The Low-Hanging Fruit in Fixed Ops That Skyrocket Profit Fast

Welcome to the big show. Today we are going to talk about how you get the low hanging fruit, the easy wins that have tons of leverage and increase the customer experience and your profitability almost instantly. And then Christian's got a pretty good story about an experience he had. It's very inspirational.

It's not a joke.

Yeah, it's. Yeah, kinda that and much, much more. Coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution. I really want to go to Paris for my birthday in January.

I think that's a wonderful idea.

But I'm torn because the boys have all gone to Tokyo and they keep talking about how great Tokyo is. Also three. Yeah. Also, I've always wanted to feel tall.

Oh, yeah. You'd be like, oh, in Tokyo, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think I could play professional basketball over there? Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, it's assumed for sure. Like, I feel like I. If I got into like a grade school basketball league, I'd probably average also.

Tokyo ahead or behind, time wise.

Oh, that's. Let's assume that's behind because Hawaii. How the. Yeah. So there.

You gotta go that way because I missed my birthday in the air.

I don't know how many routes to Tokyo you have to work with.

Well, I'd have to go all the way around the world to miss my birthday.

Is it that important?

I like it. I just think it's funny. Yeah.

Either one. I think romantically, like the Paris thing. I think you would love it. Tokyo is kind of new and like, there's a lot of creativity going on there and everything like that. But like, my old soul thinks that Paris would be awesome for you.

Don't they hate Americans over there? Yeah.

It's all the more reason to go.

That's what, that's something you like. I don't like that.

Okay, that's fair. Speaking of things that we don't like, got to take the old my wife's car to the body shop.

Did you tell everybody that story?

Yeah. About how she got assaulted in a Costco parking lot and the cops didn't come. Refuse to come. Yeah, we talked about that. So those of you that don't know, in.

In Los Angeles, she's like, how. How tall is she?

She's. She says she's five, ten and a half or four. Ten and a half.

But it's more like four, seven.

It's like three, two. I think she's little. She's short. Yes.

But he sits on a jumper seat to drive. Yes.

Little. The little pillow in the back, all that stuff. So she, you know, gets an accident. A guy runs into her at Costco and is like yelling at her, getting belligerent. And then I tell her, which was dumb, I tell her to call the police because if she doesn't feel it's safe. And they're like, don't worry, you got it, you're fine. So the good news is that's what.

High taxes get for you, right?

The good news is that that is where it stopped being awful after that whole thing happened. Right? And I don't know if this is just what has happened over the years or something like that, but like It'd been probably 25 years since I'd had any kind of a body shop experience of any sort. Shocking for me, right? Because you would think I wreck a car every couple of months. I just replace them. I don't take them to the body shop. But. But then we call the insurance and the insurance has her stuff together way better than the police, right? So after she calls the police, they, they're no help. She calls the insurance and the insurance people like guide her through everything. Take pictures, exchange license and insurance information. Make sure you get a picture of the plate in case he's weird. Like giving her great advice on what to do through the whole thing. Right?

And then the insurance company was better than the 91 1.

Yeah way. So then like the next day they call her, they call her back and they're like, hey, Claudia, we want to make sure you're okay. Yes, I'm okay. I'm a little bit, you know, jumpy when I drive and everything. So she, they check on her and they're like, well, we've gone ahead and set an appointment for you for Saturday to drop your car off. And here's a place that we suggested everything like this. Now you're. I want to let you know you don't have to take it to this place. This is just an approved vendor of progressive and we like you to go there. So we go there and the place, this is where I like started to really fall in love with them because they open at 8am okay, so what time did I get there?

7:45.

7:45. And guess what time I got in? 8am 7:46.

Oh really?

And I even said, cuz. Cuz the guy walks out and he looks at us and I said, I know we're here early. He's like, no, come on in.

I love that.

He's like, we just brewed coffee and like he just. The sweetest guy. His name was Eric.

Was the coffee good?

No, it's terrible. But that hasn't changed. But we walk in and then he comes out and he frames. What's going to happen? Well, we're going to do a walk around together. We're going to go ahead and check over. What I want to make sure is that if there's any damage that was caused by this incident, that we don't miss it now. So we do a walk around together. I point out the things and he's like, hey, what's going on with this wheel? Was that from them? I'm like, I'll be honest with you, I don't know if that was there or not. He's like, well, it all looks like it could be part of it, so we're going to put that as part of the claim too. And so this is Saturday. And then he says on Monday, Duke's going to call you and he'll go over what happens during the tear down process. The teardown process is where they actually look at the vehicle and they come up with their first estimate of what's going to happen in order for them to. To get the vehicle. To get the vehicle back to normal. So sure enough, Monday, Duke calls me, he leaves me a message first and kind of explains everything. And then he called me back like 10 minutes later just to make sure he couldn't get me. So I answered the second time, and then he goes through and he's like, hey, Christian, just want to let you know you're in good hands. I'm going to take care of this whole repair from start to finish. I got everything tore down, and as a matter of fact, it looks like it's going to be a straightforward repair. But that's pretty intense because the guy messed up like the bumper, the rear quarter, the back door, the front door. So much. Was it 9,600 bucks?

Oh, my gosh.

Just so anybody knows, like, that was not cheap on a Toyota, right? On a Toyota chr, yeah. So he then starts to explain. He's like. And I went ahead and took the liberty. I ordered all the parts today, but I want to let you know that sometimes repairs can take a little bit of a long time. My estimate for you is I think you'd give me like a 12 day estimate. And so this is Monday. Tuesday, he calls me, he says, hey, Christian, I just want to let you know some of those parts that I thought were going to get here Wednesday, got here today, so we started on your car already. Then Wednesday he calls me again. Thursday, he calls me Again, he says, Friday, call me. He says, hey, Christian, I just want to let you know your car's in cleanup. And I'm like, what? It's in cleanup? It's like, yeah, everything has gone perfectly. We didn't have to do a supplemental request or anything like that. But I want to make sure it's nice and clean for you. Is it okay if you come tomorrow to pick up the car instead of today? Wow. Came in Saturday morning, they open at 8. What time did I get there?

7:45.

Picked up the car. It's 7:45. They go through. They do a final walk around for it with me and then kind of have me sign off that I verify the condition. He's like, I want to make sure the repair is okay with you and everything like that. And then goes over how everything works. I pay the deductible. And they get in and the car was like detailed inside and then really, really clean on the outside too. So the car got done almost a week ahead of schedule. They did a great job of communicating with me throughout. And then on Monday, what do you think? I got texted to me that they.

Also got your deductible covered.

That was a. That was a phone call. But so now the other guy has to pay the deductible for me, so I get my money back because it was his fault. Yep. And then right after that, a survey came.

That's great.

So it can happen.

Oh, yeah. But the over promise or. Yeah, all of it. It's just great.

So I love.

Kudos.

Kudos to that body shop. I feel like, you know, the guy that kind of got that system started in that place, so it works. I've never had a body shop experience like that before.

Yeah. There's no reason why it can't be that way. Yeah. But unfortunately it's not all the time. It's good.

But that was my story.

Super fun. Okay, let's talk about low hanging fruit.

Probably one of the most overused plateau platitude phrases. And I don't know why we're still talking about it, but yep, let's talk about low hanging fruit. Also. I have a thing with fruit. Like, I don't like certain fruits. Did you know that?

I know you don't like tomatoes made by the devil. You know, for a long time people thought tomatoes were poisonous.

I believe that's true.

But it was little lead plates that they were eating on.

That's kind of what the tomatoes. But the tomatoes got blamed.

Yeah. Because I think for a long time people Thought the color told you if it was safe or not.

Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, some of the things.

What, what fruits don't you like?

Okay, so I have a thing with strawberries because there's so many seeds. Obviously raspberries, because obviously something obvious about that raspberry because they got hair. It's like hair. Like who wants to eat a hairy fruit? Me. Like the epitome of too much seeds is a kiwi. Like that's just nasty. And then like your mangoes, just ridiculous.

You know, like big seeds or little seeds.

Well, so the only really seeded thing I like is watermelon because I can, I can extract the seeds out of those things.

You can extract the seed out of a mango? It's one big.

No mangoes. More texture because it's kind of slimy.

Oh, you know what my favorite food is?

Pineapple.

No, the low hanging fruit.

Got me. That was great.

Yeah, low hanging fruit. You know why? Because it's easy to pick.

It really is.

There's no chance of getting hurt. You don't have to stand on a ladder, climb a tree.

You know, I feel like I could probably still injure myself somehow.

It's just easy. The low hanging fruit is easy. It's easy to pick.

I like it.

You just reach out and grab it. You don't, you don't need a bunch of fancy equipment.

Don't got to complicate risk.

Right. So what is the low hanging fruit in fixed offs?

Where do I start?

First one, the big juicy, big juicy apple. It's right there that all you got to do is reach out and pick it up. And most departments don't think this way. Even if they're booked out two weeks, even if they have a bunch of holdovers is text.

Yep. Don't they perceive it as like at the top of a sequoia tree?

The thing you're selling is the time, the text produce. And if you don't have enough text to produce the time that you want to sell, you can't sell more time. I know it seems logical. It's low hanging fruit, but it isn't how most people think.

Not even close. Super low hanging fruit. And man, I tell you what, there's so many great techs out there looking for a home.

Yeah. Good ones. Okay, your turn. What's a. What's a low hanging fruit?

Okay. My low hanging fruit is petting the dog.

Petting the dog is, is a story that we tell about me taking my dog to the vet when he had cancer and my ex wife Satan didn't want that doctor to perform the surgery because the dog now because the doctor never acknowledged the dog and she couldn't imagine somebody cutting her baby open that didn't love dogs. I mean, I can't be in a room with the dog and not the dog is more interesting than the people most of the time.

Sometimes I'll do when Apple comes in here, I get distracted. Yeah, it's a problem. Just so you know, a few thousand people just laughed when you called your ex wife. Satan never delayed though.

It's a delayed laugh.

Yeah, but it never misses. Even on this podcast.

We can't hear them though, so.

So I believe the lowest hanging fruit, the way to differentiate yourself from other service centers, from even other businesses, other industries, is just to make a deep connection with the customer. Treat people like humans, treat them like humans. Sounds super nutty, but it is the lowest hanging of fruit because it is not that hard to be nice to people. Yeah, you can do it, I promise. Just try it today.

Another low hanging fruit that you just reach down and pick up requires very, very little work, but has a lot of leverage, like a ton of leverage. Is to do more sales with the customers you have. Comes in two forms. I mean, it's an outcome of your systems, but it comes in two forms. Preventative maintenance, which saves customers in the long run, and inspections to prevent them from unforeseen surprises. Those two. So it's in how we recommend maintenance and how we inspect and recommend repairs that will save your customers in the long run from surprise or break, you know, breakdown.

Both are super easy. As a matter of fact, wouldn't you put getting way more traffic and trying to grow your business that way is. That's super high fruit. Yeah, I feel like that's hard.

It's really expensive to get new customers.

Several hundred dollars in ro.

It costs nothing to do more with the customers that you have.

Yeah.

Zero low hanging fruit.

Super low and squishy and lots of seeds. Okay. Ready for another one? You want me to do one?

Yeah, your turn.

Okay, the next part is intelligent pricing strategies. And by that what I mean is if you aren't reviewing what you're charging and when's the last time you change stuff, how much you're paying tax to do certain jobs? If you're not being strategic about that, you're really, really missing the boat. Too many people rely on the single pricing strategy of calling five other people and trying to be in the middle. And I would contend that if you're in charge of a multimillion dollar business like most of you are that you can be way more strategic about pricing strategies. Like try to become a student of learning about how pricing works. Like what makes people buy certain things or buy other things. We've got stuff in our training that would probably knock your hair out, but 100%, I think pricing strategies is something you can change today that takes no, causes no pain.

The next one is low hanging fruit, but most people don't understand it. And that's marketing. Big thing then. Marketing comes in many different forms. It could just be reminder letters, it could be social media.

Yeah, that's the great thing about that is that there's a couple of things to, to marketing. One is that a lot of the stuff we're talking about is pretty cheap. Like it's just retaining the client base that you have. So I think when, I think marketing, the main thing when it comes to low hanging fruit is retention because it's just the people that we've already got. But like if you, you can do an effective email thing like a sequence of three emails and it costs you $0.

And you, you see immediate results like you see the results tomorrow, right? You see it in the drive tomorrow. Yeah.

And my cousin Chat can help me to do that stuff in like three minutes.

Chad GPT.

Yeah, that's him.

Yeah, it's good. So low hanging fruit text smart pricing strategies do more with the customers. You have petting the dog treating people marketing systems too. System. Systematizing.

Oh yeah. Just doing the same thing over and over again. Getting it right, getting it dialed in. But, but yeah. And then our last thought I think was gonna be if you were going to try to double the net in a store, what would you focus on?

If I was going to double the net in a store is this store.

Can you give me like it's a Honda store. They do 1500 ros per month, 750 are through Express. They're making like 30 grand a month in net profit.

And I can only do one thing, do one thing. In that scenario I would eliminate the quick lube and go to lateral support.

Because I did the express, the expressro thing.

Yeah.

Okay, good. I like that.

And so that hits a few of these, right? It hits the petting the dog because quick lubes run people in and out. Like Southwest Airlines, you're just a number.

That's right.

And you have your least talented people touching the most customers. So it's, it's petting the dog. I'm also going to get better inspections and recommend more Maintenance in the lateral. In our lateral support in the way we would set it up. Right.

Yep.

Pricing strategies would come into that. Techs would come into that. The plus side of that, I'd be growing my own text. Yeah. Plus, plus. So that's what I would do. Did I answer your question right?

I asked for one, but no.

The one thing gets you all those things.

Yeah, for sure. I would also contend. And it kind of goes back to the story to start. This thing is if you really want to double your net, get great at customer service.

Yeah.

So you know that body shop? If anyone has an accident, where am I telling them to go?

That body shop?

And I know at least four people. I mean, and most of them drive like me. So there's probably going to be a lot of business going to that body shop.

Nobody drives like you. That's such a lie. Name. Name one, not four. Name one person that drives like you.

Oh, Coach Hoagie. Kind of Dr. Like me.

No. Yeah.

No, I know.

Not even close.

He. He would tell you that he's the best kept secret. But. But customer service is can. It's contagious. Everybody thinks you're just chasing a CSI score. I'm just chasing net with customer service. You don't see a lot of people at the holiday seasons coming out at Tiffany's with a blue box and a frown.

Good point.

Thank you, sir.

So I think we'll leave it there.

Let it marinade, let it soak.

See you. 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 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. Sam.