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Episode Description

If you talk to customers every day then this might sound familiar:

“I know someone/somewhere who can do that for free/cheap”
“How much would it be if I give you the part myself?”
“I don’t think it’s necessary at this time.”
“I don’t have the money right now”

Can you imagine customers getting their car fixed without any hesitations or questions? There are probably a thousand things swirling in a person’s mind when considering a repair decision. It’s the source of many objections you hear. And no doubt, it’s challenging to deal with their resistance on a daily basis.

However, objections are gifts! Customers are telling you exactly what you need to address in order to keep the repair moving forward. Objections guide your conversations and handling them effectively will often be the deciding factor in winning or losing the repair.

To get your customers committed to the repair, shop owner Doug Brackett (Downtown Automotive) and AutoVitals Trainer Sara Savio join us this week to go over a few steps in navigating tough conversations and also share the strategies they use to overcome the most common objections in automotive repair.

Episode Transcript

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

Tom Dorsey (00:01):
Good morning, good afternoon. Welcome to Digital Shop Talk Radio, episode 19 Wednesday, June 12th. And as always, we got a great show lined up for you. We’ve got Doug Brackett joining us from Downtown Automotive and Sara Savio. And today what we’re going to be talking about is we’re going to be talking about overcoming customer objections. And so as always, we’re live streaming on Facebook. You can interact, get your questions answered live on air. If there’s something that comes up you want to ask our two experts, Doug and Sara get their insight, let’s have a talk, right? Let’s have a conversation. So without further ado, Doug, welcome buddy. It’s great to have you on Digital Shop Talk. If you could tell us a little bit about yourself, introduce yourself.
Doug Brackett (00:50):
Thank you very much. So my name’s Doug. I’ve been running an Automotive shop for 11 years here. I took over at the age of 27 as a fresh journeyman technician. Very interested in being a student of the industry. I’ve gone through a lot of management training over the years with a number of large, medium and small companies, and I absolutely love what we do. I love working with the systems that we’ve got now and I’m super keen to help out with AutoVitals.
Tom Dorsey (01:22):
Awesome. Yeah. And you guys have been a digital shop for quite some time. You seem like a pretty forward thinking operator. How long have you been with us?
Doug Brackett (01:32):
So I’ve been about three years on as a digital shop. We started off with the basic entry level product of doing the Napa DBIs. Quickly realized the potential involved in the system and we switched over to Protractor just about exactly a year ago and have been having a great success. We’ve been getting extremely busy, almost to the point of we’ve got to rethink our staffing situations at times and really developing these processes and moving along with what’s changing in the industry. And that has provided for fantastic customer confidence. Our customers are trusting us with less effort than they used to before as well too, and that’s translated into some fantastic sales and numbers moving forward in the business.
Tom Dorsey (02:21):
Well see there. You heard it folks right from the horse’s mouth shows over. You don’t get objections when you’re a digital shop and you operate at the level that Doug can do it, but just kidding. Sara, introduce yourself. I mean, Sara’s a regular, everybody knows Sara, but just for maybe some new viewers, some people who haven’t met you yet, give us a little bit about your background as a digital shop operator and what have you been up to lately?
Sara Savio (02:45):
So Sara Savio, I have been writing service for 23 years. I have recently joined the AutoVitals team as a trainer. I have six and a half years experience in a digital shop, and I could not imagine going back the transparency of the digital shop. It does handle a lot of your objections and yes, it absolutely reduces those objections and increases those sales.
Tom Dorsey (03:16):
So let’s dig in. So what are some of the common objections that you would get, let’s say, and is there different objections when you’re a paper-based shop versus a digital shop?
Sara Savio (03:28):
Absolutely. The difference is in a paper-based shop, you’re not showing them pictures, you’re not showing them fluid samples. So there’s kind of the old stigmatism at times of you’re just trying to upsell me on something. So being digital, you’ve got those pictures to show, you’re putting little arrows on there and circles putting the notes to the customer so when they review that inspection, they can see, yeah, the ball joint boots are torn, my struts are leaking, my transmission fluid is really dark. There’s no protection level as far as the coolant and the cooling system. So from the aspect once again of being able to just put that out to your customer, that resolves those objections of do I really need it?
Tom Dorsey (04:19):
And so Doug, I mean, is that the same experience that you guys have been having from your transition into a digital shop? So then if the does the objection change?
Doug Brackett (04:32):
Yeah, it is been my experience that definitely we get a lot fewer objections for sure. The nature of the objections do change to some extent. But the other big part that we found out is that so many of those objections can get dealt with in other ways as well too. A lot of it is that the base level of systems and how the shop goes about its day-to-day affairs can really change which objections do come up as well too, even beyond just our digital inspections and the transparency provided, and this is the condition that your vehicle is in, but quoting all of those conditions properly, advising our customers according to the priority of the job as well too, has been a huge thing to help people understand which are the critical items, which can be put off as well too. And we find that using that tool of prioritizing all of those repairs recommended by the technician really helps people get on board with, yes, these ones that they’re telling me need to get done now, really do need to get done now we’re not making this up by telling you that yes, there are items that don’t need to get done now as well too.
(05:53):
So that really comes into our statuses in the inspection sheets where we have items that are just advisements, this is coming up for you, recommendations and maintenance work as well. Of course, hopefully they never hit there, but the critical safety items as well too, right?
Tom Dorsey (06:09):
Yeah, of course. And so then where do the objections lie? I mean, what would you say is your biggest objection once you get into that, you’ve done the presentation of the recommendations, they’ve gone through the inspection sheet and looked at the videos and pictures, what objections are left?
Doug Brackett (06:32):
So a lot of the objections come from the old model of automotive repair shop where we have hard cells going on. You really have to do this right now without providing people the education of why they have to. People will always default to price being their primary driving factor if there aren’t any supporting things for them to look at. Other than that. So if you don’t provide good value for the services that you’re doing, people are just going to go straight to press and they can always find a lower press. There can always be a race to the bottom. So we had one quite recently where a customer told us, Hey, I can buy that starter for $160 online, not $420 from you. And that objection comes from somebody that is used to bringing their own part to a shop, which is not something that my opinion professional shops ever do, and as well as somebody that does their own oil changes. So they’re already devaluing the service that we’re providing just through a lack of understanding and education over what it takes to run a successful garage. And that involves all of those other systems in procedures in place so that we can provide that outstanding value and charge what we need to charge
Tom Dorsey (07:51):
Of course. And you hit the nail on the head right as it starts at value and the digital shop allows you to really get to that level to establish that value. And yeah, there’s always one-off, guys, I’m captain, fix it myself. But even there you can establish that value because you’ve got the record and you’ve got the, if something’s ever comes up, you’ve got a place to go and get that taken care of. So Sara, I mean is that your experience as well, and then when you get into those price objections, how do you handle them?
Sara Savio (08:29):
So price objections, there are several ways to handle them. First and foremost, somebody else, I can get that part cheaper. Yes, you can, but you also need to, as much as you’re a digital shop, maintain that personal touch as well, building that rapport with your customers, selling them on not only your digital inspection but your warranty, how you work with the community, and just basically all the goods of your technicians, so on and so forth. You’re not going to get the same warranty, you’re not going to have that peace of mind when you’re on that trip across the country with your kids that if something were to happen, if a part were to fail, you’re covered. So focusing on warranty, focusing on the shop and the credibility of the shop, those are the best ways to overcome those objections.
Tom Dorsey (09:23):
And it ties in. We got a question from the audience and saying basically is objections break down to time and money? And so this question is what type of tools do you use to overcome that financing type options, shuttles, loaner vehicles, pickup and delivery. What are some of the things that you can implement to overcome those time and money objections?
Sara Savio (09:49):
So time objections, definitely. I think loaner cars are kind of maybe going a little bit more of the wayside. Many shops are using Uber, so Uber is a good option
Tom Dorsey (10:01):
Forum.
Sara Savio (10:02):
I’m sorry?
Tom Dorsey (10:03):
Would you cover the Uber for them?
Sara Savio (10:06):
In most cases, yes. We cover that for them in certain cases, depending on how far they’re going, what the cost of that may be, you can certainly build the value of adding that to the work order so that they do have that transportation. So I think that’s going to be on a case by case basis. Being able to offer a rental car, having a good relationship with your local rental car company is another good option there as far as time having in that shuttle, driving ’em back and forth, that’s great. A concierge service, concierge service is wonderful. You drive to the customer’s house or work, you pick up that vehicle, you bring it back to the shop and you deliver it when you’re done. It’s
Tom Dorsey (10:52):
The white glove level. I like the way that sounds. Do I get a latte with that
Sara Savio (10:57):
On the way? Sure. Hopefully it’s not spilled on the car seat on
Tom Dorsey (11:00):
The seats, right? Yes. Hey, Doug, what about you guys? I mean, do you offer a financing option and when do you place that into the conversation?
Doug Brackett (11:09):
So I’ve always taken the approach that offering a financing option is always going to be a third party option. And that I don’t believe that it helps the customer trust aspect because really we’re just selling them another product at that stage. So it’s not something that I’ve ever participated in. I’ve never been particularly on board with it. It might seem a little bit on the harsh side, but I do believe that as a professional shop, we deal with the category of customers that can afford the services that we provide. If they can’t afford those services, they might not be very well qualified to be a client. And that comes from positioning of having more work than we have time to do it in. For sure. We are not a starving shop for getting cars in the bay. So I personally think that that’s a far better approach. Now, as I said, it does seem like it’s a little bit harsh because there are a lot of people out there that have a hard time affording their transportation that they need to be able to get to work and all that kind of stuff. And I think there’s definitely room in our industry to help those people, but we need to be very specific about how we go about helping them and using it as a tool for marketing and for positioning ourselves in the market too for what we do.
Tom Dorsey (12:35):
So then go through, so with folks like that, would you go through and just really take a critical eye to what needs to get done Absolutely. Today and then just help them maybe budget out the repairs to get a more comprehensive repair or maintenance done on their vehicle?
Doug Brackett (12:54):
Absolutely. And this is a really good point that you bring up because it goes straight back to what I was talking about, about prioritizing repairs for people, giving them a list. These should be done in this kind of an order. These are more important than these other repairs. Providing consequence that goes along with that, but also trying to do so in a very empathetic manner so that you’re not putting people into the, oh my gosh, this is unattainable kind of thing. We do have to be very careful as service writers that we empathize with our customers, let them know that we do feel for them. We are in it’s expensive services and we need to be cautious how we present that in a lot of situations.
Tom Dorsey (13:44):
We’re getting a lot of questions. So I got some great input from Billy Catching saying that when somebody brings in their own parts, they gain no value. Who’s going to warranty that when the part fails? So that’s one great way to establish the value of having the shop do it for you.
Doug Brackett (14:05):
And from a legal standpoint, as a stop, as a shop, we assume that warranty from a legal standpoint, you install that part.
Tom Dorsey (14:13):
Yeah, exactly. So you definitely don’t want to do somebody’s part off a rock auto. Bill Connor’s asking, would you talk about getting the objections is really just an opportunity to solve a problem now that you have a better understanding of? I’m sorry.
Doug Brackett (14:41):
Yeah, no problem. Well, let me touch bases on that. So in a lot of situations as anybody that’s got experienced service writing, it’s a lot of work to get just people’s concerns about their vehicle out of them on the front counter. I know Sara, you’ve been at this longer than I have even. So we are interrogating our customers to some extent to try to get more and more information out of them about what their vehicle is doing, but we very rarely ever talk to them about their concerns over automotive service and what they don’t understand about why we recommend what we do recommend as well too. And that’s where that education component really does come in very strongly and letting people know why the services are recommended. And again, like I said, what the consequences are. Right?
Sara Savio (15:35):
Absolutely.
Tom Dorsey (15:37):
Hey Sara, so what happens when somebody comes in and says a B, C automotive down the street said they do it for a hundred bucks less than,
Sara Savio (15:45):
Well, I’m sure that they probably will, but A, B, C, automotive, once again, you’re going back to your core values of your shop. You are able to offer your warranty. I have a little different experience as far as financing. I do believe, and I have used financing several times for the majority of my life, if you will, as a service advisor and being able to offer them that financing along with offering them the warranty, building value in your shop, it’s all about building the relationship with the customer.
Tom Dorsey (16:24):
So have you ever overcome an objection? Somebody comes in, they’re price shopping, you maybe against a competitor, and then you’re able to show ’em an example of a digital inspection and got them to book an appointment with you?
Sara Savio (16:36):
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s also nice on the inspections when you have those built in educational links. So if you’ve got a customer that doesn’t know what does water pump really do, they click on the link, they’re opening it up, and that helps to add the value at the research and educate portion of the process so that the customer knows really what’s going on and that alleviates some time for the service advisor when they’re actually presenting the estimate or the sale, if you will.
Tom Dorsey (17:08):
Yeah, that’s a great point because it really does establish a peace of mind is that I can see from a third party. I mean it’s almost how the Internet’s conditioning us that right? Well, it’s on YouTube, it must be true. And so I get the sense of I’m comfortable with my information because I saw some video on YouTube and so it’s a great way to replace that right through the digital inspection. Doug, are you guys using the educational content in there and do you find that, I’m just assuming that you are absolutely. That it helps or maybe even it avoids objections, I’m guessing.
Doug Brackett (17:48):
Yeah, absolutely. And even in a lot of situations, just the fact that we’re providing more information for the customer, even if they’re not looking at it, it helps build that confidence that there is no trying to pull the wool over my eyes here. These guys are being upfront with both their recommendations and their education about why there are recommendations that even the customers that are less interested in educating themselves about the specifics of why and what we do, it builds that confidence right from the ground level with them.
Tom Dorsey (18:24):
Yeah, for sure. And then I’m sure you see that they just convert into customers for life, right? Do you see them coming back more often? Are you guys exit scheduling and establishing the next visit at pickup?
Doug Brackett (18:41):
We rely pretty heavily on our CRM to help us with exit scheduling and everything like that. The tools through AutoVitals are fantastic to be able to do that. So we definitely have a discussion over the next appointment and let them know that they’re going to be getting a reminder and we’ll fine tune things from there. It really, again, it’s about more contact with the customer and them feeling comfortable with that as well. So much of it from our standpoint is educating the customer about what that contact is going to look like as well too. And that’s a big item to it. We have often new customers, if we haven’t done our job properly, at the front counter of letting them know you’re going to be getting three to four text messages throughout the course of this appointment, they come in for their pickup and say, oh, you’ve been bombarding me with 20 text messages. I have no idea what’s going on. Whereas the alternative to that situation is the discussion at Drop-off that this is what we’re going to do, this is the messages you’re going to receive, this is what we’d like from you. And then it really gives you an opportunity to make a commitment and then show the customer that you’re going to follow through with that commitment, just even in the contact category. And they will extend that into this is how they’re going to treat my car as well.
Tom Dorsey (20:03):
Yeah, and it’s funny, I’ll tell you an experience I had. I was in a shop and it was my daughter’s car and it was a train wreck underneath that thing. And so the bill was real high and I thought, well, gosh, it’s my daughter. She’s kind of learning how to drive, hence all the damage. And so I say from a safety perspective, what do I have to get done? And this guy really was very open with me, honest, went through each of his recommendations that way, and really he just said, look, here’s what you have to do, right? Nothing’s going to fall off once we replace this and this and fix it and she’s going to be fine. When he said that to me and then he said, Hey, when do you want to come back? And it was still a big chunk on the bill and I was like, ah, let me get back to you.
(20:56):
Right. Well, what happened is that I felt almost obligated, right? Is that he was straight with me, he was honest. I knew I still had these things. It was kind of in my mind, Sidney’s driving the car around and I’m thinking, gosh, you still got to get this other stuff done. And so actually without getting the reminders, I had free time and called them up and booked an appointment because I almost, like I said, I almost felt obligated to going back to because I felt like he gave me something, he did me a solid and I needed to go repay it. And so really a lot of times it just has to do with being honest and having that conversation and setting expectations. And then now you have a relationship established, and I know Sara in your shop, you were really a master of that, right? And talk to us a little bit about how you kind of go about, I mean, do you see that the relationship that you’re able to build and the expectations that you’re able to set a establish kind of peace of mind or confidence in you credibility with you? And then does that lead to a more long-term relationship over time?
Sara Savio (22:09):
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. And yes, yes, you’re building that relationship, you’re building that confidence with the digital inspection, with the educational videos, with just the philosophy, we’re going to be straight up with you. Yes, you need this today. You’re going to need certain services down the road. And by being able to set that out when they pick up through exit scheduling, you can schedule things 30 days out, 60 days out, 90 days out so that you can let the customer know that you’re working with them with their budget, and then you can send those reminders, they don’t feel pressured and you have a higher return and retention rate.
Tom Dorsey (22:55):
So Sara, we’ve got a question from Bill and he’s asking, how do you overcome those objections at exit scheduling? So once you’ve done that and you’ve set ’em up, how do you manage the objections?
Sara Savio (23:05):
So generally the objections that you get are, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing on this day. I don’t know what my schedule’s going to be, and that’s okay, we’re just going to go ahead and set up the appointment. You’re going to get the reminder three weeks before that date doesn’t work out for you, just reschedule it. Not a problem at all. That way you’ll have the reminder, you’ll know what’s going on and you can work it into your schedule if that date doesn’t work for you.
Tom Dorsey (23:31):
And then what happens? So then let’s say they bump it and they reschedule a couple different times. Do you do maybe an outreach call and just reestablish value there from a personal level? Or are you sending out another digital reminder?
Sara Savio (23:46):
So there are a couple of different options. I like utilizing the call campaign ability. So you can go in and pull that list of who’s due in two weeks, who’s missed their appointment. So using the call campaign is great, and yes, service reminders, awesome. Need to use ’em all the time.
Tom Dorsey (24:09):
Yeah, no, that’s great. Well, I got a comment from the crowd there, Marty Mason’s asking if you took some raw hamburger into McDonald’s, would they cook it for you asking for a friend?
Sara Savio (24:25):
Probably not.
Tom Dorsey (24:27):
So maybe, hey, I touched something wrong. So maybe that’s you throw that into your objection handling when you get that objection about or when you get somebody in who wants to bring in their own part, I don’t know. See how it works for you. I guess it works for Marty.
Doug Brackett (24:43):
Here’s another funny one that I’ve heard over the years as well too. And this actually came from my previous boss that when people would ask to finance the repair, can I pay later on this? Right? And he would say that the bank, and I have an understanding, the bank doesn’t fix cars and I don’t loan money
Tom Dorsey (25:00):
For sure.
Doug Brackett (25:03):
Not that we’d ever tell our customers that, but
Tom Dorsey (25:07):
Oh, speaking of customers, you just hear that cash register just went off and dug shop money, money just falling out of the sky over there or something. That’s awesome. So there was another, yeah, I’m sorry, I had another question in, but I keep hitting the wrong button here and I can’t read it, but it was about the same. It was about overcoming objections. Oh, do you ever fire customers if they are still not responsive after a couple of attempts,
Sara Savio (25:48):
It’s okay to fire a customer. There are several reasons that you can fire a customer. Just because they’re a customer doesn’t mean that they’re the customer for your shop. So it can definitely get to the point where they’re either taking up in Doug in the situation that you’re in where you’ve got too many cars. If somebody’s tying up your schedule and they’re not making their commitment, sure, it’s absolutely okay to fire the customer.
Doug Brackett (26:18):
Yeah, my approach to firing customers is similar, I think in that, yeah, not everybody is qualified to be a client. For us, the approach that seems to work the best in those scenarios is by not even hiring them in the first place. By having those initial drop-off processes in place already, we often don’t get a lot of the in that we would have to fire in the end anyway.
Tom Dorsey (26:48):
And they probably don’t have objections. So really the crux of it, I think it’s brilliant, Doug, is that really if you want to learn how to handle objections, set expectations and kind of qualify your customers from the beginning and then they have less objections.
Doug Brackett (27:05):
Absolutely. And that is a huge part of the success involved. This works with one of the common ones that all kinds of shops deal with all the time is I need a price over the phone. Yeah. Now my hope is that there isn’t a single shop out there that’ll ever give somebody a price over the phone because unless we’ve seen your car, we don’t know what we’re quoting. We don’t know we’re quoting the right repair. We don’t know we’re quoting the right part. We don’t know what engine is in your car. And a lot of people don’t either, right? But the reason people are making that phone call is because they have nothing else to base their decision on other than price. So it is your job when you get somebody that calls in for a phone quote to figure out why they’re actually calling. It’s not, they’re defaulting to price because they don’t know anything else. They don’t know that there’s digital inspections out there. They don’t know that there’s shops that can provide far more transparency than somebody just saying over the phone, you need a water pump, it’s a thousand dollars.
(28:09):
You need a water pump. It’s behind the timing belt. This is a maintenance service. This is the interval that you’ve got to do this on. This is why it’s going to get done this way. This is what we’re going to do along the way as well. And then it takes it away from price as being a profitable shop. We need to do everything we can so that the customers aren’t focused on price, they’re focused on the service, they’re focused on the relationship, all of that stuff. That then means that they never even think of the objections in the first place.
Tom Dorsey (28:41):
So let’s talk about that. That’s a great, because that happens all day, every day as you always get in that one, two, ten phone calls a day, Hey, how much would it be to do something? And matter of fact, we had a guest on, gosh, it was probably been a couple month or so back on one of the show, but real great snappy responses. Yeah, I’d love to give you a price. When can you get your car down here? And just kind of an automatic response to say, yeah, I’m going to give you price, but you got to be here. How do you handle that conversation and kind what do you use to get them to actually come down so that you can put eyes on the car?
Doug Brackett (29:18):
So it is really as easy as a service advisor to put that conversation in context of what the shop needs to do. But you’ve got to flip that around and put it into context of why is this person asking me for a price? That’s the first item to delve into in that conversation.
Tom Dorsey (29:34):
So would you ask him, have you been to another shop? Has somebody looked at your vehicle? Would you absolutely just ask him straight up when you got ’em on the phone, why do you think the
Doug Brackett (29:44):
Water
Tom Dorsey (29:44):
Pump, right,
Doug Brackett (29:45):
Exactly. Why do you think you need a water pump? My vehicle’s leaking coolant. Okay, so we need to go through and do a diagnostic and we’ll track down the exact problem. The other scenario is that car is literally in somebody else’s bay. What are your chances of selling that job when the vehicle is up on somebody else’s ho? Right? In those kinds of situations, they’re looking for a validation of the quote that they’ve already got, right? Yes. As professional automotive shops, we should trust that other shops are also professional and that they’re doing a good job of their estimation. So the follow-up to those quotes of like, oh, my car’s at so-and-so and they tell me I need pads and rotors. How much would that cost there? We take the number from them if they’re willing to give it and provide feedback of, this sounds like it’s in the reasonable price range without looking at your car. We can’t tell you exactly the condition of what’s going on with it, but it sounds like they know what they’re doing and they’ve got a pretty decent estimate there. We do that in the hopes that everybody behaves that way and that’s better for our industry.
Tom Dorsey (31:04):
I was out at the A TI super conference, the pool guy to this day, I can’t remember his name, but awesome speaker was out there a couple years back and the guy was in the pool business and he said, Hey, I put reviews of all my competitors right on my website. Get that call all the time. Why are you better than so-and-so and so? He just was super transparent and said, here’s what I think about this company, this company, this company. And he said, really, that was the crux of really when his business took off to the level that it got to was that people responded to that. They saw you weren’t hiding from it. You were open. You gave an assessment of what you think about these people’s business and that transparency and honesty made people want to do business with that person.
Doug Brackett (31:48):
Sure, yep. We’ve had
Tom Dorsey (31:49):
Situations right on the phone
Doug Brackett (31:52):
Now that same situation of the person calling with their vehicle on in another shop as well too, that is a failure of that other shop to provide value for their services.
Tom Dorsey (32:01):
Of course,
Doug Brackett (32:02):
If they are providing the value, the price doesn’t get questioned. And that’s a big component in here as well too. So your customers aren’t going to do that calling around.
Tom Dorsey (32:14):
And that’s interesting because now you have an opportunity, Hey, you might not win the business today. They’re already in the shop. And like you said, hey, that’s a pretty fair assessment, but you have an opportunity now to establish a value proposition for your business for next time because just like you said, you identified an opportunity they wouldn’t be calling you if that guy was giving ’em a peace of mind and value.
Doug Brackett (32:36):
Absolutely. And then that transition straight into, well, have they shown you pictures of the repair they’re recommending? Well, that’s something that we can do here at the shop for you.
Tom Dorsey (32:47):
Yeah. Why don’t you shoot me over the video or the picture that they took on their digital inspection. What they don’t do that for you for shame. I know we’re a little late, but I got some other really good stuff and I want to get into it. So are you guys good with time? Sure. Awesome. Yep. Bill’s asking that testing and diag fees are always kind of a stickler, right? I mean, as they’re hard and what he’s asking is how do you make customers feel that they’re in, still in control, but still get the needed approval?
Doug Brackett (33:22):
So I mean, this one is really straightforward. Sorry Sara to jump right in here.
(33:28):
Very specific authorizations. So part of our drop off procedure is an authorization document that lays out exactly what the cost of the appointment is and that process gets carried through the whole appointment as further work is approved and whatnot as well too. So somebody drops off saying, I got brake noise. And you say, cool, check those out. You call ’em back and say the brakes are going to be this much. You’re only going to collect on actually doing the brake repair. But if they drop off and you explain, so we’re going to do a complete diagnosis on your entire brake system, we’re going to let you know the condition of all the components involved and this is what it’s going to cost you specific authorizing signature. They’re approving that work. They brought the vehicle to the shop to get it looked at to get the work done. When you provide them with an exact dollar amount, this is what it’s going to cost. You can then collect on that.
Tom Dorsey (34:21):
Sure. And here’s what we’re going to do.
Doug Brackett (34:23):
Exactly. So again, it’s the opportunity. Tell them exactly what you’re going to do for them, follow through on it and build that confidence all with the basic procedures that should be incorporated into what you do anyway. Yeah, very nice. So it’s qualifying the customer and it’s the building blocks that we have this giant pyramid that goes up that every little step that we do along the way helps build it into that final top of the customer’s happy with their repair. And you’ve done it for the amount of money that you need to be able to do it for to be a profitable enterprise.
Sara Savio (34:59):
Sure. I like to refer to testing. Bill was asking about diagnostics and testing. You have to build value in your testing process. Once again, explaining to the customer in a digital shop that we’re going to be able to send you screenshots of scan tools of what we’re doing in order to identify what the bottom line problem with your vehicle is. It’s kind of your insurance policy, if you will, that you’re replacing what you need to take care of the problem that you’re coming into the shop for. So I know that testing is one of those more, it’s a common objection. Why do I pay for it? Another shop’s going to do it for free, but I like to kind of go back on your insurance policy portion.
Tom Dorsey (35:49):
Yeah, no, that’s really good stuff. I really appreciate. We’re kind of running out of time. I got a couple other little, some input I want to cover and then we’re going to wrap. But Billy Catching is saying that when he’s got those folks on the phone, what he’ll like to do is explain the value of their warranty and then ask if that shop provides the same and really set a differentiating value proposition over the phone. I think in combination, I really like Doug’s approach there is to just say, Hey, do you have the pictures? Do you have the digital assets of that? And then start a conversation that way to add value over the phone. And so really what I’d like for you guys to take away is maybe write that into your phone script a little bit. And when you get those shoppers where I’m at another shop or I’m trying to phone shop, you like that, start to ask those questions and start to think about how you differentiate yourself from a value perspective.
(36:41):
Yeah, it could be your warranty, but are they doing digital inspections? Do you have a full pictures and video documentation of the condition of that vehicle? Hey, maybe you could shoot me that and I could get a little bit more information to provide to you, but unless I see the vehicle, right? And so that’s a neat little segue to get into that conversation about digital inspection. Man, we’re getting hammered. We need to go another hour. Bill’s asking, based on the description, we will not go over X amount of dollars without calling you with an update.
(37:19):
I dunno. I’m sorry, Bill, I can’t. Bill, I’m just going to have to have you on next week and then you can ask all this stuff just enough. Guys, if you want to continue the conversation. Know we’re about 10 minutes over, but there’s a lot of questions online, still take it to Facebook, ask those questions. What do you point at buddy? You can just talk to me. Oh yeah, yeah. Good. And then there’s a lot of pretty robust conversation going on Facebook right now. So if Sara and Doug, you guys want to get up there and answer some of those questions, keep the conversation going, give us some ideas on topics that you want us to cover in upcoming shows if you want to come on and be a rock star like Doug Brackettbecause Hey Doug, I got to tell you man, that was solid and I really appreciate your time and coming on and helping us out.
(38:03):
I think you gave great insight to a lot of folks out there. Next week, tune in same time next Wednesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern Time. We’re going to be talking about reviews, how to get lots of reviews, how to engage those reviews, what to do with those reviews, how to position your digital assets, your inspection sheets into your reviews to drive more business your way. And so tune in next week, be ready for a lively discussion. We’re going to have a shop that’s got a ton of reviews and they’re going to be telling us how they it. And then of course on Thursday we’ll take it to implementation. In the webinar, tomorrow’s webinar, we’ll be talking about more best practices on certain things that you can do. Overcoming those objections, setting up your inspection sheets so that you avoid the objections is really the topic for tomorrow’s webinar.
(38:57):
And again, that’s going to be at 10 o’clock in the morning Pacific time for the webinar. Until then, we’ll talk to you later. Go out there and make some money. And thanks again, Sara and Doug. Fantastic show guys. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yep. And thanks everybody out there. Great questions today. I really appreciate it. I thought we were kind of out here on the desert talking to ourselves, but I’m glad to see that it’s helping folks out and that what we’re talking about is of interest. Give us more ideas and we’ll talk about ’em. Don’t be shy. Come on the show next Wednesday. Call Nema, he’ll get you on. Bye everybody. Bye.

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