STOP the Tech Chaos: The 6-Step Blueprint to Regain Control of Your Service Shop

Welcome to the big show. Today we are going to talk about culture in the shop. How to work with technicians that maybe have a bad attitude or are stuck in their ways.

And we talk about Christians.

Running with the law.

No, no, your. Your optimism.

Oh, yeah, that too.

Never love again. Coming up on Service Drive Revolution.

What's the opposite of a pessimist?

An optimist.

You're an optimist eternally, sometimes like to a default.

Yeah. You believe? I do.

You believe in Santa Claus?

Apparently.

What's that? What's in the middle? A realist.

I bet. That's right. Optimist, pessimist, realist.

It pays to be more optimistic. Like in the long run, that works out better.

Sort of. I think that my heart gets broken a little more. We were talking about it earlier how.

Well, tell everybody the Costco story.

Okay. So everyone knows I love Costco. And.

And if you didn't, you do now.

If you didn't, you do now. It's one of my favorite places to go.

Do you watch those videos on YouTube.

Where it's the top 10 deals?

Yeah. Yeah, you do? That's hilarious.

It's too much. And then there's multiple of them. So I have ones that I like or don't like. Yeah, that thing's gotta die. But. So my wife is at Costco the other day and she's getting gas and she comes out and she makes a turn and someone tries at that time to occupy the same space that she has, which required the two vehicles.

They hit her. They hit her car.

They hit her and like completely messed up the.

What kind of car were they in?

They were in a Lexus and she's got a Toyota. Oh, it was like an RX Cousins. Nice looking car. But. Well, it was. But like the driver's side all the way up the passenger side of Claudia's car. So it messed up the rear bumper, the rear quarter, the rear door. The front door.

How much damage?

They haven't told me yet. We drop it off on the 8th.

So you're driving around a hooptie.

She's driving a hooptie.

Any duct tape?

So it's so funny. So she sometimes when she drops me off at work, she's trying to figure out a way to drop me off where like the. The hoopty part doesn't aim towards the office so that nobody sees how hoopty it is.

Never drop you off down the Bl Lock.

I. I don't care. I. It wasn't her fault. But. So she gets in. In a wreck and she pulls over. And the guy, like, gets out, and he's like, yelling at her. He's like, it's your fault. And she's like, how could it be my fault? You hit me while I was already clearly committed to the intersection, and you just came up and hit me. And he's yelling and belligerent. She's calling me by this point. She's like, ah, what do I do? And all that. And I'm like, well, he sounds a little bit ornery. Maybe you should call the police. And so she calls the police, and you know what they tell her you are.

I know exactly. I know exactly what they tell her. So it is insurance and good luck.

They said, good luck. Yeah. All you guys got to do is exchange insurance and go on your way and set it up with your insurance company. And she's like telling him, like, hey, no, he's kind of being belligerent. Like he doesn't want to give me his license or any information or anything like that. And it's like, don't worry. You got this. Like, you're fine.

I wonder.

Not a problem.

On. On 91 1. How to. How to deflect.

And I'm pretty sure they hung up on her. Like, they hung up on her. And she calls me back and like. And ironically, I'm driving back from Phoenix, Arizona. Like, I'm in the 300 miles away. There's nothing I can do to help. But I'm just like, they didn't tell you that? So then I'm like, I'm picking on her. Like, the victim blamer thing, where I'm like, well, what did you say to him? And I'm like, you got to make it a big deal. And she's like, no, I did all the stuff that you said to do. And sure enough, they didn't. So finally she got the guy calmed down because that's her job now and then. Got to exchange the insurance information with them, and they went on their merry way. But, like, if you get in a wreck, like, it's. Unless someone's on fire, they're not coming.

Okay, so we're in Los Angeles.

Yes. Right.

It's just so people have perspective. Not everybody listening knows that. So we're in Los Angeles.

Nothing works here. The. We have the highest taxes in the country, and for that we get nothing. We get the opposite of nothing. Nothing.

Isn't the state insurance debt, too?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. We spent. I think I heard the number yesterday. We've spent over a million dollars per homeless person. And it's worse than it was before. Think about if. If I said, I'll give you a million dollars per homeless person, could you fix the problem? Like, you could put them up.

I would figure something out.

For 20 years? I don't know.

Yeah.

In a hotel or something. Like, $1 million would go pretty far per person, like. Yeah. So what. What. What are the. Like, the jail sentence for offender bender? Like, how long do you go to jail for that?

You wouldn't.

Okay, so it's not a crime.

It's not. But her safety was compromised.

That's what they said.

Yeah. Well, just talk nice to him.

What do you. What? Well, how long do you go to jail for stealing a car?

Oh, in California?

Well, let's. Let's broaden because it might be nothing, but in general, like, is that five years? Probably. Let's say we don't really know, but let's just say that sounds reasonable to me. So you steal a car, you go to jail for five years. Okay. How many people here in the office have we had their car stolen?

At least two.

Three.

Three.

You. I. I don't know which one you're forgetting, but you're forgetting one. Okay, so when a crime is committed, that would mean you go to jail. Do you know what happens when you call the police here and you tell them your car was stolen?

They tell you to figure it out. Like, it's.

You have to go to the. You don't have a car anymore because it was stolen. You have to go to them to file a report. You can't file it online. You got to go to them.

They have.

With our tax dollars, they have fleets of cars, but the person without the.

Car is the one who's responsible to.

Make it to them. When. When we have kids on the building here, graffiti or breaking it, trying to break in or whatever, they don't come. The cops don't come. I literally watched the security camera, and they drove by the cops. Then just like, on their merry way, they don't stop. They don't like. So the idea that you think the cops are coming for a fender bender is hilarious when they don't come for real crime.

Yeah, that's fair. I don't think I put it all in perspective like that. My thought was, need help? Call police. Stupid. Stupid of me to think that.

It was pretty funny on Saturday.

I. I don't know. I was in the house doing something in the front gate rings, and I thought it was, like, FedEx or something, you know? So I go out there, and it's These two ladies and I just open the door and start walking across the yard and they go, are you Chris Collins? And I was like, oh no. What, what's going on? You know my name. And so I, I go to the gate and I, you know, I open it and I look and they, they have these like door hangers that say Prop 50 on them.

The one that's trying to change the voting zones. Yeah, yeah, okay.

And they're so they clearly had a list of people to talk to. I don't. At one point, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. But the very first time Gavin ran, a really close friend of mine had a party for him and was trying to help him get elected. And I donated to Gavin and voted for him oh once. And so I'm on a list that.

They, of people that should do Prop 50 even though.

Yeah, whatever. So these, these poor ladies, like they want, they didn't vote for Prop 50. And I want to talk about how Karen Bass has the, the mayor of LA has a $6 million house. Like how corrupt they are. The fires, the, like nothing works. The cops don't come when you call them. They, they gaslight us. All the businesses that are closing, all of my friends that have moved out of the state. The, in all their answer to it is just to charge us more taxes because we stayed. Like it, none of it makes sense. And, and then they, they, they said something to the effect of well sir, this is a national emergency. Because. And, and I'm like, no, like this is a one party system here and the Democrats have done a terrible job and I'm not the idea that you guys are, are now going to make it so a Republican could never get elected here in California because of something you think they're doing in Texas. Makes no sense to me. Like it's already as corrupt as can be with the homeless and all the. Just nothing works and we pay the taxes we pay and there's no accountability. Like they say, you know, they say that they're going to fix this stuff and then as soon as they get elected it's, it gets worse about something else, you know. And also just all the, like, if, if there is somebody who wishes they were a dictator, it's Gavin Newsom. Like he, he went during COVID We were locked down and he wanted them to arrest us if we went outside. Like it was, it was about as close to China as you could get with that in loss of freedom. Like I don't believe in that anymore. And these poor ladies just eventually Just said, well, thank you, sir, and left.

Yeah.

And then I could hear him talking as they went by and they were like, yeah, there's just some people. You just can't win them up. And I'm like, I'm thinking, like, really? How am I the only one? Like, am I the only one that.

You might be the only one in the area that says something, but see.

You'Re optimistic about it. And I wish I could be optimistic. I don't feel optimistic.

Yeah, I. That you did take me back a little bit. Like, that was that 2020. We were right in the thick of it. That was super weird. Like the stuff that we had to do here in la.

Oh, and then the, the.

The.

The vaccine. That's a whole nother thing. Like you were. If you questioned anything, you were categorized as a right wing extremist. You were crazy. You'd get banned on social media. Like it's nuts just for asking a question or just trying to, like, reason through something. It was. It's compliance or death to these people. That's it.

And now I'm trying to find shirts that hide all three of my belly buttons. Like, it's tough.

Yeah, it is so funny. But God bless you that you think that they're coming for a Fender.

I really did. Like, I just wanted her to be.

Do you know how many cops there are in L. A?

7.

It's like 8,500 for 18 million people.

Oh, I'm surprised there's that many, cuz I feel like there's not even that many.

Yeah, no.

Love it. I love la.

Then going to the Kendrick Lamar song.

I respect Kendrick.

Okay. Yeah.

I don't even remember what we're supposed to talk about today.

Duct tape and how you fix a bumper.

Thankfully, nothing was hanging off, but it's ugly, it's hoopty. I can't wait to make fun of her after it's fixed. Like how she owned it, driving around with that thing, looking like that. Then I'm also like, there's an evil part of me that's glad it was her car, not mine.

I don't know. I'm selfish.

Well, she probably would have been nicer to the old guy.

Oh, I don't think so. So that's the thing about her. Like, if it happens to her, she's pretty calm. But if somebody tries to do something to me, it's. I never see anything like it.

No, no, but I'm saying if it would have just been you and that guy, it might have turned out different than her. And that guy.

Oh yeah. If it. Well, he wouldn't yelled at me. I don't think that's. No. Oh, I thought you were saying she's.

Like what, four foot three?

Yeah.

£100?

Yeah.

£90.

Three. Seven, nine. Just kidding. She's a little taller than that.

So funny. Okay, should we get, should we get to the questions?

I do. I'm excited about these. Good stuff.

So we did this last week, but the 8333 Ask SDR was still going and people started asking questions out of the blue. So we're gonna, we're gonna answer your question. So let's, let's go to the first one.

Hi, Chris. My name's Jeremy. I work at a yard. Yep. And the culture in the shop. New production managers are calling me. It's pretty much service manager. I'm having trouble getting the text and keeping the text working and keeping them motivated. And also I'm trying to change the culture in the shop back to management in charge rather than the text being in charge. I've just watched a video where you kind of talked about that a little bit, but.

Could use some steps on how to move forward with that and how to get texts that have kind of been left alone for years now to respect having a manager and respect.

Me. And personally, I'm doing my best to keep it and keep my cool with everything and.

Manage the disrespect, but it's, it's becoming tough and it's getting difficult. I only have three techs necessarily. We need to hire more guys. That would probably help the situation. But what do I do with the three guys? I have to keep them motivated and turn the culture back to, you know, service manager and.

And owners in charge rather than the text telling us kind of where we, what and what we should be doing.

I'll look for you. Thanks, man. Right, Chris.

Okay, Jeremy, It's a good, good question. So I think you got to come at this from a bunch of different angles because it isn't a one size fix all. And I would say that.

The goal is that those three techs turn around.

That's the goal.

It will in the end be up to them, but we want to as much as we can. We want to create an environment where they can come to the bright, the come to the light, I guess from the dark side. Right. So the first thing I would do is I would spend some time with them one on one in a different environment. So I'd take them to lunch, take them to dinner. I would get Them out of work and meet the, you know, get to know them for a couple hours as humans, not just about work, and see if you can create some sort of relationship there.

Also, the whole time, try to learn about them from an angle of how could you contribute to them? How could you make their life better? Just for example, let's say they mentioned that they have a lot of credit card debt, or they mention that they're trying to buy a house or, you know, maybe they've gone through a divorce and they have alimony and they're struggling, whatever it is, try to kind of figure out how could you, as a. As a positive influence in their life.

Help them in something that they want?

Because that always makes the relationship a little more fair. If you can contribute something to them that they need.

And then.

Start sharing with them what your goals are and what you see as being the issues. And I wouldn't do it in a group. So let's say there's one guy that has a bad attitude. You know, after you took them to lunch or after you took him to dinner and talked to him, I would bring up the, hey, you know, it really is hard to do the things that we're trying to do. When I met with your, you know, your negativity or what, you know, just be very honest with them. At the same time, like, almost like.

The same day you're taking the first one out to dinner. I would be hiring new blood because nothing changes the scale more than new blood. And I would tell the new blood coming in that you're trying to change the culture and you're holding them to a different standard. So that goes something like, hey, you know, Tom here has been with us for 20 years, and you might see him not doing a test drive after he works on a car, you might see him not doing a video inspection. You might see him, you know, whatever. You're held to a different standard than him, and you're part of the new regime, and you got to understand that. So if you do some of those things, you're gone immediately. Like, you don't have the 20 years of leeway that comes with. And I would contend that you don't know how long that's going to last for him.

Yeah, they're. They're. Their fuse might be a little short.

Yeah, right. Just because you, you think it's okay. It's not okay. We're working on it behind the scenes sort of a thing. And so then bring in some new blood that has a new perspective in that way. And Then.

As soon as the new blood comes in. So let's say that this is a 90 day timeline, right on day one, I'm, I'm working on hiring and then I'm starting to get to know the guys. I'm starting to have some conversations. The, the beginning of month two, I'm sitting down with each one of them individually and doing goals for hours, that sort of thing. Coming out of the goals, I'm going to do two things. I'm going to gamify the production. So I'm gonna have some sort of contest where they can win a TV or win something even better if it's in line with the thing that you figured out that they need to pay alimony or whatever it is. But sometimes, you know, everybody's different and the prize doesn't work for everybody, but some sort of prize for production and hitting the goals. And then at the same time I'm going to start posting the numbers every day. And that's the part that most people miss is they don't understand that a shop is a production facility. And I would have a dry erase board and I'd write the numbers of what we did yesterday, what we're tracking to do for the pay period and what we're tracking to do for the month. Now I'm just putting hours, I'm not putting their rate, but I'm just putting the hours. What the efficiency is, that sort of thing. Simple, you know, three numbers maybe. And so now we're tracking what we're doing and anything that's tracked improves exponentially just by shining a light on it, putting energy on it. And then you got a game which is if, if you've designed the game well and you know them, they're kind of excited about that. So you can remind them of that, encourage them. Hopefully that opens them up to some sort of training and new ideas because you know, they might need some ideas on how they, you know, maybe don't go sit in parts for an hour, maybe like pulling another car and then leaving them. Like there's a lot of little things that you probably can do is a fresh set of eyes from the outside to help them be more productive. But I mean I would say countless times the, the goals, understanding the text or advisors and, and the gamification has opened people up to wanting to get better and wanting to have constructive criticism on how they can be a better advisor, how they can be a better tech. Me just coming in and, and giving them the criticism is met with, you don't understand it's different here, but that happens because I don't have the personal connection or the equity of investing time in them. But once I've invested time in them and they do believe that I care, then.

With the addition of having some specific goals and tracking production and all that, now it's time to get better and learn. And so then, you know, maybe you start scheduling a weekly lunch with everybody where you watch a. A video on YouTube, you talk. You know, one thing in our On Demand, there's a series in there called you'd're the Future, which is explaining to text how the financial statement works so great that, you know, whether they're interested in that or not changes their perspective because it broadens it. They start to see the bigger picture. And when you see the bigger picture, you think bigger, you think different. And so, you know, doing some sort of thing where you're watching videos on how to get better, and maybe those videos could be on personal finance. If that's the thing they're struggling with. It could be on motivation. It could be on a bunch of different things. And that's like month three, right? And when you. When you hit a goal between two and three, you should celebrate that too, and make it a big deal. And then, you know, figure out another goal and then start thinking of it as a feedback loop. And that's kind of how you start to get the momentum going. Once you have the momentum, it's really hard for anybody to stop it.

That's really good. That's pretty much what I put, but with two words, four words. I said law and order. Higher out of it.

Oh, yeah, that's good. So explain to Jeremy what culture is.

Yeah, so culture is essentially that everyone would operate within a certain, you know, rules and responsibilities. It is the opposite of chaos. So what I was kind of thinking as he was talking is that the magic trick to all of this is that without directly telling the team.

I was thinking like, Jeremy was hired for a reason because whatever's happening now was not okay. So I feel like as soon as humanly possible, those three techs have to realize the world they used to live in doesn't exist anymore. It'll never go back to that. It won't go back to that. It's so important to ownership that it doesn't happen, that they hired this dude to come in and manage it. Like, that's a big, big thing. So establishing the boundaries and the backside of that is. I don't know if I've ever seen it where a tech in chaos performs as well as they do when they're in Law and Order. I've just never seen it before where they don't just absolutely do like in. And it's anybody. Like, if you think you got this hotshot tech that does 75 hours a week because he picks his own work and all that other stuff, put him into Law and Order and he'll do. It's just one of those things where it seems like direction, clarity and then that starts to kind of get, you know, respect for Law and Order. And then I, I just think the higher your way out of it is also the, it's the easiest way. Like day one, no matter what you're doing with dinners with them, you can hire your way out of it. Because the second that I proved to the text that I can hire their replacement, that flips the chain more than me telling them that the old way is dead.

Yeah.

But really well done. You almost didn't need me to recap. That was pretty awesome.

No, but the culture, the culture thing is important. And then I would leave you with this one thought. Jeremy and I have spent a lot of money and time and effort studying human nature. And I've been to some stuff where you, like, you're doing, like you're paying attention to micro expression. Like you're, you're paying attention to micro expressions of people and at the same time paying attention to their adjectives and pronouns because they tell you a lot of like there's, there's so many things that people are telling you by the words they use, how they put them together, their body language, what they do when they say a word, how they react to things. And at the end of the day, like, all of that being said and you know, understanding human nature, probably the truest form of it is that those texts that are.

Are unlikable. They are, you know, difficult, want approval and acceptance more than anyone. Like, they're the ones that need a hug and need somebody to show.

Re. You know, real true human connection.

And you know, the thing is with work is there's a line, right? Like you can't, you can't fix people to the degree.

That you're re. You know, you're, you're not. Your job isn't to be a therapist, but you get a lot with, with genuine interest in people and showing them that they matter and paying attention to self esteem. Like if you can raise their self esteem, you might be doing something that nobody is done for them their whole lives. Like, it's unbelievable how many people go through Life. And nobody ever pointed out that they were good at something or valuable or like, I mean ju. Just for an abstract example, like Christian functions in a, in a world where he can make people laugh and he can make people laugh in a way. Like there's a genuine connection there.

And he get, he's getting instant improve, you know, approval from people from that and connection. There's a lot of people that are so closed off and their self esteem is so low that they've isolated themselves to the degree that they, they aren't even open to any sort of human connection and they're the ones that need it the most. Like, but you have to pay attention to the line of when it's work, they have a vote. You can only go so far, right. They're not your kids, they're not family. Like you can only go so far with that. But understanding that like, I don't know how many times I've gone out to the old tech that everybody says is, you know, an SOB and impossible or whatever and ends up being the best.

In the shop and nobody's talked to him in five years.

Yeah, it's insane when you, when you're saying the guy is difficult and you're saying he's a pain in the ass, you're making that reality more true every day and you're allowing it. So basically like we've been saying for five years, he's a pain in the ass and he's. What they'll say is he's a cancer. Right? That's the word we use, he's a cancer. And we've been doing that for five years. Well, we, we are just as guilty of creating that reality, but allowing that reality, like there, there becomes a point with that tech where he realizes that I genuinely care. But also to what Christian was explaining with culture is there's a line and if he crosses that line, he can't work here anymore. And so that, you know, that's the, that's the balance that you, that you have to find. But most of the time those texts that are the perceived to be the most difficult, they're really sweethearts.

Oh they're like the best parents and like all the stuff that happens as far as that goes.

Yeah, I can joke with them like I'll be like. Your wife would say you're, you know. Oh yeah, my wife says I'm a pain in the ass. And you know, you just like, it's pretty, it's pretty easy to connect.

But you can't have like a.

An agenda In a sense, like you got to meet them as humans first and then work second.

Yep. And don't rush it. Don't rush a relationship. All that stuff. That's good.

Be genuine.

Yeah, that was a. That was the thing I wasn't good at, that you helped me with was tech relationships.

Rushing it.

Well.

That was. I was gonna joke and be like, wait a minute, there's some people that only have one alimony payment. But yeah, so I thought I just had a complete.

You ever considered doubling up on the alimony? That's what I did.

It's all done. Alimony's done for me.

But.

But I think that I had a perception of them being difficult and they were actually some of the just nicest people. When I started to connect with them on a deeper level, like the kind that I would want to hang out with outside of work, like there. I liked them that much. So many of those people that everyone said was a pain in the ass and the cancer. So, so I think that that's. That'. Key. And you just hit me something like a ton of bricks. Moment for me was I don't believe that you can fix people, but you can give them a path to build their self esteem to where they might have a chance to fix themselves. Self esteem is probably one of the most important.

Well, I can name a couple people that worked here that we let go, but they're still better for working here. We raise their self esteem. But that it wasn't the right.

Not enough.

Yeah, there was too much trauma that we couldn't, you know, I mean that's the, that's the sort of thing is like when you think about the military, they put people from all walks of life, all, you know, different circumstances, different traumas or self esteem through boot camp and they, you wear a uniform, they shave your head, you work out. But what happens in all that is.

You gain self esteem and identity and all that stuff. Right.

We can't, we can't really do that as employers. You can't lock somebody away for six months and make them do push ups and yell at them and break them down to then build them up. But that's kind of what a lot of people need. Yeah, like the, the military is, is a godsend for a lot of people because it gives them confidence, that discipline and you know, the physical part of it, the, you know, they're breaking them down physically, mentally, and their identity. Like you have no identity. You're in a uniform with a shaved head, look like everybody. You're just another Soldier, there's no, you don't have a red pin that makes you stick out or you got a better pair of shoes, but there's something about like, you got to make your bed, you got to polish your shoes, you got to, you know, you got to tuck in your shirt. That raises self esteem over time. And then you built, you know, they're built back up. We don't, we don't have that ability as an employer, but that's what a lot of people need. A lot of people need that self esteem of discipline.

Yeah. A couple of the people I know one for sure that you're talking about, like you just saw such a magic in that person that if they just.

Oh yeah. Saw themselves, but they had to do it.

Yeah. And, and, and our hope is that, you know, you, you put a lot of work into some of these people, and my only hope is that they leave with tools that they didn't have before, that maybe they figure it out. Yeah.

And at the end, they, they, they get let go for like being late. Like a simple thing like just show up on time, you know, but they don't. I mean, that's the thing is like they don't believe, they don't believe in themselves enough. But also they will disrespect everybody else that's sitting around a table waiting for them to show up to a meeting.

Because they don't think like that.

Yeah. But it's very disrespectful to the, to the team, you know.

Yeah.

And then us as leaders, we can't allow that. But we did raise their self esteem and they did experience real connection, like genuine connection.

It. When you come into. I'm really proud of that part of that. Like, you come into this environment, you won't ever be the same.

Yeah. And we have. Yeah. Just the talent here too, is nuts.

Some pretty cool mofos.

Yeah.

Jeremy didn't know that was gonna be a 25 minute answer, but it's, I.

Mean, I think that's the answer Jeremy's looking for because it's, you can tell, like he knows it's not easy. Like there's a bunch of angles to this and it, it is.

Funny. Just in conclusion that all of that training for years that I went through could all be summed up by just like, people want to matter. People want to be relevant and they, they want to matter. And the, the guy that cuts you off in traffic is the one that needs the hug. And we, you know, we meet aggression with aggression and it's hard not to do. I understand, but it doesn't fix anything.

I agree. Great question. Oh, and by the way, Jeremy, you figure this out. It's a cheat code for the rest of your management career.

Oh, this is parenting. It's. It's spouse, family.

You just need to do it one time and then it, it will always be in there and it's always a tool you can use.

Yeah, it's great.

Well, that was a lot.

Yeah, that was a good one. 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. 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.

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