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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Swell AI Transcript: Gearbox Episode 5 - Service Manager of Shiftn Gears Transmission & Auto Repair Leigh-Ann Tower.mp3
00:00 Jimmy Purdy You feeling good? Yes. Okay. Now comfy, got yourself all nuzzled in there.
00:06 Leigh-Ann Tower Feeling good? I'm not nuzzled in anywhere. I'm sitting in a comfortable chair. Oh yeah, yeah. I feel ready. Got your little drink, do you like it? I haven't tasted it yet. Okay. I was waiting. Did you already drink yours? Did you already taste it? Yeah. Oh.
00:23 Jimmy Purdy But today? Today, yes. Today?
00:26 Leigh-Ann Tower I did today. Okay, here we go. Oh, I guess that's smoother than most. It tastes like, it tastes like weird syrupy 7-Up whiskey.
00:41 Jimmy Purdy Tastes like there's diluted soda syrup already in there. Well, this is what we do in the gearbox. So I'll meet my friends. Drink. It's where me and my friends come in. My friends and I come in. To drink?
00:53 Leigh-Ann Tower And we just have. Pre-made, pre-made, oh, that's why. It's pre-made old-fashioned. It's not just straight whiskey. That's good, huh?
01:00 Jimmy Purdy Oh, where's my ice? There's no ice.
01:03 Leigh-Ann Tower Where's my ice ball? Where's my ice block? Wow. All right. So that's how you roll.
01:11 Jimmy Purdy Okay. So today we have Leanne here.
01:15 Leigh-Ann Tower She's the wife. What's my actual title? So that people know. Service advisor, service manager, bookkeeper. Yeah. So is this gonna be a normal interview? Tell the people since we are related. That's weird. We are. Are we not related now? Legally, we're related. Yes. Just don't say. That's weird when you say it like that. Yeah, I know, but it's funny. It catches people's attention, you know?
01:47 Jimmy Purdy So you get to say, does, is dealing with it, is that a bad way of putting it, that you deal with all the clients? That's kinda hard. I mean, that's probably.
02:02 Leigh-Ann Tower You get the opportunity to talk to everyone? There's the politically correct version. There's the version I tell customers, and then there's how I talk when I think they're not listening. Okay. So yeah, I would say I deal with people. I deal with people all day long. She deals with people all day long. Employees, customers, you. You're an employee. I have to manage you, just not to the level I do others. Yeah, that's true. You take special management. Yeah, I take special management.
02:32 Jimmy Purdy That's for sure.
02:33 Leigh-Ann Tower I'm special. And in turn, you have to manage me, because I'm still a service writer.
02:39 Jimmy Purdy So when I go in and I manage in the office, I don't know what happens when I'm not there. So when I go in, I get a different view of the clients coming in. I get a different story. I get a different tone. I get a different attitude. Do you think that's because I'm a man and you're a woman?
03:04 Leigh-Ann Tower I think it's two part, yes. It's because you're a man and you're seen as the authority, the mechanic. You are the face of the company anyways. People know that. But I also think that people automatically wanna check to see if I'm lying or if they're being taken advantage of. Because if you tell them the same story that I tell them, then they know. And then there's people just trying to get away with BS also. They're trying to get something out of you that I'm not giving them. What is a BS? Bullshit.
03:39 Jimmy Purdy This is a podcast. I mean, I understand.
03:41 Leigh-Ann Tower I understand what the acronyms are. I understand what the acronyms are. I understand what the acronyms are.
03:46 Jimmy Purdy I understand what the acronyms are.
03:50 Leigh-Ann Tower What's a particular story? I have to take customers so literal. That's why my answer was the way it is because so many people I think are joking and I have learned that they're not joking. And I am trying to remain professional and direct and nice. Isn't that funny? That's how I answered you. Yeah. I mean, that's how you always answer me. Well, because it's learned over the years. I've had to just learn to be that way. I don't think I started out that way. Yeah, you did. But BS as in discounts, I mean, that's a huge one. Well, she said it was gonna be this type thing.
04:31 Jimmy Purdy That's what you get most of the time, is it not? Yeah. What do you get? From my side, what do you mean if I gotta go in and I gotta address a situation? I feel like most of the time it's just they want technicality and I provide more than they thought what was gonna be coming. And so then they're, I mean, I just, I don't know,
04:54 Leigh-Ann Tower baffled with bullshit, I guess, in a way. That's true. I do specifically ask you to do that on purpose for some people that clearly don't believe whatever I'm saying.
05:05 Jimmy Purdy And I think a lot of it is because I'm a woman. I don't think there's a problem with upset people. It's just dealing, it's just having to deal a little extra harder in a sale versus if I had to sell it. And I think anybody else listening right now that might be a service counter or owner as a woman, I mean, if you didn't know the other way, they just see someone else walk in, a man, and be able to sell a job so much easier than what you can sell. So I mean, both the jobs get sold, but the amount of time and energy put into that
05:42 Leigh-Ann Tower is definitely different. I think that's true, but I think I also automatically put a lot of information behind our recommendations for a couple of reasons, and it's not really just to, like, hard sell, like to sell the job. I just feel like that's what we do here. And part of my job is to give as much information as possible so the consumer feels educated and comfortable with their decision. And also, if something goes wrong later on, I think I get less pushback because of the amount of information I give at the onset.
06:20 Jimmy Purdy Yeah, but I think part of that is having that operation in place because of you managing it, right? I mean, if it was anybody else, not anybody else, but if it was maybe a one-man show,
06:34 Leigh-Ann Tower or maybe like two or three dudes running a shop, maybe they don't have to worry about setting forth so much information and so much communication, maybe? I would say that's true, but I think they don't worry about it, because yeah, they don't have to, they don't have maybe the initial pushback, and they just don't think it's that important because they already feel they have the sense of authority. I know I have to earn that from people, so I think it's just like systemically different from the beginning, and it's because I'm a woman,
07:08 Jimmy Purdy and I know that. Yeah, so that makes it,
07:13 Leigh-Ann Tower so what part of it is the hardest part? Oh.
07:19 Jimmy Purdy So if they come in and, see, I mean, a lot of the clients that come in are women themselves, that they're obviously running the household, the times have changed.
07:31 Leigh-Ann Tower Right, they're the ones making the final decisions anyways.
07:34 Jimmy Purdy I mean, when it comes to marketing,
07:35 Leigh-Ann Tower that's one of our pushes, is to market towards that. Demographic. Genre. Right. You were afraid of what category to say? What do I call them? It's okay to call us women.
07:52 Jimmy Purdy It's still okay to call us women in today's society. You're making me look real bad right now.
07:58 Leigh-Ann Tower It's not what I'm getting at. Uh, you know, the hardest part, I think, it used to be a lot harder when I first started, when we were at our first location, but we've, I don't know, kind of weeded through a subset of people. It used to be really emotionally, physically exhausting, having to prove myself to men. Yeah, I had to fire a lot of clients. Yeah, I mean, but now, but like nowadays within the past couple years, I'm not doing that near to the extent I used to be, and I'm also more confident and knowledgeable now to where if those people do come in, guess what, they're recommended elsewhere. I'm not dealing with it. They're not the clients that I want, and they're the ones that typically don't have money either. Yeah, they just want free information. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They want to be a buddy, and they want that information.
08:58 Jimmy Purdy That makes it easier for you than for me, because then I gotta give them information
09:03 Leigh-Ann Tower and they expect me to know. But you don't, though. That's your problem. You feel like you have to do all these things, and you don't. You just have to know how to politely show them the door.
09:14 Jimmy Purdy You know what I mean? To an extent, yeah. I don't know, that's why I'm there. I guess I've gotten accustomed to it. As like the face, if I do that, I don't think it goes over. That's how you get that one-star review that we desperately try so hard to not worry about,
09:31 Leigh-Ann Tower but also not get. Well, there's a difference, too, though. Is it because you're a man, or is it because you're the face of the company? Different rules apply to you. Yeah. But why? Because you're a man or because you're the face of the company? What's the bigger pull?
09:45 Jimmy Purdy You know what I mean? Maybe my master tech status. I don't know. Maybe because I'm on the radio. Yeah, you definitely have a persona to keep up with. I don't know. But I guess this is about the challenges of a woman
10:05 Leigh-Ann Tower in a male-dominated field. There's lots of challenges, and I think maybe I've become so accustomed to them. I don't think about it too much anymore. I feel like customers are not really the hardest part of my day. It's wanting to manage my employees to the best of my ability. I really don't know how they feel about me managing them half the time. I feel like I'm trying to toe the line between being nice, being direct, not nagging them, quote unquote, because I see their facial expressions, and then I watch what they do after, and I really just don't know how I'm interpreted a lot of the time. That's hard for me, and it's hard because our employees are here day in and day out. We're together all the time. That's what's important to me. Customers I'll deal with.
11:05 Jimmy Purdy Whatever. Yeah, I mean the nagging.
11:10 Leigh-Ann Tower What makes you feel like it's nagging? I feel like I can hear the tone of my voice, and it could come off as nagging because I'm having to remind them of things that I feel like they should already know or that I think are common sense, but once again, it's like I think, I think. I really don't know what they know or what they feel. All right, okay.
11:41 Jimmy Purdy People want to hear examples. They want to hear stories. They want to hear about the people that come in that you have to escort out. You have to fire. Yeah, okay. We got to talk about some real world scenarios here because the he said, she said is like what everybody has to deal with, but what's the specific example that makes it different for you as a woman
12:05 Leigh-Ann Tower compared to me dealing with that situation? One very simple example would be giving a tech a repair order, AC, advanced assessment, and then on our program, it gives two options for that specific vehicle. Is it the 134 or is it the YF? So I specifically write that question down, highlight it in a different color with an asterisk, and then the tech completes the advanced assessment, gives me the clipboard back, and that highlighted asterisked question is not addressed. So I'm immediately annoyed that I then have to go back and interrupt the tech and say hey, you know, and I try and be like hey, I think you missed this, like do you know what it is? Like I'm just gonna give you this clipboard back
12:56 Jimmy Purdy and then give it back to me when it's completed. Yeah, but I feel like that's a problem, I guess.
13:03 Leigh-Ann Tower I feel uncomfortable doing that. It makes me upset that I even have to do that
13:08 Jimmy Purdy to begin with. Yeah. But I don't think that's directed towards you
13:13 Leigh-Ann Tower as a gender persona. But I still have to interrupt him and bring it up and make him finish it, and when that happens, you know, whether it's once a day or once a week, I'm still having to go there and like, I don't know, I guess it's my feelings. I guess that's like a service writer. Like hey kid, you forgot this. Like it's written down, it's right there. You know, or I always try and be nice. Hey, I have this question written down and it hasn't been addressed yet. Is there a reason why?
13:54 Jimmy Purdy But even that, like that tone in my voice can be taken in a couple different ways. You gotta drop a low.
14:04 Leigh-Ann Tower Hey, I need this done. Hey, no, but my voice doesn't do that. It doesn't do that naturally and then my face contorts. So my, so this is my like serious voice and then this is my hey, you forgot this. I need you to do this. And either way, I feel like a mom and I feel like they probably perceive me as like a nagging mom figure because I'm the wife in the office instead of an educated, knowledgeable employee that sells all these jobs for them to do in the first place. Yeah. Definitely a two-sided street there. Yeah, yeah I know. But we hear the tech side all the time. What about the service writer? What's the tech side? The tech side is doing a quality inspection and job so the service advisor actually has deliverables to even go off of to sell the job correctly to begin with. It's definitely like a team effort, 100%. But I don't think from what I hear around circles, I don't think service writers get enough recognition for the sales because obviously the tech is the one doing the physical work and identifying the problems to begin with, like their load is heavier. But that doesn't mean that service writers don't also work hard to ensure the job is also done correctly and the funds are obtained. Yeah, that's true. So we're not even like written out correctly to begin with, that we're even charging the correct amount to begin with for the work that's needed. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's, everyone's gotta work together. Yeah. Try to find the middle road. Yeah, I mean service writers still have to extrapolate quite a bit of information from the tech notes depending on how thorough they are to even build a legitimate estimate to begin with.
16:27 Jimmy Purdy When it comes to standard operating procedures, there's a certain amount of things that are expected of the tech to do and they don't have to worry about contacting or talking to clients. It our shop at least. Writing estimates up, writing, just worry about the car. Worry about the car and the questions that are given to them. So I mean it definitely comes down to having conversations and say this is what your responsibilities are, this is what I need you to do, and this is what needs to be done. But handling that any differently if you're, whether you're a man or a woman,
17:02 Leigh-Ann Tower I don't think it really makes much of a difference. I think it does. When you just said that, I thought in my head I could never just say that. Because the inflections in my tone automatically make it sound different. Like maybe condescending. I think maybe it's just you. Maybe, I don't know. So here's what I need you to do. Here's what it is. This is what you're doing and this is what I need you to do. Yeah, that doesn't sound that bad. That doesn't sound bad to you? No, that sounds a lot.
17:30 Jimmy Purdy You're okay with that?
17:31 Leigh-Ann Tower Yeah, that sounds a lot better than the first way you said it. What did I say the first time? With the vocal flares and the condescending tone. See? See?
17:43 Jimmy Purdy Dang it, see? Well let's talk about clients.
17:47 Leigh-Ann Tower The emotion comes out in my voice which is also probably why I'm so good with clients is because they can hear the compassion
17:55 Jimmy Purdy and the empathy in my voice. Possibly. So double edged sword. Yeah, well what's the story on clients here? We wanna talk about the different types that come in. You versus the ones I come in. Everybody I look at pretty much the same. I have this opposite issue where if a woman comes in, it's immediate that I'm gonna try to take advantage of rip them off. See, that's how you feel. It's not how I feel, it's definitely a different amount of, you can just tell. You can tell by the way they look and the tone. But I can pretty well easily woo them. Oh, can you? Just bat my eyes a little bit and then they're nice and happy with me. But I can't baffle them with a bunch of bullshit. I can't give them a bunch of technical information and make them feel better, that makes it worse. Right. They don't wanna hear the technical information. I mean, sure, there's out there, yes, there's educated women in the auto industry and they understand what I'm saying, but for the most part,
19:01 Leigh-Ann Tower we're talking in generals here. I don't think men like it either. Because most of them are not mechanics. They just have to pretend. They have to pretend like they know what you're saying and they don't. Maybe that makes it worse too.
19:12 Jimmy Purdy They definitely don't. Maybe getting too technical, I just assume.
19:15 Leigh-Ann Tower I mean, that's also why I bring you in. When I'm dealing with clients that are questioning everything I'm saying, then I bring you in because I want you to throw all the jargon at them. They're trying to show me up on the phone and you're not giving me approval, you're clearly not wanting to have a conversation with me, you're interrupting me and you're questioning everything I'm saying. I purposefully bring you in to put them in their place.
19:44 Jimmy Purdy What are they question? What's an example, something they would question? What's a service work order that you can think of that they called you out on something or questioned about?
19:58 Leigh-Ann Tower I mean, diagnostic time is an easy low-hanging fruit. Yeah, that's a good one to talk about. Well, why do you need to do that? Well, you have a 420 code. They're notoriously difficult. It could be one of five to seven different things. They all have to be tested. The 420 code's the cat. And I'll go through the list, but the 420 can be more than just the cat. It's just the cat's the symptom and that's the whole point of the conversation I try and have with people. And most of the time, people willingly accept and understand but then it's always a guy thinking I'm just not telling the truth. It's the cat, it says cat, it has to be the cat. Why are you even testing anything else?
20:48 Jimmy Purdy It doesn't matter what I say or how I say it. Yeah, I mean, that situation is definitely a tough example to bring up, to debate about, because most of the time it's the cat. But I mean, to legally replace it, there has to be certain testing procedures put in place before you can condemn the cat, being that we're in California. But a misfire diagnosis. Misfire diagnosis or like a trans solenoid code. Something like that. So on a misfire diagnosis, if it comes in, what is a lot of pushback that you get? Where I can probably take care of it, maybe a little easier. What is a good example of that? So if it comes in and we do our inspection, okay, yes, we have a misfire code. We don't have a current misfire. We're gonna have to do some advanced assessment. How does that look on urine as you're trying to sell
21:54 Leigh-Ann Tower that advanced assessment? I think half the time they're worried about funds and asking if that diagnostic time and that money goes towards the repair and not really understanding why.
22:12 Jimmy Purdy You know what, I don't get a lot of pushback on that. So not so much like the financial side of it, just like as you running the show up front
22:24 Leigh-Ann Tower and being a woman and trying to explain this stuff. I think I just explain it multiple times if they question me.
22:32 Jimmy Purdy I kind of just repeat myself. So my point is, is like someone else listening that might be in this situation you're in and they feel like, man, I just, I don't understand why I keep getting so many problems because no one trusts me, because I'm not a man. Like what's a good tidbits with some good information on a cell like that that you use to try to help that situation, to try to like convince them without convincing them that you know, because obviously you can't convince them with the knowledge that you have as far as like a misfire diagnostic. I could go in there and say, well, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna check our fuel pressure, we're gonna check our fuel trims. We're gonna go through, we're gonna do a loaded test, we're gonna check our primary and secondary ignition waveforms on our coil packs. That all looks good. We gotta check, you know, depending on what the fuel trims look like. So you automatically throw a whole bunch of junk in and out of them. Yeah, we'll check fuel pressure, right? And then we're gonna check our O2 sensors and if the fuel trims are out, make sure O2 sensors are responding. And then we'll go through and make sure that our cam and crank correlation looks good. So we'll run that on a scope and check that as a comparison. So it's like, that's the direction I go. And in the automotive industry, that's what a lot of people hear. And I was like, I wanna talk like that. I wanna know those things so then I could sell the job with all that technical information. But you can't do that. So what you're selling, how do you take that and run with it? On a misfire diagnosis, say it comes in, we got a PO 300, no active misfires. It's obviously here for a reason. We can't just like, oh well, there's no misfire. So here you go, Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Enjoy your car. It's not doing anything else so you gotta go. No, we have to do some advanced assessment. We have to run it through the ringer. Right.
24:20 Leigh-Ann Tower I'm gonna explain exactly what we're gonna do step by step. So I obviously don't, because I don't have all that knowledge at the top of my head either. I just make them feel comfortable. I keep my tone just kind of low and calming. And if they want to vent about whatever, I just kind of let them talk until they stop talking also. And once I explain what we're gonna do, which is somewhat vague, we're gonna hook up the lap scope, we're gonna drive it, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, we're gonna look at all the, is it in spec or not?
25:00 Jimmy Purdy That leads us to a different pathway. It's kind of being vague and calm. So what do you think it's gonna be though?
25:09 Leigh-Ann Tower So what do you think it is though? I'm not gonna set your expectations anywhere. We need to see what happens first. Like we're gonna take this step by step. What's the worst case scenario? The worst case scenario is I'm gonna give you a new engine if you keep asking me questions. We need to take it one step at a time because we're not gonna waste anybody's time or money. I mean, I really just kind of keep it short and brief and then I wait. They need to respond first. I don't need to keep talking at that point. I've said my piece, this is what we're doing and you're not gonna push me into an answer. I don't say that. I say it by not saying anything else. I think that's the biggest key is being comfortable with silence when you're explaining or selling a job. Say what you need to say, then you need to wait
26:04 Jimmy Purdy as long as it takes for their reaction. Yeah, I think with the bigger tickets or the bigger advanced assessments or as the labor rates go up and everything goes up, these assessments are turning into 360, 400,
26:20 Leigh-Ann Tower $500 retainer fee, $600 retainer fee. And those expectations I open up with. It's not like I'm surprising them an hour in or the next day, oh, by the way, we're gonna have to do A, B, and C and now you're looking at a $400 diagnostic workup. No, so it starts at 300 for this particular issue. This is why. And then once we hit that point, we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk to you about everything
26:54 Jimmy Purdy that we found. And that's what it comes down to, notes and having everything documented so you can relay the information. Right, the deliverables, yeah. That's why it's important for the techs to make sure that they're keeping the notes as thorough as possible. Right.
27:13 Leigh-Ann Tower And that's a tough thing because you got jargon. That has to be translated. Right, and I can do that but I need the jargon first. Like I need the story first. What did you do, why did you do it? What test did you perform? What were the outcomes? Now what's the recommendation? I can piece it together and create a streamlined story for the customer to understand but I gotta have that information first. And then I can extrapolate as needed.
27:44 Jimmy Purdy So how do you translate the jargon? Because that might be a hard issue that a lot of maybe service advisors that aren't technically savvy may run into. You got a tech that's really good, it's very technical. You got a service advisor that's not as technically sound. And of course over the years you get better and you know what's that. You know what, you understand what a mass airflow is. You understand what an oxygen sensor is. But then you get real deep and you get new stuff coming out that maybe the advisors aren't as caught up on. You know like oxygen sensors to air fuel ratio sensors would be one good step forward. And as we get into that stuff. So you gotta look that stuff up, Google it.
28:30 Leigh-Ann Tower How do you translate that stuff? 100%, Google is your best friend and so is hopefully your operating system like we use Pro Demand. I look up a lot of information on a consistent basis to understand what the text just gave me. And if I still have a couple questions then I'll go ask them. But through time and energy I can kind of scan the notes and figure out what the bottom line is. Like so what's the outcome? All the rest is just little tidbits. But certain words or testing procedures or ohms voltage like I kinda need to know and I'll look it up or I'll just ask them. Well what's the spec range? Was it how far out of range was it? Like is that a lot or is that a little? Is it severe or is it minor? Like certain little keywords I need in there or I will ask. And then over time that tech gets used to that service writer and vice versa. And then the communication becomes easier and easier. But there's definitely keywords and phrases that each service writer and tech will consistently use and you just figure out. Yeah it's tough at the beginning. It is tough, it's very tough at the beginning. Cause you don't want anyone to feel like you're questioning their sense of authority or their knowledge. You're just trying to get like these key phrases
30:10 Jimmy Purdy or pieces of information that you need to know if something's priority or not. Yeah that's probably part of the whole problem
30:19 Leigh-Ann Tower with management as a whole. Well and also looking at parts for jobs. Like there's certain things that I've learned over time. But once again I'm gonna reference Pro Demand a lot and I'm gonna look at the remove and replace procedure line by line and find those keywords that I need to know if I need these seals and these gaskets with this hardware for that job, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's a lot of research, quickly, quickly researching
30:51 Jimmy Purdy and then you just get better over time. Like I look at the same stuff the techs do. Yeah that's the only way you can familiarize yourself with the components of what they're recommending.
31:07 Leigh-Ann Tower And I don't like know what I'm looking at. I just know that these things are gonna be needed. I don't know like how or why necessarily or the amount of time it takes for this one extra thing. I just, I have to research it. And if I have to ask then I ask. But like knowing the question to ask is really important. Like the other day, what did I ask with the rear main seal on what truck was it? The Ford. Was it the Ford? The power truck, yeah. Yeah I said where's the oil pan? Is it right next to the rear main seal or is it not? Because I know in my head, if it's right next to each other. Oh that was on the Chevy. Oh on the Chevy, okay. Then that's only an extra hour of labor and I can combine labor times and create an accurate fair quote. But if it's not, then those are whole separate line items
32:03 Jimmy Purdy and not combo jobs. Yeah. Yeah I mean trying to combine something is the hardest part on a repair order. You get a lot of other shops that might just, oh well if we're doing the rear mains or if we're doing the oil pan, we'll just, there's no extra charge for the rear main seal. Well I mean, every one of them is a little different. Right. So you really just gotta see what the actual procedure is and have the tech say hey, what components are we taking off? What else is getting replaced on this one? And a lot of time it'll break it down. Like rear main seal plate removal's required
32:45 Leigh-Ann Tower to get the oil pan down or something like that. But some of them don't. Some of them don't give you that information and they don't give you a good enough diagram to go off of.
32:54 Jimmy Purdy It's supposed to be an estimate. You're supposed to estimate it and then at the end of the job, oh here, now here's your final price.
32:59 Leigh-Ann Tower But of course you can't do that. Yeah, I was just gonna say you can't do that. That's like everything we fight against. We fight and we work really hard to make the initial estimate as accurate as possible. So there's less surprises along the way. And if I have to surprise you,
33:15 Jimmy Purdy it's gonna be a good one.
33:17 Leigh-Ann Tower Yeah, even though it's called an estimate. People don't care about that. I mean some of them are very understanding but that's also because I'm communicating with them every step of the way and not at the very end when they give me their credit card, oh by the way.
33:34 Jimmy Purdy Like we don't do that here. Yeah, you can't do that. That's not what anybody. I mean other people do.
33:40 Leigh-Ann Tower I don't know. But we don't. That's, I mean I don't know. I mean obviously as a service writer, whether people are telling the truth or not, like I hear a lot of not fun stories that people tell me about other places they've taken it to, whether it's dealerships or independent shops. What's a fun story? All right, let's talk about Kia. This was a recent one. So lady with a Kia, trans codes, trans issues, can't get past fourth gear, took it to the dealer. They did some assessments, gave her a quote for replacing the harness but like with no explanation. And I guess according to her, no explanation. They were kind of rude. So she left. She wasn't comfortable. She left and she was ready to junk the car. But someone recommended that she come to us for basically a second opinion before they made that decision. We came to the same conclusion but the differences and how we communicated that. And guess what? She approved the job and luckily it ended up fixing it and she's happy as a clam. And she already sent me two other people within a week. I have two other clients from her. What's a happy clam? Happy clam. She's happy as a clam. They always look like they're smiling. Are clams happy? I don't know. They don't have faces. They're brains. What am I supposed to do with that? It's a phrase. Ooh, you know what? That's a trick I use. I use old fashion phrases like ride as rain, smooth as butter, happy as a clam, oh neato, oh nifty. People love it. I don't care how old you are. It makes them trust me and like me. I do it on purpose. They love it.
35:37 Jimmy Purdy It's so interesting. That's why you got the tootsie rules too, huh? Yes, nostalgic. People like it. So this one was the Kia. This is the one that needed the internal trans harness. Yes. Yeah, I mean, part of that is maybe part swapping and part of it is just maybe on their end, at a dealership, you have a lot of distrust between the service riders and the technicians, right? Ooh, there's, yeah, possibly. So if the technician tells you as a service rider, we need this PCM, it doesn't fix it. TCM, sorry. Right, comes in, oh, you know, and he decides to cut corners, decides not to do the testing, whatever it is, what have you, he decides to not go about it in the correct way, probably just a TCM. I saw this issue on Google and they said it was a TCM, so I'm just gonna recommend that. So, I'm getting to my point here. So then they recommend the TCM, the service advisor, hey, Mr. Mrs. Customer, you need a TCM. Are you sure? Oh yeah, my tech said that's what it is. Okay, let's do it. Okay, well, we did that and didn't fix it, right? So now there's this, right? Yeah, right? And now it's like, okay, so that didn't fix it and they want it fixed and it's like, well, I need to look at it some more. What do you mean you need to look at it some more? Right, like, isn't the reason why we sold the initial assessment to verify what it was and maybe part of it was like, well, let's try a TCM and that converted to, it's going to be the TCM. So now there's this hard sell that was put on by the service writer on the trust of the tech being correct, but maybe the tech was like, hey, let's just try this first, before we dive into the transmission. And then so the next step is like, well, what do we do now? I don't know, he said something about the electrical, right? Like, so now everyone's frustrated and irritated and it's like, they don't want to deal with it, you know? And so it's like, they just kind of try to push it out and just move on to the next one. It's a dealership, they got them lined up. They're not worried about work, you know? Well, that's true, that's true. They're just like, let's just push it out, get on to the next one. And so there's no extra step taken for the client. There's no, you know, and I'm sure there's dealerships out there that take the extra mile, and I'm sure, but in this situation, maybe part of the reason is that they didn't know what it was. They don't know what the next step was gonna be.
38:28 Leigh-Ann Tower So it's like, just give them something and that something wasn't good enough. Well, that makes me think there's a company culture issue and obviously a communication issue that the tech and the service writer can't even talk about what's really going on to begin with, and or the pressure on both of them to come up with an answer and to then sell the job. Because obviously at large dealerships or businesses, like that pressure's there and it is very real. You have a quota and you better hit it. So that's a problem too.
39:13 Jimmy Purdy I think maybe part of that is just not having a good manager there, because if you got a tech and you got a service writer just trying to make their quota and there's no one to step over, if that situation were to occur here, I'm involved. I'm like, let's talk about this. What are we doing next? What's the next step here? What have we looked at? What have we done? Can you do that on every job, every step of the way? No, you can't. You can't. You can't look over their shoulder every day. So what'd you look at? I mean, I try. If it's a big one, it's an advanced assessment, we got a few hours, hold on. I'm gonna go, out of curiosity, I wanna see what's going on, but also I wanna see what steps they're taking along the way to make sure that we're all on the same process when it comes to our advanced assessments. But in that case, they come in and it's like, oh, it's definitely the TCM and that doesn't fix it. Then it's like, okay, now I'm stepping in. Now we're taking a step back here.
40:09 Leigh-Ann Tower Right, and obviously if I'm not getting the notes or the conversation that I need, I don't have enough knowledge to question them either. So then I also need you to step in. I need someone to step in to make sure that they know what they're doing because we're having a hard time explaining things to each other. That happens, that's real.
40:37 Jimmy Purdy For sure. Yeah, you gotta break it down. And there should be a way if you know your skill, your skilled trade enough, you should be able to break it down for just about anybody. I mean, you should be able to break down what you do. I agree. If you're, you know. But that's not reality.
40:54 Leigh-Ann Tower Competent enough. I agree, but that's not reality. And not just for our shop or for every job because we also, I mean, we pretty much work on everything. So we have a very wide ranging of things that our technicians need to know, but for us and others, like the technician pool also isn't there. You might just be dealing with technicians or service writers that like, you know, maybe need to move on, but you can't let them because you need bodies to produce still. Yeah. Like that's what I think about also.
41:34 Jimmy Purdy So with this Kia, you had come in as a female and the office she comes in, she's already been burned. Right. She's already frustrated. Yeah. So in this situation, I think you were the better one to handle it, you know, regardless of your own personal skills, just having her walk in and see you. Yeah.
41:58 Leigh-Ann Tower You know, that might have been what she needed. I will agree with that statement. I think as far as customer service is concerned, I think a pleasantly smiling woman
42:12 Jimmy Purdy is gonna hit a home run more often than not. Yeah, I mean, so in this situation, it made it probably easier, you know, and obviously to work it through the situation. And it was the same kind of conclusion, but spelled in a different way. Right. You know, we did our test, it's like, yeah, we have an internal harness fault, we have an open circuit, like we gotta dig into the trends, we gotta pull the cover off and pull the internal harness out. I mean, how does she feel leaving the dealership that information and then just getting that information relayed to her again? You know, how did you change that conversation?
42:49 Leigh-Ann Tower Well, that was the difference. She got no explanation at the dealer, and that's why she left. They didn't explain anything to her. They just said, this is what you need, it might not fix it. And then that was it. Like that was the end of the conversation
43:04 Jimmy Purdy according to her. I guess we don't know, we don't have, from the horse's mouth. Right, right, according to her. How'd you like that one? From the horse's mouth.
43:13 Leigh-Ann Tower That's a good one, right? Yeah, that's a good one. That's old fashioned. You like that one too? I almost said that.
43:19 Jimmy Purdy So what was your explanation to her? What was yours? So we have a hearsay of what she heard, but what was your explanation? So that's a technical thing, we have an open circuit on the internal harness of the transmission.
43:33 Leigh-Ann Tower Right, right, we're gonna have to pull it and physically inspect it and bench test it, and if we find something wrong, we're gonna replace it. But then the reality is, we just have to assemble everything back, test drive it, get the monitors to reset and see if the code comes back. Like that's the only true 100% guarantee. I could say, I think, all I want, and it is supposed to be, but…
44:02 Jimmy Purdy I can't guarantee things to people like that. So we pretty well know, I mean that was like, it was definitely guaranteed for us, like oh yeah, the harness is bad. Like we can… We definitely figured. We did voltage drop, we found the open circuit, it was like, this is the harness. But you're not gonna say that.
44:17 Leigh-Ann Tower No, no, I don't like saying anything permanent sounding to customers, cause it opens the door for problems. Even if it's not related to something we did. So even if I'm confident or sure that a particular recommendation is gonna fix the issue, like the harness, I can't say that to a customer because then their expectations are already set so high. And if we have to adjust something later on or another code pops up or something else comes up after the fact, it's definitely on me. It's definitely on the shop that I didn't put a disclaimer on it. Yeah, the… That's how customers feel.
45:06 Jimmy Purdy The diagnosis, term diagnosis, the guarantee. Right, and so…
45:11 Leigh-Ann Tower That's it's tough words to use. Every recommendation is always replace mass airflow sensor and reassess. You know, brake noise. Well, obviously your rotors are warped, your pads are at like 5%, your tires are cupped. So here's the recommendation that I know is gonna fix the issue, but I am still going to say reassess afterwards.
45:36 Jimmy Purdy I think that's why a lot of shops love front end work suspension work, cause it's tangible. Yeah. You can hold a broken part in your hand and say, look what I found. Or excessive play.
45:46 Leigh-Ann Tower It's easy. It's easy to show customers and to tell customers.
45:49 Jimmy Purdy You take a picture of a worn brake pad down to the rivets. Oh, that's your noise. Look at your rotors, you're all gouged and nice big tangible pictures, nice big… Replace and everything. But you have the situations when you do that and then the caliper's been over. So then the calipers start to hang it up and you got brake problems and you gotta replace the caliper. So even that's not a guaranteed. And then even ball joints, you replace control arm bushings, ball joints, and then it needs to be aligned. And oh, it can't be aligned. You need, you know, looks like someone hit a curb and now we need adjustable camber bolt. It's like, you just gotta go through this rabbit hole.
46:23 Leigh-Ann Tower It's just never a guaranteed anything. Well, and I think some people probably, you know, maybe I scare some people because I do tell them, well, you know, I'll keep you in the loop. I'll keep you updated. I might have another update for you once teardown is complete. Once we have everything apart and inspected, the story might change. Like we'll see. And I'm sure that scares some people, but at the same time,
46:50 Jimmy Purdy I think they appreciate the transparency. Yeah, I mean, that turns into the calls
46:57 Leigh-Ann Tower every half hour though. Sometimes, sometimes, but also when people, some people call me excessively. Let's talk about Misfire. Let's talk about a previous customer that came in with a Toyota, calling me, texting me, emailing me every single day, sometimes multiple times a day asking for updates. When I specifically already told him multiple times when an update's available, I will call you. When I have some information, you will be my first call immediately. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. I'll call you. Like you have to wait on me. This isn't quick work. This isn't fast work.
47:43 Jimmy Purdy Do you think that makes everyone work faster when they say, oh man, I better keep checking up on them because otherwise they're just gonna
47:48 Leigh-Ann Tower park it in the corner and forget about me. They really think they're gonna be taken advantage of. I feel like a lot of people really think that it is just sitting in the corner. Maybe if I bug them enough, they'll just get it done. Not because they're sick of me and my crap and me calling in every day, but it's like they think they're pushing themselves to the forefront of the line, but for why? I don't even know.
48:18 Jimmy Purdy I don't know. I think the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but we're keeping all the wheels greased here so it doesn't really matter. Which I mean, that's true. Every wheel that comes in is squeaky, so they all need grease.
48:29 Leigh-Ann Tower So there is no front of the line pass. I don't know why people do that though. I really don't. Because some of them, they're not doing it with that mindset. They're not doing it maliciously and they're not doing it because they know they're gonna get more attention. It's like they do it out of fear, but I don't know why.
48:47 Jimmy Purdy I think it's anxiety. Maybe they're excited. They don't know the difference between anxiety and excitement. True. True. They confuse those emotions. They're just so excited about getting their vehicle back and that turns into anxiety in their mind
49:03 Leigh-Ann Tower and they're just calling over and over and over. Yeah, they're trying to plan the rest of their life and it's all based upon when they're gonna get their car back and what you tell them. But relax, bro. It's not. You're fine. You have a second and third vehicle.
49:20 Jimmy Purdy I don't even know why you're up my ass right now. They've lost their freedom. They don't realize how quickly their freedom can be taken away. It's crazy.
49:31 Leigh-Ann Tower The vehicle is a transportation of freedom. If it's their only vehicle, I get it and I'm comforting and I reassure them and basically tell them, you need to make whatever arrangements you need to. I can't guarantee anything. Here's what we hope, but I'm not guaranteeing it and I'll tell them that like that. I can't make that happen. This is why we do it step by step. You need to make whatever arrangements that work for you to not interrupt your life. We're gonna do the work and we're gonna do it right. You're not gonna push us into making a rash decision. It's gonna take as long as it takes. I don't know what to tell you. I don't say that though. I don't say it like that. I would say it like that. I don't. Oh, I wonder what would happen if I did.
50:21 Jimmy Purdy I'm gonna do whatever it takes to give you a job
50:23 Leigh-Ann Tower I can be proud of. Yeah, see, now you can say that. I can say a version of that. We stand behind our work here.
50:33 Jimmy Purdy We're gonna make sure it's done right for you. I don't change the way I operate over anybody. Yeah. This is our standard operating procedure. This is how we conduct ourselves. People like that. People like it.
50:47 Leigh-Ann Tower And you're not gonna change the way I do it. Here's the catch though. What we do make sense and can be explained and is usually right. Could you imagine if that's how we talked when we were consistently wrong or we, you know, oh, this didn't fix it, this didn't fix it, and we still acted like that? Yeah. You couldn't. I mean. We couldn't.
51:16 Jimmy Purdy Then you'd get pushback. Yeah, we're not consistently wrong, but also, I mean, you make mistakes and things happen. I mean, and one thing too, maybe for other places that have like, if it's the one client, they think they're the only one they got it wrong on. You know, they don't, like you in your mind know that there's 15 different vehicles and you've gotten 10 out of 15 of those wrong as far as like assessments or diagnosis or whatever. But to each client, it's like, it's just that one. They got the rest of the cars, they got them right, and they just got mine wrong. So you can have arrogance, you know, in there, and it's like no one would know that you've got them all wrong, you know? So I mean, I have no shop owners that are like that. You know, I know guys that are out there. And they're, yeah, there's confidence and there's arrogance and they're definitely arrogant about what they're doing. And they're just swapping parts till they get it right on all 15 cars in that shop. And you know, statistics are statistics and you're not gonna get every one of them right. And most of the time it's gonna be maybe half of those you got right on your parts swapping and the other half you didn't. But to each client, you just talk to them, hell yeah, you know. That's true. I got this one wrong, you know? And they're like, oh well, I saw how busy they are. So I must've been the only one. My car is just the one that's a pain, you know?
52:37 Leigh-Ann Tower And they just ride on that. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I guess it just depends on what kind of clients and vehicles you attract. I mean, it all matters. It all matters. If like we present ourselves, cause we are as very clean, very professional, super on top of it, which also means the people that come to us have very high expectations and they can be demanding. I mean, there's demanding and then there's expectations. But we meet them, so it's tough. It's not demanding.
53:17 Jimmy Purdy It's just a level of expectations and then you have demanding and the demanding ones need to go somewhere else.
53:24 Leigh-Ann Tower I mean. Well, yeah, yeah.
53:26 Jimmy Purdy I feel like the demand would be
53:29 Leigh-Ann Tower wanting something beyond our. When someone comes in demanding an estimate and work to be done quickly with customer supplied parts and not wanting to hear me talk about our inspection process. See, that's demanding. Yeah, they're going somewhere else.
53:47 Jimmy Purdy But expectations I can appreciate and I can respect. I mean, that's the whole reason why we do what we do is for those particular clients. Cause I respect that. I respect them having expectations because they should. They shouldn't walk into a shop with expectations that they're gonna get taken advantage of. That they're gonna walk into a grease monkey shop that's just gonna be rags on the floor and trash everywhere. I want them to come in with the expectations higher. You know, I wanna provide a high quality service and I want the clients that are expecting a high quality service. And so I appreciate that.
54:25 Leigh-Ann Tower I appreciate them having that, you know? I agree and that's because of our own expectations though. That's what we expect.
54:33 Jimmy Purdy Keep us on our toes. It's like this is what we're doing. This is like, this is what you're looking for. This is what we provide. Perfect.
54:39 Leigh-Ann Tower Where we've made it by. Yeah, I mean, we're just people that don't like wishy-washiness either. How did you like that? Wishy-washy. You know the wishy-washy. I've said that a couple times. Did you say Warsh? This week. I did not say Warsh this week. I think you said Warsh.
54:55 Jimmy Purdy But I did say wishy-washy. You said it like Warsh though. I can rewind it back. Yeah, I do say Warsh. Wait, today?
55:02 Leigh-Ann Tower Just right now. I did? No, I didn't. I don't know what I said. It's not wash everybody, it's Warsh. You wash your clothes. Okay. Well, maybe not Warsh the car. I guess that sounds funny. You wash the car. Yeah. Anyways, we don't like flip floppers. We don't like wishy-washiness and anything that we do. So of course we're not gonna provide a service that is reminiscent of that. Right. We have high expectations for the places that we go. And if we call a plumber or an electrician or go to the doctor, yeah, I'm gonna expect a certain level of service. And that's also what I make sure people understand is that I'm not selling parts. I'm selling peace of mind. I'm selling safety. I'm selling a service. I'm not just throwing tie rods on. I'm not just, you know, we're not just slapping something together. Right. Like we're providing a service that keeps you safe, that keeps you going with minimal surprises. That's guaranteed. Right. Yep. Right, and if something does happen, well, we have a great warranty program and I lay it all out there right at the beginning because also I don't want them to have any questions. That's also something I do and I don't know if it's because I'm a woman or it's because of how we set everything up here, but I automatically lay out all this information about what we do, how we do it, the warranty program, just so people don't have any questions. Because also, like I'm masking all day long. I don't want to hear your question. So I'm just going to give you everything so like you get out of my hair and I can move on to the next customer. Yeah. Like that's the other flip side. Like I might look nice and sound nice, but I really just want you to leave
57:04 Jimmy Purdy so I can like move on with my day. Yeah, I guess when you put it that way. Like and move on to the next customer or the next job. It's what we all want. I mean, that's what we, you know, but also it's, I mean, if there wasn't people flooding through the office all day, you'd probably go crazy too. So it's a double edged sword. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you just know if there's too much time spent on one, you know someone else is about ready to walk in and it's nice to have that little 15 minute break in between. Right. The back to back to back, then the phone call and email, then the back to back and then the phone ringing while someone's standing there is just like, it's a little overwhelming.
57:46 Leigh-Ann Tower And that happens plenty and I'm exhausted and irritated at the end of the day. Yeah. Like I don't wanna do anything else.
57:52 Jimmy Purdy Especially when the phone calls are just, you know, checking in. Just checking in or price shoppers. As you're in the middle of like writing up the RO and they're calling to check on the RO that you're writing up. Right, that's annoying. So then you gotta stop writing it and it's like, I'm looking up for a part right now.
58:10 Leigh-Ann Tower Yeah, that's kind of upsetting. Like, oh, you beat me to the punch. Like now I look unprofessional. I hate that. Like, oh, if you just gave me five more minutes, I would have been done and I would have been the one calling you.
58:22 Jimmy Purdy Yeah, but that's that five minutes from somebody. That's that five minutes somebody walked in and started talking to you, trying to get them out of the, so now you're upset with the person that walked in because they made you look bad because it pulls you back 10 minutes.
58:34 Leigh-Ann Tower Yeah, the whole thing is irritating. I don't like other people thinking that I'm not doing my job. Yeah.
58:41 Jimmy Purdy That's a pet peeve. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, I mean, we're all here trying to do it and do the thing and when someone is calling.
58:50 Leigh-Ann Tower Yeah, I wanna do a good job. This is my job. I wanna do it well and I wanna be seen as, you know, a figure to look at and for customers to call and, I don't know. Or not call. Call or not call. Ooh, see, there it is. I know I just caught myself. Like, I even tell customers this. Call me any time.
59:12 Jimmy Purdy Do you want them to call you? If you have any questions, just let me know. Do you not want them to call you?
59:17 Leigh-Ann Tower I mean. I guess it depends on if I slept well the night before. Okay. Because being up there and dealing with customers all day long and employees and whatever you wanna call it, like, it's taxing. It is emotionally exhausting dealing with other people's emotions all day long and having to stay calm beside that storm all day long.
59:46 Jimmy Purdy That's exhausting and it can be irritating. Yeah, that's customer service. Yeah, it's true. And everybody wants it to be more cost effective for them
59:57 Leigh-Ann Tower but then it also is what makes it expensive. Right. Yeah, I mean, honestly, customer service done right can be expensive. I know there's all these seminars and classes. How to keep the call under seven minutes, different taglines and phrases to say to basically get the sale and the call and move on. And that works for maybe, I don't know, 70, 80%, but it just doesn't work for everybody. And you don't really wanna be like that either. Like someone who's genuinely interested in customer service and wanting to provide that, you don't wanna do that all the time either. It's not fun. You don't feel good about what you did at the end of the day. That's the other half of it. As much as I say I'm masking, people are irritating, blah, blah, blah, I also genuinely like wanna provide a good service. Oh, what was that noise? What was that, James?
01:01:04 Jimmy Purdy What are you doing over there? Yeah, I need a refill. This is exhausting.
01:01:09 Leigh-Ann Tower Ooh, ooh, that's, yeah, okay, see, man, saying that to me, I'm immediately like, screw you, you don't know what exhausting is. I'm the one who's exhausted. Are you telling me I'm exhausted?
01:01:25 Jimmy Purdy Exhausting, like. You're just looking at it too a little much.
01:01:28 Leigh-Ann Tower It was just a joke. See, but that's what I do. That's what I do as a customer service rep and as a woman, I don't know. That's like my go-to.
01:01:40 Jimmy Purdy You just gotta not take it personally,
01:01:41 Leigh-Ann Tower that's the problem. I feel like I can not take it personally
01:01:46 Jimmy Purdy and still be irritating. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
01:01:49 Leigh-Ann Tower I don't think it's directed at me,
01:01:51 Jimmy Purdy but it's still towards me and now you're irritating. I think it's just because it's me.
01:01:58 Leigh-Ann Tower I don't think it's for everybody. Ooh, I just bit the mic. And I'm really good at it. Yeah, well we also live together, work together 24-7. I think we do pretty well considering. Yeah, you drink that. You drink that whiskey. That helps a lot. I think we can thank the whiskey for it. I don't know, man, woman, it's different. It's different what you say and how you say it. Even on email format or text format. Like if a woman says something, I might take it a different way than if a man said it. I'm trying to think, because the only examples I'm thinking of are actually on social media and not necessarily like customers. Are the ones you made up in your mind? No. Okay. No. Okay. Like you ask a question on social media with your peers asking for advice and then someone comments, oh, well that sounds exhausting. And I immediately take that as like, well that's the effing problem. You think that's exhausting. Yeah, I'm exhausted dealing with that. But in reality, I bet you he just meant. I think they're just like relating to you. Exactly. It's just like a relating thing. Like, yeah, man, that's exhausting.
01:03:26 Jimmy Purdy Like, yeah, dude, I know. And then we use a cuddle.
01:03:30 Leigh-Ann Tower See? See? It's a man thing.
01:03:34 Jimmy Purdy You interpreted it immediately different than I did. Yeah, that's true.
01:03:40 Leigh-Ann Tower I mean, I guess I just don't get offended easily. But that, see, no, see, I'm gonna change the verbiage again. I'm not offended, I'm irritated. I'm not like taking it. Is that like a trigger word? Personal. Yeah, it could be a trigger word in the right setting. I see. But also text, email, same thing everyone says all the time. You can't tell tone. It's very difficult to like interpret someone's intentions through writing. That's why you gotta do the voice messages. They gotta be under a minute. When you do voice messages, you pretend like you're talk texting and you talk like a robot out of habit still, or do you just talk? It's a hard habit to break, yes. That does happen. Cause I'm a talk texter. I don't do voice messages. I wait for the phone to reply too. What do you mean, what? Like you're conversating into it. Oh, and then you like forget what you're doing.
01:04:49 Jimmy Purdy Then I forget I'm like not on the phone,
01:04:50 Leigh-Ann Tower but I'm recording myself recording a message. And then you record your like laugh and reaction. Oops, sorry. I forgot. I forgot where I am right now. I forgot what I was doing. Isn't that funny? Ha ha, and then you like say something else and then you stop and then you send it anyways and then you send it anyways.
01:05:11 Jimmy Purdy Yeah, that's true. Why not? It is what it is. That's as good as it gets right now. Ah. So final notes, what's your piece of advice for all service writers and all owner operators that are running the front office, not just the women? Because if we've learned anything here today in this episode,
01:05:37 Leigh-Ann Tower is that we're all the same? Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, we're all the same. Take away message for everyone. Write everything down. All customer conversations, all tech notes back and forth, whatever it is,
01:05:59 Jimmy Purdy it needs to be written down and documented. Yeah, how many times have you had the, oh, I didn't think it was gonna be that much. But you had text conversations of exactly, oh, I didn't see that text. Plenty, yep. Oh, I never got that email. Oh, you replied to it. Yeah, exactly.
01:06:19 Leigh-Ann Tower So could you imagine if it was a phone call? Exactly. Everything and writing, even when people call me, I'll say, oh, you know, actually, I'm almost done with that. Let me just make some final adjustments and I'm gonna email it to you. Can you please respond to that email? I really don't do a lot of actual business transactions verbally over the phone.
01:06:45 Jimmy Purdy It is all written down. And of course, this isn't for the ones without the shopware software. This is for us and maybe other shops out there that aren't running a software program that will send them a estimate.
01:07:00 Leigh-Ann Tower Well, yeah, but even shopware, you have to put together the estimate and send it. Everything is still written down. It just might be a little bit easier.
01:07:08 Jimmy Purdy Yeah, but they gotta click the button and say confirm or whatever. If you're running like AuraWrite or Mitchell or any of the other shop management systems and you just write up an estimate and they're not physically there to sign it, you don't have technically their permission to do it. So the next best step is an email or text. It doesn't really hold up if it went anywhere, but at least that way you have the attainables
01:07:35 Leigh-Ann Tower to like, hey, look, see, you right here, you said okay. Yeah, I mean, the argument becomes null and void. Or not so much even. It just has to be all in writing.
01:07:46 Jimmy Purdy Not even so much the price, but what the deal is. Oh, so what are we doing? We'll remember the email I sent you that we're gonna.
01:07:53 Leigh-Ann Tower Per my last email. People love that, per my last email, but you don't say it like that. Keep everything in writing. Number one piece of advice, no matter what, it's okay. People are not gonna resist you like you think they will. Number two, no matter what happens, with who, stay calm. Do not bring yourself to anyone else's level. No matter what happens, you just stay relaxed
01:08:24 Jimmy Purdy and it all works out in the end. Maybe you should take some of that advice.
01:08:31 Leigh-Ann Tower I always tell you to just relax. Yeah, with you, I act completely different with you than I do everybody else. You just need to relax.
01:08:39 Jimmy Purdy And even with you at work, I am very relaxed. That's what I tell you every day.
01:08:46 Leigh-Ann Tower You're the emotional one.
01:08:47 Jimmy Purdy I gotta handle you with kid gloves all day. You just need to relax.
01:08:52 Leigh-Ann Tower Because you're so sensitive, because you're the boss and you think you get all these special privileges. You don't. Everybody, owners, managers, you don't get special privileges. Rules apply to everybody. Well, that's gonna do it for us today. Well, thanks for having me.
01:09:09 Jimmy Purdy It's been a pleasure as always. Have a good night, sir. And this has been the Gearbox.