Why is storytelling important for automotive repair shops?

Storytelling helps shop owners connect with customers on a personal level, making their business more relatable and trustworthy.

How can shop owners effectively tell their story?

Shop owners can tell their story by showcasing their unique culture, values, and customer experiences through authentic narratives and testimonials.

What role does team culture play in a shop's success?

A positive team culture leads to better employee engagement, which in turn enhances customer service and overall shop performance.

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The Limitless Leadership PodcastJune 9, 2026 · 43 min

Ep 156: Patrick Egan’s Secrets to Leading and Marketing in Auto Repair

Leadership & Culture Customer Experience Marketing & Growth

With Patrick Egan

Now playing — The Limitless Leadership Podcast

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About this episode

In this episode, Patrick Egan, founder of Spark Interactive, shares his journey from leading marketing for major automotive software companies to pioneering digital vehicle inspections…

Key takeaways

—Authenticity in storytelling is crucial for engaging customers and building trust.
—Shop owners should highlight their unique culture and values to stand out from competitors.
—Customer testimonials can be more impactful than traditional reviews, showcasing real experiences.
—A strong team culture enhances both employee satisfaction and customer experience.
—Effective leadership involves listening to team members and leveraging their expertise.

Frequently asked

Why is storytelling important for automotive repair shops?: Storytelling helps shop owners connect with customers on a personal level, making their business more relatable and trustworthy.
How can shop owners effectively tell their story?: Shop owners can tell their story by showcasing their unique culture, values, and customer experiences through authentic narratives and testimonials.
What role does team culture play in a shop's success?: A positive team culture leads to better employee engagement, which in turn enhances customer service and overall shop performance.

▸Full transcript

The guy who's not just do what I say, but do what I do and leads by example rather than because I told you to. Those are the ones that end up inspiring their team. Hey, you know, if you're not telling your story, somebody else probably is. And the only reason that matters is because I've tried all the stuff that doesn't work. So, hey, you're listening to the Limitless Leadership Podcast, the podcast designed to help automotive repair shops learn how to lead, coach, train, and manage their team better by sharing proven techniques and thought-provoking interviews from industry leaders.

Are you ready to transform your leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results? Let's get ready for liftoff. It's time to go from great to greater. Here's today's episode. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Limitless Leadership Podcast. Before we get started, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, do all the things you need to on social media to help this podcast impact people and build leaders.

And speaking of leaders, I got another fantastic automotive repair industry leader with us today. It's a friend of mine. He is the founder of Spark Interactive., and my friend is Mr. Patrick Egan. Patrick, thanks for being here, man. Hey, thanks, Josh. It's great to be in here, um, virtually, right? Yeah. Coast to coast. We're, we're doing it virtually. For those listening, you're probably listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever your favorite streaming platform is.

If you're, if you wanna watch this episode, you can certainly do that as well. Go on, go to YouTube at The Bearded Leader and you can watch this entire episode. Um, so Patrick, let's get right into it, man. Go ahead and share with the audience. Who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Atlantic Automotive is an alliance of leading auto repair shops.

They partner with, invest in, and grow exceptional auto repair shops throughout the US. For shop owners looking to take things to the next level, Atlantic Automotive can help you scale with access to technology, people, growth capital, and operational support. For shop owners looking to transition into something new, Atlantic Automotive provides a trusted home for your business and a responsible steward for your legacy.

Atlantic Automotive is not a franchise, a chain, or private equity group. It is a coalition of like-minded auto repair shops united by a shared vision and shared resources. Atlantic Automotive is a faith-based, family-owned company building the number one automotive partnership organization. If you're interested in partnering, go to atlanticautomotivegroup.com and fill out the Start a Conversation form. Sure. Yeah, I'm the founder of Spark Interactive.

But I've been, you know, I've been a marketing geek, I think is what I like to call it, for 30 years or so. I've run marketing for a lot of really small companies, a lot of really huge ones, ran marketing for one of the largest software companies in the world for a while and jumped out of that because, you know, wanted to really work with, so my own ideas, started my own companies.

So, you Yeah, I've done it all. And, and the only reason that matters is cuz I've, I've tried all this stuff that doesn't work. So, okay. So, so, and you've been in the industry for a minute, so, um, share with the audience, uh, little, little background, your industry background. I know you have a lot of, uh, um, industry colleagues and, and, and friends.

Uh, share with the, share with the audience, uh, some, some background there and then what led you into Spark Interactive. Mm-hmm. Yeah, sure. So, um, yeah, I ran marketing, uh, for a while with, uh, Auto Vitals and, uh, you know, back in the day, be, you know, before there was a DDI. And, um, uh, from there went on to, uh, AutoServe One.

Hey, hang on, hang on. I, I, I can't, I, I can't let you just glaze over this. I think you might know where I'm going with this because you said a 3-letter acronym that I think we're all familiar with. And if you're not, cuz some, cuz some listeners are not, are not from the industry, but DVI. So we know that to be a digital vehicle inspection, right?

Where did that— where did DVI come from, Patrick? So yeah, there was no such thing. There were other things called, you know, electronic inspections and things like that. But yeah, AutoVitals came up with it first. I mean, the real, the real deal. And Uwe Kleinschmidt, who is the— who was the founder and CEO at the time, You know, I remember a day back in the day when we were sitting around thinking about what to do next, and it eventually was called the electronic inspection sheet.

Uwe and Uta, who was the developer back then, you know, cranked the thing out overnight one night, and there it arrived on a tablet. And we renamed it to the DVI, digital vehicle inspection, and that was the first time those words had been spoken. So yeah, since I was running marketing back then, I guess I'm the guy who coined it. And, you know, back in the day, Jimmy Lee was our evangelist, and Jimmy and I ran around the country with a bag full, literally bags full of iPads.

We would go— it was a project we did with NAPA back then, and to roll this thing out and get people interested in digital vehicle inspections, we gave iPads away. You know, if you try this out and you're successful with it, here's an iPad. Turns out what happened is a lot of the shop owners took them home and gave them to their kids.

But yeah, that's how— That's how DVI came out. And we literally, uh, an evangelist approach to, to drive, run around and, you know, preach it from the top of the mountain and tell everyone what DVI was all about. And now everyone, you know, everybody's got a DVI and just kind of throw that word out there. Like, it should have been copyrighted, I guess, or trademarked.

That's right, man. You'd be retired living on a beach. I don't know what you'd be doing, but you'd— but yeah, but anyway, but hey, the good thing is you're doing something that you love and what you do is pretty awesome. I can't wait for you to get to that part, but go ahead and keep— continue your story. After AutoVital? Oh, yeah, sure.

Then worked for AutoServe One, another digital vehicle inspection product back in the day. And then ended up at Kukui and ran marketing at Kukui for 3 or 4 years. And, you know, over that time, stepped foot in many, many shops. People probably remember the Kukui van, and we cruised around the country. I drove that thing back and forth across the country 3 or 4 times., and went through a lot of shops.

To this day, I've stepped foot in close to 5,000 shops. And, after having visited so many shops and seeing so many great shops out there and realizing that there are a lot of great shops, but there's a lot that aren't. And the thing that I saw that, that really kind of, stood out to me is people aren't telling their story, you know, shh.

Shops, businesses in general, service businesses tend to not preach about what makes them different. I mean, they do when they're at the front counter. If you walk in the door and you talk to the shop owner, as you have on many a podcast, and these are great stories, right? But their customers don't hear them. So after hearing so many great stories again and again and again, and there's a repeatable story, I can almost tell every great shop story.

I mean, you focus on your team, You provide a great place for them to work, you provide a great service to them, and they in turn treat your customers really well, and that turns into profit. You know, the guys who focus on the dollar first doesn't seem to work out that way. And so I started Spark on that premise. So my goal has been for the past 6 years now is helping business owners tell their story about what makes them different or unique or uncopyable, I like to say.

So, you know, what sets you apart from the Jiffy Lube or, you know, the Greasy Hand Auto Tech down the road? You know, when I walk into your shop, am I, you know, walking across the 1970s shag carpet and stepping over cords and things like that? Or am I walking into a beautiful place that's inviting and doesn't smell like tires and doesn't smell like oil?

And you've got a loaner car program or a shuttle car program and your customers love you and it's and the back of the shop is clean and well-lit, and your team loves you and they do anything for you. And, um, and that just makes that, that whole machine work. So, um, that's kind of what I founded Spark on the premise of doing, is help people do that.

And we've expanded since then. Spark's a little bit different, different animal now. We also do direct mail and, and, uh, um, uh, AI-enhanced marketing. So there's a lot of that. We get into that stuff later, but Well, Patrick, it's, it's really powerful what you just shared in terms of being able to tell a story. Um, I think we've all heard the, the know, like, and trust factor before, and that's a real thing.

People, people buy from people who they know, like, and trust. And you can't know, like, and trust somebody if you don't know their story, if you don't know something about them. And that's why I will say it till I'm blue in the face: connection creates engagement, and engagement increases performance. And that can apply here as well. Um, having been in 5,000+ shops, I know you've seen it all.

You've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-betweens. Um, what, what, what comes to mind when you think about the most important factors of telling a story? What are things that you're helping shop owners do as they tell a story? What are important factors to you to make sure that the right story is being told? All right, folks, as you know, great leadership isn't about doing everything the best.

It's actually about having the right partners in your corner to build your shop success. It's about putting the right team in place. It's about choosing the right vendors to make you a pro, making pro moves. And when I think about the pros, I think about Shop Marketing Pros. The know, like, and trust factor, that's a real thing. And Shop Marketing Pros understands that.

That's why I wanna recommend Shop Marketing Pros to become your marketing partner in your shop. They get to know, like, and trust you and your business to then help your audience get to know, like, and trust you too, and bring your shop to the next level. So when I talk about making pro moves, this is the kind of move I'm talking about.

This is the kind of standard-setting partnership that's gonna elevate your shop. So if you're ready to become a pro in your shop, visit shopmarketingpros.com and partner with the best. This episode is brought to you by Limitless Leadership, because great teams don't happen by accident, they're led on purpose. If you're tired of wearing all the hats, putting out fires, and wondering why your team won't step up, Limitless Leadership is for you.

They help leaders transition from player to coach who develop people and multiply impact through in-person or online leadership training like the Limitless Leadership Blueprint or their Roots to Results coaching method. Their services are designed to help you tap into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results and help you create safety and trust in order to provide clarity and direction. So if you're ready to stop managing chaos and start leading with purpose, head to limitlessleadership.co to book a complimentary discovery call today.

Well, authenticity. Authenticity. Why is it hard word to say? And there's two reasons for this. There's actually a side thing. It's not what we set out to do, but telling the authenticity part of it. Not only grabs the interest of your audience, you know, there's a whole psychology thing that goes on behind storytelling. When, when you're telling a story, people, um, you know, you lean in and listen and your brain turns on in different ways.

And so that's what I end up dragging out of people. I've seen a lot of, you know, people are really into video these days, and you should, and people are, are, are doing a lot of great videos, but the storytelling aspect of it is just different. When we go out, it's not a canned or scripted thing at all. I mean, I'll go to shops and people are like, what are you going to ask me?

Like, I don't know, we'll see when we get there. And I do have obviously certain things I ask people, but I don't want somebody to be thinking about the script they're going to say. We do it in that documentary style. I like to to hear what makes them real. And that's what it's really all about. Instead of the video that's talking about, hey, come on down to Joe's Auto, buy 3 tires, get 1 free.

It's more about what your culture is like, what your values are. And that tends to really, if that's what you're about, And shop owners, independent shop owners tend to be that way, or any service business really, or any small business. You know, you're all about— you built it on your core values, built it on a culture, and that's what's made you successful over the years.

And all the other stuff is noise. So if you hear that, you see smiling faces, and it's not just the owner and it's not just you know, what he's done, it's the team behind him as well too. So, you know, I like to make sure that we're showcasing people in their natural environment. You know, techs are in the back of the shop.

They're not sitting on a stool in a darkly lit room and, you know, talking on a really good mic. It's, you know, there's noise going on. It's a working shop. So people see what's real. So it's authenticity. Authenticity. God, that word is hard to say. It is a hard word to say, but I'll say this. I love that that's the first word that came to mind.

You know, when I, when I talk about how connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance, I believe that we connect through authenticity, humility, and vulnerability. And I think that when you can hit those three things, to me, like that, that really tells a, a good story. It, it helps connect with the audience or connect with the person that you're communicating with, and it prompts you to feel something.

And this is important to me because one of my favorite quotes that I've shared a number of times on this, on this podcast comes from Maya Angelou. Where she says, I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And ultimately, when you can connect through authenticity, humility, and vulnerability, people feel something.

They're gonna forget the things that you said, the actual verbiage that you used, but they're gonna feel like you're gonna move them in a, in a, you're gonna move their emotions. And, and that's, that's, that's important because as you're telling a story, there is real and raw emotions that are being expressed and delivered, that's gonna prompt someone to feel something about this shop owner.

So what else? I'm gonna keep on putting you on the spot, but like, what else? Authenticity is one of them. What else comes to mind when you're helping a shop owner tell their story? Well, like I said, it's not about just them. It's about their team and their and their customers as well, too. So we always try to pull that in and not focus just on the one person or the owner or the owners.

I mean, a lot of that authentic— their story is great, but what makes the business is also the other pieces of it. It's that three-legged stool. You've got your culture and why you started the place in the first place. But what is your team about? How do you focus on your team? And how do you give back to your community? So we do go in and I like to help them bring that team out, bring the guys in the back of the shop and the service advisors and show all those smiling faces and really bring the customers in too.

I've sat down with— when I go out to visit a shop, I'll interview every single customer I can talk to. A lot of them don't want to, but when I can get someone to tell their story, and it's always, again, not scripted, we'll pull people in and say, hey, I know you've been coming here for a while. Can you tell me what it's been all about?

How long have you been coming here? And is there anything that's memorable that you can think of? And you hear some amazing stories. So the kind of stories that the shop owner doesn't even know or remember that happened. I was at one shop where this woman who had just brought her car in and she hadn't planned on coming in for an interview, but she brought her car in and I grabbed her on the way out and she said, oh, yeah, I've been coming here.

He may not even know, but I've been actually coming here for 25 years. She had been driving through town on the way to LA, I guess, and her car broke down. And the, the shop owner called up, I think was right after closing hours on a Friday or something like that, and the shop owner went and picked her up on the side of the road somewhere, had a tow truck haul her car and dropped her off at a hotel.

She stayed at the hotel— I know, dropped her off at the train so she could get into LA. Um, uh, she came back, uh, picked up her car. Um, the shop owner picked her up at the train station, brought her back over. Um, you know, treated her like family. He'd never met her before, she's from out of town. And then she picked her car and left and went to LA.

And then she moved back to that town years later. And, um, and part of the reason that she went back to that town is just remembered how she was treated there, uh, by the shop owner, and has been in that town for, you know, 20 years or something like that. It was kind of amazing stories. And you hear stuff, these really heartfelt stories that come out when they're not incentivized and it's not, again, like, you know, tell us, give us a testimonial.

It's all about telling your story. And the same thing with the team. I've run into circumstances where a shop owner really didn't understand how his team really felt about him. And You know, I've seen circumstances where the, you know, team members are in there like, oh, this is great. You know, I just got out, you know, I just gotten out of tech school, gave me my first break, gave me my first set of starter tools, set me through all my training.

You know, I've been here now for 15 years. I'm a master tech. And, you know, I was thinking of going into the Army back then and, you know, I didn't know what I was going to do. And, you know, now I've got a, you know, house and a family and, you know, it's been, you know, it's been his, his extended family. And let's face it, when you're working, you know, you're with the people that you work with a lot more hours than you are with your actual family, unless like you and me, you're working out of your house.

But, you know, um, but, uh, um, it's those really heartfelt stories that, uh, that really drives this whole idea. It's a culture of storytelling. And although we produce a series of videos that they use for marketing purposes and put them on their websites and things like that, there's a lot that comes out of that. And I've seen where after this experience of everyone coming together and telling their stories and they share them with each other and encourage them afterwards to share the customer testimonials with the team and continue to do that because they never hear that either.

You know, the guys in the back of the shop hear these great stories that the customers are telling and it's like, oh wow, they never heard that. And they'll even mention some of the techs and some of the service advisors by name. And it's It's, um, it's a lot of fun. I mean, let's put it that way. I've been to several hundred shops doing this process, and every single one of them, I come away and I feel like I have a, you know, a new friend.

That's awesome. It's encouraging. I love hearing you talk about how fun— how much fun it is. And I like how you're walking away with new friends. You're having that connection. Um, you're talking about the importance of storytelling, and when I think about storytelling, the person that I think about is Donald Miller. So Donald Miller has the StoryBrand company. I'm curious, are there any people or companies out there that you have kind of leaned on or, you know, gotten mentored or coached by influencers out there that have sparked your curiosity on Spark Interactive?

Yeah, you know, StoryBrand is one that I followed and I, you know, I went down that certification route as well too, but you know, that's a, It's a marketing trend and there's books and all that stuff. And it's, it's, uh, I don't know if there's any one person that's really, really driven. Well, there is one guy, you know, I gotta, I gotta give a hand to him.

Uh, uh, Jimmy Lee. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, you know, he and I spent a lot of time inside the van cruising across the country and you get to know each other all really well when you're spending days on end cooped inside of a 20-foot Sprinter van. But, um, uh, you know, I've, I've heard his story and he's heard my story, and in, in depth, and we've been through a lot of hard times together.

And, you know, we don't work together, uh, directly anymore, but, um, yeah, um, he's been an inspiration to me throughout my career in this industry for sure. And, um, you know, prior to that, there's been, you know, other people that, uh out of our industry. No one here would know some of these people, but it's been pretty interesting. I actually live not too far away from Jack Canfield.

I don't know if anybody here remembers him. Before there was a Dean Grassiosi and a Tony Robbins, there was Jack Canfield. Chicken Soup for the Soul. That's the guy. Yeah. And I want to go back to Jimmy Lee for a second because we all know Jimmy Lee. We love Jimmy Lee. So shout out to you, Mr. Jimmy Lee. You are a changemaker in this industry.

So keep doing what you're doing. I like that you shouted him out, Patrick. Yeah, it's funny because in all the travels we've been through, everyone always says, oh yeah, I see Jimmy on Facebook all the time. Like, who do you think was holding the camera? I'm always the guy on the other side, right? Yeah. You're helping him tell that story. Exactly. Well, let me ask you this, because this is a leadership podcast.

And so one of the questions I ask every guest on the show is what does leadership mean to you? Which I'm going to ask you to answer here in a bit, but I am curious also just if you could tell a story, uh, or two about, um, leadership in action. You know, you're going to, you've been to thousands of shops, you've worked with thousands of shop owners and team members.

Um, and I, I've gotta assume that you've witnessed some strong and even some not so strong, uh, stories that depict leadership in action, if you would. Share one of those stories and then answer the question, what does leadership mean to you? Sure. Um, there's a lot, um, there's a lot of stories out there. Um, a leadership story, I mean, well, the, the leadership story I hear again and again and again, and like I said, there are a lot and they kind of blend together, is is leading from the front.

Okay. You know, I mean, you've seen some of these. Yeah, I've seen some of these, uh, you know, inspirational pictures they have on the front where, you know, they got the guy pulling from the front instead of standing on the, on the chair behind. Um, but it's, but it's true. The guy who's, who's not just do what I say but do what I do and, and, and leads by example rather than because I told you to.

Those are the ones that end up inspiring their team. And, um, gee, I don't know, it's hard to pick out one in particular. Um, I'll have to come back to it. So, yeah, but, but yeah, but, but that's, that's really, that's really the, the story that I've heard in so many shops and, and so many businesses is, is leading by example rather than by command.

I think that's the most— the one thing that I've taken away again and again. And getting out of— but there's two parts of that. It's leading by example, but also taking advantage of that team. And you know what? I think I do have a great example. I don't know if we all know Brian Gossel. B.G. Automotive in Colorado, shining example of this.

Here's a guy who's been in the business for quite a while. And when I first met him and went out and interviewed him and his team and as many customers as we could, he's right there working with his team. He's not turning wrenches. Um, but he's there hearing every word. So it's not so much even— I mean, it is certainly by leading by example through his culture and his values, but listening and taking advantage of the expertise.

So that's the, that's the two parts, um, is if you built a great team and you've built a great team of rock stars, use them. They've got a lot to say and they've got a lot of experience that extends your knowledge base, right? So, um, you've got smart people, use, use their knowledge and, um, and listen to them. And that's— Brian is one guy who's done that as for as long as I've known.

I've known him for a good 10 years at this point. And, um, yeah, so I mean, his shop and his company and his culture there are all about that. I've always enjoyed being able to visit shops and I mean very quickly pinpointing exactly what this shop's culture is all about. Good, bad, or indifferent. I mean, there's, there's been a lot of great shops that I walk into and the culture is just, it's so, I mean, it just, it's just, it's different.

It's different in, in, in all the, in all the best ways. Um, team members are leading each other and serving each other first before they serve their guests. Um, they are truly embodying what the guest experience could and should look like. Then it bleeds into the guest experience because they're serving each other first. And something you kind of nailed on, or you, you hit on earlier that I think you nailed, Patrick, is that, that when, when you start from, from a, from a guest experience, it's very evident the shops who put the transaction before anything else.

Um, whereas there's also evidence when someone is serving that guest, loving that guest through the process, taking care of them, right? They, they're treating it as a relationship. When they do that, the transaction is a natural byproduct of, of exceptional standard setting service. And those two types of shops are significantly different from each other. And you can tell it from, I mean, like when I walk in, I can see this almost within 5 minutes where there's just something different about this shop compared to this shop because one shop is treating the guest experience as a relationship-focused, um, experience and the other is all about the transaction., and it just feels different too.

Like you, I mean, you walk out just feeling, feeling different based on either, on either one. Um, well, let's, let's do this. Mm-hmm. Share with the audience more about Spark Interactive. Um, I wanna make sure that I'm, I'm highlighting and honoring every guest I have on this, this show, man. This is your platform. So, sure, sure. Sell your products, sell your services.

Why, why do we need to know more about Spark Interactive and how can you help? Well, so just what you said. When you walk into a shop and again, it's any service business really, but we're in this industry and you see it immediately. You walk in the door and you know as soon as you walk through the door, the great shops, you can feel it in everyone there that, you know, someone greets you at the door.

They, you know, there's a smile there. It's inviting. You know, some of them smell great. You know, you, there's a lot of shops that I go to that if they're not women-owned, they're sure certainly women-influenced because, you know, let's face it, majority of the people who make the decisions over vehicle purchases and service are women. And so many places ignore that fact.

I don't know why. It's kind of weird. So yeah, but the thing is, is you don't, you don't see that, you know, until you walk in the shop. And everybody's got a great website, you know. I mean, you know, I'm going to go to that shop there. They got that beautiful shot of that BMW going down the road on that twisty turny road with Euro plates on it, which is weird.

And it's a twisty turny road and I'm in Texas. Anyways, but so I know I've got a great Everyone's got a great presence on the internet, but it's until you walk in the door that you don't know. And that's, again, this all goes back to that ability to tell people and showcase that story before you walk in. And also, since a lot of these shops, you know, the shop owner is busy now.

You got to be where you are now because you've stepped out of turning a wrench or being the guy at the front counter. So you're probably not that guy at the front counter anymore. And as great of a story as they may have, even if they tell it to their team, they're not going to tell it as well as they do. No one tells the story better than the person that's experienced it.

Mark Twain said something about the worst ever told story is one told by someone who's— it wasn't his story. I mean, paraphrasing, I don't remember the quote, but that's certainly true. You're telling a story and it's not yours, it comes out terrible. I just try to tell his, right? So that's what it's all about and that's really what we focus on. And a lot of people, it's a tough value to see, to spend money on something where you don't get an immediate return on value.

We also do a lot of direct mail and we do direct mail a little bit more personal. We try to do everything personalized. Our direct mail is also, you know, the whole product that we deliver is personalized to the shop. We do it in a different way than, let's say, an Upswell or a Mudluck where, you know, here's a template, choose one, put your logo on it, change the words, change the colors, and away we go.

You know, all of our stuff is custom done for each individual location in each shop. And we work with them to understand their story. What is it that makes you different? And we emphasize that on their postcards as well too. But That's why it's our one-two punch, because you can look at a direct mail piece or a social media type of thing, and I have a direct digital correlation to how much I spent to what it's worth.

Producing a video where somebody has to watch it and you can't attach a dollar value to it is difficult for some people to grasp. But I try to encourage people to understand that if If people are looking for a shop to go to and they went to one that has the story of them telling about what makes them different, they're a lot more likely to choose them.

And there's one thing that we do that's even beyond the story. You know, like I said, we take the customers' stories as well too. Those customer testimonials, that stuff is like your 5-star reviews on steroids. Yeah. You know, I mean, today people are really thinking that everything is, is AI and fake. And so everyone loves those 5-star Google reviews, but boy, you've got 10,000 5-star reviews and I don't see any 1-star reviews.

I'm not buying it. Right. Yeah. I mean, even though they might be great, but you know, your best 5-star review tends to go like, been here for 10 years. It's great. You should come to 2 thumbs up, 5 stars. You know, there's not a lot of, not a lot to it, right. That you can say in a sentence. But if you hit their website or their social media feeds and you see actual customers in the shop going like, you know, telling these stories about, oh yeah, I've been coming here for years.

You know, I first came here, we had just gotten married, and then we had the kids and we had the minivan. And, you know, the shop owner would put, you know, a teddy bear in the car seats. And, you know, now my 18-year-old kid is driving that minivan. And that's why we're here today. And, Those kind of stories go like, oh, I guess I should go there because they've been there for generations now, right?

And then the third part of that, which is the team. So for recruiting, I mean, we're not just trying to attract great customers, but you know, there's a technician shortage, right? It's probably not a shortage, it's just they're not working for you. And And there's a reason for that because, and a technician isn't going to move to someplace else if they don't see a value in it.

And okay, I'm going to let you in on some top secret stuff here. I don't know if we've made a pause or something like that because this is a lot of heavy research that I've done here. All right. Hey, hey, now's the time. Everybody, if you're not listening now, now's the time to do it. All right. All right. Let's have it, Patrick.

Yeah, so I found this out because when I interviewed people, I asked them, why do you— why would you choose another shop over the other one? Not rocket science, right? So because like I said, I've talked to, geez, I don't know, good couple thousand technicians at this point. And I asked them along with their interviews on when I go in there, I ask them why they like working here, why they love working here, how long they've been here and those type of things.

And what, you know, I want to hear their story. But I also ask them, what makes you choose one shop over the other? You know, like, especially the new guys who haven't been there very long. Why'd you come here? What, you know, what was your process of getting to this shop from where you were? You've been in this, you know, you just told me you've been in the business for 20 years and you're here now and you were at that other shop for, you know, 7 years and you must like this better and what it's all about.

And they tell me over and over again, they say 3 things and it's not even prompted. You're like, I want to hear this story. I want to know what they're all about. I want to know if their customers like them, how long they've been around, are they going to be around a while longer? Because they're looking for a place to land and they want to make a home.

You know, I mean, people don't like using the wheels on their boxes, right? And when they find a place they want to stay, then they stay, but they don't know. And as you know, technicians in our business are a particular type of individual and, you know, don't want to go outside the box. And, you know, if I'm working, I'm working, you know.

So what do they do? They stalk you on Facebook, they stalk you on social. If they know somebody there, they might ask them. But, you know, in interviews, you don't quite get to ask the right questions. But if you can see an actual employee, a person that works there, telling their candid story that's not scripted in their environment. They can see what it looks like.

It's clean, it's well-lit. They look like they're, you know, in good clothing. You know, they're telling stories like, oh, this is great. We've been here for a while. You know, the shop owner, Joey, makes burgers for us every Friday. We have, you know, about couple times a year we get together and we go on a camping trip or something like that. That's something that BG Automotive does.

Or, you know, they go out and they have a bowling team together. They might hang out afterwards. Or it's a type of thing like we work really hard in the shop, but boy, when we leave the shop, we're gone. You know, there's none of this like calling me after hours and that kind of thing. And, you know, all of those All of those things.

So here's the key one. This was the number one response that I got. They want to know if they fit in. So of those interviews that I asked them, okay, what is it that makes— what is it you're looking for? And I said, I want to know if I want to fit in. Great example, a shop I worked with. Every guy in the back was tatted, arms, necks, some face tattoos.

I think they had a side gig as a tattoo parlor or something like that. So when you see that and you see people that look like you, you know you're going to fit in. Yeah. I went to one shop who had all female techs. So when I interviewed all of them and you saw that, and guys who are uncomfortable with that, might not want to go there.

Sure, some guys might want to go there, um, but, uh, they— I don't know if they'd even hire men. But, um, so that's that kind of thing. You want to know if you're going to fit in. And that's true of, of any human experience we have. Before you go there, you want to know if you're going to fit in. So I want to know if I'm going to go to a shop, if it's a shop for me.

If I want to go work there, yeah, I want to know if I'm going to fit in and if it's the right place for me. I mean, we've heard of We've heard of the rap sheet resume, right? Where, you know, the guy worked here and here and here and here and here. And it may not be that they're not good. It may be that they just didn't find the place that they want to be yet.

I completely agree with that. And by the way, I appreciate you sharing everything that you just did. You literally just described the know, like, and trust factor for team members or for employees with employers, uh, which I think is important. I mean, you know, the number one reason that people Um, uh, actually leave bad leaders, not bad jobs, is because of recognition, um, or lack thereof.

Uh, it's not compensation. Um, they wanna be recognized, they wanna feel valued, they wanna be fi— they wanna fit in. Like they wanna be a part of something bigger than themself. They wanna be a part of a culture that's healthy and positive. They wanna be a part of something that is moving towards the common goal, something that's, uh, moving the needle in the right direction and.

And when you can be a part of something larger than yourself, that's powerful. I mean, that's a powerful place to be in, an important place to be in. Let me ask you this, Patrick. The second question I ask every guest on this podcast is, what is the best advice you've ever received from a coach or a mentor? How would you answer that question?

Yeah, it's really good advice, and it's the kind of thing where, you know, when it's given to you, you're like, hmm. You know, taking it like— so get out of your own way and listen. And, you know, when I got this advice, it was probably in a circumstance where I wasn't listening, wasn't even listening to that. It wasn't a boss, but he was a person in a leadership spot.

And It was, uh, it's a hard lesson to hear sometimes because if you— I mean, of course I'm right, right? I've been doing this for years. I know all about it, right? But, um, but it's true. It's, uh, you know, if you spend more time listening than talking, you're probably gonna do better. And I've taken that advice and, you know, turned a lot of things around.

You know, the, the way that I used to try and lead things is a lot different than I, than I do now. Again, I really leverage the value of and the experience of my team. If I walk in a room and I'm the smartest guy there, boy, I'm in the wrong room. Preach, man. Preach. In fact, I know this is the first episode that has two Mark Twain quotes, because I'm going to quote Mark Twain and say, God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason., right?

Yeah. And, and so, amen. I, I, I know being able to, you know, when we think about communication and what's interesting is even as a leadership coach in this industry, the number one topic of conversation on the coaching calls is typically communication or lack thereof. We know that poor communication is actually costing business owners, shop owners, 18% of total salaries paid out on an annual basis and costing them 7.47 hours of lost time per week.

So when I talk about the importance of communication, that's an understatement. Like, it is, it's massive. It, it, it's, it's incredibly important. The interesting thing though, just to get to where I'm trying to get to, is when you think about communication, like, if I were to say, Patrick, what, what comes to mind when you think about communication? You're likely thinking about the words coming out of your mouth and not the words coming into your ears.

And I think you and I both agree that listening is arguably, if not the most important attribute when it comes to communication. And so I think that's phenomenal advice that we can all take and we can all listen to. Now we get to take action on that knowledge that was just dropped. So thank you for dropping that knowledge, Patrick. Thank you for dropping all kinds of knowledge on this podcast.

Now I'll ask you, uh, where can our audience get in touch with you and Spark Interactive? Sure. Well, the easiest way is sparkinteractive.com. There's a Contact Us button there. It'll go to me, so you can hit me up there, or you can always send me an email, patrick@sparkinteractive.com. Yeah, I can give you my cell phone number, 805-403-3462. Give me a shout. It's always here.

It's always on. Yeah, it's unfortunate sometimes. It's unfortunate but necessary, right? I mean, as— exactly. I think we all— we can all relate to that. Well, Patrick, man, um, thanks for being here. I appreciate you being here on the Limitless Leadership Podcast. Uh, any parting words of wisdom for our audience? Uh, hey, you know, if you're not telling your story, somebody else probably is.

So you should get out there and tell your story the way you, you know it. Powerful. Love it. Uh, well, man, thanks for being here. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. Don't forget to smile today. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. I'm Josh Parnell reminding you to keep leading well.

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The Institute's Leading Edge PodcastAugust 26 · 55 min

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.

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Master Tech to MillionaireJuly 21 · 1h 20m

Using the Shop Tour to Identify Pain & Close the Deal

Joe Adams hosts a legendary wealth management advisor, exploring and breaking down the Sandler sales approach—professionals solve by identifying pain, quantifying it, and personalizing solutions—so shops can build trust and close more business. The episode also covers wealth-building basics: start early, buy assets not liabilities, use compounding, diversify outside the business, and plan estate and insurance strategies to protect family wealth and prepare for an exit. AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

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Remarkable Results RadioJune 5 · 57 min

From Data to Loyalty: How AI and Hospitality Are Redefining Shop Growth [THA 488]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode What happens when artificial intelligence meets world-class customer hospitality? In this episode of Remarkable Results Radio, host Carm Capriotto welcomes Mike DelaCruz, CEO of Overdryve Marketing, and Michelle Tansey, co-founder of Euro Clinic, for a forward-thinking discussion on how auto repair shops can use AI, data, and intentional customer experiences to build stronger businesses. From using AI as a strategic business assistant to creating a luxury-level customer journey that rivals brands like Ritz-Carlton and Nordstrom, Mike and Michelle share practical insights on what separates average shops from elite operations. They explain how predictive marketing, operational excellence, and deeply embedded core values can transform customer retention and long-term profitability. What You'll Learn How AI can serve as your shop's "big brain" to improve decision-making and uncover blind spots.How predictive marketing can forecast car count, identify customer churn, and improve campaign performance.The concept of the "NASA Shop" and what elite automotive operations do differently.How Euro Clinic creates unforgettable customer experiences through personalized hospitality.The importance of building systems and processes around your shop's core values.Why strong operations must come before marketing success.How small communication changes can dramatically improve customer trust and confidence.The role data plays in making better business decisions and reducing emotional guesswork. The future belongs to shops that combine technology with humanity. AI can provide unprecedented insight into customer behavior and business performance, but lasting success still comes from exceptional service, consistent operations, and a culture built around caring for people. The shops that embrace both innovation and hospitality will be the ones that stand out, retain customers, and thrive in the years ahead. Mike DelaCruz, CEO Overdryve Marketing *]: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"> Michelle Tansey, Euro Clinic, Santa Clara, CA. Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty 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 at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: 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: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story...

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Remarkable Results RadioApril 21 · 30 min

Build Customer Loyalty: Branding, Event Planning, and Community [RR 1088]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Carm Capriotto talks with Lola Schmidt, co-owner of Schmidt’s Auto Care, about how shops can rise above the “ordinary” perception of auto repair through intentional event planning, meaningful community engagement, and a fully integrated branding strategy. Key Topic Points Make the Shop an Experience: Auto repair isn’t naturally exciting, so shops must create memorable, in-person experiences that bring customers into the bays and build real connections.Community Events That Matter: Hosting hands-on events, like Girl Scout badge workshops and “Tiny Tech” days, creates lasting impressions and builds trust far beyond what social media can achieve.Differentiate with Purpose: Identify what makes your shop unique (4-day workweek, curbside service, in-house specialties, team talents) and turn those into consistent marketing stories.Branding is Everything: From clean visuals and a great-smelling shop to honest, pressure-free service, every touchpoint contributes to a 360 brand experience.Elevate the Customer Experience: Replace cheap swag with thoughtful, useful gifts that customers actually value, creating a lasting emotional connection.Create Memorable First Impressions: A curated “unboxing” experience for new customers sets the tone and reinforces your brand from the very first visit.Respect the Customer’s Time: Efficiency and convenience are key drivers of loyalty; customers will travel further for a shop that consistently delivers both. Standing out in today’s automotive industry requires more than great repairs; it demands intentional experiences, clear differentiation, and a commitment to making every customer interaction memorable. Lauralee/Lola Schmidt, Schmidt Auto Care, Springboro, OH, Listen to previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and 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 onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: 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: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Zwith Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numberswith Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitzwith Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communicationwith Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm                  

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Ep 156: Patrick Egan’s Secrets to Leading and Marketing in Auto Repair

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Using the Shop Tour to Identify Pain & Close the Deal

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Ep 156: Patrick Egan’s Secrets to Leading and Marketing in Auto Repair

About this episode

Key takeaways

Frequently asked

More from The Limitless Leadership Podcast

Ep 176: How a Near-Crash Paved the Way for His Leadership with Brad Coleman

Ep 175: Why Change Doesn't Have to Be Scary with Joe Flammer

Ep 174: More Leads Won't Fix a Broken Sales Process with Christian Mosley

Ep 173: How to Upskill Leadership Skills in the AI Era with Jacki Lutz

Related across the catalog

216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors

Using the Shop Tour to Identify Pain & Close the Deal

From Data to Loyalty: How AI and Hospitality Are Redefining Shop Growth [THA 488]

Build Customer Loyalty: Branding, Event Planning, and Community [RR 1088]