A short Q&A-style YouTube video (Aug 30, 2024) from Chris Collins discussing how dealerships should handle emerging credit card processing fees in the service drive. The panel recommends not presenting a separate credit-card surcharge to customers (to avoid awkward conversations and potential retention loss) and instead absorbing or baking the fee into prices (e.g., raising all prices by ~2–3%).
Foreign.
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Hello, Chris Collins question. Credit card fees, which are starting to appear at a lot of dealerships. And we are going to be starting that process. Maybe a best practice on how to handle it from an advisor's viewpoint, adding that to the repair bill. Is there a best practice on should it be discussed before service is sold.
Afterwards? Just don't want to lose service business over that. So.
Just curious what some of the more successful dealers that are doing that, how their approach is to where it doesn't help or doesn't hurt retention and. Or sales.
We're hearing that question more.
Yeah, I. I have an answer. Well, there's two things I wanted to say. One is, don't you feel like it's a little elevated when it's like, hello, Chris Collins. Like it's. You want to stand up a little straighter and like, he used your first and last name. And the second, like, I do not.
Feel like I need to stand up a little straighter. I feel like, I feel like we're friends.
Like, I don't know, hello, Chris Collins. You know, Claudia says that to you? Says that sometimes she's like. She's like, did Chris Collins come to the office today? I think it's so funny that she says first and last name.
I think it's more interesting when your son calls me Mr. Collins.
Darn right. And so I've got Mr. Collins.
Can we go on the boat again?
Yep. Can we go tubing?
I like it.
So my, my advice, this is just the best practice that I've ever seen, is if I was an advisor, what I would do is not say anything to the customer and see if they notice.
Do not do that.
That's funny, though. Hey, here's. Here's what I would do. And I don't know why. Yeah, I don't know why we wouldn't do it this way. I can't think of a single reason.
Not to do it this way.
We've talked about it before. It doesn't make sense to us.
Raise your prices 2% across the board.
You'll do better because you'll spend Money on the cash stuff.
Don't make it an awkward conversation. Raise your prices. Like, we, I think probably 80% of our clients every month pay with a credit card. And we would never think to tell them, oh, it's 3% more or whatever if you pay with the card. We just charge accordingly.
We create a 10. Difficult conversation.
Creating the amount of money we give the bank every month. Yeah, it's nuts, but it's a part of doing business. We don't want to change the subject. And so I just wouldn't, I wouldn't put the advisors in that situation.
Like, you know, what we're talking about is for every $100 charge, another three bucks. You're not going to lose a customer over three bucks, but you might lose.
Them over an extra fee.
Well, you're starting an argument. You don't know how they're, how they're going to take it. Like, some people just want to argue because they can. Some people just are disappointed because, like, you just don't, you don't want to create a scenario that doesn't need to be there.
They've also been living in a world where over the last two or three years, like, everywhere they've gone, there's a new fee.
Yeah.
And we might just be that one place that it's like, my goodness, I can't take it anymore. The next person that tells me they're raising my fee, I'm going nuts. But they would never know it was 102 versus 100. Like, that's just. It seems so easy to me. Like, yes, you have to recoup the cost. It's a cost to do in business. I'd never want to go through the, through the front door on that.
Raise everything 2%, 3%, whatever. It won't make a difference and it'll make it so much easier. Just cost of doing business. Price it in, right?
Yeah, it's on the backside, not the front side.
Great question. Thank you. We will get you a swag bag. We'll see you next time on Service Driver Evolution. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. 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. 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.
