Using technology to enhance your personal service

In today's world, the use of technology has become a familiar part of our everyday to make our lives easier. However, in our historically face-to-face aftermarket industry, when it comes to adopting these new operations, even for convenience and business potential, there might be hesitancies around losing that closeness with your customers that our business is built on.

 In this episode of The Great Canadian Aftermarket podcast, owner of RPM Training and regular contributor Murray Voth outlines the four key areas that technology can actually bring you closer to your customers and build your business. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Good day, everyone. It's your host, Andrew Ross. Now, the issue of technology in shops is not necessarily a new one, but there are definitely those among the shop owners who uh look at some uh implementation of newer technologies, whether that's uh AI for receiving calls or other different assistants, digital assistants, and all this, and are a little reluctant to put them in place for fear that they might put a distance between them and their customers, which is uh something that they're pride themselves on, uh having that face-to-face contact, that face-to-face in-person relationship with those customers. Uh, and they don't really want anything to get in the way. Uh, so here to talk about that and how maybe that's not necessarily the case when it comes to technology is Murray Voth. Murray Voth from RPM Training. Uh, welcome to the podcast again, Murray.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Hi, Andrew. Good to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, and happy July. Uh yes. Uh we're talking, uh, we're just on the tail end here of a big heat wave. I don't know about where wherever you are listening from, folks out there, but it has been hot, hot, hot. Just about everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I've heard. Yeah, you're you're it's just been yeah, we're in BC here, we're fine. Yeah so far. But we're fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Uh but good. Uh, you know, uh having said all of that, uh, you know, certainly I've had conversations with shop owners who uh, you know, they're not necessarily technophobic. I mean, they certainly have, you know, tools in their bays for for fixing cars, but when it comes to those uh customer facing or or customer interaction uh overlapping uh pieces of technology, they're a bit reluctant. They don't know if you want to really have automated things or online tools that might get in the way again of you know picking up the phone and talking to their service advisors or vice versa or whatever. I mean, what are you hearing from your uh uh your like your masterminds and and your other shop owners that you're talking to every day?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Well, I was gonna just contrast what you said just as I dive into this, that on the flip side, there's a segment of shop owners signing up for every shiny ball that they could see.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

There is that too.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And then there's so something that I have talked about for many years in business, my business, career, coaching people, shops, is to use technology to enhance what we already do well, right? So there has to be what is our intention, and then is there technology that can enhance that intention or save us time or make things easier and things like that? So a direct contrast that we could talk about is you know, digital vehicle inspections, as far as I know for sure, have been out since 2012. Obviously, there was people playing for them, but my first exposure was around 2012, right? So we're talking uh 14 years, like this is not new new, although to some people it is, right? I still meet automotive shop owners who say, I don't want to do any of that stuff and that texting and all that. I want to look my customer in the eye and shake their hand, or they assume that their customer wants to look them in the eye and shake their hand, right? Apparently, that's you know, that's an old school way of making a connection, making a deal, uh, trust and transparency and things like that. I respect that intention, but something that I have learned from some fantastic marketing people over the years is that you can digitally online begin to know, like, and trust people digitally. And I have experienced that. I have worked with clients who we have had great success with them and their business. They have paid us to help them with that. Money has exchanged hands. We've been on Zoom, you know, countless times. And then finally, if I happen to be in that market area, we have dinner together with a few of them, and I meet them for the first time after two or three years in person, right? And the joke always is you're taller than you are on Zoom or you're shorter than you.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

I thought I thought you were taller, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Right, or something like that, right? Um, and so uh, you know, I I know that this this can work now. Something that happened during COVID really identified the opportunity for shops to adapt this technology to enhance what they do, or to maybe even make some shifts in what they do, some assumptions that they've made. And that has to do with um when we were shut down for those first two weeks, and then we opened up because we were essential service, whatever guidelines were there, uh, we had to do what was called contactless service. And not only informal research based on talking to my clients, but JD Power researched this, I forget what the exact report was called, but they identified a whole bunch of the driving public were like, Oh, this is amazing. Why did I think I had to wait for my car? This is great. I drop it off, I go to work, or I go do my thing, and they message me through the day, and then I pick it up after, and then it's just so much more convenient. And they're like, This is amazing. Why didn't we do this before? Right, and um, and in the early year of that, um, the report, and I you know, everybody take this with a grain of salt. JD Power does do this accurately, but apparently the response to this contactless service got to be as high as 70 percent. Whereas, like, wow, this is great, this is so much more convenient. I I just like this, and then as the pandemic went longer, it began to diminish uh little by little. And the research showed that the reason it diminished was is because we were a central service, we were one of the few legal places where you could actually talk to a human being in person, and so then people began to creep back because they just wanted that socialization that they could get at an automotive shop, right? And then somewhere at the end of the research, it landed, you know, where there was it was definitely increased significantly from before the pandemic, but let's just say it's running around a 30-ish, a third, a third of consumers love some version of what I now call enhanced service. All right, and if you don't mind, I'll go through the list of what enhanced service is, and then we can we can we can pick it apart. First of all, the ability to make an appointment request online, and there are some great technologies today. Uh, so they don't want access to your schedule, they don't want to choose two o'clock on Friday for their oil change. They just I've forgotten to call you or they got put on hold the last time they called you, and so they want to go online and just say, I need it, I need an appointment for my car for this on Friday, and then you get back to them with an email and you set it up. So digital appointment request, number one. Number two, the ability to receive estimates and digital inspections via text and email. So that's right, and then of course the digital communication for that segment of people that like that. Thirdly, uh, the ability to um pay digitally, uh, you know, with the text to pay, whatever different methods, e-transfers, stuff like that to pay. And then if you really want to take it to a whole other level, it's uh loaner cars, shuttles, Uber for business, um, picking up and delivering is another piece. I have one client in Ontario that picks up 70% of the vehicles every morning, right? Right? The shuttle drivers take out the technicians, technicians take all the cars back. You know, that's their road test, especially if you have a cold start issue in the wintertime, right? They're they're coinciding all of that. Uh, so those are that's basically what enhanced service is, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Uh the ability for busy people to be looked after. So there's a huge movement south of our border into mobile mechanics, just it's just exploded down in the States. It it's you know, it's around in Canada, and I've I've heard stories of more people, you know, sort of starting it. And I'm kind of like, I don't want anybody working on my driveway, first of all. Like, is it gonna be safe? Are they gonna spill something? Um, what if they need to go to the bathroom? Are they gonna knock on my door? I I don't know. Like, uh, I'd just rather somebody picked up my car and delivered it at the end of the day, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:22

I mean, I can certainly see a place for it. Um, and I don't uh I I guess I shouldn't pretend to know more about the individual capabilities of every single mobile service uh you know, technician or business. But I I I as a customer, I would be concerned about that. Um as you mentioned, just just having somebody working on a car, my car in my driveway. I don't know. Changing tires, maybe I can see easily is kind of a bit of a no-brainer. I do it too. Uh but you know I I feel like the chances of suddenly I have, you know, uh my car needs a new ball joint. Well now they've got it up on a on their you know, whatever rolling hoist to do it all, and uh you know, I'm fortunate enough that I have enough space around, but like I don't know, you know, if I have a whole thing. What happens if it gets stuck? We have more than one car, and now how long is this gonna take? And what happens if there's a delay in getting the part? And like, etc. etc. etc. I mean, you know, the mind reels, right? I I I I have uh uh a strong belief that uh on balance, and no individual criticisms to any mobile business out there, on balance, I believe that the uh quality of the repair is going to end up better um if it's done in a shop that can handle the unexpected. Yeah, and and yeah, you know. Again, as you say, if you have one of your one of your the shops that you consult with on a regular basis who picks up 70% of their vehicles uh and brings them in for service, whether it drives them or whatever, I mean that's kind of ideal, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

So exactly. And talk about a captive audience.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Nobody else in town's doing that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

And I don't have to do anything then. Like I don't, you know, my I don't have to drive my vehicle that's maybe giving me trouble. Uh the only thing I might have to do is arrange for you know transportation to work or whatever, which might be available also through the shop. I don't know what their dealings are. Um, or they might be able to, you know, drop me somewhere. I d it it really depends on the individual cases that are these days. I mean, most most of the time, uh, you know, that's that's not available from the independents uh as far as shuttle uh shuttles, it's just not usually there. Dealers, yes, but but uh generally not the independents.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Um but well I'm I'm gonna say my masterminds are pretty proud of most of them. They all have some kind of alternative.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be able to do something, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, shuttle, shuttle or uber for business where there's Uber, I get a business account.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Uber for business, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, you know, and then uh courtesy service rentals or loaners and stuff like that as well. So so circling back to what I talked about enhanced service. Um, if we talk about some of the generational research, consumer generational research, and I'll just talk about one of my children in their 30s, um, will not use a service of any kind if it does not have online scheduling.

unknown 11:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Doesn't matter. Hairdresser, nail salon, car repair, the rest of it. All right. So they uh they get you know, they they they're interested in that type of a business right off the bat. So you think about it now again, the need to meet in person, to shake hands. Um, you know, is that just because you are an extrovert and friendly and you like to talk to people and you get energized by talking to people? Um, you know, I don't want this to go negative, but do you need do you need to be in person with a person to read their body language to see if you've convinced them of the repair? Like, is there something that you need psychologically that you have to be in their presence to get that yes? You know, is it some sales technique that you learned that you have to be in person with? I don't know what the need to do that is. I'm a very social person, I like to visit with people, but I have a busy life. I don't need to be best friends with my automotive repair shop. Will we become friends in time down the road? I don't know, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Well, you don't need I mean, I I I think I have a good, you know, uh call it personal professional relationship with my main shop and and and that. So, you know, we're you know, uh, we're not hanging out on the weekends. I would I wouldn't mind. It's a good guy. Uh, but you know, he has his life, I have mine, but certainly friendly enough to talk to. But when it comes to scheduling service, like they I send them, I send them a text on my text thread that I've had with them saying, hey, or I go to their site which has like a book and appointment on it. I send them the note. They send me a note back saying, well, I usually have a fairly good idea for whether it's just like a standard service, you know, A service, B service, uh, oil change, that kind of thing, or if there's something else. And then they'll send me a note back saying, okay, yeah, bring it in for this time, at this day. Um, and we'll have a look at it. If there's any other service required, we might have to have you come back in, or we'll let you know a little bit about what, you know, if it's something that we can get right away, then then no problem. But if we if it's something more involved, we might have to reschedule for a second visit to do that to execute that. And we we know that, and it's all handled over tech, log text, and email. It's like duplicated, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Um and and from a standpoint of uh the tool that they use that I really like is that one of my vehicles uh that I I I got and I had a like a full inspection done when I purchased it by them, a full, full, like full detailed inspection. And uh uh and I go back to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Right, like all the photo they took photos and everything.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I can't do all of that stuff all at once. I go back to it and go, okay, these are the five things I want to do now. Then I'm gonna do these other five things, then I'm gonna do these three things, and nothing else, if as long as nothing else comes up, I'll get through all this in about a year and a half. Yeah, you know, and uh and you know and but I have that I have it right here on my phone.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, you know, and the beauty of the beauty of that is the consumer, like for decades, has said, I'm so tired of taking my car to the shop because every time I go there, they find something wrong with my car, and it's always you know, whatever 400, 500, 1000 or whatever. I don't know what happened. And then of course, and then there's the you know, there's the old 1995 oil change bait and switch to get you in the door and you leave with a two thousand dollar bill. And that's not here's it, but here's the thing that a good digital inspection can do much quicker than any paper one did. Like we did used to train a paper inspection um that did this, it was just a bit more work, and it happened at the end of the day when you picked up your car. Now, all the digital brands that I'm involved with, with all the major ones that are out there, it opens up with green. Here's what's good with your car. Yeah, your car got a A minus, it got a B plus, whatever. It's it's good, right? Here's the items you brought up that you were concerned about. You brought it with a leak or a tire repair or something that whatever. Here's what our technician thinks is a priority in terms of a red, right, for today. So these are the estimates for the red stuff. Let's deal with that. Now we have some yellow items, which we can then book down the road for you. We can keep track of it. Your app will keep track of it for you. You know, you always have record records of this, and so now what a lot of the consumers are liking about it is just like you said, I can plan this out, I can budget for the urgent items. I know the car is worth investing in because you know, 75 things were green and only three things were red, and I got you know, five yellow things to plan for, right? Done well, that really is enhancing the client's experience in terms of understanding how to look after a car, make it last 100%.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

And and uh, you know, in this example that we're talking about now, it also uh in like in a good way. Uh I wouldn't say ties is not really the thing because I don't want to make it sound like it's you know uh a tie that binds, you know, but it sort of ties you to the shop because there's the inspection, there's the thing, these are the details, they've done it, they know what it is. The technician will probably still be there. Um, so when I say, okay, are these four things I'm gonna do, these three things I'm gonna do, they get to know your vehicle, but also you know, now you're going to go back. So if I'm a shop owner and I'm like, okay, if I get the opportunity to do these proper inspections, and I will recommend to every shop owner out there, if they are not already doing it, when you have an existing customer or a new customer come in with a vehicle that's new to them, I really recommend that they get this inspection. How you charge for it, it will be up to you. I think you should charge a goodly amount for it, but but uh even if you did it on a basis on the basis that doing that effective detailed inspection will uh will help bring the business for those things found in the inspection over the next year or two. Uh is a good plan too.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

So and the number of stories, feedback that I've overheard and received from people using these tools where customers are defending the shop against other friends and neighbors who said, I could have got that done cheaper. Why don't you come to my guy? And then the the shop's client says, Well, does your guy do this? Well, no, they don't do that kind of thing. Well, then I'm not going to your guy because I this is because here's the thing, right? All the main brands, the photos are geocached or whatever they call that, geocache, like they're they're proofed, they're time-stamped. Like this is this will hold up anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

This is yeah, no, it's a good, and it's good. And I, you know, you know, again, I found it really useful. Um, and in a in a in the best possible way, yeah, as has as continued to build my relationship with that shop. Uh, that's just me, but I think that that probably speaks to the the general um uh you know impact of of that technology for other customers, right? Um, so online payment. Online payment is is I mean, it's the best, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:10

It is now now uh on the flip side of it, uh all online payment is considered by the credit card companies as the card is not present. Yes, so they charge a higher discount or whatever. It's funny how the credit card companies call it a discount.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Charge it a fee for it. But the thing is, is the the research on enhanced service in North America um is such that people are willing to pay a premium for enhanced service, and you can build you can build the cost of your credit card into your service rate or whatever, right? Yeah, you need to do that.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And and like even, you know, on on one of these tools that that I've seen also, it it it's uh, you know, I'm not always crazy about uh all of the kind of financing plans, but one of them is like built right into the or you can pay, you know, whatever, blah blah blah blah blah a month, so like that kind of business. I mean, like I'm not crazy about that. I like to pay for my things uh you know when I get them, uh, but not everybody is is in that boat and and uh uh you know, so it makes it kind of easy. But I just I like what I like about a lot of these tools is that it doesn't require me or and the shop to be on the same schedule. They can do those things on their schedule, they can I can ask for my appointment on my schedule when I'm available, they can review it on their schedule and I can approve it on my schedule. So it might take a slight little longer, that may be like a day by the time things get kind of sorted. Um but it it it gives us that freedom to be have our own lives, right? We're not like yes, I gotta go there and make sure that you know the tech I want to talk to is in the shop at the time I'm available to go there and that my car is coming in and that all of that, like it just goes away. You know, if you want if you want to have a great relationship with your customers, make it easy to do business with.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yeah, and here's the thing that the feedback we're getting, and there's no formal organization research this that I'm aware of yet, but my clients are telling me that for years already, people have been willing to leave their cars for a full day or two days, like they're good clients. They have other transportation, they have other wheels, they like the experience of the the at their convenience and the communicating in between the meeting and stuff like that. Um, and so that that feeling that we had to get it done now, that I I grew up with that service station mentality, like let's get this done now, right? Um, that's a hard habit to break for our industry. But Andrew, I want to I want to shift gears slightly before we run out of time. Yeah, we're gonna be able to do that. Because there's other costs here, so let's be quick. Yeah, other technology that I want to just mention to people very quickly on the digital inspections. Regardless of what brand of software you use, a key a key principle that we've researched and found is always send the inspection first without the estimate. Wait for the contact client to contact you and then discuss the estimate and send it to them because uh some of the software programs will tell you to send it all at the same time. And if it's a car like yours that maybe needed three or four thousand dollars worth of work, that's a little overwhelming dollar value. And now you're gonna shut down and you probably just say no to everything and move on to a different shop, right? So you have to do that. But there's one more piece of and I'm very proud of one of our coaches, Doug Brackett. He does a special session with our clients called Digital Discussions with Doug, and I think he's been a guest on your show. Yeah, and um, he, regardless of just digital inspections, he talks about all the digital tools. So his three service advisors all use the same brand of browser. The browser has all the same bookmarks, right? So everybody so they can switch from one computer to the other, and everything is exactly the same, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Right, right. We have talked about this before because it it just it speeds up and simplifies those relations, those uh communications so much when when uh when everybody is kind of literally working from the same playbook, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Exactly, right? And so the other thing that we we as coaches are are working through right now, we're a little frustrated with is the lack of electronic calendar use by our clients. Um and uh you know, Google Calendar, Outlook calendar, Apple calendar, whatever, doesn't matter. Um, and and we're just wondering like how do they even run their lives with kids and families and sports and stuff like that, and they can't, you know, and so we're on a rampage now. We're gonna do some training on the value of using digital calendars. And one of the reasons why is it just makes your life more effective as a person. But here's the thing the best clients with the best cars with the most money are looking for a place that's professional like them. These are all people that live in calendars, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Right? You want to you want to attract somebody, right? Whereas a technician, turned owner, casual, shake hands, slap on the back, you know, I'll get it done for you at the end of the day. Um, and they this has just never been brought up with with formal technology for scheduling and that kind of stuff like that. And and I'm just encouraging people the more professional you are personally as a business owner, the more you're going to attract clients that are professional, that have money, that are going to bring their cars to you.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

I couldn't have ended it better myself. That's it. You know, uh, you know, putting digital tools in place to enhance that personal relationship with your customers, uh, it's the truth, as it were. It just it's just it is how it works these days. Um, you shouldn't see it as a barrier to to those uh personal uh contacts. In fact, it frees it up so we don't have to do all that kind of boring scheduling stuff. If we want to talk about cars with our shops and our shop, if you're a shop owner, you love talking about cars and other things with your customers, then you can freeze up that time to do that stuff too, instead of just when are you available? Can you bring it in Wednesday? All right. Listen, thanks very much, Murray. Thanks everyone for listening. Uh don't shy away from the technology. It will help you in your business, it'll help you in your life, uh, make it more sane uh for everybody who works in your business. Take care, everyone, and have a great time and uh enjoy the warm weather if you're still gonna. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

You're listening to the Great Canadian Aftermarket Podcast, brought to you by the publishers of Indie Garage and Jobber Nation. Connect with us online at indiegarage.ca and jobbernation.ca, a brand of chat integrated media.