The $50,000 Menu: 6 Tips to Explode Your Service Department Profits

Welcome to the big show. Today we're going to talk about the 6 tips to creating a menu that will increase your profits. This is one of the most underutilized things I think that we have, and we're going to share some, some insights and ideas that, you know, we have learned to be effective over the years. Then we, um, we talk about our healthcare system. It's a fun conversation. I don't know that it has much to do with service, but something that's on our mind and we're talking about. So Adam is here. Hoagie's here. I'm Chris. And that's what's coming up right now in Service Drive Revolution. So there's been a lot of conversations internally about this new RFK episode of Joe Rogan. I started watching it, right, I think right when it came out. I'm a big RFK fan and agree with his thoughts on things. Mostly I can't think of anything I don't agree with. I think most people that don't agree with them aren't really listening. I think. I don't know.

I think that's a fair judgment for sure. You met him, haven't you?

Yeah, no, I, uh, the— this group I'm in, we had him, you know, we had a dinner with him and we talked to him, and that was before, before the administration got elected. And he was just talking about how the job was going to be pretty, pretty daunting in, in the sense that, uh, a lot of the people that are appointed in our government come from or still work in the healthcare industry. So you'll have people at the CDC that are also working for or sponsored by some sort of pharmaceutical company, but the conflicts of interest are not policed. Like, it's just crazy that these guys can, you know, they get granted all this money for, for these studies and, and they can be on a board, they can get paid by other companies and still serve in the government. Is crazy to me. The, the— and so, you know, he, he was just saying like, we should be doing— we should be studying things without the biases going in, you know. Like, if you start a study and it's sponsored by a certain company and you don't come up with an outcome that makes that, you know, sponsor look good, you're not going to get any more sponsorships. So, but I don't know, like, there's so many things in that episode that are just mind-boggling. It's mind-boggling to me that we have lost all common sense. Like, you know, if you could Well, yeah, I don't, I don't exactly know how to put my thoughts into words sometimes because it's, it's, it's so confusing. But if, if you have the scenario of creating a business, right? So like, let's say you have a service center and you go put nails out on the freeway and your tire shop is at the next exit, right? So you're creating the problem and then you're solving the problem. And you basically control supply and demand in a way, right? Like, I mean, I remember, you know, my best friend that has a huge company that does fertilizer and stuff was telling me like 20 years ago, he goes, he was like, well, the healthcare suppliers, prescription companies, work hand in hand with the food system and the farmers. And I was like, what? And he's like, yeah, they can predict what diseases are coming down the pipe and they can start working on cures. And I, I never thought that to be like— I thought there's no way that we would allow that in America. Like, you know, and so, uh, I've, I've gone through this situation with my mom recently where they don't eat very good and they're unhealthy. And every doctor's appointment, every trip to the ER, everything that happens, not one doctor comes in the room and says, hey, you need to change your diet and you need to eat different. They just write prescriptions. They want to perform a surgery, but they only treat the symptoms. They never treat the cause. And the idea— so RFK, and, you know, if this sort of, if this sort of stuff gets you upset, don't listen to this, to this interview on Rogan with him, because like basically what happens is the food industry is working, you know, it's just that input and output thing that I was mentioning earlier with throwing the nails on the freeway and then having a tire shop at the next exit. We got 30-something percent of our kids are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and we keep feeding them the same way. We spend the most money on our education system, food, all of that, and the most money on healthcare. And we have the most unhealthy population. And it doesn't make any sense. It lacks all common sense that we're allowing things to be done And even people listening to this, I think I showed you guys DMs that I got from somebody like, oh, you're an idiot, this and that. Very politically left-leaning, the person. I don't understand how feeding our kids in our school system is a political thing. It's just a black and white thing. If we don't care about our kids, we don't care about anything. Like how we treat our kids, how we treat our school system, and to allow the amount of corruption that's happening and to have kids that are so unhealthy is nuts. But then I'm a student of human behavior and what RFK talks about in that interview about how they've tied food to ADHD and violence in prisons and all kinds of things. And I was asking my cousin who you guys have met who works in the prison system about that, and he's like, oh no, this administration is really— they're taking this very seriously. They want reform. They don't want the status quo. They want things to change. They want the outcome to change. And RFK talks about I forget the chef, but he's a famous Iron Chef from the Food Network. He's been helping the military feed the soldiers and they are spending less and the soldiers are lining up for the food because it's really good. They're locally sourcing the food from local farms. And the, you know, if we can't feed our, if we can't keep our soldiers healthy, like what is it we're doing with all this? Overprocessed food. And yeah, it's nuts. I would be curious what you guys think, just having kids in this environment.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say, was, uh, no matter where you're at, um, on the political spectrum, if you pay health insurance or if you have kids high school age and under, uh, just listen to it from those two viewpoints. Listen to it, not on the political spectrum, but listen to it as a human that's paying for health insurance right now and paying these premiums that isn't interested in, especially if you're healthy and you don't use it, like you just shovel out this money every month. And so listen to it from that viewpoint. And then yeah, from being a parent, like the autism, uh, statistics are off the charts. In, um, California, it's 1 in 12 now.

Yeah, LA is the worst in the country.

It's scary.

Oh, it's so wild. So, um, the fact that they can connect all those dots and it's still just okay, and it's information we've had, um, yeah, it's, it's wild that that this, uh, that it's taken it, you know, for it to even get to this point. Um, but, but yeah, there's just, there's so much you'll learn. And like, going back, I, uh, I also was looking at, um, like, he— I don't know if you guys made it that far. It's like 20 minutes before the end of it, somewhere in there. He's talking about this app, and there's a bunch of these apps, but I downloaded the one he was talking about. It's called the Yucca app. And you can just scan barcodes of stuff in the grocery store and it pops up and just tells you what it's loaded with. So, you know, for a parent that you're always like, it's just not feasible to go 100% and get all the stuff for everybody. And I understand that, but there's tools like that that are becoming more readily available that at least help you make the best decision you have at your disposable, you know, at your, available to you at the time. And, but yeah, it's wild just using that thing and just starting to scan stuff, even stuff that you thought was probably okay. And then stuff that I didn't think was okay, you know, but, it doesn't have a, like that app's not trying to sell you any of that food or anything like that.

Like it just tells you what the information is and there's more tools like that at your disposal all the, all the time.

But yeah, no matter where you're at on the political spectrum, if you can listen to it as a parent or as somebody who's paying health insurance premiums, it's sobering.

What did he say about food stamps and soda? Was it 30%? Yeah, 30% of food stamps are used for soda. Just basically sugar water. Crazy. And how they're having to give cooking lessons to people. Because people can eat healthier for less, but they don't know how to cook for themselves. And so part of the solution is teaching people how to cook.

Yeah, I thought that was really interesting on all those fronts. I mean, you talk about from a parent's perspective, like, Peyton's going through some reviews or evaluations even as a kindergartner.

So how old is Peyton?

5.

So just for the audience, to have perspective in a couple—

yeah, a couple months. But super sweet. Um, it's just kind of the attention. So like, we do look at like her food intake and everything, and I've heard of that, that app as well, Hoagie, and it does work. But to your point, like, you're making a conscious effort. I don't think anybody really wants to have overly processed food when you balance it out just as a parent and trying to— whether folks are trying to make ends meet or whatever, you try to make those conscious decisions, right? But again, the emphasis from this video, it's like, I feel like folks have always felt or have thought or done the research that certain things are not being paid attention to. And the big— the whole big pharma stuff, whatever, people can think about it and talk through those things and do the research. And sometimes Quite frankly, it's hard to find all that. But I do have an appreciation for what he and his team surrounding himself with these experts are really trying to, like you said, Chris, trying to fix it. It's not fixing it, right? It's we're going to see some of these results. A lot of people that do go down and have the time to go down some of these rabbit holes to do the research, like even on the whole red dyes and all that stuff, like I think probably the most important thing, like, I've always been a big dude, gone through the ups and downs of trying to lose weight and do all that stuff. But one thing that I always look back at is being a kid and going through health class is looking at the food pyramid when he talks about the section and flipping it on its head.

And he even said you could do the research and seeing Froot Loops are at the front, at the, at the top, or, uh, of that food pyramid is you know, at the old one, I believe is what he called it. It's just being at the top. Like, that's amazing to me about like how we were— like how far gone we've gotten to where grains, processed food— I remember like taking health tests and saying like, yeah, having more whole wheat and, and just having more bread and all that stuff. But if you're cutting some of those grains out, you do feel better. Like, I've always tried to base it off of how you feel and how active you you can be in whatever lifestyle you're at. But now it's the next phase is all the sugars. Like, it's really quite fascinating what they're finding out through like actual unbiased research on cutting their processed foods and the sugar out. And, and I'll be honest, like, that's what I'm looking at with Peyton. Go back to Peyton. We're doing these evaluations, and I'm really, really worried about the system when you talk about controlling both sides of that spectrum. I'm just, as a parent, worried about her getting kind of caught up in that where they say, okay, uh, and I told the doctor this, I go, look, I'm not this conspiracy theorist kind of thing, but I am very, uh, cautious on what things were going to be. I want informational, I want a baseline. I, I would like to think that, uh, people have the best interest for our kids, but I do believe that a lot of it has to do with with their, uh, just starting very simple and common sense of what their intake is and what they eat. So like, maybe there's a better form of a diet for her at certain case, even if she has something, but, um, maybe she just needs a little extra assistance. But again, getting it back to the whole, you know, parenting and family thing, I think that the episode— I watched Joe quite a bit, but that one, at least recently, has really stuck to me. I haven't finished it. But some of the insights I've always questioned, especially that food pyramid thing. Bunch of crap, dude. I've done the whole calorie counting and all that other stuff, and sometimes it's just more protein and less sugar for me personally has gone way better. And just how I feel and how the mental clarity on most things has gone real far. And I think that's the same thing back in the shops, right? Is just getting it back to the basics and simplifying things, though, too, and common sense.

Well, it's hard to make a segue between shops and this because this is just straight up corruption. Like, um, yeah, it's just theft, and that we're allowing it is, is just crazy. I'd be so curious what your wives think, right? Because Andrea was a school teacher and Brooke is a principal. I would be really curious what they think about that too, because they were, you know, they were watching it firsthand.

Yeah, without a doubt, man.

Have you had Brooke watch it?

Interesting times. I sent it to her. Yeah, her background's in special education too, so it's, it's interesting to see that, um, just kind of form. But I mean, a lot of the stuff in, in RFK Jr. talks about it, right, is that, um, even with the schooling system, with education, and then going down with the the quality of the food. I mean, what— like, it's just— it's kind of comes from up top and it's just spread out. So like, I'll say, like, he talks about like certain blue and red states, and I appreciate what Joe said. He's like, it should just matter about the kids and their health. And that's kind of the way you started this. It shouldn't be about politics at the end of the day. If we all agree that we want everyone to be healthy and eat, you know, or have the opportunity to eat the right things, especially when they're talking about cost. I've read people are truly cost conscious. I appreciated that RFK Jr. was talking about like when he talked about the reform and whether it was the prisons, especially in the military, that having local, that farm, what do they call it, farm to table sometimes is it's really actually more affordable. It's like, how do you say no? You know, like, I know. I don't know what we tried and what you could debate about that. Like, yeah, that's what I mean. And it's just that's what worries me. We're like, we're in a blue state. I just hope that we're smart enough to think about the right things and common sense of, you know, what's best for the actual, like, the youth and just people in general, not about trying to, you know, be misdirected and greedy.

Yeah. Like, the verdict's in. Like, other countries, they're not using RWE. They're not using, you know, a lot of those things. And the, you know, red dye and blue dye, like all of those. And they haven't been for a long time. Like we're the exception to the rule now. So, it's past like, is it this or is it that? Is it a red state or a blue state? No, it's the red dye and the blue dye. Like nobody else is using it and we are. And statistically, we're just off the chart in so many areas. And I don't know, it reminds me of that book we read a couple years ago. Like the coaching team were always doing book reports and reading books together. And we did one called "Change or Die." And there's a story he has in there about a heart doctor that he studied. And it was pretty fascinating. Like he has them all, if they want, that world-renowned heart doctor to do their heart operation, they have to join this group and this group puts them on a diet plan and like does all of these things. And then 90% of those patients end up not having to have the surgery. It reverses the, like, so there's just, all that information is out there, but the way he's laying it out and, and the facts that go along with it, like it does, it just, you know, it makes you, it makes you sick.

Like, yeah.

And you get mad. You probably don't want to watch it.

It's weird that there's a doctor out there that would perform surgeries and then be let down by the fact that they have to do a surgery again 7 years later or whatever.

Yeah.

And that they're like, no, I got to, I got to fix the problem because I'm just treating the symptom by doing these surgeries. But that's rare. Most doctors are like, oh, more money for me. Like, line them up, you know? And unfortunately, that's the downside of the corruption we've allowed in our government and in our healthcare system, that we're allowing the people to create the problem and then solve the problem. It's nuts. And the amount of money that's attached to it is just crazy. Yeah, it's nuts. Well, I would encourage everybody to listen to that episode, and especially if you're a parent, the maybe most fascinating part of it is that there's a study connecting violence in prisons to the food they feed the prisoners. I mean, I thought that was pretty nuts. Yeah, whatever. That's one thing I want to do is I want to go back and I want to get the studies or the books attached to the different things that he's quoting in there and do a deeper dive. So I was going to run that through AI and try to find that study specifically because, you know, my fascination with human behavior of, you know, a thing that we discount a lot of times is the chemicals in our body and the environment we're in affect how we behave. And most of the time we think, well, it's just the person. but the, the person in a situation will behave in different ways. You know, that's the customer experience in a nutshell. Okay, let's talk about, uh, menus. And this is a, this is a great conversation. Just setting it up, I think, uh, a lot of times we don't have organized menus in our departments. Or businesses, and we also don't have an organized when things are due, like some sort of reference sheet that holds people accountable. One is it, you know, holds us accountable to recommend the things that are best for the customer, but also it keeps us from over-recommending. But for us, a menu is, is our maintenance items. It's the fluid exchanges, it's alignments, rotations. Any sort of preventative maintenance that is common and often you want to have some sort of menu. And we're going to go through how you can use your menu as a profit center where most people, if they have a menu, it's a, it's a, it's a, you know, a loser most of the time, the way that they're set up. And so we're going to go through what do we have? 6 here on the list, 6 tips to create a menu that will increase your profit. And so the first one on here is to have a clear idea of what it is you want to sell. Like, what are the maintenance items and when are they due? And then just understanding that everything can't be a loss leader. You have to understand that you have 3 or 4 categories of labor depending on how you want to look at it. But at the top you have, uh, some sort of competitive or loss leader that drives traffic. Most of the time that's the menu. Like everything on there is a loss leader. And we, we think that brake fluid, we think that alignments are shopped and they're loss leaders, but they're not, you know, most of the time it's an oil change is, is something that will drive traffic, but alignments aren't going to drive traffic most of the time. The things on the menu are things we recommend when the customer is there. They're not things that the customer is coming in for. So having a clear idea of what's on the menu and what you want to sell, and then what drives traffic and what is just maintenance. And then the other two categories of labor would be repair labor and diagnostic labor. So those are the four. And you don't want the, you know, your menu should not be all made up of loss leader items. Should— yeah, actually, the menus we create don't have it on there at all.

Yeah, yeah. I think an example we've used over the years that kind of resonates with people when we're, when we're teaching them, uh, to build their menu and separate their competitive and their, uh, and their maintenance items is, uh, does a customer wake up on a Saturday morning and be like, oh, I need to get the oil changed on my Yeah, like that's a reasonable thing that the American public does. Does the average American wake up on a Saturday morning and be like, oh, I need to get my brake fluid changed? No, you get my coolant changed. Like, you know, the average American— you're not average, Adam, we've established that. Appreciate that, buddy. But yeah, it is an interesting thing how much that stuff, all the maintenance things get lumped in together. And there's a lot of the tribal knowledge with that has really been taking off the last few years where we're even paying these outside companies to shop a whole, all the menu items, shop all of them at dozens of shops around town so that you can price all of them competitively. The tribal knowledge around that right now is going crazy. But, you know, the basic things your customers are waking up on a Saturday morning and trying to remember what they need to get done to the car and calling in and asking you for, like, those are your competitive items. And it's always less than a few. It's never as much as we feel, right?

Yeah. Number 2 is know the true cost of your parts and your labor. So, you know, you want to work backwards. In a sense of work from cost up. And most of the time when, when somebody does a menu, so let's just say that they have a menu and you look at it, a brake fluid exchange, and you're like, okay, well, you're charging $189.95 for that. How much is the part? Oh, I don't know. It varies. And it's like, whoa, what? Like, we don't have a plan for this? Like some vehicles take this much and, you know, you need to have a clear idea. And if it varies, you need to have different options for the different models. But just lumping them in, like a lot of times, not knowing what the cost of the part is, you— it then just comes out of labor. And so, you know, you achieve— you want to achieve a certain gross profit percentage for the parts department and retain a certain effective labor rate. For the service department. So you want to work from cost up. And the first part is you got to really understand what the cost is, how, you know, what time you're paying the tech, all of that matters in that way. Number 3 is having accurate labor time. So a lot of times the labor times are just crazy and they don't make any sense. When you try to figure out why we're paying What, you know, what's funny for us being in, in as many stores as we are is you see it go both ways. You see technicians that are underpaid for stuff and you're like, in most shops, the techs wouldn't even do it for that, but somehow you're, you're underpaying them. And then in other shops, they're wildly overpaying for something and losing money when they sell that item and not even understanding what their cost of, you know, labor is. And why they're pricing it the way that they are. But, you know, somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. But a lot of times they're way off and it doesn't even make sense why we're paying, you know, you'll go into one place and they'll pay half an hour for alignment. Another place will be paying 2.5. And it's like, whoa, how did we come? Why are we so all over the board? Yeah, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't make any sense. Um, number 4 is, is gathering the market data. I, I would also just add to that is sharing the market data. Like, if you're calling around and asking what other people are charging for, tell them what you're charging, because a lot of times nobody's updated their pricing for 4 or 5 years. They've had 12 service managers in there, and they, you know, they're just trying to survive and they're not very intentional. And so, you know, just understanding what others are charging. I don't know, you know, how much of that plays into the pricing though, because like, if I know my cost basis and I know that if I sell something for $149.95, I'm losing money. And if I sell it for $189, I'm making money and everybody in the market's at $149, I'm still going to $189.95. I'm not, I'm not going to lose money on something that isn't, uh, going to drive traffic. So, you know, I want to know what's in the market, but it, it, it plays a small part in my decision-making. But it does help to know if they're losing, right? What?

Like, if they're losing and you try— if they're losing and, and you're trying to match the losers in the market, you're only be— you're already setting yourself up for failure for sure.

And then, uh, number 5 is, is having a target effective labor rate. Like, really understanding, you know, your, your highest effective labor rate should probably be on your maintenance items. Like, that's where you, you can really make up effective labor rate. Most people think repair, but Really, if you're doing it right, you can do it on your maintenance items.

Yeah, it's always kind of an interesting thing. Like, I think a lot of people understand ELR to a certain extent. I don't think they understand how much it can be impacted. You know, like going back to talking about having accurate labor times. Like, take some of these menu items and take 2 tenths off of it and see what it does to the effective labor rate on that. On that service. So I know, you know, to a lot of people, if you've only downloaded a lot of the tribal knowledge surrounding the subject in the industry over the years, like to think that you can have some of your highest effective labor rates on your maintenance items, it's crazy what $20 does, being able to put $20 more on the labor or if the, if you're overpaying on the service by half an hour, and even if you don't take it down a half an hour and you take it down two-tenths, it's wild, um, what it does to your effective labor rate, right? Like, it's just, uh, it's crazy. And so with just a little bit of intentionality, there's a real-world scenario where, uh, just like you're saying, your, your highest ELRs can be on, on some of these maintenance items.

No, knowledge is power, and you know, telling yourself the truth, like really understanding where it is. And then like you said, tweaking it, give, you know, just, just fun with numbers, but it gives you a perspective in that way. Um, you know, and in our, in our system too, if, if you're coming through, like we go into the psychology of pricing. There's different things with pricing that most people don't understand and they price things to follow the market, but they're not really pricing them for how consumers perceive pricing. There's a lot of psychology that goes into pricing that we talk about that helps you in that too. Okay. Number 6, and the last one, and we see this a lot, is your, your menus have been done by the BG guy or the mock guy or the Valvoline guy. And you're just doing what they tell you to do. And you've never really done the math on what your ELR is or what your margins are on parts. And most of the time, those guys tend to overpay the techs because they, you know, they, they just do. I don't know. I actually don't know why. I don't know. If I was a BG guy, I would want to design the menu to make the dealership profitable and be fair to the tech. But, you know, a lot of times something that pays $0.80 is paying an hour. And, um, you know, you got to run your own business. Don't let somebody else do that. You can ask them what other people are doing and use their, their reference as a starting point, but you should be creating your own menus. Also, like, I would be taking all the packs and the spiffs out. I want all that coming back to me. I don't want them paying my people. I want to pay my people. So a lot of times there's a spiff in there and they go around and pay the techs, they go around and pay the advisors. I want all that coming back and I want to be the one spiffing. We still want to spiff, but we want to control that part of it. Any sort of rebates, all of that.

Yeah, it is, it is funny, like a tech or an advisor getting spiffs from those chemical companies. They think the chemical company is the one paying them that spiff. They have no idea that, you know, the customer's paying for them. Yeah.

Like, yeah.

So it's always, yeah, that's always kind of an interesting, yeah, an interesting piece of it. And you're kind of in a, you know, you're in an interesting spot too if you're letting the BG guy do the menu. Like a lot of times they're setting the intervals at which those things are due at. And you're in kind of a weird place, like, you know, and I'll be a little extreme to abstract this a little bit, but like, if you use manufacturer's recommendations, I like to go by manufacturer's recommendations as much as possible. But like, when I was first coming up through BMW as a tech, BMW had came out with lifetime transmission fluid. Fluid. And like, you know, there's no such thing, right? Like, we're— the warranty was up at 50,000 and we're pulling transmissions out hand over fist at 54,000. Like, you know, so there's, I would say most manufacturers' recommendations are pretty solid, but there's some where you know they're not right and you know you're not serving your customer best. And then if you just go off of the chemical company, you know, they want to do a transmission service every half an oil change. And that's not right either, right? Like, so like, you know, you can pull some experts in from your shop. There's a lot of knowledge just on the other side of that door behind you. Like pull some of your best people together and like put some real intentionality into building your menu. And, you know, decide what the best products are for your customer and what serves them best. And then the same thing with your pricing. You kind of start at, you know, start at the ground and work up from there. But it's a thing like Chris, over the years, you've called them MVP services or most valuable products. And, you know, I think if you're starting to build a menu, there's a world where it can be a most valuable product for everybody. Like parts should have good margin on it, should have good ELRs for the service department. Department and for the advisor and their pay plans. The techs, it's gravy work as a tech. So the labor time should be where they can beat the clock on it easily, but also not overinflated.

And the last one there is it's great for the customer. It saves the customer money in the long run too. It's a win for everybody. Yeah.

That always escaped me as a tech, how many components I pulled out. That was just lack of maintenance.

Yeah.

And I thought about it all the time as a tech. I was like, they just don't know. Like, yeah, they just don't know that they need to service their transfer case. But there's zero reason I should be pulling it out right now.

Oh, same thing with power steering. Like, you know, the manufacturers look at numbers and JD Power's and they look at the cost to maintain a vehicle and they try to lower that. By undermaintaining the cars. And it's, you know, the thing that happens is the customer ends up dealing with that, or the next owner ends up dealing with that because it's out of warranty. And so they don't care. Right. But it's a— it's not realistic to any sort of mechanical part that's moving, that has pressure or is under stress, that has fluids in it. That's not realistic that that fluid would last forever.

Yeah.

I mean, even I remember when GMC came out with the 100,000-mile spark plugs and then they were all seized in the block at 100,000. It's like, you know, like, well, we couldn't do them at 70. Like, I always, I always go to the foreman in the, in that shop and the techs and like ask them to help me with the intervals because they're usually pretty conservative. In, in what they think. And I always use the baseline of, you know, a family member or my mom. Like, would I tell my mom to do this to her car? And yeah, um, that's usually the, you know, the right way to approach it. Like, we're not trying to over-recommend, but we also want to maintain the customer's, you know, car in a—

there's a variance of common sense in there. There's a variance of common sense in there.

Common sense is not so common, as we heard from Joe Rogan.

Well, I mean, but I'd say though too, a lot of those things we did with the MVPs within truck, right? There's a lot of those, uh, I, I don't think they're doing so much DPF cleanings as much, but, uh, there is opportunities going through there that to taking care of the vehicle so that keep it on the road longer. But when you go back to the spark plug thing, it's always been a hot button for me because even going through and working on customers' vehicles myself as a technician, I'm always still doing it myself. They're 50,000 to 60,000 miles. I'd love 100,000 miles leaving that go, but it also depends on the drivability of the customer and how they drive.

Well, and the climate they're in.

All of that stuff.

Yeah, all of it.

Yeah.

I would have a completely different menu here in Los Angeles than I would have in Anchorage, Alaska. Completely different.

So my question to you guys, though, is how often would you recommend to review the menu?

I would review it every month. Yeah, but when I say I would review it every month, I would look at what we're selling versus the opportunity. Versus the ELR, the parts, all of that. I would be looking at all of it every month.

And that's really the way to keep the parts prices from creeping up on you. People build a menu and then forget about it for a long time, right? Years, a lot of times. And then what the parts pricing does in that period of time and to Chris's point, they end up just taking it off the labor, right? And then it also forces you to look at those labor times. And then what you'll find too, if you're doing a menu every month and you're focusing on it with this grade of intentionality, the advisors will help in maybe products that you should have that you don't, right? Like, hey boss, all these things come due at the same time. Like, what's it look like I can sell more of the, you know, so it takes on a life of its own. But, you know, it's always been kind of funny. Every other retail world has a pricing strategy, but in service, it's like, you can ask most shops, hey, what do you charge for an alignment? And they'll be like, you know, $129.95. Be like, okay, how long have you been the service manager? Like, 16 years. Okay, when you started 16 years ago, what was your alignment price? I'm like, uh, $129.95. You know, I'm like, okay, can we agree that's not much of a pricing strategy, right? No. And, um, but this is a great start on that, and, and there's a lot of levers to pull. And so, you know, in a world where we're typically forced to just take the job we're doing times the, the, the, uh, book time for it and take the parts and and door rate and everything and add all that together, um, you're, you're captive to that most of the time. But your menu is somewhere where you can have a lot of strategy and pull a lot of different levers, and it's, uh, the dollars that are tied to it are nuts.

Yeah, the, the other thing I'll say just in conclusion with that is in the beginning, I like to change the menu often. Like, sometimes I'll change it every 2 weeks for 2 reasons. One is I want the advisors conditioned to look at it and use it as a guide. The second thing is I want to condition change. Like, I want a culture of progress and change. If you're never changing anything ever, and then you have to change something, the market changes, and you try to get your team to move along with those changes and they can't, that's, that's a failure in leadership that you didn't condition them to. You haven't changed anything in 20 years. And now all of a sudden the market changes or the manufacturer changes. You know, you want to constantly be trying new things and testing and getting feedback. And I guess that would be the other part of that change is I'm getting feedback. And, you know, if the feedback from the advisors is always, oh, price, price, price, you know, you should, you should call some declines and see if that's really the case. I've never found that that is the case. Most of the time it's just our systems and the perception that we're, you know, that we're putting on ourselves. So yeah, those, those are some good insights. This is an opportunity for you to take this information and go look at your menus, like go look at them and, and put them in a spreadsheet, do the math and really see, you know, are the things on there the best value for the customer? Are we pricing them in the right way? And could we, could we, could we get better? And it's, you know, most of the time a good menu can add up to an additional probably $50,000 a month if you're doing it right. But even more like it's a, it's a big lever that you can pull if you're doing it right, you know. So use this as an opportunity to check that out and That's it. We think, thank you guys for hanging out with us and we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive 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 have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 833-ASK-SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 833-ASK-SDR. 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.