Online reviews of your business matter. Heck, when was the last time you were looking for a new restaurant to try on a Friday night and DIDN’T look at the reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or some other service? So if they are that important, can you be sure your shop is taking advantage of their power?
On today’s episode of Digital Shop Talk Radio, we have shop owner Jason Werner (Stewart Auto Repair, Winter Haven, FL) joining us to share the impact reviews have made on his shop, how he actively pursues them, and how he uses them to drive motorists to his repair center.
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):
Good morning and good afternoon. Welcome to this week’s edition of The Digital Shop Talk Radio. I’m Tom Dorsey and I’ve got a great guest on today, Jason Werner from Stewart Auto Repair in Winter Haven, Florida. And we’re going to be talking about reviews, which are so critical to your business. How do you get good reviews? What do you do when you get a bad one? And what are some of the best practices at the counter? And through your interaction with your customer on how to make sure that they’re leaving you reviews after their service. So Jason, welcome buddy. Thanks for coming on the show.
Jason Werner (00:33):
Yeah, great for having me. Thanks for having me.
Tom Dorsey (00:36):
And you’ve been with us a while. I know we do your website for you. We’ve been probably out there working the CRM side of it, asking for those for quite some time. How’s that working out for you?
Jason Werner (00:47):
It is phenomenal. AutoVitals has been a great addition to our company. You guys handle all of my CRM, of course, like you said, our website. And of course we use the smart flow in the shop. So it’s
Tom Dorsey (01:07):
The total package.
Jason Werner (01:08):
Total package.
Tom Dorsey (01:10):
And over the years, I don’t know how, I don’t remember what your review level was, your Google reviews. We do, Google reviews are important of course, because Google’s the most widely used search engine out there, and so it’s critical, right? Then you’ve got some Yelp stuff, and then you have what we call AutoVitals reviews, which are going to show up on a business directory page for you. We push ’em onto your website, things like that. And so let’s talk a little bit about where you came from building up that great inventory of reviews that you have now, because I think you’re up over 204 and a half five star reviews on Google now.
Jason Werner (01:51):
We’ve got a few hundred five star reviews on Google. I think we have over 500 reviews from AutoVitals. Our Facebook reviews are, I think we’ve got a little 80 reviews on Facebook with a couple thousand likes on our Facebook page. So we’ve really strived to embrace the digital age and keep in touch with our customers digitally. And I think those are the customers that are going to lead you those good reviews and take the time to go online and leave you that great review.
Tom Dorsey (02:33):
So for folks, Jay, that might be just starting out or maybe they don’t got enough reviews because I mean, I think it goes without saying that reviews are effective. I mean, you probably can’t even think of the last time that you were going to go out to dinner and you wanted to try something new and you didn’t end up looking at some review at some point. Well, same thing happens for if I’m looking for automotive repair or anything nowadays, it’s the digital age, right? Exactly. And so I think we can all agree that having a large number of reviews, of course, good scores in those reviews is important. And it converts people to become customers. Yeah,
Jason Werner (03:13):
Exactly.
Tom Dorsey (03:15):
But it doesn’t happen overnight, right? No, that is a process. It’s a process that you have to commit to, you have to plan, and you have to execute just like you would if you had a goal of raising your ARO or raising your car count or whatever it might be. So for folks that are want to emulate you, Jason, what would be your advice to them? How do they get started? What’s the most critical success factor?
Jason Werner (03:40):
I think the critical Google is, like you said, the man when it comes
(03:48):
Online and your search engines. And I think investing the time in your Google My Business page is key to that because your website is critical. But nowadays, when people do a Google search, the first thing that comes up is my business page. And being connected to that page, having your photographs, talking about your business on that page, posting content consistently and being available with everyone connected with their phones. And the Google My Business page has an app. So if a customer’s trying to get in touch with you on that page, it immediately just beeps through my phone and I can connect with that customer right away. And Google monitors that how quickly you respond and all of that leads to that customer that’s going to be more likely to leave you that good review that digital customer.
Tom Dorsey (04:45):
And that’s great advice, right? Because for folks, you might’ve set up your Google business page maybe back when it was called, gosh, Google Local or whatever. They’ve changed the name a bunch of times. I can’t even remember what it used to be called. And so maybe you set it up back then and you just kind of set it and forget it. Well, one of the critical success factors to Google is uniqueness of the content and freshness of the content. Okay? Exactly. There’s a lot of ways that you can provide that unique and fresh content without having to go and rebuild your website every other week or whatever. But there’s been a lot of changes in Google, the GMB or Google My Business. And that is they’ve added in the ability to put categories, images, much more personal and engaging type content into your Google My Business that attracts engagement from the customer.
(05:43):
So if you haven’t looked at it in a while, you need to audit that GMB page and then look at all the new stuff that you can add in, get pictures up there, get descriptions, talk about your folks, your crew as well as your customers, because all that stuff becomes engaging. And like Jason said, Google’s the big boy on the block. And so you really want to make sure that you’ve got all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed when it comes to Google stuff. So that would be right after this show, get out there, take a look at your GMB page and make sure that it’s up to date with all the new changes that have occurred.
Jason Werner (06:19):
And Yelp’s the same way. I mean Yelp, they have my business app and keeping that up to date is just as critical. It’s obviously not the big boy, but those are the same customers that are going to leave you that good review. And Facebook keeping engaged on Facebook and just engaging with your customers, keeping that Facebook page active, all of that just makes your digital package look better.
Tom Dorsey (06:49):
And it’s like you said, and it gets you top of the page. It gets you to show up more often than not when somebody’s doing a search. Because some interesting things, right? And I’ll tell you because I mean when you boil it all off, we’re social animals. We want to meet people and look you in the eye and shake your hand. And we are in this spot now where we have to try to do that initial contact digitally doesn’t mean that it’s changed who we are. And we run this technology on our websites, it’s heat mapping. And so we can see where somebody, when they first land on your page, what do they do? Where do they go? Where do they end up? Where do they exit from? Because that gives us information to build a better experience and make your page better. And believe it or not, probably it’s easy to believe the first thing that people click on when they land on your website is a picture of you.
(07:47):
They don’t look at the reviews first. They don’t look at the services first. They look at the people first. Because again, we’re the social creature. And so if you think about that from an engagement perspective, well then I kind of know some of the things that I should be adding to my Google My Business page into my website to get that connection, to get that initial engagement. Because that’s really the key, right? Is once you get ’em engaged and you get ’em interested, well then the other stuff like asking for a review, that becomes almost natural and normal, doesn’t it? It’s not like you got to twist anybody’s arm,
Jason Werner (08:25):
You just have to just ask for it. Exactly. And getting information too. I mean, when the customer comes in, having their email addresses and ways to get in touch with them and asks them for that review after your service, their car is credit critical too.
Tom Dorsey (08:46):
And there’s no reason because here’s another thing to consider is that we just got done saying we all rely on reviews. And so it used to be maybe 10 years ago, five years ago, when reviews first started coming out, and it was same with email capture. You talk to people and they’re like, oh, people don’t want to give out their email. They don’t want me to spam. I’m not going to bother ’em for that. Well, you apply kind of that same attitude towards reviews. You think, oh, it’s going out of the way. It’s a hassle. But guess what we just got done saying? We all rely on reviews. So if I rely on reviews to make decisions, well then I’m probably pretty likely to contribute and add my own review, right?
Jason Werner (09:25):
Exactly.
Tom Dorsey (09:26):
And so it’s become a natural expectation. As a matter of fact, it actually would seem weird if you didn’t ask me for a review these caveman, right?
Jason Werner (09:38):
People expect you to give you their email mean, and just a few years ago, that was a big deal asking somebody for their email. They were a little, I don’t know if I want to give you, but not anymore. You can every customer, oh yeah, here’s my email. No problem. In fact, they almost prefer you talk to them via email.
Tom Dorsey (09:57):
Yes. Yeah. That’s the key, right? And that’s the question that you have is how do you prefer, do you want me to text you? You want me to email you? You want me to send you some smoke signals? What’s the best way for me to talk to you? Or I can get you on the horn fast and you can get the answers and you can get the service that I am committed to provide to you. And so you have to take that stigma away. You’re expected to ask for a review, you’re expected to ask for a cell phone number. You’re expected to ask for an email. So let’s talk a little bit, Jason, about how you made that transition at the counter, because that’s such, that is the critical, that’s the foundation of capturing strong reviews and lots of reviews. It’s setting up expectation. And that should maybe even start even before they come to the shop. Maybe there’s some expectation on the website or in your appointment confirmation that kind of sets them up and gets them kind of in that mindset or that expectation of how a digital shop functions and what are the different stages. And so at the drop, we really want to reinforce that. So what processes did you put in place or what change of maybe drop off script or pickup script did you implement to get your service writers out there making sure that they’re asking 100% of the time? For those reviews,
Jason Werner (11:10):
I really had to beat it into their heads because I’ve got some old school guys, they were like, you said they’re not going to do that. They’re not going to take the time. And so it was really making sure they followed the script and making sure they were asking for those emails because, and talking with the customer and how would you prefer I contact you? And once they saw that, hey, this really works. The customers really like communicating via text or email, it works so much better and it’s so much more efficient. I’m able to get in touch with ’em so much quicker. And once they saw that happen, I mean, it was just like, oh, well, yeah, this is the norm now.
Tom Dorsey (11:55):
No brainer.
Jason Werner (11:56):
No brainer. Exactly. Exactly.
Tom Dorsey (11:58):
Yeah. It’s like that cycle of success, right? Because you start to do things more efficiently, that frees up more time for you to do more stuff efficiently. And usually the things that you’re doing are making sales and educating motorists and filling holes in your schedule, which brings in more business. And so the more efficient that you can get at some of these extra things, and even to some degree automate them and get the desire result, like a high review, capture a high email capture and text opt-in at drop, the more freedom, the more time your service advisor has to actually leverage those valuable tools. Because now, hey, we’re attracting a lot of customers who are coming to us because they see the quality of our business and the neighbors are saying good stuff about us. So they come in with a level of confidence. Well, if they come in with that level of confidence, guess what?
(12:48):
Their walls are dropped a little bit. They’re not as defensive when you’re proposing recommendations to them when you’re reviewing the inspection results, when you’re asking for that business or that upsell or that exit schedule, which is so critical to get ’em to come back. And so that you see that kind of one success opens the door for more success. And it snowballs through that process to where you’ve got full bays, you’ve got lots of good reviews coming in. You’ve got customers out there that are almost evangelists for your business going out there and shouting from the rooftops about, come on down to stewards because they’re the best, and look at this awesome experience that I got from them. And like you said, so let me ask you this, Jason, do you incentivize your service riders or anybody on your staff towards let’s say, set a goal for amount of reviews in a week, month, quarter, whatever it is?
Jason Werner (13:48):
I’ve never had to do that. I think they enjoy getting that good review. And once you see that review, and another thing that’s critical is responding to that review, making sure the customer knows that you saw that and you appreciate that review, and Google watches that as well. So to see that you respond to that. But to answer your question, no, I’ve never had to do an incentive. Once they saw the reviews and saw them come in, it was just kind of wanting to see their name in that review. Hey, that’s my review. That was for me. Exactly. They’re
Tom Dorsey (14:31):
Forever. Right?
Jason Werner (14:32):
Exactly. Yeah.
Tom Dorsey (14:33):
Even lights. And that’s a great idea too. So for folks that are out there and you’re struggling to get the service riders to develop that habit, and it should be everybody on the team really, right? Because if you think about it, everybody really is in the sales business when it comes to customer facing roles or even if you’re in the bay, you got to present stuff. You got to look clean, you got to do a good job, you got to have a smile on your face, you got to have some enthusiasm and excitement and all of that attracts a good vibe to the business and creates a good customer service experience. But if you’re struggling to get that stuff down or to get the habits built, one way you can do it is set a goal and make a little competition and have some incentives.
(15:12):
Maybe you just do something at the end of the year. Maybe you have your holiday party or something. You present a nice plaque or trophy service writer that got the most reviews or technician that was mentioned in the most reviews or whatever it might be, because you really bring, because there’s another thing, and that’s why we like to put those pictures of your crew in those inspections because then they own it and there becomes a connection between the customer. I love to be able to see who’s doing the work for me, see a little bit about them because remember when we went back to that original statement is that we’re social beings and that we like to see people and know people and meet people. And if I can do that digitally, there becomes a connection. And you know what? I don’t want to let old Bob down my tech. I’m not going to go down the street. I don’t care if there’s a $50 discount on whatever I’m going into my shop because I’m going to see Bob. I can’t let Bob down. We’re like this. So that’s a great way that you can think of bringing that part of your culture out and rewarding and recognizing the team, and then that drives the new people on the team or ones that might be lagging to step it up and get into that habit of driving those, those are such valuable components of the businesses that customer service experience and that review that they leave. Right?
Jason Werner (16:28):
It’s invaluable. Yeah, it’s hard to even put a dollar figure on it on a daily basis.
Tom Dorsey (16:34):
You can put a dollar figure if you don’t do it because it
Jason Werner (16:36):
Oh, you sure can. Exactly. Exactly.
Tom Dorsey (16:41):
It’s got a dash in front of it. Right? So you brought up the greatest point is that you have to respond to those reviews, and I’m going to give you some insight, but Jason, I want to hear from you, what has been the value that you perceive out of, so let me ask you this. Do you respond to every review that you get and what have you seen as an outcome of that response?
Jason Werner (17:07):
We respond to every single review, good or bad. Fortunately, we don’t see very many bad ones. And again, it’s about that interaction, that digital connection. So you respond, you thank them and you get personal with it. We enjoy working on your 2005, your 2000. And so there’s that. Hey, he remembered me. He knows who I am. And there’s that social interaction.
Tom Dorsey (17:49):
And so here’s a little insight into how important those responses to those reviews are because first thing, hey, it lives there forever. It’s now online and people years from now can go back and look at that. So back in the day when the inner tubes were first birthed, right? It used to be you would go through and you could game Google real easy, you’d stuff keywords and you could go in and you could hire all your buddies, just go in and leave reviews and you’d, you’d see these businesses, they had thousands of five star reviews. They didn’t have a single bad review. Well, guess what I mean? It doesn’t take long for people to say, oh, that’s a scam. Nobody has all five reviews. You don’t want all five star reviews. You want, Jason has 4.6 and lots of them, you know why? Because stuff happens.
(18:40):
But now I’m going to go in and I’m going to review that and I’m going to see in there, okay, here’s this person complained about this, but look at what Jason said. Jason really reached out right away, tried to work with the person, offered to help, offered to do the, and this person just was stubborn and didn’t, you know what the consensus of people are going to be? What guy get off my lawn? That guy’s just angry. He’s got other issues, but this business owner reached out, tried to make it right, put himself out there publicly to do that. And people respect that. They’re more likely actually to do business with you because of how you handle that adversity versus just, I’ve got a whole bunch of five star reviews because my stuff doesn’t stink and I’m super special. Nobody’s going to believe that, right? And so while you’re out there, you have to consider that and it’s just respond. Try to make it right. Do the best as you can. Do, represent your business and let the chips fall where they make. You might not be able to convert ’em all and you might not get that person back in and they might not follow up and correct the record, so to speak, but they don’t have to because everybody else is going to see that effort.
Jason Werner (19:50):
Exactly. Because you put the effort in to keep that customer happy and they see everybody sees it, like you said, it’s there
Tom Dorsey (19:58):
Forever. They’re forever. And it’s funny because now in the reviews you can say, Hey, was this review helpful? Boom. Well, guess what? So think of it. That’s almost like SEO for reviews. The more people click, yeah, this was helpful. The higher it’s going to raise, it’s going to stay kind of at the top, and that’s going to be such a very valuable conversion type bit of information for a customer as they’re doing their due diligence about you. The other thing, and you said it, the other thing that you get to do when you put in reviews, so we talked about original content, we talked about fresh content. Well guess what? Reviews online are fresh content. If you look at what Google can see, Google can read words and it can find keywords. So I put up a post or I put up an article and it’s about brakes on A BMW.
(20:48):
It’s going to say several times brake pads, brake rotors, brakes, BMW three series. It’s going to have all of these related words just naturally as I write my story. Those are keywords. Well, Google can see keywords they can’t see much else. And so if there’s a lot of keywords about this topic, they can kind of figure out, Hey, this is about brakes on BMW, and that’s where they’ll rank it. When people start to search, if I’m searching for tuna fish sandwich, it’s not going to come up with BMW break repair. And so guess what you get to do when you respond to a review? Hey, it was great for me to thank you for bringing in your 2006 Honda Civic for brake service.
Jason Werner (21:29):
There’s your keyword right there.
Tom Dorsey (21:31):
I get to put those keywords into the review. Well, now guess what happens when folks are searching for breaks for Hondas and Honda Civic and any of those keywords? Well, now your review is going to start to rank in Google, and it probably is going to come up through their search. So you’ve got your homepage and you’ve got your landing page. Well, now you’ve got reviews and the competition’s way down here at the bottom of the page, or they’re off in Siberia on page number two, and you’ve got several instances of your business at the top. And then it’s real easy for me to go in and read that review and consume that information and see the quality of your business and what the neighbors say about you. And so each and every time you have a chance to respond, you respond and you add in the valuable keywords that you would want this review to be found when somebody’s looking on Google. And that’s an opportunity to add that not only the SEO value, but fresh content and it doesn’t cost you a dime. Take
Jason Werner (22:31):
Some. That’s what I was going to say. Yeah. I mean, you can spend a lot of money on AdWord and things like that through to make yourself come up to the top, but there’s nothing better than to see a search if you do a search for auto repair near me and have your name be right there at the top. Exactly. And all it cost you was a little bit of effort on your part in making sure you respond to the reviews and taking care of your customer.
Tom Dorsey (22:56):
Exactly. So let me ask you this, Jason, do you ever have your service writers respond to some of them reviews?
Jason Werner (23:02):
No. I’ve always done the responding. I never have had them respond, but it’s an option.
Tom Dorsey (23:10):
Yeah, something to think about, right? Because there’s a ownership part of it and there’s a responsibility part of it, and you can get ’em to respond, start ’em out, maybe responding to the good stuff so they feel good and they’re empowered, and then, Hey, I dropped the ball on this and maybe I’m the guy. And of course, you make that call if it’s to the level where it needs to come from the owner, because this is a critical type review and there’s a lot of other stickiness to it. But if it’s just, Hey, this thing happened and then it’s on the fence type review, you might want to think about just having a service writer get in there to respond a little bit too, because I’ll tell you what, it’s great and I expect the owner to respond to me, but when somebody on the crew maybe responds to me and takes that ownership for me, it brings your culture, it brings your credibility up a notch that your team is engaged and your team feels responsible for whatever that situation might be, right?
Jason Werner (24:09):
Yeah, sure.
Tom Dorsey (24:10):
Something to think about.
Jason Werner (24:11):
Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great idea. Now, if we do have a review, we will sit down and discuss it and as a team and as far as making sure that our response is, we know what we’re talking about,
Tom Dorsey (24:25):
How to do it better. Well, let me ask you this, Jason, have you ever had anybody who comes in and says, Hey, just offers, I’m going to leave you a great review. Do you want it on Yelp? Do you want it on Google?
Jason Werner (24:36):
Oh, without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s the norm. Now. People, like you were saying earlier, people expect to leave your review and they come in, they’ve already researched you and they’re already prepared to do business with you. I don’t have to teach them about our business and to make them feel confident. They’re already confident in our business
Tom Dorsey (25:04):
And there’s nothing better and there’s no better kind of notification or an understanding that says we’ve, we are doing a great job. We are on track because our customers are actively looking to engage with us and offering to give us these types of reviews and go out there and evangelize for us. We’re not having to twist their arm, we’re not having to discount them or anything like that to get ’em to, they are going out of the way because of the service that you provided to go out and tell their friends and shout it up from the rooftops. And that’s a great feeling, right?
Jason Werner (25:41):
It’s an awesome feeling.
Tom Dorsey (25:45):
And so hopefully, because again, you’ve got your techs and your service writer’s pictures and your AutoVitals digital inspection, and so we really like to see if their names get in there. Hey, Brad did a great job, and last shop I went to, I got in and my floor was a mess, and it was trash and grease and leaves, but they put a nice mat down and he wiped everything down. He did a really great job taking care of my baby. Even those little touches like that, if you can get those to be kind of out in the public square there and consumed as part of that content becomes very empowering. A for your techs and Pat on the back and a great indication of the type of business you run. But man, it’s pretty attractive to folks that are worried about bringing their car in. And I’ve spent a lot of money on this car. It’s my baby. I don’t want it messed, but wow. They really go the extra mile. And so you can give a lot of that extra information. Really it’s those decision making bits of information that helps somebody make the decision to come do business with you right there in those reviews.
Jason Werner (26:53):
And then you kind of touched on it, but we make a big deal. I make a big deal out of, we get a good review making sure that I go out to the guys and say, Hey, we got this great review. Because just like I was saying earlier with my business app, I get instantly as soon as somebody leaves me a review, I know it. So I make a big deal about it. We go talk to the tech that worked on the car and hey, you did a great job here. Customer left us a great review, appreciate you keep it up. And the same with the service advisor and that sort of thing. So I mean, that’s almost their incentive. They’re looking for that great pat on the back and it feels good to know, Hey, I did a great job.
Tom Dorsey (27:35):
Yes, and be recognized by, it’s great to be recognized by the customer. It’s great to be recognized by your boss, but it’s really important to be recognized by your peers, the other team, the rest of the team. Because from an owner’s perspective, you want to create that culture because you want people to be wanting to be rewarded. And if they get rewarded by doing the right thing and by doing a good job, well then it benefits everybody on the team including, and most importantly, that customer, that motorist. So maybe you think about you put a big bell out there or maybe a gong gong’s, always fun. Good
Jason Werner (28:11):
Idea.
Tom Dorsey (28:13):
You can just go, dang. People are like, what the heck was that? Well, hey, we’re celebrating a great review because we value customer service. And so even folks in the waiting room are standing in line might be like, well, what the heck? Look at these guys celebrating just because they’re taking care of me. That’s what that really means, and what a great place to do business with. Right?
Jason Werner (28:34):
Exactly. Yeah, that’s a great idea. I might have think about putting a be or a dog in
Tom Dorsey (28:39):
Both of them. Jason, be awesome. Telling you it’s a Wednesday. That’s fun stuff. So let’s talk metrics a little bit. So how are you set up to track those? Do you pull in all of your review sites into a centralized location and do you review that on a regular basis? You talked about covering that stuff in the team meetings.
Jason Werner (29:06):
It’s a regular topic for us. It’s obviously important. So I keep it on my desktop. I have the Yelp and the Google, and I mean when I open my web browser, all that comes up and I am constantly watching it and we go over them on a weekly basis with the guys and the responses to the reviews and who got the most reviews. I mean, we talk about those things. Yeah,
Tom Dorsey (29:39):
Awesome. That’s really awesome. Let me ask you this. Have you ever had a really solid review? Comes in, it gets posted up, and then you notice you physically notice an increase in new customer appointments following maybe the week or two weeks after that? Good review comes out
Jason Werner (29:58):
Maybe a while ago, but now it’s a consistent, I get just a constant stream of people that come in because we ask them, you hear about us, the new customers, and it’s just on a daily basis. I saw you guys on Google.
Tom Dorsey (30:17):
That’s awesome.
Jason Werner (30:18):
I saw your reviews on Google. That’s why I’m here. That’s exactly why I’m here.
Tom Dorsey (30:22):
And that’s the key, right? So it sounds like a long way to go getting 200. I mean, that’s a lot because hey, not everybody leaves a review. I mean, unless you can really focus because you can get a high review conversion rate. I mean, if you set a goal, I want 50%, I want every other person to leave me a review. That’s a pretty lofty goal. In the beginning. You might think, well, that’s insane. There’s no way. But it’s like anything else. You take the first step and you have a plan, and you work your plan and you get commitment from everybody on the team, and they all pull in the rope the same way. Well, you’re going to get there. Don’t take a little bit of time, but you’re going to get there. But you got to start. You got to get it established. But once you get that momentum going,
Jason Werner (31:06):
It snowballs.
Tom Dorsey (31:07):
Yes, exactly. It starts to snowball. And then so you put the work in upfront, it’s not going to be easy. And you make sure you set and commit to responding to every one of those reviews, and then you’re never going to lean back a hundred percent. You might delegate it. You might have the office manager or production manager or somebody taking over some of that reviews, management for you, but you know what? It’s going to become a machine for you. It’s going to be out there representing your company. It never sleeps. It’s marketing for you around the clock. And you’re going to, because again, number freshness, the uniqueness of that content is what really is going to drive Google to rank it high. And once you hit this inflection point, you’ve got a good number of quality reviews. They’re coming in on a regular consistent basis so they’re constantly fresh and new. Well, guess what? Google’s going to start updating that stuff a lot, maybe even once a week, couple times a week, depends on your volume. And then boy, after that, it’s just working for you. It’s up there all the time. And it is like what you just heard from Jason is that he doesn’t even notice it anymore because it’s just part of how they do new customer acquisition. It’s just built into the cake.
Jason Werner (32:22):
Exactly. I would say now we probably see my phone dings two or three times a week with new reviews. So I mean, they’re constantly coming in now. I mean, the reviews come in and customers are coming in and it’s a beautiful thing.
Tom Dorsey (32:38):
Yeah, yeah. Isn’t it
Jason Werner (32:39):
Though? It really is. Yeah,
Tom Dorsey (32:42):
That’s a great place to be in. It takes a long time and it takes a little lifting, but once you get there, you got the breeze and the hair, you got the top down.
(32:53):
Well, that’s awesome, man. This half hour flu, I got to tell you what, we could probably spend another hour and a half talking about reviews and about the success that Jason’s had over there at Stewart. And you can do the same thing, right? You just got to get out there. And matter of fact, I would say the first thing you should probably do if you’re looking for some advice and some guidances, get on the Facebook form and ask some questions because Jason’s going to respond to you. He’s going to help you out. And everybody else that’s on that Facebook form is going to help you out and give you ideas and give you pitfalls and things to avoid, and also techniques and strategies to consider. We’ve shared some with you here today that you might fit for your process might fit for your model and your business and your operation. But the bottom line is just get out there and do it. Just get out there and put it top of your priority list that you have to drive those reviews. Because probably driving coupons instead, right? One or the other.
Jason Werner (33:58):
That customer’s going somewhere. Yeah,
Tom Dorsey (34:00):
They’re going somewhere. That’s a great point. You want to come see you, right?
Jason Werner (34:04):
Exactly.
Tom Dorsey (34:05):
And so make sure that’s as important as having your inventory stocked and the electricity on and an air compressor and a toolbox in the shop is just as important. It really is,
Jason Werner (34:19):
Really is
Tom Dorsey (34:19):
Digital shop we’re talking about now, it’s just as important as all that other mechanical stuff. You need the digital toolbox set up too. And that’s the top from a new customer acquisition and especially from a customer lifetime value to your business, reviews are critical. It’s top priority for you. So Jay, how can folks reach out to you if they got some more questions, they want to talk shop directly with you?
Jason Werner (34:45):
Well, I mean, you reach us on Facebook. I follow the AutoVitals page. And so if there’s any questions there, I’d be more than happy to answer or help. If you’d like to get in touch with me direct and send me an email, [email protected], I’d be more than happy to talk to you.
Tom Dorsey (35:04):
Or you could just Google Stewart Auto Repair and he’d be the guy at the top with the most,
Jason Werner (35:08):
I guarantee
Tom Dorsey (35:10):
He’s easy to find. That’s awesome stuff. So a little bit, I want to tease the little thing because before the show we were talking a bit and you were telling me that you kind of created a new process or team inside of your shop. Can you share a little bit with the audience about what you got going on?
Jason Werner (35:26):
About two weeks ago, we decided we really wanted to dedicate more time to our digital inspections and look for, increase that level of inspection to a higher quality. And so we’ve developed a team, we have an inspection team that is mobile throughout the shop and that can knock those inspections out quickly and accurately and just really keep the workflow. And so far it’s been a great addition to the team.
Tom Dorsey (36:03):
So that’s a pretty awesome concept. That’s thinking outside of the box, that’s blazing a trail in the digital shop is what that is. And so what we’d love to have, Jasons, we’d love to have you come back on a few months down the road and see how that’s working out. We’ll get into some metrics and we’ll talk about how that team has driven efficiency, productivity, and sales in the operation. Would you be up for that?
Jason Werner (36:25):
Sure. Yeah. We’ve marked it in AutoVitals so we know the date we started, so we can track that and see exactly how that increases our ARO number.
Tom Dorsey (36:37):
Yeah, no, that’d be a great shot because I know I can hear the wheels out there spinning. Folks that are listening right now are thinking to themselves, and so they’d really be interested in seeing those results and maybe if that’s going to work for their business as well, and you can kind of prove it for ’em, right? And then they can follow, but that’s sounds
Jason Werner (36:54):
Like a plan.
Tom Dorsey (36:55):
Okay. So that’s fantastic. Yeah, and if you don’t get a chance to get in here on Wednesdays, we’re having a great show. Next week we’re going to be talking, it’s kind of a lead into the Meineke Dealers Association convention that’s coming up. We’re going to be talking with Greg Masewick and Marc Arnold from 1332 next week. So tune in and if it’s difficult for you, because of course we’re in the middle of the day and we understand you’re at the counter, you got work to do and customers to serve always, you can always go over to AutoVitals.com/podcast. All of our show episodes are on there. You can watch ’em at your leisure. You can subscribe, which I would highly recommend because then you’ll get notifications and alerts when the shows are starting and stuff like that. Get a reminder so you don’t miss it because I guarantee you didn’t want to miss Jason on here because he was dropping knowledge, he was dropping stuff you could take to the bank today. Yeah, you can.
(37:47):
So if you snooze, you lose. So get over there and register, share it. Tell your friends, especially when we’ve got topics that are critical because hey, we’re all kind of trying to help all of our peers out. And this is what I really love about this industry is that nobody’s in it for themselves. They’re always looking to help other folks that are in the same boat. And I’ll tell you what, you can go down the topics and we all know, we’re like, Hey, look at this guy over here. If he would just do this thing, we probably have an episode from a shop owner or from a service writer or technician that’s giving best practice advice about that topic that you think they should improve. So you can always send it over as a gift and help ’em out, but get over there and subscribe and like it and share it. And then until next week, again, we’ll be in with Greg Masewick 1332 Meineke operator. The guy is an awesome guy. I’m really excited to have,
Dustin Anaas (38:41):
And actually, hey Tom, you know what the theme next week is going to be? Is they’re really working on being consistent on the backend in the shop, in the garage, so that the customers can receive a level of consistency on the front end. So we’re going to talk about how consistency on the backend translates to the customer experience,
Tom Dorsey (38:58):
And that’s awesome. And that piggybacks off of what Jason’s doing because that’s what it all boils down to with that awesome team that’s dedicated to not only being efficient and consistent in the inspection program. That’s really the key is the consistency. So your customer gets that same experience every time and much more likely to know what to expect. So that’s awesome. Thank you, Dustin. Hey, Dustin, if you’d like, I mean, I think you got an assistant producer in here today, if you’d like to get some introduction done there.
Dustin Anaas (39:26):
I actually have two. This is Gunner. Gunner James, and then there’s Elsie Loo,
Tom Dorsey (39:35):
That is a,
Dustin Anaas (39:37):
There’s the family and there’s me in case you guys have never seen me before. So
Tom Dorsey (39:45):
She was thrilled to death buddy. Yeah,
Dustin Anaas (39:47):
She was. Oh yeah, we had some sick kiddos. We got daycare stuff and the lurch there. We do what we do over here. I mean, that’s how AutoVitals works.
Tom Dorsey (39:55):
Hey, Dustin’s a multitasker. He is over there balancing kids and still producing this awesome show and dropping knowledge and getting great guests on, like Jason coming out here and telling you how they are leading the way for that success. So tune in again next Wednesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern. We’ll be doing it again with Greg Masewick. We’ll be talking shop till then. Get out and make some more money in 2020.
