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. Who Wants to be a Digital Shop Millionaire, episode two and today is the BCP edition. And so I’ve got a great guest joining us. Or should I say Welcome back, Sara Savio.
Sara Savio (00:00:23):
Hi,
Tom Dorsey (00:00:25):
And Sara’s at Made in Japan Made in America in Sacramento, California. She’s the implementer there in the shop. And you probably all know Sara, if you’ve been around digital shop talk radio or AutoVitals for any period of time. Sara actually was our very first ever service advisor of the year award winner in our first digital shop conference. So a little bit of Sara Savio trivia for you and couldn’t think of a better contestant to come on for pretty difficult topic. Business control panel. Not a lot of you folks are using the business control panel. And so that’s what the objective of this show is to change your mind, open up some insights to you and see what you’re missing and get the ball rolling for you to incorporate the business control panel. And Sara will tell you, it is a very powerful tool when you use it effectively. And of course, as always, welcome back Uwe Kleinschmidt, our founder and CIO, and our representative on our expert panel of experts. Welcome, Uwe.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:01:28):
Welcome. Welcome back, Sara. Long time, no speak.
Tom Dorsey (00:01:33):
Yes, it’s been too long. It has been too long. So Sara, why don’t you guys kick us off, give us an update on how you’ve been, how did 2020 treat you? Any insights that you can give folks about how, because you’re a strong digital shop operator, you’ve been digital for a long time, actually trainer with AutoVitals for a period of time, helping folks learn the program. And so do you see that as how big of a help was that in preparation of what ended up occurring in 2020?
Sara Savio (00:02:09):
So I had a very unique opportunity coming into the shop here at Made America, Maine. Japan 2020 ended up actually a fantastic year for us. I was able to come in May and use my tools and experience to really just increase our numbers. We have had a huge increase in first time customers, and I think that with our ARO average hovering around a thousand dollars, the benefits of the digital shop have really allowed us to achieve what we did in 2020 and we’re looking forward to kicking butt again in 2021.
Tom Dorsey (00:02:56):
That’s fantastic. And I’ll give folks a minute to lift your jaws off the floor after she dropped that a thousand dollars ARO figure. But hey, that’s how Sara rolls and that is the power of the digital shop. When you utilize it effectively. We’re not selling to folks, we’re educating, we’re letting ’em make decisions and they usually make decisions in your benefit, in your favor. So because better safe than sorry, right? And today, that’s a perfect segue into this topic. What we’re going to be discussing today is because that’s where you kind of track it all, that’s how you know that the recipe is working is in that business control panel. And in between questions, we will have, Uwe’s going to take us into some deeper dives to help folks out. And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to chat ’em in. Use that q and a button, whatever it is, get your questions answered so that you can get in and implement that program and start using this what we talk about today immediately to your benefit. So without further ado, I say let’s jump into the game. Let’s get started. I’m going to go ahead and share my screen over here on this other machine. Give me one second
(00:04:12):
And we’re going to get started. So what I’ll be doing in some of these questions, a business control panel is a little bit more, there’s a lot of detail. And so some of the questions, some of the answers have quite a bit of words in there. And as we know from last week, I got a 32nd timer. So in some instances I’m going to read the questions for Sara before I hit the start button. Then you’ll see the text on your screen. So don’t think that your machine’s not working or you’re going blind. I’m just going to be reading them up. Just give her a little headstart so that when we hit that timer button, she doesn’t have just, she’s not down to two seconds try to answer the question. Fair? Fair. So let’s get started. Sara, I’m really excited to have you on. I really appreciate you coming in and I just want to say good luck to you. Thank you. And all of your bravery. Okay, Sara Savio four $100. What does BCP stand for?
Sara Savio (00:05:20):
Do I ding in?
Tom Dorsey (00:05:22):
Is it a business control panel B, business control page C, business control portal, or D business cost panel?
Sara Savio (00:05:33):
That would be a business control panel.
Tom Dorsey (00:05:37):
Is that your final answer? And it is correct for $100. Congratulations sir. Savio. Woo-hoo. So now this might be a little subjective and please if you don’t agree chat in your opinion into the chat field there and let’s talk about it. Why the business control panel better than point of sale reports? And here I’m going to read this off. Give me one second. Let me read some of these to you because there’s some long questions in there. Is it a because, well actually I don’t want to say A, is it because Uwe said so is it less button clicks to find the data? Is it the point of sale only gives you a snapshot of what the business control panel measures behavior and shows you the why? Or is it because BCP sounds cooler than POS? And let’s go ahead and start that timer. Sara Savio, what is the correct answer?
Sara Savio (00:06:49):
Alright, my answer is C, the point of sale only gives a snapshot in the BCP measures behavior and tells you the why. Final answer.
Tom Dorsey (00:07:02):
And let’s see, oh, final answer, and let’s see what the judges say. They say, correct congratulations. $200. And remember, that’s $200 in AutoVitals digital bucks, which you can spend in the virtual AutoVitals digital store soon to be created. Next question for $500, what tab in the BCP allows you to select KPIs and compare technicians? Is it A, the shop scorecard B, the insights tab C, the trend report, or D, the primary KPI. And remember, you have a 50 50 lifetime and you can always ask the experts,
Sara Savio (00:07:52):
I am going to go D, primary
Tom Dorsey (00:07:57):
B insights is correct and congratulations Savio. So Uwe, if you can, do you want to share your screen real quick just so we can show folks what we’re talking about there on how to identify the difference between the primary KPIs tab and the insights tab on where we do our analysis? So let me go ahead and stop share if that’s okay.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:08:25):
Sure.
Tom Dorsey (00:08:26):
I appreciate it.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:08:30):
Can you all see my screen?
Tom Dorsey (00:08:32):
Yes, sir.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:08:34):
Cool. So I want to go back to the better provocative question Tom asked there because we talked to a lot of shop owners and looked at point of sale reports and the reason why the BCP was basically born was as with everything, if you don’t know why things happen, it’s really hard to take the next action. If a OO drops the point of sale reports often don’t tell you why that happened. And so we thought finding the why is really a big deal and a big challenge because mostly you need the shop owner himself knowing how the business works. In other words, if you don’t know, but the process in the shop, how can a tool figure out the why? That’s almost impossible. A lot of guessing they have now artificial intelligence, but I don’t know whether it can do that. So what we thought is the first and best approximation is let’s just always think in there’s a result, which is for example, the A OO, and then there are influential KPIs which determine the result. And then we thought, okay, sometimes you just have 10 different influential KPIs for one, and nobody would able to decipher this on a screen. If you have 11 graphs going across, this is already super complex. But what we found that five seems to be as a total something we can digest and a simple comparison of a graph will tell you what’s going on. So I’m going to use one simple example here. Let me see whether my technology works here. It doesn’t seem to be one second.
(00:11:07):
So if you have this here, which shows basically a OO weekly revenue and inspection rate, you can see everything dropped, right? It’s pretty simple. Those are the easy cases. You can just look at the graph and see, oh, inspection rate dropped, everything else followed, right? That’s already an awesome way of determining, let me talk to the techs, drill down to each individual tech. Why did the inspection rate drop? And for those simple cases where the root cause is so easily identifiable, the business control panel is just a blessing in my opinion. It takes you 10 seconds to see what’s going on. And I guess the complex stuff we’re going to do later in the, if we get to that question
Tom Dorsey (00:12:08):
And just for folks when U was talking about influential KPIs, think of it as those are action based behaviors, right? I took a picture, I sent the inspection. Those are all things that you can measure that are actions or behaviors and if you’re looking in through your analysis. And so Farah’s point here is to say, Hey, we see this issue. Everything kind of dropped off a cliff. Did the shop owner go on vacation on this day? Was there a hurricane or a blizzard? And you kind of eliminate those possibilities. But then you see, you start to look at those primary KPIs to see where’s the correlation once you get there. Now you want to start to drill down and do much deeper analysis. And we’re going to talk about some of that here through some of these questions in the game today and through some of the expert analysis after them.
(00:13:06):
But also I really urge you to get active in the Facebook form. Reach out to folks that are using the business control panel as a regular part of their shop meetings and shop analysis and just have that conversation. Find out how you can start to implement that. If you’re not using it now into your shop, of course reach out to your AutoVitals advisor or Sara Avio, I am sure she’d be happy to talk to you and just see how you can start to use it kind of baby steps and start implementation because just like Uwe said, it takes you about that that long to figure out that there’s a flag and that I need to start looking somewhere. And it used to take you a quarter when your accountant would tell you, Hey, what happened here? And it’s too late to fix anything. It’s too late to go back three months and make a change. That’s going to catch up to you at the end of the quarter. So off my soapbox, let’s advance onto the next question.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:14:16):
I think you have to share again, Tom, I’m
Tom Dorsey (00:14:18):
In the process of doing that, sir, thank you very
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:14:20):
Much.
Tom Dorsey (00:14:21):
Anyway, by the way, why does it only give me the option to leave meeting? That’s not good. I shouldn’t have. I think I spoke too soon. There we go. Okay, Sara Savio for $1,000. How many KPIs can you view on the trend graph at one time? Is it
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:14:50):
Oops.
Tom Dorsey (00:14:52):
A, the primary KPI plus three influential KPIs, B primary plus four, one at a time or D, the primary KPI plus two influential KPIs.
Sara Savio (00:15:06):
Oh man, I think I want a lifeline on this one.
Tom Dorsey (00:15:11):
Are you going to take 50 50 or ask the expert?
Sara Savio (00:15:14):
I’m going to go 50. 50. 50.
Tom Dorsey (00:15:19):
Yeah, I had to stop that timer.
Sara Savio (00:15:23):
We are going to go a primary plus three
Tom Dorsey (00:15:29):
Chaching winner winner. Chicken dinner. Congratulations. Pulled it out in the nick of time. Yeah, I had to hit that. Finally, we’re running out of the timer. Well, I got to get that thing fixed. I need a good shop that works on software timers. Wonder where I can find one Uwe, if you want to just give us a little insight on why that is. How come I can’t look at my primary? And by primary of course we know we’re talking about ARO or car count or our retention rate. Those are our primary KPIs. But why can’t I look at as many KPIs side by side with that primary KPI as I want to?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:16:07):
I don’t know, maybe some people can, but the normal brain is simply, unless you’re a stockbroker turn shop owner, I think more than five. And you have the goal, you have the primary and then three influential is all the human brain can decipher on average. So I mean this is not a hard limit. We can add more, but it seems to be that’s all we can digest and make decisions upon.
Tom Dorsey (00:16:45):
So it still makes
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:16:47):
Happy to be challenged on this. John said in the chat,
Tom Dorsey (00:16:52):
You Meles.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:16:56):
So he was a stock broker in a swarm alive.
Tom Dorsey (00:17:01):
Exactly. And a chef, you might not know that by John Long. He was a stockbroker and a chef. He was cooking up deals. And that’s why I wanted to bring that up is just because I’ve heard you say it for years is that your brain can only focus on so many things. And that’s why we talk about starting out kind of at the top layer and then drill down, drill down, drill down, and bring in just the data that’s pertinent to that. So you don’t have a lot of distractions or rabbit holes. You end up falling down, chasing the wrong data. You really want to keep it focused and then just keep drilling down to the next level until you get to the root. Would you agree, Sara? And is that how you’re using the business control panel when you’re doing analysis and when you’re checking up on your ticks?
Sara Savio (00:17:49):
Absolutely. It’s just snapshot information. It’s real data. There’s not much to dispute there. It tells you the input that’s coming in and tells you what you may need to fix coming out.
Tom Dorsey (00:18:07):
Fantastic. So next question, Sara, and this one, this is a little bit as who would like to call it a feature question, but I think it’s really important because really what it does is it gets to in a roundabout way is to say, Hey, I need to go in there and set goals in my individual KPIs. And a lot of folks might not have done that yet, and so I want to show them where they can do that and get that thought started so we can get in and set some goals. So where do you set your goal for motorist research time? And I’m going to go ahead and read these question or these answers first in no particular order just because there’s some that are a little long, I want you to think about ’em. So we do that in the primary tab, so primary KPI and then click pencil next to goal. We ask our AV advisor to set those because only the AV advisors can edit our goals. We click the insights tab and then click the pencil on the MRT box or we submit a ticket. Let’s get started on that timer. You’ve got 30 seconds and this is for $2,000. No pressure.
Sara Savio (00:19:27):
All right. We are going to a insights tab pencil on MRT box.
Tom Dorsey (00:19:35):
Is that your final answer? Yes. And for everybody who doesn’t know that MRT stands for motorist research time, keep that in mind because we like to use that abbreviation Chaing, congratulations. $2,000 big AutoVitals bucks. Yes, that is correct. You want to go into your insights tab to the individual KPI box and you’ll see the pencil there next to goal. Click that and put in your goal. And Sara, would you agree those goals should be reviewed? How often do you review goals, especially for technicians on things like number of recommendations and things like that? How often are you reviewing those goals with those folks, folks and then kind of bumping that bar
Sara Savio (00:20:22):
At this time? I’m reviewing them when I have time to do it. I like to do that on a weekly basis and then at a weekly tech meeting, go over what we’re seeing, how many recommendations are made and kind of review and take that into the next week. What are we going to do with this week? We’ve got X, Y, Z cars. This is where we plan to be, this is where we need to go and this how we’re going to make it happen.
Tom Dorsey (00:20:48):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s fantastic right there in your weekly meeting, and that’s one of the most powerful things. If you’ve seen some of the episodes, we don’t want to say like Russ Crosby and Devin Kelly and some of the other episodes we’ve had on. Those are great ones to look up for you. By the way, if you’re new to the show where we’re talking about introducing the BCP, because that’s a lot of times your tech meetings they turn into a lot of times, I don’t want to say it on the air, but complaint fest and then it’s just not productive and you really want it to be a goal setting, meeting, analysis, review of the results, and then kind of setting the plan for the next period of time. And you want to do that incrementally each week. Well, there is no better way to get the content you need and the plan put together and set really the transparency and the clear information and path for your staff than introducing the business control panel results in your weekly meetings.
(00:21:55):
It just lays it out for you in black and white. And then you build a positive discussion, a goal-oriented discussion around those results and what our collective goal is and how we’re going to get there. And you can almost connect the dots, or actually you can connect the dots literally in that business control panel to forecast where you should be, where your goal should be based off of the trend that you’re currently in. If your trend’s going like this, well now you’re going to have a conversation around how do we turn that around? And it’s not pointing fingers and who’s to individually to blame. It’s where do we make improvements if your trend’s going like this? Well, now we’re starting to look beyond that trend to where our goal should be and we want to kind of really set that bar up as high as possible without being too crazy where people just go, we’ll never get there. But really set that bar right above where you’re headed and let ’em get after it. Then just get out of the way and let ’em get after it. We, do you have anything to add on goal setting in the business control panel? I think it’s such a critical function.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:23:06):
Yeah, I mean, I have to go back what Sara said. I think before you even consider using the BCP for goal setting, the best start is create a culture around goal setting in the shop, right? If the techs are not sensitive, that is a good idea. Your goal setting in the BCP just help you maybe, but not the shop. And then once that’s established, I mean there’s nothing better than following a goal instead of, oh, end of the week I’m still not done. Okay, let’s it to next week. Whereas if you have a weekly goal and you think about this every day, how do I reach this? It’s a completely a different approach.
Tom Dorsey (00:23:56):
Yeah.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:23:57):
I give you an example, it drives me nuts. I have contractors in the house and there is no weekly goal, right? We don’t get it done this week. We get it done next
Tom Dorsey (00:24:08):
Week. You be an Uwe’s contractor. Hey guys, ready to jump out the window?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:24:19):
No, no, no, no, no. We come to some agreements, don’t worry. Anyway, but that’s really, to me, it’s a huge difference. If you have a goal and monthly goal, break it down the weekly goal, break it down the daily goal and try to hit it versus, okay, let’s go to work and get the X hours filled, right?
Tom Dorsey (00:24:42):
See what happens
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:24:43):
With lots of activity and see what happens.
Tom Dorsey (00:24:47):
I worked really hard. I’m sweating. Where’s that KPI.
(00:24:53):
Okay, fantastic. No, I appreciate that. And let’s move on for $5,000. Now this is, again, I’m going to read this one. It’s probably going to sound like, but I’m going to be listing off some individual KPIs in here. But what I want you to think about in this question is how would you find the reason or what KPIs would you look at to analyze why average repair order, the average, average repair order per technician is low. Okay, would you ask the technician, why would you look at ARO inspection scent rate and motorist research time? Would you look at inspection rate number of recommendations per inspection and the technician effectiveness report, or would you look at the motorist research time and number of pictures per inspection? Let’s go ahead and hit that timer there. Do you have any questions before I hit the timer? Does that all sound clear enough at this point?
Sara Savio (00:25:58):
It does. How many 50 50 do I get?
Tom Dorsey (00:26:02):
There’s an infinite number of 50 50. I can only push the button one time. Okay, but you just shout out, I need help ask the expert is what you ask the expert and then what we’re going to help you out. Okay. Good luck. Sara Saio,
Sara Savio (00:26:19):
Ask the expert.
Tom Dorsey (00:26:22):
Uwe, do you know the answer to this one?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:26:25):
How would you find the reason AO tech is low? I would
Tom Dorsey (00:26:32):
Ask the tech,
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:26:35):
Can
Sara Savio (00:26:35):
We talk about it? Can we talk it out?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:26:37):
Yeah, we can.
Tom Dorsey (00:26:40):
Let me answer it first for you and then we can, let’s talk about it. And actually, Uwe, if you can go ahead and share your screen and let’s get into a business control panel. And so
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:26:50):
We can use the same,
Tom Dorsey (00:26:52):
Yeah, yeah. Perfect. Let me stop you. Oops,
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:26:57):
The wrong button. Can you go back to the question?
Tom Dorsey (00:27:00):
Sure. I mean, you go ahead and share your screen, but I can talk about the question.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:27:05):
I thought that this already shared. One second.
Tom Dorsey (00:27:10):
So the question was how would you find the reason, or in other words, what KPIs would you analyze to find the reason why average ARO per technician is low?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:27:27):
Yeah, so I go and go through the process. What influences ao, right? So they first have to do an inspection or they don’t do an inspection. Actually, there’s one before, and that is, have you collected email addresses or cell phone numbers? Because if you cannot send anything, your chance to present something is really low. So that’s number one. But nobody has a problem with that anymore. Nowadays that used to be five years ago. Now we have normally between 80 to 90% of all people leave at least an email or cell phone number.
Tom Dorsey (00:28:12):
And folks, that’s a great baseline. Look at probably more like 90, between 90 and a hundred percent is where your email capture, email and text capture rate be. So get into your BCP and see where yours is.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:28:25):
And then I go to the tech and make sure that the inspection is number one, a process step. Nobody is debating anymore, right? In the previous time in the paper-based, it was kind of, oh, we have now a digital inspection. When I come across something on a car, let me use it to document it. So whatever, 60% of the cars went uninspected, at least digitally, and only 40% had a result because there was something visually detected and then an inspection had been made, right? It’s really important that an inspection, and it’s really funny while I’m saying this, I vividly remember discussions with shop owners about why do we need to do a digital inspection for every car that costs way too much time? And now it’s kind of a given, right? Nobody is debating it anymore because the value has been proven to be so big. So that’s number two.
(00:29:38):
Do the technicians do an inspection? And number three is, does the service advisor mark them up, meet with additional information so the motorist is not staring at the blurry picture and some technician lingo and then closes the email because it’s just not clear, right? So number three is picture rate. Number four is inspection, sent rate, has the motorist received it. Those are the four basics. And then there are a few others you can also put in, and that is number of pictures taken and numbers of recommendations made in the old world techs who didn’t have a good experience with their service advisor that what they recommended actually had been sold, started pencil whipping because it was a waste of time.
(00:30:46):
And so it’s super important, especially in the beginning to set a goal for recommendations made. Although I have to tell you, since we learned also through that process, the new guided mode and even the mode before where you can configure a recommended actions right to the condition, eliminates the need for that. Because all you need to tell the tech is please identify, go through all topics, identify the conditions, and take a picture. The recommended action is automatically configured and shows up on the estimate or work order. So the basic ones again, is number one, inspection rate, number two, recommendations made. Number three, picture edit. Number four, inspection sent.
Tom Dorsey (00:31:51):
Fantastic. And is it possible for you to show the view with the influential KPIs on the right hand sidebar, just so folks can see where they would
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:32:07):
Yeah, if you give me a second, let’s move on. And I prepare. I don’t want to waste too much time.
Tom Dorsey (00:32:13):
Okay, no problem. Okay, so let me get back into my screen share here and get Sara ready for the next question. Okay, this is another analysis type question, and this is for $10,000. Sara, no pressure. I’m sure you could use that. $10,000 AutoVitals bucks. That’s
(00:32:40):
A good chunk of digital change there. So for $10,000, how do we determine why average ARO per technician is inconsistent? Now, earlier we asked how do we find out if it’s low? Right now what we’re talking about is how do we, we’ve got, they’re hit and miss. Sometimes they’re up here, sometimes they’re here. Or we’ve got one technician that’s always kind of hitting numbers and one that’s not. Let’s go ahead and get this timer started and I’ll read ’em off for you. Is it A yell more? B, compare techs on the insights tab C, compare technician and service advisor pairings or D, offer more bonus.
Sara Savio (00:33:28):
Oh boy, C, compare tech and SA pairing.
Tom Dorsey (00:33:33):
Okay, are you sure you don’t want to ask the expert?
Sara Savio (00:33:36):
I might ask the expert on this one.
Tom Dorsey (00:33:39):
We want to start off by comparing, oh, no, no. Oh, in the nick of time, let’s click in the wrong mouse. We want to start off by comparing those technicians when we’re looking for inconsistencies in technician performance, we want to start off looking at the technicians individually. And then if everything is copacetic there, then we want to move on to technician pairings. And then as Uwe was saying, we drill down deeper into those other influential KPIs and even use the technician effectiveness report, which although technically not really part of the business control panel, it’s right there in the sidebar next to it, your technician effectiveness report. That’s the pencil whipping report. We talked about it on last week’s episode actually, and you want to make sure that you’re using that as well in your analysis so that you can connect those dots, make sure that the best practices are being followed and adhered to, or it’ll identify some more red flags for you and drill down inside of there. Fantastic. Uwe, do you have anything to add to that?
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:34:44):
Nope, but I’m ready to share.
Tom Dorsey (00:34:49):
Would you like to do that right now? Let’s share.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:34:52):
Let me share. I
Tom Dorsey (00:34:54):
Appreciate it. And it’s just for folks that again, aren’t familiar with the BCP, maybe they’re not even an AutoVitals customer and they’re looking at this thinking, we’re all out of our minds talking about these things. I want to give a little context on where we find and how we actually set up the analysis inside of the insights tab in the business control panel.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:35:15):
So Sara, I hope it’s okay. I use your shop
Tom Dorsey (00:35:22):
Forgiveness. Don’t ask for permission.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:35:25):
And so let’s start up here. You see, basically Sara is the implementer as we call them. So that’s the point of contact for us. Shay, look, she uploaded even a portrait picture. I’m impressed. And then Mike Bennett is the a TI coach, and Doug Robinson, you tell us who that is.
Sara Savio (00:35:57):
Doc is now the general manager of both of our locations.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:36:00):
I see.
Tom Dorsey (00:36:02):
Awesome.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:36:03):
So you can basically add as many coaches as you want. So we have one implementer, one out advisors advisor, and then as many what we call coaches could be like you said, the general manager or owner, whoever talks to you, Sara, about the results. And then you have the primary KPI here, a OO, and then you can add from the right hand side as many primary KPIs to fill up to the five. So let’s see. I mean, this is pretty amazing. 48% on average and pictures, so that looks pretty good. I could now drill down to you, Sara. Let’s see where we call. So you can then really drill down to individual people. So that looks good. Motors research time is through the roof, 809 seconds. That’s pretty remarkable on average. Pretty remarkable. Sara, how did you achieve that? What was the key to make your customers to look at this?
Sara Savio (00:37:32):
I just really build value in educating my customers a drop off the expectations, what we’re all about, how they’re going to get their information, creating the transparency. They’re going to see exactly what we’re seeing. And I feel that that is just really making them understand from the beginning what the process is. They want to look at that they want to see why we’re better and why the dealership told them one thing and we’re telling them something else. So I just really drill that in at drop off, that this is the way it goes.
Tom Dorsey (00:38:08):
Yeah, set that expectation. I mean, if you look at it that’s like, what is that? About a dollar and 15 cents per second of motorist research time adds up to your outstanding ARO there. So that’s time well spent.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:38:23):
And then you start adding up the KPI. So I just added number of recommended actions per vehicle. So you see it’s already getting a little busy, but you can at any time just click on one of the KPIs at the top, which then makes it go away. So this way you can really get the busyness a little out of the screen, but it looks pretty interesting how the A OO and the number of recommendations correlate. So this week was a little downer, right?
Sara Savio (00:39:08):
Or technician is short this week,
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:39:11):
Right? See, that’s an awesome hint. The BCP cannot know that. So if we probably add car count here, we might get a hint. Yeah, see if the car count, I mean, just look at this in this week, the car count with lack of text forced everybody to rush it a little bit, right? That’s my conclusion. Whereas the week later that the car count was down and everybody had enough time to focus really on every single car. That’s how that looks to me. I mean, Sara, I hope I’m in the right direction, but that shows you the power of the BCP
Tom Dorsey (00:40:06):
And just that one simple. And then that right there in the shop meeting, that’s a great topic to talk about, is to say, Hey, when we’re extremely busy, let’s not cut corners. And when we’re slow, slower the amount of time that we’re spending doing a complete inspection and hitting all, checking all the boxes, we need to do that every time, even when we’re busy. And you can really show the difference there and of course, right to the paycheck and set that expectation and really get the team behind saying, that’s a goal that’s going to benefit everybody.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:40:47):
And it also allows you to, if you take a bigger time horizon, it might allow you to determine just graphically, what’s your optimal car count, and then either staff up or do other ways, higher efficiency and so on and so forth. But I mean, I did not look at this before the webinar, but it couldn’t be more clear how the correlations of those things play a role. So the beauty about Sara shop is you don’t see many inconsistencies, right? There is nothing worse than I peaks and valleys of A KPI because it doesn’t mean anything other than it’s inconsistent. That’s the downside of every snapshot analysis, right? Oh, I’m up, great. We did well. Oh, it was just the peak of a rollercoaster because certain factors came together that it went well, but the week later it’s already down, right? That’s the other beauty about the graphical analysis of certain KPIs because if you see that, for example, the inspection rate is peak and wellies technicians don’t do the inspection on a consistent basis, and then everything else is kind of not so important anymore because there’s nothing worse than an inconsistent process that it’s really hard to manage.
(00:42:28):
The only thing to do is put every things in one basket and make it consistent.
Tom Dorsey (00:42:35):
Make sure you test everything. You want to stretch that timeframe out and look at the longer trend to make sure that you’re correcting right the actions or the changes that are being implemented. In the short term, it might show that it’s good, but in the long term, you’re increasing from the bottom. So you want to make sure that you look at the short term, look at the individuals, but then also check it, double check it against the longer term trend. So you make sure that you’ve actually made corrections to the root cause and you’re going in the right direction for real.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:43:14):
Cool.
Tom Dorsey (00:43:17):
Thank you, sir.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:43:18):
You’re very welcome. Let me stop sharing.
Tom Dorsey (00:43:22):
I
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:43:31):
Go ahead. By the way, Bill, just put a nugget in the chat. An average 80 seconds per recommendation is what he sees as kind of a golden reference for the MRT.
Tom Dorsey (00:43:52):
Oh, that’s great. Yep. That is a good baseline number. Thanks, Bill. Thank you, Bill. Definitely. Okay. Sara Savio for $25,000. If your ARO is up, but revenue is down, what primary KPIs do you check? First? These are primary KPIs. Which primary KPIs would you check first? Is it a number of new customers? B motorist research time, C, car count and retention rate, or D, car count?
Sara Savio (00:44:28):
I’m going to go C car count and retention rate.
Tom Dorsey (00:44:32):
And let’s find out for $25,000 if Sara is correct. You hear all the celebratory music in the background, the audience is just going, they’re just standing up going nuts, tearing down. Thank you,
Sara Savio (00:44:48):
Thank you, thank you.
Tom Dorsey (00:44:49):
Back behind me. I just have it on mute. Okay, four $50,000, no pressure. Sara Savio, what is the minimum goal for motorist research time? What should your minimum goal, and we heard from Bill 80 seconds per recommendation. What does that calculate to a 24 minutes? B 24 seconds, C 240 seconds or D two minutes.
Sara Savio (00:45:16):
I want to go 50 50.
Tom Dorsey (00:45:18):
Okay. 50 50 says 240 seconds or 24 seconds.
Sara Savio (00:45:25):
240 seconds.
Tom Dorsey (00:45:28):
You are correct. Congratulations for 50,000 AutoVitals, digital dollars, yes. 240 seconds. Yes, I know it was a repeat from last week. Yes, I know that. And the reason is very important. You want to set that motorist research time goal, and I would say that question is now obsolete. That answer is now obsolete. I would recommend that you take Bill Connor’s suggestion and set it at 80 seconds per recommendation. That is a fantastic baseline to set your goal at and really break it down. Because a lot of times what ends up happening is we tend to narrow our focus too much and we don’t really see the big picture. And if we break it down, then we know number of recommendations. And that flags that. If our number of recommendations are too low, right? That’s why our MRT is low. Well then that’s an easy conversation to have with the technician is again, a great topic to bring up in your weekly meeting and rising tide floats all boats and get all those technicians hitting the goal for a number of recommendations. And as you drill down and have that conversation, then you uncover other underlying inconsistencies that you can address and set a goal around in that conversation. So really important to set that goal. And again, Bill Connor’s suggestion of time per recommendation is fantastic. Sara Savio, for $100,000 motorist research time is critical to higher job approval, which best practices should be implemented for a higher motorist research time?
(00:47:12):
Is it a monitor, the motorist research time timer on the vehicle tile and allow the motorist to review the, oh shoot, I’m sorry,
Sara Savio (00:47:23):
The setting motorist expectations at drop
Tom Dorsey (00:47:30):
What correct all of them was the right answer. We should have had a ask the expert. I’m going to go ahead and restart you though, but congratulations on your $100,000 digital AutoVitals, digital bucks. But let’s go ahead and restart so we can finish out the rest of the questions. We’ve got about 13 minutes left in the show and we want to get into some of the additional information and have some deep dive with Uwe into some of these other topics. Let me restart. Unfortunately, I got to restart from the beginning, but I’m just going to run through it, see if I can answer the questions. So give me one second. And actually Uwe, if I can stop share and I’ll do this in the background. And if you could elaborate a little bit on what we were talking about in that question.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (00:48:31):
Sure. So motor risk research time, you have heard us say this. I mean, so for so long, crystallized itself as really one of the most important KPIs, and it represents the shift from service advisors telling people at the counter or on the phone what’s going on to motorist on their own time, their own control in a business meeting, digesting the results of the inspection result. And we say that now it has never been different and it’s the most normal things on the planet. It took really a while to really get this dialed in. And so the best way to really say it is compared with your Amazon experience to buy, we are so empowered with digital information nowadays. We can just Google it and find out, I don’t need necessarily as a motorist an additional sales pressure to make a decision. What is the best thing for my car?
(00:49:55):
And I know that’s highly controversial and lots of service advisors have rightfully so, a lot of pride in how they educate the customer. But the times, and I have to single out Amazon again, basically conditioned us to be able to digest the information on online and make a decision. And so the more a service advisor puts the work into preparing the pictures in layman’s terms. So if you put yourself in the motorist shoes and there, I don’t know, in a business meeting or standing in the line in the grocery with Covid, you have even more lines now.
(00:50:46):
They need to see it on a mobile phone footprint, very clear in layman’s terms. And pictures have to speak the language with marked up text and arrows and all the things we have now in the image editor, that’s the new holy grail. The more you can speak through the pictures and comments and notes and recommendations, the higher your approval rate is, and the more it saves the service advisor time on the phone. That was the whole finding. And we keep innovating on what’s the next thing we can do? What’s the next thing we can do to empower motorists to make decisions, which actually where your recommendations just not directly spoken on the phone, but through pictures and wheel vehicle conditions.
Tom Dorsey (00:51:54):
And it’s the consistent application of that because especially for folks that become returning repeat business, you condition them. So that’s why what Sara was saying was critical. That was the right answer. We just needed the rest of them in there. But that is, I would say the most critical, right? And that’s why, and Sara had alluded to it in the very beginning, why her ARO is so high is that she really sets that customer expectation at the drop for what’s to come. And when you do that, people love to follow a process. Now people love to just kind of, the app tells you what to do or the map tells you where to turn. Siri says, go left, go right? You have no idea where you’re at. Hopefully series Z has your best interest at heart. She’s not driving you off the cliff, but we just turn anyway because we become so conditioned to follow that digital process and that information.
(00:52:47):
Well, that’s the exact same thing that Sara is doing at the drop is setting that. And that’s a peace of mind. Somebody goes, oh my gosh, how great is that? I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to try to call them or figure I’m going to get this information. It’s going to come at this time, it’s going to be about these things, and all I have to do is look at it and make a decision. Woo, that’s easy. It’s the easy button. It’s the convenience factor. It’s what really is going to attract people, especially digital consumers, to become, and boy, I’ll tell you what it’s like anything else, and you do this yourself. Once you have that convenience and once you have that experience where you go, man, that was awesome and easy, you don’t go anywhere else. You go back, you always go there.
(00:53:29):
You get the same experience. Now once your shop, it doesn’t matter how difficult it was when you adopted digital inspections to get to that point. Now those things are down. What are your techs doing? They’re revolting. They’re not going, woo, yeah, sweet. We couldn’t stand doing that. They’re like, I need my digital inspection. Give it to me now. Because it just becomes that expectation and it becomes so critical to the experience and to how we make our decisions or do our job in that case that you don’t know what to do without it. And if you can provide that same experience to your customers, gosh, they’re a customer for life. It’s the easiest most way that you can establish that credibility and build that relationship. And Sara, it sounds like you’re having, especially with that $942 ARO, it sounds like it’s working well for you.
(00:54:22):
Can you elaborate a little bit? I think we’re going to, since you failed at, but you still, I mean, a hundred thousand dollars is a hundred thousand dollars. I think we’ll save the remaining questions for another future episode of Business Control Panel because we’re a little, we’re running it with seven minutes left. But I want to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit and help folks out. How do you go about, what is your process for setting that expectation at the drop and what’s been the results for that? Obviously in 802nd motorist research time, but talk to us a little bit about customer’s experience and comments, and are they coming back more per year since you’ve implemented that and really made that a primary process step? Have you noticed that type of benefit as well?
Sara Savio (00:55:09):
Well, that’s a good question, and that will be interesting to see if they’re coming back more times a year. Once again, I started at this location in May of this year, and when you’re digging that deep, when you’re going that deep into the inspection and you’re getting all that caught up, maintenance taken care of, and you are showing the pictures and you’re getting the authorizations, then it’ll be kind of interesting once again to see what happens when they come in the next time. So I think that our retention rate is high. Our customers absolutely love our inspections and they’re referring their friends because of the inspections, because of the transparency. So for me personally, from the time I started using AutoVitals, it has been about how do I share this experience and what it brings to my customer and why are they going to come to me?
(00:56:14):
Why am I your go-to shop? Why do you not need to go anywhere else? And just kind of going over the same, I have the same spiel every time until the customer can come in and basically repeat it as I’m going through it. When they’re dropping off, let them know that we’re going to, once the technician is done, they’re going to submit that to me. I’m going to audit the inspection, I’m going to put any little notes or arrows that I’m going to forward that link, click on that link. You’re going to see the bars that pop up, click on each color that’s going to open up the section. You can see all the great things. You can see things we’re going to keep an eye on letting them know at that point that not everything is immediate attention. And I think that’s very important with customers because they understand that you’re not in it. You don’t want just everything that you’re truly looking out for their best interest. So
Tom Dorsey (00:57:09):
You go as far as walking ’em through actually how to open up the inspection. Absolutely. To click on what to look at, kind of in what order to look at and what those things mean. Yes, before they even receive it,
Sara Savio (00:57:21):
Before they receive it. And then I let them know once they look at that point, I’m working on pricing and options, and when I have that ready, I’m going to shoot ’em a text message to give me a call for pricing and options, and that prompts that call in. At the same time, while I’m pricing multiple jobs, I can dictate when I want my customer to call me because they know when I send them that message that I am ready for them. So if I’ve got five estimates, five customers, and I don’t want them all calling me back at the same time, I shoot that message and nine times out of 10, I’m getting a call within 30 seconds.
Tom Dorsey (00:57:59):
Yeah, I remember when you posted that up on Facebook. It was probably a year ago maybe, and it was kind of controversial at the time. People were like, but that’s exactly, now you heard it right from the horse’s mouth, not say your horse, but that’s exactly what it is. When you set that expectation of folks follow along and yeah, she did have whatever it was, you pose a 90% or whatever was called you, you didn’t have to call them. A lot of people called you out on it, I remember in the Facebook thread. But that’s exactly how you do it. Yep.
(00:58:31):
That’s exactly how you do it, is you set that expectation, you walk ’em through it, get a digital copy up on a monitor, have a laminated copy if you don’t have the space for a monitor and just walk the folks, especially the new customers, get ’em conditioned of what to expect and what’s about to happen, and you show them. And then when they get it, because I tell you what, I love my mom. She moved in with me and boy, I’ve been explaining things and I almost think that my mom is getting back at me for when I was a kid, and I would’ve just asked constant questions like, nah. So now she’s like, ah ha, she was on the other foot, but boy do I explain some things over and over again. And so you really want to be able to set that because it helps so much for folks that don’t know what to expect, even though we think that it’s just common sense and that anybody can figure it out, get in there and walk ’em through it.
(00:59:23):
Make that a regular part of your process at the drop is, and don’t cut that corner. Walk ’em through it. It doesn’t matter if they seem like they’re super tech savvy and they’re walking in on the Instagram as they’re talking to ’em and they’re doing the thing and multitask it doesn’t matter. Walk them through it as if you’re explaining it to the 6-year-old all the way. It doesn’t matter, age or demographic or any of that age. And every person gets walked through in that fashion. And you’d be surprised at the results that you achieve in a very short period of time with the folks that are prepared for those sales questions, prepared for making decisions on approvals and are educating themselves inside of your inspection. Now it’s up to you to just create the good story and publish a lot of them. Uwe, do we have anything you’d like to add before we break? We’re right at the top of the hour.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (01:00:16):
It takes another hour to go more into details of the BCP and its value, but
Tom Dorsey (01:00:24):
That’s a show for another time.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (01:00:26):
I just want to add, Sara, thank you for coming onto the show. Thank you. Good to be with you guys
Tom Dorsey (01:00:32):
Again. Yeah, no, it was great. Sara, miss you. It’s been a long year. Yes. And I really appreciate you coming on, and it was great to see you. Good to see you. And to Uwe’s point, have that discussion. Yes, we could talk all day and all week about business control panel, but get into the Facebook forum, talk to your advisor, go into the Digital Academy and Digital Shop Academy and look at the videos and just get the ball rolling. Start to talk with your team about that and how you want to set those goals. And then implement that business control panel discussion in each and every team meeting, each and every week. And before you know it, you’re going to be like you have a crystal ball, and that’s how you’re going to be running your business. Just ask John Long, just ask any of those folks that come on this show on a regular basis and talk about and brag about their successes. It all starts with good data and analysis and having a regular consistent process to do that analysis. And it starts right there in the business control panel. Uwe, buddy, I really appreciate your time and help as always, and I look forward to another game of Who Wants to be a Digital Shop Millionaire next Wednesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern, be there, or B Square. Thanks everybody. Have a great day.
Uwe Kleinschmidt (01:01:59):
Thank you.