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. Well, thanks for coming on.
Jessa Boyd [00:00:36]:
Well, thank you for having us.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:37]:
And we have a guest.
Jessa Boyd [00:00:39]:
We've got Tilly, my superstar. Yay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:43]:
So, you guys. You guys are the rock stars behind the counter at remind me the name of the shop again.
Jessa Boyd [00:00:49]:
George's friendly auto service in Lincoln's friendly auto service.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:52]:
I can't remember the name. I know. It was friendly auto. You can't forget that, right? It's like my father's garage, you know?
Jessa Boyd [00:00:59]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:01]:
Such a cool name.
Jessa Boyd [00:01:02]:
Jorge.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:04]:
Oh, there you go.
Jessa Boyd [00:01:05]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:05]:
Jorge. Friendly garage. That sounds. I don't know if that sounds better or worse. I don't know. They call it. Well, that's cool. What do you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:14]:
So, from what I understand, Tilly's newer to the industry or newer to the service counter.
Jessa Boyd [00:01:22]:
Yeah.
Tilly Corser [00:01:23]:
Yeah, I've got. I'm going on my 6th year right now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:26]:
Okay, well, you're not that new, then. That's. That's a fair amount of time.
Tilly Corser [00:01:30]:
Fresh meat.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:33]:
So, when it comes to running the front end of a. Of a auto shop, I think when we kind of touched about this the last time, we were talking, right. Of, like, the difference between how a man can come in and kind of, like, dominate the situation and how, like, people come and they have a problem, and it's like, you have a hard time navigating that conversation. Right. When it comes to, like, auto repair, do you get a lot of. Do you still get a lot of that? A lot of the distrust. Like, they don't believe what you're saying. They just want to talk to the technician out back.
Tilly Corser [00:02:03]:
Oh, yeah. All the time. But it's. It's, um, redirecting and getting the conversation to turn back around and to gain that trust back with you. All of its redirection.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:18]:
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it's just. I don't know. I see it a lot. My wife runs the front, and she does a fantastic job of navigating those conversations. It's a lot more talking than, like, what I would have to in some situations. Right. But then there's other times when you can probably navigate that a little better than I ever could, you know? Because I just don't have that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:39]:
That intelligence. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, the social intelligence of, like, being able to look at that conversation, like, talk people down or talk them into certain situations. It's like, whatever it is, you're trying to sell them at that point. Do you see that as trying to sell a service or how do you look at it? Like, how do you. When you. When you day to day operations, like, are you. How do you feel about providing the service?
Tilly Corser [00:03:07]:
It's. It's more. I don't really look at it so much in the business type aspect, I look at it more. Thank you. Um, I. I like to look at it like I'm gaining a relationship with somebody, and it puts it in a whole different aspect where I can gain the trust of somebody. A customer comes in, they know that they're going to be taken care of, and the ones that are hard to talk to, it's been a challenge, for sure. But a lot of that redirection and putting it back in the customer's ball court and being able to give them the empowerment and the knowledge and being able to teach them along the way, I think that that makes 90% of the situations better.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:03]:
Yeah. Do you feel like when they come in and not. This is probably not all the time. I'm sure. I'm sure you'll have, like, a fantastic client base.
Jessa Boyd [00:04:12]:
It's crazy how we're kind of spoiled with our client base, but we've worked really hard for that. I don't want to brag by any means, because I don't want to jinx it mostly, but we have a really good client base.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:23]:
Yeah, well, I've noticed. I've noticed the ones that we're all kind of in this group, right? This Facebook group, and some people scout that, like, Facebook. What's that for? But it's like, this networking group that's so much more powerful than we could ever really imagine. And, like, everyone that's in it, we're all in this, like, top 1%, 2% of the shops. And with that being said, I don't. I don't think we. Most of us really have an issue with clients, like, when it comes to that. Like, and just knowing that we kind of communicate on the same platform, it's, like, goes without saying.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:54]:
I'm sure you don't have to deal with that a whole lot. I'm sure it's. I'm sure you got. But when you do, it's, like, my interpretation, and I just see, and I. All I see is kind of the fires that I got to put out. And so in my thought, it's like, how is this person, like, worked up to this point, like, why are we so stressed about a vehicle, you know? And the way I see is they came into the shop with the thought of, I'm gonna find out they're just waiting to validate their opinions, that this shop's gonna rip them off.
Jessa Boyd [00:05:26]:
Yeah. And it's a lot of. And, you know, there is a lot of mistrust out there. And I hate to say it, but it's still happening. We're seeing a rash of. And we don't badmouth other shops, but we are seeing a rash of dealerships that are sending little old ladies to us because we have a primary, we have a 6500 home, senior citizen community, upper middle class in our direct market. And, you know, there's a lot of widows that we deal with. And, you know, for instance, we had just last week, not us, Tilly actually handled this.
Jessa Boyd [00:05:59]:
This little old lady came in, and I walked up to her and Tilly talking, and this lady was in tears, crying. And I'm going to let Tilly finish a story on that because she has all the details. But it was. It was egregious what actually happened at the dealership. And it's not. It's not the first time. We're seeing it so frequently now. That and other shops in our area, they're pretty good.
Jessa Boyd [00:06:22]:
I mean, they're. They're, for the most part, everybody in our little towns above board. But some of the stuff that we're seeing coming to us, of course they're gonna have mistrust. Why wouldn't they? It's just. It's become a little bit disgusting in a lot of ways. So when you're dealing with that public and trying to navigate and gain customers confidence and trust, you have to realize that you have a lot to contend with. If it's their first visit there, they have a whole lifetime of dealing with automotive shops and who knows what they've gone through. So having that social and emotional intelligence, to be able to recognize that and then take your ego out of it while you're communicating.
Jessa Boyd [00:07:03]:
And, yeah, they may be upset, but they're not necessarily upset with you. They're upset because, first of all, nobody wants to go get their car fixed because that means their car is broken. So there's already that and then the past that they've had. But you want to carry on the story with that little lady who was sweet.
Tilly Corser [00:07:19]:
Yeah, she's. Oh, she was. Oh, my gosh, too sweet.
Jessa Boyd [00:07:23]:
She came in.
Tilly Corser [00:07:24]:
In tears and put a piece of paper in front of me and said, hey, know the dealership. I just got back from there. I think she went in for a recall.
Jessa Boyd [00:07:32]:
Or was that the recall?
Tilly Corser [00:07:33]:
It was the recall.
Jessa Boyd [00:07:34]:
And no, she went in for a service. The other lady was the recall.
Tilly Corser [00:07:38]:
The other lady was in call. So she puts this piece of paper down. She said, well, they, you know, she's got 30,000 miles on her vehicle, and all of a sudden she needs a new water pump. She needs her brake fluid coolant flush. She needs a new drive belt. And I asked her, I said, well, did they give you any explanation, any rhyme or reason why you need these things? And she said, no, they just said that I need it and I need to do it now. It's critical for the vehicle. I said, well, did they say that your water pump's leaking? I mean, you've got 30,000 miles.
Tilly Corser [00:08:10]:
So let's kind of be realistic here. And she's in tears. I'm looking over the paperwork, and we are super big over communicators. Very, very over communicative with people, us. And I'm looking at it and, you know, they sell it, tour almost like it's a timing belt type job. And I'm sitting here thinking, this is a timing chain, right? This doesn't make any sense. And they put on their dry belt, needs to be replaced. Water pump needs to be replaced.
Tilly Corser [00:08:41]:
No explanation, just needs to be done.
Jessa Boyd [00:08:44]:
Oh, and by the way, if you.
Tilly Corser [00:08:45]:
Do it today, we'll give you half off. So red flags everywhere. That's been happening across the board at a lot of dealerships.
Jessa Boyd [00:08:53]:
We inspected that car, right?
Tilly Corser [00:08:55]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We inspected her the next day.
Jessa Boyd [00:08:57]:
How much did she need?
Tilly Corser [00:08:58]:
Nothing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:00]:
Well, technically. Technically, she drove it in. She doesn't really need anything, right. I mean, that's the whole thing when it comes to, like, the dvis and the 300% rule. And, and I'm not saying that in a negative connotation by any way, right? Like, we want to make sure we're checking all the stuff, right? Like we don't want to miss anything. And so you do these exact, you know, these exorbitant, extravagant inspections to make sure that we're not missing anything because we're so afraid of it going to the next shop and them saying, hey, why don't you tell me this or that or the other thing, right? I mean, for me anyway, that's how I feel about it. I don't want to, but then it turns into kind of overselling that point. And now you're handing out these 3000 or three $3,500 estimates on a vehicle that they drove in, and it's like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:44]:
It's. It's like, oh, man. Like, I think we over overshot ourselves a little bit, right? Like, talking about over communicating, I was. They definitely overselling. You know, when it comes, you're doing it right.
Jessa Boyd [00:09:54]:
So if you're.
Tilly Corser [00:09:55]:
So.
Jessa Boyd [00:09:55]:
I do believe in the 300% rule. There was a whole lot of controversy about 300% rule mentioned over all the classes. Not all the classes, but a lot of the classes at vision that I went to. It's kind of interesting, but the 300% rule doesn't have to be a hungry sales tactic. I mean, you really have. You really have the responsibility to that customer to inform them of what you see now as the service advisor. When you're selling. And people take sales as a bad word, but you're selling the customer in an ethical and moral way to influence them to make the best decision for themselves.
Jessa Boyd [00:10:28]:
Who am I or who is Tilly to make that decision for the customer? We're just there to give facts. So I think the 300% rule right now in the industry is getting a little bit of a bad rep. But at the same point, if you're utilizing that properly, it really is an effective tool, and you don't have to oversell, you know, you're not trying to take the customer's entire pocketbook. And back to one of our other little old ladies that came in. We had just seen her vehicle. We had just did a digital vehicle inspection, and then she went to the dealership for a recall, and then she called us back because she was upset with us, because why didn't we tell her she needed XYZ? And, you know, of course, Tilly gets the phone call. So Tilly handled that. So how did that work out?
Tilly Corser [00:11:13]:
Oh, yeah, I told her, you know, come bring your vehicle back in.
Jessa Boyd [00:11:16]:
Let's.
Tilly Corser [00:11:16]:
Let me get a different technician on it, and let's recheck it, because if we miss something, you know, we want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to look over vehicles properly and giving you the best information possible, but at the same time, you know, get her back in, and she's visibly upset and totally understandable. And I pulled up her paperwork, I printed it out, get another technician on it, new blind eye, and we do the same digital inspection over. And I told her, you know, hey, I trust my technicians 100%. I have no fear that they are doing what is proper and doing a thorough inspection on your vehicle. But if we miss something, let's address it and we get the inspection back in, and it's pretty much 99% on to what the other technician saw. And so we did test strips on the brake fluid and coolant and just did a really good look over again on it and the same conclusion from the last time. And then I explained to her, you know, what's going on with what it is that they're recommending. Hey, yeah, you know, you can do these things based off your mileage.
Tilly Corser [00:12:26]:
We have, you know, we have told you in the past, you know, we recommend the coolant service based off of mileage only. There was no. It wasn't out of ph specification or anything. There was nothing that I could say, you absolutely need to do this right now. But it's that empowerment of letting the customer be able to make that choice, knowing what it is that's explained to them. And if you explain it to them in a way that brings them on the same level with you, you know, you have a better success at it, but at the same time, not overselling and going in. Scare tactics is what I like to call it.
Jessa Boyd [00:13:05]:
And that's exactly what they did to her, scare tactics. And then she was upset with us. So we had to have the emotional intelligence to be able to understand. Hey, we understand you're upset right now because you think that we missed something, and we are fully ready to take accountability of that. And I even walked through the office and let her know, if this is a situation where my technicians missed something, I need to know, because I need to correct that on the back end. So let's work together. And so, you know, Tilly was able to successfully bring her back to the point of she realized that we didn't actually miss stuff. I mean, what was her quote? Like, $3,000?
Tilly Corser [00:13:40]:
Yeah.
Jessa Boyd [00:13:40]:
From the dealer that she needed all the stuff that we missed. So it's just that was within a week. So she had these two wildly different experiences with automotive shops in the same week. So who knows what else is happening out there and why we're having, you know, we're getting these customers that we don't know their backstory.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:02]:
Yeah, I mean, the mistrust, it's obviously stems from somewhere. People don't just, like, automatically assume all the shops ripping them off just out of thin air. It's probably because it's. It's happening. Yeah, I mean, obviously, right? Like, you go to the dealership and they want all this work done, and it's like, well, who's right? You know? Like, does it need it? Does it not need it? And you start talking about preventative maintenances and calling stuff out based on mileage instead of what it looks like, and it's like, well, who's right there? And you just get down the slippery slope, and like I said, I didn't mean to, like, throw shade at the 300. Well, we have it. We are. You know, that's how our shop is built off of.
Jessa Boyd [00:14:40]:
Oh, I don't think you were throwing shade at it at all.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:42]:
No. But for anybody else that, you know, that might be listening, that thinks, like, that's not what I meant. I mean, it's a great. It's a great tool if it's used effectively. And it's just like, with communication, like, you can definitely have a. Be a great communicator if you're just a sleazy salesman. Right? Like, there was definitely snake oil salesmen that got by pretty good, you know? So it's like, just because you're a fantastic communicator doesn't mean that you're going to be right in a service role anyway. But I think getting back to that whole, the 300% rule is effectively communicating.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:11]:
I think. I think you both nailed it, where it's like, if you communicate the process and give the client the facts they need to make an informed decision. That's the whole point. But how hard is it to get some people to understand? Like you say, okay, so you got 100,000 miles on this. We should probably flush the coolant, right? That whole, that in itself is already kind of like wishy washy, right? I'm like, well, manufacturer specific says we should. That we did coolant strips, and we could probably do a recharge on it to bring up the glycol levels or whatever is going on with it, right? So it's like, so do I need to flush it? Do I not need to flush it? It's like. And right then you have to make that decision. Like, so am I advising this flush or am I not advising this? There's nothing really wrong, but it is due, dude, you know, because the manufacturer spec.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:59]:
So how do you handle that kind of situation?
Jessa Boyd [00:16:03]:
Options.
Tilly Corser [00:16:03]:
Yeah, exactly.
Jessa Boyd [00:16:04]:
It's.
Tilly Corser [00:16:05]:
It's all about options. You put it back in. In their court. You let them have the power over their own vehicle. It is their vehicle. At the end of the day, it is their money that's in their wallet, and it's their trust that they're putting in you. And if you instill that trust in that relationship and go, hey, you know what? This just, like you said, you know, maybe it's.
Jessa Boyd [00:16:26]:
It's.
Tilly Corser [00:16:26]:
The ph levels are okay on it. It doesn't look too bad. But, you know, let's look at this realistically. This is what can happen. This is what builds up inside the cooling system. These are things that can happen. You inform the customer and you give them the option. The more that a customer has an option to be able to do something with their vehicle, the more one, the more likely success you're going to have.
Tilly Corser [00:16:51]:
Gaining that sale.
Jessa Boyd [00:16:52]:
Reaching out.
Tilly Corser [00:16:53]:
Just a sale.
Jessa Boyd [00:16:54]:
It's not just a sale.
Tilly Corser [00:16:56]:
You're gaining their trust. You're gaining their family, their friends. Everybody is going to come to you because they know that they have the option, because they are being informed about their vehicles. And that's. That's key right there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:10]:
Yeah. And, like, and for, like, another kind of difficult situation is, like, doing inspection and seeing brakes at, like, say, 25%. Right. You hit that. You hit that line where it's like yellow, red, right? It's like orange. It's not like, oh, man. But, you know, they're not coming back in the shop for the next six months. Like, most people don't come.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:34]:
You know, they don't go to the shop every two or three months. So you have to, like, navigate that information to someone that might not be mechanically inclined. And it's so hard to, like, say, man. I mean, and it's basically the end day. Like, well, you came in here today, so I don't know if, like, we need to do anything, but we want to make sure we capture everything, make our sales, but also make sure we give an informed decision to the client. And it's like, where does that kind of gray line sit?
Jessa Boyd [00:18:03]:
Well, we start asking questions when we're at that, you know, four millimeter mark on the brakes where it's going to be in. We use the term in the near future a lot. And then, of course, customers ask, well, what does that near future mean? Well, let's talk about this. What kind of driving are you doing? You know, we have some people that are driving 1000 miles a year. We have some customers that are driving 1000 miles a month. We have some customers that are flatlanders down here, and we have some that are going to the foothills. So understanding what that vehicle means to that customer and what they're using it for. So when we have that in the near future.
Tilly Corser [00:18:37]:
Hey, Jess.
Jessa Boyd [00:18:38]:
Tilly, what does that near future means? Well, how do you drive? Do you drive like a bot out of hell? I know that I do. I know that I burn through breaks sometimes. So we need to have this conversation and let's. Let's find out a way. And then the biggest thing is we could do it now, but it would be preventative measures at this point. It's not because you need it and we're happy to do that, but we're also happy having you wait. And if you happen to start hearing any brake noise, feel free to come back in here. We'll take a look.
Jessa Boyd [00:19:05]:
If we're not going to see you in say a year because you drive thousand miles a year. It's all about that rapport with the customer. You have to understand the customer and get on their level to know what to recommend to them and how to advise them. As far as giving what options to give them.
Tilly Corser [00:19:22]:
I think that we as advisors control the environment. That is huge. Yes. If you don't know how to establish that initial communication, that initial trust and then to be able to pull back the reins when things go south and to be able to change the environment that you're in, then you're. You're not going to have success. And the confidence level behind it too is huge. You have to go in knowing that you're not trying to take advantage of somebody. And even in, like John says, you sometimes you have to make the hard calls.
Tilly Corser [00:19:57]:
Yeah, that's what it is.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:00]:
Yeah. You got to make some big decisions sometimes for other people. I want to talk about dispatch though, because that's like, that's one of the big struggles I think a lot of shops have, right. Is the dispatching of the work, the work flow. Like that's. That's where it's all key and you run the show. Right. As an advisor, not only are you advising the, the clients, but you guys are advising what goes on in the shop, who gets what and trying to keep politics out of it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:35]:
You know what I mean?
Jessa Boyd [00:20:38]:
We are trying something new. So back to that. Back to going to vision. I took a very awesome class with Clint white and it was on effective scheduling and workflow management. And that was one of the highlights of my trip to vision was that class. And that has been, probably been the most, the class that has effectuated the most change in our shop even in just the past week. So what we're trying now, so we don't have a politic issue in the most part as far as who gets what we have. We have four technicians.
Jessa Boyd [00:21:15]:
It might be three soon, but there's that. But we have the four technicians and we all are pretty honest with ourselves about our strengths and our weaknesses as far as where we're at on the team. So dispatch gets done based on that, on this, on strengths. Why am I going to give somebody, or Tilly, give somebody a job that they're not geared to do unless we're giving somebody an opportunity to learn something new, which then we go into that knowing. But the thing that I brought back from vision that we're trying and it's been embraced, is the to shop day. And so the way, because we've had our biggest challenge lately has been efficiency in the shop. And so what we're doing is the morning, we're doing all of our inspections, our oil changes, because we do the inspections there, our diagnostics, anything that is kind of the triage and finding answers, that is our morning shop. And all of the guys go to lunch from twelve to one, we have that set pretty routine.
Jessa Boyd [00:22:13]:
And then the afternoon shop, the second shop is the do it shop. And that's when we're doing all of the things that we have sold from the previous part of the day or the previous day that couldn't get done in that. And I feel like it's working.
Tilly Corser [00:22:28]:
To me, it has been phenomenal. It is the biggest game changer. It has changed our efficiency around.
Jessa Boyd [00:22:34]:
Brandon's at 110 right now. 110%.
Tilly Corser [00:22:37]:
He is slaying. Slay.
Jessa Boyd [00:22:39]:
Oh, Brandon, we talked about him last time and I was like, oh, cut his name out. I don't want to cut his name off this time because, oh, he is kicking. He's killing it. In fact, we had another episode or another situation where the day before you put the podcast out, I was actually talking about getting rid of him again because he wasn't following instructions. But it was emotional on all of us because we were having a really big efficiency issue. And what I realized was that was my failure again. I'm bad. It was my failure again.
Jessa Boyd [00:23:11]:
And it was, I was pulling him in too many different directions and he was missing crucial key points. So I came home that weekend and I came to the conclusion that I need to be able to set him up first up for success. And I came into it with that. And then that very same day, I am drinking my coffee, I look down and I see that you had posted the podcast where we had talked about, you know, his growth on the last time. And it's been phenomenally amazing with him and just seeing him flourish. But this two, this two shop operation situation we have, he went from, like, gosh, 60%, and he does primarily most of the oil changes, which do pay a little bit less as far as flat rate, we're a hybrid system where they get a really good base pay plus a bonus for production. But he went from 60%. And last time I did the thing on Friday, he was at 110%.
Jessa Boyd [00:24:01]:
And he was calm, collected, happy, efficient. His quality was great. In fact, that digital vehicle inspection that went to the dealership that they said that we missed stuff, it had me concerned coming back because it was Brandon that inspected it the first time, and I'm like, oh, crap, what if he missed stuff and, you know, we're in this hot water? He didn't, he didn't. He has gotten so much better at them that he was spot on and they went to the dealer with it, and I had my senior tech look at it the second time. So just that, that dispatch, dispatching to strengths and understanding that every single person in our team has strengths and weaknesses and playing to that and then dispatching also makes the way that you dispatch, it does affect the efficiency. Efficiency is huge. And to get that, you have to be able to dispatch it properly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:51]:
Yeah. And it's, it's an art.
Tilly Corser [00:24:55]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:55]:
I mean, it's because people grow and that's awesome. Like, it's awesome to hear technicians, anyone in the industry to grow. I mean, it's, it's, that's what we're here to do. Right? Like, elevate the industry and, like, and learn from each other and take certain aspects and, and just, and just get better together. So it's, it's awesome. Um, and when, when you talk about dispatch and, like, having this, like, this hot, this mind's eye of how is he going to be today, right? Like, it's not even about, like, what he's learned in the last couple years or whatever, but it's like, how's the attitude going to be today, right, versus tomorrow versus what it was yesterday? And, and then you also have to play where, where you're not trying to play into politics, where you're like, okay, well, I told him I would let him learn on the next timing belt or the next timing chain or whatever's coming in. Right. But it's like, that's not today, you know?
Jessa Boyd [00:25:48]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:49]:
And then they see that job coming. Like, oh, man, I told them I really wanted to try one of those. And then that it's like, you start breeding that a little bit. So there's, there's so many things going on that you're trying to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, you're trying to make everyone efficient so they get paid. That's.
Jessa Boyd [00:26:03]:
And then the unknown. Then you have the unknown. So you're diagnosing a car, you see how you plan your morning show shop, and you have the diagnostic inspection, oil change, whatever it is, and then you get into it and then you get a curveball. And then that. You had four things, five things lined up that morning, or two things, three things, whatever, and then you have this curveball. Totally Molly whop you. And you have to adjust to that and adapt and pivot. That's always fun.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:27]:
I was just. I was just going to bring that up to, like, having the two shop situation is like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm sold on that 100% just because if something from the day before transfers over to the morning, and now you have this repair that's ongoing and you're. And you've tried to set up to have the inspections and the oil changes, but now you got a car stuck on the lift, or. I mean, I don't know. And it's always. There's always. Yeah, I mean, and I hate.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:53]:
I just. How my brain works. I always look at, like, how to set up a situation where worst case scenario, every time, you know, instead of, like, looking at the positive and being like, no, we'll figure that out. Let's just keep moving forward with the two, with this new system, right? Like, no, no, it's not going to work because there's going to be one day someone, you know, this is going to happen. So that whole system's not going to work.
Jessa Boyd [00:27:12]:
Well, we did adapt to this last week because here's another thing to that you can't stick to. Operating procedures are a. They're pirate rules. They're guidelines that should be followed. However, there are some instances when it needs to be adapted. For instance, I am not. We have this huge evaporative, evaporator core job in the shop right now for this jeep, that Tilly soldier. I am not going to have a technician start that job and pull off that job unless their brain space is broken and they want to break from it.
Jessa Boyd [00:27:40]:
I'm not going to pull them off of that just to conform to the two shop rule. So what happened was we started that job on Thursday afternoon in the second shop, but in that case, I'm not going to have him do inspections and oil changes in the morning. I'm going to have him continue on to that because it's such a huge job that if you do pull him off to do XYZ, whatever it is you're creating an opportunity for forgetting something. Extra bolts on the bench that didn't get put back. So there's always wiggle room to any kind of situation like that. But for us in the dispatching world and efficiency, it seems to be working. And now, again, we're a week and a half into this, but it is working for us so far.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:25]:
Yeah. The change is always. Is always good, and it's almost addicting.
Jessa Boyd [00:28:31]:
Yes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:32]:
When you find new processes, new procedures, new software, new phone system, new. I can go on and on and on. It's like, I just want it all. I like all the new shiny stuff. I have. I have the add, right? I got a technician's brain. I love. I love, like, just learning new things.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:47]:
Right.
Tilly Corser [00:28:48]:
Jazz, I saw her looking at.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:51]:
I saw her side. Not in you a little bit there.
Jessa Boyd [00:28:54]:
I am a squirrel. I'm a squirrel for sure. And that, I think, is why Tilly and I work so well together, because she's my rock. When it comes to a lot, we balance. You're the yin of my yang.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:09]:
No more new stuff. No more. That's it.
Jessa Boyd [00:29:12]:
I mean, I did get a violin recently that's sitting on the shelf here. And then what else did I get into? I had this podcasting setup that I got into here. I've used it twice now.
Tilly Corser [00:29:22]:
What do you not have at this point? Wait, no, don't go there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:28]:
Yeah, it's. I mean, and that's what I mean. It's like, all the changes and stuff is addicting. And. And the one thing I always remember someone telling me a long time ago is, like, you can change the lighting in your shop and make it brighter, and the efficiency will go up. You can change the lighting in your shop and make it dimmer, and the efficiency will go up. It's like. So there's always, like, no matter what change you make, it's a new environment, and everyone usually changes from their normal rhythm, and then the efficiency usually goes up.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:59]:
And so it's just interesting thinking about that and then actually using that in the real world in the shop, and see, oh, wow, this is really working. And just trying to make it, like, permanent and trying to make it a fixture, and it seems like every time I do, like, a new sop that seems to happen, and then it. And it kind of falls off. And I'm not trying to say, like, that's what's going to have, but it's interesting how the different concepts and the different programs out there, you hear, and it's. And I guess. I guess where I'm going at is like, don't just take, if you're listening to this, don't take anything and just run with it in your shop because you heard maybe it's working for somebody else. And I think that's a big problem, too. Everyone just tries to copy cut pace.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:40]:
This isn't working for me. It's like, well, you didn't think about it.
Jessa Boyd [00:30:45]:
Question for you. Have you heard of a rack attack? Do you know what a rack attack is?
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:50]:
I do remember. Who was talking about that the other day?
Jessa Boyd [00:30:53]:
I think it might.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:55]:
I can't remember. Somebody was talking. We just brought that up the other day.
Jessa Boyd [00:31:00]:
I was trying to find information about it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:02]:
That's the other new thing, isn't it?
Jessa Boyd [00:31:04]:
Well, apparently, of course, I would hope to have had more research done into the matter by now, because from what I heard in one of the classes at vision, which was a very interesting class, you got to watch out for those Decepticons guys. It was a very interesting class, but somebody had stood up in the class and was preaching this rack attack. And I'm like, that sounds like a whole lot of. And they may have been representing it poorly, but what this person had said was that somebody gets up, basically, they put the car on the rack, and then all the guys from the shop swoop over and they start doing the inspection. And I'm like, yeah, but who's responsible for that wheel? Like, when that wheel falls off, which technician did that?
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:46]:
Like, that's a fair point. Yeah, the accountability of. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's the whole reason why we. I mean, with shopware, we can have technicians clock in and clock out on jobs. We know who did it. And it's not to, like, hold them, like, to the fire, but it's just accountability. It's like, back in a year, like, no one's going to remember who worked on that car.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:04]:
Well, I mean, there's car. There's certain cars you'll probably remember, but for the most part, you're not going to. You're not going to remember who worked on that car. So the accountability is a big thing, you know, but the rack attack, and then the, the other one is the free diagnostics. That's another big one that's coming back flat rate for. For pay. It's just like making the whole circle. Like, we just got out all that stuff and now it's like, coming back in.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:25]:
I mean, how do you feel about, like, a free diagnostic situation?
Jessa Boyd [00:32:29]:
I. Well, there's. There's. That's multifaceted. For instance, that little old lady that was crying on the counter, we did give her that free digital vehicle inspection or that free check because we felt like it was the right thing to do. That wasn't a diagnostic. As far as diagnostics go, I always tell the customers, finding the problem is the hardest part. Fixing the problem is much simpler.
Jessa Boyd [00:32:54]:
So if we give away free diagnostics, then we're discounting our time, we're discounting the technicians time. I don't personally believe in free diagnostics. And here's the thing for I feel like it's a shady practice that when you say free diagnostics and you're like, oh, well, I'll just roll it into the repair. Why not just be upfront and explain the value and the diagnostics you're getting for the customer and explain to the customer on their level why, why and oh, no, free diagnostic. I'm sorry, it's not happening in our shop.
Tilly Corser [00:33:28]:
Yeah, these guys work way too hard. They use all their brain space to come up with a factual answer for a factual repair. And that, that costs money to get that.
Jessa Boyd [00:33:42]:
It costs money for time to keep the lights on, to be able to be there to do that, all of.
Tilly Corser [00:33:46]:
It and every single bit of it. There is no such thing as a free diagnostic unless you have completely lost.
Jessa Boyd [00:33:51]:
Your mind and you might as well say it's not a free diagnostic. We're paying for your diagnostic as a shop. Oh, we'll pay for your diagnostic for you. Not a problem. Let's take it out of our bottom line.
Tilly Corser [00:33:59]:
That's right.
Jessa Boyd [00:34:00]:
Yeah. There we go.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:01]:
Do you hear that, Mike Allen? I hope. I hope you're listening to this one. Well, not only that, but y'all's time too. I mean, it's not like you don't bring anything to the table, you know, I mean, there's education and. Yeah, I mean, there's just so much to the whole process, from the moment you pick up the phone to when they show up to the shop to when it gets dispatched to when it goes back to the office. I mean, just that alone, how is that not worth money? Right? The house? Yeah. I mean, it's.
Tilly Corser [00:34:32]:
And there's so much more into it than just that too. Like Jess and I, we are definitely a little more involved when it comes to being in the office. It's more than just a service advisor job.
Jessa Boyd [00:34:45]:
We'd love to be just a service advisor again.
Tilly Corser [00:34:49]:
So much easier. We do a lot of research, we go very in depth and we have the knowledge and I don't have as.
Jessa Boyd [00:34:59]:
Much as her, but I'm learning. Don't talk about my silly that way.
Tilly Corser [00:35:02]:
But we go the extra mile to really delve into the whole entire process because that's what helps explain it better to the customer, which is what pays for that diagnostic. And it's not just a technician going in and getting some answers and busting their brains over a super big complicated electrical diagnostic that the customer thinks that they shouldn't have to pay or it should be rolled over into. It's you working along with your technician, which not all advisors do this, and I understand it's very time consuming. I like to. I love learning everything that I can. There's so much knowledge to gain. But I feel for myself that I am so much better at selling diagnostics. I sell four to five hour diagnostics upfront all the time.
Jessa Boyd [00:35:53]:
And they're ethically sold diagnostics because our technician is. We might sell four or 5 hours. The technician might put five or 6 hours into that. Now in that case, I know we should probably be selling five or six in some people's eyes, but we went from an hour diagnostic or 1.4, whatever it is, to that. And Tilly's really, really good. I've sat back in just awe of it. My toot your horn here, Tilly. I've sat back in awe and how she explains it to the customer and she doesn't get pushback in most cases on it.
Jessa Boyd [00:36:22]:
And if there's very few situations where I've seen lately, her very few get, get pushback. Generally it's from, from some of the men.
Tilly Corser [00:36:31]:
That's fine. I just bring one back.
Jessa Boyd [00:36:34]:
I. You do. But diagnostic is the hardest part of this job. I really feel like it is. And so back to that free. Why? Why are we going to give that away?
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:45]:
Yeah, I mean, it's. That is the job in a nutshell, right? Like most people coming in because they have a problem, pretty rare, they're going to come in and say, hey, everything's working great. Here's a $2,500 check. Just go ahead and maintenance everything. I mean, what we've started the whole conversation with how that doesn't work out very well. So it's like when people have a problem, that's when they come in and they're paying for an answer. And that answer also involves a fix. But I want to kind of step back and, and I think we kind of glossed over like the golden nugget.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:15]:
I think of this whole, this whole conversation is what you were just talking about with being able to explain that and then get the pushback from, from the guys and then being able to contradict that and make that work and then taking a really intricate diagnostic and you putting your spin on it, and not as a technician, but being able to communicate that like I want to. Can you unpack that a little bit? Like, how does that.
Tilly Corser [00:37:44]:
How does what.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:47]:
How do you, how do you work through that kind of situation? Or, like, how, what's your sales tactics, I guess, in those kinds of situations? And you said you did a lot of research. Are you researching how that system functions or.
Tilly Corser [00:37:58]:
I not only. Yeah, I research how it functions. I look into how everything communicates with each other. And I try to, I guess for sales tactic purposes, I try to dumb it down and put it in layman's terms for people to where they can understand, you know, it's, being able to understand it myself helps me to be able to communicate it to a customer to where they can go, okay, that makes sense. Take my money, do whatever you need to do in the most ethical way, of course, but where they can go. Okay, I trust you because you explained it to me. You took the time to understand it yourself. And I'm also not afraid to tell customers, hey, I don't understand this, but I'm going to figure it out.
Tilly Corser [00:38:45]:
And once I figure it out, we're going to work through this together. And I'm very upfront with people, too. You know, Jess taught me the number one thing with customer is there are so many unknowns. There's unknowns to everything. So when you're leaving that open door policy, your sales go up because you've already communicated and expressed with somebody, hey, this can go in so many different directions. We're going to work through this together and I'm going to do the research and we're going to go over this and see what we need to do to come up with a solution. There are no problems. There are only solutions.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:24]:
Nice. I, and I only bring that up because I have a problem with over selling myself. I feel like I got to walk in and like, you know, start from day one is when I like, this is, this is how this sensor works. Now let me explain to you how this sensor communicates with. And I'm just like, down this rabbit hole. Like, I'm teaching a seminar on how an o two sensor works.
Jessa Boyd [00:39:45]:
Oh, that's like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:46]:
And they're like, they're looking at me with like, star. So you get the starry eyes, right? And it's like, think I overdid it.
Jessa Boyd [00:39:52]:
Anyway, look from Tilly, and she's like, dude, reign it back a little bit. And I'm like, 1.21 gigawatts. This is how this works, and the specification is this. And they're like, I don't freaking care about the gigawatts. What? I see the look from Tilly. I'm like. I'm saying too much. So I get you where you're coming from on that.
Jessa Boyd [00:40:13]:
Like, yeah, diagram out a big whiteboard. You got a marker.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:17]:
Right, right. Like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. You're gonna be a technician by the time you walk out of here right now.
Jessa Boyd [00:40:21]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:21]:
You know, but it's, like, way over their head, and it's like, that's. You're not helping anything. And it's like, what? I'm really trying to, like, provide a service here and make them feel like I know what I'm talking about. And it's like, it doesn't work. And it's like, it's so hard for me to take that. And, like, I don't know. In layman's terms.
Tilly Corser [00:40:38]:
Yeah, sometimes you just use the kiss method.
Jessa Boyd [00:40:41]:
I'm so bad at that, but Tilly's teaching me to be better at it. She really is.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:46]:
It's funny you say that, because I have the same protocols with, like, when it comes to certain diagnostics and repairs for the guys in the shop. I'm like, if it doesn't start, like, just give. Give it some. Give it some. Some supplemental fuel. Right? Like, keep it simple. What do we. What are we doing a cam crank correlation for right now? Like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:03]:
Like, you know, like, sometimes you just need to, like, take a step back and do that 30,000 foot view for a second. Like, hold on a second here. Why am I using a microscope right now to try to figure out this problem when, you know, all I got to do is do a wiggle test on the wiring harness or whatever it ends up being, right? And it's like, I have the same issue when it comes to customer service in the office. I'm, like, 100%, like, with a microscope, trying to evaluate this person and figure out who they are and use all these tactics that I've learned, right? They. The way they walk into the shop, and I'm, like, identifying this person. I'm like, who is this guy today? Like, is he upset? Because, you know, like, whatever's going on, it's like, dude, I think I'm looking way too deep into this right now. Yeah, way over and out exactly the way to put it, way, way over analyzing the situation. And then, and then I have to prove my worth by telling them all the stuff I know about vehicles.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:52]:
And it's like, this is not working. But I don't think I'm the. I don't think I'm the only one, right?
Jessa Boyd [00:41:59]:
No, I don't think you are at all. I don't think you are at all.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:03]:
I felt like I struck a chord there.
Jessa Boyd [00:42:05]:
Well, it's true with, you know, sometimes the truth hurts.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:09]:
But it's tough.
Jessa Boyd [00:42:12]:
But having the self realization to be able to look at yourself and we can't take ourselves too seriously. I mean, really, at the end of the day, we try, we care, all that good stuff, and it's a matter of, it's okay to find faults and stuff that you can work on because then you get to work on something and then the day gets better and then tomorrow's looking brighter.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:32]:
Yeah. You just need one more thing to do, huh?
Jessa Boyd [00:42:35]:
One more thing.
Tilly Corser [00:42:37]:
Send it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:38]:
One more thing. I mean, I do that with the, with phone calls, too. So you take a phone call and you're trying to, like, diagnose this car over the phone to get them in the door, right? Like, that's. You're trying to sell. You're trying to sell this service. You're like, oh, I know what's wrong with it. It's probably going to be x, y or z. Another big problem that I have.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:52]:
That's why I got kicked off the phone.
Tilly Corser [00:42:54]:
Yeah, don't do that.
Jessa Boyd [00:42:56]:
Yeah, I don't, I don't do that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:58]:
She's shaking her head already. Like, oh, man, I already screwed. Screwed up, huh? And that's why, and that's why I was, that's why my wife kicked me off the phone. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm not answering the phone.
Tilly Corser [00:43:06]:
Hey, I don't know. Get on in here and I'll give you answers.
Jessa Boyd [00:43:09]:
Oh, that's so not what you say. So the over the phone diagnostic questions, it's a lot of unknowns. And, I mean, we do explain to customers, you know, hey, we don't know what's wrong. We need to get in there and we need to do the actual testing. And sometimes customers know a little bit about cars and we're able to ask questions to get them to realize, hey, this, you have that code, but it can be ten different things. So, I mean, one of, the, one of the guys that we were hanging, I was piling around with at one of the groups of shop. A whole shop came to vision. I was palling around with them after the Vision expo and after evenings, and we were talking shop and one of them said something that made my brain bust and he's like, you know what I tell the customer the most expensive part is? And I'm like, what is that the wrong one? Yeah, the wrong part is the most expensive one.
Jessa Boyd [00:44:00]:
So what we do over the phone with diagnostic is build, build rapport, but also build doubt on the fact that, yeah, it might be an o two sensor code, but that o two sensor may not fix your problem and that's going to be an expensive part when you're throwing a dart at it. So there's a lot of, you know, letting them know. Now, this is where we get technical with customers, especially if they do tend to think that they know a lot about cars, which is fine. Well, there's. There's a whole tree of diagnostic that goes into this. It's not just quick plug it in and play. So we will explain what the diagnostic testing looks like, but we don't assume to have answers. We don't do that just because that creates us an opportunity for major failure.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:45]:
Yeah. And I think that's like the whole not charging for diagnostic where that's kind of stemmed from. Right. So that communication that you're able to have, that level of communication that you have all over that phone call, I think is missed. And like, a lot of the shops. A lot of. Yeah, a lot of them. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:05]:
And so the easiest way to say this, like, you know what? Why don't you get it in here, we'll check it out for free and then we'll tell you what you need. And so that's the easy way out. Am I right? Like, that's.
Tilly Corser [00:45:16]:
Yes. Yeah, that is the easy way out.
Jessa Boyd [00:45:18]:
It's the wrong.
Tilly Corser [00:45:19]:
It's the wrong way out.
Jessa Boyd [00:45:21]:
So I actually got into a little bit of an argument with an instructor at vision. This my first time going this year.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:28]:
I couldn't see why.
Jessa Boyd [00:45:32]:
So it was the same class where the Iraq attack was discussed. So there's that. So I generally like to get there early and sit front left. That's my seat in all my classes ever. I ended up being a little bit late because I went to the wrong hotel because I thought the class was somewhere else. But I saw sitting in the middle of the middle of the room or whatever upfront ish. And there was these. It was a service advising class and it was trust based selling.
Jessa Boyd [00:45:58]:
In fact, I was a very. I was very excited about this class, not because I felt like I needed a total, you know, university course in it, but I figured maybe there's something new in the industry that I might pick up and learn here and I might put some tools in our toolbox. But they were doing examples of phone calls, and the first one was BMW oil leaks. It was just a really example of a terrible phone call, which was fine. That example was great. And then the instructor, I like to engage in the class. I'm not just there to sit there and take notes and be bored. So he asked, how did that second phone call sound? And in the second phone call, yes.
Jessa Boyd [00:46:37]:
The guy, I raised my hand because the guy was a lot more perky. He did seem to ask some qualifying questions for the customer to show that he was interested in the customer. You know, there was a lot of positives. Excuse me, but he. The call lost me. And I brought this up. The call said, oh, you know, go ahead and bring it on down here. We'll do an inspection for you in 15 minutes and takes about 15 minutes and we won't charge you for it.
Jessa Boyd [00:47:03]:
So instantly my hand went up and I had the feedback of, well, hold on. Wait a minute here, instructor, you can't possibly do a proper inspection in 15 minutes. And he's like, well, I disagree. And I'm like, well, I disagree that you disagree. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. You can't do a proper inspection of a vehicle in 15 minutes. And you're. You're doing it for free.
Jessa Boyd [00:47:32]:
And so he started to somewhat berate me in the class and say, well, why wouldn't you? You know, you want to. You want to do whatever you have to do to get that customer in the door by lying to them and saying that you can do a proper inspection in 15 minutes. What? My. I was like, ready to, like, slither out of my chair and crawl out the door at this point because there was a few other things that had already, like, you know, I was already like this. Classes not aligned with my core values. So here we are. But. But then, of course, then he goes, well, you know, we listen to 3500 calls a year, so I think that I know.
Jessa Boyd [00:48:07]:
Well, good for you, Decepticon. Good for you if you know. You know. But I was just disgusted in the fact that what? That's just a cop out to me. And I'm sorry if I offend you out there in the world using that tactic.
Tilly Corser [00:48:25]:
Do whatever you have to do to.
Jessa Boyd [00:48:26]:
Get the customer in the door and tell them whatever they want. To hear, no, no, that's not, that's not doing our job properly. That's not setting this relationship. Trust based selling. You can't see the air quotes there. Trust based selling. It's not setting us up for success, for a proper relationship and rapport with that customer that's selling them a lie. We're starting off this relationship with this customer in this situation with a lie.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:49]:
Yeah, that's a fair way to put it. I, and I'm familiar with the tactic. Right. And I mean, it's spreading, too. And I, and I. I only bring this up because there's two different types of shops, right? There's, there's your independent repair shops. You guys are probably busy probably a week out, right? Pretty frequently. Three days a week.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:15]:
I mean, three days.
Jessa Boyd [00:49:16]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:16]:
I mean, we're all kind of struggling with car count. I mean, this time of year. But for car count in general, you're probably doing all right.
Jessa Boyd [00:49:23]:
We're doing very well. No, not bragging. Not bragging. No bragging.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:28]:
It was almost like you're waiting the whole show just to say that unison. But, but what I mean by that is like, it changes your sales tactics when you need more car count. Right. And so the only thing I say is the tactic changes when you go MSO, and I've noticed that. And talking and communicating and hearing the different sides of the story, it starts to make a little bit of sense when you get into that position where you have three, four or five locations. It doesn't align with most core value, though. That's, that's the biggest thing. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:04]:
And so if that's your goal, that's the direction that you pretty much have to go. Because if you have someone calling around and they want to get in to have you look at it and you say, okay, well, first off, from what you're saying, we're going to need probably an hour and a half of diagnostic. We're going to do DVI, whatever. It's going to cost you dollar 200 to get in the door. They call the next shop, which ends up being MSO or a bigger franchise or chain. They say, you know what? Get it on down here right now. I'll have it checked out for you in 15 minutes. I mean, just from a consumer standpoint, not based on trust or anything else, which one are you going to go for? Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:41]:
I mean, us being in the industry, I would rather go somewhere and pay that premium and know that my vehicle is taken care of. But most consumers or clients aren't going to be in that situation, I think.
Tilly Corser [00:50:52]:
That'S where a lot of that open line of communication comes in play. You have to be able to circumvent that from happening to begin with and you have to have the confidence in being able to control that environment. If you don't gain control over the environment to begin with, you're not going to be able to get that customer in the door. It doesn't matter what Joe Blow does down the street. And if he wants to not charge for diagnostics, that's not my problem. My problem is to get the customer in the door, to get them factual answers and to get them a solution. And when you start circumventing all of that and you are able to, I don't want to say rope in a customer. That's what it is.
Tilly Corser [00:51:40]:
But for better, for better lack of terms, roping in a customer, you rope them in with the confidence. When you instill the confidence in the customer and you make them empowered and you inform them and you give them the decision, they're probably nine times out of ten going to keep coming back to you.
Jessa Boyd [00:51:57]:
We don't want them to call a shop after they call and talk to us. If they're calling around for whatever we want to. First of all, the phone interview with a customer, that is your first opportunity to do the razzle dazzle. And I don't mean that in a, any kind of false way. Like you're letting that when you pick up that phone, you're letting that customer know who you are as a shop right then and there by being open with communication. So that's that. And that goes into, that's the kind of relationships that we want to have. If at the end of the day, the customer's core values are looking for the cheapest price and they just want a quick service and all of this other stuff.
Jessa Boyd [00:52:35]:
There are plenty of shops out there that are better aligned for them than we are. I mean, we would love to have their business, but I don't want to fight them for their business. I want to be able to work together on the same team. The customer, rather than this is part of that class. It was, I felt like it was psychological warfare where you're trying to manipulate the customer into, you know, coming into your shop and that's where I met the roping them in. You're literally roping them in with that instead of walking with them through the door. It false hope. So I mean, I don't want to build relationships in our shop on that anyway.
Tilly Corser [00:53:15]:
Which is why I think that we are so successful at what we do, and it's not to tutor or horn, but at this point, I think we've earned the right to do that because of the fact that majority of the customers who are calling and are trying to get cheap pricing, what ends up happening? They end up coming to us and.
Jessa Boyd [00:53:34]:
They thank you for how much information you've given them.
Tilly Corser [00:53:37]:
And they want the cheapest oil change. They want the cheapest break job. We, we won't do that. That's. And we will tell them we are not going to be the cheapest. And this is why. And most of the time, they end up coming to us because of that trust and that informed decision. And you empowered them and you gave them the opportunity to make the choice and let them know, hey, this is your choice.
Jimmy Purdy [00:54:02]:
Yeah. Getting that, getting that communicated in that two or three minute phone call, I think, is the hard part. And it's always trying to find an easy way to, for that process and there really isn't. Right. Yeah, I mean, there's no easy way. Yeah. I mean, but you also want to, you have to fight, right? You have to fight for their sale and not fight for the sale because you want your bottom line to grow, but because you want them in your shop so that they don't go somewhere else and get ripped off, they don't have a disservice. And so that you can provide that service that you've built up to them.
Jimmy Purdy [00:54:36]:
But it's all over a two minute phone call and you're trying to explain to them the last five, six years of your, of your career. Right. And that two minutes. Like, I'm telling you why you need to come here, but I'm also telling you that you need to pay for it. Right. And so it's difficult. And I just said, I just bring that up because it's interesting to look at the other side of it. If you are running a thousand cars a month through your shop, and that's what you need to get your nut to, like, pay for everything, you're going to have a car count problem.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:05]:
Like, you're going to need more cars and.
Jessa Boyd [00:55:07]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:08]:
What's, what's the easiest way to capture that, sell that, capture that client and get them into the work? Because once you, if you were to do free diagnostics, you guys would be flooded. And once they came in and saw what you provided, they would never go anywhere else. Like, I got this for free, too. Like, holy shit. And they would pretty much open a check. They would open the checkbook for whatever you said after that, you know what I'm saying? So it's a bit of a sales technique that might be a little sleazy in some eyes if you're, you know, but it's just interesting to look at different perspectives. Right?
Jessa Boyd [00:55:38]:
There's a place for everything. And here's the thing for what it is. It's always going to be a fight, but it's a matter of, are you fighting alongside with the customer or are you fighting against the customer? I'm not trying to fight against the customer. But also, now, with that being said, we, our shop, our what it works for us isn't going to work for everybody. Do I have very strong opinions? Yes, I do. But that's just my opinion. And what works for us, you know, being around a bunch of industry professionals recently and talking and, you know, flying over 30,000ft to get there and I was thinking to myself, over that course of like, oh, my gosh, like, we are so spoiled in California because we have so many people, but then we're flying back to Missouri, you look and it's just wide open spaces. And I thought to myself, wow, it must be a lot different to get cars in the door here than what I'm dealing with.
Jessa Boyd [00:56:29]:
And what it did teach me in my head, you know, made my brain shift a little bit, is what works for one doesn't work for everybody. And so, so, yeah, I do have an opinion and I'm very, very opinionated anyway. But my, what I do when Tilly does, it's not going to work for everybody and what, what they do isn't going to work for us. It's not. I guess there's no true right or wrongs. There's just how it works for you. And if you have an opinion about it, you do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:56]:
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I mean, California is awesome.
Jessa Boyd [00:56:59]:
Yeah, for the most part.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:03]:
Oh, it's great for all the California haters out there, David. Oh, you know, no, I mean, it's a fair point. And that's exactly what it is. And I think you get kind of close minded when, when you're in your own little bubble, right in your shop and you're working every day and years go by and, and it's really hard to step back and look at what someone else is doing. You hear about a shop down the street doing whatever they're doing and you're like, just want to badmouth them right away. Right. Like the, the 49.99 oil change or whatever it is. Like, we all know that you know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:36]:
Right. But also it's like, well, wait a second here. Why is, why are they doing that? And that's, what's, that's what intrigues me. It's like instead of just saying, you know what? Yeah, let me send all my bottom of the barrels over there. Right? What do they call those clients? The, um, oh, I don't know, term that was floating around for a long time. The bottom feeders. Yeah, like, I'll send all the bottom feeders over. Like, why? What's the point of that? Like what, what's with the, the negativity there? Like, maybe he needs help or she.
Jimmy Purdy [00:58:07]:
What? You know, like maybe they're struggling to get cars. Maybe we can help that. Or maybe there's an opportunity there for you to learn something about what they're doing. And it's just, it's engaging. And I love, like, events, like, with vision. I'm sure it was like. Right. Like, and the networking is the biggest part.
Jessa Boyd [00:58:24]:
It was so nice. Oh, I met, so, I had so many great, I think, other than the, the Clint white class, which taught me so many good tools. And then I had a service advising class, two service advising classes that were awesome. Jeremy O'Neill, I loved his class. His class was fantastic. And then Bill Hoss, I took a service advising class with him. He was so sweet. I actually got him to say an expletive very loudly, and it made my, but I enjoyed that class.
Jessa Boyd [00:58:59]:
Even though we saw things differently on one topic, it was still fun because he was engaging. I called it the Sunday morning sermon. But then I think I learned a lot, a lot from just talking to people, you know, industry people, industry professionals, just chatting, having a drink and just, we were, it was the whole weekend of talking shop, you know, and it was just so eye opening to see that, you know, even though I have my strong opinions about what I'm doing, what we're doing as a shop, there's so many different facets to this, and so many people are doing it differently and they're having great success. And there's such a community in this community. The automotive industry is huge. And, you know, it doesn't have to be bad mouthing the shop down the street. We don't badmouth. I mean, we will roll our eyes at the dealer amongst ourselves and embrace customers and explain what we're going to provide, but we are not going to ever badmouth the shop down the street or in the next town over or whatever, because you know what? They're probably doing their best to.
Jessa Boyd [01:00:01]:
And there's plenty of cars to go around, in our opinion.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:03]:
Hopefully they are.
Jessa Boyd [01:00:04]:
Hopefully, yeah. And if they're not, then we're. We'll be there just to do what we do. We don't have to knock somebody else down just to build ourselves up. And I think that, that. I think there should. There's. I think there's getting a lot more of that in the industry of the building each other up, which I love, because that whole knocking everybody down to be higher on the horse, not.
Jessa Boyd [01:00:23]:
Not for us. And it's hopefully that's going to be extinct. Like the dinosaurs.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:28]:
Yeah. I think the. What you were talking about with the class and, and, uh, that whole free diagnostic and the. And the labor rate or the cheap oil changes, I think that's just all erased to the bottom. And I think.
Jessa Boyd [01:00:42]:
And that was not Bill Hoss's class or Jeremy Stevens class. I just want to clarify. Their classes were fantastic.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:48]:
We all know who you're talking about.
Jessa Boyd [01:00:50]:
I know. We know. If you know, you know, also, I'll fill you in later.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:57]:
And not. And not to say that every. That kind of tactic is used, and that's. That's the style of shop that they have, but it just kind of reminds us all of that time when it was a race to the bottom. Right? Like 1015 years ago, it was just like, $10 off here, $10 off here. Before you know it, it was like, oh, coming in, I'll pay you to do your oil changes. Like, when. When do we get to that point? You know, because it just is like, everyone's just undercutting everybody to try to get to the bottom as fast as they can.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:21]:
It's like, what is going on right now? That's. And also the points not to charge the client. Like an. Like, let's just all fix prices so we all make $300 an hour. That's not the point either. Right. To be fair and give educated decisions. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:36]:
Give. To give the client the opportunity to make an educated decision about their car. But then for us to be educated as shop owners, as advisors, as technicians, to make sure we're doing the right thing. And I think it comes down to training. I mean, 100% training. And was there anything else other than, I mean, what other training have you been in to for service advising that you would recommend?
Jessa Boyd [01:01:57]:
I guess, you know, I am not a formally trained service advisor. I didn't go to school for it. I just. Honestly, and neither did Tilly. We. We take every opportunity we can to take any class that we can that comes to town. As far as like the Napa auto care series classes or the O'Reilly's classes, but those aren't service advising classes, those are information and tech classes. But we'll take the service advising ones too.
Jessa Boyd [01:02:20]:
We're not formally trained, though. I guess we kind of learn through the school of hard knocks.
Tilly Corser [01:02:26]:
That's impressive.
Jessa Boyd [01:02:27]:
But I'm looking. I would love, I would love. I'm actually trying to find something to send Tilly to because I got to go to vision. I feel like it's fair that she gets to go somewhere. I'm currently looking for a good service advising or something to that effect class, but there's, there's not. The problem is that I have been to a few classes over the bunch of years I've been doing this, but the problem is that a lot of these classes are, here's a nugget. Here's a nugget. Here's a nugget.
Jessa Boyd [01:02:58]:
And this is the problem that I had and why I'm so opinionated about the classic vision that I did not have the best time with is because it was this same thing as like some of the training that you go to that comes around. I'm not going to mention names on that one either. It's three letters. You go into this thinking you're getting a class and it's a nugget, nugget, nugget, nugget. And you're like, oh, cool. These nuggets are really cool. Like, that's what we should be doing. Like, and then it gets to the, how do you do it? Oh, sign up for coaching.
Jessa Boyd [01:03:23]:
That's the answer. Oh. So I just sat through four or 6 hours of my life to be sold that I sat through a timeshare demonstration, basically. Like, that's not, that's not a thing that I'm very thrilled about. So looking, we need more training in the industry that is upfront training. That is, that's not, let's see, funded to sell something. We need training that's actually open, like training. And if anybody has any ideas or suggestions or have experience with that with some true training, please reach out to me.
Jessa Boyd [01:04:06]:
I'm all over the Facebook group, you know, giving my opinion here and there because I'm opinionated. But I would love some feedback on that because I love to take more classes. So it's silly.
Jimmy Purdy [01:04:19]:
It's. Yeah, talk about a controversial subject there as far as, yeah, you know, paying for coaching. I mean, I think you both have, are well above where I think the majority of shops are. When it comes to service advising. And that's why I asked, because I feel like some of the best people in the industry kind of learned the hard way. They've learned from their mistakes. And granted, there's a lot that go through the training, and they become very polished that way, too, but they're usually very direct and one path in the way they want to service clients. Yeah, it's like, you don't have, like, the broad spectrum to be able to take a conversation and redirect it and.
Jimmy Purdy [01:04:59]:
And just be a human being. Like, if you. If you get someone that's trained into it, they have one direction. You have, you know, the two different teams, the two different camps, you know, bring them all in, and we'll fix them all right now. Or the hybrid or the. The 300% rule. We're gonna sell you a $3,000 maintenance. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:15]:
Like, it's like there's two different teams, and you gotta, like, find that mix somewhere in the middle. And you have to take little nuggets, like you said, out of each camp, and then make it work for your own culture and your own what you want to do. But you kind of struck a chord there, because I'm part of a coaching program, and I don't think they're bad.
Jessa Boyd [01:05:33]:
I don't think that all coaching is bad. There's a place for it.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:35]:
But when you said with the sales tax, and it does turn into that sometimes, because even being part of that coaching program, they bring in new programs that they want to sell to their clients. And so I'm spending money to sit in my coaching program to then be sold another part of the coaching program. And what you said, like, was 100%. Like, I got up and walked out. Like, wait a second. I'm paying to be here. I'm not sitting through this to listen to this right now. Like, I don't.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:59]:
I don't. I don't have no interest in, like, increasing my monthly bill right now. Like, I'm paying enough. Like, and I hadn't even learned what I wanted to learn yet. Like, I'm still learning that, so I get it. And a lot of those classes, that's what they kind of turn into. And I've heard a lot of people say that with some of the. Some of the classes, some of these training events, it's what it turns out.
Jessa Boyd [01:06:19]:
I do have something to say about. So this was my first time in vision, and I did have an overall fantastic experience. There was so many positives to this. But being a first timer with my little rose colored glasses on. When I had created the estimate for vision, the airport, the hotel, XYZ, and presented it to the owner and. And pretty much begged him to go, he literally told me, you know, they're just going to try and sell you a bunch of stuff, right? And I was like, oh, no, John, no, they're not. You know me, bright eyed, bushy tailed, with my rose colored glasses, was like, no, they're not. There's no way.
Jessa Boyd [01:06:55]:
The majority of the classes that I took were not like that. But the. So we. It was a probably $4,000 investment to go to this training course. And. And it was presented in a way that you're going to learn a bunch of cool stuff. So the class that I sat through, and I had this instructor for multiple classes, and unfortunately, I didn't know enough to do my research about who the instructor was, because had I done that and realized what or who was funding the class, I might have maybe taken one of his classes.
Tilly Corser [01:07:32]:
Just. What?
Jessa Boyd [01:07:33]:
It wasn't that he was a bad instructor. It just didn't align with my goals and values as far as it goes. And I thought that I was getting something different with the class than what I was actually getting because I read the syllabus. So my advice is that if it's going to be your first time going and you're signing up for classes, reach out to somebody that's been there, that knows who, what, where, when, why, and maybe discuss what you're trying to get out of the expos like that. And not just vision any of them, that way you end up getting the most value for what you're going for. Because I certainly did not fly across the country and, you know, have the owner invest a bunch of money for me to go to sit through a timeshare presentation. That wasn't what I was going for. But if I would have been more educated on the.
Jessa Boyd [01:08:14]:
On the other end of it and done my. And done more research, I could have probably picked classes that were better aligned with me and what I wanted to get out of the program.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think you hit that on the nail. The. The nail on the head there on that one. I have the same issue with apex ast e, and I've actually never been to vision, but I've been to multiple training events. And you really do. I mean, and it's kind of a crapshoot sometimes in the sense of you go to these classes because you're like, that sounds like a hole that I have a problem with.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:48]:
That sounds like, a pain point for me. And then all of a sudden, it turns into something totally different, you know? And doing your research on the instructor of that class, I think, is what's really important. But I think with the training events I've come to learn, you just go there, take one class, maybe two, because the value. Right. Is in the community of the people that you. In the networking of people that you meet. I mean, that's. That's the bottom line.
Jimmy Purdy [01:09:09]:
It. I mean, you got to take one or two classes because you need to fund the event. So I like to say that, like, at least go there and pay for one class.
Jessa Boyd [01:09:17]:
I wanted to go to all the classes.
Jimmy Purdy [01:09:19]:
Oh, yeah, I tried that SeMA one year, and that was a. That was a fatal mistake. Like, I'll be at SEMA, and then I got a class at apex in an hour. I can totally make that. Ever try to walk from the Las Vegas convention center back to the Venetian in an hour? Like, no, I'm not making this class. I got this all week. I should not have picked all these classes.
Jessa Boyd [01:09:42]:
And I do want to be clear about something. I absolutely. There's nothing wrong with vision. As far as I had an amazing time, I would go back again. I would just do things differently in my choices. It was absolutely amazing, and I'm glad that I got the opportunity to have that experience. I wish there was something like that here in California. Yes, right?
Tilly Corser [01:10:04]:
That would be great.
Jimmy Purdy [01:10:05]:
We got tools down in Huntington beach.
Jessa Boyd [01:10:08]:
Yeah. Is that an actual training, or is that, like, for training tools?
Jimmy Purdy [01:10:12]:
Oh, tools and training event. I mean, but it's pretty pricey. I mean, the cost of events and California are just astronomical, and. Yeah, hence. Hence all the negativity about the state.
Jessa Boyd [01:10:24]:
Yeah. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:10:27]:
So, well, this is, uh. This is awesome. I'm glad you guys both took some time and came on and, well, thank.
Jessa Boyd [01:10:33]:
You for having us on. I didn't tell Tilly that previous to this, like, last night or this morning that I wanted her to come on with me, because I knew that if I did, she'd have stress about it. So I literally called her this morning and was like, hey, be in my house at 1215.
Jimmy Purdy [01:10:49]:
Perfect. That was. You gotta do it. I guess.
Tilly Corser [01:10:54]:
She knows all my anxiety spots, and she's really good at poking the bear.
Jessa Boyd [01:10:59]:
Me. Well, thank you so much for having us.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:02]:
You guys look like you make a great team, and I'm sure you guys can be super successful.