Service Manager Challenge Finalist Shares His Rise to the Top (Dog)

All right. Good morning, Roger. How are you doing today?

Awesome. How are you?

Good. I've got some information to give you, but first, I've got a geography question. Are you ready?

I am. It's not one of my strong suits, but I'm ready.

Okay. What state is known for its small soft drinks?

I don't know. Christian?

Minnesota.

Okay, pull that one right out of the. Right out of the vault, Rog.

I did. There you go.

Well, I certainly didn't put you on this zoom to make you listen to a whole bunch of jokes. So I wanted to first say thank you so much for your submission for the Jeep contest. The you versus you. We had a chance to review your submission, and I. It gives me the most pleasure and honor to announce you as a finalist, Roger. So great job. I know you've really been thinking a lot about that Jeep, haven't you?

I've wanted to be Service Manager of the Year for a long time, and I've been laser focused to do that, for sure.

Well, you've done some amazing things. Your story's great, your results are great, and I think that you're very, very deserved to be a finalist. So keep doing that visualization, and we look forward to seeing you in Los Angeles for the Top Dog event.

Thank you very much, and I'm looking forward to it also.

Welcome, everybody, to the big show to Service Drive Revolution. We are profiling finalists from the service Manager challenge where you can win my Jeep. I've been driving this Jeep, blasting country music, running people off the road, having a lot of fun, and it is that time. Say hello to everybody, Chris Tone.

Hello, everyone. That's my country song.

We have one of our favorite people, Roger Pfeiffer, but the name is not spelled with an F. It's with a P. So it's a P. That sounds like an F, right, Roger, say hello.

That is correct.

Roger doesn't think I'm funny.

I think it's great.

Roger's like, that is correct.

Haven't heard that one before.

Great numbers here, Roger. So it's kind of interesting the way that this happened in the sense that I remember the general manager of the store that you were. That you took over and turned around, asked me if I knew who you were, and I was like, I couldn't believe they were going to get you. I was like, oh, he's going to Florida. I was like, wow, your job as a general manager got a lot easier if you land him. And so let's just go through your numbers really quick. The increase.

So we have, we started off at 78 in CSI, ended it in 85 ELR 107 ELR 116. That's a huge jump for a Toyota store. 12.5 Natur gross to 20.4 natural gross. And the numbers kept growing from there. But.

Great, great stuff. So kind of in the sense, Roger, you've, you've through your career kind of turned into a little bit of a turnaround guy and that you've gone into some underperforming departments and turned them around.

What do you think the.

Three or four most important elements are to that recipe when you go in to, to turn around an apartment? Like, what are you thinking about? What are the first things you're attacking.

When you, when you go in?

Well, I would tell you for sure, you know, without a doubt, it's what you teach too. You know, the customer experience, in my opinion has to be second to none because you can raise prices all you want to drive your effective labor rate, but that's not a scalable solution. It's not going to last. So, you know, I feel it's a, I shouldn't even say I feel. I know it's, it's the customer experience along with raising the prices and making sure you have a good strategy. You know, I just was at a store this week, did that, you know, Mystery Shop, saw what it was about there. And you know, people are just so surprised on what other people are charging. They think they're, you know, overcharging people and they're really not. So I would say that the two most important things are the customer experience and having a good pricing strategy. And the rest is kind of, well, I should say three, having some motivation for the employees and getting a good culture going and having them buy in. That's really the key to it, the buy in.

So you're really good at that part.

What is your approach to that? And how do you, when you walk in the first day, everybody's looking at you and they're like, oh, who's this guy? I think kind of like me. You look a little intimidating. You're confident and soft spoken in your way. So it's hard for people to read us, right? And so that makes them a little nervous, I think sometimes how, how do you approach that when you're coming in to get everybody kind of rowing in the same direction and thinking the same way.

So it's funny you say that, cause we could just talk about this Toyota story that I came to, you know, they, when I walked in There it was a month before COVID hit, you know, and they had a guy that was there for 13 years, kind of just set in his office, didn't really do much. Didn't get out and kind of, you know, connect with the employees or talk or, you know, actually get in the trenches and work with them if need be, or hop on the service drive and move a car, you know, as minimal as that may sound. So what I did was when I came in there, I just. Actually just interviewed people. I just started interviewing them. I just looked for their pain points. You know, what were they really struggling with? And I kind of just collectively put that together. And, you know, one night, you know, when I first got there, one night at home, I'm just going through my notes, and truly, it just hit me. These people just wanted to be led. They just wanted a direction. So that was kind of my. I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew where I could take the store. You know, they gave me some numbers when I first got there, the general manager and the vice president time where they wanted the store to go and gross profit. And, you know, they said they never hit it before, and they feel that if we get there. And I just left the office saying, wow, I think your ceiling's too low. And I just went to work. You know, I. I just started really just getting out and working side by side with the employees. Technicians, too, you know, kind of just going out every morning. I made sure I, you know, said good morning, you know, little. Just conversations. And then the advisors, specifically, I really worked hand in hand on coaching them and getting them to think a little differently.

And in the midst of all this, you know, Covid hits, and I have to get rid of staff and all, and I'm like, okay, how am I going to turn these numbers that, you know, I kind of wrote a check for?

And I just, you know, quite honestly, I just stared it down. I just knew that it was going to be possible. And I just kept moving with the same idea that I had before. Just keep working with everybody. Just keep, you know, keep doing what you know how to do. And, you know, as the results started to come, you know, we started our morning meetings. We started technician morning meetings. I was involved in every single one every day. And I made sure I was there early, stayed late. I just showed them that I was the guy that they could count on. And for, you know, they just started to believe in me because they started to see that I was. I was willing to get out and do the work with Them, you know, and the magic just started happening because then they started to turn. Turn results and they, you know, we're starting to get wowed themselves.

Yeah, that's good. The. Would. Would you say the fourth thing on the list would be the ability to recruit techs?

Well, that's sort of a secret weapon I have. You know, long ago, me and you had a challenge, and I lost to that challenge, and I swore that would never happen again. And I, I just. That that's one thing. And I would say that it's. It's kind of easier in Florida. It's not like you're trying to recruit text and, you know, South Dakota, it is a little bit easier in Florida. But, you know, some people still down here think it's impossible. You know, even, you know, I go to stores in Mobile, Alabama, now, Pittsburgh, and they tell me the same thing. Can't find tax. And, you know, dude, what are you doing? Well, I'm just running an ad. Well, of course, let's talk through that. You know, there's more to do for sure. And then when they start to see them, they're like, wow, it is possible. So I would say yes, I would say that's definitely a secret weapon that I have. That. That is definitely a unique ability. That. And let's go back a little bit. I don't think it's a unique ability. I just think it's a mindset. Yeah, you say this all the time. If you believe that there's no text out there, you're 100% right. And they said the same thing in this Toyota store when I, when I first got there. Yeah, I don't know how you're going to find text and what they. Even the service manager that was, you know, I worked with, you know, he said he was there for a while. He says, roger, we really can't find technicians. You know, I don't know, you know, what we're going to do. I was like, all right, just give me a little bit of time. And then he started believing. Because the moment you get one, you get two. And, you know, as we always talked about, the momentum just starts to go, right? You start getting phone calls, you start getting emails. People walk through the door. So, you know, they just became believers.

Yeah. You said a word that struck a chord with me. Belief. So.

A priest.

Such a segue.

And a Jeep owner, they die at the same time.

Wait, hold on.

So a priest and a Jeep owner. Jeep owner both tragically die at the same time.

Tragically die tragically.

So they Head up to the pearly gates of heaven. There's an angel there. I don't know if the angel is like real estate agent Heaven style or not, but kind of what it seems like happened. So the angel looks at the priest and says.

Good Father, I give you 50 acres of land, some of the best land heaven has to offer. A wonderful cottage for you to live in for the rest of your eternal life. Here, you'll never be hot, you'll never be cold, you'll never be hungry, you'll never be tired. You will go on and live blissfully with your 50 acres. Now go on, my child turns to the Jeep owner, says, you, my son, will take 500 acres of the best that heaven has to offer. There will be beautiful terrain, a mansion for you to live in, and an indestructible Jeep for you to drive whenever you want. The jeep owner looks at the angel and says, says.

I think you might have this backwards. Like, you gave the priest 50 acres and you're giving me 500 acres and a really cool indestructible Jeep. Like, I think you have that backwards. And the angel looks at the Jeep owner and says, my child, when the priest spoke to his flock, they fell asleep. When you drove your Jeep, people prayed.

If you're listening to this, let me describe Roger's face for you.

It's perfect disappointment. I love it.

Would you say it's a face of disappointment?

Yeah, for sure. He's like, really? That was like 20 minutes.

Roger, you kind of went over this really fast. But.

I think. And I. I'm not. I'm not bringing this back up for any other reason, that I think that the lesson is the important thing in this, and you touched on it when you're saying mindset. But the bet that we had about hiring texts, so that bet, I. You gotta help me, because I don't remember, but I think it was eight texts in 45 days.

I remember it like it happened Yesterday. It was eight texts in 45 days.

You got seven. You actually, I think you had eight. But one toolbox. One guy showed up in the service. Service manager told the guy, I mean, the. The lesson in that too, is we were doing it for the manager. He wasn't really vested in the outcome. Right. So he told the tech that his toolbox was too big and ran him out because of the size of his toolbox, not his ability to turn wrenches.

Ouch.

So you lost it by one.

Yep.

Am I remembering that right?

Yep. That's almost exactly how it happened.

Yeah.

Crazy but the thing that I think you said there is. It's like at the end of the day, people perceive it to be magic or a unique ability, but really it's just doing it.

Yeah, you say it all the time. It's the rule of five, but 10 is better. And that's truly. You know, there's no one thing that you can do. And I say it all the time. If you want to go fishing, you got to fish with different baits, and, you know, you just got to try different things, and if that doesn't work, try something else.

It's funny when people ask us, they're like, well, how do you. How do you do it? How do you hire techs? And I'm like, I don't know. We just do. Like, it isn't. There is. There's. Everybody wants this magic pill.

And the.

Like, you said, the most important part is stop saying you can't. And then you got, you know, you got to start doing stuff. But too many people out there, like, oh, I ran an ad. It didn't work. And it's like, well, where'd you run the ad? Well, on, indeed. And it's like, you know, there's other place. There's a. You know, there's a hundred different ways to do things, but if it's not working, then you would change the way you. You would think you would change what you're doing. But it. It's easier sometimes to just say, oh, I tried. It didn't work.

Yeah, for sure. You know, I used. I. I just looked this statistic up this week because I was, you know, I was talking to a service manager. So there's seven. Over 17,000 new car dealerships in the country. And I just asked them, do they have service departments in the back of them? Do they have technicians working in them? Why are they working there and not here? Like, you just got to think differently, right there, there. There's people out there, and the good ones aren't looking. You know, that's the thing. The good ones aren't looking. You got to go find them.

What do you. What do you think happens with.

With service managers that they sort of get. In a sense, what it feels like from the outside is they're paralyzed with fear of change or paralyzed with fear of doing something wrong and making a mistake. And so they choose doing nothing.

I think you have that hit right on. Right on the head. I think it's complacency also. They just get complacent and say, this is all we could do. Times are changing, and this is all we could do. But, you know, I never subscribed to that. You know, as far as doing something. Doing something wrong, I'm always the guy that would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

You know, because there's. There's the worst thing can happen if you just have to say, hey, it didn't work out and I'm going to do something else. Right. You know, that. That's the. All right, let's just try something else and figure it out. But, yeah, I would. I would agree with you. 100.

Well, I think that a lot of managers, though, go to the other end where they're. They're only focused on the. If it doesn't work out, that they're going to lose their job or they're going to get fired. Like, they never even think for a second, well, what if I try it and it works? One thing that I'll say about Roger that's very, very unique in relation to him versus some of the other people that we've worked at is Roger has this really relentless pursuit of goal. And you can put in whatever you want. You can put in technician hiring, you can put in gamification, you can put in customer experience. But the thing that Roger brings to the table is that he's relentless. So I think that that's probably one of the things that you might be glancing over in terms of a skill set that's important for service managers coming up or intuit, or if you're stuck, like, you have to adopt that relentless attitude that you're not going to lose. And I like that competitiveness. And I think that that's something that is a lesson for a lot of us, is that you're not going to do things one way. You're going to go through every door, every window, dig a hole, whatever it is, but you just don't quit till it's done. And I think that's probably a really good lesson for technician hiring, plus a bunch of other stuff. But do you.

Do you think, Roger, that that's something that you learned, or do you think that that's something that you sort of always had?

I always had the mentality that I always wanted to win. I never knew what I was winning, but I just wanted to win. You know, I always had that mentality, you know, coming up in the game probably, you know, I probably had that little fear when I, you know, first started out, like I think we all do. But I quickly realized that on the other side of that fear was the was the reward. So, you know, I started to push through that, and, you know, I. I just as. As, you know, again, momentum in that this starts right as you. You start to just, you know, shoot them off the barrel, if you will, the things that you're going through. And I use that, too. Like, I'm gonna get. I tell people I'm gonna get done whatever I want to get done. Through you, over you, under you, around you, however it takes, I'm going to get it done one way or the other. And if I have to do it myself, I'll do it. Doesn't matter. And maybe that's, you know.