5 Dumb Things Service Managers Say

Welcome to Service Drive Revolution, the home for anybody who has a service drive, works in a service drive, loves service drives. This is the place for you. Little secret I'm going to let everybody in on right off of the top. We actually aren't live right now. This is pre-recorded, but Hoagie is going live after this in Service Drive Revolution Academy teaching financials still. I think we're going to be teaching financials for a couple weeks, right, Hoagie? It's going to be a little while.

Yeah, yeah.

But he's, he's going live after this. I am just have a pre planned commitment filming Books That Changed My Life, the other show we do on YouTube where we talk about books that changed people's lives. And this has been on the calendar for a long time, so we're pre-recording this, but it's still going to be a lot of fun. We're glad you're here today. The subject is top 5 dumb things service managers say, and it's a funny list. It's meant to be funny, but also there's always a little truth in the humor. And I think it'll, it'll make you laugh, but it also might hit home. And the boys are here. Say hello to everybody, Adam.

Hello!

All Adam is thinking is there's 100 days until football starts. That's all he cares about.

Less than 100 days, baby. Let's go!

What's up, everybody? Welcome.

That's all Adam thinks about is the Chicago Bears or the Indiana Bears, right?

No, they're, they're going to keep Chicago Bears, buddy. We know that.

But they're going to be in Indiana. We know that. It's like that. True. Did your parents ever tell you when you were a little kid, when you were like, well, why are we doing that? And they're like, because I said so.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. That's what it is. It's like, we're not in Chicago, but it's Chicago because we said so. Even though it makes absolutely no sense.

Yeah, it's, it's funny that they're trying to say, well, it's still within city limits. Technically, that's Chicago city limits. So it's Indiana, but it's still within Chicago. Whatever. Who cares? Just bring on football.

I had a tremendous experience getting a new jet ski. So two, couple of reasons I had to get a new jet ski. One is the color. Because I hated the one I had. So the one I had was like Miami Dolphin teal. Oh, and it just was not for me. I, I couldn't— like, I just wasn't excited about it. I, I don't know. I felt like the Miami Dolphins. Don't you? Don't you guys think that when you see teal, don't you think Miami Dolphins?

Oh yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But at the time it was the, it was the only color I could get because it was all that was available because they They don't make that many of them. So they came out with a new one that is the race Sea-Doo. We're talking about the Sea-Doo 325. It's the race one and it's in this blue, kind of like my Range Rover, which is— it's like a royal blue. It's really cool. It looks incredible. And then I really wanted an upgraded stereo. So my, my friends at the dealership where I buy my jet skis up there in Washington, I don't know if they want me to say the name of the dealership or not. I just will. Paulson's is their name. They're in Olympia. Great family-owned dealership. They do a tremendous job. Incredible team there. Love them. Um, I got the stereo upgraded on the thing and Hoagie, I wanted to ask you about this. So I got an aftermarket amp and speakers. And the— so it's just 2 speakers and then an amp that takes it to 160 watts. And the high end is not like— the high end is just so grating. And I can't figure out what— there's no EQ in there.

Hmm.

And I'm wondering if it's hooked up wrong or if I need to put an EQ in there. But it's so like, ah, you know, how when the high end is really prominent, it's just like it feels— you just feel edgy.

Yeah, there's nothing built in that you have like at least a mid, a treble and a bass.

No. So I was, I was wondering if you thought maybe it's hooked up wrong. Is that possible?

I don't know. Maybe. So it's— you got aftermarket speakers and amp and it's doing that.

So it's, it's Reva Racing. They're out of Florida. They make this stuff. So it's their kit that is the amp and the speakers, and it's loud. Like, it's really loud. It does that part right. But it's like the mid is completely missing and it's just like the mid-low and then really, really aggressive high end.

Is this system matched with the speakers correctly?

Well, I mean, it comes as a kit. Is that what you're asking? I mean, I'm— yeah, like sometimes I know enough about this to be dangerous. Like, I know a lot about high-end and speakers and sound, but I don't know when it comes to boat or, or cars.

Well, in the, in the kit, did it come with the speakers within the kit?

Yeah, so it's speakers and an amp.

Okay.

And then you loop that into the, the system that's there. That then I'm playing the music through my phone through Bluetooth.

Yeah, you mess with the little EQ in your phone.

I don't— so I don't have one. There isn't an EQ in your phone anymore that I can find. There was for iTunes, but I'm not using iTunes. I'm using Tidal and Spotify. So I was, I was gonna see if there wasn't a way to run it through an EQ that way. But if I'm cutting the— if I'm cutting the high end on my phone, I don't know, I guess. Yeah, yeah, it's a thing. I'll figure it out.

Yeah.

Is there a, uh, do you have a— do you have a way to auxiliary connect or, uh, like hardwire your phone versus, uh, just Bluetooth and it does the same thing?

Yeah.

Okay, then I, um, yeah, I would call the— I would call the tech line on the people that, uh, that, that built the kit. Um, there's got to be some—

can you imagine me not knowing anything calling them?

You can— I, I— you can give me the number, I'll call them. But if you just tell them, say, hey, I have a pretty good ear for this stuff and here's what I'm experiencing, I bet it may not even be an uncommon problem either.

Oh, that's true. Okay, I'll try that.

But, uh, but that's fun. I'm glad you got the new one.

Oh, it's so fast. I'm tempted to get the, the little— so Reva Racing makes a little chip that you can plug in and it bypasses the, the limiter. Yeah, but to be honest, I don't know, I think about doing that, but do I really need to go more than 70? Like, I don't—

only, only until, uh, it's the same reason, uh, I think the real reason you got the new one is just to get the upgrade because, uh, you told me at one point, um, you know, on your old one someone passed you and so then you knew it was time to get the new one. So I guess that's when you'll decide to get the—

well, that was 3 jets ago, hoagie. That— nobody's passed me any time recently, completely. There's nobody on that lake that can pass me. Even with the last one, the 325, so fast. Yeah, but I mean, it's like anything, right? It's like getting from 0 to 70 really fast. But once you're at 70, there's nobody— there's nobody even close. And 70 is fast on the water.

That is so fast.

And I think if you— if you put that little thing in and you bypass the governor, you can go like 80-some, 85. I don't want to go. I don't know that I want to go 85, do I?

You don't know until you try.

Yeah.

Well, the other thing about going 70 is you can just watch the gas tank just go down.

Like, that's how you know you're having fun.

Going back for gas all the time. You got to go. You got to drive. You got to drive into town for gas every day.

Drag racing, you get one quarter mile strip, you just burn.

So funny, not to talk about the old days and be nostalgic, even though I am. The lake used to have two gas stations when I was a kid. You could just pull your boat up to the dock, you know, somebody just come out there and fill you up. There's no gas stations on the lake anymore. You got to drive all the way into town because of environmental—

for real? Oh, oh, that's brutal.

Oh, it's so brutal. So you got all these gas cans, like, fill them up. So I, I probably have 12 5-gallon gas cans, and then a full tank is like 3 of those. So yeah, I think the, the tank's like 15 or 16 gallons, and it'll, you know, A tank lasts a day, basically.

Yeah, they do got a lot of— you know, I learned recently too about Washington State is they have a— and, and of course I think California has it too, and then Washington just usually adapts what California has.

But, uh, yeah, they're like, it doesn't, it doesn't— whatever they're doing in California doesn't work, but let's do it up here. Yeah, let's try it because it'll work here.

Well, I learned they have a they have different brake pads, um, in those states. Did you know that?

No.

Yeah, like, uh, what kind of brake pads?

A Chevy store I have in, in Washington State, uh, like a while back, they were trying to figure out problems they were having with the pads and stuff. And this was a few years back when Washington State adopted this Better Brakes law.

And what do they squeak or something?

Oh, they all types of issues with them. Like all types of issue with them. And it's just like, so now when, you know, when they put brakes on a car and they're like, oh, they're making noise or whatever, they're like, oh no, it, it comes without it, no extra charge or whatever. Like they're all gonna, they're all gonna do it. Yeah, it was crazy. I had no idea. Like, I felt I was pretty up to date on like all the EPA things that are going around in different areas and stuff like that.

But it's so corrupt because you know how that works, right? You know, it has nothing to do with the environment. It's like there's the— there's a couple people in a room, and I know this happens because I've been in the room when this happens. They're like, uh, here's what we'll do. We'll say that these brake pads are bad and you only can buy these brake pads that hit this criteria. We'll start making them now. We'll be the only one that has them and that makes them. So everybody will have to buy their brake pads from us and we'll, we'll kill it. We'll have no competition for a long time. And that's exactly what they do. It's nuts.

Yeah.

And the quality doesn't have to be good because they don't have any competition. It's so corrupt and crazy how they do that, how they do that. You know, I, I don't know if I told you guys this, but when we came back from Indiana, And I just was so impressed with how Indy was just thriving, right? Like when we were in, in actual Indianapolis, Hoagie, and we were walking around that evening and all the construction and just the vibe, like the vibe and the energy was so different than when I got off the plane here in Los Angeles. And it literally just feels like Los Angeles is slowly dying. Like the World Cup is going on and all this stuff is happening, but it still just feels like it's dying. Like restaurants are closing, businesses are closing. All of my friends have moved. It's just, it's an energy thing. Like you can feel the energy of a city and it used to be incredible here and it's not anymore. And I'm, I'm afraid that New York will follow the same path, but Yeah, yeah, middle, middle is where it's happening right now. Texas, where you're at in Oklahoma. I don't know about— I don't know about Illinois, Adam. Maybe seems like Illinois is a lot like here.

They're trying to be like, like there. I think there's still quite a bit of construction in Chicago. It's still— it's rough. I mean, at least the highways are— they're always working. On something.

Yeah, it was interesting though. It hit me like I could feel it.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Like, uh, there was a lot of construction going on down there. That war memorial was awesome. Like, we walked around that and we're in that roundabout area.

Yeah, built in what, 1861 or something?

Yeah, something like that. Pretty cool.

So cool. Yeah, try to explain, try to explain that to the audience. So it's downtown Indy and it's this huge memorial that is basically built out of limestone, or what is it?

I think it's probably limestone or granite, that's what I think it is.

Huge. And then it has these statues and carvings kind of all around it. It's all four sides and then these fountains. Yeah, it's just stunning. And it's, it's so patriotic too.

Yeah, it was great. It's for— it's had like the, uh, how many soldiers from Indiana died in each of the respective wars. And it had like the Civil War and the War of 1812. And like, and each one had different, um, yeah, different statues and stuff. And, and down there too, there's like, uh, you know, kind of patriotic music playing. And there was a huge sense of community, like there was, um, you know, there was kids out playing. There's like ping pong tables and stuff, and people were just kind of out and about. And, and, uh, and then where we had dinner, over by the basketball arena, um, something field house they call it in Indianapolis, I forget. But there's like a court outside where the community can just come and play.

Yeah, just basketballs there on racks, and you can just walk up and shoot.

I was like, yeah. Yeah, which, uh, you kept pointing out how bad people were at basketball. Yeah, it was, uh, the general public isn't, isn't great. Like, yeah, we were kind of sitting there watching them a little bit, but, uh, yeah, it's kind of—

I should have joined in on it and teach them how to ball.

We weren't— it was so hot. I was, I was—

it was fine.

We walked for quite a ways and I was sweating.

Not as hot as it is right now.

Yeah, that— it takes me a little while to get used to that humidity.

It's nasty right now.

It's funny. Okay, well, let's, uh, let's get to the list of the top 5 dumb things service managers say. We have a lot of experience in this, a tremendous amount of experience. And then after this, Hoagie is going to be going live inside of Service Drive Revolution Academy. If you're not a part of the Academy or the community, you can join at chriscollinsinc.com and click the on-demand training. It'll get you— it'll get you in there. You want to— you want to be there. It's a fun group. But one thing too that we should mention, there's, there's been a couple people in the group, their dealers won't give them financial statements. Did we talk about this, Adam?

We didn't talk about this yet. We brought it up before, but it's an ongoing thing.

So we price this so a service manager whose dealer or owner, whatever, wouldn't invest in them could afford it on their own. And that's what's happening is, is we have people coming in that are investing in themselves that want to understand the financials, want to understand marketing, how to hire. They just want to improve and get better. And I think they just want to be to be in a community of, of like-minded individuals trying to figure out how to do things at a, at a high level. And so we're giving them financial statements. I, I have a couple that are, I don't know if you'd call them dummy financials, but they're financials that were in Excel and I went in there and changed the numbers and took off all the stuff that's relative to what it was. So I kind of made it my own. But the numbers make sense. They're just, you know, it's a fake dealership basically is what it is. So we've, we've been providing that. If you don't have a financial or you or your store won't give you one or you don't see it, we'll give you one. Yeah, basically.

Yeah.

And it breaks my heart every time. That there's actually companies out there. It's— that's the problem with our industry. Talk about dumb things, that you would have somebody running a department with no steering wheel and can't— they can't look out the front window.

Like, yeah, they're blindfolded with the blindfold.

Yeah, blindfolded.

Yeah.

Isn't that a scene in Ricky Bobby or in Talladega Nights?

Yeah, yeah, Talladega Nights. Yes, yes.

That's exactly what they're doing.

With the wildcat or whatever. Oh yeah. Great scene.

Breathing in the backseat.

Go watch it.

But back to the top 5 dumb things that service managers say. We have a lot of experience in this. And I will tell you, there's going to be people listening to this that have said these things that we're about to say. And we're very polite when people do it. We're not laughing at them or making fun of them. But we're going to have a little opportunity right now to kind of reverse that and have a little humor. But none of these things on this list are things that have only happened once. They have been said over and over again.

Yeah. Yeah.

We stopped keeping track.

I mean, they're said so much. A lot of times you're saying them and you don't even You don't even know. And, you know, one thing I've heard you say over and over again to people over the years, Chris, is you can't read the label of the jar you're in. And that definitely applies here. Like you say some of these things and one thing we definitely have is a unique perspective on looking at financials and going to the store and then, you know, hearing some of these things. And so it's kind of, it is, it's a fun list. It's funny, but it's insightful too. And we'll kind of, kind of unpack them that way. The number 5 on this list is, I got to get buy-in from my people. I got to get buy-in from my people.

Which is the most, the most deliberate way to procrastinate. Basically what you're saying is, I'm never going to do it.

Yeah.

I got to get buy-in from my people means I'm never going to do it because The people aren't being led. Like, if you're asking people— the, the, the whole idea is you're the one in charge, you're the leader, you're the example. If you're waiting for everybody else to figure out what's going on, you're going to be there forever. What are you there for then if you need them to figure it out? If they could figure it out, they'd have your job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an odd thing. Like, I think sometimes, um, We, you know, talk about like walking in downtown Indianapolis and like, it just kind of felt patriotic and like America as we kind of used to know it or grew up in and stuff. And I think that's why it was kind of resonating with me walking around down there. And we get this idea of, you know, how grateful we are to live in a country, and, and be a part of this democracy and things like that. And, and, uh, and then I think sometimes we pull that into our professional lives and into our businesses, but it's, it's kind of an odd thing. Like, um, you know, when you, when you do that, it's like, okay, so, uh, we want to get the buy-in of everybody. So should we just take a vote from the service advisors if you should be the service manager? Like, do the advisors and the technicians vote us into office? So you got to let go from a leadership standpoint of this thing that like, I got to get my buy-in from the people. No, like, we got to get to work. Yeah, like it's more closely related to— It's about the customers. Yeah, so like, if you want to unpack that, you know, give a little plug for the I Am Leader book. If you want to unpack that concept more, you can go into the I Am Leader book and and start with the I am section. And, but like, you're, as a leader, you're more of a benevolent dictator. Like you should be caring and everything, but like, it's your thing. You're not voted into office. You don't get the buy-in of the people. Now we can unpack that some more and talk about clarity and training and all of those things that are also leadership tasks that you know, give you a pathway for that stuff.

But yeah, but basically what they're saying, Hoagie, is I don't have a clear, intentional outcome I'm trying to achieve that I'm committed to. I'm indifferent to it. So let's see how everybody else feels about it. So I'm not committed to creating a great customer experience or running a profitable, healthy department. What I really want to do is be liked. I want consensus and I want to be liked. More than I want goals. And so then what happens is when you run it that way, you end up surrounding yourself with people that like you but don't get anything done. You attract the wrong kind of people.

I feel like anytime that I've walked into a situation like that, it's been like the inmates have been running the asylum. And I kind of somehow just go into a dark place where I feel like it's socialism. Where there's no one actually leading the charge on any of those kind of situations within a dealership. Techs come in whenever they want, they come out. That whole, the whole measuring of like, oh, I'm just going to see what everybody says and we'll figure it out together. And it's like, dude, you're losing money and nobody knows what the heck is going on here.

Yeah. And in a sense, you're waiting for permission from your people when you should be the one giving permission. You got the permission part backwards.

Flip the script.

It's good. That's a good one.

All right. Number 4, I know I need to implement, and you can kind of fill in the blank. I know I need to implement this thing in my department. We should have been doing it already. You know, whatever it is. I know I need to implement, fill in the blank, but I just want to get it dialed in.

What is it when you take magnets and they, uh, they oppose each other?

Repel? Yeah, the polarity of the magnets.

That's what that reminds me of. Yeah, you got your magnets backwards.

Yeah, yeah.

And if you just flip them around, they—

yep, snap together. Yeah, it's kind of a, it's kind of a funny thing. Um, I don't know, I, I— it's, uh Like, I mean, a lot of times success is, is, uh, not only tied to clarity, but decisiveness. And, um, we do this thing and I don't know if we do it more in fixed ops. I feel we do, but that's mainly the world I know. Um, but we do this thing where, uh, we're like, yeah, I want to get it dialed in or whatever, but really, truly, um, you know, we could have started it yesterday and seen the results of it from today. Right. Like, It's kind of funny how often that happens. But part of our motto, one of the things in our motto, and for new clients when they come to bootcamp, one of the first things we do is read through the motto. And one of the things in there is speed and execution are key. And so, it's a great tool to have in your toolbox. Like, when you know something needs to happen, there may be some things where you want to kind of cut, uh, you know, measure twice and cut once, so to speak. But like, if you know it needs to happen, you know it needs to happen. And, and, uh, the better you get at the decisiveness, um, so it's, it's, uh, and it's always easier to see, you know, from the outside looking in, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I know this isn't on the list, but another one that goes hand in hand with that is, we tried that before, and I'm always like, whoa, we're gonna do it this time. We're not gonna try.

That's—

there's no try. We're gonna actually—

that's another segment.

Watch how easy it is too. When you're committed to it, it just works.

Yeah.

Can we, can we just pause right there on the try? I think we, we haven't said this in a long time. What is, what is try?

Well, I can't say it on here because this is a, a PG show, but basically when somebody says I'll try. They're telling you to go yourself.

Beep.

Yeah, basically.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like either ask me—

we've all experienced it.

Ask me how to do it or, you know, what would be the best path? I'm happy to talk about it. But when you say try, you're just— you're just trying to get rid of me. Really?

Yeah.

I'll try.

Yeah. No, no different than a customer service thing. And like, they've already told you no, they can't do it. And you're like, well, can you please blow it? And they're like, well, I'll try. Like, they basically already told you that, you know, they're not going to do it. And they're just— yeah, it's funny.

Breaks my heart whenever somebody says try.

Yeah. All right, number 3: the tech wanted a $2 an hour raise. I had to let him go.

Okay, everybody, I want you to, uh, answer this. You can put it in the comments or just answer it out loud. I'm going to ask you a question. Who pays for the technician, you or somebody else? Somebody else. The customer pays for the technician. $2, $4, $8, whatever it is, the customer is the one paying for the technician. It's relative. It's your cost of sale. And yeah, it's that. It's just simple math. You would never lose a technician over $2.

I think where people get lost on this now, if you're, if your effective labor rate is 50% of your door rate, that's, you know, raise your door rate. This, this part comes into the conversation, but that effective labor rate, uh, can, can be 90% of your door rate. And then these things just aren't even a aren't even a thing. But we see this sometimes too, just like publicly traded stores. I've had that happen where, and during COVID they said, you know, go and let half of the techs go, or, you know, you gotta get the headcount down or whatever.

'Cause they just looked at a number. They had accountants looking at a number and they're like, oh, this guy's making $150 grand. We'll cut that expense. And they don't understand that techs aren't making $150 grand. They're getting paid a commission on the millions of dollars in gross that they're creating, producing. Yeah, doesn't, doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, so talk about that more.

Another thing there too, Hoagie, that happens is there's managers that were techs, and the thing that happens is they get upset that these techs to them come off entitled. And so they're like, you know, when I was a tech, I made $18 an hour and I worked hard and I was happy, you know, and these guys, they just want this and that and they're entitled. And it has just as much to do with that as the $2, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because most of the time the guy, the guy saying that was a tech.

Mm-hmm. That is true. That does happen for sure.

It's a good one.

Yeah. And if you just kind of take a step back and look at what they're producing, you don't, you know, and you understand the financials, you don't make that, don't fall into that trick bag. All right. Number 2, I wish I had more time to recruit techs.

Hmm.

I wish I had more time to recruit techs. So, you know, us and a couple of the coaches were talking about this one a little bit ago because we've had it happen so many times and I guess I want to paint you a little picture and maybe give you a little bit of perspective. And like Chris was saying, we, you know, all these ones we've heard them, we've seen them multiple, multiple times. And so we're definitely looking at, you know, at the big picture when a service manager says something like this. And, you know, want to see if we can help give you that perspective. So I was telling Adam, like, as we were talking about some of these, it's almost like I have a little Rolodex of service manager heads in my mind where when saying some of these, I can see different people saying it. And, but this one here, I wish I had more time to hire techs. Like oftentimes we're having that conversation and, you know, one of our viewpoints on recruiting, especially in today's marketplace is you're recruiting all the time. Like if you're waiting to recruit people until you need someone, you're so far behind. If that's what you're doing, you've already experienced or are currently experiencing being understaffed for 6 months because you waited to start recruiting until, you know, you needed somebody. And so we're having those conversations sometimes and like, yeah, I know, I know I need to do that. I know I need to do that. And the same time we're sitting in the service manager's office having that conversation, an advisor busts in and is like,, you know, hey boss, I know you're busy. I know this is an important conversation, but we lost this customer's keys and they're here to pick up. Can you help us look at the cameras or whatever? And then there's a bunch of other things that are happening. And, you know, if you're not always recruiting techs, if you don't have your people math kind of dialed in to be staffed up with the amount of techs that you need, it's all downhill from there. Like it's a race to the bottom., and, you know, and it's chaos at best. But, you know, if you're not staffed up in technicians, appointments are getting booked out, advisors are, you know, shuffling ROs around, and it just ends up compounding the chaos in the department, and you never get out of that chaos until hiring techs and recruiting is a priority. Like it's just something you have to do. And a lot of times, you know, we've talked about this before, a lot of times we end up with hiring techs wanting to kind of, you know, pass that off to HR and have them. And, you know, HR is never held accountable for the results out of service. You are like, and so it'll never mean the same to them that it does to us.. And so it's just kind of this weird thing where like until you make that a priority, you know, the chaos keeps piling on.

Yeah, it's a good one.

100%. What really I dislike on the whole trying to hire or working towards hiring technicians is that when things don't work out as well as they'd like to, they planned. They just kind of give up. So that's why the constant of hiring, right? Like, just because an ad isn't working or pulling like it used to a few weeks ago or a month ago, keep refreshing that. I think, you know, we do that when we're looking at working with coaches. I was just talking to a dealer a couple weeks ago, and she was like, I have the ad up there. And I'm like, all right, send it over. I'm like, how long has that been posted? Oh, probably about 4 months. I'm like, Did it start, you know, not pulling as many? And she's like, yeah. And I'm like, all right, then it's time to refresh it. Put it back in there. Like, what, what else is going to pull? What is, why would somebody want to come to you? Like bringing a collective group effort with your people as to why you are a good store or culture team, whatever it is, or the place that you reside at. Don't stop there and keep doing that.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a, we could probably do a couple episodes on tech recruiting. And if you're on SDR Live or SDR Academy, tech recruiting is a section that's coming up here pretty quick. And that section keeps getting bigger and bigger. Like the subject is getting bigger all the time. I think there's 8 techs leaving the field for everyone coming in now. It's crazy. And the the boomers, the boomers leaving right now, that's— it's going to jump. It's, um, yeah, it, it, it is your advantage in the marketplace to, to be good at that.

I don't think that will ever change either. That will never change.

I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with the trades. Like, I keep feeling there'll be a correction with that at some point, but I don't know.

Number 1, you ready?

I need to hold myself accountable to hold my people accountable.

What?

Say that again.

I need to hold myself accountable to hold my people accountable.

What?

I know it is, but we're actually doing it quite a bit.

Are you riddling me?

Riddle me this.

I feel like this is a riddle.

No.

Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? I need to hold myself accountable to hold my people. What are you talking about? Why don't we just do it? Why? Why do we got to complicate it? That's it. So, you know, that sounds like somebody who needs therapy, maybe. I don't know. But I've heard that. I've heard that quite a few times. And I'm always like, How do I— like, I don't even know what to say to somebody who says that. I'm just like, that doesn't make any sense. Can we just do it? Do we have to talk about it? Can we just do it? I don't— like, put the poor customers— yeah, like, the customers are the victims of all of this.

Oh, look, and yeah. Yeah, it's a, it's, it's, um, it's a crazy thing. Um, and I don't, I don't know if, uh, yeah, I don't know if we're waiting on like some type of permission, some, sometimes maybe, or, um, and I'm sure it's not just one thing, I'm sure it's probably several things, but, um, I, I mean, like I don't know. Usually when people are this far kind of down this rabbit hole, I usually kind of just start with one thing. Like, you know, if they're not getting it, because usually it's really loose if they're saying things like this. And usually just start with like a simple shift meeting and, you know, talk to the advisors about, we're going to start having a shift meeting. You know, 15 minutes before we open and everybody's here on this time and just kind of like putting a murder line in place with one thing as kind of a starting point to see, but it is, it's a decision and understanding the concept that people will perform to the level you tolerate or the level you allow. And it kind of goes back to that thing I was talking about earlier. Like, it's not a democracy. Like, you weren't voted into office. It is as simple as being intentional about the leadership of the department and, you know, setting a standard and bringing people to it. But yeah, it's an odd thing how often we hear that, that I need to be better. I need to hold myself accountable to hold my people accountable.

So funny. You know what you made me think of when you're saying that is, and nobody agrees with me on this, but it's okay. I still think it's funny, is people that talk about servant leadership makes no sense.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's a double negative or whatever. It just doesn't make sense. It's like the fake it till you make it thing. I'm always like, so lie until it's true? Like, what are you— like, if I don't know something, I'll just tell you I don't know it. Help me. If you know it, explain it to me. I want to learn. Like, there's nothing worse than a bunch of people standing around pretending they know what they're doing. Fake it until you make it. Servant leadership.

Now, well, that's also in your consensus.

There's care, there's caring, there's having empathy. Right. But servant leadership, what are you talking about? Because you want to be liked so much and you're so insecure that you, you come up with this title or you feel like the fact that you're working so hard for everybody else, that you're the servant, it's just such an odd— like some of these things that I like, I feel like I could go up and do 15 minutes of comedy with this stuff. Servant leadership.

Well, the important thing, like you said, when you're talking about that or holding people accountable or I need to, you know, this whole thing is it, uh, ultimately who suffers is the customer. And a close second behind that, that we were talking about earlier, was, um, uh, the, the employees of the department, their teammate. You can't be a good— you can't create good, uh, uh, camaraderie and, uh, and have a good team if there's no accountability. And we've seen that before time and time again in these situations too. And the customers suffer the most. Who suffers a really close second is the high performers of your department.

Really close second. They're the ones just going, what in the world? Can we figure out what we're trying to do here? Yeah.

Torture.

Torture. They'll be the first ones to tell you, this is nonsense. I was that high performer. I remember.

Yeah.

Just going, I'm, I'm not sure what it is we're trying to do here. Like we talk way too much. Let's, why don't we just get to work?

Mm-hmm.

Meetings like, ugh, it's the worst. That's a good, good list though. Hoagie. Good job.

It's fun.

Yeah. So the top 5 dumb things service managers say. Pretty funny.. And there's a lesson in there somewhere in the humor. It's good.

So sad.

We're going to, uh, take a break and switch over to Service Drive Revolution Academy. Hoagie's going to be going through financials. There's a lot there to, to unpack and we're going at the speed of the class and how they learn, but it's fun. We appreciate you joining us. You can sign up at chriscollinsinc.com. And, uh, for Adam Hoagie and myself, we hope everybody has a great week, and we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 833-ASK-SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 833-ASK-SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com. Now that's offers.chriscollinsinc.com. I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.