Digital Shop Jeopardy

On this special episode of The Digital Shop Talk Radio show: Digital Shop Jeopardy! We’re joined by three successful shop owners: Steve Galyen from Trinity’s Quality Auto Care, Sergio Garza from Rick and Ray’s Auto Plaza, and Jenna Kish from Freddie Kish’s Complete Car Care Center. Each contestant tests their knowledge, shares their experiences, and sheds some light on what makes their shops so successful.

Episode Transcript

*This transcript was generated using Artificial Intelligence. Errors may occur. If you notice an error, please contact [email protected].

Tom Dorsey (00:00:06):
Good morning and good afternoon. Welcome to this week’s edition of The Digital Shop Talk Radio. This is Jeopardy and today’s special episode, our inaugural episode of The Digital Shop Jeopardy Game. You folks might’ve seen Bill Connor’s post on Facebook about a week ago talking about anybody’s interest in this Jeopardy game that he’s developed, and this is the culmination of that. A lot of interest, a lot of people wanted to come on. And we’ve got three fantastic brave individuals who have joined us for the first episode. This will become a weekly segment of the Digital Shop Talk Radio. We’re going to have monthly winners who will win fabulous prizes and culminating in a champion round at the Digital Shop conference where you’ll win even more fabulous prizes. So a little bit about how the game’s going to roll out. It’s going to look very familiar.
(00:01:04):
It’s just like Jeopardy. We’re going to go and play through and the live audience in the radio show can pick a team. So decide who you want to support and you can chat them the answers through the Zoom chat function. Jean is over there, yes, lobbying for herself there and help these folks out. And as we go through, Bill is going to be our game master and judge of our bonus question rounds. And again, tune in every week, chat us, email us, post it on Facebook. When you want to come in, I’ll be giving everybody a phone call. We’re not going to have the winner of this episode carry over to next week because we want to get more folks. There’s a lot of people that want to come on and play. And so that way we get more people who can because we don’t want Sergio just to win every week. And then Ash at the digital shop conference, he just walks off with the trophy. We want to mix it up, but let me stop talking without further ado. And let’s introduce our brave contestants. Jenna Kish, I’d like to start with you. Please introduce yourself.
Jenna Kish (00:02:17):
Hi, I am Jenna Kish from Waco, Texas, owner of Complete Park Care Center, along with Freddie Kish, who is semi-retired. So here’s my staff and shop in the back. We’ve been in business for 22 years. We’ve got nine technicians and we’re rocking and rolling here in Waco, Texas. Thank you for the invite.
Tom Dorsey (00:02:37):
Oh no. Thanks for coming on. It’s fantastic to have you. Welcome and good luck. Steve Galyen, tell us about yourself, sir.
Steve Galyen (00:02:45):
Steve Galyen. We hail from Salem, Oregon. We just recently expanded to a second shop in Turner, which is about three miles away. So we’ve, I’ve been in business for 11 years, been with AutoVitals for about eight of those
Tom Dorsey (00:03:03):
11. Wow. Oh, so he’s going to smash on all these questions. You got this in the bag already, buddy. And a man who needs no introduction. Sergio Garza. Welcome buddy.
Sergio Garza (00:03:17):
Hey guys, I’m with Rick and Rays Auto Plaza at Fort Worth, Texas. We’ve been in business about 25 years. We’ve been with AutoVitals about four. It’s a great company. We’ve grown a lot together, changed the way we do things. It’s a secret weapon, you just have to unleash it.
Tom Dorsey (00:03:34):
That is right. And I paid him to say that. So thank you very much. Check is in the mail. Sergio, Mr. Bill, please introduce yourself and give us a little background or give us a little hint on what your role’s going to be in here as the Game Master slash Judge for Digital Shop Jeopardy.
Bill Connor (00:03:50):
Well, I’m Bill Connor. I’ve been with AutoVitals for a long time. Been working with Digital Shop since 2012, 13 on development. And basically we did this to go ahead and actually give people a way to go ahead and get some engagement and go ahead and learn at the same time. So as judge, jury and executioner, I suppose that’s my purpose today.
Tom Dorsey (00:04:16):
That’s fantastic. Appreciate it. And I just want to give Bill, I want to give you a special shout out Bill. He’s funny. He says, I just want to have fun. I don’t want to create all this extra work for myself. But you probably saw Bill’s post on Facebook about a week or so ago, and little did he know it was going to blow up into a regular episode on the digital shop radio, but incredible buddy, thank you very much. It was brilliant idea and I know it’s going to help a lot of people learn and it’s going to be a fun way to do it and I just can’t thank you enough.
Bill Connor (00:04:54):
Awesome.
Tom Dorsey (00:04:56):
Well without further ado, let’s get started. Game Master.
Bill Connor (00:05:01):
So let’s go ahead and share a screen and if you would let me know that you got a screen up there.
Tom Dorsey (00:05:06):
I can see it.
Bill Connor (00:05:07):
Yep. Tom, if you want to go ahead and choose your first victim and then we’ll start going from there.
Tom Dorsey (00:05:14):
Well, I’m going to have to say ladies first Again, Jenna Kish.
Jenna Kish (00:05:18):
I can’t even read the categories. It’s blurry
Tom Dorsey (00:05:21):
On my screen. I’ll help you out. We have an inspector first heading. So just for anybody or who might be listening and can’t see the first column, inspector, second column advisors, third column technicians, fourth column production manager, fifth column, appointment bookers and sixth and last column, customer acquisition. Oh, it’s nice. Look at that. Everything just got big. We just boomer fight it. Nice. It is Boomer fight.
Steve Galyen (00:06:04):
I’m not a
(00:06:04):
Boomer.
Jenna Kish (00:06:07):
I’ll take advisor for 100 please.
Tom Dorsey (00:06:12):
And the answer is in best practice, the service advisor has been assigned in the point of sale and the technician has not done this way. The tile on the technician view will appear in this location. Anybody can buzz in.
Bill Connor (00:06:41):
Oh, Sergio, go ahead and let’s get an answer from Nope, that is not the correct answer. Jenna looked like she was second in
Jenna Kish (00:07:04):
What is waiting to be assigned.
Bill Connor (00:07:08):
That is a negative. Actually, let me go ahead and make sure that I’m not having a technical glitch here.
Tom Dorsey (00:07:24):
Oh, not on the very first episode, on the first question.
Bill Connor (00:07:32):
Okay, go ahead Steve. I got the right question
Tom Dorsey (00:07:36):
Appointments for today.
Bill Connor (00:07:40):
So when the service writer has actually done this, it’s going to go ahead and appear at the bottom of the no text column or the bottom of the technician’s column. So if they go ahead and assign the technician in the point of sale system, it’s going to go ahead and move it over onto today’s vehicle page. And it’s going to go to the bottom of that technician’s column where they have to go and re-dispatch and put ’em in order. So let’s go back to Sergio because we had all three wrong. Excuse me, we didn’t go to Sergio, we went to Jenna,
Tom Dorsey (00:08:19):
Your turn. Jenna,
Bill Connor (00:08:27):
Did we lose her?
Tom Dorsey (00:08:28):
Oh, I think she’s got an audio issue. Give us some sign language. She said she couldn’t hear. Second column, first box. No.
Bill Connor (00:08:43):
So second column, first box is the one we had already open.
Tom Dorsey (00:08:46):
No, I was just giving an example. Jenna, can you hear us? Give me a thumbs up if you can hear me.
Jenna Kish (00:08:52):
Yes,
Tom Dorsey (00:08:52):
Yes. Okay. Yeah, we got you there. She’s alright. Perfect.
Jenna Kish (00:08:55):
I can see it now. Perfect. Let’s do a customer acquisition for 100.
Tom Dorsey (00:09:01):
Okay. And the correct answer is building your avatar customer is a great tool for finding the most profitable vehicle type and demographics to get the right type of customers. This location in the BCP, you export this hard to gather info from this location in the business control contest.
Sergio Garza (00:09:50):
No idea,
Bill Connor (00:09:52):
No ideas. Okay, so that’s good. So we’ll go ahead and see what happens here. So the answer is, or the question is, what is the frequency report that’s generating from the business control panel? So when you’re in the retention rate section, this little icon here is going to open you a frequency report that will go ahead and help you build your avatar customer as far as what type of vehicles they drive, what year, make and model vehicles they drive average, largest repair order numbers or dollar amounts and so on. So there’s a lot of really good information for you to export and explore here.
Tom Dorsey (00:10:29):
Yeah, so everybody after the show, make sure you download that frequency report from your business control panel and see what’s inside there. A lot of good information for you to use. And thank you Bill for introducing us to the Frequency report through this topic.
Bill Connor (00:10:43):
Did I mention these questions aren’t going to be easy?
Steve Galyen (00:10:46):
Yeah, I’m super excited that this is the $100 level questions.
Bill Connor (00:10:52):
Jenna , you’re up again, it’s going to be
Steve Galyen (00:10:54):
A long morning,
Bill Connor (00:10:57):
But at least nobody’s going backwards this time.
Steve Galyen (00:11:00):
Shit. Yeah, not yet.
Tom Dorsey (00:11:01):
Yes,
Jenna Kish (00:11:03):
Inspector for 100
Tom Dorsey (00:11:09):
In the tablet settings for AutoVitals X, there is a setting used to make inspections consistent by showing reference images and default notes.
Bill Connor (00:11:24):
Oh, we got Sergio’s on it. Go ahead and give us your answer Sergio, you better hurry up.
Sergio Garza (00:11:51):
I forget that I know what talking.
Bill Connor (00:11:54):
So you actually were close enough. What is the guided mode, training mode, guided mode if we’re going to allow that and basically what we’re going to do is go ahead and click on here. And so to get into guided mode, you’re going to go ahead and tap on this blue settings gear and go ahead and turn this on. And that’s going to go ahead and when you’re using a fully guided inspection sheet, make the technician and service writer’s job really easy and really informational for the customer. And really super quick. Sergio Beans. You answered correctly, you’re out.
Tom Dorsey (00:12:27):
You get to pick, you’re back to zero.
Sergio Garza (00:12:30):
I’ll take inspector for 200.
Bill Connor (00:12:33):
He’s going to take the easy column. Go ahead Tom.
Tom Dorsey (00:12:36):
Using AutoVitals X, the technician can send a message to the service advisor from here specifically for the vehicle they are working on.
Bill Connor (00:12:51):
Oh Jenna, you got it. Go ahead. I think your audio cut out again.
Steve Galyen (00:13:01):
What is their iPad?
Bill Connor (00:13:05):
That would be incorrect. Sergio,
Sergio Garza (00:13:10):
What is the communication mark
Bill Connor (00:13:12):
That is incorrect? Steve, you want to guess?
Steve Galyen (00:13:23):
Sure, why not? I’ll guess the communication bubble
Bill Connor (00:13:29):
That is going to be incorrect also. So what we’re looking for is specifically the vehicle chat. So if they’re going to go ahead and make a conversation directly related to the vehicle, not just chitchat with the service writer or something else, those notes go right directly with the vehicle and they’re done by clicking this little vehicle icon here. It will dial up the correct vehicle and they can send the note in directly from there.
Sergio Garza (00:13:56):
I’ve always seen that. I didn’t know it was called vehicle chat.
Bill Connor (00:13:59):
Well come on Sergio. Oh
Steve Galyen (00:14:01):
Man. Now I feel more at Home Digital
Tom Dorsey (00:14:03):
Shop. Jeopardy is all about learning learn to earn.
Bill Connor (00:14:07):
Yep. And so what you’ll find out, the highest scoring people on here in the end are going to be the ones whose shops are in the least jeopardy. But anyways,
Steve Galyen (00:14:17):
Say the
Tom Dorsey (00:14:18):
One you don’t buzz in ever because then they’ll at least be at zero.
Bill Connor (00:14:21):
Well you never can tell. So
Steve Galyen (00:14:25):
You’re
Tom Dorsey (00:14:25):
Up buddy.
Bill Connor (00:14:26):
There you go.
Steve Galyen (00:14:29):
Oh, oh minus 200. I’m going to stop guessing.
Bill Connor (00:14:35):
Go ahead Sergio.
Sergio Garza (00:14:36):
Okay, for technicians for 100,
Tom Dorsey (00:14:39):
Technicians for 100, the RO is always open on the tablet when the vehicle’s worked on saved if tech moves to a different vehicle or chooses a t time, this allows comparing the hours on the work order to the time working on the vehicle with the
Sergio Garza (00:15:14):
Buzzer’s not working.
Tom Dorsey (00:15:16):
Yeah, Sergio’s buzzing in.
Bill Connor (00:15:24):
So if the buzzer’s not working, let’s go ahead and let’s give each of ’em a chance to go ahead and answer this and let’s see what we get here.
Tom Dorsey (00:15:37):
We’ll just go in the same order. Sergio, you can go ahead and answer first.
Sergio Garza (00:15:47):
I completely about to compare to our work. It’s the vehicle, it’s the feature with vehicle sign on, vehicle sign off per technician. If you use it correctly, you assign that job to the technician. Technician can actually sign in while they’re working on it and then sign off and a percentage of work done and then sign off completely tells the service writer that that particular job is done. I don’t remember the name of that.
Bill Connor (00:16:16):
Let’s go ahead and give them a clue before we go further. What this is is a measurement that’s going to be found in the business control panel. And what we’re doing is measuring the amount of time the tablet’s open versus the amount of hours on the repair order.
Jenna Kish (00:16:35):
I got an answer.
Bill Connor (00:16:37):
Go ahead.
Jenna Kish (00:16:38):
What is the productivity rate of the technician?
Bill Connor (00:16:43):
That would be incorrect, but that’s okay. Everybody’s learning. So what this is is that is the exact measurement called technician efficiency. So hours that the tablet is open for that vehicle versus the amount of hours on it is calculated in the background without the technician having to do anything except for operate the tablet properly.
Sergio Garza (00:17:11):
That’s a specific KPI, correct?
Bill Connor (00:17:14):
Yeah, that is definitely correct Tom if you want to choose your next,
Tom Dorsey (00:17:23):
So nobody got that. So Sergio
Sergio Garza (00:17:27):
Production manager for 100.
Tom Dorsey (00:17:36):
Okay. So a production manager has the ability to assign job advisors to make sure things are completed in a timely manner. This is the best practice location to dispatch. Where does the production manager assign jobs to the advisors?
Bill Connor (00:18:19):
So does anybody that’s online in chatting in to go and give them any help? Does anybody have an answer there? If not, then let’s go ahead and we’ll review it.
Tom Dorsey (00:18:29):
Check your chat. Looks like we got some help on the way. Task manager,
Jenna Kish (00:18:35):
Task manager,
Bill Connor (00:18:42):
The answer is correct. The task manager. What we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and award some bonus points there and the way the task manager works is the production manager that can go ahead and pull up any task that’s in there and go ahead and assign it to somebody else. And the task manager can also intercept certain tasks that they want to go ahead and use and delegate to other people. So my question is, now that you know that’s in there, how would you use that in your shop? So let’s go ahead and give each of them a chance to go ahead and say how they would go ahead and use that particular function in the shop. And a good example, we will net you a hundred points.
Tom Dorsey (00:19:29):
Awesome. We’ll start out with Sergio. Go right ahead.
Sergio Garza (00:19:33):
This is incredible stuff. This is part of the AutoVitals that we don’t really use. We still use 50% paper in the shop, but this would eliminate a lot of things. It would simplify payroll by getting paid on jobs already completed and it would also let us know the immediate status of where we are in the shop for any particular job or series of jobs.
Bill Connor (00:20:01):
So that’d be one way to do it. And basically, so we’ll go ahead and actually go ahead and give you some points on that and let’s go ahead and let Jenna go ahead and say what would that function, how would you use it in your shop?
Jenna Kish (00:20:17):
Task manager is great. So you can look at everybody as a whole and look at everybody in the shop and see where everything’s going and be able to manage your workflow so you can get jobs in and out. So you don’t want to high stack one technician and not have anything on another technician. So you want to move jobs around so you can see everybody’s busy keeping good production flow and giving everybody something to do.
Bill Connor (00:20:44):
And how about you Steve?
Steve Galyen (00:20:46):
I see it as delegating between your advisors if your shop is big enough to support that format allows you to delegate your jobs. When you run separate advisors, you can also run separate teams. That way you’re not overloading any one team with a bunch of heavy line work or whatever. We don’t want to be delegating diagnostic work to a line tech who, that kind of stuff.
Bill Connor (00:21:24):
Sure. So let’s go ahead and give you some points here. So the main thing is here is this particular function can be used to go ahead and intercept task and put the right people in the right seats and go ahead and let them go ahead and work on things they specialize and really be able to go ahead and delegate, which is something that one of you guys had said. So it looks like Sergio is up again
Sergio Garza (00:21:47):
Apartment bookers for a hundred.
Tom Dorsey (00:21:54):
We know every vehicle leaving the shop has a next service due. This location is the fastest way to verify the items on the next reminder to make sure that they make sense. Where is that location?
Bill Connor (00:22:14):
And so if your buzzer’s not working, just go ahead and speak up so we know who’s first. So you’re in Sergio?
Sergio Garza (00:22:22):
Yes,
Bill Connor (00:22:23):
Go ahead.
Sergio Garza (00:22:24):
We use the CRM feature in the AutoVitals to make our next appointment.
Tom Dorsey (00:22:32):
And where do you go to click that? Where are you going on the TVP?
Sergio Garza (00:22:37):
On the TVP, it’s right on the, there’s two ways of accessing it. One of them is CRM Next visit before you close out the ticket.
Bill Connor (00:22:45):
There you go. That’s exactly correct. So CRM next is a great place for a service writer to go in there and review that next reminder before it goes to the customer and also be able to toggle back and forth between the work order and CRM next so they can see what was done. Make sure nothing sneaks through and if it does they can go ahead and exclude. So Sergio, you’re back to negative ground again. Go ahead.
Sergio Garza (00:23:13):
I’ve got on that CRM next visit. You have to be really careful. It’s a wonderful tool. Appointment bookers for 200.
Tom Dorsey (00:23:24):
This is a location on the TVP that appointment Booker needs to make sure the needed incoming vehicles for the next few days count is appropriate for the shop. So where do you go in your TVP to make sure you have enough cars coming in for the next few days.
Bill Connor (00:23:49):
And again, if your buzz is not working, just speak,
Tom Dorsey (00:23:52):
Shout it out.
Sergio Garza (00:23:58):
I know where I used to go.
Bill Connor (00:24:08):
Awesome. So looks like Steve is playing it safe again. So what are incoming dates on the workflow screen? So when you set up your incoming appointments, dates where you can go ahead and see appointments that are coming in a couple of days in advance. And if these are empty then somebody needs to go ahead and get working on going ahead and filling up that funnel. Otherwise when it gets over to today’s appointments, you’re going to have some holes in your calendar.
Sergio Garza (00:24:38):
Bill?
Bill Connor (00:24:39):
Yes dear.
Sergio Garza (00:24:39):
That was not my answer.
Bill Connor (00:24:43):
Okay. You weren’t answer
Sergio Garza (00:24:45):
Question wasn’t the tpx call campaign.
Bill Connor (00:24:50):
We’re onto the next question.
Sergio Garza (00:24:51):
Oh nevermind.
Bill Connor (00:24:53):
But thanks for playing and it looks like you’re still up anyways. So go ahead.
Sergio Garza (00:24:58):
What been bookers for 300?
Tom Dorsey (00:25:06):
If an appointment is missed, the vehicle tile is moved to the no-show list. Service advisor then determines what went wrong and tries to reset the appointment. This icon is pressed to quickly set new day in time when you contact the customer. What icon again if your buzzer’s not working, just shout it out.
Sergio Garza (00:25:33):
What is the next,
Tom Dorsey (00:25:40):
I think Sergio has buzzed in.
Sergio Garza (00:25:43):
What is the next tab?
Bill Connor (00:25:45):
That would be incorrect.
Tom Dorsey (00:25:49):
Jenna, it’s your chance to steal
Bill Connor (00:25:53):
Or she could pass if she wants to. Either way
Tom Dorsey (00:25:55):
You could pass. I’m going to pass.
Bill Connor (00:25:59):
Awesome. Steve,
Tom Dorsey (00:26:02):
What is the phone icon? Give ’em a call.
Bill Connor (00:26:05):
Well, you’re close but you’re going to go ahead and go backwards a little bit. So what we’re looking for here is the calendar icon on the towel on that no tech column is actually used so they can go into side to go ahead and reschedule. So number one is to go ahead and click the icon and then number two is to go ahead and hit reschedule and then they can just change it to a date and it’ll show their calendar, make sure they got openings and so on. So these icons here all have a purpose and that is a great place to use that one.
Sergio Garza (00:26:38):
I’m more than a lot.
Tom Dorsey (00:26:40):
That’s what we’re doing this for. We want you to introduce you to some new features of the TVPX that are going to help you.
Bill Connor (00:26:51):
It looks like Sergio is up again,
Sergio Garza (00:26:54):
Customer acquisition for 200.
Tom Dorsey (00:27:01):
As you work with your AutoVitals trainer, getting your ARO up, then your customers come back. Then getting your customers to come back with the retention tools, knowing on average how many build hours per day are needed to fill your staff with work and be found within this metric. What
Sergio Garza (00:27:21):
Is average
Tom Dorsey (00:27:23):
30 in
Bill Connor (00:27:25):
Sergio?
Tom Dorsey (00:27:28):
And his answer was average ar. That is incorrect. Sergio, Jenna,
Jenna Kish (00:27:34):
That is measuring KPIs.
Bill Connor (00:27:38):
We’re looking for a specific KPI. If you want to narrow it down a little bit,
Tom Dorsey (00:27:46):
Any help from the studio audience would be greatly appreciated.
Steve Galyen (00:27:50):
What is billable hours?
Tom Dorsey (00:27:52):
Oh, Steve, with the steel
Sergio Garza (00:27:58):
Bill. Hours per hour.
Bill Connor (00:28:01):
Okay, so no answer there. So service advisor, efficiency average per day, that is a KPI. That’s on the business control panel that can let you go and see across a timeframe on average how many hours per day are sold. And you can actually break it down by how many hours per technician. So this is one of the things we talked about in digital shop talk radio a bunch of times is that if you look at your service advisor efficiency per technician and they’re not averaging eight or 10 hours per day over a 30 day period, then don’t complain about having not enough staff because you really have a
Steve Galyen (00:28:38):
Efficiency issue.
Bill Connor (00:28:39):
There you go.
Tom Dorsey (00:28:45):
Fantastic. Sergio Swing. Again,
Sergio Garza (00:28:49):
That’s some acquisition for 300
Tom Dorsey (00:28:55):
Customer referrals are a key to growth in the digital world. When a customer is looking for a shop, this is a key place they would learn from other people. Where would they learn from other people?
Sergio Garza (00:29:09):
What is a referral?
Tom Dorsey (00:29:13):
Lergio’s buzzed in with what is a referral
Bill Connor (00:29:18):
Close? But now what we’re doing is we’re looking for a specific way to go ahead and reply to a review. So a customer has given you a review and what are some key components that we talked about that should be included in that response? And actually if you go back to one of our earlier episodes with Roy Foster, he explicitly defined the exact elements that should be included in a review.
Steve Galyen (00:29:49):
You typically talk about the LVC, you keep in mind on the reply to the reviews customer’s name and make and model of the vehicle and service it. They
Bill Connor (00:30:00):
Look at Steve go
Steve Galyen (00:30:02):
Form. That way it all on Google.
Bill Connor (00:30:06):
And so that’s the best practice is when you reply to review, to go ahead and include the vehicle type, maybe a system that you’re working on and so on. So that way in SEO, those reviews, especially in Google can be picked up and kind of help you get defined as a specialist. And so Steve, you get to go ahead and make the choices.
Steve Galyen (00:30:27):
Hey, I got one. We’re going to quickly give this away by going to technicians for 200 I
Tom Dorsey (00:30:41):
On the repair order labor line, the concern, the cause, the correction and confirmation of repair notes are entered on the tablet in this location.
Steve Galyen (00:30:54):
What are notes for customer?
Bill Connor (00:30:59):
Steve. Steve. Steve.
Steve Galyen (00:31:01):
All right. Lost my points.
Bill Connor (00:31:04):
You’re close. Anybody else on there want to go ahead and speak up or forever now hold their peace,
Sergio Garza (00:31:14):
Right?
Steve Galyen (00:31:16):
Yeah, made us all gun shy.
Bill Connor (00:31:19):
Sergio’s got his hand over his mouth. So the specific location we’re wanting to go ahead and include is the shop eyes only note area on the job line. And so this is a great place to go ahead and for the technician to go ahead and put notes in there about what it is, the parts list, maybe a time that was needed, maybe even a communication about their percentage, guess about how successful they’re going to be. So the Shopify’s only note area is what we were looking for.
Steve Galyen (00:31:48):
Yeah. Okay. I understand that. I don’t think the question was worded quite.
Bill Connor (00:31:54):
That’s okay, I’m the judge. So let’s go.
Steve Galyen (00:31:56):
Thanks Bill.
Bill Connor (00:31:57):
Let’s go ahead and give you the opportunity to redeem yourself. So starting with Sergio, give me an example of some of the type of notes that you would put in there that you’d expect your technician to put in there to help the service rider do their job.
Sergio Garza (00:32:11):
There’s a lot of things that can help. For example, the car came in with a dirty just to make sure that the service rider is aware, maybe there was a little bit of a grease on the carpet before we actually started working on it. If in the past the customer complained about a certain thing or there is damage on a vehicle, anything you communicate, almost anything you put in there would qualify as good information. The last thing we as service writers is to be surprised by did you check my tire pressure? And there was no communication either from the service writer or from the technician to the service writer.
Bill Connor (00:32:50):
Jenna, can you give us an example of some things that you would encourage your technicians to put in the shop eyes? Only note area.
Jenna Kish (00:32:57):
I know what’s happened here. So a lot of times our technicians will say things in wording that doesn’t need to be heard by the customer. So for Shopifys only means technicians decide what needs to be said, then gives it to the service advisor. The service advisor has to take that and re-figure out how to say it properly to the customer so that there’s no foul words or things going on. And we try to keep that clean as possible. But technicians are technicians, they have their own way of communication
Steve Galyen (00:33:35):
Vocabulary.
Jenna Kish (00:33:36):
It’s a little different than the service advisor.
Bill Connor (00:33:40):
And Steve, how about you give us some examples of some of the things that you’d expect your team to put in there. Also,
Steve Galyen (00:33:45):
How we operate is two modes. Shop high is only, you kind of refer to it as kind of like whisper mode. Hey, this is a giant pile of crap. The primary mode that we use it for are labor ops. So not so much function and time, but this is what diag time, these are the jobs we need to do and here’s parts list. That is our best function that we do. That way enables our advisor to get an itemized list and everyone to be held accountable on their job function.
Bill Connor (00:34:26):
So the beauty of the shop eyes only note area also is they could put any damn thing they want in there and there’s no chance that a customer is seeing it unless the service writer explicitly copies it over into the customer note
Steve Galyen (00:34:39):
Area. Yeah. Oops.
Tom Dorsey (00:34:45):
Alright, who’s up?
Bill Connor (00:34:48):
I believe Sergio was the last person that had a question, right? I
Steve Galyen (00:34:52):
That sucks.
Bill Connor (00:34:53):
No, that wasn’t, nevermind. That was Steve, wasn’t it? Yeah, I think it was
Tom Dorsey (00:34:56):
Steve.
Bill Connor (00:34:57):
Yep.
Steve Galyen (00:34:57):
Hey, what do you know? Let’s stick with technicians for 300. Alex.
Sergio Garza (00:35:05):
Alex.
Steve Galyen (00:35:06):
Yeah.
Tom Dorsey (00:35:08):
On the tablet, when techs needs to get others together to push a vehicle in, they would use this feature to save time. So on the tablet the technician wants to get help from other technicians. The feature would they use to,
Steve Galyen (00:35:33):
There’s obviously a communication icon to So group message.
Bill Connor (00:35:41):
Say that again please.
Steve Galyen (00:35:42):
Group message,
Bill Connor (00:35:43):
Look at him. Go. That’s exactly correct. A group message can be configured to go ahead and go to multiple people at the same time. So if you want to go ahead and push in that one ton truck, you probably want to have a group in here called push help. And then you send that message to ’em and they can go ahead and select the group. They can go ahead and enter the message and then they can go ahead and see the response from the other people when they’re gathered together, ready to go ahead and get their energy Expend
Tom Dorsey (00:36:12):
Fantastic. Great job.
Bill Connor (00:36:14):
Now he’s cooking. He’s
Tom Dorsey (00:36:15):
Back to even.
Steve Galyen (00:36:17):
Yeah, baby. Oh shit, I get to ask again. Get to ask again. Oh man. Technicians for 400
Tom Dorsey (00:36:30):
There is a location notes area specific to the vehicle located on the tablet. Service intervals, warranty contracts, RPO codes and other info is stored in this location. What location is?
Steve Galyen (00:37:12):
Hey, I am at zero. I’m going to say nothing. Poor man.
Bill Connor (00:37:17):
He’s happy the winner. Anybody you want to go ahead And again, this is a function that’s on the tablet that’s there to go ahead and be used to go ahead and make the technician and service writers be able to have specific information that’s stored across all visits. And it’s there that can be configured for storing warranty contracts, RPO codes and any other damn type of information that the technician might need. It might be to go ahead. And what size is the gas tank on a Ford. So when you got to replace the fuel pump, you don’t have to go and hunt down for it? Nope. So let’s go ahead and go here. So the area is is where the eye icon tap is used for. So in the top left hand corner to tablet, when you tap on that, then you’ve got all this information that can be added. Radio codes, attachments, warranty contracts and so on.
Steve Galyen (00:38:14):
That’s pretty cool. I’ve never used a tablet.
Tom Dorsey (00:38:18):
Our job.
Steve Galyen (00:38:19):
I’ve never used a tablet. You never do. Damn. I’m a service writer. No.
Bill Connor (00:38:27):
Now that you know that it’s there for a couple hundred points a piece, describe how you would use it. What are some of the things that you would go and put in there for
Steve Galyen (00:38:37):
Years? Service contract information. It would be extremely vital where you write, you don’t want to lose paperwork, so acknowledge that the company name, phone number, contract information, authorization from the previous visit, that kind of stuff. And any other oddball information, any pertinent information that’s not going to show up in a service manual would become extremely helpful. Any customized information the customer has done specific that can throw the technician model.
Bill Connor (00:39:16):
And how about Jenna? Do you have some examples?
Steve Galyen (00:39:21):
Damn, I’m plus 200.
Tom Dorsey (00:39:24):
Yeah buddy.
Bill Connor (00:39:30):
Is Jenna with us? Jenna?
Tom Dorsey (00:39:32):
Jenna?
Jenna Kish (00:39:35):
She’s
Tom Dorsey (00:39:36):
She’s passing. I can hear you now.
Jenna Kish (00:39:40):
Can you hear me? Okay, I’m so sorry. It just says internet unstable on there. I was like, what’s going
Tom Dorsey (00:39:45):
On? No, you’re okay. We hear you good.
Jenna Kish (00:39:47):
I agree with Steve. You need information for the vehicle. Customer’s done other things, they just need certain information. The VIN number, what all the things that are on the door panel, when was it manufactured? What month and year. Sometimes those things are important. Is it engines in it and everything is pertinent to that vehicle? Like what we’re seeing right there.
Tom Dorsey (00:40:20):
And Sergio, did Sergio get his shot?
Bill Connor (00:40:23):
Yes, he does.
Sergio Garza (00:40:25):
Yeah, so some of that stuff is not important. Like the name, the phone number, the email, that’s nothing to do with the technician. Some of that stuff’s pretty important if you have the maintenance schedules, does it need the spark plugs now at 30,000? Does it need ’em at 1 0 5 to make your references? A lot of things that we do that don’t agree with the maintenance schedule, like flushes every 30,000, but it gives the technician sometimes spark plugs. That’s one of the big timing belts.
Tom Dorsey (00:40:54):
Yes. Fantastic. So any additional
Bill Connor (00:40:57):
Information that is a great example of a use case there from Sergio is to go ahead and put them specific maintenance information in there. And so one example that I see used quite often is a fleet, they want to go ahead and have the internal shelves in their truck inspected and tighten up every 5,000 miles. That would be something that you could go and put in there and that it could be unique to that particular fleet of vehicles. But anyways, that’s great. So let’s go ahead and go back to our next question.
Sergio Garza (00:41:28):
Steve.
Steve Galyen (00:41:29):
Steve now heck, we’re on roll. Let’s go with technician for 500. Boom.
Tom Dorsey (00:41:37):
This is the hard one. This is a place that the production manager can easily see when an advisor is getting behind,
Steve Galyen (00:41:49):
Man.
Tom Dorsey (00:41:50):
Where is that place studio audience help come out.
Steve Galyen (00:41:57):
Well, we already talked about them being the task manager, so I would imagine that’d be in that area.
Bill Connor (00:42:05):
So you are correct.
(00:42:09):
And so in the shop open task pool up on the top, this lower number here. If this number is growing, then we know that the service rider or somebody’s getting behind, you can go ahead and click on this, open it up and go ahead and assign a task to yourself or to anybody else that you want to. Is that matter? And the good thing about when you go in and assign a task from somebody else to yourself is they’re not going to see it in their group anymore. So that way you’re not going to have multiple people working on the same thing at the same time. And it looks like Steve is kicking butt.
Tom Dorsey (00:42:45):
Yeah, he is. Great job buddy. Clearing the board.
Steve Galyen (00:42:50):
Oh man. Well now I’m moving area.
Tom Dorsey (00:42:52):
No pressure. No pressure.
Bill Connor (00:42:55):
I don’t see that it added to your
Steve Galyen (00:42:57):
Five. I know. Yeah, I just got to play the slow game and important. Yeah. Let’s go to advisors for 200 there.
Tom Dorsey (00:43:18):
When a customer’s vehicle is in the shop and you are looking at their tile on Thet VP screen, this is the fastest way to see if they are enabled for text messaging or email. How do you find quickly
Steve Galyen (00:43:35):
Their
Tom Dorsey (00:43:35):
Opt-in information?
Steve Galyen (00:43:36):
What is clicking on the customer’s name that shows all their information? Your close, close, damn it. You click on the name and it brings up the subtile and it shows all their communication levels.
Bill Connor (00:43:55):
You’re close. But what we really want to do is we want to hover over their name and then we want to be able to see here without having to make any clicks at all.
Steve Galyen (00:44:04):
Well, okay,
Bill Connor (00:44:05):
You still got the points?
Steve Galyen (00:44:07):
All right. Bill’s
Tom Dorsey (00:44:08):
Feeling generous today.
Bill Connor (00:44:09):
Not very generous.
Tom Dorsey (00:44:12):
Oh, believe me, they know buddy. They’re trying to answer these questions
Steve Galyen (00:44:16):
Know?
Tom Dorsey (00:44:18):
All right Steve, let’s knock it out.
Steve Galyen (00:44:20):
All right, advisors for 300 there.
Tom Dorsey (00:44:26):
Winning an inspection has been completed then submitted by the a ghost message appears when the advisor is busy. What feature makes sure this is not overlooked? How do we make sure we message
Sergio Garza (00:44:57):
Zero? For me, teacher, there’s two things that happen. There is a little bubble that appears in the middle of your screen and there’s a zero for me on the task manager. I mean assigned to me when an inspection is ready for me to go through.
Bill Connor (00:45:15):
That’s exactly correct. So when that ghost message goes away, there’s a task created to browse, edit, estimate and send the results. And then after all four of these sections that make up this task are complete, then it goes ahead and marks it complete. So again, the ghost message comes in first. If the service writer misses it, then you’re going to see a task has been created and then you can go ahead and work through the task and be cleared when it’s done. So it’s really hard for a service writer to go ahead and miss something if they go ahead and just understand. And anytime there’s something red on the screen, that means something needs to be done,
Tom Dorsey (00:45:54):
You get ’em in the habit of looking up there at those task counts and that’ll keep ’em on track.
Bill Connor (00:45:59):
Everybody score starts with a one. So that’s pretty impressive.
Tom Dorsey (00:46:03):
Yeah, you guys, we’ve got a hundred for Sergio, 100 for Jenna and 1000 for Steve. Sneak it in
Sergio Garza (00:46:13):
There.
Bill Connor (00:46:14):
Sergio, you were the last one to answer. Correct? So you’re up.
Sergio Garza (00:46:19):
Oh advisor for 400
Tom Dorsey (00:46:24):
On the TVP. When a customer calls and the advisor needs to call the customer back at a certain time, this is the best practice to make sure the call is completed. What is that best practice? Surprised Alex T. Anyone? What is the best practice to make sure your advisor has the appropriate notification to call back their customer bill?
Jenna Kish (00:47:17):
Say set an alarm or have a timer
Bill Connor (00:47:21):
Manual. We’re not going to go ahead and penalize you for that one because that already went ahead and clicked this. But what we’re talking about doing is we want them to create a task. So then go to the task manager here, go ahead and click and follow these steps here to go ahead and create a manual task for whoever they need to. So again, this is like a digital post note on steroids where it’s right there visible for whoever you assign it to.
Sergio Garza (00:47:50):
So what do you click on? Bill?
Bill Connor (00:47:53):
So what you’re going to do is you’re going to click up here on the task. You’re going to go and click here where it’s step number one, add a new task. You can go ahead and pre can task. Put a title to it, what the note is about, assign it to a service writer, associate it with a repair order number and choose a date and time for it.
Sergio Garza (00:48:13):
Look at that.
Bill Connor (00:48:14):
So now my question is for some bonus points is maybe we should let them tell us now that they know that it’s there, give us an example of some ways that you’d use it in your shop. And then it looks like probably the next question will be our last question for this round. So let’s let them get some bonus points. First
Tom Dorsey (00:48:34):
Time flies when you’re drowning. Weird.
Bill Connor (00:48:37):
So this is for 200 bonus points.
Tom Dorsey (00:48:39):
So is
Steve Galyen (00:48:44):
If you have a specific time that you need to contact a customer, a vendor for this certain job, anything that’s time sensitive, you would want to create that pass. That way you don’t miss your time window.
Bill Connor (00:48:58):
And how about Jenna?
Jenna Kish (00:49:00):
It’s really important. You may have people at work and they have a break time and they can only take a call at three o’clock. So you better make sure your phone call is at three o’clock.
Steve Galyen (00:49:11):
Jenna, you’re awesome,
Bill Connor (00:49:14):
Sergio.
Sergio Garza (00:49:15):
We use Uber a lot. A lot of times we got to make sure that don’t send the Uber now, send the Uber at 4 45 and this is the address. This is the timing. This will help us tremendously.
Tom Dorsey (00:49:27):
That’s great. That’s a great idea. Great usage.
Bill Connor (00:49:31):
Tom, I believe this will be our last question for this round. So let’s get your, there’s
Steve Galyen (00:49:36):
Another round.
Tom Dorsey (00:49:40):
Yeah,
Steve Galyen (00:49:41):
So screwed. It’s next week.
Bill Connor (00:49:43):
Next week. So unless Steve goes ahead and answers the next question incorrectly, he’s actually sitting in the catbird seat.
Tom Dorsey (00:49:53):
He is.
Steve Galyen (00:49:54):
Oh man, I get to pay. Yeah. All right Sergio, I’m setting you up. Advisors for 500.
Tom Dorsey (00:50:06):
We go. The inspection should always be permission based. The inspection is the first line on the repair order. There is a process used to make sure the customer’s expectations are managed. What is that process? This
Sergio Garza (00:50:34):
What is waiting for approval?
Bill Connor (00:50:39):
Sorry Joe. I really liked that side of the buzzer. But anyway,
Tom Dorsey (00:50:45):
Tell buddy. I don’t tell you. Wield it like a sword. Anyone else want to touch that third rail?
Steve Galyen (00:50:58):
You know what our process is? Is that, yeah, Sergio causes approval, shit authorization during the customer. The first thing we add on our work order and plus any other issues that they have, we go over that together before they and gather their signature and leave so they understand they’re getting an inspection right out the door.
Sergio Garza (00:51:29):
But that’s how we
Steve Galyen (00:51:31):
Do it. I know that’s why I’m trying to,
Sergio Garza (00:51:35):
They’re
Steve Galyen (00:51:35):
Obviously looking for something else.
Sergio Garza (00:51:37):
We moved. They want creating estimate to approval to waiting for work finished. That’s how we know it’s been authorized.
Bill Connor (00:51:47):
So the specific function we’re looking for here is a drop off script or to drop off conversation and it might go something like this. Ma’am, sir, while your vehicle’s here, we are going to go ahead and do a vehicle inspection on your vehicle to go ahead and make sure that we give you good information about your vehicle, make sure it’s as safe, comfortable, dependable as possible. We’re going to send this to you as soon as it’s complete. What we’d really like you to do is look it over and then give us a call back at your earliest convenience.
Steve Galyen (00:52:16):
That script is really vital, especially if you’re a new shop that is not used to capturing emails. That’s the hardest thing. And that breaks attention with people who are very protective of their email and handing out information once they understand digital inspection, is that email is that connection between shop and customer? They become more open to that.
Bill Connor (00:52:41):
Awesome. So Jenna, you got any tips on the drop off conversation?
Jenna Kish (00:52:47):
Well, it kind of went silent there for a while, so I didn’t hear what anybody said, but drop off conversation is critical. We put that in our notes so that the technician knows exactly what that customer said when we document everything and then have the customer sign their little piece of paper and date it so that we have a proof that they did say that and go over that with them as a service advisor, talks to the customer just to make sure that they understand what exactly were they bringing it in for. And then it gives us information to fuel to the technician so they can find the vital source and figure what’s going on with the car.
Bill Connor (00:53:25):
Awesome. And how about you Sergio? What’s a typical drop off conversation sound like?
Sergio Garza (00:53:32):
We actually have an incoming interview, a digital incoming interview that we texted them on a new customer and it basically has a whole sheet of question and why are you here? Did you fire the dealer? Did you just move into the neighborhood? When do you need the vehicle back? Is it a more important time or money? Do you need financial options? Basically it has that ati, what buying personality are we dealing with? And then of course it has nothing to do with the conversation to have with the service writer on what we’re doing. We’ve been doing that for eons, making sure that we address the customer’s issues first and then safety and all that good stuff. But that very important that we communicate well and we also take that incoming interview and put that on the invoice so whoever the service writer is, knows to read what the buying personality of the customer is.
Bill Connor (00:54:34):
I’m going to go ahead and give everybody a chance for a thousand point bonus round and it is going to be for a thousand points. And on an earlier episode of the Digital Shop Talk radio, a shop owner out of the Texas area explicitly described his dropoff conversation. What is the name of that shop owner? That’s a thousand points. Dammit.
Steve Galyen (00:55:01):
Oh man,
Sergio Garza (00:55:03):
John Long.
Steve Galyen (00:55:05):
Listen, I said John Long.
Bill Connor (00:55:10):
So we got two failures there Steve.
Steve Galyen (00:55:13):
No, I ain’t going there.
Bill Connor (00:55:17):
So go back to the earlier episodes and look for the episode with Jamie Whitlock. He actually had this dialed in very well and he doesn’t go ahead and ask the customer if they want a vehicle health inspection. He tells them we will be doing this to go ahead and make sure that you know about your vehicle. So that’s a great episode to go back and listen to and learn about the dropoff conversation.
Sergio Garza (00:55:44):
I say it was John Long,
Bill Connor (00:55:47):
You’re wrong, damnit. So I’m going to go ahead and stop the screen sharing. It looks like we’ve got a clear winner there, which happens to be Steve.
Steve Galyen (00:55:56):
Woohoo. It’s all about strategy, baby congratulate, winner winner, chicken dinner
Bill Connor (00:56:04):
And John Long saying it wasn’t him. Awesome. And so hopefully this format goes ahead and makes you guys think about all the tools that we have available and basically we build ’em into the software to go and make everybody’s life easier, make things more clear for the customer. And so there’s just a great big toolbox there and we’d like to really encourage people to go and get more of them tools out and use ’em. Make their life easier.
Tom Dorsey (00:56:34):
Yeah, exactly. And if anything, it’s information now. These things exist when you have the time, get in there and check it out on your own and see if it’s going to apply to your operation and get those things set up and build the training and best practices around them to help you become more efficient, productive, sell better, smell better, look better. All that good stuff is all encompassing.
Steve Galyen (00:57:02):
Yes sir, it is.
Tom Dorsey (00:57:03):
Sergio doesn’t need as much. That’s a fantastic, by the way, Sergio, you should give points to Sergio just for being so handsome.
Bill Connor (00:57:12):
Do you find these questions in a way that are things that somebody in your shop that has any of them different roles might come up to you and ask you, how can I do something like this more efficiently?
Sergio Garza (00:57:27):
The problem that we run into from our perspective, my perspective is I never ever look at the tablet. I mean, I see this side of it, but the tablet is almost, I never touch. I don’t have that advantage.
Bill Connor (00:57:45):
Well, Sergio, I’m going to take this opportunity to scold you as the implementer of your shop. You’re the go-to guy and those guys are relying on you to go ahead and search out and go ahead and provide this information.
Steve Galyen (00:58:01):
My only input on that there, Sergio, is your technicians are only going to use that tablet as deep as the knowledge and training that you’re providing. So don’t look at it from a shame on you, but look at it more as a fact of we just saw how powerful that tool is and how much we’re all paying for it and we’re using that much. That’s right.
Sergio Garza (00:58:30):
That’s right.
Tom Dorsey (00:58:31):
Yeah, that’s a great point. Well that was fantastic. Listen, I want to thank everybody for coming on, having the courage, be the first people to come on and play this game live on the air. I mean, could have been more pressure. Did a fantastic job.
Steve Galyen (00:58:51):
Thanks Bill, for all the hard questions.
Bill Connor (00:58:55):
You know what, these are questions that I’ve gathered up from the Facebook forum and from our other trainers that these are questions they get asked all the time, every day. And so if we’re getting this asked by shops all across the country, these are things obviously that everybody needs to know and we got to get that information out here. So this is kind of a fun way to do it, or at least it’s fun for me. I get to press that button.
Steve Galyen (00:59:19):
I do appreciate you showing the answer in the digital form, walking that through. So rather than making us feel like a bunch of idiots,
Tom Dorsey (00:59:29):
Oh, excellent. Not at all. There are no idiots. There’s people haven’t been educated yet. And that’s really the topic of this show is to just open up and show you more of the program. And if it fits for you, that’s great. Now you know about it. Now you can go after it. If it doesn’t, hey, next week we’ll show you something different.
Jenna Kish (00:59:52):
Very informational. I appreciate the
Tom Dorsey (00:59:55):
Information. Thank you Jean. It was awesome.
Jenna Kish (00:59:58):
Person, tablet, or the technician. So I should have a general manager doing this job.
Tom Dorsey (01:00:04):
And what we’ll be doing is once we have this compiled, now the questions that have been answered, we’re going to put those available on the landing page. And now you can actually share this with your team and you can actually have the team during a training session on their lunch break whenever, play the Jeopardy game as well, what oil put instructions on there, how to make that happen so that you can take it and now implement it into your team and help them to learn. You have five semisynthetic. Sergio is over here making sales right now. Now he knows what button. Molly, click, click, click, click a notification for his callback. Hey, tune in again next Wednesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern and be having Fred Gestwiki on. We’re going to talk about an update with him. We’re going to play another round of some digital shop Jeopardy, and I’ll be reaching out to you folks that have indicated your interest in the Facebook forum and get you on the show so you too can be a contestant because congratulations to Steve Galyen. Somebody’s got to take him down and beat that massive point total. It won’t be that hard you don’t
Bill Connor (01:01:13):
Think. It’ll be hard. It’s harder than you think.
Tom Dorsey (01:01:16):
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks again everybody. Wednesday.