Is It Okay To Steal From Customers? (Service Drive Revolution)

Before we get started with the big show, everybody knows we have a service advisor service manager competition. And every month we announce the top advisors and managers in the competition. So in the American group, first place manager was Baby Snack. Second place was the house for the service advisors. In the American comp, Carlos Bows to Me was first place, Dingers 15 was second place. Third place was Uncle Rich. Fourth place was Frankie and fifth place was the Closer. In the Japanese comp top manager was Al Capone. Second place was Stevo and the advisors. First place was cpap. Second place was Lucky Luciano. Third place was J Willie and fourth place was the Gems.

And fifth place was John Dillinger. In the High Line Comp the top manager was Monster and top advisor was Rover Hog. Second place was Rooster which reminds me of the Alison Chainsaw and comes the Rooster. Third place was Mashburn. In the Euro import Highline group top manager was Captain second or service advisors. First place was General Chang. Second place was Amish Gangster and third place was lt not to be confused with lt the football player. In the Canadian group top manager was Looney one. Top advisor was Roadrunner and second place was Marvin the Martian. And in Asian Zing top manager was Big Tuna.

Top advisor was Ren Pauly. And second place advisor was P. Not P E E Just the letter P.

Not P E A.

Just the letter P. And there you go, those are your comp winners. And what was your observation Christian?

Is that the elite members dominated this last month's competition.

What is an elite member? This is the genetically advanced service manager that was created like Robocop.

Yes, they are 74% Cyborg for the most part in order to get indoctrinated.

The bionic Service director Service manager.

Yes, they are inhuman.

They are. And they dominated the comp.

Dominated the comp. Not just that they were winning the comp but a lot of the leagues. It was not just first place but first and second place were occupied by elite members.

The best place that the elite members dominate the comp is in their nets.

Of gross pretty regularly.

When we had our elite call I was pretty impressed.

Yeah, they don't mess around when it comes to come comes to being healthy.

So now to the big show.

Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution. I'm Chris Collins and this is Christian Lafferty. How are you today?

I'm good. How are you doing?

The number one show in automotive and I'm doing great. Wonderful. I think I'm in the best shape of my life. Yep, I'm having more fun than I've ever had.

The only thing kind of going wrong in my life is that I'm gonna be 50 in a couple years.

Why is that going wrong? I think it's great.

50 is kind of the beginning and the end.

You don't think it's midfield?

No. I'm not gonna live to be 100 for sure.

Okay.

Do you think you'll live to be 100?

If the last year is any indication, I don't know. But think about with modern technology and medicine and how healthy you've gotten yourself in the last few months. The sky's the limit for what we can do to our bodies and how long we can make them last in a good way. I don't want to be a vegetable at 95, but if I can do this and get healthy and at 60, I can still run and be active and everything like that. Knows what Hunter could bring.

Yeah, maybe.

But.

Besides that, everything's pretty good. But 50.

I should have a big birthday party for 50.

I think that be fun. What do you.

What is big to you, having a band like Metallica? No, I don't. I don't think Metallica like Metallica cost you crazy, but you could do a cool band like the Super Suckers or Afghan Wigs or something like somebody cool.

Could we get a bounce house?

A what?

A bounce house.

First of all, why are you whispering? Can we get a bouncer? Can we get a bouncer?

I know.

What is it that you're saying that's so scary that you're gonna whisper it?

I want a bounce house.

Bounce house?

You never heard of a bounce house?

I'm turning 50, not 12.

Yeah. Maybe it would just be me in the bounce house now that I'm.

There's no bounce house. That doesn't happen.

Okay.

There'd be probably a bigger chance of.

Having a water slide that goes into a bounce house.

No.

Okay.

Just a water slide.

Yeah. Okay, let's go to the questions. Remember, we have a phone number for you to call and submit your questions. 8333-ask-SDR. That's one. 8333, ask SDR. If you don't have the little letters.

On your keypad, would you completely prove me wrong, by the way? Yeah.

Christian was like, you know, iPhones don't have letters on the keypad, but they do.

Yep.

It's 833-327-5737. Leave your question there. If your question makes it on the air, we will send you some swag. We'll send you an sdr, hat, T shirt, coffee mug.

All Good stuff.

It's gonna be good.

That's right.

You're gonna. You're gonna look good, you're gonna feel good, and people are gonna walk up to you and go, man, where did you get that shirt? Right? You're wearing an SDR shirt today. How many people just randomly walked up to you? They're like, how do I get one of those? Happens constantly.

Tons of people.

It's like, almost like you need a bodyguard. So.

There'S only. If your question makes it on. That's it. Today we're going to talk about if it's okay to steal from customers. Is it okay to steal from customers? Like I always say, like, if you wouldn't sell it to your mom?

We're gonna go through some logic. Yeah, we're gonna use a little logic.

It is a deeper discussion than people think, just with the silliness of the question.

But.

People do think that in order to sell more and succeed, you have to oversell.

Yeah.

Recommend.

Yeah. There's no doubt that that's a. That's a theory.

And a lot of what we do, people have assumed because of the numbers that our clients put up, that we are stealing.

Yes.

And they would be inaccurate.

Extremely.

We would not condone or want to be a part of anything of the sorts of. Would not be our mo. We deeply believe that if you wouldn't sell it to your mom, don't sell it. There's so much stuff that you can sell. You just take your shortcut. So we're going to talk about that, but first, maybe we'll do some questions from the audience.

Questions are great.

What is question number one? Uno.

Hey, Chris, love the podcast. Can you address the issue of techs recommending repairs that aren't really needed? The customers get hit with a laundry list and go somewhere else, then find out they don't need some of it. Thanks so much.

It is very important to address the customer's original concern first. So in our service advisor training, we have two lanes. We have the doctor recommends and the supersize me technique. Right. In either technique, it is very important that if the customer has a concern, a diagnostic concern, that we plant seeds for what might be recommended. But we don't. You don't want to put $2,000 on an RO and send it in the shop, and then it comes back, and that's all the money the customer had. It just. It leaves people with a bad feeling, like, we're. We're just trying to sell them something. So if the customer has a diagnostic concern, I Would plant seeds for what other things they would need. But I would present it all at one time.

Because that's the best thing for the customer to make an educated decision knowing all the facts. We don't want to ask a customer to make a decision about how to maintain or repair their vehicle without having all the facts.

I agree with you 100% because supersize me is making me hungry a little bit. It reminds me, what does a witch put on her bagel?

I love your segues. Super size me reminds me of a witch.

Doesn't it remind everyone of a witch?

Okay, well, the. The question is, what does a witch put on her bagel? I don't know.

I do believe that you're gonna get one of these right one day. But in this case, scream cheese.

I would never figure that out.

Yeah.

I would never think to twist cream into scream.

Michael nailed like three of these in a row.

Yeah, he's smarter than me. That's funny. Okay, question number two.

Yeah. Hi, I'm a service advisor at a Toyota store in Georgia. We're often told by the service manager that we need to be selling as much as the top person in the drive and that there shouldn't be any reason for the gross gap between units to be too large. However, the top advisors criminal with what they do. They sell work that's recently been done. Our shop recommends brake fluid and filters and fuel injection and inductions and all that every 30,000 miles. And the top advisor will sell that work at 30,000 and then again at 40,000. So my question is, how can I increase my hours per hour without having to do that? I'd never sell that to my mother. As you say, my CSI is constantly good and I have good relationships with the customers, But I can't seem to raise my hours per hour. So any advice? Thanks.

There's a lot. There's a lot in that. I like the question. Thank you for the question.

The. The first thing that I want to say is maybe. Maybe step back a little bit for a second and just let's. Let's talk about this logically because, like, actually on some. And I wish I knew what kind of dealership this was.

He said Toyota dealership in Georgia.

So do Toyotas need induction services?

Yes.

Okay. So I know that the way I was convinced to do induction or the fuel service, but not injectors induction service on cars was the shop foreman took apart the top of an engine, took pictures, and showed me put it on, did the induction service, and pulled it off. And I know on my cars, when I do it every year, I get better gas mileage. The performance is better. A lot of the turbo cars now will, after a year or so, start to feel sluggish. And it happens on a lot of the cars out there. So I would ask you to not pretend to be a technician or a scientist and actually do what I do and say, show me. So even if you had to pay out of your own pocket or bribe a technician on the side, if you let some of these cars go longer than a year, the induction service is just taking off a layer. So I would say 30,000 miles on some cars is too long.

And I would sell it to my mom gladly. She will notice. My little brother, when he used to write service, used to tell people that if they did an induction service and didn't notice a difference in their performance, he'd give them their money back. Now, I would never recommend to do that, but he never gave anybody their money back.

And, you know, I don't. He was. They were using mock to their. Their induction service. BG's is good. Like, so, you know, they're. They really work. So the tone of the question comes from part of it comes or gives me the feeling that.

You'Re not really trying to learn. You just have a very strong opinion. I know you don't want to hear that, and you're probably a fan of the show. And now you're like, oh, Chris, you're a jerk. But I'm telling you the truth. Like, induction services with some brands and some models, you should do them every year. So 30,000 miles is too long. So then the second thing is to stop watching the guy next to you and just maximize what's in front of you. Like, just do that. Like, we should get it. We should just get into the. Our subject now of is it okay to steal from customers? Right.

Yeah, I think we can.

Because let's just say, like, you're. So you're working at a Toyota dealership, and so Toyota's come in for service how many times a year?

Twice.

Twice a year. So let's say that you write up 12 cars a day, which you're probably riding more because most Toyota stores are burning their advisors out, and the Toyotas don't break as much. But so you. You're running 12 a day. If they come in twice a year, how many of those cars are due for an alignment?

Half of them.

They're due for an alignment every 12.

12.

Right. 12 months, 12,000 miles. Triple A says that. I mean, it's Most of the time, in 3,000 miles, it's due for an alignment.

Yeah.

I mean, it's out. Right. And so half of the cars you write up every day are due for an alignment. You could sell it to your mom, and you could feel good about it. Are you selling six alignments a day? I doubt it. By the way you're asking the question.

I agree.

So opportunity is everywhere. Tire rotations, cabin filters. Like, if you just concentrate on the stuff that customers really need and stop paying attention to everybody else around you and connect with customers and work on your closing skills, work on customers trusting you, work on creating key throwers, you'll forget about the other advisors and what they're doing. Right or wrong.

Yeah, I think for sure. Especially in the service, the service industry, karma is definitely one of those things that comes back to get you. So I think two things. One is don't assume that being unethical is the only way to increase your hours per hour. Like, that's almost how that question made it sound. Right? Is that, like, the only way to grow it is to do what that person's doing. No, do the opposite of what that person's doing. Because in five years, everyone's gonna be coming to you and not to that person. Because people figure it out. Right. And I think the other thing is that.

Yeah, just the amount of time that you must be spending, like, if you're figuring out that somebody is selling an induction service at 40 that was just sold at 30, like, how much time are you spending looking at histories of someone else's stuff?

Do it for your own stuff.

Ask your customer a question, like, talk to them and get to know something about them instead of getting to know something about the RO that's being written next to you. The way to increase the value of your repair orders is to build trust with your clients. And if you build trust with your clients, they're going to believe in what you're telling them. And I think that that was another huge thing with watching the induction service being done is that when you're presenting that to the customer from the first person of I saw this, and here's what happened when I saw the service being done. How much more convincing are you? Right. Your brother sold a bunch of induction services because he believed in it so much that he's like, if you don't know the difference, I'll give you your money back. Like, that's conviction.

Well, actually, my brother was kind of skeptical, but he worked for a manager that did that. Took. Took a used car. And, you know, they had the foreman pop off the top. They looked at it, and then they put it back. And then the next day in the advisor meeting, they showed him and they compared pictures and, you know, the proof is in the pudding. Like, I'm not one to believe. I don't believe in snake oil. I'm. My brother was more skeptical than me, and I was mortified when he said he told people to give them their money back. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, that's crazy. But it worked. And I do it on my. Like there's. I do it every year on any car that I have that's a turbo, every year without. Without question. And everybody that I've had this conversation with and it doesn't really matter. The car line and we've done it has then been a believer. And, you know, so.

Yeah, I don't. I just think the whole ethical. I'm standing on a soapbox thing is not attractive. Like, to get into it and really try to learn and concentrate on the opportunity that. That you have. It's like, so you go into a service department and they're like, oh, you know, they. They want to talk about how the advisors are overselling coolant or whatever. And so I just go, like, say you go into a Ford dealership and coolant is lifetime, which means what?

In my opinion, 100,000 miles. But lifetime sounds like forever.

But it's 90 to 100,000 miles, depending on what? Like, in Chicago, you could do it at 90, right?

Yeah.

And so let. But let's say it's going to be 100,000 miles. So I go through. Like, people in Chicago drive a lot of miles, right.

And so I go through. They want to talk about, oh, they're overselling it at 40,000 miles. Whatever. I go through 30 ROS. How many of them do you think I find that are due for coolant, that it wasn't recommended?

70%.

There'll be a couple. Yeah, there'll be a couple that are over a hundred thousand miles. They've never had coolant.

Yeah.

And we're sitting around talking about what? Focus on the opportunity that's in front of you. Trust me, you're missing stuff. You're missing stuff all day long, and your head's a little sideways because you're not really. You're not a technician. You don't know. You're judging. And the, the, you know, thing is, well, I want to put them down. So I feel, okay, stop doing that. It's not attractive. And it's not going to get you anywhere. Concentrate on being the best you and make everybody else around you better. Lead by example. It's like I, I always hate it when people like preach religion, like, oh, you're gonna go to hell and this and that. It's like, listen, you're like, I call them the Orange County Christians. It's like you're out drinking, you're having sex, you're cheating and you want to tell me about going to church. Like, why don't you lead by example?

Yeah.

Why don't you create a lifestyle that I come to you and I go, what is it you're doing that you're so much happier and more productive and you have a zest for life that I want instead of trying to make me feel guilty. Right, right.

Yep.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. There's a ton of room on service drives to be inspirational and I think that that's exactly the opportunity. So I think that that's a big thing with, you know, look at our body of work. I mean, I would love to see an advisor looking over their own ros and saying, what did I miss? Like, that's inspirational to me and that makes me want to be, you know, work with that service advisor and try to be, you know, helping them on strategies of how we make sure we're consistent with our presentation methods.

It is not hard to be the number one advisor in selling tires and alignments in any service drive just by consistently turning the tires, measuring them, showing the customers and recommending alignments when they're due. If you just did those two things and you could say if the, if you recommend an alignment in a year or 12,000 miles and it's not out of alignment, don't charge the customer and it'll be rare. It'll be one in 200 and.

And the equity that you get from trust is worth more than the alignment anyway.

Yeah. But if you have a problem getting over that idea.

Yeah.

Then just if, if they're not out of spec, then don't charge them. But it won't happen that often if you're truly putting them up on an alignment rack. I'm not talking about the drive over machines and all that. I'm talking about a real alignment.

Yeah.

So it is not okay to steal from customers. And, and most of the time, anybody who wants to have that conversation, there's so much opportunity under your nose that you're not getting by doing it the right way. It's just you got to start asking a different question. Stop asking about what everybody else is doing and ask, how can I get better?

Yeah. So speaking of that different question, I really think the question is, as advisors, first off, we need to acknowledge what do our customers perceive that we're doing when we're presenting stuff to them.

Yeah. Build trust.

Yeah.

Spend your time working on yourself and how you can endear customers to you. Pay attention to customers, body language, what they're telling you, how they feel. Ask for feedback.

Yep. I think that that's the thing is that our industry, our clients perceive that we oversell. And the only way to get them to understand that we don't oversell is education.

Yeah. It's good. Good stuff. Thanks. Thanks so much for the question. I know if I was a little hard on you, it comes from a place of love. So think about it, sleep on it, and you'll feel different tomorrow. But there's tons of opportunity in front of you. Everybody. Have a great week, and we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

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 8333 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.