Chris Collins hosts a short Service Drive Revolution "Friday drive by" episode arguing that service-department success depends on small, controllable daily actions—greeting customers enthusiastically, thorough inspections, phone behavior, and active delivery—rather than blaming corporate. The episode includes a personal anecdote about a dog named Tequila who required emergency veterinary surgery after swallowing a mango seed, used as a conversational aside/teaser.
Chapters
Foreign.
Welcome to service Drive Revolution and your Friday drive by. Today I want to talk about something that is the secret to you being successful. And it's all in your control and how you approach and think about it. So I had a manager come up to me when I was in his store the other day and complain about the corporate office. Now the corporate office is keeping him from being successful and he could never succeed in this environment. And I was like, really? That's, that's interesting. It's very interesting because is the corporate office keeping you from greeting the customers really, really well? Having the advisors run out to their cars and do amazing walkarounds and pet the dog? And he said no. And I said, is the corporate office keeping us from having the advisors answer the phone the way we want it answered?
No.
Is the corporate office keeping the advisors from checking history and advising on needed repair? No. I know, I know what it is. The corporate office is going in the back and telling the techs they can't inspect cars or fix them, right? No, that's not that. So I'm having a hard time understanding what the corporate office is keeping us from doing. And the truth is our success is in the little things. It's in the blocking and tackling and doing the little boring things really, really well. Right? And so you don't need anybody's permission to greet customers with enthusiasm. You don't need anybody's permission to do great inspections, check history, do active delivery. Nobody at corporate, nobody's boss, whether you're a tech, an advisor, a porter, nobody's keeping you from really over delivering to the customer's expectations. It's all in our head. And we're looking for an excuse most of the time. So stop looking for excuses and start concentrating on the little hinges that swing big doors. The little things that we can do great every day that make a big difference and will make us successful in the future. Now check out this clip from next week's sdr.
My.
My dog Tequila went to the hospital. Oh really? So he. On Thursday he was acting weird all night. He's throwing up. He just like was lethargic. By Friday morning he wouldn't walk anymore. So I had to carry him outside. And so we took him to the animal hospital. Have you ever been to an animal hospital? Yeah.
It's so sad.
Like, so you talk about the thing that happens, right, Is people go in there with their dogs or cats and it's like an emergency situation. Like this one guy's holding his pitbull and the things like Basically dying or something really bad is happening and they got to stop you and qualify you, that you understand you're going to pay.
So it's like a two part system. And it's really interesting to watch, as sad as it is, because, you know, I'm such a sucker for dogs. Like, you know, it's really hard. But so same thing with Tequila. They get him in there and then they, they do a picture of his body, like a scan and they're like, well, we see something in there. And at first they thought it was like a towel or something, like a wadded up towel. Then they did an ultrasound and they're.
Like, it's almost in his intestine.
Like it's right about to his intestine. But we can try to go through his throat and pull it out. And I'm worried about, about them putting him under because, you know, bulldogs are different. You can't put them under the same way. There's. You have to have some sort of counter.
Thing when you put them under for their breathing. There's a lot of them die under the anesthesia. And you know, it's not like in a hospital with humans where there's somebody separate that does the anesthesia. It's like the same doctor, the whole thing. So they went in through his throat, pulled, tried to pull it out, didn't come out. So then they had to cut him open while he was under. So he's got a big cut on his belly. But it was a mango seed. That's what that little son of a bitch swallowed. It was a mango seed. I don't know where he's eating a mango. I think in the office maybe like one of the girls threw away because I don't know where else he would get a mongo seed, but in the office.
But he loves to go around the.
Trash cans in the office. Yeah. And look. So that's my best guess. Yeah. Poor guy. Yeah, poor. He's. He's high as can be now though, so he can't jump on anything. He can't do anything. But he's home and just getting him discharged was. It was a huge deal.
So.
Poor Tequila. Tequila that shot the. The hell out of my weekend, though. Yeah. Like you spend all day there, like waiting and you're so worried. Especially when they put him under. I was like waiting every minute for some sort of answer. It's crazy. Yeah.
