An Interview with the 2021 Service Manager Challenge Winner!

Welcome, everybody, to Service Drive Revolution. Today we are profiling another finalist in the Service Manager challenge, and we have an interview with the actual winner of the Jeep. When we recorded the first interview that you're going to see, it was before Top Dog. Since then, we've experienced our Top Dog event and we almost, like, have a little bit of a hangover, right?

Yeah, it was nothing short of amazing. But I think that the effort that everybody put in to make it happen the way that did was phenomenal. Phenomenal. I'm getting, like, I'm hearing from all the coaches. Like, all the clients that went have been, like, blowing them up and calling them and talking them and telling everybody what they're gonna do differently. I heard a story about a manager that went back and he had a cancerous tech in the shop. He literally wrapped the toolbox in Saran wrap and pushed it out into the parking lot. So when the guy got in, it was already done. Like, there was some people that took drastic action based on their experience at Top Dog, which I think is a great testament to the speakers. I think that your presentation was phenomenal and it was amazing. And just the networking and all the awesome things that happened, it was a really, really amazing event.

I've had some comments on your stand up comedy.

Oh, have you really? Did anyone get the joke yet?

I think they did.

Doing that was a lot of fun. It was definitely training wheels for doing actual stand up. But it was kind of neat to get in front of the group and like, you know, throw some stuff out there, do a little bit of testing.

And not that this has anything to do with what we're talking about, but I'm of the opinion that standup for.

You would be easier than doing that. You think? Yeah. Why?

Because it is just standup, where you're trying to mix in an event. The speakers, you have a few other narratives competing with just straight making people laugh.

Oh, yeah. Cause it's funny harder. Exactly how you say that. Cause as I was going up there, like, I was thinking all about everybody else. Like, I wanted the audience to feel really good. I also wanted the people that we were introducing to feel really good when they got up there, hoping they would inspire their talks and everything. You're right. I bet the standup is less. It's less brain damage.

Yeah. No, I was thinking that the whole time. It's a lot to balance. But you did great. And it was funny and.

Great experience too, right?

Yeah, it was so much fun. I really, really enjoyed it. I thought the people there's a lot of humility. And this is probably new for me because I'm a little more of a public figure than I used to be. I would say it's probably a little more behind the scenes, but now people coming up and expressing their gratitude for, like, all this stuff that we do and how it kind of changes their life, like, that's super humbling to hear, and I'm really grateful for that.

Yeah. No, it's fun. So today we have the final interview with the finalists for the service Manager challenge and winning the Jeep. And then we have a little interview with the winner. Here you go.

Welcome, everybody, to Service Driver Revolution, where today we are profiling for your pleasure and inspiration, one of the finalists in our Service Manager Challenge, 2021, which is long overdue because of COVID We had to stop the challenge and then restart it.

Yeah, a little bit of a stretchy there.

Giving away my Jeep to the who. What will be the service manager of the year? And it's based on basic taking our systems and implementing them and getting a result. The three categories that you're measured on are you, your increase in profitability, not gross profitability, your increase in CSI.

And your effective labor rate increase. Those. Those three categories which kind of tell the story. They're the most important categories. And today we have proof that chicks rock.

Yeah, for sure.

Amanda from beautiful Virginia is here as a finalist.

Hello.

Did you have a joke for that, Chris?

Joan.

Well, I was gonna let you know that, you know, you got the Jeep Cherokee thing, right? And it always reminds me that I'm one Jeep gladiator. Well, yours is a gladiator, but there's other models of Jeep that exist, and I'm speaking in particular about the Cherokee. So I'm 116 Cherokee. Did you know that?

No.

Well, it's not because of my lineage. It's because I actually got in an accident in my Jeep and there was shrapnel in my body. They weren't able to get it all out.

Wow.

So I'm 116 Cherokee.

So can you open a casino?

I would assume so.

How much do you. Do you have to be Native American to open a casino?

I don't remember the fraction. Huh.

We should look at that.

Maybe an eighth.

Hey, Amanda, have you ever considered running a casino?

I have not.

Probably a good thing. So we. We. We have a very.

Close relationship with Amanda in the sense that we are fans, huge fans of Amanda, and she is very talented and unique in a sense of her abilities and outlook on things.

She's very positive Also super coachable. Like, she never comes into a situation and says, I've got the answer and it's all mine. She's willing to listen to input and change based on input. That's one of my favorite things about her.

And so Amanda, kind of telling your story in the spirit of inspiring other service managers that might be stuck, might feel alone.

And maybe are feeling like because of their performance or you know, what they don't understand that they might be on the bubble. Let's kind of start with your story kind of from the beginning, and then we'll get to your.

Ideas and track record in, you know, turn turning things around because you kind of become a turnaround artist in a sense. So you were born into this in a sense, right? Kind of. Tell us your first memory of our industry as a kid.

I remember being four or five years old, running around the showroom. My dad was a salesman. He started as a salesman and he worked his way up. He was a used car manager, a new car manager, and then ultimately retired from the general manager position. He always stayed on the sales side and sort of had his opinions of the service side because it was a different world at that point in time. And he. I got pregnant my senior year in high school and my father said, we do not do that. So you're coming to work at my car dealership and it's going to be bell to bell every single day. So at a very young age, I started off at 17 moving cars for my dad on the sales side. And he was the type of GM that would literally get in the parking lot and put a string from the first bumper to the 100th bumper. And if every one of those bumpers didn't touch that string, I would be there until 11 o' clock at night making sure that every car on that lot was in a perfect line. So.

He was very drill sergeant is the best way that I could describe him. Everything was his way, but he was the GM that got to work before anyone else, and he was the GM that left after everyone else. So he was there at 5, 30, 6 o' clock every morning, and he wouldn't leave the store until 10, 11 o' clock every night. So I, at a young age, really respected that. I knew that it was my dad that pretty much, you know, kept the family afloat. My mom worked, but she was the one that was there for us and she was the one who. I remember doing things with me throughout, you know, childhood. I was thrown into the business at 17. It wasn't something I was looking forward to doing. But I did respect my father and I knew that I couldn't afford to raise a baby and I couldn't afford to do it without his help, essentially. So I said, yeah, you're right, I have to start working instantly. So with Gianna, my oldest, I had about a week after I had her that I instantly reported to the car dealership and I was a lot attendant for the sales side, working those crazy hours. And my mom sort of took care of my oldest child when I was much younger. But I realized very quickly that there was a lot, obviously that you have to put in and you have to learn within the industry, started on the sales side and was 100% gung ho. I'm going to be a GM. I'm going to be a gm just like my dad. I'm going to work my way up these ranks and I'm going to do everything my dad did because I knew that it worked out for him in the long run with the hard work and the perseverance, you're going to get to the end. So.

That was a crash and burn pretty quickly because.

My dad ultimately let me go from my position that I was in. And at that point in time, the GM ran the sales side and the service director ran the service side. And the service director knew me and called me and said, hey, I'll give you a dollar more an hour to come work for me. So that is what started my trek down the service side.

Why? Why did your dad let you go?

Okay. So it was my 18th birthday and I had requested the day off with pretty short notice, but expecting that my father knew it was my birthday, thought he might let me have the day off. I drank a little bit too much. And when my dad went into his morning manager meeting with all of his sales managers and finance manager, I went into the back showroom and I took a small map in the backseat of a GMC envoy. I set my alarm for 10 minutes before my dad's morning meeting was over. So it was only going to be about a 30 minute nap. I woke up, I had a call from my dad. He said, I need you in my office. I walked in, he instantly looks at me, he's so mad. And he said, were you asleep in a car? And I said, no, why would you think that? And this is long before cameras were ever at the dealership or anything like that. And he said, you have the seat impression on your face. Amanda, you're fired.

Busted.

Busted.

So the lesson is you don't really need cameras.

You just need to pay attention to details.

Okay. So, Amanda, looking back on that experience and being young, having a kid, I mean, there's a lot of unknowns and probably confusing things going on. When you look at your father's leadership style, and what I've kind of derived from this already is an extreme attention to detail.

What do you think about your father as. As a leader now, looking back and from the, you know, from the perspective.

Of your current position, I really respect my dad. He. He was definitely a.

Okay. I admire that. He was the first person at the dealership and the last person to leave. I felt like even though he wasn't really part of the service side, he still knew those guys. And ultimately, in my head, even though he had let me go, I. I had this.

He.

He is trying to either set an example to the people that he works with, and ultimately is. Is still going to make sure I'm taken care of. Right. Because I ended up with a job within the same company and. And actually really respected that from him, because as the GM of the store, he could have put a stop to what took place. He could have stopped it, but he said, okay, what happened is not acceptable working for me, so it's not going to happen here, and you're gone, but here's another opportunity, essentially, even though it didn't come from him, and it ultimately ended up working out for me. Now, when I initially went to the service side, my dad was like, you don't want to be on the service side. You know, you deal with upset customers all day. The trips, the fun stuff, all the benefits really happen on the sales side, that's really where it's at. You really don't want to be into the service side of it. You know, they're the ones that get beat up. They're the ones that. And that's how it was. And that's essentially what I learned and what I thought. But very quickly, when I went to the service side, I could see the wheel changing, essentially. Right? I could see that service was really taking over. Service was really where it was at once I could get that relationship with that customer, I could guarantee that that person was going to come back and see my dad or my salesman that was a buddy of mine that was going to make sure that the whole circle really happened. And I think sort of bridging that gap between sales and service really helped me see the bigger picture. Right? Because it went from. It's not sales versus service, it's the bigger picture. It's how can we ultimately get the customer back to circle with us, the whole thing again? I think if I never would have made that transition, if my dad never would have fired me, if that never would have taken place, I don't know if my eyes would have seen all that I've seen and made the full transition as quickly as I did.

Have you ever asked your dad if he manufactured that?

I have not. I have not. But my dad is very much like me and he plans a lot of things. So, you know, there's a lot of me that believes that's cool.

You're taking your dad as your date?

I am. I take my dad as my date to almost every Checkered Flag event. So we had a million dollar challenge that we just hit, and he was my date to a fancy Aldo's dinner.

He really likes to be able to come back in. And Steve and Pete and Fred, you know, the CFO and the VP of sales and the owner of the company were there and he talked to them the whole time while I'm doing, you know, talking to all the service managers. So he really likes that. And he never worked for Checkered Flag, but he knows these people because he worked in this area. So they've all been around for a while.

Okay, so let's. Let's just do an inventory of something that I'm curious about, and then we'll get back to service. Your father was a general manager.

Yes, sir.

You currently work for an incredible female general manager.

Yes, sir.

That probably couldn't be a better mentor.

She could not be.

And she's uniquely talented.

Yes.

And incredible results. Right.

One service manager in your group has recently been promoted to general manager.

Correct. The first one of its kind.

From service.

From service.

And so let me go through this list again. So your dad was a general manager. You currently work for a really cool general manager that is a mentor.

And what was the third one somebody got promoted to general manager. Let me go through this again.

Are you doing a thing with dots right now?

Well, I don't know. She's not saying anything.

It's my plan.

Oh, it is? Oh, okay. It took us a while to get that.

So at a very young age, I sat down and I have big, big plans. And I've told them to everyone from the owner to the CFO to the VP of Sales. At 17, when I started as the valet, I said, I cannot support my child as a valet. So before I am 20, I will be the best service writer the company has. And I became a service writer and I made over $100,000 before I was 20 years old. I then set my next goal that by the time I was 30, I would be the service manager, the youngest of checkered flag. I hit that goal at 28 years old and became the service manager. And then I told our company that before I'm 40, I would like to be the first service manager to become a general manager. And I want to do that before I'm 40. So I have three more years. But Ashley just took that sp first, so maybe I'll be the second. We'll see.

Well, yeah, I guess maybe those things mean something, but I don't know really in the scale of things, being the first has nothing to do with it. I think your path and where you are right now.

Might make you more successful when it happens. And so Ashley isn't really competition in that sense. Yeah, but it's exciting.

Yeah. And then I told Fred I'm gunning for his job by the time I'm 50. So he's got like 13 years.

Fred is uniquely talented.

He is uniquely talented.

I don't know that you and I, Amanda, have what Fred has.

He think he thinks a little different than we do. He's got a higher IQ than I do. He's smarter than me.

He's a smarter than.

For sure he's smarter than me. But I love talking to him. I've learned a lot of stuff from him, actually, just in small conversations, but. Okay, so now let's go back to the architecture of turning a service department around. So you've gone in, you've kind of become somebody who's gone in and fixed underperforming service departments. And what do you think now, in hindsight, having experience doing that a few times, what do you think the.

Mindset needs to be for a manager going in and turning around in a department? What do you think the key components are to that recipe? What are the most important ingredients to have the sort of outcome that you're achieving?

So typically I'm always going to start with the people. Right. So I'm going to go into a drive. I'm going to spend 20 minutes with each employee all the way from the advisors to the valet staff. And I'm sort of just going to feel them out, get, get an opinion of how they feel about certain things. Do they have good team ethics or do they work better by themselves? And is everybody in the proper position that they should be in? Right.

So what are those? Give me an example of that meeting like with a porter. So let's Pretend Christian is a porter. You're having your first 20 minute meeting. Are you doing it in your office?

I'm going to pull each of them into my office. I'm usually going to try to do that within the first week that I'm there. It's going to be one of the first things. I'm going to have a big notebook and I'm sort of interviewing them and we're talking. Initially, I'm going to ask them to sort of tell me about themselves.

Like, do you want me to tell you about myself?

Yeah, tell me about it.

She's going to say like, hey, funny guy. So you're taking notes the whole time?

I'm taking notes the whole time. I'm. I want to know if they're married, if they have kids, what they like to do, what their hobbies are, how long they've been with my company, how they feel about the particular brand that I'm with, how they're supported from the brand that I'm with. So if I'm at Jag Land Rover, I'm going to ask, you know, what type of support are you getting from technical assistance? What type of support are you getting from your parts department? And I'm sort of just, just talking to them and feeling out their frustrations and where they feel like, you know, things are benefiting them versus things that aren't benefiting them. This is really holding me back from, you know, producing more. And a lot of times when doing that, they're going to open up and they're going to tell you a lot of the problems without you even having to do anything but talk to the staff that's there in front of you.

Because nobody's ever done this, nobody's ever sat down for 20 minutes and asked them what they think.

So, you know, when I, at each store that I've been to, every time they've said, no one's ever done this.

Yeah, it's a great move.

It's magic.

Yeah. And it is magic because you're really sort of setting a precedent that you care about them as a person because.

You'Re starting off with, tell me about yourself. And so that creates a, you know, a unique dialog. But they, they feel important because you're asking your, their hobbies, are you married.

Kids, all that relationship marketing. It's the same thing I would have done with my customers. Right. So I want you to know that I care about whatever's happening within your brain right now at this particular moment. So if you have grievances, if you have problems. Tell me everything that's going on and I'm very positive and I'm very bubbly and I'm very, we're going to fix it, we're going to get it corrected. So this isn't an issue for you anymore and we can all work at the team.

I bet you found out the best information from your support staff. Like they have the most like unbiased.

Shuttle lot of Sunday.

Yeah, I think you said that before. Like the shuttle driver knows which advisors.

Don'T call the cashier.

Yeah. Well, it's so great.

BDC too.

Yeah. So it's really good to sort of let them know that, you know, you care about them. And I feel like when I come in that's, that's the first thing I want them to know, that I'm here. I know you've had, you know, multiple managers or I know it hasn't worked out before, but it's going to work out this time. Like I'm here to make it work. We're going to make it work together.

And I, I preach that every day. Right. Every day we talk about the same things. Where our track is, where we're going, what we need to do to obtain this and really talking about it every day. Sometimes before I even get a chance to talk about it, I'm greeted at my car with Boss, we're tracking 3:20 this morning. Right. So my staff is already pulling the financial before I'm even parked in the parking lot because they're so excited to see what they closed the day before.

So if you go, if you go back through your notes.

From doing this recently.

What is the overall takeaway from your 20 minute meetings? Like what were the, the biggest things that you didn't know going into it that you learned from it about the business?

So Honda was a little different. So our particular Honda store has been through 11 service managers in five years. So the biggest grievance that they had here was that they had all heard of me and they knew I had been with the company for a long time. So they were, a lot of them were really excited, hey, Amanda's finally coming to Honda, which means like she's going to probably be here for a little bit of and she's going to turn the store around. And then there was another percentage of them that were like, you're probably not going to be here in six months. And I'm sorry to say that because I've heard great things about you. But like, they don't last. And it has been the complete opposite of that. Right. Like, we've been doing great and we've been thriving since then.

So what. How did you answer that, though, when they would say that.

That things are going to be different? I know that our Pat or I know that the store has had issues before. I know that we've been through some service managers. I know that we've had issues. So a lot of the conversations that we had was some of the people believed that it could be. It could be other problems. Right? It could be something with our gm, it could be something with our parts manager. It could be something like that. But you have to have an open mind, and you have to go in with thinking. You're going to have to either make the team that you have work and work together well, or you're going to have to figure out where the bad apples are and start replacing them as you can, right? As you find better.

As you see fit, as you need to replace those people. What I found when I came down here is I was met with.

A little bit of setback at the very beginning, but ultimately, my jam was like, if you can show it to me and you can prove to me that it's going to work, I'm going to always back you up. So I think she just needed a service manager to say, let me try it for 30 days, and if you don't see a result from it, we can go back to the way it was.

And we ended up collaborating, and ultimately, almost everything we do now on the sales or the service side, we at least have some conversation about. So it's sort of, again, going back to that, bridging the gap. Because if you have that relationship with your GM and your service manager and you see it as one big whole thing where we're trying to just do a big circle, in my mind, we're all trying to get to the same goal, right? We're all trying to ultimately get that customer back into us, take care of that customer as best we can, every single time, without fail.

What? So you're. You're the kind of leader that, you know, very quickly builds a rapport and a certain loyalty with the people that work for you in our industry. There's kind of a little cynicism in that where most people are like, hey, you're paid to do a job. Do your job. We're not here to be friends. It's just business.

What are your.

Thoughts on that as it pertains to people that think that way? Because, I mean, I know you don't Think that way.

I don't think that way. So I've actually been told that a couple times throughout my career that you're a great leader. You're great at getting people to back you up. But we're scared that it could be an issue with you holding people accountable because you really, we really can tell you care about these people. And I do, I do. I would give them anything. If they asked me for it, I would do it. If I had it within my means, I would do it. But I don't see that I'm that leader. I see that I can still hold you accountable. I can still do a write up or a performance manager, whatever needs to happen. But, but having that underlying trust, having that underlying relationship with that person, I feel like they have to know that ultimately I have your back. Right. I'm going to performance manage you, but I'm going to give you everything I have to get you where you need to be. Everything I have every bit of me, I am going to teach it to you. If you don't retain it, that's on you. If you can't get the information, it's on you. Because I've done the job and I've done it well. So I know that I can teach it to you. And I know I've trained many people to do it. Right. It's, it's over and over and over again, the repetition. Obviously it becomes easier with training people over time, but if I know I'm giving them everything I have and they either they either sink or they swim.

Yeah, I always find those conversations interesting in the sense that if you, if you feel like you care about your people and your friends with your people, then you have equity with them. And if they're not reciprocating that, then they're not friends. And it's easy to make that, you know.

That, you know, separation between the two. I guess if I could describe it that way.

Yeah, it's a lot harder if I know they feel about me the way I feel about them. It's a lot harder to do a separation. Right. So I mean, I have a technician that I brought on board 30 days ago and he definitely sold me as a technician. But I think he's more of an appointment apprentice or a quick lube technician. But I'm not going to let him go. I'm going to reach out to the other service managers and I'm going to find out who needs a quick lube technician because we need him at another store. And maybe under the guidance of Another team and another store. He's going to grow into the technician that we need. So it's sort of always. He might not work here in that position right now, but we can plug and play him here or here or here and give him what he needs to do the job. Ultimately, them knowing that I have their back, like, if it doesn't work out for you, it's okay. We've got tons of different positions. We've just got to find what fits for you.

Yeah, I find that people that feel that way and are scared of that relationship have a hard time telling the truth. And it's more about them. And it's not so much about the employees in that, in that sense, they're, they're dishonest with themselves and, you know, mostly dishonest with their, their people. Okay, so what else is in the recipe? So you started with people.

What is next?

So I'm going to start with the people and then I'm going to look at the profit, profitability of the store. So typically I'm going to take the last three years of financial statements, I'm going to spend a little bit of time, but I'm going to make an Excel statement spreadsheet and I'm going to look at my fixed expenses, my semi fixed expenses, my personnel expenses, my normal gross, my normal net to gross, my normal net, and I'm going to make myself a little spreadsheet that I can look at. Right. And then I'm going to start studying the numbers. I'm going to see where our wild cards are at, I'm going to see where our door rate is at. I'm going to do a comparison based on, you know, the, the people in the local market and where they're at. And then I'm going to work with the price levels. So I'm going to determine if, when I got to this particular store, almost all of our services, although we had been on the Chris Collins program for a year and a half, none of our services were priced correctly. So in that time we had service managers, multiple service managers that came in, learned the same process, but never actually implemented any of the changes. So it was very easy for me to get here and implement the changes and instantly start seeing results.

What I did is I looked at all the pricing. So almost all of the wildcards were somewhere between 115 and 119. None of them were priced to the 149 bubble. Some of them were overpaying technicians, some of them were underpaying technicians. So we were paying alignments for 1.3 hours. We were doing fuel injection services for 0.7. I had a little bit of time at Hyundai, so I had an idea in my mind of where they should be, what the technician should be getting paid. But I pulled a couple technicians in my office and I said, hey, let's talk about these labor times and sort of tell me what you guys think. Which is another thing that I always do, right? I want everybody's opinion on what they think, because I'm never going to exclude someone's thought in my mind. The 40 employees and all of their brains are going to work better than just my brain. So I want everyone's opinion on what they think. So it very quickly came out that they believed that they were being overpaid on a lot of the services that we had, and then that the fuel injection service was paying a little bit too less. But there was one item that was paying two less and three that were paying too much. So the technicians sort of course corrected themselves just because they know that ultimately we're going after a goal, right? We're going to do it together. I'm going to take care of you if you think that you're being wronged. But if you think I'm being wronged, I need you to take care of me, too. So we're just. We're going to look out for each other.

So Driven by numbers is the second one. And then. Is there anything else in that recipe?

Typically, I'm going to. Mainly I'm going to be working at the profitability. I'm going to be working with the people. I do feel like the morale is a big deal. So, you know, the music first thing in the morning really wakes people up. And sometimes I have advisors that are like, oh, it's so loud. But I typically wake up in the morning and I have so much energy that I'm. I could run a mile first thing in the morning. I don't, but I could. I have all this energy. So when I get into the drive, there's usually dancing and they're singing, and the microphone comes out, and I'm already very loud and positive and bubbly. But I really think that just sort of changing the morale of the drive and of the shop is the biggest and fastest ingredient for success within your department.

So now turning the. Kind of turning the camera around, in a sense, you've come in behind service managers that have failed. And some of those service managers, when I think about them, they weren't untalented. Where do you think a Lot of service managers get stuck that they don't do some of the basic, simple stuff.

Is it that they're scared of change or what is it?

Yeah, I think that some people are scared of change, but I also think that some people get sort of. In our conversation we were having in our meeting the other day, that you can get very quickly caught up in stopping the bleeding, but not necessarily figuring out the root cause. Right.

So treating the symptom, not fixing the cause.

Fixing the cause, yes. So a lot of it is, oh, I've got to check these voicemails, and I've got to do this. And ultimately getting to the root cause, which we know that some of the biggest things that we do is people, right? So people hiring people, training people, like people is what we. It's what we do, our customers and everything like that. So focusing on those people and like I said, what areas work for them and what doesn't work for them, it sort of gives you this army that you have in your back pocket at your discretion to. Even as I've moved throughout my career, every time I make a move, I have people from all of those stores calling, saying, hey, I got this guy who works on Hondas. Do you want this guy? So I'm building so many different bridges that people are looking out for me. Right? It's easy for me to get into here because word gets out, and then it's Amanda's at this store, and then people are flocking here saying, hey, I heard you worked at this store. I want to work for you. And. And it's pretty. It's been amazing. I will say that. You know, when I met Christian, when Christian came into my drive as my coach, I was scared to death. He was very quickly in my brain, and I think I was day one, like, in tears, like, oh, my gosh, Christian, what? No, that was probably day two or day three, right? But I feel like you have to be open, right? You have to be open to what the coaches are saying. You have to be coachable. Like he said, you have to. To.

Listen to what they're saying, because a lot of times, not necessarily that they're scared, but a lot of times I think that they think they already have it figured out, maybe that it's been working for me, and I might not have seen a drastic improvement, but everything's sort of running the same nilly way that it's been running, which isn't always what we're looking for.

So what was the cause of that emotion when he came in, though?

He sort of did to me what I did to those people. So he was interviewing me and asking me the troubles that I seem to have, the issues that seem to get me frustrated, time management issues on the drive, like people continuously coming into the office. I mean, I really felt like when he came it was, oh my gosh, there's finally someone in my corner, right? Someone who knows who's been this whole, been through this with me before and a lot of times on the service side, service managers, I don't feel like we get that. I don't feel like we have a ton of training and a ton of learning and it's sort of like, here you go, I hope you can figure it out. So I was like, oh, there's somebody who's figured it out, who knew how to do it, who was really good at it. And I, and now he's going to be my coach and I can call him and I can ask him for help and sort of bounce things off, off of him. Because I had only ever had GMs before. And GMs really know sales. They don't really know service. So you're sort of talking and you're not getting a lot of, you're not getting a lot of collaboration essentially. So bringing him in and getting that collaboration and the networking and talking to other service managers and sort of call this Hyundai dealership, call this Jag dealership, call this Honda dealership. It really became eye opening that there are people that are doing it and making the strides faster and bigger. And that's now sort of my goal. How quickly can I turn the department, how quickly can I get the people on my side, how quickly do I have them sort of as my army behind me?

I think that.

If we really think about it, there's a lot of similarities in your approach and our approach, right? Like, so you think about, you come into Honda, they've had all this, all this turnover. So if you're a porter, you're an advisor, you feel very alone because you, you still got to take care of customers, but now nobody's leading and there's no accountability. So you're, you're very alone, right? And now somebody comes in and says, hey, you know, tell me, tell me what's going on and we're going to do this together. And one thing that you said that I think everybody should really key into is that with your 40 plus employees, you're stronger together than you are alone. And so that's the thing, or the, the.

The, the.

I don't know. What you say, but that's the magic in kind of what we're doing is a lot of consulting companies out there think that the recipe is to come in and be smarter than everybody and prove how smart you are by pointing out the things that everybody's doing wrong. But the problem and the reason why everybody hates consultants in our industry is all that does to the service manager who already feels alone is make them feel worse.

Right.

And so you, you don't have to come in and be the smartest one. What you have to do is come in and listen and, and make people feel like they're a part of something bigger and they're not alone. And just that activity in and of itself has a ton of leverage. And then you're raising self esteem, you're raising self value. And now a manager feels like, oh, well, I could take a chance. And now you're in, you're in a family in a sense that, yeah, like Christian can put you on the phone with another Hyundai manager, another Honda manager. That can then reinforce with social proof what you're, what you're worried about or scared about. Because it's really hard even inside of a dealer group that if, you know, if you, if I don't know the thing that happens with managers, and I always think it's a weakness, but it's a reality is oftentimes, and I don't think Amanda's this way, but oftentimes managers like, well, I'm Hyundai. Honda's different.

Yeah. Like there, there couldn't possibly be something.

To learn from somebody else that different. But okay, so, you know, we, we have Hyundai Deal. We have other managers with that experience that I would say one of the, the secret ingredients to what we do is that you're stronger as a team. We're stronger as a team than we are individually. And we're not trying to pretend like we're the smartest ones. We're trying to create collaboration.

In the focus of a outcome and a result.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I usually will tell all of my staff pretty quickly that that's how I feel. Right. Like, I don't claim to be the smartest person. I don't even claim to be the best fixer or service manager ever. But what I will do is I'll listen. And if your idea is better than mine, I'm 100% going to implement it and we're going to see if it works. And if it doesn't, we're going to revert back to the old way. But if it does, perfect You've taught me something, and I'm going to share that with all the other service managers in the company so that our whole company can be better.

Yeah. And it is interesting. But, you know, and I, I think about this often when you, when you take the managers in your group and you think about what it was and what it is now, the collaboration and the sense of team.

And the confidence. I mean, the confidence in that room now is calm, it's secure. Nobody's pretending to, nobody's peacocking, Right?

Yeah, but there's, there's an appropriate amount of swagger, though.

Well, you have to poke at it, though. Yeah, you have to poke at it. You can get it, but we're always the ones poking at it. Way more than rare that somebody walks in the room. You know, it was interesting when we did leadership. Some of the general managers peacock.

Yeah.

But the service managers weren't. So maybe, Amanda, that's the key to being a general manager. You got to peacock more.

Peacock more.

To do it.

So let's, let's just go over the numbers really quick in kind of wrapping this up and talk about the results you achieve. So what, what happens in the, in the challenge here is you're taking 90 days. So a 90 day average, then you're putting the systems, processes, mindset, everything in place, and then you're comparing the results of 90 days after. Right. So it's 90 days versus 90 days. It's you versus you, your department number. So we, we had an increase of 2 points in CSI, which is important because if we have an increase in sales, but we, we're not improving the customer experience, then it's not a long term solution. And that's something I believe wholeheartedly. We had a 31% increase in net to gross.

Yes, sir.

Most people aren't 30% net to gross. You increase. Most people aren't 30% net to Gross.

Yes.

You increased your net to gross by 30%.

She was making money before and increased it 31%. Yep. Yeah.

And your effective labor rate was up basically 20 bucks. $20 and like 55 cents or something like that.

Yeah, it's good.

Huge numbers. Amanda, how proud are you of that?

I'm very proud of the team. We did an amazing job. I always say it's the team underneath me.

Oh, your picture with your team. You guys look, you look more like a.

Drama.

Oh, I think like a cheer club.

A cheer club or like a, like a drama class. Like collecting.

Yeah. With the guy Wu Sang.

But I mean, it's team Spirit all around. Everybody's having fun. And you, you know, you can just. You get that warm family feeling that you bring to wherever you go.

She submitted a really cool video that you and I need to watch later, too, that you'll really like. He hasn't seen it yet. Only I've seen it.

I can't wait.

Yeah, we can't play it on sdr, but you'll appreciate it.

Why can't we?

It wouldn't make it through the editing process.

You could put it on, but it just has two S. Ss. Right.

That's two more Ss than we are allowed to have. Unless we're talking about swearing in there. Yeah. Now you're really interested, aren't you?

We could bleep it out. Well, Amanda, we love you. We appreciate you for taking the time. I, you know, the goal here is that this is inspiration for other managers out there that feel a little stuck, feel alone, that, you know, you. You're not unique. That's a normal thing. You haven't done anything wrong. That's an outcome of the way our industry is set up and how service is an afterthought. But, you know, we're here, and if. Even if it's just listening to SCR and that helps a little bit or whatever it is, we, you know, we understand that, and we're stronger together as a community than we are alone, for sure. Thank you so much, Amanda, and we will see you. See you next week. Okay. So that was our interview with Amanda. We love her to death and now ends up that Amanda was the winner of the service manager challenge. So we caught up with her this morning and did a little interview, asking her what her experience was like at the event, winning, and what are her future plans. So here's that interview right now. So we are here with our manager of the year, who won the jeep, Ms. Amanda. How are you, Ms. Amanda?

I'm good. How are you guys?

You're. You left your trophy here.

She. Jenna's going to mail it to me.

You also left your Jeep here.

Yeah, that was going to get mailed to me, too.

So you. Right after the event, you took the Jeep for a ride. What did you think?

It was amazing. We went to Hollywood and we went to Beverly Hills. We went to try to go to the observation center, but it was actually blocked off, so we couldn't get up there. But it drove really nice and I really liked it. It was fun.

You got a lot of looks.

I did get a lot of looks, yes. I actually, before Leaving the hotel, I had a lady ask me if she could get in it and take a picture.

Oh, get used to that.

It's kind of like it's as functional of a monster truck as you could have. Like, it's.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's higher up than you think.

Yeah, it is, definitely. And I hit my head the first time I tried to get in it that morning, if you remember.

That's funny.

So now a lot of times when things happen to somebody, like something bad happens, there's, like, the stages of mourning. Like, you. You know, you're sad, then eventually you get mad. You know, that sort of thing. What are the stages of winning now that you've had a few days in between winning and now, like, you're. You're probably in shock, right? Because you look like you were in shock.

Yes. Yes.

Well, actually, before you start that, Amanda, I got a thing. So I was just thinking about this with contests, and I'm starting to think that some contests are bogus. Have you guys ever noticed that the Miss Universe winner's always from Earth?

That's a good one. That was good.

Could you go back to your segue of, you know, my grandpa, so I.

Know that Grandpa Stumpy. It's hard to tell.

That's funny. Okay, Amanda, so first, were you in shock? Did I call that right?

Absolutely, 100%.

And then the stages.

I feel like the shock really didn't. I don't even know if the shock is still worn off. Honestly.

I am still a little in shock that I won. I think it'll be more real when it's here and it's in front of me. It was definitely real when I left the hotel and went driving around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. So that was amazing. But shock, excitement, you know, I posted. I posted on Facebook not that I won something, but that she's mine. That's what I posted on Facebook. And I've had more likes than I've ever had without anyone even knowing that I won it or didn't win it. So that's pretty amazing. Tons of people on there saying, you know, they can't wait to go for a ride in it. I've gotten two offers to buy it from work already to different dealerships, which is pretty funny.

So I would say shock, excitement, and a lot of planning for the future because I'm trying to win next year also.

Awesome. I like. That was going to be our. Our next question is like, where do you go from here?

So. Well, I was in a hurry to get back to the store. Because we've got a lot going on here at the store. We are in the process of doubling the service drive. So my, my next plan is going to be to fill the service drive, which I've got two in training right now. So we're actually creating six additional offices which is going to also push me into the 4:10s. So it's going to, in order to feed all of these advisors, I'm going to have to, you know, increase the number of technicians in the shop. With the 23 bays that I have, I'm going to have to get, you know, upwards of 30. And in order to make that work, I'm going to end up having to do the 4 10s, which we're really excited about.

So what was your, what did you think of?

Well, let me preface this. The feedback about Top Dog has been that it was very emotional. People that I've talked to that were there still like very much.

I don't think saying in their head is right, but self reflecting in a positive way. How did you feel aside from winning and being manager, Winning the manager challenge, just the overall event, did it feel reflective to you or what, what were your takeaways?

Yeah, it was amazing. So a lot of times in the service industry or the service side, we don't get these big recognition, you know, banquets or speakers or anything like that. So the fact that we were able to do something like that and make a really big deal of it was very important to me. It's very important to me that I even tried to do more things like that within my store, within our dealer group, because it is important and you know, service really is the side of the business that's doing everything right now. So Yes, I think so.

Who is your favorite speaker?

Chase was probably my favorite speaker. But I was also very touched when Joel, another finalist, spoke. So that was actually the first really big thing that got to me when he got up and spoke, spoke in between the speakers. But I really, really liked Chase.

Yeah, it was the, you know, for Christian and I.

Your numbers and your, you know, when we did, when we did the numbers and graded everything, you were, you won. No matter how we did it, you won by a pretty good clip. But it's really hard for us because there's so many people that we care about and are rooting for. And so whenever somebody wins, somebody's losing. And that was, that's the, you know, that's the hard part, even though you deserve to win. And we were super excited. Joel and Roger and a bunch of Them, like, you know, they're also just such great people.

Absolutely. And I feel like I definitely formed a lot of connections when I was there, which otherwise I wouldn't have had so much. I made a friend of a girl, Carissa, I think is her name, in California, so I've been talking to her a lot. And Brian, I think Canada and. Yeah. So the connections that I was able to make is also really good, and I think it'll help me, you know, move forward in the future.

Yeah, no, and you're such a great example and, you know, mentor for a lot of managers coming up, too, especially female managers sometimes, because sometimes they can, you know, they can feel a little isolated depending on the group they're in.

Absolutely. I'm going to get this service department going, and then I'm just going to learn as much from my current gm, which is also female Rebecca, as I can and push forward to that. That's my next move.

Yeah. That's a great match, the two of them working together. Right.

Me too. From the first time I met her, I thought she was awesome. I would work for her.

Yeah.

I wouldn't say that about too many people. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Amanda. Congratulations. We love you to death and great job. We can't wait to see what you do coming up in the next year.

You know, speaking of death.

So I went to the doctor a couple of months ago, and the doctor told me I only had a few months to live, so I shot him. And then the judge gave me 30 years. So who's the real winner?

On that note, can you top that, Amanda?

I don't think I can. I don't think I can go anywhere close to that. But I want to thank you guys for everything. It was really amazing coming out to LA and experiencing all those speakers and everything that we did. I really appreciate it.

It all is the outcome of your. Your hard work, your willingness to adapt, and just, you know, the great leader that you are and how you can execute and get a group of people to follow you is a huge tribute. So we're big fans.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll talk soon.

All right, bye, guys.

Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Job 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 8333-ASK SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 833-3-ASK SDR for special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com that's offers.com Chris collinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.