yeah, exactly. He's getting my money no matter what.
Stan Stokes [00:55:20]:
We kind of analyzed some of those industries where you just had that 100% stick, right? What I mean is you showed up, you didn't mess around with it. Yeah. And why is that? Is the question. Well, why is it that people will show up for the dentist appointment? And if I'm number two to the dentist, then why are they showing up for their appointment? Well, we start to measure that in the conversation. If you call and we go through what concerns are you having with your vehicle, and we identify that we can help you, and we're a good choice for you, the next step is booking the appointment. Now, if I was asked, some people say, well, what's an appointment to you? Well, just bring it on down. Okay. Did you tell me where you were located, sir? No.
Stan Stokes [00:56:13]:
Did you get my vehicle information? No. Do you know my name? No. Did you get my phone number? No. Did you book an appointment with me? No. Your dentist has got all that. What are you coming in for? What's your name? What's your address? And they're probably going to repeat that back to you before they hang up. Remember I said there's four quadrants of conversation. Greeting, discovery and appointment.
Stan Stokes [00:56:41]:
Yeah, appointment. The difference between confirming and repeating back to me what you and me just talked about. Huge uptick, really? Because now I'm committed, am I not? What's your name again, ma'am? And your vehicle is? Well, why do I need to take all that time? It ain't about you, servicevisor or shop owner. It's about building value with that person that I'm committing my time as a shop owner, as a place you're bringing your car to and you're committing to me. That's very different from just bringing on by. Are you committed to bringing on by? Just drop it off. Even at a drop off, say, the environment you're in. Are you confirming the drop off? So you're going to drop off tonight.
Stan Stokes [00:57:39]:
Do you know where we're located? Did you know how many times, people, the percentage of time that we do not confirm that the caller knows where we're located?
Lucas Underwood [00:57:49]:
I'd say a bunch.
Stan Stokes [00:57:51]:
It's incredible.
David Roman [00:57:52]:
100% of the time frame we don't. They sometimes ask, right.
Stan Stokes [00:57:56]:
Nobody dies. Oh, well, they should know where I am.
David Roman [00:57:59]:
Yeah. I get worried, like, what do you mean you don't know who, do you even know who you're calling? Do you know where you go? Yeah.
Stan Stokes [00:58:04]:
Now do you want to know why the consumer is doing that? Let's play consumer for a minute. Two different scenarios, planned, unplanned. Planned is what my old reminder is coming on. I need to get alignment done. That's a planned. I can plan my cost, I can plan my schedule a lot more flexible, very different conversation versus. I got a rattle, I got to squeak, I got to go out of town and my brakes are squealing. Whole different caller.
Stan Stokes [00:58:37]:
Right. So let's say the engine light guy or woman or whoever, what do you do when something happens in your life? You get on your phone and you type in x near me. Yeah. Auto repair near me. You click on the first thing. If you're in panic mode, percentage wise, you're not reading any reviews. Right. That ad is relevant to what you search for.
Stan Stokes [00:59:00]:
You're clicking percentage wise, that are going to call versus book an appointment are much higher because I don't know you. I'll book an appointment on your website if I know you. But if I don't know you, how much is. And do you fix, are the questions coming out of my mouth?
Lucas Underwood [00:59:13]:
Absolutely.
Stan Stokes [00:59:14]:
And how quickly can you do it? When we look at those part of the conversations and we're not confirming that appointment and people like, why do I need to confirm it? Because I just clicked on, I typed in, clicked on, called. Did it resonate with me? Any name? No. You said your name one time when you're greeting, thank you for calling John's auto shop. Do I remember that? No. What's on my mind? My engine light's on, I'm panicking, get my car fixed. Right. Have you ever had somebody show up to your shop and they were at the wrong shop.
David Roman [00:59:48]:
Yeah, that's happened.
Stan Stokes [00:59:49]:
That one ever. Oh, yeah. Now I'll give another example. You ever use Yelp? A lot of people don't like Yelp, but if you go and do any type of search, they're in the first or second position in the results page. Ten, best auto repair near you. Right. You can jump on Yelp. You're going to start clicking a colony.
Stan Stokes [01:00:08]:
Let's say you want to get a quote. Have any of you ever used the yelp quote? You know what it does? It sends a quote out to every shop. Yeah. You should play consumer with it. It's actually a great tool as a consumer. As business owners, we ate it. Right. Because they don't put our great reviews up.
Stan Stokes [01:00:25]:
But as an avenue for a consumer, it's extremely powerful. So think about the mindset of the consumer coming into this conversation. He's probably talked to three or four other people. It's going to talk three or four and he doesn't remember your name and you didn't say his name and you didn't confirm the vehicle and you didn't lock him in. That's the difference in that show rate where we see the conversation locked in, repeated back to the customer, my name's Stan. Make sure you ask when we, when you come in, I'm creating a relationship. Have you ever repeated a caller's name to them? When someone repeats your name, does that not build some credibility for you? If I say your name?
Lucas Underwood [01:01:07]:
Absolutely.
Stan Stokes [01:01:07]:
So again, it's the little things, man, that change that show rate from 30% to 80% to 90%. And I think that was your question was like, well, how do you kind of measure that? We rely on all the technology to send the confirmation out and the reminders out. I get that. But locking the appointment in between you and me on the phone, if I schedule online, do I get a confirmation? If I schedule online, do I put my vehicle information in? Sure I do. Is there a link to your address? It's all right there. So why should I not be doing that on the phone?
David Roman [01:01:41]:
Yeah, that makes sense.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:43]:
That's pretty impressive. So how can they get in touch with you if they want to ask questions about this? Ironfistconsultants.com ironfisconsultants.com stan, thank you for being.
Stan Stokes [01:01:54]:
Here, budy, and it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:56]:
Yes, sir.