Omission Bias (Service Drive Revolution Drive By)

Foreign.

Welcome to this Friday's drive by on Service Drive Revolution.

Please say hello to these two traders, Jeremy o' Neil and Christian Lafferty. I'm very upset with both of you.

Did he say traders or trainers or.

Traders with a T, R, A I T. But before we get into that, did you guys hear the one about the claustrophobic astronaut?

The one like the joke about the claustrophobic astronaut?

Yeah, this is a joke. No, he just needed a little space.

Today, gentlemen. It's deep. I think your comment about the subject was. Oh, that's deep.

Yes.

We're still. We're in the theme of the elephant in the room.

Okay.

So the thing in the room that happens, but we don't talk about it. We know subconsciously it's going on, but we don't talk about it. Today we're going to talk about it. We're going to bring it out in the open. We're going to shine a light on that elephant. It's called omission bias.

This is good stuff.

Let me explain what an omission bias is, Jeremy. It is the tendency to favor an act of omission in action over one of commission action. So you favor inaction over action. Justifying that action is worse than inaction. Does that make sense? So let's say, for example, you are going to be playing an opponent in a tennis match in a championship somewhere, and you know your opponent is allergic to nuts, peanuts. Now you could. This would be the act of commission. You could order him something and have the food delivered that had peanuts in the salad dressing or something. Something wouldn't notice, but you know it would make him sick and then he wouldn't be able to play the tennis match. Right. Now what if you saw him order or somebody else order him food and that you know he's allergic to that had nuts in it. And you just don't say anything. You didn't do it. Right. So it's in action, you didn't do it, but you know it's happening.

And then you just sit back and watch it happen. Yeah.

Like, for example, referees tend in the NBA in the last couple minutes of a close game to not call fouls and not call penalties because they don't want that to be determining the outcome of the game. But the rest of the game, they call it the way it is, but in those last couple minutes when it's tight, they don't. Right?

Yeah.

It's free for all.

Maybe the NFL should learn from the NBA.

Another example is parents that decide not to vaccinate their children.

Mm.

But the truth is, is that the kids have a better chance of catching the disease they're getting vaccinated for and dying or getting sick than they do getting sick from the vaccine.

So when does this happen? In our departments, when the parts manager.

Gets involved, it always comes back to parts with him.

Explain.

Because I was thinking something else. I was thinking when a service advisor doesn't recommend maintenance or doesn't tell the customer the truth.

Like, hey, it's not my car. I'd rather not check history. I'd rather not tell the customer the truth about maintenance.

Right.

And I can say, you know, oh, well, you know, it's not morally okay. Or, I was too busy. They were in a hurry.

We see this a lot where the customer comes in, say, for breaks. So the brake sale is like, super easy. That's, like a given. But then the car needs $26,000 worth of other work, and the advisor holds back on telling the customer of the list because they don't want to jeopardize the easy sale. Or they'll cherry pick the inspection as to what they know they can get, and then they leave the rest off. And. And then, oh, well, I'll just maybe let the customer know. Pick up. These are some things you should think about later on. But I don't like that. I think we have a duty to fully disclose everything and not remain quiet on it. The customers need to know what's going on with their car. What's the status of their car?

Yeah, we make a choice for them to be happier in ignorance. That's not our right.

No, it's not. But it's predicated off of our paycheck or our bonus or our spiff check or that stuff. And that's just. That drives me crazy. I think if we could get beyond that and get into relationship and really serve and speak the truth, your numbers will go up. Right. Don't take your. Your bias out of it and just speak the truth. Make it happen.

I almost wonder if it's not even about the numbers, what's it about?

Whether or not the customer likes you?

Maybe.

I think that we just tend to take the path of least resistance that's most comfortable. And sometimes it's not. Well, most times it's not about being comfortable. It's about doing the right thing.

So is that lack of preparation or is that just a skill you have to learn to force yourself to be able to do the right thing?

I think part of it is laziness. I think Part of it is self image and insecurity and fear of failure or fear of success, one of the two. Most of them fall inside of that. But I think a lot of times it's just laziness. It's like you would rather sit on the sidelines than tell the truth and maybe have to overcome an objection or maybe have a customer be shocked in the moment or surprised. Right. It's like, say, for example, this happened to me a lot when I was an advisor, is a customer would buy a used car, they would come in two weeks later and the thing was leaking or there was run ability issue or whatever it was, and the tech would come up with an inspection sheet and there, you know, needed $2,000 worth of work.

Now, is that $2,000 worth of work gonna go away?

Nope.

Am I going to retain that customer in the long run.

If I don't tell him?

No.

No. Like, it's hard.

Right. And you're gonna damage the relationship because they feel they can't trust you. Yeah.

And so, I mean, then what does the used car manager want?

He wants you to make dirt go away. Don't say anything.

Don't say anything. But is it gonna go away?

Nope.

Yeah.

And so that's the thing. Right. The easy path is to do nothing.

Yeah. And we can get caught in this too, a lot where if we're in the middle of a repair and we're moving forward and something comes up that's discovered, that makes it a lot worse. And rather than, you know, having a conversation with the customer and educating them on it, I've seen advisors just say, well, no, just move on and just don't worry about that. But it's like a ticking time bomb that we should disclose to the customer, but we don't want to deal with the pain of it. Right. Then it's like, you know, know, just rip the band aid off and do it. Make it happen.

You have to accept that once you have the information, you're responsible for it. You can't go backwards.

Don't expect it to be easy. Don't look for it to be easy. Carry a bigger load, and accept responsibility. If you're the one that accepts responsibility and carries a bigger load, you will be the leader and the most successful one in the room.

Yep. And the client's respect, sometimes how they know how hard it is for you to tell them the hard stuff. I found that a lot, is that when you're communicating with the customer, they actually empathize with you because you're the one that has to give them the bad news. And it's way easier than people think it is.

So think about that. The omission bias. But it's powerful and it's the elephant in the room. And we're doing it all the time in different areas of our business. But we'd be a lot more successful and a lot more ethical if you. If you took it head on and didn't just stand by and let it happen.

Absolutely.

And do us a favor. Watch this preview of the upcoming episode of Service Drive Revolution.

Next week on Service Drive Revolution.

Do you deviate from manufacturer recommended maintenance? It's the most disruptive thing to an industry and in a long time. Do you think that parts managers are secretly conspiring against you?

The roadblocks in the world are all caused by parts managers.

I would love to start taking love advice questions on the show. I went on a date and I caught herpes. What do I do?

Fornicating. Hot potato.

Yeah.

Sex robots.

Oh.

It'S disgusting.

It sounds like a movie that Rocky was in.

The voice of God does not know how to change a battery, apparently. Voice of God. Have you ever shot a gun? Would you prefer to deal with Amazon.

Than a parts department?

Are we on Tik Tok? Oh my gosh, are we on Tik Tok?

Do you know what they're giving Rams? You know what they're giving Ram owners now? Actually?

Herpes.

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Thanks for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolutions Drive By. I hope it gives you something to think about over the weekend and inspires some some new ideas and hopefully some new results. If you have any questions for the big show, go ahead and post them below in the comments. We'll be looking out for them and we'll answer them on the show. 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.

Sat.