The Secret To Effective Dealership Marketing | SDR #199

Senora s. Senoras, bienvenidos. Service Driver Revolution. Yo soy Cristobal Collins. Y SOS Cristian. Hola. On today's show, we're going to talk about one of the most overlooked secrets to marketing. Driving your RO Account, hiring techs. It applies to everything. We're also going to talk about what's going on in the news and going to share a little story about what a nightmare it is to travel with me anywhere and what I secretly do when I travel that nobody probably knows about. Good. Christian's going to tell all my secrets. That and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution.

So we just got back from a long. Well, I feel like I've been gone, you know, after this recording, I have a meeting in there where they're going to tell me about travel opportunities.

Oh, is that what we're calling them these days is opportunities?

And I don't want to do it. I don't want to go.

One of them is next week, and I don't want to do it. What? I've been. I've been gone too long. I don't want to be gone anymore. I want to be home.

We've done some marathon trips.

Done with it.

Yeah, I understand.

I want to be home through.

Like, November. You don't have to speak in September. There's a couple in September, I think.

Is there a July thing, too, for you?

Something in the end of July, and that's it. Nothing else? No quiero no me gusta muy malo para mi. But we just got back from New.

York, which was awesome.

Christian celebrated his birthday in New York. I took him to one of the best dinners he's ever had. He. He didn't say that, but I'm saying.

That it was honestly was the best birthday celebration I think I've ever had in my life.

Every meal we had in New York was incredible, from the pizza to everything else.

Yeah, the. The steakhouse we went to, though, was next level.

And then the funny part is Christian is getting.

A dose. But because we've been traveling together recently, you see what I do when I travel and how I travel. Right.

Yes.

Which you probably never had any idea.

Yeah, I've gotten a lot better understanding over the last few weeks.

So what is it you've come to understand?

Well, the thing that kind of.

I don't know exactly what you're hoping to get out of this, but I actually kind of like that we're having the dialogue here. The first is that if there's A bookstore. Anywhere within the 10 mile radius of where we're going, we're going to a bookstore. The second is that from the time that you land to the time that you say, I'm ready to go home, typically is anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes.

What do you mean?

I think that you're ready to go when you get somewhere.

I hate the. The best part of traveling is bookstores. But.

But New York, just so everybody knows.

What if I don't like the hotel we're in?

Oh, you. You change it. In some cases, change a hotel made, and I would say almost, if it.

Wouldn'T have been your birthday. So there's this hotel in New York that is in the meatpacking district. And it's getting older now, but it's still a hip hotel. But it's.

I'd still call it trendy.

You cannot beat the location. You just can't beat the location. But it's slid in. Customer service. The customer service is the worst. Like, literally.

Just checking in is like.

I don't even know. Like, they. They don't want you there. I'll tell you that at the front desk. And then what was the thing we had to do that the lady told me she was sick.

Yeah. So we were trying to get an extended checkout.

Yeah. We needed a late checkout.

Yes. And literally Chris had to ask no less than four times that I remember.

But she tells me. She. I'm like, so you walk up and they don't say anything. The customer service training at this hotel is. It's not like, hey, greet customers with a hello, say your name. They just stare at you blankly.

That's.

That's the customer service training. So you walk up to the desk and then they stare at you. So my thing is, I don't know because in the world of customer service, I am like, hey, how are you doing? And then she says, terrible. I'm sick. And coughs.

Right.

And so instantly, I think Covid. I don't know, she had a mask on, but I think Covid. And then, then she just proceeds to be as unpleasant and unhelpful as possible. It was terrible. And then I paid. So they charged me $200 for a late checkout.

And what happened at 30 minutes before your checkout?

The whole time that we're interrupted by people checking, wondering why we're not out of the room. And we paid to stay until three because we had to do a zoom.

It was, it was the worst experience. But the location's good. But I wouldn't stay in that hotel again ever.

No. Even if it was $100 a night, it was free.

I would.

Yeah.

I would stay tomorrow. So I thought you were going to say how picky I am is what I thought you were going to say. But the bookstore thing is true. So the first time you experienced the bookstore was in Cincinnati, where I didn't like the hotel and we moved, which.

Was a huge win for me. Just so everybody knows. Yeah.

Because the hotel was really nice.

Yes.

And in a great location. So we move, and then I'm like, hey, before dinner, there's a bookstore down the street. Cause you know, I'm looking at bookstores before I get anywhere. So then we go to this bookstore, and it's pretty. Pretty cool, right? This old bookstore.

Yeah. And I think that the purchase that you made, I was a champion of. Like, I was encouraging you to, because I thought it was really, really cool what you bought. And also the interaction with the bookstore owner. Bookstore owners are really special people, and they know nothing about marketing. They know little to nothing about the Internet, but they really know that they have a passion for what they do. And you met the sweetest man at that bookstore, that it was just fun to watch him work. And, like, you could tell that it was. This was his life's labor. And that's the part I think is really special about bookstores, is that their stories within the books and their stories.

About the one by Barbados.

No, I'm talking about the old guy that you bought in Cincinnati that you bought the. The really cool volume of books.

So you did start to tap out. So I drug everybody to a couple of bookstores.

Yes.

And then on Sunday, you made up some fake thing you had to do.

Oh, no, I promise.

I went to a bookstore by myself for, like, four hours.

Yeah.

Which was better, honestly? Because I don't feel any guilt. I can look at whatever I want to look at. I don't have to worry about where you wandered off to. You guys should try to go to a bookstore museum with Christian. It's like, where's Waldo? Oh, my God. Oh, Waldo's over there sitting on the floor.

It's so great.

Oh, my gosh.

One of the stores that we went to.

And you don't ever think to say, like, hey, I'm going to. I'm gonna go up to the first floor. You just.

Yeah. So I'm trying to give you your space and let you have your experience. Like, I understand how important it is to you, and my thinking is that I don't want to be a. I don't even want you to think about.

You don't think that I'm aware of where you are and trying to make sure you're having a good time.

Yeah. But I would much rather when you disappear.

What does that do?

Well, I want create more or less.

Anxiety for me, probably more.

But let's establish this going forward, that anytime you're at a bookstore, you just worry about you. I'll be just fine.

I like to roam a little bit.

There's nothing wrong with roaming. But just say, like, hey, I'm gonna go to the next floor, or whatever. But anyways, so Sunday I go to a bookstore all by myself, which I had been looking forward to. Big bookstore, bought a ton of cool stuff. But then we went. Was it Monday?

It was Monday.

So we go to the. Arguably, I think, one of the largest bookstores. How many miles of books?

18 miles of books.

What did we. We did the math on this.

It was over half a million books.

Yeah. Most of them are used.

And so here's the thing that happens, though, is, like, we were there, and I. I'm like, okay, well, let's go check out their rare and collectible section. And they kind of blown that up in a way. Like they.

Well, they dismantled the floor.

Yeah. It was weird. So they were spread all over. But the girl that worked there on that floor said, what you do is just see what you like. But go on our website and order it and we'll ship it. Because I asked, will you ship. You know, because I already couldn't get all the books I bought home, and I had one.

One bag already full with books.

Yeah. And so. And I could have bought another suitcase, which was definitely an option, but that's happened many times. The. So then I see this book that I really like, and it's highly collectible, you know, but big. It's a big book. And I go back to the hotel that night, and I go on to order the books that I want. None of their rare and collectible stuff is online.

Yeah.

And so then I told you the next morning, you're like, do you want to go back? But I'd already. You know, we'd already planned on going to a bookstore somewhere else.

So I went to a lot of bookstores, but you find a lot of books that people. These bookstores don't have their inventory online a lot of times, so they don't know. They don't know what.

Yeah, they're not familiar with the market. Right.

So you can pick up some stuff that's highly collectible. I mean, it's a lot like I'm like a used car manager in a way. Right. Like I'm always.

Yeah.

I like to.

You're in a. You're on a treasure hunt.

Yeah.

What it looks like to me as I'm kind of observing you and watching you. But I don't know, to me it's kind of neat. It's. It's. It's fun to watch what happens. Oh, I'm thinking about getting a dog.

You should get a dog.

Yeah. So they always say, like, I think.

Everybody should have a dog.

Yeah. And I think that that's. It's been a point of consideration, especially your age. Like, apparently I travel and that somehow affects the animal. So I'm thinking about adopting. Right. Because a dog. Yeah, adopting a dog.

So a rescue, is that.

Yeah. Yep.

You know the difference between a rescue and like a dog that's like bred to win. Like my dogs are bred to win the best breeder.

Yeah. Champions dog, that kind of thing.

It's not, it's not like you took a poodle in a lab and like put them together in a lab somewhere. Laboratory somewhere.

So, yes, I recognize the difference between the two. And so I'm like, okay, I think adoption is the right thing for me because I've really come to.

But adoption as in rescue or adoption as in a well bred champion?

Probably a rescue. Probably way more of the rescue type. Right. Because I've accepted that adoption is really my only option because I don't think that I'm capable of having a biological dog.

This was to get my hopes up that you were going to get a dog. And it was a setup for a joke.

So. So the joke is, that whole thing.

Joke is I'm really thinking for a second I'm giving you advice on getting a dog in the whole time it's just a setup.

Right. And then.

So the next thing you'll be joking about books.

No, but I really would like to get a dog. Like I have a dog in mind that I would like to like. I know the color of the dog, everything like that. But then, you know, also they say that you're. I think you had said this before to me. Is that like you. You're supposed to get a dog that looks like you. Right. So I haven't seen a dog that looks like Jonah Hill. So that's kind of weird. I'm trying to find the exact match.

Have you seen a Saint Bernard?

Oh, yeah.

I think you look like a Saint Bernard or You could look like a chocolate or golden lab, maybe. Yeah, those are big dogs. I don't know that you.

Yeah, so I'm way more like French bulldog, I think is my first choice.

You don't look like a French bulldog.

No, but I really like those dogs.

Those are super trendy. Well, you're not gonna find one of those as a rescue.

Why not?

Because people don't.

Everybody wants one. Probably steal them. Well, that's.

Okay. Well, put in the comments, everybody, if you're watching this on YouTube.

Yeah, help me get a dog.

What kind of dog do you think Christian looks like?

And how. And what do you do with a dog when you travel 14 or 15 days a month? Maybe those things. Yeah, I don't. And I don't want to put a dog into an environment where it's going to be.

Let's. Let's do the news and then we'll get to this fun little goog Google insight here.

You're gonna love the news today. There's a couple of stories here that are.

Sure you're not overselling it?

No. I don't know how you don't laugh at one of these stories, but, yeah.

I think I know one of the stories.

You might know one of the stories.

So first, we've got our friends over at Ford recall 2.9 million vehicles that could roll away when placed in park. Why does that sound like something that happened a few years ago with Chrysler?

Like, we didn't learn from that, but yeah, Ford's recalling 2.9 vehicles that million vehicles that might not shift into the correct gear and could move in an unintended direction, which is not good because when you're in park, the vehicle no move. So it has six reports of property damage and four reports of injuries potentially related to the problem. Among the problems, the transmission on the Ford f cars and SUVs may not be in the park position, which is bad.

So is it an actual part replacement or is it an inspector? Please hold.

But yeah, it was an issue like that with the jeep that killed Chekov from Star wars or Star Trek. Yeah, the blank look on your face means that has no reference to you, but yeah. So it doesn't say that's a joke. No, it really happened. The guy that played Chekov in the Star Trek movies, he died because his jeep rolled over him because he thought it went into park, but it didn't. So that was a happy story that I've got for the news today. But let's get into something that really matters.

So phone lines are gonna be lighting up at Ford dealerships.

Yeah. So they're gonna get a little busy. So this one is the one that I'm super excited about. It says, geico may have to pay $5.2 million to a woman who got an STD in an insured car. And I know what most of you are thinking jackpot. But a woman?

Why would they be thinking jackpot?

Because if they get paid $5.2 million for every STD that happens to them.

Oh, one out of four people have herpes.

This is what I'm saying.

Yeah. Well, you know, I would expect that from a Hyundai.

Yeah. So it's a Hyundai.

I can see getting an STD from a Hyundai, but not a Genesis.

Right. So that's the thing. This is like an upgraded std. Like, if it's the Genesis, and then.

Say, what kind of std?

Hpv.

What's that, Hepatitis?

No, I don't think so. I think that.

So it's funny, we. We asked around the office today.

Who would be willing to get. We said herpes.

Yeah, we had herpes. And then we picked some other ones.

Too, but for $5 million.

Yeah. It was a resounding no from the group, for the most part.

Well, not from the ones that already have it.

Right. They're like, write me my check.

Yeah.

But, yeah, essentially, lady went to court, she's like, I got this thing. I got this disease in a car. The car was insured by Geico. Geico is responsible for me, and anything that happens while I'm in the car, let's have $5.2 million. This is literally what happened with this thing.

Do we know, like, how they got, like, without getting too graphic, how do you.

I believe that there was a. There was a fluid exchange somewhere inside the vehicle.

How do you blame that on the car?

I think it's just like, if somebody slips and falls on your sidewalk when it's wintry and you get sued. Same exact thing.

Okay.

But with less clothes.

Hilarious.

That's great. I thought. This is probably one of the funniest stories that I've had.

The other thing that we forgot to talk about is.

Christian bought some books when he was with me.

I did.

And then he buys this book. And at dinner, I was going through his bag of books that he bought at this big bookstore, and it says the Book of Insults. What does the front say?

Insult Invective, Imprecation and Incivility.

But I opened up the book. There isn't an insult in there.

Well, they're loosely.

They're loosely called insults.

What's the premise of the book?

It's just insults in literary history.

So, like. And these are pretty crazy. One of my favorite ones is an insult from the Bible that says, I said in my haste all men are liars.

Burning.

What an insult.

That's an insult. I've got a whole bunch of these that I.

How much Was that book?

$7.

I might have overpaid.

We found in the bargain bin. Well, you found in the bargain bin at the same bookstore, Chase Hughes's Ellipsis Manual.

Which is a great deal, by the way, if you buy this book, which.

Is worth a hundred times more than this $7 book.

Yes. But it was kind of fun to see Chase's book in like the biggest bookstore.

Yeah. We saved it. We bought it. Because I give that book away all the time and I'm paying 25 bucks every time I give one away.

Yep. And. And just so everyone knows, that was the best insult in the book.

You don't throw a book.

Yeah, that one. It's just like the news. It's over.

You're done with it.

Yeah.

Okay. Oh, the news is over. There isn't another story.

I'll save that one.

The news doesn't get better with time.

So. So the reason is. That's another report about Ford. About Ford and recalls.

No, do it. Bad news about Ford.

Lord Ford. Ford to stop delivering Mach E models. Recalls look imminent. So they did a stop sale on all the Mach E's built between 2020.

And May of last year or May of this year.

Good news for service departments if you're a Ford dealer.

Anything coming out of the plant in Mexico?

Answer those phones.

It's Getting stop sailed. 48,924 electric vehicles affected.

So I think that something we should think about is marketing. And I think when you think about marketing, probably your most effective marketing is online marketing. And most of us don't think that way. No.

Also your most cost effective at the end of the day.

But most people will say, what? I don't have TikTok.

I don't do that.

I don't do that. You should probably think about doing it.

Yeah. I think that that's really the technology, the future. Like, I know when they say I.

Don'T do that, I hear. I gave up.

Yeah, for sure. It's like. It's like me. And I've really kind of not wanted to do the online shopping thing, but I've started to kind of look into the Amazon thing. Right. So the other day I was looking up and I tried to.

Buy a lighter and it sucks. Like, I don't know. I just haven't figured Amazon out yet because I search for a lighter and you know what comes up? 64,596 matches.

I love it. That was the perfect segue.

Thank you, sir.

Because you had me.

I did a little bit.

Because I don't take you as an online shopper.

Not at all. Although I did just buy. Buy something online, but it's not normal.

Yeah. The point that I would like to make is that this is important.

And it's easy if you want it to be. And so, for example.

We will hear, I put up an ad for text.

I ran an ad. It's the specific thing.

And then you go, so let's say I'm talking to a fella at Audi dealership in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm just making up whatever. So Anchorage, Alaska, Audi. And the guy says, I'm the fella says, I need techs. And I say, well, what have you done? He says, I ran an ad. I go, is the ad up right now? Yeah. So I go to Google, I open a browser and I go to Google and I type in Audi technician.

What did I say? Fairbanks. Sure. Anchorage.

Anchorage.

Anchorage, Alaska.

And literally Google crickets chirp.

We write an ad. Where does it usually come up?

Really close to number one, if not number one?

Yeah. Why?

Because we plan it that way.

Yeah. And so what happens if you're just running an ad on Indeed, it's one hit. Well, it's one hit that then you got to pay inside of their website to rank.

That could also be true.

Right. Because you're paying them to post the ad and then they're saying, well, if you want the ad to come up anywhere, you got to pay us a gift.

Yeah. You got to sponsor it or something like that. Right.

We can for free. We can leapfrog all of that, come up at the top because we understand one important thing. And what is that important thing? Christian, if you had to summarize it into two words.

You ready for these two words?

And I just gave you the first one.

Yeah, the two words. And this is the point where Chris is a little nervous because he's like, I feel like I laid the softball up. And I don't know if he's going to answer it right or not. The two words, keyword search. How'd it do?

Keyword search? Keyword.

I think keyword is 1 and search is the other 2.

Depends on how you want to spell it. I want to put a space in between key and word.

Well, it's got more dramatic effect if you key word search like that.

But we're saying the same thing.

Yeah.

Semantics aside, we're saying the same thing. That is right. And so our marketing team was playing around and they were.

Looking at what are the things that consumers are searching for in relation to service and automotive.

How cool is it that they can pull that stuff up?

And this is seasonal.

Right.

So this is what people are thinking about right now. This would change throughout the year. Like there would be a time. There'd be a time of year where tires would be at the top, especially in certain regions.

Mm.

Right. There would be a time where batteries would rank. All that. But most. And the reason why I wanna go through this list is I just want you to understand that you wanna get good at this and you wanna understand what consumers are searching for. And now if I use some of these keywords in anything that I do, it would rank higher than most everything everybody else is doing. That is right, because Google.

Knows what people are searching for and considers you relevant. If you're talking about the same thing.

What do they call that? Megadata Gigadata? Meta world? Metaverse.

Are you swearing at me?

Yeah. What is it, Kash? Metadata. Metadata.

Okay, Number one on here. Nobody would guess this.

Not in a gazillion years, not in a metadata world.

Had the most searches.

Detailing car service.

You know what the most common thing that happens when you ask people if they detail cars? You know what they usually say? We just do our internals. The number one consumer search thing is for detail service.

Guess what number two is.

Let me think about this stuff.

Mobile detail near me.

Yeah. Okay.

Guess what number three is.

Hold on.

I'm a little price for detailing.

All right. What?

And these got heavy volume. Like we're talking about zillions of searches.

I'm going to say number four has something to do with detail.

Yep.

Also number five.

Number six. So detail. Because it's summer, right?

Yeah. I think number eight is not about detail.

But it matters. Number eight is job description for a service advisor.

Number nine is detail again, detail. Car detailing websites. Mobile car washing services.

So, Chris, if you're going to do a marketing campaign, what would you include?

Details. I probably would have done it a month ago.

And advisor job descriptions.

And then service writer job near me. Service rider automotive.

Is on here. But I just want, you know, we're working on a marketing book and we're going to. We're going to start.

Doing some Things for marketing because RO accounts are going to drop.

But this is a little insight into.

How easy it really is. But most of us are just closed off to trying to find it. It's way harder to get certified on transmissions with Chrysler than it is to understand this stuff. This stuff is pretty easy. We just perceive it as being foreign, unknown. So we're scared of it. And what I would love for everybody to take away is let's not be scared of it. Let's master it.

Well, yeah. It's the way to figure out what your customers are thinking. It's genius.

Service advisor training, Service writer training.

Yeah. It's fascinating though, that detail is coming up. And I guarantee this is seasonal. It should be something that you're looking at constantly, but.

But nowhere in there does it say anything about service repair.

So what I would do with this is I would be. I would be including a detail special on every marketing thing that I did right now for summer. And I would do it in a clever way where it'd be like, you know, take years off of your life, give your car a facelift, things like that that are fun. But promote the idea of protecting the car and your image when you show up. Like.

Because everybody wants to show up with a clean, shiny car. Like it matters, you know, Porsche.

Well, gosh, out here especially. But in general, I think that detail is something we overlook a lot of times. But every time you pass a car wash, it's busy. So it's. And once I see this, it makes sense. But before the. Before we did this list, I didn't even think about it.

You don't at all feel jet lagged?

I'm great.

Oh, Christian has a weird genetic thing. Yeah, I mean, I really. After trips like that, I should take the first day back off. I don't know why I'm running back to the office.

Hey, we've had a busy day.

Yeah, but I'm doing that to myself.

Yes, I had a. I had a chip implanted yesterday.

Like the Elon Musk chip in your.

Like, not exactly. It was a. It was a cool Ranch Dorito.

So the joke is you ate a chip.

And on that note, everybody, we thank you for tuning in. I apologize for that last joke.

It was a good one.

But we will 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 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. Chris Collins, Inc. I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.