How Service Advisors Can Fight Complacency During The Coronavirus Crisis (Service Drive Revolution)

Okay, do we have another one? Voice of God.

The voice of God has another question. Good morning, sir. My name is Josh and I'm a longtime follower. My dealership has changed our pay during this virus to an average of last year's weekly pay for my fellow advisors and techs with a guarantee of 40 hours a week. Since this has started, I've seen my fellow advisors and techs become lazy and make comments about how it doesn't matter I'm getting paid, but at the end of the day, the customer is suffering due to this. What are some ways to get everyone fired up and motivated to perform? Thank you for your time.

That's a heartbreaking question. That's character. I mean, isn't it funny that in times like this where there's stress on the system, that real character comes out in people that you. That you would think that way. It's like, you know how people say, Jeremy, that money makes you, you know, makes you an. And I always say, like, money doesn't make you an. Money amplifies holes. Like, if. If you're a jerk already and you get a lot of money, you're just an amplified, empowered jerk. But if you're not a jerk and you get money, you're not going to be a jerk. And so this is about character. Like, if you don't understand that during this time when nurses are on the front lines and doctors are on the front lines and people are putting their lives at risk and our job is to keep them in dependable and reliable cars, and you can't see that there's a person behind that car that's a mom or a dad or a son or a daughter or a nurse or a doctor, whatever, and you're just indifferent to the fact that those are humans that depend on us. I don't know, I. I'm at a loss how to fix that. It's character. That's a character flaw.

It is a character flaw. And I think, you know, the other thing that we have to do is possibly look at colonizing Mars. You know, SpaceX is launching with NASA here. Real.

No, I'm serious. This could be the new norm, Chris, where we live in a socialist.

We're gonna send these people to Mars.

Well, yes, we have to look. So look at it this way. Like, our forefathers left England because of taxation and they wanted a free land. So we came to North America, right? And there was all this beautiful land, and there's nowhere else for us to go. So if this is the new norm and people are Used to just getting enough to get by and they're happy with it.

They.

Yeah, you're right. That does show their character. And the sad part is this is if enough people buy into it and they like it and they usher in the new socialistic regime, we're going to have to go to Mars because there's nowhere else for us to go. And we're going to have to start a new colony that is a capitalistic based economy again. It's the only place we can go. I don't know. Is there anywhere else we could go?

You know, your, your sister told me that your brother is even crazier than you. And then I should follow him on Facebook. Like he's super, super, super, right?

I wouldn't do that.

I want, I want, I want to follow. Like, she's like, if you really want to see crazy, right? Like that, you're like, you're middle as far as your family's concerned. Is that true? Like, you're virtually Bernie Sanders of your family.

Yeah, yeah. There we go.

Yeah, yeah. Because you're way more, you're, you're way right for me.

That's funny.

That question is interesting. Yeah. You've got guys that are. But here's, here's the flip side to that. This is going to show you who your producers are. Your technicians that are only getting 40 hours a week. The guy that is used to doing 80 to 90 because he shows up at 5am and he's got eight cars ready to go and he's ready to produce and turn the workout, and his hands are tight. He can't do it right now. How do you think he's feeling and his paycheck suffering? There are some dealership technicians that are used to making 150 to 200,000 a year, and they've been relegated to 40 hours a week. Come on, give me a break. Let's get things rolling again. Let's go.

You know, one thing I might do in that scenario is I might put pictures of people in the shop. Customers with their kids, like, take pictures and put them in the shop. So the techs understand and the advisors understand that there's people behind those cars. We're not. The car is a commodity. What technicians are, what technicians are doing is way more than, you know, maintenance and repairs on a car. It's way bigger than that. And you got to tune into that. It's, it's, it's special. And like, if you don't think it's special, you should, you should spend a little time Rethinking your approach. And, you know, you'll be happier as a person if you understand that what you're doing is giving back. It's not just about your hourly rate. And oddly, you know, like my grandpa used to always say, if you always give people more than what they paid you for, you'll always be in high demand. Oddly, you'll make more money, too, by default if you start focusing on taking care of people and, you know, having a little more care. Care for it. But. Oh, that question breaks my heart.

All right, all right.

God can wait.

I've got a good one. I've got a coronavirus joke. It's going to take up to 14 days for you guys to get it.

I got it right away.

Wait, I'm so. I'm going to get it on May 5th.

Just set a. Set a reminder in your calendar from 14 days. Christian's joke. You'll laugh then, too. It'll be funny. It'll remind you.

I laugh every time I hear Christian joke.

What's the next question there?

God.

The voice of God has one final question. Dear Chris, I am a service advisor that was furloughed at the end of March. I'm stuck at home, and I feel as though my fire has been extinguished. I've lost my purpose in life. My passion bucket has run empty. I really look up to you guys. How can I get out of this bunk?

Yeah, it's tough right now. I know. I get it's not just advisors. It's a lot of people, man.

That breaks my heart, man, hearing that somebody's passion bucket is empty. And, you know, it's interesting. It's not just for the employees. I think everybody's kind of in that stuck mode, right? We're in middle ground.

We're.

We're not out of it yet. There's talk of opening up, reopening, not reopening. Well, we may have to shut down. We don't know really what's. There's so much uncertainty right now. It's crazy. And people literally feel stuck. So I think if you're in that situation, one of the things that I would do is look at your professional development and use this time to be the best advisor you possibly can. Make sure that you're completely up to speed with all the new model specs. You know, your packages are ready to go. You should be role playing and practicing every single day. Get it. Take in as much as you can so that your saw is absolutely razor sharp. When it's time for that, switch to get flipped back on and that you're there also. You know, Chris, it's interesting. I've noticed it's a lot of people have forgotten their goals right now. Like, you know, we used to have a regiment, right? You'd get up in the morning, you do your reading, you do your morning ritual, set your goals. You'd go out and conquer, have an exhausting day. You come back, you're like, yeah, I conquered today. And now people are just like. They feel like, I don't know, poi. Is that what they call it in Hawaii? That mushy, gray, just bland stuff that's like blah, right? And I get back to setting goals, man. Get your goals dusted off. Really use this time to keep that mindset sharp and then go after it and then, you know, find a way to get unstuck as fast as you can.

Yeah, it's hard, right? What, so what sort of goals would you set right now if you can't go to work? Like, would you set a goal for learning? Or like, what would you do? Like, I know I personally, two things that we've done here that I think really has helped. One is, and this was Christian's idea and it ended up being genius for quite a few reasons. But we started having a morning call at 7am Pacific with, with everybody on the coaching staff.

And just talking and we're doing some competitions, we're reading stuff together and sharing what we learned. But just the fact that I have to get up every morning and be on this call at 7 makes me have a purpose. And then we have another call at 8:30 with, with the, with the rest of the team. And, and those two calls, oddly, in the morning, give me a reason to get up. I get to interact with the team. I see progress. We talk about things that we could be doing. And I really, really believe that that has kept me sane. I know you're still going to work every day, so you have that. But if you're not going to work, maybe one lesson for service managers or dealers out there or shop owners is even if your people are furloughed or laid off, maybe you should still have a call every day, early in the morning so they have to get up, they have to be dressed. Because I found there was a time where I was, I left my, my gig and I was buying a dealership. And buying a dealership is kind of a slow process. And it, from the time I left my gig till the time I.

I closed on a dealership was about a year. And I remember One day it was noon and I'm in my bathrobe with a glass of wine painting a bulldog. And I was like, I might have lost some perspective here, that it's noon and I got a glass of wine and I'm going to turn into an alcoholic. I haven't even showered. Like, that's one thing that I'm hearing from a lot of friends is they, they don't even shower for days. Like, they're just laying in bed, they're not showering. They don't. And so somehow you got to give yourself a reason to get up and interact with people on Zoom or on FaceTime, something. But you, you gotta set some, some.

Some sort of goal that you, that you have to do something every other day that you have to get up and shower and be ready for.

Yeah. And I think the other thing too, man, is what about, you know, you're going to go back to work, right. You are going to be in this industry for a long time. We're creating our trust fund. And right now would be the greatest time to go back and give gratitude to the clients you've served. So somehow get permission to go on site, get permission to get your customer list that you're, you know, the reason would be you're going to reach out to them and thank them for their past service. And just again, like we talked about on some of the calls in the past, how are you doing? But, you know, send 10 handwritten thank you cards out a day.

You know, that's a good idea.

Yeah. So, you know, you spend an hour doing that. And here's. Here's one thing one of my mentors always taught me. So when you send a personal thank you card out, always trying to find something about that person and their behavior that stood out to you. Like, you know, so. Hey, Chris, this is Jeremy from XYZ BMW. Hey. I've always admired how you're so gracious when you come in and you always have a smile on your face. You know, I miss seeing that smile. I can't wait to help you again with your car. Just hope you're doing okay right now. Something like that. You know, a small momento that you remember them and man, just think about what that could do for somebody. Right. Right now. That could be the. Just the touch that they need.

Yeah. And maybe if worse comes to worse, maybe go volunteer somewhere. Volunteer where they're handing out food or.

Well, yeah, I don't have my mask here. It's up front. Get your mask and get your goggles. On, get a face shield, get a lab coat, go down to the grocery store and practice petting the dog. But staying six feet away, you could do that. No.

Yeah, but how do you know, keep going. How would you do that?

Well, so let's just say that you're there to help. One of the things I would do to break the ice with somebody is, can I help you out with your groceries? Like, maybe go talk to the manager to see if you could be somebody that could assist customers getting their groceries out to the car because maybe they're shorthanded.

Who knows?

Oh, I mean, I don't. I think. Jeremy, it's so easy right now if you want to go help restaurants deliver. Like, there's a lot of restaurants that are delivering to older, you know, senior citizens that can't go grocery shopping. They are, you know, really, we want to protect them from getting the virus because it would be game over for them if they have. They already have emphysema or whatever it is. You can. You can volunteer to deliver food, and you're not even touching anybody. You're picking up the food, taking it, dropping it on their porch, and waving at them. But it's a pretty safe thing to do. But you're helping and you're being a part of the solution. But I'm. I'm just telling you, like, in my experience, whenever you start to feel down and depressed, go help other people. Give. Do something to give back, and that'll cure you really, really quick. Thank you so much for watching this clip of Service Drive Revolution. Now you can catch the full episode on YouTube, iTunes or Spotify or wherever you consume your podcast. If you have any questions, go ahead and post them in the comments below. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post new episodes. I'm Chris Collins, and you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Chris Bulldog Collins. And I'll see you again on the next episode.