Stop Winging Human Resources in Your Auto Repair Shop [RR 1082]
Now playing — Remarkable Results Radio
About this episode
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode, host…
Key takeaways
- —Implement a structured hiring process to avoid knee-jerk hiring decisions.
- —Conduct initial phone interviews to assess candidates' interpersonal skills and cultural fit.
- —Provide a comprehensive employee handbook before the hiring process to set clear expectations.
- —Document all HR-related incidents with precise details to protect against unemployment claims.
- —Create a welcoming onboarding experience that includes team integration and training.
Frequently asked
- What should I include in an employee handbook?
- An employee handbook should outline company policies, expectations, benefits, and procedures to ensure clarity for new hires.
- How can I improve my hiring process?
- Focus on creating a structured interview process that prioritizes cultural fit and interpersonal skills before technical abilities.
- What steps should I take if I need to terminate an employee?
- Document all incidents and conversations related to the employee's performance, ensuring you have clear, factual evidence to support your decision.
▸Full transcript
This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. Hey everybody, Carm Capriato, Remarkable Results Radio. So glad to see you. 10 years going strong. In fact, I think in March of 2026 we'll be at 11 years. So excited to have been doing this for years and bringing this great, uh, content to the industry. We're going to see you at Vision, of course, this year, studio, and I'm teaching a class there and so is my daughter Tracy.
So it's going to be be great to be at Vision this year. Please, please sign up for Vision. And we're going to also be at the TST Big Event, March 28th in Tarrytown, New York, 2026. Andrew Fisher, Ken Zanders, Adam Roberts are going to be there. Go to tstseminars.org, and the keynoter there will be Tracy. And if you're watching on YouTube, which you can right inside of our own app, please subscribe.
And I have to tell you, man, I love our new app. It's for your smartphone, the ultimate professional automotive repair playlist. AutomotiveRepairPodcastNetwork.com/app. You can download it, all kinds of links to get that thing up on your smartphone. Hey, look, thank you so much to our great, great partners of the last couple of years. Are you looking to take your shop to the next level?
With NAPA Autocare, you can deliver unbeatable customer confidence through the peace of mind warranty. Learn how to upgrade your service and grow your business. Connect with your local NAPA rep today. Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the most critical tool in your shop, and NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training, 6 days a week support, and local representation.
Find NAPA TRACS on the web at napatracs.com. Okay, let's get started. Hi, Lola. Hey, Lola Schmidt from Schmidt's Auto Care. She's the chief operating officer. You must have made Eric, your husband, the CEO somehow. Yeah, it's what you get when you're the brainchild and the money hander over, right? Wait a minute, that's an official title? I am the money hander over Springboro, Ohio, under the same kind of threat of great snow and all this cold that we have up here in the Buffalo area.
Look at you guys are a 4-day-a-week business. Yeah, love it. How long has it been? Oh, this will be year 6. We started in May of 2020. Nice. Fantastic move for us. 8 AM to 7 PM. Does the entire staff work that? Well, that's not true. My in-house content creator, she does a 9 to 5 or 8 to 5. And then our financial officer, she works remotely and independently, so she does what she wants.
All right. So Lola has done some episodes with me in the past, one of them with David Boyce, Town Hall Academy 458. Way back when I had the Aftermarket Weekly podcast episode out there, you did a shop tour with us, you and Eric. That was back in February of '23. Oh, I was trying to remember when that was, actually. You can't get that on the app, but we're working on adding it to the app as an archived show..
But if you want to go to the website, AW146, Aftermarket Weekly 146, see inside of Lola Shop. Look, we're here to talk about some really cool things. Systems inside of hiring. This thing is going to— about the people, the HR side. We're going to talk about onboarding, creating a strong employee handbook. I'm sure everyone has one of those. And if we have an issue, we have to have a proper HR write-up.
Really fun topics. You know what? Please do me a favor. Don't turn us off. Don't slide up. Don't slide left or whatever it is that you do to quit listening to a podcast that could very possibly teach you at least just one thing that you'd say, you know what? I can implement. I can do that, or I can fix that. So that's what our whole objective here.
Lola's out all over the country, writing articles, speaking. And so, uh, gotten to know her and she does a great job. You ever get a chance to listen to Lola? Especially on that whole marketing and branding side, which is you're really, really good at. We may talk about that in another episode, but look, systems inside of hiring, there really are. Really? Yeah.
It seems like you should just be able to bring somebody in and talk to them and hire them, but it helps when there's a process or a system in place. There has to be. Let's get beyond placing the ads and you've found someone that comes in. There's got to be some items that would spark conversation, that would really help you dig inside.
And again, I think it's so important to have a cultural fit. Yes. Our first 2-ish interviews that we do is really more about who they are as a person than what they can do. Before I ever have you in my shop, like physically in, I'm going to give you a phone call and we're going to have like a 5 to just 10-minute conversation.
I just want to see how you are interpersonally as a person on the phone that I haven't met. Are you rude? Are you mannerly? Can you answer questions? Can you talk about yourself in a positive way? You know, I just want that general conversation. And I hate to say if it's a vibe, we'll move forward. But you do, you know, quickly, kind of in the first 10 minutes of whether that's a person you want to move and spend another hour with or whether you just want to move on.
And so that's really our first interview is a quick phone chat. And I'm only looking for your attitude at that time. That's it. It's an attitude review, if you will. And I love that. I love that as considering interview one, but let me stop you for a moment and ask your opinion on something that I continue to hear from recruiters and everybody in the industry who's looking to hire people.
They say it's awfully tough to get to the third interview with the shortage of really good talent that we have. And some people are. On a dime hiring on first interview. And I have in my whole life never thought that that was a wise move. No, you'll regret it every time. You have to do your due diligence with people. I get that your back is against the wall sometimes.
I have had my back against the wall. That's why we now have this annoying hiring process because we've made bad hires and this was our adjustments to fix it. And this has worked. Every single person that I ever just hired on a knee-jerk reaction, or because I felt it in my soul, or whatever it might have been, I have let them go, or they have let themselves go.
There is a reason that corporate America takes forever to hire people. They're doing their due diligence to not waste their time and money. We should adopt that same mentality, I think, in our businesses in our shops. You bring up such a great point, Lola. Oh my God, I had to ultimately adjust my hiring practices to find the right individual, adjust to fit.
I think you actually said it just doesn't take you more than one or two of these that you look back and say, total waste of my time, total waste of my effort. Why wasn't I more cautious? Why didn't I slow down a bit? Why didn't I stop to really think and look and listen and hear the things that I was hearing instead of saying, "Can you fog a mirror?"
Fogging a mirror just means you gotta wipe a lot of stuff off all the time. That is a mentality shift that you all just have to make inside of a shop because I know there's a ton of people who are like, "I have to have a tech right now. This tech says they can do this." But you actually have no verification process if they can, or if you're hiring the front of your house, a service, this is for anybody that goes into your shop.
Don't be swift with that hire. Do take your time. Slow and steady wins the race, right? So it's like, do these practices. So whatever works for you, this is just what works for us. That short interview, 5 minutes, 10 minutes on the phone. Also, if they can't give you 5 or 10 minutes on the phone, I've had the people, the techs seem to do it worse than service people.
They'll be like, I don't have any time to talk. Just text me or email me. Or I'll just come to the shop. Like, if you can't carve out 5 to 10 minutes for a new employer as well, that's usually a red flag for me too. So I'm looking to make sure that they can accommodate just as I can accommodate. So for us, that's that first kind of piece.
So a 5-minute phone call is all you really care? What are you getting out of that? I can hear, one, if they're going to make the phone call on time. Are you picking up when I call? Are you picking up, period? Are you competent to have a quick conversation? Can you communicate? Because you have to be able to communicate inside of our shop.
I'm looking for language as well. Like, if you are literally just F-bombing me the whole time in the 5 minutes, you're just not my fit. And that's nothing personal. That's just our shop's culture. We, none of us want it. Do you get a lot of that? Yes. There's been 2 phone calls I've ended before 5 minutes just on blatant What is it?
Conversational respect, I guess. Yeah. You know what this reminds me of? And I was discussing— who's that discussing this with? Oh, Tom Hamm, about this whole soft skills, social skills thing that a lot of our people today, and I'm not saying young or old, it just doesn't matter. They just don't get it and respect it. There's a level of professionalism that we're looking for in our shop.
That conversation lets me sort of see where you are. In your professionalism level. And it has nothing to do with what you can or can't do in a bay or behind a sales counter. That's just who you are as a person. So, you know, if I like that, then you can come in for an interview and we're going to sit down and talk.
A real live interview. Do you prepare questions is my curiosity? Yes, we have questions. We have questions for every different interview. I've got tech questions, Tech 1. Got it. I have Tech 2 questions. I've got service advisor questions. Everybody has their own questions. But our first interviews, the only things that we're looking for out of it are who are you as a person, your why for why you're in our shop, and are we aligning?
Like in that first interview, that first hour is usually what I have carved out and I invite them to an hour interview. We're usually wrapped up in about 45 minutes. I do try to be respectful of their time. But if the conversation is going well, I will ask, hey, can we talk a little bit longer? Are you cool to spend like 15 more minutes with me?
Whatever it might be. I don't want them to feel like they have to rush out the door. If we're having a good conversation, let's continue. But I'm not asking a lot of hard technical questions at the time. It's very, why do you want to work with us? What would make you valuable to our team? What are your greatest achievements in life? You know, like some of those types of questions.
My second interview or my longer one is when I'm gonna get technical with you. And I'm not gonna do that interview. At that point, you're talking to my managers. Got it. That's what I was curious. When do you bring in your people? Yes. After we've decided during the first interview, if you're a good culture and attitude fit, then we'll go to talk about aptitude.
So, phone call, then X amount of time, doesn't matter as long as you're feeling and learning the who, the why, or the alignment. With this individual, I just can't help but think of this ghosting thing that's going on big time in the industry. So in the last year, how many times have you been ghosted? Okay. So I have been fully staffed, so I did not have to do much interviewing last year.
The people who I brought in last year all came to their interview and all of them came through. So the year before that, when I was trying to get the house in order, A lot. Like one month I had like 37 no-shows and I had like 60-some interviews scheduled and 37 of those were no-shows out of that month. I wanted to jump off a bridge that month.
Thank God you had a lifeline in Eric. He probably didn't want to be my lifeline at that point. What I'm hearing from you is yes, ghosting happens to the best of us. But if you had that 5-minute, 8-minute pre-phone call, if you will, you still got ghosted after you felt right about this individual. Maybe they didn't feel right about you. No. Oh no, no, no.
The phone calls were the ghosts. Oh, okay. All right. That was my main ghosts is, and that's why it's so important. Lord, if they can't show up to a phone call. And you're right. You're designing your entire day around this individual walking in the door and they ghost you. It's better that they ghost you on for the initial phone call. Than it is for all the other heavy lift that you're gonna do in face-to-face.
I got it. Yeah. I work remotely like 99% of the time. So if I have to go into the shop to do a sit-down interview and you don't show up, I am gonna find your address. I'm coming to your house. You've done wasted my whole time. So I'm gonna have the, that phone interview is also for me too, to just be able to like not waste time with anybody.
Like, I can take a phone call from anywhere that I am in the whole world. So I'm ready for your interview. Are you ready for your phone call? You have a really good gut to determine a person could be right for interview too? Your intuition, I guess. Is your intuition like, "Oh my God, Lola, my intuition just— I know." I think I've had to talk to so many people now, there's like things I listen for and things that I just automatically am like, "I don't.
I don't want this." And you find a way to end the call, you know, respectfully, professionally. Thank you so much. And we try to be very honest. Like, if it's not a fit, like, I'll let you know, like, right then. Like, we're gonna let you know. I'm not just gonna— I hate when employers just, like, you never know if you got the job, you know?
Like, I don't do that. I will immediately be like, hey, this is not a good fit for us. Thank you so much for coming in. Have a great day. You bring such a great point up because we talk about ghosting people coming in for an interview. But if someone doesn't follow up and say you didn't get it, then the candidate believes that they got ghosted.
And so that's why they have no problem, you know, having a ghost you attitude. Right. So I love that. I understand why there's jaded employees out there because they've been also treated poorly on the hiring process side of things or in the day-to-day workflow side of things. Like, I get it. We have to give what we expect, right? As a NAPA Autocare, you already know that your reputation is built on trust, reliability, and service.
That's why every member automatically provides customers with the 24-month, 24,000-mile peace of mind nationwide warranty. Now that's coverage your customer counts on and a competitive edge you can't afford to overlook. Want to deliver even more value? Well, you can upgrade to the 36-month, 36,000-mile warranty program. Even better, that extended coverage is also available when your customers use their NAPA credit card for qualifying repairs and service.
With quality NAPA replacement parts built to meet or exceed OEM standards, you're not just offering competitive pricing and reliability, you're standing behind your work with the best warranty in the industry. Give your customers peace of mind wherever the road takes them and give your business the advantage it deserves. To get started, connect with your local NAPA representative today. Hey, stay ahead of the curve with NAPA Autocare's newest auto tech initiatives: Fast Track Assessments, Accelerator Immersive Training, and Tech Assist Smart Support.
The future of technician training is here. Connect with your local NAPA representative for more information. Hey, when customers choose a NAPA Autocare Center, they get more than a repair. They get trust, savings, and peace of mind. Want your shop to stand out? Connect with your local NAPA representative and get the conversation started to become a NAPA Autocare Center. Hey, you know the technician shortage is real, but NAPA Autocare has a solution at no cost to members.
The NAPA Autocare Apprentice Program builds tomorrow's technicians through a 2-year, 9-stage curriculum. Learn more at member.napaautocare.com or talk to your NAPA representative today. Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the single most important tool in your shop, period. NapaTrax has made selecting the right shop management system easy by offering the industry's best, most comprehensive SMS. Now it all starts when a local representative meets with you to learn about your business and how you need to run it.
After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice, and having local representation is a huge plus. Customizing Trax to your business, whether you're a one-person shop or a large multi-bay or multi- a location company, a representative consults with you to help optimize your shop's workflow, efficiency, and profitability. Traxx always has the flexibility to do business how you need to do it, which means it can also grow as your business grows.
And unlike the other guys, we'll be there for you after installation with the best training and support in the business. Yes, a learning management system tailored to each role in your company. Simply put, Traxx was designed and built for shop owners just like you. Visit us on the web at napatraxx.com. Okay, so you made them an offer, they accept the offer, what happens next?
After you accept the offer, the offer is a big deal for us. Like, that's like a whole nother time we're gonna meet. I'm probably gonna take you to lunch. If we're doing it like cyber-wise, like a gift is going to magically appear at your house like right after you accept. It's a big deal for us because you're coming to be on our team.
So we make it a big deal. We have the call. We immediately start to send over employee handbooks, hiring paperwork for you to have filled out. I want that brought back to me filled out. You can email it back to me. You can bring it back to me on day one, but that's my first set of instructions for you. Can you fill out your hiring paperwork and then have it back on my desk for day one?
So they're doing that. And then everything looks the same. Everybody's onboarded the same way at my shop. And you know exactly what your onboarding is coming in because I've been, I've sent you that packet ahead of time as well. It's about 2 weeks of onboarding with us, whether you're a tech or a service advisor. Service advisor's actually a little bit longer, but you go through, everybody in our team has a specialty.
So you go through the specialties channels to learn. They train you in the different aspect that they're strong in to train you in, from literally how to open our garage doors and turn on our lights to closing up the shop, to how to lift a lift up properly in the way we like it. I don't care how you did things at your old shop.
At this shop, we're all gonna do things the same way. So there's no questions in care. It's a definite onboarding. You're gonna take turns. We're gonna take you to lunch. Different people are gonna take you to lunch over the next 2 weeks. You're gonna learn the town. We're gonna go on all the test drives together so you can learn the paths. Service kind of starts to go through a 90-day service onboarding, 'cause we have many different things set up that we work through.
Blocks with service. So that's a little different than technicians. And then the marketing has their own kind of like layout path as well. So it kind of just depends on what role you come in for, but it is all very laid out. And everybody at this point, because we have hired in several people, everybody is very, very good and apt at their role.
And they're excited about their role. They got to pick what they wanted to train on. They're good at it. They're excited to bring somebody new in. So it just like embeds these people so nicely, 'cause you're not coming into a cold, stale shop. It's warm, it's welcoming. We are a team for real. Like, I'm a small shop. I only have 10 people on staff.
So you should get to know all 10 people. That's not a small shop, but I know you're humble. How many bays do you have? Like 8? I think we have like 12. 4 days a week, domestic, Japanese, diesel, Tesla, and EVs, huh? All of it. And ADAS. When did you add that? So we actually had our ADAS machine came in January of 2020.
We were ahead of the curve and we had no idea how to use it. We spent a lot of money on a piece of machine. We never actually have gotten our return out of it because now, like, we went in with all these valiant efforts. We were like, we're going to get with the body shops and we're going to get with like everybody.
And then COVID came and we got to be with nobody. And then we like, we should not have bought that piece of equipment at that time. And then like you're in survival mode for so long and Then we had one thing after the other happen. So, ADOS just kind of, we pushed it into the corner, but actually it's starting to be used now.
So, it's come out several times over the last few weeks, actually. Just glad to hear it. What I just heard you say the last 5 minutes was a comprehensive integration plan for every new employee that comes in. And I love the idea, love the idea. Hey, put your toolbox here, have at it. And that happens way too often in our industry where there's no training, no integration, no camaraderie, no lunches.
And oh, by the way, I had this other crazy thought. You said we'll send them a gift to their house. Like, what do you send, a fruit basket or something? I've sent a little bit of everything. So I have two people on my team that love to deep dive into whoever is coming on board. So they'll find out like all the goods on you.
Like I knew that we had a guy that liked fishing, so we sent him a big fishing kit with a big stuffed fish and, you know, like whatever you're into. It's almost the insurance that you're putting on that individual that doesn't get an offer from the place that they're currently at and they decide to stay after you've planned that 2-week come on in.
Uh, well, okay. So I actually did have that one time. Where like the dealer, I think it was a dealer, or the shop just came back and offered them some obscene amount of money after they had like accepted the job and were like heading out the door. They did stay. That was like 2 years ago. So that sucked because you did plan and the team was excited and you had spent time with them.
I'm also not going to play counteroffer with the dealer. This is my offer. So I can give you a lot of value here. I'm not going back and forth. Where does the employee handbook start fitting in here? Oh, the employee handbook starts the moment— actually, I will give you an employee handbook before I offer you the job so you can start reading through to even see if, like, around the second interview, I'll give that to you and be like, "Hey, start looking through this, read through this."
That's also part of your homework because if you come back and let me know that you've really not looked at the handbook or you don't know some basic things, I'm gonna assume you're not that interested in the job. I want them to know what's going on in the shop. It's not a secret what I have going on in my shop. If anything, the handbook is a huge benefit because I've had so many techs, probably like 95% of my techs have said, "I've never even seen a handbook at a shop before."
And that's some of them coming from like a dealer who I would think would have a handbook like corporately. Apparently I'm the only one with a handbook. And you're still doing it all right because it ends up being at the end of the day, if there's ever an HR issue, right? It's so helpful. Mm-hmm. So the handbook is another indication if they're willing to come in and live in your disciplines and in your culture.
It's very clear-cut. You know who we are. If you're reading, you can read the first paragraph, which is just an opening welcome paragraph, and be very clear about what we want out of our shop and what we're expecting and what we're willing to come to the table with as well. I love the idea that you're passing it out ahead of time before they even commit.
Maybe in the second interview and you really got a good feel here, will you sometimes not give a handbook out or will you always give a handbook out? If I'm not giving it out, it's literally just on my own negligence of just not giving it out. If I feel like I'm going to maybe invite you in, I'm gonna hand it out. You're going to hand it out.
No secrets there. No, I— no gatekeeping on what you're doing. This person's going to commit time to you and talents to you. I feel like we owe them that. They've got to understand your structure, your disciplines, your cultures, your methods, your protocols. They've got to understand all of that because that's what they're coming into. They're coming into an employee handbook, if you will, that's got all the guides of how you have a lovely life here working for Schmitz?
I try to remove all the questions, all the stuff that, like, I said on a lot of forums, and I laugh all the time because people are like, I don't know how, when I, how to get a vacation. I don't know when my owner pays me a vacation or when I can take a day off. I don't know when I'm off. Nobody ever knows what holidays they're off.
I'm so confused all the time on why people would want to work in facilities where they don't know how to They don't know what they get with their job or how to access things. It's interesting to me. How do you really feel when you see that? I'm somewhere between enraged and sad, honestly. Wow. I love that. Enraged or sad. But that was such an honest answer, Lola.
Really. I get it. I feel like we can do better. Like, as owners, you take a big responsibility to people when you become an owner. It's not just open a bay and turn a wrench, especially if you're going to hire people. You need to be prepared to hire people. Okay. We have an issue. We have to do an HR write-up. Give me your high-level, how to properly write that will actually ultimately help you in an unemployment case if that's an issue.
Okay. These are very important. It's not a fun subject. Nobody likes to talk about it, but if you are going up against unemployment, they're going to be looking for accurate detail. And information, not your feelings on the subject. Dates, times, if this has been a conversation, is that conversation documented? Is the accident documented? Is whatever it may be, is there past documentation that was verbal?
Is there video? Is there writing in place? They do not want to see words like, "I feel like the employee, you know, didn't do XYZ." They want to see, does your employee handbook, or does your wage and benefits, or does your whatever you promised them align with what's gone on? What rule did they break? You can't just make up rules in the middle of the workday.
So for us, it would be very detailed. The paperwork looks the same: date, time, occurrence, facts that support it, that are not like you're going into a case, you know, of law. Facts. That's it. No feelings, just facts. No feelings, just your facts. And as long as you have things lined up, all of that should be very clear. It's gotta be in the manual.
It's gotta be in the handbook. Gotta be somewhere, whatever you wanna call it. It could be a documented policy, you know, it could be a process that was ultimately broke that created a very grievous thing. To your point about the handbook or the policy, the protocols manual for the business, it's gotta be written down and there's gotta be a signature that says, I know it, I get it, I understand it.
Because, well, I thought they knew. You can't go into a, if you will, a challenge to an HR issue or unemployment without your total ducks in order. Listen, in the past I've had that issue in my own businesses in the past and You win some and sometimes you lose them, and then you learn. It's this major learning curve that I never documented that thing that caused this issue and cost me money.
Yeah, there's been several times we've had to edit the handbook because I've gone, thought I had the language buttoned up really well, and then when I go to the, you know, the case, because I'll appeal it until we get to the phone call case if I have to.. And when I present my evidence, I've literally had the lawyer on the other side be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And it would just be because like a word like was just not used correctly or whatnot. So like the nuances matter, which is also why I tell everybody, if you're going to do an employee handbook, you need to make sure a lawyer looks over it. Cause you can't just be making up rules in your business. Like they have to be legal rules.
Do the due diligence there as well. But so many payroll companies today can help you with all of that. Oh yeah. There are a lot. We use Patriot Payroll Software and they've just launched this huge backend HR software. If I was just starting, it would be like amazing to be able to use. Now, I limped along with all that at the beginning.
All the majors. They can get you kicked off. That's how I look at it. Listen, here, here's the skeleton of, we've interviewed you, we've understood what you have. We know what kind of business. We have other clients like you. Let us get this, if you will, version 1 of your handbook created. Now you've got to still lift your eyes, lift your mind, lift your pen, and work this document in every step of the way, knowing that this is a legal thing.
That you could be challenged on. So sometimes I always look at things that, well, I'm getting too granular. Well, maybe not. You have to weigh that out. To your point about having a lawyer ultimately at the end of the day, review it. Somebody with different eyes than you. That's a great point. That's not really attached to your business, you know, because if other people in your business are reading it, they're like, oh yeah, that's great.
Maybe it's not. You're 100% right. Yeah. A different perspective. Someone who doesn't really live the day-to-day and could say, well, that's not that important. That'll never happen to us. No. An attorney. And again, I, I think you're right about having it. It needs to be an attorney because that attorney, every time that attorney reads something, Lola, they're gonna think of how would I defend this or how would I prosecute this while they're reading it.
The same one that would go to any of our court cases if we had any. They're the same one that's dealt with anything legal with us is the same one that looks over it for sure. Have you, have you been lucky and not had any big issues? Yeah, we've not really had any tremendous issues through time. We've been very lucky, very blessed.
So you still have a strong manual, both processes and HR, because you're protecting yourself. Not only on the legal side, but just through the great workings of your business. You work really hard to build something, right? Like, you want to protect it. It takes a long time to realize that this really protects both people. It's not just, you know, it protects your employees, but it also protects your business.
You said a mouthful. I think the ultimate feel for this episode is you do everything in your power to protect your business, and that is recruiting and terminations, or, you know, it's first offense, whatever you have to do. And then in between, the processes that are going on, the protocols inside the shop, are not only for your own safety issues but for a great client experience.
All of it's for the guests at the end of the day, right? Yeah, there's a lot here. Here's the objective. Lola didn't come on to say she's an expert or to make you an expert. She's here saying, and I love to say, pay attention, please. Any final words? Reflect what you're passionate about in your business and document it for your people. Wow.
I love that. Another great title of this episode. Lola Schmidt, uh, thank you so much. Schmidt's Auto Care, Springboro, Ohio. Along with husband Eric and their great 4-day-a-week business. Thanks for being here. Thanks. Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the premier automotive repair business podcast, Remarkable Results Radio. Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com.
Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel. Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry. Until next time.
More from Remarkable Results Radio
The Automotive Hiring Cycle: When and How to Recruit Top Technicians [THA 502]
Thanks to our Partners: NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> What if the best time to recruit your next technician is when your shop isn't looking to hire? Lisa Coyle, CEO of Promotive, and Sam Freeman, Partner Manager at Promotive, reveal why automotive recruiting has a cycle, and why understanding when technicians are looking can give shop owners a significant advantage. Lisa and Sam explain how recruiting data, market timing, candidate behavior, and consistent relationship-building can create a much more proactive hiring strategy. Download the 6 Month Promotive Hiring Insights Report for FREE: https://info.gopromotive.com/RRR What You'll Learn Why technician recruiting has a cycle and why timing matters.Why “post and pray” recruiting puts your shop at a disadvantage.Why finding a top technician can take 60 to 70 days.How local market data can improve your job postings.Why you should recruit even when you don't have an opening.What may really be behind candidate ghosting.Why a counter-offer doesn't have to end the relationship.How consistent communication can prevent first-day no-shows.Why complicated hiring processes can cost you great candidates.How the F.O.R.D. method can make interviews more personal and effective. Great recruiting is about timing, data, and relationships. Don't wait for an empty bay to discover you need a recruiting strategy. Understand when technicians are most likely to consider a move, know what candidates in your market are searching for, simplify your hiring process, and stay connected with good people even when the timing isn't right. Your next great technician may not be looking when you're ready to hire. The opportunity is to build the relationship when they're ready to listen. Promotive has over 40 years of recruiting and automotive experience. If you need qualified technicians and service advisors and want to offload the heavy lifting, visit https://gopromotive.com/ Meet Paige: The Auto Repair Industry’s First 24/7 AI Recruiter [THA 481]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/a481/ Lisa Coyle, CEO of Promotive Sam Freeman, Partner Manager at Promotive NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training, six days a week of support, and local representation. http://napatracs.com/ Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. https://www.todaysclass.com/ Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. https://www.kukui.com/ You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download and Listen on Our Mobile App: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:https://remarkableresults.biz/<a href="https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/" target="_blank"...
The Power of Financing: A Growth Tool for Auto Repair Shops [RR 1108]
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode What happens when a customer needs a $2,000 repair but doesn’t have the cash available today? That moment can determine whether the vehicle gets repaired, the customer delays a critical service, or they take their business somewhere else. For automotive shops, offering flexible payment options can be more than a convenience. It can be a powerful tool for helping customers say yes to the work their vehicles need. Kwane Stokes, Assistant Vice President and Relationship Manager in the automotive division at Synchrony, explains how the program can help shops remove financial barriers, increase repair opportunities, and create another reason for customers to return. Kwane also addresses why many shops still aren't offering financing and how the biggest obstacle may simply be the assumptions advisors make about a customer's ability or willingness to pay. What You'll Learn Why financing should be presented as a payment option, not something an advisor decides a customer needs.How the program's average first and repeat purchase amounts demonstrate the potential impact on average repair order (ARO).Why assuming a customer can't qualify for credit can cause shops to lose needed repair work.How monthly promotional offers can give shops another reason to communicate with their customers.How advisor incentives and simple training can encourage more consistent presentation of financing.What the upcoming "waterfall" financing model could mean for customers who aren't approved through the primary credit program. The biggest opportunity may not be finding more customers. It may be giving the customers already sitting at your counter more ways to say yes. The key is removing the assumption that you know what a customer can or cannot afford. Present the options, explain them clearly, and let the customer decide what works for their financial situation. For a shop, financing isn't simply about collecting payment. It's another tool for helping customers get the repairs they need while protecting the relationship and keeping the work in your shop. Kwane Stokes, AVP, Relationship Manager, Auto Network, Synchrony Learn more about the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with on-site training and six days a week of support: http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download Our Mobile App:https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderBooks Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomEpisode Collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:https://remarkableresults.biz/Automotive Field TheorywithMatt Fanslow:https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the NumberswithHunt Demarest: https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Brian and Kim Walker: https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitzwith Chris Cotton: https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communicationwith Craig O'Neill: https://craigoneill.captivate.fm
Daily Habits That Build a Stronger Auto Repair Shop Culture [THA 501]
Thanks to our Partners: NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> What does a strong shop culture look like when you’re the people living it every day? Bree Wismer, Service Advisor and Frontline Culture Leader, and Trevor Hinds, Operations Manager and Dispatcher at Empower Automotive in Traverse City, Michigan, take us inside the daily habits and communication practices that keep their team aligned, productive, and focused on the customer. Rather than approaching culture from the owner's perspective, Bri and Trevor share what happens on the front lines. They explain how Empower Automotive breaks down the traditional divide between the front counter and the bays, keeps everyone on the "same bus," and creates a workplace where every person understands their role, respects the team around them, and contributes to the same goal. What You'll Learn Why the front counter and specialists must operate as one team.How daily huddles and short training sessions keep the team aligned.Why the 1:00 PM check-in can prevent late-day customer surprises.Why a "no-update" update can be one of the most valuable customer communications.How to respond when customers arrive with AI-generated or parts-store diagnoses.How respect, communication, and accountability create confident professionalism. Building a world-class shop culture doesn’t require a massive budget or a complicated organizational overhaul. By committing to these small, consistent actions, you can transform your shop from a high-stress environment into a thriving, unified business that both your team and your customers enjoy. Bree Wismer, Service Advisor, Frontline Culture Leader, Empower Automotive, Traverse City, MI Trevor Hinds, Operations Manager, Dispatcher, Workflow and Culture, Empower Automotive, Traverse City, MI NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training, six days a week of support, and local representation. http://napatracs.com/ Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. https://www.todaysclass.com/ Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. https://www.kukui.com/ You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download and Listen on Our Mobile App: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:https://remarkableresults.biz/Automotive Field Theorywith Matt Fanslow https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numberswith CPA Hunt Demarest: https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Brian and Kim Walker:<a...
Rapid-Fire Automotive News: AI, EVs, Autonomous Vehicles, and the $19B Trade School Boom [RR 1107]
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode How quickly is the automotive repair industry changing, and are you ready for what's next? Tom Ham, shop owner and founder of the Automotive Management Network, joins Carm Capriotto for a fast-paced conversation covering 12 major trends shaping the future of auto repair. From autonomous vehicles and solid-state batteries to the changing value of trade careers, AI, government regulation, 3D printing, and vehicle reliability, Tom and Carm explore the technologies and economic shifts shop owners need to understand. What You'll Learn How autonomous vehicles could reshape vehicle safety and the repair industry.What advances in solid-state batteries could mean for EVs and vehicle range.Why trade careers are gaining momentum as technology changes traditional employment.How the technician shortage is creating new opportunities for shops to develop talent.How government regulation and emissions enforcement could affect vehicle owners and repair shops.What current vehicle reliability trends reveal about today's automotive brands.How 3D printing could help shops solve parts availability challenges.Why AI is becoming a powerful tool for reducing friction and improving efficiency.Why shop owners need to stay curious and adapt as automotive technology continues to accelerate. The automotive repair industry is changing faster than ever. The shops that thrive will be the ones willing to understand emerging technology, embrace new tools, develop their people, and continually rethink how they operate. The future isn't coming someday. It's already showing up in the service bay. Tom Ham, Automotive Management Network. Tom’s previous episodes HERE. Learn more about the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with on-site training and six days a week of support: http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download Our Mobile App:https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderBooks Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomEpisode Collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:https://remarkableresults.biz/Automotive Field TheorywithMatt Fanslow:https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the NumberswithHunt Demarest: https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Brian and Kim Walker: https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitzwith Chris Cotton: https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communicationwith Craig O'Neill: https://craigoneill.captivate.fm
Related across the catalog
99.08% Diagnostic Accuracy: Inside a Master Tech’s Playbook
Joe Adams interviews Adams Automotive Master Technician Josh Gerbrecht about his journey from technician to top diagnostician, sharing the systems that drove his 99.08% diagnostic accuracy and the big takeaways from a Key-to-Key-to-Callbacks weekend. They discuss the front-office/back-office symbiosis, the Rack Attack inspection process, recruiting and paying technicians their worth, shop tours and hospitality, and how AI could streamline diagnostics and incentivize accuracy over just speed. AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com
Shop Owners: Maybe YOU'RE the Problem | Tristin Sweeney - 38
Running a shop is hard enough—you don't need your software making it harder. 😂 If you're ready for more clarity, better organization, and a smoother experience for both your team and your customers, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAt 29 years old, Tristin Sweeney is running an auto repair shop, building automotive technology, and questioning some of the industry's favorite excuses. In this episode, Tonnika Haynes talks with Tristin about his unconventional path from the startup world into automotive, acquiring Honest Automotive, building Shift, and why owning a shop became the ultimate testing ground for solving real industry problems. But things get spicy when they tackle the supposed technician shortage, outdated hiring practices, shop owners blaming younger generations, and why good employees may be leaving shops that refuse to change. They also dig into AI, technician training, communication, leadership, burnout, and why new technology should solve problems instead of creating more work. If you're a shop owner who keeps saying, “Nobody wants to work anymore,” this conversation might make you look in the mirror.Timestamps:00:00 Why automotive has become unattractive to work in00:23 Downshift intro00:42 Meet Tristin Sweeney: 29, busy, and obsessed with automotive01:23 Audi, Volkswagens, and where the car obsession started03:15 Can you be a great service advisor without knowing cars?04:40 There are more automotive careers than turning wrenches06:26 From tech startups to the automotive industry07:17 Getting laid off, joining ShopGenie, and finding his industry09:17 Running TWO automotive businesses at 2910:11 How Tristin bought Honest Automotive after finding it on Facebook14:01 Has shop ownership given him gray hair yet?14:32 Building a shop around passion and customer experience16:21 Honest Automotive is also Tristin’s “laboratory”16:48 How Shift Automotive was born18:19 Building software from the problems that drive shop owners crazy19:10 Technology problem or people problem?20:17 How does someone working 60–70 hours a week avoid burnout?22:55 Success isn’t worth burning yourself out by 3023:19 Tonnika gets VERY personal about Tristin having kids 😂25:32 Why Tristin is committed to automotive for the long haul28:53 Shift grows to more than 150 shops30:02 Why simply SHOWING UP can change your career31:21 The “Gen Z stare” and learning how to communicate33:34 Get in rooms where you’re uncomfortable37:04 What will automotive look like 10 years from now?41:11 Shop owners who ignore AI WILL get left behind42:43 How should shops prepare technicians for new technology?43:27 Does every tech need to understand the newest cars right now?45:48 Why the next generation matters more than ever47:58 What does a technician actually need to “look like”?48:48 Is the technician shortage actually a hiring problem?49:48 How many great technicians are shops overlooking?50:48 “I hire people. I don’t hire jobs.”52:00 Why automotive can be an unattractive place to work54:18 Great shops generally aren’t struggling to find applicants54:51 The talent is out there—and some of them want to leave their current shop55:55 If recruiters can steal your technicians, that’s a YOU problem56:04 Most shop problems start with the owner57:30 Accepting criticism from your employees—even your own son58:03 Old-school leadership vs. the way Tonnika leads today59:33 The macaroni-and-cheese recipe for evolving a family business1:01:47 Is treating every employee differently “coddling”?1:03:50 Why one universal pay plan doesn’t work for everyone1:04:39 Flexible schedules, flat rate, salary, and what actually motivates people1:07:08 Shop owners who refuse to compromise may lose great technicians1:07:56 Bad bosses create the next generation of bad bosses1:08:21 Why leadership and communication have to be learned1:13:00 Stop micromanaging every detail of your shop1:14:22 “Granddad did it that way” isn’t a good enough reason anymore1:15:28 The Carfax data debate gets spicy 😂1:16:24 What Carfax actually gets from your shop1:17:47 Tonnika’s grandfather discovers OnStar and thinks “they’re coming for him”1:19:03 Technology fear usually comes from misunderstanding1:19:45 Tristin’s legacy: Leave automotive better than he found it1:20:00 Where to find Honest Automotive and Shift Automotive1:21:22 Closing, AI hot takes, and what’s next
216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors
216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors August 26th, 2026 - 00:54:51 Show Summary: Strong phone skills can turn more incoming calls into appointments while building trust from the first interaction. Consistent call reviews give service advisors a clear path to improve without making coaching feel like punishment. AI call analysis reduces the time required to find useful coaching opportunities and helps owners identify patterns across their team. Positive reinforcement also matters because great calls give advisors examples they can repeat. Simple habits like smiling asking for the appointment and using the customer’s name can dramatically improve the experience. Better phone performance ultimately supports stronger customer relationships higher appointment conversion and long term shop growth. Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development Guest(s): David Boyd, Founder & CEO of Callinbound Tonnika Haynes, Owner of Browns Automotive, Downshift with Tonnika Haynes Show Highlights: [00:04:00] – Listening to real calls reveals missed opportunities that owners rarely see. [00:10:00] – AI identifies coachable calls without hours of manual review. [00:14:00] – Consistent coaching creates awareness before advisors answer each call. [00:17:00] – Replace a hard no with a plan focused on customer needs. [00:24:00] – Help advisors self coach instead of simply pointing out mistakes. [00:28:00] – Every missed appointment can represent significant lost customer value. [00:34:00] – Asking for the customer’s name immediately creates a stronger connection. [00:39:00] – Scheduled call reviews make coaching normal instead of threatening. [00:43:00] – Asking for appointments helped turn successful marketing into a fuller calendar. [00:49:00] – Call tracking connects marketing performance with actual appointment conversion. In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fv9ewVBoSks Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this! Links & Resources: Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com. Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night. Thank you for joining. So excited for us to have this conversation today with some really good friends. Everyone, this is to be an interactive webinar. So you're sitting there, you've got questions, you've got concerns, type them into the chat. We wanna be able to ask those questions of our panel today as we are talking about a very interesting topic. And with us today, first, is our good friend, Mr. David Boyd of Inbound Communication. David, how the heck are you, brother? David Boyes: I'm great. I, I, uh, I fully intended to have my jacket on, Jimmy. Jimmy Lea: Man. David Boyes: So excited to be here. We Jimmy Lea: coordinated on this and everything. David Boyes: I know. I, uh- Next time ... I, I was, I was lucky as, as busy as we've been at Call Inbound to, uh, uh, get up and, and organize and dress today. So I really, uh, it's always great to see you and of course, um, uh, we got to visit a little bit out at, uh, Worldpac STX and, uh, man, I tell you what, your wardrobe is always top notch. Jimmy Lea: Hey, thank you. Thank you. We're glad you are dressed today, just don't stand up. Thank you very much. David Boyes: Great. Jimmy Lea: And joining for us in our conversation today, David, is Tanika, Tanika Hayes with, uh, Haynes with Browns Automotive. Tanika, how the heck are you, sister? Tonnika Haynes: I'm doing good, guys. What's going on? Jimmy Lea: Staying alive. Good to see you. Great to see you. Also at STX, what did you think of the, the conference there with Worldpac? Tonnika Haynes: It, it was really, really good. I was not prepared for the size of it. There was a lot of people. People were peopling. So, um, once I got adjusted to all of the crowds and everything, I enjoyed it. I hadn't sat in a class in a really long time, like at an expo. Ooh. I'm usually just walking around and being nosy, but I picked up some good nuggets, so it was great. Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. That's awesome. Well, if, if the STX was a large conference to you, I would suggest that you really prepare yourself months in advance if ever you come out to SEMA and Apex in Las Vegas. Tonnika Haynes: I will be there this year. Oh, good. I keep hear- hearing that, so I don't know what meds I need to be on to take, To take it all in. But Jimmy Lea: we'll- You- Tonnika Haynes: I'm excited about it ... Jimmy Lea: we, we will talk about that because there is more than you can see within a week, and you really only have three days at Apex, four days at SEMA. You want to map out where you're gonna go, who you're gonna talk to, who you're gonna see- And for you, Taneka, schedule some time to sit down and chill Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. I'm gonna have to definitely do that. You're talking about, um, scheduling times. I'm gonna schedule time to go sit in the corner and recoup. Uh-huh. So where's Taneka? She's in the corner. Jimmy Lea: Yep, and, and I- It's David Boyes: scheduled time ... Jimmy Lea: I, I'm gonna work with you on that because I know the corners, I know the places where you can go and, and find some solitude. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Jimmy Lea: I am. Well, our conversation today is in preparation for making your shop better David, I'm gonna kick it over to you, brother. Let's start this conversation with Taneka. David Boyes: Yeah. Let's, uh, let- let's kinda move into this. You know, we're, uh, talking about communication, and there are so many facets that impact the customer experience. I think that it's important to know that, you know, there are tools and there are, uh, from an owner or, and manager's perspective and from a service provider's perspective, there are ways that we rally around making communication better. Um, you know, one of the things that is common at all shops is, uh, the customer phone call. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah. David Boyes: So you winced a little bit. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Uh, how many times do we, you know, talk about our phone skills, uh, getting better on the phone, understanding the customer, understanding their needs, addressing their needs? And there's so much, you know, revolves around, uh, the phone calls and, and the way that our advisors and our front office team handles these. Maybe you have a CSR, maybe you have, you know, a service manager. Um, but people are, are answering calls all day long, and this becomes important that we understand who's answering the phone- Mm-hmm ... how they're communicating, what, what's the message that's being shared. Every time that phone rings, uh, that, you know, we like to say that's money calling. So Taneka, let me just ask you, you know, what, what are some of the challenges that you see or the, uh, the successes that you have with your team when it comes to managing and, and, uh, getting better on our phones? Tonnika Haynes: I wanna start by saying, um, I think I listened to my first phone call at my meeting with Jen- Jennifer, with the Institute. I'm currently coaching with the Institute, and that is life-changing- Yeah ... to listen to your team answer the phone. So if anybody's out there and they have not done that, they have not listened in on a phone call, figure out a way to do it. I don't know if it's gonna be a little paper cup and a string, but figure out how to do it. Um, and then I, listening to my own phone calls, and I- I'm the boss, right? I still cringe. And so you never know what's missing from those phone calls, what, what, what is standing out. You know, my team, we would not even ask for the appointment. Like, "Would you like to bring this in today?" You know- Oh ... you ask all the questions, they go through the scripts, but then we found that they were not saying, "Hey, would you like to get that done? Would you like to bring that in today or tomorrow? What works for you?" They were leaving it all to the client to say- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... " Tonnika Haynes: What's next? What's next?" Hmm. So they were answering the phone, and they were s- being very polite, but they were not closing. They didn't have a lot of words with closing. And so with inbound, I've been able to coach- You know, when you listen to yourself and you're like, "Ooh, ooh." And you can say, "Do you see what you did there?" Or even, 'cause you know, the team can listen to their own phone calls. "Oh, I see what I did there. I see where I dropped the ball." So that was, opened up a whole bunch of eyeballs around here. Well- It's like, "Oh, it's Monday, it's time to listen to phone calls." Like, "Ah." But you just increasingly get better over time. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. And, and the ability, Taneka, the ability to have calls from today- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm ... Jimmy Lea: or from yesterday or, or even the day before. Uh, there was a time a decade ago when we would have to listen, as coaches, we would listen to calls. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. We're trying to find a coaching call, a call that is coachable, and this might be a call from two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Mm. The advisors are going, "Dude, oh man, that's forever ago. No, man, I, I don't do that anymore. I'm not like that." But David, I, I think you kind of solved a bit of that problem with your phone services. David Boyes: Yeah, thanks. It, you know, it's, it's important to, to recognize. I think every owner I've ever talked with has a similar issue. It's... And a lot of it rev- revolves around time, right? Are, are we aware of what's actually happening- Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... David Boyes: on the front line? Mm-hmm. And, uh, some of it is, uh, I wanna keep this a little bit at arm's length because I, I can tell you as an owner, I will have an emotional response when I listen to that phone call. And Taniki, you brought up a great point. For owners and managers here that are on the phone, please listen to your own calls. Yeah. Do it at least one time. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Well, twice. Have to Tonnika Haynes: bite the bullet. Just do it. David Boyes: Yeah. Just do it. And, Tonnika Haynes: and, and be ready. Just like- ... just like, "Oh, that is me." Yeah, that is you. David Boyes: Do it- Yeah do it twice because the first time that you listen to a call, uh, it's gonna just be weird, right? So listening to myself on recordings is always weird, but there's this heavy lift of time, right? Am, am I aware of what's actually happening on the front line, and how are we interacting with customers? And then do I have, do I have a mechanism to understand what's my expectation? As an owner, um, you know, it, it's important to establish that expectation. Maybe you're working with a call coach, maybe you've been in trainings yourself. It's, it's ideal to have a method by which you're going to measure your call handlers. And, um, you know, we wanna be professional. We want to build confidence and, and build rapport with these customers. It doesn't have to be fast, but typically- Mm-hmm ... you know, an incoming call from a customer is likely an appointment setting call or a status call. We're gonna set that status call, uh, bucket aside for a second 'cause we wanna be in front of, uh, status calls instead of having customers call us. But if you're listening to these and you have that rhythm around it, uh, we understand how these small habits can build on one another. Am I, am I smiling when I answer the phone? There's something physically that hap- When I, when I physically smile, there's something that is noticeable in the way that I'm communicating. And, uh, am I, am I clear? So what are the expectations? You know, uh, if you watch your advisors, I have, uh, my little cordless handset here. If they tuck their phone in like this, and, and you know, they're, they're trying to multitask Listen to those calls because likely it's very, very difficult to hear on the other side of this. So listening to calls, uh, helps us understand how, you know, how we conduct ourselves, how we conduct business, how am I representing the business that I, you know, that I'm working at as a professional. But also, what is the customer hearing and what is the customer's experience? So, um, these are, uh, important points, and it starts by listening. Jimmy, you brought up a, um, an important aspect here. Historically, we would listen to call after call after call after call to try to find something I can use to coach. So Taneka, you might do this. You've got a call recording system. It doesn't do much but just record those calls, and now I have to go through this, this process to identify a coachable opportunity. And this is now I think where we can move effectively into technology, right? We all hear so much about AI today, and what's really nice about, uh, having, you know, a, a phone system that records is now you have an asset, and you can use that asset to do something more with it. And we can use AI to help that heavy lift of time and, you know, take 90% of the time requirement off. So instead of having to spend 30 minutes, I might have to spend two or three minutes to take that call, sit down with my service advisor, go through this, and have a meaningful, constructive conversation about the things that work well. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I, I love, David, that your software makes it so easy to find these coachable calls so much faster. A- and Taneka, that's just gotta be a lifesaver for you as well, coaching your service advisors. Tonnika Haynes: It is. I remember, um, speaking with a friend, fellow shop owner, and he's like, "I need you to set aside a time." And so what I did is on my calendar, on Wednesday, that's the day that I sit down and we go over phone calls. And so, you know, you got the dashboard, and that dashboard will say, "This is a coachable call. This is a coachable call." And it is a habit for me as the owner/manager, um, to make sure that I'm staying on top of it all the time because we'll slip into old habits, right? So me listening to the calls and bringing the service advisor or, um, or bring Jay in and say, "Hey, let's listen to this. Let's see how we can get better." You know, you continuously improve on it, and you don't slide back into old habits. Because I'm not on the phone as much anymore. If I have to answer the phone, I know personally, and everything's at stake for me, I slide back into old habits. So we all are capable of it, and so having that dashboard in front of us and said, "Hey, this is a call you need to look at," the service advisor or the person answering the phone does not feel like they're being picked on, but they're being improved upon. So, "Look, I'm just lifting you up. This is what we can do. Do you see how we can make this better?" And it's a we, it's a us, it's coachable, it's there, it's real, and, um, I really enjoy th- that part of the dashboard. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. How often, Taneka, do you send, "This is a really good call"? This is a really good call. I Tonnika Haynes: like a really good call How often do you send that to the team? You know what? Yeah. I probably should do that more. But when I see a good call, I, I, I like to share it. And when I get a good review, like I l- literally just got a good review based off of a bad situation that we were able to turn around with proper communication, and the customer l- literally said, he's like, "The communication... The problem was still there," he said, "but the way they handled it and the communication was key." So he was not satisfied when he left, but the way that we dealt with it afterwards, and that recording of how we guided him through the process, and how we, you know, we apologized, we came up with a plan, apologized again, and kept it moving, and that was a great coachable call. It's like, this is how you handle a bad situation. Look how we won here. So yeah, those are just as important as the, as the losses, as the bad calls. "Hey, this is a good call. G- this is a good call." That balance is super important. Yeah, it balances it. Yeah. And then, you know, it's like, okay, I did that right. Even when that client is a client that does not belong to you, and you can hear them tell the customer, it's like, "Hey, you know what? Appreciate your call, but this isn't the place for you." And that's not the word for word, but, "Hey, you handled that good. Thank you for saving us from a nightmare." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Amen. Share it with your team. So you gotta share the wins and the, the misses. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And, and, uh, for a lot of people, I think they struggle in the creative. So if they can hear it, that it's already been done, they can duplicate. Sure. They can mimic. They can do the same thing over and over and over again. So the more we send these beautiful calls, "Oh my gosh, you guys did so well on this phone call. I, I love this part, this part, and this part," they're able to duplicate that, and they'll do it over and over and over again. And then, then you're- The mistakes that are being made become much less because you're showing, you're, uh, mirroring to them these are the really good calls that we wanna hear. Tonnika Haynes: And, and sharing that when you're going over a call, you got the good call here, we can work on this call, but this is another good call. You know, we talk about giving that sandwich. Yeah. And so that's another opportunity you can give that good sandwich. So when it's time to come in on Wednesdays and listen to your phone calls, you're like, "Ooh, I know I got one coming and I think I know which one it is." And then you're like, "Yeah, but you got this one too, so you won here, and, uh, we missed on this one, but next time it's not happening." Right? Right. So it's, you know, it's all in coaching. Jimmy Lea: Oh, David Boyes: it's so true. You just said something that's super important, and, uh, ooh, I think I know which one this is. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, there, there's a lot to unpack there. I, I, I love the, the good with the bad. We'll talk about that more too, but, um, creating the awareness. So consistency wins, and, um, I'll say it again, be consistent with the process because consistency wins. And when you have that rhythm where it's familiar and it's expected, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna listen to calls, we're gonna go through this, identify the opportunities, um, it's not good and bad calls, it's, you know, it, it, uh, we call them top calls or champion calls and coachable calls. So a coachable call isn't inherently bad. Maybe we even got an appointment. Tonnika Haynes: Mm. David Boyes: Right? But there's, there's opportunities. So, uh, when we have that rhythm and it's expected, what's really important about what you just said is the awareness. So when I go to pick up that phone, is this the call that Tanika's gonna be talking with me about tomorrow or, you know, Wednesday, whatever our rhythm is? It, it will begin to create that moment of pause that as an a- an advisor when I'm picking up that phone, I can take that breath. Yeah. I can, I can, uh, let that, uh, you know, that technician that just blew me up Tonnika Haynes: Let 'em David Boyes: go. I can let that slide off. I can shake that off. Yeah. And I can focus for a moment to make sure that that customer knows right at this moment they are absolutely the most important person to me right now. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that's an important message to convey over the phone, our, uh, the, you know, the way that we speak, the words that we use, my en- excitement and enthusiasm about being on that call all comes through. So as we get through this rhythm and we develop the consistency and it becomes normal, now I've got that awareness on my team that, hey, this next call I'm taking, I'm gonna have the moment of pause to focus because this might be the next one that, that we're reviewing. I want this to be a positive call that, that Tanika's coming to me and saying, "You did really well on this one. Let's continue to develop this," and, you know, replicate the things that are working well. Instead of, "Hey, there's some opportunity here. You know, you didn't ask for the appointment. You were, you know, pricing over the phone. You said 'no'." No comes out in a lot of ways, doesn't it, Tanika? Where- Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah ... we, David Boyes: we might be telling somebody, uh, "You know, I'm really busy right", or, or, or "W- we, we're really busy right now, I can't get you in until Friday." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: That's, that's, we might as well just say, "No, I can't help you." Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. You, that's, that's all they heard was the no. Um, even if you give... And, uh, everybody knows that I'm, I'm big on nos. Like, I can give you a no where there's some healthy nos, but then there's some nos and you have the customer saying, "Hey, um, m- my brakes are making the noise and it just started." And he's like, "Oh, no, I can't see you till Friday." He's like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna die before Friday. I wanna see somebody now." Um, so you don't, you have to learn how to coach them and say, "Yes, so bring that in. Let's take a look at what you've got, and then we'll come up with a plan." You didn't promise that it was gonna be today or tomorrow, but you said, "Bring it in. I'm worried about your safety. Let's see what you've got." Yeah. "Let's see if you should really be concerned about that check engine light. It might be a EVAP code." They don't know that, "But go ahead and bring them in." So and then you, like you said, the cadence in it. This, I'm not gonna make you any promises over the phone, and I would literally say that. "Hey, I don't wanna disappoint you by making a promise that I can't keep. So don't- Yeah ... don't make me, don't put me in that hole. But I need you to go ahead and bring that in to me as soon as you can. Um, and let's scan it. Let's see what you've got, and let's see if you should really be worried, if you can make that trip or we need to bring you in right away. We will help you come up with a plan." So just that solid no. "No, I'll see you Friday." Jimmy Lea: He, " Tonnika Haynes: Meh. No you won't." Yeah. Like, so that's support. That's Jimmy Lea: my- David Boyes: It, it becomes very collaborative in what you just said. Hey, let, let's make this about you, let's make this about your safety and your confidence to drive that vehicle. Maybe you gotta get across town and your commute is 30 minutes. Let's make sure that your vehicle is safe, and then once you're here and we make sure you're safe, let's talk about, uh, when we're gonna have that on the schedule. We'll get that vehicle in Tonnika Haynes: and prepared. Yeah. What are the next steps? Yeah. So let's go ahead and get- let's get your nerves calm- Mm-hmm ... and then let's come up with the next step. Let's come up with a plan. Us, us, us, we, we, we. So Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. And, uh, you talk about s- building a solid foundation for this, the solid foundation for their skills so that the, the ongoing training you're doing really builds on that foundation. Uh, we've got a three-day service advisor with the institute. We're gonna give a shout-out to the institute here right now. So everybody grab out your smartphones, scan the QR code if your service advisor needs a solid foundation. Thank you, David. If you need a solid foundation- Registered now ... and you need to start with... Yeah, get registered. I know you've been to a couple of these, David, 'cause- I have you've talked about all the skills here just really, really well. If your service advisor needs that and you need to go from zero to hero very quickly, this is an intensive that you wanna send your service advisor to, and it will be at headquarters in Ogden, Utah. Fly right into Salt Lake, and, uh, and we got you set up there in Ogden. So, yes, David Boyes: scan that. It's a beautiful drive up from the airport. This class is, uh, it, it, it will help establish the, the fundamentals to build on. Yeah. So you come here, it's, you know, it's boot camp, right? We're, we're going to make sure that we're establishing the expectation and give you something to build on as the owner. Send your service advisors in here. Uh, they'll get those fundamentals, and then you'll have, you know, these, these mechanisms, uh, to improve them over time. I promise you it'll be a, a real game changer for your frontline. Tonnika Haynes: Well, you know what? Beautiful. I wanna piggyback on that. Um, and I wasn't coached to saying this. If they've already been, send them again. Jimmy Lea: There you go. Mm. Tonnika Haynes: Send them again, because here's the thing that I know, and I'm just gonna make it simple. I want you to think about your favorite movie. Like when, when I was in the 20s, for me it was Friday, the movie Friday. And then we watched that movie every Friday after work with the crew that I worked with, and it was just the most ignorant movie and the best movie for my generation. Each time I watched that movie, I would see a different thing. So I want you to think about your favorite movie and, or v- your favorite comedy. Each time you'd watch it, you would pick up something else. So it was like, "Oh, I didn't see that that last time." So even when it comes to training, "Hey, I did this three-day class and I did it a year ago. I grew." Jimmy Lea: Do it again. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Do it again. Do it again. You, you're never too mu- uh, there's never too much coaching. So just do it again and you'll see it from a different angle. I just wanted to say that. Yeah, 'cause, um, there's been some classes that I, I take, and not just this one, but other classes, like, let me take that class again. Yeah. And you're like, "Aha. I didn't remember that from last time." Yeah. I didn't implement that from last time, 'cause we, you guys tell us, and coaches will tell you, "Just go and implement one thing. One thing." I mean, watch those changes, and then the next time you take the class, let's do one more thing, maybe two, and get, get a little bit better. Right. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So speaking of training, ASTA, A-S-T-A, is coming up here real soon, Taneka. Real Tonnika Haynes: soon. We're less than 30 Jimmy Lea: days out. Let's give them a shout-out. Tonnika Haynes: Shout out to ASTA. Those are the people, not the people that made me, but it's my just one, my just one thing that I took away from there each time has helped build me to where I am. And I am, I cannot say I would not be where I was without them. But I would not be where I was, where I am without them. From those, those people that I met, the village that I met, meeting you, meeting my first coach, just meeting my, my industry brothers and sisters that I can call on at any time when I'm about to flip out, or when I have a win. 'Cause you know as owners and when, when you're a little higher, you can't share your wins with everybody without some jealousy. True. Yeah. So when you have a win and you have that community to call on. Mm-hmm. So yeah, ASTA is the place to be, September 24th to 26th, right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. So I hope somebody shows up. And, uh, I wanna meet some... Well, I know Jim. I'll be there. Jimmy will be there. You will not miss him. David Boyes: He'll have the jacket. Tonnika Haynes: He will have plenty of jackets on. It is a fun atmosphere, lots of community, lots of learning and growing. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have a jacket war, so anybody who wants to play. David, you're bringing your jacket, so David Boyes: who wore Jimmy Lea: it best? Yes. Yeah. David Boyes: Yeah. I, I wanted to make sure that we were gonna f- uh, be able to carve out some time to do the who wore it best. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, David Boyes: always. I think, so B- Benji will be involved. Brett will probably be involved, right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, you, you two- Mike Allen ... Mike, okay, Mike, yep. Tonnika Haynes: I, I, I feel like we should have a girls version of this, 'cause you know, if the women got involved- Jimmy Lea: We always lose Tonnika Haynes: I mean, we would just throw you guys under the bus. Jimmy Lea: It's true. We tried that, Tanika, and you swept it. Yeah. You swept it. There, there was no- Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do that to you guys ... competing with Jimmy Lea: Tanika. Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do... Yeah, I don't wanna do that to you, so we'll, we'll figure it out. Maybe I'll make a f- couple phone calls and text messages and see what's up. David Boyes: Yeah. Speaking of phone calls. Speaking of phone calls. Tonnika Haynes: Throw that back in. David Boyes: I have a question for you. Yeah. Yeah. That's, hey, I couldn't have asked for a better softball there, but that's great. Um- ... thinking, thinking about the coaching process, you know, I, I, I had mentioned before it can seem a little uncomfortable, even as an owner. You know, listen to two calls, because that first one, you're gonna be so- Mm-hmm ... consumed by how weird I sound on the phone, right? So, but when you, when you started this with your team, what, how was it received? What were some of the, the challenges, uh, do, you know, h- what feedback did you get about listening to calls and going through the analysis? Tonnika Haynes: So I wanna say that when I first did it in, in coaching, so in a group setting, and you're listening to your team, so they call in, they have to do a call and they'll record a call. And so it's like, "Oh, well this time she did this, and this is the excuse." You wanna come up with excuses. You wanna defend- Right yourself. I wanna defend my shop. And so that service advisor's gonna wanna defend him or herself. Like, "Oh, well, you know, that customer and this was that." I was like, "No." So you get past that, and it's like, okay, like I said, you give the sandwich. Okay, so this is a great call. You tell me what you could have done, could have done better in this call. Right. 'Cause I don't wanna be in... 'Cause if you go into attack mode and say, "Oh, you should do this better, and you didn't follow the script, and you, you, you, you, you," you're gonna get somebody that's gonna put up a guard and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I did my best." So I'll say, "I know you did your best on this, this one call, and you did a great job on this call. What happened, brother?" Balls in your court. Tell me how you can improve on this. Mm. What do you need from me to help you improve here? Was there a distraction? What was, what was the problem? So I kinda feel like I can teach them to self-coach. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: I'm, I'ma give you a whole toolbox. You've got this toolbox. You know what a good call to- sounds like. Like, you also have a mirror. There's a mirror right there. Look at yourself. You've got reminders. I've got sticky note reminders on each, each person saying, "Don't forget to ask for the sale." What happened? "Oh, man, I was distracted, I sh- I should've..." Yep, you should've put the mouse down. You should've put the mouse down. So usually people will first get defensive, same. Mm-hmm. Um, then the defense mechanism starts to come down. Say, "All right, okay, so how do we fix this so next time I cannot find a bad phone call?" Jimmy Lea: Bingo. David Boyes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I love it. It, yeah. I love that you have a mirror there and you have sticky notes there helping as well, Taneka. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's, that's so good. ' Tonnika Haynes: Cause we forget. And- And it's okay- Oh, we do ... 'cause we get busy. But the Jimmy Lea: more Tonnika Haynes: we work on it- And I, Jimmy Lea: I, you... I'm certain that you guys have heard this before, that a fake smile is better than a real frown. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. David Boyes: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. And I'm really good at that. And so I've learned that because I've been doing it a very long time, so people know that I can really make you... I could, like, really fuss you out, and I would sound so sweet 'cause I'm smiling at you the whole time. "Well, you know what, Jamie? I think that was the stupidest thing you've ever said." Jimmy Lea: And if you do it with a smile, you can Tonnika Haynes: get away with it. And you're doing it with a smile and, and when you're shaking your head. So that smile makes a difference. And when I'm- It does ... picking up the phone out of an emergency, if they are busy up front and I'll see that phone ringing, and I pick it up and I'm not ready personally, I'm not ready to answer that phone, and it's a client that knows me, and I'm not smiling, I will get a, "Hey, Taneka, what's wrong?" You Jimmy Lea: okay? 'Cause Tonnika Haynes: they, "You okay?" And I'll say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was distracted." 'Cause that's usually what happens, you're distracted, or that service, that, um, technician just rubbed you the wrong way or something's happened at home. So but once you put that smile on- You just fake it till you make it. And now you, I usually don't like to say that, but sometimes you do have to fake it till you make it. Like, yeah, absolutely. And use those words of, those positive words. Absolutely. Let's look into that for you. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Sure. I love it. Love it. We talk about the phone call and how much it's worth. Uh, Bimmer PhD Motorsports is saying, "Can we dig into that a little bit?" How much does it cost to get that phone to ring? How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? You talk about the mindset and you talk about the service advisor- Mm-hmm ... and the smile that's needed to be there, fake or real. How much is that phone call worth, Tanika? Have you analyzed any of that in your shop? Tonnika Haynes: So that was actually a, um, something we did in the 20 group with my coach Jen. We went through that and we calculated how much it costs to sh- get that phone to ring. And I really wish I was prepared and I had that number for you. But once you realize that number, share it with your team. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: And then, uh, the institute probably has, um, a blueprint on how to figure that out. So you're looking at how much your website is, your Go- Google ads, any form of marketing that you have out there, down to the phone bill. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: How much does it cost to make that phone ring? And once you see it as the owner, you're gonna be like, "Whoa." And you share that with the team. Like, every time that phone rings, it costs me this. And then also think about your ARO. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Bingo. Tonnika Haynes: And every time- Yep, yep ... we do not get a y- yes, and we don't get that client through the door, we lost $850. Potential $850, potential $1,100. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: So once we start thinking about, you know, everything, everything's not about money. It is That Jimmy Lea: we keep score. Tonnika Haynes: It is how we keep score. Yeah. Like, you know, we, we talk about we've got the metrics on the dashboard. Numbers don't lie. People do. Your emotions will. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: It costs me $75 every time that phone rings. Mm-hmm. And when you ring it, and when you land that deal, that's a potential 850, or whatever your ARO is, or whatever- Yeah ... that's what it is. And that's, and how long does it take to get that one client to get through the door? Yeah. And also think about how long you can hold onto them as a client. How many years Jimmy Lea: are you gonna- Tonnika Haynes: What's the lifetime value of the client? What's the lifetime of that client? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So that smile when you answer the phone, yeah, that's worth a lot of money. Jimmy Lea: Tens of thousands of dollars. Tonnika Haynes: Tens of thousands. So go ahead and put your Vaseline on your teeth- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... Tonnika Haynes: and, and start a- smiling. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's an old theater trick. Yes. Are you a, are you a musical theater person? Tonnika Haynes: No, but I just know about- Where are you pulling that from? ... Vaseline on your teeth and, 'cause you get tired of smiling. You, you know, at the conference, you have this whole muscle thing. You're like... Jimmy Lea: Uh, yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Keep s- keep, just keep smiling, smiling, smiling. Jimmy Lea: That's right, David Boyes: Dorothy. Those are important numbers, uh, to know how much does it cost to get that phone to ring. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, in some cases it can be, uh, you know, several hundred dollars depending on really all of those factors around generating those phone calls, and then what that ties into when the phone does ring, um, and we don't ask for the appointment. Has that $850 or $1,100 just walked over to my competitor across town? Yeah. But it also sets the stage when we're talking about coaching and development to bring it back to what's in it for me. As a service advisor, you know, most high performing shops are incentivizing their advisors on these, you know, these GP numbers and, you know, there might be other metrics on Google reviews, maybe have spiffs for these different things. It all requires us to generate the appointments and get those vehicles in so that we can have an inspection and we can, you know, generate the, the estimate and ultimately have a sale, and then make this an amazing experience for the customer so they're gonna come back next time. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, at the very front end of the phone call, you know, it, it takes X number of dollars to make the phone ring. When that phone rings, the customer, if they're a first time caller- Uh, they're likely y- we as, as a business are likely setting the stage within that first 15 to 20 seconds for the length of our relationship. So based on those initial interactions, we're going to begin setting the stage of how well this customer visit is going to go, uh, how much that we're developing trust with this customer. Do they trust me as an advisor? Do they trust this business, that we're experts and we're gonna help them, and we're gonna do so in a, in a fair and meaningful way? And then also, uh, we're going to set that basis for a repeat customer. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that, that's where we get into the, the longevity of our relationship. Interestingly enough, so much of this happens at the very first moments of that very first phone call. And when we acknowledge that as a service advisor, I'm like, "Oh, that does tie back to the paycheck I get." As a business owner, "Wow, that ties back into the stickiness of my customers." I love, you know, repeat customers. I love repeat business. So we wanna drive these skills up front. Uh, Taneka, you talked about, you know, sitting down and going through, um, some of these calls and the, the service advisor reaction. Have you really developed and, you know, share your expectations on how you'd like the, the phone answered? I'm not asking about a script. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: But like that flow, right? We don't wanna create robots. Right. What have you done at, when you, you know, train and develop your team on here's what I would like to hear from you? Tonnika Haynes: So I haven't honed that in 100%, but I, I do know that we wanna thank them for calling. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: We wanna know how did you find out about us? Great. Is this your first time calling? How'd you hear about us? So, so we can track that, right? Yeah. Was it a repeat? Was it a neighbor? Was it a Google? How did you... Was it a postcard? How did you hear about me? Um, what can I help you with, and how soon can I get to it? Can you bring that in today or tomorrow? And, um, and smile. So I have these little things that I want them to say that's on the side- Yeah ... of their computer, and I don't want you to sit there and read and just say, "Oh, well, yes, sir, how can I help you today?" I want it to flow naturally because that's who we are as a shop. We- we're not a scripted shop. We're, we're a bunch of goofy people, actually. People. We just happen to fix cars. Um, and that's who we are. Yeah. And I want that to come through. I want you to be friendly. I want you to re- when they come in with the cat or the dog or whatever, please not a cat, but the dog. I want you to put in the notes, this is, this is that customer's name and this is what their dog's name. If they refer to their, their car, "My car's name is Pearline." If you called my car by his name, I'm not taking it nowhere else So I want you to build that relationship. And so I don't have a script and I don't have a formula yet, and maybe I should work on that. And, um, we do have like a SOP. Yeah. Probably should do a better job at that. But then what you just said made me raise my eyebrow, like, I should do better with that. But we do have some things that I'm, that are non-negotiables. David Boyes: You've got your flow there, which is great. Mm-hmm. And I think you're, you're doing better in that than, than- Yeah ... uh, some owners that, that we talk with. I encourage, I encourage everybody to have a flow, right? Yeah. We, we wanna kind of go through the conversation. I'll tell you the number one, um, deficit that I hear within the first probably 10 seconds of a phone call is asking for the customer name, right? So- Right ... "Thank you for calling ABC Automotive. How may I help you? Um, yeah, I can help you with that. My name's David. What's your name?" Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: It's so simple. Yeah. And, uh, I listen to call after call after call. I mean, these, they, they pop out because of our AI call analysis, but where we go through this whole process and we've had a 90-second call or a two-minute-long phone call, and at no point ask the customer name. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And then you assume that the name on a caller ID is their name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Right. Tonnika Haynes: That, that's a problem, too. I know that we were doing... I was doing it as well. Yeah. I would do it as well. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But, um, and, and with that, I had a little challenge saying, "Hey, I want to see you guys' name on the, the review." Yeah. And it really bothers me when a client calls to check on their car, and I have to, have to answer the phone, "Hey, who was your service advisor?" "Uh, I don't know." What? David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: They need to know your name. David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: So I had to make sure that everybody had their own business cards when the car was dropped off. "Hey, my name is Stuart. This is who you should call to check on your car. Everybody here can help you, but I'm the main person." So I think a lot of people just don't do that, and say, "Hey, well, my name's Tanika. Who am I speaking with?" Great. "Have you been here with us before?" David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: You know, if it doesn't pop up on the caller ID, "Have you been here with us before?" Yeah. But the caller ID pop up, that's a game changer. Am I skipping ahead? Should we not go that far yet? David Boyes: No, you're fine. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Thank you, David. Yeah, just be ready. Yeah, be ready when, when David Voigts calls Brown's Automotive, and you call and say, "Brown's Automotive. This is Tanika. Hey, David, how can I help you today?" What is that? What are you doing? You knew I was calling. You know, like- Yeah ... yeah, caller ID exists. People forget about that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But- They do. They do. But it, it's just extra special. Yeah. And that's what the caller ID... I know one thing I do when the customer's walking in, and if I know I have a blue Toyota Coro- Corolla coming in at 9:00. "Who is this coming in?" Yeah. "Hey, Mrs. Such-and-such. Good morning. Oh, hey." Instead of saying, "Can I help you?" Yes, you can help me. That's why I walked through the door. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. " Tonnika Haynes: Hey, M- hey, Mary David Boyes: Jane." Or, "Hang on a second. I'll be with you in a second." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. No. David Boyes: Don't do that. Tonnika Haynes: Don't do that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So, um, there's a lot to be said about customer service, and there's a lot to be said about s- calling people by their name. Jimmy Lea: Amen. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: It creates familiarity. Yes. And, uh, when, when we have familiarity, we have a relationship. Mm-hmm. It's in- it's potentially implied. But people love to do business with, with the, the folks that they have a relationship with. Mm-hmm. And they're inclined... You know, this is the fun thing about consumer behavior and human behavior, is when I have a great experience, I wanna rally my friends around that too. I want to include them in the joy that I get to experience when I come see Tanika and her team. Yeah. So I'm gonna- I, I'm gonna be much more likely to tell folks about it. If I have a meh- Meh ... average experience, it's probably not gonna come up in conversation. I'm not gonna stick my neck out there. But, um, how do we do that? Well, we address people by their name. We know when they're calling, right? I might even be pulling that up in my shop management system or my CRM. Just the s- the second the phone rings, it's gonna pop and present that information. "Yeah, I saw you were in three, three months ago, and we had looked at, you know, X, Y, Z on your vehicle. Should we add, add some additional time to take care of that this time?" Right? It, we have an awareness. They have confidence in us. We know them as a person. We know their vehicles. And now we're, we're joining together with our customers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, at, at a common goal, right? And it comes back to their safety. Well, Tonnika Haynes: so what'll happen is you'll get a client, and, um... Sorry about the background noise. That's all right. You'll get a client, and they're not thinking about their car. They, they, they've grown to love you. They've grown to know you. They know you by your name. And then you made the recommendations last time. They trust you enough that they are just gonna be like, "Okay, whatever. I'll talk to you about it next time. Tanika's gonna remember that for me." Say, "Hey, Miss Mary Jane, you remember we talked about..." "I don't remember we talking about." "Well, here's a copy. I'm gonna send that over to you. We're gonna look at it, these things again." Yeah. It's just like having a whole system, and then you become that person. It's like I don't have to remember what my car needs 'cause Tanika and her team have the history, and they know me by my name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And they're gonna take care of me. David Boyes: The paradigm shift there is I, you know, as a service advisor, I'm the expert. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: As the service manager, I'm the expert, right? You've come to me because of our and my expertise, and I'm sharing the belief that you wanna be safe and you wanna care for your vehicle. So allow me to make these recommendations. Allow me to, to keep that, those notes about our previous interactions so that when we meet to, when we meet again, we can make sure that w- you know, we're, we're not starting from zero- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm David Boyes: that we already have this information available, and we're going to improve that experience. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, on the, on the call coaching side of it, um, you know, I, I think at some level you've kinda normalized it in your shop, and I'd love to learn more about how, you know, how did you do that? It's, it's not typical, I would say, that people are just, like, rallying around, "Let's listen to calls," right? 'Cause part of it is, you know, the exposure or this kind of fear of judgment. But once you normalize that and make it consistent, um, I'd love to know how you've done that and, and keep the, uh, the Big Brother mentality out the door. Tonnika Haynes: Well, I don't, well, we've got cameras, and we've got these things recording the calls. And, and first of all, these calls are not being recorded to get you. These calls are recor- Yeah ... recorded to cover your butts from that crazy person that swear they didn't say it. Mm-hmm. These calls are recorded to make you better. Um, I remember Chad say, "Hey, just put it on the calendar. Just put it on the calendar." It's like ha- having that one-on-one for the first time. Nobody knows what to say or to do. I'm not trying to attack you. I'm just trying to make you better. So let's just... I listened to my call. Be vulnerable. Me. Hey, Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Tonnika Haynes: you don't wanna listen to your call. I didn't wanna listen to my own call. But let's, let's do this. It's just on the calendar. And like I said, the defense will just break down a little bit at a time, and I found that with my one-on-ones again. Like, we do a first Monday one-on-one. If I was late or if I skipped the one-on-one, they're like, "Well, why did, I didn't get my one-on-one. Am I in trouble?" They look forward to it. Everybody wants positive reinforcement. Amen. So if you keep it positive, and then some- like, "Hey, I looked at 10 of your calls, and out of the 10, only 3 of them were coachable." Or, "Hey, you remember when we started out, how you would have, like, a 11 bad calls out of 20? Dude, you only got two this time." So make sure we measure it, okay? Schedule it, measure it, keep it going. Know you're uncomfortable, they're uncomfortable, and just say- I don't wanna do this. Nobody wants to do it. Nobody wants to lift that... Well, a lot of people don't wanna lift the heaviest weight for the muscle gain. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be painful, but it's gonna get easier. It's gonna be easier for me and you as the coach and the coachee, or is it a coachee? Whatever. So, I mean, it, it's... I don't know if there's an easy way to put it, but I just know that you just keep doing it, you be consistent, and you let them know if you're uncomfortable. Like I hear shop owners say, "How do you start this one-on-one stuff? How do you start this coaching stuff?" You just start it. And you're just like, "Ooh, hey, I don't know what I'm doing either. Let's do this together." Yeah. "Let's, let's get better together." Like, I'm listening to my calls too. We're all getting better together. So I would just say start it, put it on a schedule, make it, make it pop up, show up. Yeah. Wednesday, coaching calls. Jimmy, one of the- Schedule it. It's ready to go. David Boyes: Yeah. That, that's perfect. I, I, I love the perspective too. And Jimmy, one of the, you know, the things that I share with owners consistently is be consistent. Mm-hmm. So I think the, the technology drives that, right? We're delivering an email with, you know, here, here's a, a top call, here's a coachable call. Here's some additional information. So delivering that is important, and the technology really helps us drive that consistency in this case. So, um, when that, that email comes out, here's a call example, you don't have to do anything with that today, or you can. If you don't, there's another one tomorrow, right? Mm-hmm. And we wanna create that normalcy. And th- this is the part that drives change, is one, you know, we're, we're making this normal. Yep. And Tanika, you were just talking about that, right? We're gonna put this on the calendar. People begin to expect it, right? It becomes normal for them, and that's a super important milestone in the coaching, training, and development process, is that sense of normalcy in the shop. And then, um, u- understanding the expectations and, you know, where do we have the opportunities. Um, Tanika, you know, one, one thought that comes to mind here is, you know, you'd mentioned at the beginning, like ask for the appointment. As you began doing this, you know, what, what did you begin to understand and, and see happening across, you know, the phone calls and across your organization? What patterns began to emerge? And really, what's that aha moment you had where you're like, "This is bringing value to me while I'm bringing value to my team"? Tonnika Haynes: Ooh, that's a good question. So when we start asking for the appointment, you know what? The calendar filled up. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. So the marketing was working. And, um, but the big aha moment... Ooh, that's a good question, Dave. You got me on that one. Should have text me that before you asked me that one. I'd been ready. David Boyes: My Tonnika Haynes: apologies. Phone with you. Aha moments with phone calls. I don't know. I, I really, I can't answer that one for you, but what I do wanna say before I forget the chance, don't get the chance to say it, when they're sitting beside each other up front and they're lis- 'cause they're, everybody can hear everybody's phone calls. Mm-hmm. I can hear them say, "That was a good one. What was that one about?" Or like Stuart would tell Hailey, he's like, "She's, she's had a lot of good phone calls here lately. I can hear the change in the way she's handling the phone calls." So again, um, may have got a little bit off subject, but them helping each other and encouraging each other. Maybe they can only hear one end of the phone call, but there's some key words like, "Oh, you killed that one." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. " Tonnika Haynes: You killed that one." Or making that sale on the phone call. Yeah. "I heard how you delivered that BVI. I heard that delivery. You gave them the good sandwich," and they said yes. Like this morning, she was like, "She said yes to everything." It's like, "God, it's working." Imagine that. Love it. Imagine doing a training, following the instructions, and it actually working. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Gotta David Boyes: love that. It really is the aha moment too, right? Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: You're, you're going through, you're driving consistency. You have, you know, some form of flow and expectations, and you're learning from one another. I love the fact that- Mm-hmm ... they're listening at least to one side of each other's conversations- Right ... in real time. Tonnika Haynes: I David Boyes: think I'm lucky Tonnika Haynes: with that- And then getting to populate from that ... with my team. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: I think I'm lucky with my, 'cause they're, they're not in competition, and, um, it's like how do you keep them... I don't know. God blessed me with that, but I'm just lucky that way. But encouraging each other- So. Jimmy Lea: It's good. That's good, Tanika. You, you've set up a solid culture there, solid people. They've got great results. You're listening to the phone calls. Consistency, like David's talking about. You know, um, hearing one side of the conversation helps a little bit, but if you, if you, as an owner, if you're only listening to half the conversation and you are not booked up three, four, five, six, seven, eight days in advance, chances are you're missing the other half of the conversation, and you need to listen to it. So you do need a device, a program, a, a hardware. You need a, a phone system that allows you to listen to all sides- Mm-hmm ... of the conversation. You've g- just gotta be able to do that. You gotta be able to do that. Now I'm gonna give another shout-out here as we work in our marketing. So a lot of times I hear shops talking about their marketing. "Well, my marketing's not working. I'm not... It's not working. It's not working." A lot of times it comes back to the phone call. Mm-hmm. How well is the phone call being handled or treated from an advisor? But speaking to the marketing part, we've got a shout-out here for the institute is holding a marketing intensive this October 26, 27, 28. Tanika, I just got off the phone with Brett Faidley. He is signed up. He is coming out for Mars Conference, so if you wanna get signed up as well, sister, we'd love to have you out here. Tonnika Haynes: I gotta get a real flashy jacket for that one. Jimmy Lea: Uh-huh. Tonnika Haynes: Pull out my Jimmy Lea: rhinestones. Right behind that Mars Conference. So if you got your smartphone there in front of you, grab out your smartphone, turn on your camera. There's the QR code right there. Oh, man. Flash the QR code and get registered. The, the, uh, the Mars Conference is going to be awesome. It is a conference where when you are done with the workshops, it's a three-day conference. When you're done with that three-day conference, you have 2027 mapped out, ready to go, and you know what you're gonna be doing month to month throughout that whole next year. It's super awesome. I, I love the Mars Conference. David Boyes: I do too. So Jimmy Lea: come- David Boyes: I was at the last one. Excited to be there. I'm, let me just say I was there as a participant at the last Mars Conference. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: And, uh, one, getting to, you know, to interact with so many, uh, friends across the industry was great, but also, uh, you know, I, I, I don't own a shop. I own a, uh, communication business. I took so much away from that that I immediately applied. I can speak from my own experience. Uh, and I know, uh, you know, many of the participants there that took those components right back to their shop and made immediate changes. So it is, uh, it's not just a, um, it's not just a workshop where you're gonna come away with a flashy workbook and put that in a dusty cabinet somewhere and never do anything with it. I promise you, you attend the Mars Conference, and, uh, you will come away energized and ready to make a real difference in your shop Jimmy Lea: Yep, for sure. For sure. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Like I s- I'm never gonna be at work if I keep coming, following you around, Jimmy. David Boyes: Just imagine your wardrobe, though. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, I know. It'd be so good. Jimmy Lea: It'd be so good. Tonnika Haynes: But no, we'll see. I, I'm thinking about that. I thought about what we talked about the other day, but we're not gonna get off subject 'cause I do that a lot. David Boyes: It can happen. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. David, what else? What else can we talk about with phones, phone systems, programs? Um, can we track our marketing using your phone system? David Boyes: Yeah. Uh, just on that very note, you know, the, uh, uh, we'll talk about this a little bit this year at Mars as well, but, you know, market tracking is important, right? We, we spend a lot of money, and understanding the performance, uh, is important. So with our phone system, you know, we can provide, uh, market tracking numbers if you have different campaigns, mailers, text messaging, website, uh, related, uh, leads that you're generating. Um, we can certainly provide unique numbers. The customer experience is the same, and the, um, you know, the shop experience is the same, except you have all of this additional data about, you know, how many calls were generated. So that's important to know, and, uh, it's also important to, uh, use that as a, you know, a good baseline of information about your capacity to manage phone calls in your shop. So when we look at some of the, uh, the other performance metrics, how long does it take us to answer the phone? Are we answering the phone, right? Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: In order to ask somebody for the appointment, we have to first answer the phone. Uh, and if you're spending this money on marketing campaigns, there are a variety of reasons, and I'll just tell you one example that I hear often from owners is, you know, they put out a marketing number and they, you know, advisors, uh, might believe that it's, you know, it's generating bad leads, something like that, so they won't answer that phone. Um, but we wanna, we wanna understand, uh, the behavior of what's going on. Is it something that we can control? Um, are, are we effective in the marketing campaign? What information do I have around that? And then additionally, uh, running that into the call analysis, uh, so that we understand are we, are we converting these, right? If we're generating the leads, are we actually generating appointments? And then, uh, from that point, if you know you have the appointment, you can measure your performance, uh, go forward. So there's a lot of data that we can capture, um, other than just sending in all of these phone calls to the main number. Jimmy Lea: I love it. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love the, the phone is such a powerful tool. I love when we can multitask that tool and do multiple things with the, the same tool. Very cool. Very cool. But i- if there a- any questions, comments, concerns from our audience, we would love for you to type those in. If there's questions for David or questions for Tamika, go ahead and type those into the comments section. While they're doing that, I will say if you are trying to keep up with me, good luck. But you can find it on our website. The website page is, uh, wearetheinstitute.com/events. That's all of the events that are coming up here in the very near future where you will see the institute participating and locking arms with the industry to help elevate the industry. Our motto, our mantra is, better business, better life, better industry. We're gonna lock arms with you as a shop owner so that you have a better business. The net result of you having a better business is that you have a better life. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: And not just you have a better life, your advisors have a better life, your technicians have a better life. Your, uh, your partners have a better life. Your spouse Your advisors' significant others, their spouses, uh, their, their technicians and their spouses, the, and their children. Everyone elevates, everyone breathes better, everyone sees a bluer sky and greener grass when we have a better business, a better life, and our commitment is that we will help this become a better industry. Looks like there's a couple of comments that did come through. Oh, no, that's Raleigh posting out the webpage for the events. Yeah. Uh, super awesome. Super awesome. Uh, last final thoughts, final ideas. David, we'll start with you. Tanika, then to you. Yeah. That we can help this industry grow. David Boyes: Tanika, thank you for joining today and, and sharing your experience. It's super valuable for, for me as a provider to our industry that, uh, we understand how we're driving impact. So thank you again for that. Thank you for your trust and support. For the, uh, the audience, uh, Call Inbound is our company, callinbound.com. Uh, we provide communication services, uh, call tracking information, uh, advisor call handling performance metrics, and AI call analysis. But above all, we're part of the industry, right? So, uh, I got my start with, uh, with the institute in a 20 group. Got, you know, very ingrained in the industry, uh, while I was building my company. And, um, you know, I'm proud to say that I'm part of the, uh, not just the automotive aftermarket, but the, the service repair industry. Thank you, Tonnika Haynes: gentlemen. I wanna make, make sure you know that I appreciate your company. Um, I don't know how many employees you have, but it seems like they're all just sitting in the same room waiting to help. I can send an email and I get a response so quickly, and it's always been consistent great service, so I do appreciate that. And, uh, anybody that's on the fence, whether you, you know, I'm like, "I don't wanna listen to phone calls, that's just another thing for me to need to..." Do it. Listen to the phone calls. Start with yourself. Start with yourself as the owner. I always say start, start with yourself. I always assume that I'm the problem, then I can work from there. Listen to your phone calls, and if you think you're good and then you listen to them, you realize how bad you are, think about how bad your team is if you're not coaching them. So get them in coaching call services or what- whatever. Listen to the phone calls. Get everything in order. And not only will you make better sales and better connections, more appointments, but I really truly believe that it could save you a lot of heartache. Yeah, they record bad calls, too. Bad calls from the other end that you're, you know, that you need, I hate to say for court, but anything. It's like, "Hey, sir, we've got that call recorded and that didn't go quite the way you're saying it's gonna go." So that's another part to it that could, that could be very important in your shop. We call that David Boyes: the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. David Boyes: We'll take that to the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: It, it, it's an important to CYA. Exactly. You gotta cover your own behind. Tonnika Haynes: There's a great... That's a great tool for that. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. Yep, for sure. Well, with that, thank you very much. David, thank you for being here. Taneka, thank you very much for being here. Tonnika Haynes: Any Jimmy Lea: time. Look forward to seeing both of you very soon at our next conference, and to give you a big hug and say hello. Uh, bring your best jackets, David. Say Tonnika Haynes: less. Gotcha. Say less. Back in the David Boyes: studio. Jimmy Lea: Yes, yes. Very much looking forward to working with all of you in the very near future. And for everyone that is listening, thank you so much for joining us today as we talk about building a better business, a better life, and a better industry. My name is Jimmie Lee. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and we're here to lock arms with you and make a difference. Click on it. Come find us. We're here to help. How can we help you? Let's make a difference. Talk to you soon.
