Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast, where we dive deep into the dynamic world of automotive repair and ownership. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy, an experienced technician turned shop owner with a passion for sharing insights, stories, and conversations with industry leaders. This is the gearbox podcast. We don't talk about just cars. We just, like. If you're in the industry, we just converse.
Steven Fafel [00:00:42]:
Do you still. Do you still get. You still get full nerdy about cars, though?
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:47]:
Full nerd.
Steven Fafel [00:00:48]:
Full nerd.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:48]:
I don't think I've ever been that way.
Steven Fafel [00:00:50]:
Oh, never.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:50]:
No.
Steven Fafel [00:00:51]:
But you were a tech at one time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:53]:
I was a tech, yeah.
Steven Fafel [00:00:54]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:54]:
Yeah. Still am. I mean, I don't think once you are, you always are, right?
Steven Fafel [00:00:58]:
Once the tech, always attack.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:59]:
Once tech, always attack.
Steven Fafel [00:01:01]:
Were you. Did you kind of know from the beginning, though, that there was. There was something more? Like, did you know you wanted to be an owner from the beginning?
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:09]:
No.
Steven Fafel [00:01:10]:
Who got you? How did the idea to get in your head?
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:13]:
Damn, that's a great question.
Steven Fafel [00:01:16]:
I'm sorry. I'm like. I'm interviewing you now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:18]:
Yeah. I like it. I love it. This is. I'm thinking deep now. I. You know, it's funny because. Because you start thinking about it, and then you wonder how you got there and.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:27]:
Was that a good idea? Was it a bad idea? Should I just found a shop that, like, would have appreciated me and I could have, like, mastered my skill even further, and where would I be? I wouldn't change anything. I've learned so much. And being a technician is all about learning, right? Like, that's. That's the pull of, like, getting into a vehicle and fixing it. Diagnosing it is like. It's the learning process. Right? During it, it's frustrating. It's annoying.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:50]:
Like, I. It's terrible. But when you figure it out, that high you get, you don't get from anything else. And you did it with your bare hands in your own mind, right?
Steven Fafel [00:01:59]:
100%. I was talking about it outside of the realm of your bare hands. So. I'm not a developer, but my brother is a developer. In college, I took one development class. There is no better feeling than. Because coding, you're working on some. You're Cody.
Steven Fafel [00:02:13]:
It has errors and errors and bugs and bugs, and then all of a sudden, it works. And that moment when it. When it happens, it's like starting an engine. You know that feeling where you do a ton of work on an engine, you're about to start it, and you're like, is this gonna work? There's nothing that beats that feeling, right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:28]:
And it sucks when you get it wrong, but it makes you work that much harder to get it right the next time.
Steven Fafel [00:02:31]:
And it feels that much better when you get it right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:33]:
So on that path is like becoming tech to owner. You just assume if you fix cars really, really well and you do a really good job, you're gonna be really, really successful. And you realize that was wrong. And so you start implementing procedures. You start learning how to be a shop owner. You start learning how to manage people. You start learning how the process of the vehicle coming through the shop's more important than actually fixing it. And then you start learning how to do that better.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:59]:
Then you start seeing people leave five star reviews, right? Then you start seeing people come back. You start talking about you in the community, and you're like, wow, did something pretty special here. And it's got nothing to do with actually fixing cars. So I guess back to the question, like, I wouldn't change the path. And it never really was like, I'm gonna be a shop owner and not touch cars, right? Because I still get frustrated and I want to go fix something, and I can't. In business, nothing can be fixed overnight. And marketing, nothing can be fixed overnight, right? And the only thing you can fix overnight is a car. It's like, you need that immediate self satisfaction to, like, get yourself out of your funk, right? And that's one of the big issues I have, is, like, getting out of that pattern of, like, getting frustrated.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:44]:
I'm not dealing with this. I'm gonna go out and see what the guys are doing, go help them with what they're diagnosing, what they're fixing, and then I'll feel better. And I'm doing it for me instead of doing it for the business. And, like, learning that is, like, so insightful into my own psyche. It's like, like psychology 101, right? Like, it's like. And I needed that so much more than I ever realized. So it's.
Steven Fafel [00:04:03]:
You need those tasks that, you know, listen, obviously I have to grow the business. I have to focus on these bigger, long term things. But you need those tasks that you can go back to that just, you're still doing work, but it grounds you. It's something focused, something you can achieve quickly. I have my tasks, my weekend tasks. I usually am still working on the weekend, but it's. They're tasks that I can actually complete those days. They're quick, usually, like, processes change.
Steven Fafel [00:04:31]:
I can change a process in a day. I can implement it with the team on Monday, and it's something quick. Yeah, but, like, long term, whether it's partnerships or anything, that stuff is. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:42]:
Takes a longer his name, but the old USMC model. Like, make your bed. Right. Or Navy Seal things. Like, just make your bed every day. Make your bed. Because that one small task that, like, projects you and propels you to, like, go for, and it's like, just making my bed. Yeah, but you just accomplished something, and we all need it, like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:01]:
Right. And you just gotta. You gotta pick your battles. You gotta pick what exactly it is you want to dedicate your time to. And that's hard. It's hard when you don't know what your vision is and, like, being a technician, and you're like, I'm not being paid enough. This industry is not where it should be. I'm gonna do it myself.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:17]:
Cause I think I can do it better. But not even knowing what that better is is kind of, like, where I came from. Right. So it's, like, involving, like, here we are, Mars 2024. And, like, involved in the institute, and, like, a coaching program, and, like, learning new. New programs, new systems, and meeting people, these events, with these new processes, like, how do I implement this to make my shop the next level? And constantly trying to strive for that. I don't know, that greatness, right? Or, like, that. That top.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:45]:
You're gonna be. You never. You're gonna be the leading edge. You're never gonna be on the top, but you're gonna be on the leading edge. And that's what's important. Right? That's what the institute's taught me, too, is, like, if you're constantly striving to the top, even if you don't know what that top is, you're still reaching for it. Like, that's what makes you top tier.
Steven Fafel [00:06:01]:
You know, the key is that you're reaching for it, and you're trying. I don't know. Have you ever heard of the man in the arena speech?
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:07]:
No.
Steven Fafel [00:06:08]:
It's a speech by Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt. And it basically just says, there's nothing worse in life than not knowing failure or not knowing success. The worst thing in life is not knowing. It's not actually trying. And that's what people at Mars, that's what people in the institute are doing, is saying, I'm actually the one in the arena. I'm gonna actually take on their responsibility. And, yeah, I think, as a small business owner, I think it's a.
Steven Fafel [00:06:33]:
There's. There's no better feeling, but there's no worse feeling than when you're responsible for all the stuff that goes wrong. And when your tech ruins a car and pisses off a customer. But, yeah, being in the arena and going for it is key. And then, yeah, you always have to know that there's people. People chasing you down. People. One thing I've been intrigued with getting into this entry in the last year is the nature in which shops are competitive.
Steven Fafel [00:07:00]:
Because I've met shop owners who are super competitive against the shops in their area. Then I've met shop owners that are not super competitive against the shops in their area. Are you, do you, do you get competitive with the shops in your area?
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:12]:
I don't have competition. I am the competition.
Steven Fafel [00:07:15]:
No, no, I've heard it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:18]:
I love, I love that speech, but I don't really stand behind it. No, we, I work really, really hard to build alliances with everyone that's close to me, outside of me, everywhere. Right. We're dealing with a Napa BDG group that we're putting together right now locally, or we're trying to get one established. And that's one of the big things is like they, a lot of the other shop owners, and it's especially when you're not doing what you. How well you want to be doing, that's when you start seeing everybody's competition, because that's the easy thing to point the finger at, right. I'm not doing well and it's because I got to compete with you, right. It's easy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:55]:
It's the easiest finger you can point. And it's like. But you start realizing as shops become more successful, they start collaborating with other shops around them, right? It flips 180 and it blows my mind, like, but at the same time, it's understandable because you're frustrated, you don't know why you're doing well. And so the only thing you can point your finger at is that the guy's taking all your business, right. Because you see how successful, or maybe he's not you. Like, you don't know. You just see cars in his bay. There's no cars in your bay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:25]:
And that's where the problem is, right? Like, it's like the easiest thing to, like, mentally think of, right?
Steven Fafel [00:08:29]:
A quick fix to say, yeah, instead of fixing my marketing for the next six months, let's just point the finger.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:35]:
Or even knowing what's going on over there. Like, maybe he needs help as much as you like. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you're successful, right? Doesn't mean you're being profitable.
Steven Fafel [00:08:42]:
So it's the first time hearing about this whole idea of pointing maybe cheaper customers to shops in your area.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:50]:
Yeah.
Steven Fafel [00:08:52]:
Does everyone subscribe to this mantra?
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:57]:
I've bought into it and then pretty quickly don't fully agree with it. There's an ass for every seat. And I say that as there are some shops that are just an ass that don't want to jump on board, that want that resentment towards you no matter how nice you are, no matter what I send them, no matter what we do, and I get it, but I still don't think that's the correct thing to do. Like, it's not something I would wish on my worst enemy. Like, it's just not right. Like, and sure I have, I have clients that call in or customers that call in that, that are looking for a service that we don't offer, meaning they don't want our inspection. They don't want, they just want bringing their parts, have us do it at a discounted rate. Like, right? Like, and, and short of calling, saying bottom feeders and I hate that too.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:43]:
Like, it's not because you don't know their situation, you don't know what these people are going through. So it's. I don't like to classify them like that, but sure, it's like I know the shops in the area that, that are going to give them what they're looking for. I can't afford to do that. Like, I just can't. And I'm not going to. If I did it myself, I got no problem, but I cannot have my technicians do it because I got to make sure they're paid and they can take care of their families. If I have the time to do it, I'll step out, I'll check it out for them, whatever.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:11]:
Lately I haven't had that kind of time, you know, and that kind of, that irks me a little bit because I want to give back to community, but I really have to constantly look at the bigger picture here. Like, if I want to have a successful business in my community and be able to pay the technicians in my community to live well, I have to charge, right. And I can't let the customers dictate the way my business is ranked. And I have, you know, I don't know it all. I mean, I come to these events, I try to stay on top of the knowledge. I try to stay at the leading edge. I try to. I try to make sure that I'm, everything I'm doing, it has a purpose.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:45]:
And I'm not just like pulling these numbers out of out of my ass. Right? Like, I'm not just, like, I'm just not charging this number, like, throwing a dart at the board and say, all right, today labor rates $300 an hour. Right? Like it. So there's justification behind it. And so it allows me the confidence to say, I can't provide that service for you. There's a shop that can, and I've been working really hard to get them to stop doing what they're doing, but they want to keep doing their own thing. So if that's the. If that's the customer base they want, I'll send them that way.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:14]:
So I. I do it, but I don't. I don't. Using the connotation of, like, how gonna send it.
Steven Fafel [00:11:19]:
Yeah. Once again, if a shop is already working with clientele and they. They want to work with that clientele. Yeah. Go, go check out that. But I think you're saying you're not gonna put it all on your buddy shop.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:29]:
I'm not. Just. Well, in the honors of, like, doing it in a negative connotation. Right? Like, oh, I'm gonna screw this guy and put him out of business by likes. I don't know. And there's guys that do that. I just. I'm not.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:39]:
I don't know if I'm not there yet or like.
Steven Fafel [00:11:41]:
But I don't know. Once you open your 8th shop, you're gonna be like, oh, I put out everyone out of business.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:46]:
I don't know. Like, I mean, but it drove the point home. Right? Like, in the presentation, it drove the point home of, like, that's what will happen. Like, if you don't get your stuff together and, like, figure it out, you're going to overwhelm yourself and put yourself out of business.
Steven Fafel [00:12:01]:
Yeah. And obviously, I think Cecil has a. Has the attention is good, and the intention is, if I let customers who are cheaper come into my business, we're going to go out of business. I'm not going to be able to feed any techs and support my community. I'm not going to be able to do repairs for anybody. Because your business can't survive on that. And so, yeah, the idea is you need to say no and no one to probably pass on a customer.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:23]:
Yeah.
Steven Fafel [00:12:24]:
What you do with that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:25]:
There's a warranty process. There's the paying for the newest, latest, greatest services, having, you know, whatever software program that you want right in your shop. Like, you got to be able to afford that stuff to provide that customer experience, to provide the warranty that sits on the back side of your part replacement. If you're not charging what you should be charging, you can't have any of that. And, you know, everyone thinks profits a bad word and it's not, you know, and that's what you do with it. But there's, you know, obviously shops out there that take that and run with it and then don't use it like they should be.
Steven Fafel [00:12:56]:
Yeah. Being that we're at Mars. Any, any speakers that you liked in particular?
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:01]:
Oh, everybody. Everybody's got a place in my heart.
Steven Fafel [00:13:04]:
He's got a good spot.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:05]:
That's the political.
Steven Fafel [00:13:07]:
That's the political.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:08]:
Well, obviously coming to the headquarters is big for me. I've never been here before. And being a coaching client. Right. For the institute, it's pretty cool to.
Steven Fafel [00:13:14]:
See the institute has a beautiful office here.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:17]:
It's very nice. Yes, it's very nice.
Steven Fafel [00:13:18]:
But yeah, no, we have to play, we have to play politically correct with everyone, too, being that because we work with, we probably work with, at auto ops, we work with 60 plus marketing companies, probably over the thousand ish shops. And so, yeah, we play nice with everyone. I mean, the nice part about what we do is, and that's kind of why it's fun for me coming to these events, is that whatever marketing company is, whatever CRM company you use, whatever shop managers muse, we play nice with. With everyone.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:48]:
There's no like direct competition?
Steven Fafel [00:13:49]:
No, there was no other, no other company that's on our auto ops on Facebook, our name is still Auto, auto ops online scheduling. But yes, there's no other company that focuses just on online scheduling for auto repair shops. And people thought I was, a year ago, everyone thought I was out of my mind. They're like, you will not be able to build a company on just scheduling. And I was like, well, me and my brother are bored, so I'm going to try.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:14]:
That's fantastic. That's a great, that's a great pivoting point.
Steven Fafel [00:14:19]:
The actual starting point was I went out to prove that there was already good online. My brothers and father, I was like, oh, there's, you know, we should do online scheduling for auto shops. I was like, no, there's got to be a company that does this super well. And then I slowly found out there wasn't really.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:34]:
No, not as, not as elegantly as you've displayed, but yeah, it's, it's what.
Steven Fafel [00:14:41]:
Everyone talks about here. I was at a different coaching company last week, and everyone's talking about, make it easier for customers to do business with you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:48]:
Right?
Steven Fafel [00:14:49]:
Make it easy. Make an experience you like once again, if this was the 1980s and everyone calling your shop great, but sadly, time moves on. Do you want to engage with your customers how they want to engage with you and every other service they provide in their life, or do you want to sit there and. Yeah, you can. You can stick to what you're doing, and customers will stick to what they want to do, and that might not be coming to your shop anymore.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:12]:
Yeah. And I mean, on the topic of marketing, like, you can have all the marketing in the world, pay for all the Google Ads, whatever, have the wacky, wavy, inflatable flailing arm tube man that's out on the. On the sidewalk, right? Like, but if it's. If it's difficult for them to make an appointment, they're just gonna move on, right? And you have, what, what, 30 seconds for them to turn from a person to a client?
Steven Fafel [00:15:36]:
I mean, do you think the firestone down the road is doing well because they have better technicians than you? No, they're doing well because they make it easy. They make it easy for you to get in there. They've been doing great online scheduling. The dealerships have been doing great online scheduling for years. Everyone else is doing great online scheduling. And it ties into what some of the people at this conference were talking about. Kids these days are getting less loyal to the shops that, you know, their parents. It was like, oh, I always went to Bob's auto.
Steven Fafel [00:16:02]:
I always went to Bob's auto. Kids these days are like, I'll go wherever I can get a first appointment that's quick and easy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:08]:
Well, the veil's kind of been lifted right in the last, like, I don't know, eight years, maybe not maybe the last five years. Like, some of those older shops, like, they kind of. The magnifying glasses come out and. And, yeah, if you don't have these new technologies, these new systems, people get bored with you. If you don't know how to do follow up, if you're not forefront and, like, pushing it in people's face. Like, people get distracted. Like, you know, I'm gonna give this other shop a try. And they walk in, and it's like, wow, this is pretty nice.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:35]:
I got coffee. You got cake. Oh, and someone's smiling at the counter. Oh, and I can, like, just schedule my appointment, not have to talk to anybody, and I don't feel like I'm.
Steven Fafel [00:16:43]:
Gonna get a disease in the shop. Feel like I could stay healthy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:48]:
I. Hopefully that's been a lot longer than that, since that's been ignored in this.
Steven Fafel [00:16:52]:
I've walked into some shops with some, some mold. That, that scares me.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:57]:
Yeah, that's. Yeah, I guess, but.
Steven Fafel [00:16:58]:
Well, yeah, I mean, the shops especially, I mean, out of the thousand shops we work with, I would. They're all beautiful shops.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:05]:
Yeah, but like you said, it's not like, sure, fixing the car quickly, efficiently, and, like, on time and making sure you fix it right the first time. That that's important. But is that the forefront of auto repair?
Steven Fafel [00:17:16]:
The issue is that as training gets better and better and better, people are going to all these events. There's a lot of, there's technical institutes which are doing a great job. It's sadly becoming less of a differentiation that you have great techs because there's, in every city, there's shops with a lot of great techs. But do it once again. Doing good work is still, it's obviously the fourth. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:37]:
Like, if you're flipping burgers, like, you better have a burger that tastes good.
Steven Fafel [00:17:39]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:40]:
But is that, like, the differentiating factor? Like, can you just say, oh, I have the best hamburger in the world? No. Cause that's like, we all taste different. Right? Like, we all, we all eat something that, you know, we all want different things. But the main thing is that customer experience. The customer experience and the new generation, that's what they're looking for. They're looking for the vibes. Right? They're looking for the experience. They want to know that when they go online, they see pictures of your shop.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:03]:
That's the picture that they're walking into. Right. And most of it now is being digital. So if they use, you know, auto ops and they go through and then they schedule their appointment, they look at a couple of pictures of your shop on your website, when they show up, it better damn well look like, and you better have that service to back up that efficiency of a scheduler. Right. So it's important.
Steven Fafel [00:18:22]:
Yeah. And one thing to remember. Yeah. The customer experience is huge. The customer experience starts before they get in your shop. That's really where auto ops and online scheduling comes in. But auto ops, the whole point is we just get them in the door of your shop so that you can shake their hand. You can do as much marketing as you want.
Steven Fafel [00:18:39]:
You can do as the world's best online scheduling with auto ops. But if someone walks in your shop and your team is not friendly to them, that can kill it. You heard them talking earlier today, this shop who did a ton of marketing. A ton of marketing. But then you see in their reviews, they were rude. Every time I came in, they were grumpy or they were upset. You can do whatever you want. If people don't have a good time when they're in your shop, they do not want to do business with you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:07]:
Yeah. Who thinks about going to a shop is having a good time, you know? And isn't that the different, differentiating factor that we're talking about? Like, and it's like, so how somebody can have a good time getting their car fixed? We'll figure it out, you know, and what's, and what's step one? Starting with an entry process that that's fun and easy to get into. Right. And, like, with what you have set up, it's, you can make it that way. You can make it however you want. And my wife's, like, just, she loves your product. She loves, like, going through and, like, changing it and, like, seeing how the different way. And you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:35]:
And you can put whatever you want. Like, do you want to come in for a good time? And you can have that as a check mark, right? Like, or whatever. Like, and it's up, but it's up to you to be creative enough to have that.
Steven Fafel [00:19:45]:
Auto ops is super customizable. I took one of our scheduling tools, and I made it. I sent it to all my friends, and it's basically them going through, picking an activity that they want to do. So it'd be like, oh, I want to come over and play some xbox, or I want to go out and get some drinks. So I sent it to all them, and they would select. They're like, why are you asking for my vehicle? Why do you need to know my vehicle? But, yeah, very customizable.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:07]:
So you were just scheduling the time to hang out?
Steven Fafel [00:20:09]:
Scheduling a time to hang out. And then they would, like, press x on it, and it would have that little pop up box, and you try to x out, and it would say, hey, are you sure you don't want to hang out with Steven? Are you sure? Please tell me why in the comment box, why do you not want to hang out with Stephen? Very customizable.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:23]:
I guess you could almost, you could probably run that as, like, a CRM program, right? Maybe.
Steven Fafel [00:20:29]:
Could do a lot of things.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:29]:
Whatever you want to do with it.
Steven Fafel [00:20:30]:
Whatever you want with it. That's, that's the fun.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:32]:
That's the beauty of it, right?
Steven Fafel [00:20:34]:
That's the beauty of it, yeah. Now, the beauty of it is customizing it to convert wherever. And that's. I want to, I want to teach a class at some point. Just going over for all of these avenues of marketing. So let's pick a few we got. Okay, text an email blast from your CRM. Great.
Steven Fafel [00:20:50]:
Your website, people finding you on Google, people finding you from a mailer that you send out, people finding you remembering you from your oil change sticker. I want to go over and just talk about how do you convert the best for each of those because you get the marketing, but then talking about the conversion of saying, okay, they get to your website. What is the best way to have your website set up to actually convert viewers into coming into your shopify? What is the best exact wording to use in a text blast to make sure you are converting most viewers of this text? And I mean talking about how do we actually structure each of the things? How do you build out the perfect mailer so that it converts at the highest rate possible? That's the conversation I'm waiting to pick up a little bit. I'm hoping to lead the charge through some classes on this, but great, you're sending out. How do we optimize each of these for conversion? I think including online scheduling is obviously a big piece in any marketing you do, should include online scheduling. But then even thinking about when people are calling in my shop, and this is what the institute and a lot of great coaches here help with when someone calls in, how do I train my service advisor so we have the best chance of converting that call? That person engaging with my marketing, that's what a call is, someone engaging with your marketing. How do I train my service advisors to convert the best possible? If someone calls after hours and they're getting a voicemail, how can you change that issue tree to convert people as best as possible? When people call in the day and it goes into overflow, I have a service advisor online. How do you optimize your weight message to convert people as best as possible? So that's what some of the stuff I'm excited about.
Steven Fafel [00:22:21]:
Hopefully I get to teach a class on that soon. I still got to make the class though.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:24]:
Yeah. Gotta have material for. I mean, it's just, it's a lot. It's a lot to think about and I think a lot of it's tailoring to each individual person. Right. And so, you know, running, running the office or having people come in, it's all over the place. Right. Some people come in, they don't want to say a word to you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:41]:
You know, you know, they, and, but then you text them and it's like they're lighting up and it's like very easy to communicate with them, but they come in the head down. They're on their phone. They just. There's not good with that. And it's. You try to break the ice and try to talk to them, and they're introverts, right? They don't want to. They don't want that. So the one of the thing is, like, giving customers, like, a personality test, right? That's a big one.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:01]:
And just learning who you're who. Not just who the client is, but, like, who that individual person is that's clicking through and, like, being able to differentiate, you know? And those personality tests do that without asking super intrusive questions. I love Jimmy Lee's class about dope marketing, where you can be a dove, an owl, a peacock, or an eagle, right? And it really, really breaks down the four different types of people that are out there that. That go anywhere, right? The consumers, clients, customers, whatever you want to call them. And I just love how he analyzes that and helps me understand when someone comes in and picking up a few social cues and kind of categorizing them, I guess. What's the other word for it that you shouldn't do? You know, like, when you're putting someone in a class or in a certain classification.
Steven Fafel [00:23:48]:
Oh, it's just.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:49]:
What are they called?
Steven Fafel [00:23:50]:
Stereotyping.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:51]:
Stereotyping. Like, you're not supposed to do that, right? But you have to, like, if you want to provide a good service, you got to know who this person is. And so, dove, you know, we got someone who's caring, right? Kind of quiet. Got a sweet old lady, right? Just caring person. She cares that you care. You got. You got the owl. Very wise, very methodical.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:08]:
It's gonna, like, overanalyze everything. Gonna google, you know, prices, see what your part prices. You know, you got the peacock. Just loud. Jimmy. Leah, that's a peacock, right? Jimmy Lee's. He's a peacock. He's last a peacock.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:22]:
As long as you match his level and you guys are jamming, he doesn't care what the price is or what you're doing. Like, he just wanted.
Steven Fafel [00:24:27]:
I would love to see Jimmy Lee walking into a shop actually needing service. I wonder what that service advisors.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:33]:
It does. You just match his level. And then, I mean, I think he's, like, the stereotypical, like, service advisor. Like, so he would probably get along with any of them into the shop. Like, they would just match energies, and, like, he would just be like, here's my credit card, man. Just take care of it. Like, you know, you can just see him doing that because he's the peacock and you got the eagle. Very, very aggressive.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:50]:
Not aggressive, but, you know, very stoic, you know, and doesn't want to laugh. Wants to be very to the point. Yeah. Business oriented. Exactly. So it's just interesting. And that's just kind of like barely scratching the surface. But I think on your point of, like, trying to find those in this kind of new generation of like, online scheduling and not being able to answer the phone and figure out who these people are, I think asking certain questions that kind of direct them into a certain personality would better address that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:23]:
Like, and that way, you know, like, should I be following up this guy three times before his appointment or are they going to be pretty on top of it and they're going to be annoyed if I text them more than once?
Steven Fafel [00:25:33]:
Yeah, all good stuff. There's, there's a, there's a so many things to think through on the marketing side. I mean, for me too, I'm sitting here being like, oh, we gotta adjust our marketing. We've been lucky with, with word of mouth. People are, people in the automotive industry have been very kind. I mean, you being one of them, but people have been good and just referring shops to us, telling about their.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:53]:
Experience, I honestly like it. Like I was telling you earlier, I found you by looking at other shops, not in our area, just online, just shops that I meet at these events. And I know the owners, I know they're successful or whatever their version of success is, right? Like, I know they're doing well. I'm like, I'm gonna check out their website, see what it looks like, and then the scheduler pops up. I'm like, well, what's this? What is this? I like this. How do I get this right? And it took me a little bit of research, like, but I feel like those are the best fines that you get, right? Like, you, it's real, it's real world. Like, if I was on here, I'd be pretty stoked that I could just like, click through this. And then it just schedules me in real time to your sms programs.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:35]:
Like, well, yeah, I mean, how much, how easier do you get? But that's my experience. That's what I would want. It's not for everybody, you know?
Steven Fafel [00:26:43]:
Yeah, there's plenty of shops that we talk to that are like, hey, I'm booked out four weeks. I like talking with all my customers. Maybe we do high end work. I don't need to do a ton of car count. And I like every customer calling in and having a long conversation with them, and that's. That's great.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:57]:
That's. Sure. I mean.
Steven Fafel [00:26:58]:
I mean, that's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:59]:
It's like a. That's a. Good. Good for you.
Steven Fafel [00:27:01]:
Yeah, good. Good for you. And I'm. Yeah. Glad you run your shop that way.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:06]:
I. I tried really hard to pivot away from that, and I think I've gone too far. Right. Like, I'm. I'm definitely feel like I've. At the point where I've gone just too far that way. Right.
Steven Fafel [00:27:15]:
Like, pushing the aggressive level, pushing the grand.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:18]:
And, like, what they say, you can slaughter a sheep once, but you can shave its fur its whole life. Right. Mike Allen said it way better than I did, but you get the point. And so. And so. Yeah. When your arro gets up 15. 1600.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:32]:
What are you at? 1400 arro. Yeah. And then we're. Our hpro is right around five.
Steven Fafel [00:27:39]:
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:40]:
So what's Hbro hours? Oh, yeah, that's the new one.
Steven Fafel [00:27:46]:
That's. That's the new. The new terminal.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:48]:
Yeah. So your hpro should be like two to three. Technically, that's your benchmark. It shouldn't be anything. It should be whatever you want it to be. But that's, like a benchmark, right. So we have a pretty high hour.
Steven Fafel [00:27:57]:
What's yours? What's your hpro?
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:00]:
Right around four to five. Yeah, I think the last time I checked, it was. We were cut it down to about four, but I'm sitting around. Yeah, I was about four for a long time. So. Yeah, it says hours per ticket. And obviously, then. Then depending on how many parts you're.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:15]:
What kind of parts you're selling on it, that increases your ar o. And being a transmission specialty shop for a long time, it was kind of normal, but we've really pivoted more general auto repair. So it's still having. Keeping that higher aro. It's a pain point for clients. Like, it hurts when people come in and you don't want it to hurt, you know?
Steven Fafel [00:28:33]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:34]:
And. But you also want to do the DVI. You want to follow the 300% rule, so it's tough. And I don't know. It's just one thing that I'm. That we're working on now, because to increase our car count, we have to. We have to lower one for our Hpro because it's. We're just going to overwhelm our tax.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:51]:
So we have to get more, lower our tickets in, and then for the pain point of the clients, we got to get our arro down a little bit too. Maybe I'm wrong, you know, and. But I strive. I.
Steven Fafel [00:29:02]:
This is where I bring Cecil, and this is where I tap out. Cecil, help me. I don't know. I mean, I've been learning, though. I'm getting my numbers dialed. Yeah, I like learning the numbers.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:11]:
We worked really, really hard to. To start and get high. Right? Like, to shoot. To shoot up. Up.
Steven Fafel [00:29:18]:
You can always. It's. It's easy to go lower. You can always get lower.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:23]:
Yeah. It's just our client base isn't huge, you know, and so, sure, retention and CRM is great if you have a huge client base, and we don't. So we're working really hard on customer acquisition, and I think bringing on auto ops was one of those things. If we can make it easier, we're gonna increase our customer. And it's been. It's exactly what it's been. I think it's been a month, and we, like, today, I was just looking at my phone, three appointments made. I'm like, yeah, like, that's pretty cool.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:50]:
And I. And then I can see on the email, like, who it was, what they. What they're coming in for, and I'm not even in the state. Like, right, like, we're out of state. I can still see what car it is, what it's coming in for, and then I can prep myself. I know it's coming in next week now when I get back. Like, yeah.
Steven Fafel [00:30:04]:
And that's the one thing I do. There's a lot of. Sorry. There's more than one thing I like about auto ops, but one of the things I could see that month, it's not one of those softwares where it's like, oh, it'll take five. And once again, sometimes with marketing, I understand there's long testing periods, but auto ops is something you should see. Results month one. I mean, if you don't get more bookings month one than you got the previous month, and you should be leaving the platform. But luckily, that is extremely rare that that occurs, though.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:32]:
Yeah, yeah. Obviously, when it comes down to marketing. Speaking of marketing, speaking of scheduling, it's. It's all about cars. Like, you know, like, yeah, I want a better customer experience. Sure, sounds good. Hey, I want to hire a ro. Sure, that's right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:47]:
That's fantastic, too.
Steven Fafel [00:30:48]:
Can you bring your. When can you bring your car in, though?
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:51]:
Exactly.
Steven Fafel [00:30:51]:
Like, if you bring your car, if.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:53]:
You'Re not getting more appointments, to turn. To turn into money, to turn into car. What's the point of it?
Steven Fafel [00:30:59]:
People listen and yeah. Oh, this many viewers, this many clicks, obviously. Is that stuff good? Is that. But how many people actually showed up at my shop? How many. Yeah. What was.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:10]:
And spent money.
Steven Fafel [00:31:10]:
And spent money.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:11]:
Like, showed up and spent money because you could have the wrong clients come in. Oh, yeah. My car count went up, but it's a bunch of people at it. A bunch of cars I don't want to work on.
Steven Fafel [00:31:19]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:20]:
You know, but I did it anyway because I'm slow. It's like, so you're gonna keep paying for that? To keep doing that? Like, isn't that, like, the definition of insanity? Like, by definition, isn't that definition? But it's hard, it's hard to, it's hard to fire people. It's hard to have a conversation, to hold someone accountable. Right.
Steven Fafel [00:31:36]:
Have you seen the feature in auto ops where you can block a customer by phone number?
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:40]:
I don't think I've had to look into that one yet.
Steven Fafel [00:31:42]:
If you, if you have a customer who don't want to schedule, you can put their phone number. We have a section in auto ops. When they're going through the scheduling experience, if they enter that phone number that you have blocked, it'll say, oh, sorry, there's an error with our scheduling tool. Please call the shop to schedule your appointment.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:57]:
Oh, nice. Just put, you guys, you gotta do another one. Like, oh, you've been denied.
Steven Fafel [00:32:02]:
You've been denied. We don't like you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:05]:
Or just air. Just an error.
Steven Fafel [00:32:07]:
Just air 404.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:08]:
Yeah, they think it's something wrong with.
Steven Fafel [00:32:11]:
The old windows air.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:12]:
You put it on the honor. So the shop owner, like, oh, guys calling now. Damn it. Luckily, we don't have that issue. I try to get, I try to get in front of, well, we have an issue. I just try to get in front of it. Have the conversation. They're like, look, this, this is what we're gonna do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:25]:
And then we're done here. Like, and it's only been a few different. Few times I've had to do that. But it's like we're not on the same page. Like, we're not gonna have a relationship. So this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna help you out today, and then this is gonna be the end of our relationship. Do you understand that?
Steven Fafel [00:32:39]:
Let's be breaking up.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:40]:
I want you, I want you to.
Steven Fafel [00:32:41]:
Understand, like, we can hug one last time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:43]:
That's it. Like, we'll hug in the middle of the shop. Like, that's fine. We can cuddle. But I mean, after that. Yeah, we're leaving. We can still be friends. It's you, not me, you know, the whole thing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:52]:
But you know, I need my cds back out of your car, just so you know. Like I can't leave him. Got all my cds. Right? Like so. No, it's, it's, it's important stuff to, to manage those things correctly.
Steven Fafel [00:33:07]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:08]:
You know, and have the conversations up front and hold whatever marketing or whatever product that you're using, hold them accountable. Like how important is it for you to be held accountable for you 100 people?
Steven Fafel [00:33:19]:
In the beginning I, that's honestly why contracts first. Contracts kill startups. Contracts kill startups. If I said to you, when we were starting out auto ops, I said, hey, you have to sign on to a one year contract, I would hate that. Because if people didn't like autopsy in the beginning, I would have been the one to be the first one to know. I want you to tell me this product sucks so that I can actually make changes and then I'll have a product more shops want. I mean if people don't, if people didn't give me feedback earlier, and once again, when we first launched, it wasn't perfect. If people hadn't held me accountable, if people hadn't told me, hey, this part stinks, we wouldn't have had a good product.
Steven Fafel [00:33:54]:
I mean, I don't own a shop, I had to be on with shops all the time in the beginning, hearing all their feedback. This part stinks. This part stinks. Change this, do this. And so, yeah, if you're not held accountable, and with contracts, sometimes people are like, whatever, I already spent the money, I'm not going to say anything to them, I'm just going to leave that it's month to month, because if you don't like it, I want to know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:12]:
So that's fair. Yeah. Cuz at the end of the year you'd have this mass exodus and then it would do the bottom of it.
Steven Fafel [00:34:18]:
You know, a hundred percent.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:19]:
And I mean it's, it's hard. And that's one thing I've learned a lot, especially with marketing, because you have a lot of all in one marketers trying to do everything at once and you, you don't know like what, who's doing what or what's what. And so dividing these, these up a little bit and learning like you should have a CRM program, website, you have, you know, SEO, you know, now you're not supposed to pay for Google Ads, so don't worry about Google Ads anymore. But next month maybe we'll worry about Google Ads. But, like, knowing this month to month stuff and then obviously starting at the very beginning, like, oh, an online scheduler. I didn't even know that was a thing. Right. Like, that's a thing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:52]:
Yeah. And it's like a big thing. Right? And it's like, well, that's.
Steven Fafel [00:34:55]:
We tried to break in and say, listen, you got your shop management system, you got your website. Maybe you have a CRM. Sorry, sorry. You need an online scheduling tool. I'm sorry to add another one in, but it's just that you need it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:07]:
Well, and if you don't know, you don't know. And if that's. If you're trying to differentiate yourself from other shops in your area. And that's all it takes. A couple hundred bucks a month. I mean, a couple hundred.
Steven Fafel [00:35:18]:
159. It's not a couple. That's putting us at 2159 a month.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:22]:
I was trying to raise your price.
Steven Fafel [00:35:23]:
We're trying to raise our labor rate. Yeah, we got to get our labor rate up. I need to increase my labor rate. It's time. No, we've. We've. We've raised prices over time, but never we lock people in. So if you sign on, I mean, I've still have people.
Steven Fafel [00:35:38]:
Sorry to tell you, I have people who, when I like our first couple shops, they're paying a cheaper for auto ops.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:43]:
Well, they gave you the feedback needed to grow to where.
Steven Fafel [00:35:45]:
I mean, they used it when it was not as good of a product as it is now. Constantly releasing features.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:50]:
They stayed on.
Steven Fafel [00:35:50]:
We've never. Yeah, they've stayed on board. We have shops. Yeah, I think. Yeah. I mean, in general, we have a very low churn rate. Yeah. Some of our initial shops are still some of the.
Steven Fafel [00:36:02]:
Still some of the best. Love them.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:04]:
Yeah.
Steven Fafel [00:36:04]:
There's a. We're Larry. Oh, Larry elders. Larry. What is his name? His shop, too. But whatever. Larry, you know who you are. He's here.
Steven Fafel [00:36:16]:
He's one of our first, like two custom. First three.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:19]:
Oh, wow.
Steven Fafel [00:36:20]:
Yeah. Larry from motor Motors or motoring. Sports motorsports. Sorry, Larry.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:26]:
He fixes cars. Well, he doesn't shop.
Steven Fafel [00:36:28]:
His shop fixes. Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:30]:
That really narrows it down for.
Steven Fafel [00:36:32]:
He's the guy in the room who fixes cars.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:35]:
So I'm kind of like final notes here. Talking about marketing. Talking about a startup and marketing how. What was your marketing tack? It's tactic to get Larry on. Like, what really worked for you in the beginning. Right.
Steven Fafel [00:36:50]:
To get Larry on. Yeah. What worked? Honestly, one of the first things we did. And I'm sure someone in this room has received some of my Facebook messages. I hope you like them. But we asked people in the beginning, we would send out a survey and just ask how they did online scheduling. We'd basically be like, okay, do you do any online scheduling? They would say yes. Say, okay, when people request an appointment on your website, does it look at your current availability of where you actually have your calendar? And they would say no.
Steven Fafel [00:37:19]:
And I would say, do you want it to look at the current availability in your shop manager system and then create the appointment in their shop manager system? And they would say, yes. I would contact them. But no. Honestly, I think it was a lot of organic stuff. I mean, just getting in the Facebook groups, understanding how a shop runs, and then I think it was, I mean, providing actual value. I mean, we've never, I think. I'm not joking. We've probably spent a $100 on marketing so far.
Steven Fafel [00:37:47]:
Like, paid, paid ads. A lot of it's me going to conferences and word of mouth, me posting a little bit on Facebook. Thanks for everyone that's friends with me and engages on Facebook. But no, we haven't really done, like, super traditional, like, paid marketing, or we don't have, like, I built the website myself. We don't have anyone even I know a little bit about SEO, so it's mostly word of mouth.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:11]:
That's huge. And that's. That was important because that is kind of what the new marketing is. And I had that feeling that was what it was because the organic stuff seems to grow these audiences so much more.
Steven Fafel [00:38:27]:
Organic. Organic stuff just means you have a good product. That's what organic is, that I have a good product. And people found us organically because they were searching for it. It was a need, or someone told them, hey, this is really good. Go check it out.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:39]:
Yeah. And a lot of. A lot of shop owners have that problem of, and I had it, too, of like, you want to set and forget. You want to hire a marketing company, pay the money, and then bring me cars and then set it and forget it and let it go. Right?
Steven Fafel [00:38:51]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:51]:
So that's one of the big things of, like, when it comes to marketing is the power of, like, social media, the power of just, like, getting out and going to these events. I mean, if you're slow, just do what you did. I mean, that's all it takes, right?
Steven Fafel [00:39:06]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:07]:
And then get an online scheduler and.
Steven Fafel [00:39:09]:
Then get on with auto ops. With auto ops. Auto ops.com. but no, thanks for having me on. Everyone, listen to the gearbox. You need to save it. What platforms are on? Can they, like, subscribe on all the platforms?
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:20]:
Is there other ones?
Steven Fafel [00:39:22]:
I don't know. Get subscribed there. Whatever you listen to on available on all listening systems.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:26]:
I like it. And click click to automatically download the latest episode.
Steven Fafel [00:39:29]:
Click to automatically download the latest episode.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:32]:
The gearbox I'm talking about. Sounds like we're being summoned, so we better go on. Okay.
Steven Fafel [00:39:36]:
Sounds good. Good talking, Jimmy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:38]:
Thanks, buddy.