The Affordability Myth in Auto Repair: Rethinking How Service Advisors Present Repairs [THA 476]

0:00This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. Hello to my listener base. It's Carm Capriato. Thank you so much. We couldn't be doing this each and every week for almost 11 years if it wasn't for you and you hanging out and listening. And hopefully one day here very soon, you're gonna download our app. Maybe I have to convince you in just a minute, but remember here on the podcast, Remarkable Results Radio and today's Town Hall Academy, Our purpose obviously is to advance the professional automotive repair service industry through storytelling and open discussions like we have.

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2:12Get industry-leading customer support with Kukui. That's K-U-K-U-I.com. You're probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue. On the web at pitcrewloyalty.com. Hey, welcome back everyone. I've got a heck of a crew here and we're gonna talk about this whole affordability thing. Andy, I'll let me introduce my panel.

2:43Andy Fifick, president, founder of an 11-store franchise operation in Cleveland, Ohio. Rad Air, also the former chairman of Max. Hi Andy. Thank you. Good morning. Thanks for having us. How's it feel to be retired from Maxx after all those years? I'm, you know, ex-chairman now, so I'm still on the board, so not quite gone. And they still got you working. I get it.

3:06Yeah, I'm still involved. Chris Letendre is here in— let's call him an inside sales coach, support team for American Pride Automotive. 6 locations, right? Yeah, 6 locations. Correct. Virginia, in the Virginia area, both Metropolitan and Rural, deals with this type of stuff every day, I hear, from training and coaching perspectives for your counter people. Welcome. Yeah, well, thanks for having me. Good morning, everybody.

3:32His first time on the show. Good to have you here. So, okay, do we have an affordability issue? All I hear about— frankly, I think it's kind of dying down because it seems that there's some economic upturn going on. But there was this period of time that's all we could hear about is affordability, affordability. I was paying less for gas, less for eggs.

3:51And yet all we could hear about was affordability. And I really thought long and hard about our industry. And I'm sure there are people, owners, service advisors that listen are saying, wow, we haven't felt it. We're not sure. Maybe we've done some missteps. And that's the reason you both are here. We want to know what's going on at your counters in your marketplaces.

4:13I think we're going to tell the audience things that they may be surprised that it's not necessarily affecting you as bad as the overall sentiment in our country of this economic affordability. And another thing I think we want to open our eyes to is the national ARO is $800. People may not have enough money for an emergency yet. What a perfect time to talk about maintenance, getting that vehicle to last 250,000 miles.

4:43We've been doing some episodes about that.. And that kind of takes that big rock solid boom, heavy hit of an emergency thing, and it kind of lays it out if you're doing the right things. Andy, you told me this morning, I toured the shops, Carm. I looked them in the eye and I asked them the affordability question. What'd you hear? I heard we really don't have one.

5:07I went to 11 shops this week and I asked all our service writers how bad it was about the, you know, are we getting pushback on pricing? And for the most part, no. If you sell the value proposition of the job and you do your job properly, we're getting no pushback. And for the 5%, the worst number I heard was 10%. If you then re-explain the job, you offer any kind of value adjustment, i.e., offering a coupon, offering a little bit less warranty.

5:40You know, our general warranty is a lifetime warranty on our repairs here. So you drop down that 2-year warranty using a little less quality part and you just do any kind of adjustment. You still get the job, but you just made a slight price adjustment of 5, 10% and you still land the job. You know, our whole purpose is to get the client back on the road safe.

6:02You know, that's the whole purpose we're here. Any of us are here for that. So we just got to adjust our price a little bit, maybe adjust our warranty a little bit. And make the client happy. And we really don't have that big of a pushback. I think the pushback is more in our head than it is in the pocketbook. Well, he just said an awful lot, Chris.

6:21You agree or disagree with Andy? What do you see? I would agree. You know, a lot of times in our industry, we create a problem that isn't quite there. In a lot of the training we do here, we talk to advisors, for example, and we have conversations where they'll share a fear. All right, I'm about to call a client and go over a really big repair with them.

6:42You know, I'm a little nervous. Boy, this is gonna sting. And we have to remind everybody that, well, first off, things really aren't a problem until they're a problem. We have to take the, the cloud of pricing concern out of our conversations before it's there, because we don't want to introduce it before it even happens. That's one. And two, we're kind of in lockstep, I would say, Andy, as far as that repackaging strategy to taking the initial premium repair.

7:10And if we have to, looking at it from the eyes of what gets the car back on the road safest. I mean, sometimes it's switching from a premium part to a white box part, or sometimes it's changing our warranty approach or our repair approach to really, at the end of the day, make sure we're operating with integrity and getting a car back on the road the safest way we possibly can.

7:31That's combating a lot of it too. Andy, I love what he said, repackaging. That's really in my mind, just a, a smart way for a service advisor to think about any pushback. Well, let's just rethink this. In his mind, it's a repackage move that he has to prepare himself for. Again, what's our purpose? And like Chris said, we gotta get the car back on the road for the client.

7:55What could we do in the service shop to do that? And we have to do that, you know, and you do have that few and, you know, and offering payment options, you know, is a big part of that too. I cannot believe how many shops out there do not offer that option to their clients. And, you know, that is a game changer for those shops that are not doing it.

8:16I can't imagine not doing it. Statistically, it's a big number in our organization to offer the payment options to your client. And those that aren't doing it, you really need to start. You know, it helps your public, you know, especially today. I love this. These are your perceptions at your business. You know, a lot of people in the industry, are you way the exception to the rule?

8:43Are there people struggling with getting things sold to learn and know how to repackage to sell from their own wallet? I mean, we hear this way often, too many times that a service advisor is, if you will, you said remove the cloud, the perception of, oh my God, I can't even believe Sally is here. She's been here before that she can afford this $1,100 ticket.

9:06And so right off the bat, there's almost like a posture, a lean back posture on getting to do what's right. And Andy, to your point, we've got to do what's right. To an affordability factor, but get a reliable vehicle back on the road for our client. If not, we're doing it wrong. I like what Chris said a little bit ago too. We did not break the vehicle.

9:29We did not cause the problem on the vehicle. We did not design the vehicle that made the repair so darn difficult or expensive. We're only here as the stewards on how to repair it correctly. We really can't control what that ultimate cost is to repair it. What we can do is present that repair to the client in the most value-driven way, is, I guess, the best way I could say it.

9:57Here's what we need to do for you. Here's the value you're going to see out of what we're going to do for you at the cost point we got it. And that's where I think Chris alluded to when you have a new service writer or more of a greenhorn service writer, They're afraid of those big jobs because it's, oh my God, you know, I'm going to scare the living heck out of the client.

10:18But if you break it down and you explain it to the client and you have compassion and you show some empathy in it on what you need to do for them and you're willing to work with them and help them out, they will actually thank you at the end. You know, if you do your job right. And that's how you have to handle those big jobs.

10:37And that's how you really have to handle every job. Again, we didn't create the problem and we really can't create, and we really can't do much about what it costs to repair their vehicle. And we didn't really tell them what vehicle to buy. Now, if you go out and buy a BMW and you're gonna expect to repair it at Chevrolet prices, we didn't create that problem either.

10:57You know, they kind of created their own problem. You know, especially buy an old one. You know, how many times do we see people go out and buy cars that they really can't afford to maintain. Overlooked maintenance is a whole other item that we're kind of talking about here too. They ignore their maintenance and then all of a sudden they got these big repair bills because they ignored their maintenance.

11:19And that's a whole other animal. If they would've done their maintenance, they might not be seeing us for that $2,000 timing chain job or other items that they ignored. So, but again, Being empathetic, you know, being, having some sympathy for what the cost is, you know, and how you present that is really, I think, the key. You on track with that, Chris?

11:40I am completely on track with that. You know, it's kind of funny, we have weekly touchpoints. So once a week we have a 15-minute call with all of the client-facing members of our team here, kind of a counter rally is, I guess, the best way I can put it. And we celebrate wins, we talk about maybe a loss or how to correct it with each other.

11:59But we also talk about mind shifts, you know, and one of the mind shifts we just talked about yesterday was the reality that we are not in the car business, right? And it's kind of a funny thing, but we are not in the car business. What we are is we're in the people business. We just happen to be automotive professionals. And it's about how we're able to meet all these people in a way that makes sense to them and be an outlet, right?

12:26To Andy's point. I didn't create the oil leak in that BMW 7 Series, but I sure know what's there and how to fix it. And how can we set the path that makes the most sense? I heard someone recently blame the problems with the vehicle on the engineer who designed it. And to me, if you're standing at a counter, listen, it was the engineer who designed it that made this— cars come in every week to fix the oil leak.

12:53Let's help you get over that and through that. You seem to be the most convenient person to blame because you didn't do something the last time I was here. Blame it on the engineer. Yeah, shifting blame doesn't work. So 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.

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16:14On the web at pitcrewloyalty.com. So here we are with two really top people in the industry who are saying we really don't have that problem because we've worked so hard to know, like, and trust, get our client to know, like, and trust us in a high way. And the thing that worries me about the attitude inside the industry a little bit and from the outside looking in is we're being bombarded with statistics paycheck to paycheck.

16:4643% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense, and on and on and on. I sent both Chris and Andy all this research that I did, and I'm not even sure it matters today. And here's another observation that I have, and help me with this. You watch any TV? Say you do. Say you just watch an hour a day. I guarantee you're going to see a commercial on bathroom remodeling, gutters.

17:12You're gonna see it on all kinds of stuff in home improvement area, windows, roofing. These are big ticket items. Those industries seem to, even though there's financing there, I get that. But for people to commit the money to repair a home, which is the first largest investment versus the vehicle. So, there may be a trend that we need to be observant of, that there are a lot of people asking for bigger dollars to make the roof right, the kitchen right, the bathroom right, and all these other things.

17:51Why wouldn't we be doing the right thing for transportation? You may have hit on a point there. I mean, you know, talk about what if we had a national campaign on just maintaining your car that way? Yeah, I mean, how much money could be saved if we just did all the preventive maintenance out there? I think there was a statistic that came out from Carfax here in November that I think was 62% of all vehicles on the road needed at least one major maintenance item that was overlooked.

18:2262%. And many of them needed multiples of that. Yeah, I mean, and we all know You know, something as simple as a transmission flush, you know, a $250, $350 service may prevent you from a $3,000 to $5,000 transmission overhaul failure, you know, down the road. I mean, to me, that's very much money well spent. It's a 10-to-1 return on investment. And, you know, if somebody gave you $250, said, go to Vegas, put it on a table, and I'll give you $5,000 back, who would not take that bet?

19:01Everybody would. But when it comes to maintenance on your car, they don't do it. They wait till they need the $5,000 transmission rebuild and then they complain about it. Well, if you maybe would have done that maintenance back at 100,000 miles, you wouldn't need that transmission at 200,000 miles. But as an industry, Andy and Chris, are we sitting down and giving them that longer range plan on what needs to be done when?

19:25We are. I would imagine, Chris, you are. I know we have switched to a very much relational experience with people where we're trying to build some long-term plans. But, you know, I— and I'm gonna rewind back to something you mentioned. You know, you said, you know, sit down and watch an hour of television and look at the ads you get there. I mean, I think one of the things that we do fight that's almost industry-generated is Now watch those television ads and see the ones for— and I'll leave the manufacturers' names out of it— but when they tout the number one sedan with the lowest maintenance costs in the country, or the pickup truck that

20:04has the lowest cost of ownership, right out of the manufacturer's mouth, it's maintenance-free, this vehicle is gonna do wonders for you. So we have a whole section of the industry who is indoctrinating people that if you come and purchase our car, whether it's new or not, you're purchasing something that JD Power or anyone else has said is gonna be maintenance-free for you.

20:27This is the lowest maintenance cost of any vehicle. So we're already planting that seed that maintenance shouldn't be a worry for you. And we're fighting that battle as time goes on. Now these vehicles hit a secondary market, you know, and Andy, I don't know what your kind of key vehicle age range is, but I know for us, We start seeing vehicles around the 4-year mark.

20:48You know, we work as more of a dealer alternative. We certainly don't market to really older vehicles, but I know we're catching the vehicle that maybe has not come off a manufacturer warranty and that client wants a different experience, a quicker turnaround. They don't want the dealership life anymore, so they come to us, but we still have to now fight the battle of Well, my sales associate, my manufacturer, my advertising material all said that the Cam Capriato 5000 was the lowest cost of ownership on the planet.

21:23So we're already behind the 8-ball with these things. It takes a lot of education to correct that. But yeah, you're right. Our key vehicle is in that, you know, 5 to 12-year-old range, you know, even up to 15 years, you know, cars are lasting so much longer. You know, in the truck market, even a little bit older than that, you know, you're seeing on the market still yet because they're not rusting out the way they used to.

21:48But yeah, that's been a preconceived notion and it even varies by brand. You know, the people that, for lack of better, not pointing out names, but the big three, I think those people look at maintenance less as an investment than the import cars. Import people seem to look at, oh, that's an investment, I should take care of the maintenance on it. They're more willing to listen to that, that scenario.

22:14And the big three people look at it as like, oh, you're just trying to sell me something, you know? So it takes a lot more education in there and a little bit more show and tell to do that. But again, that comes down to building that relationship with your client and that trust with your client and showing the value of what you're trying to do for them.

22:33And maybe we're a little bit better at it because we've been in our— we're celebrating our 50th year in Cleveland here. We started back in 1975. So we've had 5 generations of building our goodwill in this industry and in our town. So our name has preceded itself quite well. So I think that helps us, but, you know, and we've indoctrinated our name so well in our group that people know they could trust us.

23:02And we've got going on 3 and 4 generations of the same family that come to us, you know, so, but still, you know, in the old days, people would need us 3 to 4 times a year. Now with oil change intervals increasing up there, now we're seeing some families only 1 or 2 times a year. So you need a lot more new clientele.

23:24So we're building new clients more and more. All the time because the vehicles are just built that much better. So we're seeing influx of more new clients, which you need to win over more and more. And as we know, the younger generations are not as so keen to being loyal to you, you know, so you really got to win them over and win them over big.

23:47And you guys probably noticed too that getting Google reviews is not as easy as it used to be either. So you got to go really over the top to get Google reviews. So you really got to be on your game on all aspects to win that client over and do such a great job for them. And that starts with, you know, that first phone call all the way up to that, you know, we call it the kiss goodbye, but you got to be on your game through everything.

24:12But, you know, we're talking about pricing now, but really selling the value of what you do is what it boils down to. And getting it outta your head, your head, that you have a price problem. So let me summarize this last, let me see how long, about 20 minutes so far. And we were talking affordability and there's been some great discussion about the consumer's mindset.

24:38You mentioned Chris Mindshift. Okay. And when I think of the consumer mindshift, which I believe we're competing with at our counter, we're competing with the sales of the vehicles because they're doing it and saying anything that they can. Maintenance-free, blah, blah, all this other stuff, right? Just, you know, come in, you know, once a year, get your oil changed, free oil change, by the way.

25:01And guys, I got to share something with you that really rocked me. I'm watching an ad, a lease ad for a car, and I don't remember which one it was, but it was $199 a month. And I was in my mind trying to think of how stripped down this thing could be, but the key to it was ultra low mileage lease, $199.

25:27I pressed the, the pause button so that I could try to read the micro fine print at the bottom of the screen, and I couldn't quite make it out, but I'm wondering, I gotta guess what a Ultra low mileage lease could be today. And again, I go back to this whole affordability, $199. It's that, it's that mindset. I actually saw those ads and I did pause it.

25:516,000 miles a year. Oh geez, that's grandma's car. Yeah, 6,000. Some of them are 8, some of them are 10. Yeah, they're trying to do the affordability thing and, uh, but yeah, they're, they're playing all kind of tricks on it out there. People aren't hearing the words low mileage, ultra low mileage. I mean, when you put the word ultra in front of low, maybe we gotta figure that out.

26:16We have an ultra nice oil change program. We only give you half the oil. The rest is an upcharge. I'd love to see the point of sale on that. Yeah. Yeah. My guys would kill me if I brought that up. So, you know, okay. We've done some great economic discussions here in this whole affordability thing, but let's jump into And I still believe today that the most important educational focus in our business— trust me, the specialists in the bays, they rule.

26:48They need to have that forever, 80 hours a year. But I'm thinking critical spots, that counter guys, and all that can happen from— I have to tell you, I think it's one of the premier jobs having to know people, you know, this whole empathy thing and understanding the vehicle and the workflow of the business. I mean, it is probably one of the most pivotal points of the business.

27:16What are you doing to, to teach all that, Chris? Making a wish on my pillow every morning before we start. First off, we have to, have to, have to make sure we operate in a mindset of continuous education. You know, we have people in our organization who've been with American Pride for 10 years. We have people who've been here for 10 months.

27:35Our due diligence to continue to reinforce those points, you know, are we asking the proper questions? Are we asking people at our counters right at the key drop, what is your intention with your vehicle? If your intention with your vehicle is to ride this thing for 2 months until the 2027 X comes out, We're spinning our wheels here. But if you tell me that your intention as a mom or a dad is to keep this vehicle for 5 years because you don't want to make a change and you need this to get to 3 different schools and 2 different band practices and it cannot miss a beat, then we have a whole roadmap for maintenance

28:18that we need to make sure we're laying out ahead of time. It's asking the right questions and it's continuously training everybody and asking those right questions. I think back to something we were talking about earlier, you know, we're talking about counter interactions and it reminds me of, and how, you know, people can, you know, not so prejudge, I should say, what somebody is willing to spend or want to invest in their cars.

28:45And it makes me think of, we kid around about the sophomore jinx. Now we get brand new people to our industry And for the first 5, 6 months, they're sponges. They're absorbing our new information. They're learning. They're taking all the training and applying it. They're following processes and procedure. If we have a script that is not necessarily has to be verbatim, but that has to help them to negotiate and navigate a process, is all well and good.

29:14And then right around 6 months, people tend to go, I know a little bit better than that. I know what my customers want. I know what we should be doing here. I'm gonna go out on my own. I'm gonna wing it a little bit. And that's when we start having fall downs. We start having those failures in the system. We start having people who prejudge what someone can afford or who think that the second client they see that day just has no belief in maintenance, so we're not going to talk about it as strongly.

29:41So it's a matter of those continuing education points to reinforce This is our expectation. We're gonna inspect what we expect, and we're gonna continue to move the needle using the same process every time. I gotta ask Chris a question here. The sophomore jinx. I love that. In fact, I frankly, I haven't heard that in all these years I've been podcasting. 6 months, you say?

30:04Tell me about a legacy individual, been there a couple of years. Do they ever go through that lapse? All the time. I call it getting fat, dumb, and happy. And as soon as they start seeing success, they start thinking they could do better. That's the time that Andy has to show up. Stay in the basics. And not nice Andy. Yeah. Oh, oh my God.

30:26It's just evolution. I want to add on something Chris said. Asking all the right questions is the way to definitely start in that, but it's the start of the relationship. You need to build a relationship with the client because how you're going to treat the client's wife or significant other's car, different how you may treat his truck. We know he's towing a boat or a camper.

30:49He travels 25 miles to work. She travels just to school and then maybe to work for band practice with the kids or something. So when you know the relationship and you build a relationship with the client, then you know how to treat each one of their vehicles. You know what tires you're going to recommend based on their, their driving habits. Once you have a relationship with that client, you start building that one of mutual trust back and forth.

31:14Then the price point goes away also, you know, that— so you got to build a relationship with your clients and all the rest of this starts to melt away. But it has to be one of mutual trust and respect in both directions. You know, you respect that client, they're going to respect you. And that's really when your life starts to really get easy in your business and We've been doing it that way for 50 years.

31:39And, you know, so our repeat or return client rate is roughly around 78 to 82% across their 11 stores, you know, so it's fairly high. It has dropped down, you know, at certain locations because again, the cars are built better and the service intervals are longer. So it was as high as 88 to 92% years ago because you were seeing people every 3,000 miles.

32:03The average mileage in Cleveland is about 13.6 per female, about 15.5 for male driving in Cleveland. So 13.5 to 15.5 miles driven per year in Cleveland. So we're still seeing those clients 2 times, maybe 3 times a year for the guys, twice a year, some of them once, twice a year. So it has dropped down. So you don't have as many opportunities, but we've been seeing for the new clients we're bringing in, We're getting them in with neglected maintenance.

32:35So often neglected maintenance is oil changes, and people are ignoring their oil changes left and right. And how they get that message out, I don't know. I mean, and I think to Chris's point, the manufacturers and our cars need no maintenance, which includes I don't even check my oil or tire pressure unless the light comes on. We recently did a couple of episodes on the 250,000-mile maintenance, uh, strategic plan with your client.

33:05And we talked a lot about setting the dental appointment and, you know, getting that person, listen, we know you're driving about 13,000 miles. We need to see you in here in 8 months. Pick the number, whatever it is. Let's set an appointment. We'll remind you beforehand. You got something coming up. Don't worry about it. We'll send you a calendar invite, all that stuff.

33:24And one of the thoughts that came up I was with Rena Rennebaum and Brett Beechler, was that at one shop in particular, there was a cup of toothbrushes in the front of the counter while they're dealing with a person that says, here, by the way, have a toothbrush on us, brand new. You replace them more than the 6-month dental visit. You should really replace them every 3, but we'd like the vehicle back here.

33:49Well, let's set an appointment now, just like you do at the dentist. Okay, no problem. Let's do that. They got a toothbrush in their hand. I don't know what it costs for a toothbrush, buck and a half, two, but I don't know. But what an idea to move this individual to make a commitment of getting back in here and getting them in the groove.

34:09Anyway, I love the fact that you talked about stats, Andy, and how you look at your client base and who's coming in and when they're coming in. Those are stats to pay attention to, right, Chris? Oh, absolutely. And if you have that kind of loyalty, I mean, you have— that speaks volumes to what you're doing with your counter-facing, you know, your front counter staff, your teams.

34:31You know, I'll actually— I'll follow that up with a question if I could. You know, you're mirroring this focus on relationships, right? It sounds like we're kind of in lockstep on that. From a recruitment standpoint, Are you finding that you're trying to pull talent from areas that we never looked at before? When we recruit talent for our counters, we're looking at client-facing team members.

34:56It's not so much the person who maybe knows a lot about cars or a lot about sales, but the person who truly takes joy in making friends, who really is passionate about building relationships. And sometimes we find them at the local diner that everybody is going to eat breakfast at, or the Chick-fil-A, or the shoe store, or wherever it is. But we're certainly opening our mindset when our hiring processes, and I don't know if that's just something that you're echoing as well, or?

35:25Okay, Chris, that's a great question. And it's funny you brought that up because I haven't needed to do that yet, 'cause we've been, you know, with the size of our organization, I've been able to promote from within, We got that depth. Thank God I got that depth. All of our service writers we promote recently has always been guys that we brought up through the ranks.

35:45But I went to lunch the other day with one of our franchise operators to just review all of his numbers and everything from the last 2 months. And we were at the diner and the waitress that came up and waited on us, I actually mentioned to Bill, you know, Bill Soakarm, my VP of operations and I, we talked, I said, she would make an awesome service writer.

36:08She had the bubbly personality, she could read people, she knew exactly what she was doing, she was in her element, she enjoyed talking to people. I said, I can make her a service writer. I would go back and talk to her if I could put her in the right spot. But I have a friend that does recruiting for a dental assistant company, and I took this girl's name down and I turned it over to her because I couldn't use her, but I think my friend could.

36:37But I think, Chris, you're on to something. They go out and find those people that you could just see bubble over enthusiasm and what they're doing, people-facing. I think they belong in our industry. We hear that so much, guys, just constantly looking for good people, people. And let's bring him inside the business, either do an upgrade or as so many people are growing today.

37:01I had a brain pop about the sophomore jinx, Chris. And again, I don't know if it was you or Andy that said even some of our more established people may have that brain fade and get too comfortable. And my takeaway was from Ron Popeil. Remember Set It and Forget It? Set It and Forget It. Yep. You all remember that? Among many others.

37:26Yeah. Yes. I know. Remember the spray stuff in the hair? Anyway, I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh, but some of that stuff was actually like watching a comedy show. You watch those commercials. Made millions. Yeah, I know. But we cannot forget the fact that some of our legacy people, we can't just set it and forget they've been here. So They need to be in this continuous education loop and they need to be constantly evaluated as to, you know, and observed because we can just get a little lazy because we know our game so well.

38:01Just yesterday, Case Western Reserve here in town, Weatherhead School of Management puts on a luncheon series every month and brings in a speaker. The founder's daughter of Chick-fil-A was the speaker yesterday. And I took my service writer from the Garfield Heights store to that luncheon, and she told the story of Chick-fil-A. And I— forgive me because I don't remember her name right now— and she was dead on on her messaging about everything about what we're just talking about, about how you treat your clients and perseverance and your purpose of what we do and how to treat your client like family.

38:42And you have to take your legacy people and remind them every once in a while about what we're here for and how to do it and why we do it the way we do it. And I was watching Eric and his head was going like this through the whole luncheon. Oh yeah, I remember now. That's why we do this. That's why we do this, you know?

39:02And I wrote a few notes and when I called him up today, I literally just said, eat more chicken. And he broke out laughing. He broke out laughing on the phone and that just brought him back to what the message was yesterday. I love that. Just drop a, a sentence and thank you, boss. What I find at Chick-fil-A is this high level of caring consistently.

39:27Yes. And that has to be one of their hallmarks, Andy. I didn't hear the speech, but their culture. And their consistency of culture and caring seems to be, you're my most important client at this particular moment in time, and we're gonna make sure everything's right for you. And then the next one comes in, it's the same, it's the drill. Their mantra is do your best, just do your best.

39:52If not, why not? It was a great message. It was an awesome luncheon to go to. And guys like us, we need to remind ourselves sometimes too. I had a chance years ago to be at the Disney Institute for a meeting, and the company in corporate America that I was working for, we were coming up with a new strategic plan. And so Disney came in to help get us focused.

40:14You know, all the papers up on the wall and all the breakout sessions. And one of the things that they said is, we worked very, very hard to figure out what our theme park culture needs to be with all of our people, all of our greeters, our trash pickups, and everything and everyone. And he says, and it, it took us days to come up with this.

40:33And, and here it is, this simple. Look 'em in the eye and smile. That's it. That's what everyone has been disciplined on at any Disney theme park is look 'em in the eye and smile. Do we do that enough? Probably not. Probably not. Okay. Big takeaway for the world, for our industry. There it is. We want to talk about affordability this episode.

40:57As all of mine seem to do, found some really interesting pathways to talk about. The fact is, let's summarize it. Andy and Chris, they don't have an issue yet. They're busting their hump to be sure that they don't, but they're also listening and observing their customers. They know what their customers need and they want. I'm gonna give last word, Chris, anything else you'd like to say?

41:19And then I'll go to Andy and then we'll wrap it. Well, I do wanna reflect back on something Andy was talking about earlier. That certainly kind of came to mind, and that's if we're not offering financing options for our clients, we're really missing the boat. And we first started doing, really trying to indoctrinate this option into our staff to make sure we're explaining this to our clients as a pathway for them a couple of years ago.

41:45One of the things that came up and came out of those meetings was, you know, I'm fearful. I don't want to give somebody this option have them think that I believe they can't afford their repair. And there's gonna be a big shift there because, and I'll use the best example, and that is Synchrony Financing, right? Synchrony Automotive Financing. Everybody knows the name.

42:09It's out there. Synchrony isn't just for people who don't have the $1,800 or $2,000 to spend on their car repair. You know, Synchrony has some programs out there that offer 0% for 12 months. You know, I might have $5,000 in reserve to pay for repairs or maintenance or anything else, but maybe I want to make smarter uses of my liquid cash. Maybe I want to take care— take advantage of somebody else's liquid cash, use mine for a different purpose, and take advantage of 0% financing.

42:44A lot of smart money people do. So it's not just an affordability thing. And if we keep it away from being in that box, if we take it out of that box of this is just for the folks who come in who don't have the money now to spend on this repair and open that box up for everybody, we're certainly going to have a lot better conversations around vehicle financing— vehicle repair financing, I should say.

43:08Hey, Chris, you're dead on. And you'll notice, and if you— the guys that I behoove you to look into it that aren't doing it, you'll find your ticket prices go way up because they'll say Oh, well, let's do the tires while I'm at it too, because now I can afford to pay for it over 6 months at 0%. You know, just throw the tires in.

43:26I don't have to come back later to do them, you know, or the suspension or whatever it is. So financing is— we call them payment option plans. You know, try to stay away from that financing word, but offering payment option plans, your clients will open a big door for you. It's huge. That's a great point. One of the things that I like to discipline friends that ever did that, hey, Carm, I just bought a blank.

43:52I got 12 months or I got 60 months, whatever. And I says, do yourself a favor, get on your computer bank, go on the bank, set this payment up every single month, but do it for 11 months or do it, if it's 60, do it for 59. You never ever wanna make a mistake and then have to pay interest back to day one.

44:11You never. Because again, they're all a little different how they work, but the discipline is always do it one month less so you never get caught with your pants down. That's a great point. Great point. Andy, anything else? Build a relationship with your client and most of this goes away. Hello, there it is. There's the title. Thank you so much, Andy Fifick, CEO, president, founder at the 11 Operation franchise in Cleveland.

44:38Rad Air, and Chris Letendre is an inside sales coach and on the support team for American Pride Automotive with 6 locations in Virginia. Love Andy, everybody out there, great people, been on the show before, and Andrew, Andrew, and thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you guys. Thank you, Graham. Appreciate you guys. Nice meeting you, Chris. Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the premier automotive repair business podcast, Remarkable Results Radio.

45:05Get your episodic education on the ARPR. ARPN Listing 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.