um , like , where is the future of towing in social media ? Is it still like ? I feel like there's so many you know we'll call them old dogs um , that facebook was the the go-to be all like I . I feel like that's like , am I missing something by not being on like is ? Is towing popping off on on twitter , or x ?
Speaker 2I don't have a twitter , so I don't know , neither do I .
Speaker 1Well , actually I do , but again , I'm not on it . I don't know .
Speaker 2I mean towing was fairly big on Instagram with the towing and the six account when all the shootings and fires were going on . But I haven't really used Instagram the last couple of years . I've only ever been on Facebook .
Speaker 1I know that's because I feel like we are old dogs .
Speaker 2now we're not old , though I'm not old , they're only using the grandpa facebook and we're not really . You're not on tiktok . Very often I scroll tiktok but my whole tiktok's farm related , not towing related . Well , if you think about it , if you go on facebook onto toe talk , there's 98.1 000 members just in one facebook group called toe talk . There's 98.1 thousand members just in one Facebook group called toe talk .
Speaker 1Yeah , but how many actually are active ? Right , Like that is a big problem that you run into . I never , um , I never trust those numbers . How many are actually active , how many actually you know , when you run a page you can see more . Your reach your actual views actual views , which are two different things , right , and that kind of stuff . So that's where you really get the true numbers . We're just having a Facebook following , you know , or a number of people following , you can't really get all that information .
Speaker 2Hey everyone , I'm Brad from Calgary . This is Sean from Cambridge Ontario . I'm Terry from Cornwall , ontario . Hey , this is Larry from Pit Metals , british Columbia , and you're listening to the Towing Life Podcast . Welcome to the Towing Life Podcast , where the ditches are deep , the trucks are loaded , but the drivers are not . I am your host , tow man G , and , as usual , I am joined by my co-host , friend and former co-worker , the man with very strong opinions , mr Plain Guy .
Speaker 1What is going on ? G . What is going on ?
Speaker 2I'm proud of myself . I haven't done that intro in at least three weeks probably closer to four weeks now and I didn't mess up .
Speaker 1It's actually shocking how the time off clearly has has done you well . I don't know about that , but like , have you been practicing it every morning since our last episode to make sure that when the time came you would nail it ? Or was it a ? Is that just naturally engraved now ?
Speaker 2Instead of counting sheep to try to fall asleep , I just do the intro over and over again in my head .
Speaker 1Hey man , whatever works for you , whatever works for you , as G said , welcome back to another episode of the toe in life podcast , episode 136 , after a little bit of a hiatus it was supposed to be two weeks , it turned into three weeks just because of scheduling conflicts . We could not seem to make a recording work before . Uh , before I left again , as usual , I will take all the blame . Um , the hiatus was caused , um , or due or due to , uh , my wife and I finally needing a break away . Um , as most of you know , the towing industry is a nonstop , 24 , seven business , and sometimes with my wife working in this industry as well , sometimes it's nice to just get away . And and we did . We , uh , we had an amazing 10 days down in the Dominican Republic . I made a bet with one of my dispatchers that I would not log into our towing software at all while I was down there , so I would not see what active calls were going on , scheduled calls , what drivers were in , whatnot . I stuck to that . How much money .
Speaker 2Did you win on that bet ?
Speaker 1He didn't bet me money . Apparently , I don't pay my dispatchers enough to bet me actual money but no , a couple days we even had the phone right turned off , right , because obviously when you're in another country you're paying while you're down there . I said screw it . We spent much time lounging by the pool , on the beach . We had beautiful sunny weather . Um , it was . It was the perfect . Um , it was the perfect trip . Uh , I must say , like weather was good , food was good .
Speaker 1Um , I slept like a baby . Um , anyone that knows me knows that like , it takes me about half an hour to fall asleep every night . Like I'm like a baby . Anyone that knows me knows that it takes me about half an hour to fall asleep every night . I'm not a person that can just I'm tired , put my head on the pillow and go to sleep . I never have been In the Dominican .
Speaker 1I was that person , and it was not just alcohol fueled . It was legitimately because I wasn't watching what was going on . I wasn't worried about anything , I wasn't thinking about anything . I was able to just go . That was a good day . I've been in the sun all day . I'm hot , I'm going to sleep . Um , and managed to fall asleep within 15 seconds , like every night . So it was , uh , it was a nice change . It was a very nice change . Uh , coming back to the chaos has obviously been back to my old ways . Um , I definitely missed , uh , I missed the chaos that the towing industry brings day in , day out , but , uh , yeah , so I apologize for the hiatus . Um , I apologize , and I don't because we all deserve breaks sometimes , including on this show . Um , we always we don't complain , but we explain how hard it it can be to find time to do this show . So when we do make time for ourselves , I'm not going to apologize too hard for it .
Speaker 2And for me , while I was having my break , my internet completely shit the bed . So I had to get an internet guy to come out , and that was a week-long process of trying to arrange times for them to come out and actually perform the service . And once they fixed my internet I got better internet speeds , but unfortunately it doesn't have the same range as it used to have with the old modem . So my internet in the office is almost worse than what it was originally . So that's wonderful .
Speaker 1that's just how it is , I guess yeah , no , the uh , the bottom of tomanji's internet has been a constant , ongoing thing , um , since the beginning of this show , um , I don't know how many times we have been right . Well , that is not what happened . We were about to record and then the your internet . Yeah , we were gonna have an episode , were we not ? And then your internet . We could not get it to work , or we ? Yeah ?
Speaker 2so the internet , that , uh , the last episode that you guys seen . I was able it took me four hours to download the raw podcast , an hour and a bit to edit it and then it took overnight to get it uploaded . So if any of the audio listeners noticed a bit of an audio quality difference in that episode , it's because I uploaded it directly from my end , because the by the time it would have emailed the plane guy for him to upload it . It just I woke up , I think , at uh 5 30 in the morning or five o'clock in the morning to go to work and it was just finished like it finished within like the last 30 seconds . So if you notice that it came out a little bit later on spotify , that would be why and I do apologize , that is dedication .
Speaker 1That is dedication on a on a four hour download , um , and then god knows an-hour upload or something .
Speaker 2So that is the dedication that we bring . I hate leaving the PC on overnight just because you don't know what's going on Thunderstorm's power ?
Speaker 1Yeah , of course .
Speaker 2But I was like I got to , I stayed up till like midnight and I was like it's still at like 50 percent . I was like , uh , screw it , I gotta go to sleep all right .
Speaker 1Well , let's actually transition away from our wonderful break , as , as all these listeners are sitting there going , I don't get a goddamn break . Why do these guys get a break , um , and so on and so forth ? Because they're the hardest worker people working people in the in the labor industry , in my opinion . Um , I wanted to ask you a question . We didn't actually put it on the note , it was something that came up to me while you were talking about . This is how important is it ? And and this goes a lot more to management , supervisor kind of things but , um , it's something we've we've really been working on within our company , or something I've been doing my owner has been doing it for a long time is following up with customers , right . How many times have you know will a manager or supervisor follow up with a customer on something like it might seem like minor , like the driver will come back and tell you hey , you know , this guy was a little upset , he didn't agree with the bill or whatever the case is , and we're so quick to just dismiss that and just go . Well , the bills , the bill , like you know , you , you charge it right , yeah , yeah , I charge them this and this and this . Okay , that adds up and the and the conversation is over .
I do believe that trend is is coming back , and it has been coming back for a little while , where you know good customers especially , and they've they've always kind of stayed on that same plane , but even some of the I'm not going to say not good customers , but different customer base have gone . I will pay a little bit extra to get good service and good quality of service , and that quality of service does not end when the car is dropped off . That quality of service goes in the efficiency of getting a copy of their invoice off . That quality of service goes in the efficiency of getting a copy of their invoice . It goes in . You know , I don't know how many people who I have followed up with , who have you know , are so grateful that we called them just to just to follow up , just to make sure everything's good , like there wasn't a problem , right , even if it's not one with a bill like I .
Speaker 1Give you a perfect example . I had a customer call us the other day . Give you a perfect example . I had a customer call us the other day . He was about 70 , some kilometers away from us , in an area that is serviced by plenty of tow trucks . And he called us and he said look , I've been trying to get ahold of companies and I've had companies bail on me , whatever . I'm stuck here on this highway and I need a tire changed . I got a flat tire and I've been on the side of the highway for like two hours . The customer , you know . So we advise him . He goes what's the price ? So we give him the price and it's like a $300 tire change .
Speaker 1Just because of how far away you are , just because of the mileage Because of how far we have to travel for it . And my dispatcher did the right thing . She offered him she , she goes for that price . Instead of us changing your tires and tire and you coming back to our home location he was coming to the town that we're in I can send you out a truck for pretty well the same price and I can tow it back right . And the guy goes I , I don't need the tow , I just , if you want to come put my tire , I don't care on the price , come , come on out . So they called me up . I was out doing a job or whatever , so I was in my pickup . I was the same distance away , but on our second location , and I said , yeah , I'll go do the like , I'll go take care of it .
Speaker 1So I get thinking . On the way down I said I know a company that's really close by , like a good company that I trust . So I called them up and I said hey , how long would it take you to get a guy to here ? And they , you know , they say 20 minutes . Okay , and what would your price be to do this service ? And they said we'd be looking about 120 bucks , right , so less than half of my car , like of what I'm going to charge . Yep . So I call my , I call the customer up , I say , look , it's not that I don't want your business , I absolutely want your business . But at the same time , like I have cost of running this call and I have a company that I know is good and is in your area , closer to you , because it's going to take me , you know , 45 minutes , 50 minutes to get out there , they can be there in about 20 minutes and this is their price . If you're good with it , I'm gonna . I'm gonna send them out and you and give them your contact information .
Speaker 1Customer's super grateful , hey I appreciate that You're not just trying to charge me because you can charge me Right and it's good business practice , especially this guy being a local Right . Like you're going to get you know this guy's going to , you know get . So I'm going to get service from this guy again , yep . And the biggest thing that we did , going back to the whole original point of this conversation , is an hour later I called him and I said hey joe , I just want to follow up .
Speaker 1I want to make sure you were all taken care of . I want to make sure everything was good with the driver . Like you know you were , like you got the service you were expecting and you're and you're good to go , and he goes , absolutely . He's like I'm just rolling back into you know , into town . The guy was great , it was the price you told me , everything was great . I'll call you know , no matter what , next time I'll call you . I'm like , even if you're , you're not in my area , you can call me . Because if it's something that is feasible for me to go do and make sense for you as the consumer , I'll do it . If not , I will find you somebody who I trust or know in that area or recommend somebody in that area to do it . Now I'm sure there's a guy screaming at his phone right now going like whoa , why wouldn't you just take the money Right , like , hey , it's an easy call . You're in a pickup truck , you're going to drive out there , your margin is going to be great on that call and 100% it would be . But my customer service wouldn't be Right . But my customer service wouldn't be right In my opinion , although the customer is committed to it and knows that our times and everything else , I have made a long-term customer by not subbing out the work Cause I didn't have my hands on any of the finances on it .
Speaker 1Right , I let him pay them directly . And even the company that else like what did you cause ? Originally they were like you know , I think they were like uh , 95 bucks . Like when I asked them and she said I'm like , well , you're like that's what I quote . And she's like , well , do you mind if I ask what you quoted ? And I'm like 200 , I think it was 290 and she's like , well , would you be upset if I did 120 ?
Speaker 1I'm like no I think that's reasonable for what the call is like . I think that's a fair value for the call . If she would have said do you mind if I do 250 ? I'd be like , no , if you're going to do 250 , I'm going to do 290 from where I am . Like I'm not going to you know what I mean . Like I'm not going to add that margin all to you . But yeah , if you want to add an extra $20 because it's on the highway or you know whatever it is that you're calling the guy and that's reasonable , fair business .
Speaker 1So I made a good relationship with the towing company , which I already had a great relationship with , but I solidified that relationship . I made a good relationship with the customer because he said not only did these guys make sure I was taken care of and didn't want to overcharge me , but they followed up after the fact . That follow-up it's amazing how many times and it takes two seconds and I'm the worst to not think about doing it , because I've had a driver come in and tell me something and then I'm just like , okay , cool . And then I look over at my owner and he's sitting there like and I can just tell by the look he's given me he's like you're going to follow up with that guy and I'm like I should follow up with that guy .
Speaker 2And you just what I mean .
Speaker 1You just call them up and you say hey , you know , just wanted to check in . I uh , you know I was talking with my driver . I just want to make sure you were happy with the service . The pricing was fair , like there was nothing . You know nothing we could have done differently or better . Is there anything that we
need to work on ? Customers take that like , because it looks like the company cares and they don't care in the sense of I have their email address , that's where I send them invoices . They don't go , oh , it's just sending a . You know Amazon . Every time you buy something , they send you this . How would you rate your transaction ? Yeah Right , it isn't that level . It's literally , you know somebody within the company is giving you a call and genuinely wants to make sure that everything was okay with your service .
Speaker 2Well , I think in that situation you put up , it was in your best interest , because the customer was fed up with the people that he's already talked to . He's called you , he's agreed on your price , he wants to deal with your company . And then , 20 minutes after he agreed upon dealing with your company for a said price , you say hey , listen , I've got another company that's local to you , it's going to be cheaper . You've pretty much brokered a job , even though you didn't get paid . But that's pretty much what you did . You brokered a job for your customer to get him taken care of , because you know that he's going to be a customer of yours in future . So that's exactly what you did . So in that position you pretty much have to follow up because if the company that you recommended did a piss poor job , for whatever reason , that also looks badly on you because you recommended and sent them out .
Speaker 2Of course , in your generic day-to-day calls , following up with customers I think is a little less needed because , especially , we get a lot , we get a lot of volume through roadsides and stuff like that and with those roadsides they have the ability to follow up roadsides also , send out that generic survey or whatever .
Speaker 2Right what you're saying , um , but when it's a lot , of , a lot of times the people that are going to have the issues is like what you're saying is they're upset with the bill or they think that something is covered under the roadside but isn't in the call doesn't get done for whatever reason . Or if they said , oh , my vehicle's 10 feet off the road , but it's actually 200 feet off the road and the wrong truck got sent out , stuff like that , the majority of the customers , if they have a bad experience , they're going to say something right and I'm not saying it has to be up to them to say it . But in your specific location and your setup , yes , you have the ability to do that . That . It makes a lot more sense for you . But a lot of smaller operations six guys , ten guys they might just not have the manpower or they might not think of that the same way .
Speaker 2Because , hey , I'm just here doing calls , doing call after call after call and of you want your customer service to be good , but if someone in your day , if you've dealt with 20 people that day , if one person just seemed a little off to you , you don't know if he's off because they're having a bad day , because their tire blew out on the highway or whatever , or if they're off because of something that you said or did Right .
Speaker 2So yeah , would it make would it make a difference if you called that person ? Sure , but if you called every customer you dealt with , or even 20% of the customers you dealt with , that's almost a full-time job for some operations .
Speaker 1But I'm not saying like this isn't your like drivers that should be doing this followup ? Yeah , right , and no , your like drivers that should be doing this follow-up ? Yeah right and no ? I don't believe , unless there is a major issue following up with a roadside customer . I have followed up with roadside customers . If there is like a you know , a you know whether it be a driver that told me something about the call , whether it be a complaint that came back through the roadside , obviously those you have to follow up with . Um , you know , very rarely , though , is there scenarios with those roadside customers .
Speaker 1But your retail customers , the customers that have made the decision to pay you directly , right , the the customer who has made the choice to spend their money with my company , right , and we're seeing that a lot of companies don't , do you know , or do a mix of roadside and retail ? Yeah , so you know of that , I do 40 roadside , I do , uh , 30 percent um retail . And then I do you know 30 charge accounts ? Yeah right , charge accounts and retail are different . For the sake of this argument , they are still companies that have made the choice to to deal directly with us . But , that being said , it's those 30% of the retail and then your charge accounts , of course . Yeah , your charge accounts , you should be following up regularly , but that's not a full-time job . It is nothing to pick one retail call a day , right , let's say one , let's say , even if you do 20 retails in a day , right , you are grabbing five percent and mate and having a two to three to eight if they're talkative minute conversation a day . That is not unreasonable and is not a full-time thing , right ? Yeah , like it is something that goes that you know that extra distance and , yes , follow up with your charge accounts once a week . Hey , take a day a week and go visit your charge accounts .
Speaker 1Hey , you know , I just did that on friday I had to stop by . That's a new , it's an account we've dealt with before , from another city that set up a branch in our location . I stopped by and he told me come on by one day . You know , I'll give you a tour of the new , how we set up and cool . So I just stopped in on friday , randomly , friday afternoon , and you know , seeing the manager and we we just talked about , you know because , hey , I want you guys to do my , you know this or this or this . Um , cool , no problem like what do you ? You know even pricing , right , I reached right out to this customer and we had moved a vehicle inside for them , like did a shunt for them , and uh , I said hey , before I send off the bill because we hadn't done one yet for this location .
Speaker 1I want to talk to you about what is a reasonable price for this , what is something you are comfortable with that is going to be re-added to the bill . Right , I'm not going to devalue my services but at the same time , right , those little jobs like shunting into shops . We used to do it for body shops , remember , we used to shunt the cars in the body shop . Those little jobs , you know you're not running and always at your full retail because you're getting the . You know , in the case of the body shop , you get the full retail accident toes that they'll call you for . You're getting the , you know . And the same thing when you get into the bigger shops , they'll call you for disabled tractor trailers and stuff . Right , so , moving just a tractor in their shop , not doing full retail .
Speaker 1But I want to make sure it's a price that you're comfortable with so that you don't get my invoice and go oh man , they can charge me that every time I'm gonna , you know , let's have a discussion about it . What is it that you want to charge to your customers ? What is your percentage ? Okay , so let's add your percentage onto this . Are you happy with that rate ? Yeah , no , I think that's a great rate , perfect , right ?
Speaker 1So now the customers also feel like you know they're taken care of , right , it's not like I call these guys and , and you know , and especially you know , a company like ours and companies get reputations as they get bigger , right , the . The biggest reputation is that , oh , they don't need my work , right ? Or it's just , it's set Like . There's .
Speaker 1When you go away from family business and you start to grow bigger and bigger and bigger , that corporate idea ideology can kind of set in and that'll scare some customers away , right , because they go . Well , these guys don't care about me because they have so much volume , they have so much customers . I'm just another and I'm a number , exactly . And when you give them that personal acknowledgement and that opportunity to you know , voice your concerns with them or to whatever it brings you back to , that , you can be a bigger company but still have be in touch with your , with your customer base , and I think that is important when it comes to growing and and I think of a lot of smaller companies like the ones that we've worked for would make those phone calls .
Speaker 1I really do believe it builds a bigger you know , a stronger bond in your community , a stronger bond with your customer , a stronger you know I might've just called them because they were the first one that showed up on the list , but that personal phone call will will you know what I mean Push the fact that I want to call them again and and you know what I mean Really reiterate that uh with our customers . Cause you know , I think we forget I do , at least I forget about the empathy side of this . I forget that these people don't deal with this every day .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Right To me it's oh yeah , well , they , uh , you know what I mean . They , they , they seem a little upset because the garage , whatever , the God knows whatever they seem a little off about and test , we just go . Oh , that's normal , that's part of the business . But to these people this has .
Speaker 2You got to . Really , that's something like if you're planning on doing something like this and implementing it , you're going to have to get a little bit more information from the driver who's coming in and saying these things to you Because , let's say , their car is parked 90 degrees on their lawn , off their driveway , and you got to put one tire on the back or like onto the grass a little bit and you leave a little indent on the grass , and that's just because of how they had their disabled vehicle parked and it was unavoidable unavoidable .
But if they're upset about that , yeah , it could be warranted a phone call . But what are you going to say to them ? That I'm sorry that this had to happen just because of how the truck was and where the car was that we had to pick up them . That I'm sorry that this had to happen just because of how the truck was and where the car was that we had to pick up . Well , that's not making any progress into making them happier , because they think that you're in the wrong to begin with . Right ?
Speaker 2not aware to where okay , let's say , um , you're in their driveway and the driver didn't tilt the bed up quite far enough and you left a scratch in their driveway . That is warranted a phone call , because then that's a little bit of damage control . Just say I'm sorry that this happened to you . Yada , yada , yada .
Speaker 1Try to smooth things over , right , but but I think two things , okay , two things the there's two different times that you're referring to in phone calls here . Both of the ones that you you mentioned are literally because something went bad . It doesn't something doesn't always have to go bad or have that complaint in order for you to follow up . You can just follow up too for the sake of following up , which goes just as far . But as for you know , how are you going to make that better ? By just apologizing ? You're not really making anything better , you are . The reason I say that is this If you have a plumber come to your house and tell you something that doesn't quite make sense to you , right , because of your understanding of the scenario , which may be limited , but you go , but you go . That really doesn't make sense . Then you have another plumber call you and reinforce that fact . That , unfortunately , like you know , given the situation like this , was the best approach , and it's all how you approach it .
Speaker 1In that conversation , there is the opportunity to put them a little bit more at ease . That is okay , that is , you know . I mean one person telling me a driver on scene and god knows , our drivers have bad days too , and some of them aren't the best at explaining things , right ? So , oh , no , I have to , and then you call the customer up and you go . Okay , so you know I spoke with the driver , given the angle of the vehicle . Um , you know , we looked , you know I looked at other options that would make sense . This was the most practical way that we could avoid doing any further damage .
Speaker 1Right , and you and you get that reinforcement on the customer while not throwing your guy under a bus . Right , you can absolutely handle that situation where a customer is happier after they got a phone and you're telling them . You've told them the exact same thing , just in a different way . Right , the scraping thing . I mean I've gone out and , and you know little thing , like you know , I dropped oil on a driveway and I've gone out there with the dish , soap and the absorb , all in the different things , and sat there and scrubbed a driveway little things like that , where you know it doesn't cost as much to take care of . No , but it shows the company that you know the customer that , because you do have very picky customers , right , how many ?
Speaker 1times you had those very , very picky customers where , like you , you hate to even like , especially when you know they're the picky customer . It's one thing when you get one and they're picky like . I had a complaint the other day , I believe or not , still have not followed up with this one , because I actually meant to . So one of my drivers gets a call to go impound a vehicle for the police . Now , this person that we are impounding and I am not exaggerating , I have had five of his vehicles in my yard in the last two years . He is a frequent flyer yeah , frequent flyer . Younger kid suspended license , registers a car and everybody else's name , or never registers them and anyways , keeps getting caught over and over again and then he's a pain to deal with at our yard .
Speaker 1I got a complaint . My dispatch called me on Friday night no , it wasn't Friday , I don't remember what night she calls me . She said hey , I just gave you a heads up . I got a complaint about , you know , driver A , that he was rude to them on scene and everything else and they were trying to take photos and videos and he wouldn't let them and I'm like not tell me much about the call other than the complaint , you know , and luckily we have recorded phone lines so I can go back and listen to it . So I looked at the call and I seen the details and I remember the repeat customer and I go okay , so talk to my driver . What happened ? Nothing , he's like I loaded the truck and I walked around the truck and they were videotaping , probably doing a tiktok , because we always see this guy on tiktok with our trucks , his videos inside her impound and , um , I walked in front of her to to do the uh , like to go around the truck and she wasn't very happy about that . Like I was blocked , like I blocked her video or I messed up her video .
Speaker 1First of all , the customer is not my customer , the police are . I have a job to load this vehicle and get out of here . Second of all , if you are in my way and he's not like she's , like I wasn't , like she wasn't in my way and he's not like she's like I wasn't , like she wasn't in my way , like I didn't bump her , I didn't , you know , nudge her on the way by , like I was nowhere near touching her , but like I'm not going to , oh , you're taking a video . Let me go all the way around you . I have a job to do . Right , I'm being hired by the police , not you . If this was a retail customer , yeah , I just want to get a video before it leaves . Cool no problem .
Speaker 1All right , like you're paying me , no problem . Police are paying me for a seized vehicle . Please aren't paying me , but the police have called me for a seized vehicle . I don't have time to you know , you know . And then what was there ? Well , he looked at , he gave her a mean look and I'm like is this really the society we're in now ?
Speaker 2Yes , is that your complaint .
Speaker 1Yes , it is that he looked at you funny , yep . So he proceeded to load the vehicle . They asked , while it was on the bed , to get stuff out . Of course he had the vehicle secured , it wasn't down , the bed wasn't up yet . He allowed them to get stuff out and then at one point , like they just kept going on about whatever and he's like , well , like we got to get going , like you know , and the cop came over and told them as well , like he's taking the car go . Yeah , so does that deserve a follow-up ? In my opinion it still does . I knew they were going to be coming to the yard the next day . I was hoping to see them and they came to the yard . I didn't actually notice that they were at the yard . I never got to speak with them . So now I gotta call them and follow up , because I figured I'll let them just come to the yard and we'll have a conversation right in person . Hey , you know , I just want to make sure you're good .
Speaker 1I heard those complain about you know my driver was being rude . Again , it's a police call . I I still my drivers can't be rude right , like I don't think walking in front of her and giving her a mean look after probably you know five minutes for trying to get stuff out of the car after she probably been sitting there 20 minutes before we got there . You know I'd roll my eyes at somebody and like , if you know , I'm not exactly taking that as a complaint . I'm not , you know , given a driver flack for did you roll your eyes at this ? This police impound . He's like , yeah , when I rolled up and I seen it's the same guy that we've had for five times in the area , he's probably like , oh God damn it . You know , but no , you , you do have to follow up with that . As petty as it seems , you have to follow up on it .
Speaker 2But do you though , because , like you're just feeding into this society of the squeaky wheel , gets the grease even when the wheel shouldn't be squeaky in the first place ?
Speaker 1I'm not saying you have to apologize , no , I'm saying you got to follow up . There is a difference . There is a difference . Right , I know what this is going to be . I I can almost predict , because I've done this enough now , that that phone call is going to start with his complaint to what my thoughts are on what my you know ideas are and voicing them to him . Then , followed up by how much is the bill ? Followed up by ? Well , I think I should get a deal followed up by thank you , have a great day and we'll see you in seven days to get your vehicle right like I'm .
Speaker 1It's not feeding into the you know . Oh , you complained . Okay , let me , you know , let me fix your bobo , let me fix where the words hurt you , right , or the mean look , hurt you , no , no , but , but you do need to follow up with it , right ? Because there's nothing worse than , hey , I called and had this complaint and they said somebody would reach out to me and nobody did . That is worse than you know what I mean . And , like I say , you don't have to apologize , but you do follow up with it , hear out their voice and then tell them where it stands when it comes to the impound stuff and especially , like what you're saying , a very frequent flyer .
Speaker 2Those are the type of people that will never say yes , I was in the wrong . They're always looking to blame someone else for their mistakes and unfortunately we deal with a lot of those types of people in this industry because of the situations they put themselves in . But they won't admit that they put themselves in that situation and it is a fine line to walk , because they can normally be rude in that situation because of they're blaming you for whatever you did , which is just normally your job . Normally they're they're looking for either an apology or money off , like you were saying , and it's very easy just to say okay , shut up , get away from me , I'll knock 50 off the bill just to make the situation go away .
Speaker 1But then you are now feeding into that because they got a reward for being an ass when they really anyone who knows me , anyone who knows me knows that that will not be my response , I know , but I'm saying for other people yeah right , we , we do that in other avenues sometimes .
Um , so let's say you do have that scrape in the driveway and the guy would be . He's a little blown out of proportion for what the damage is he wants . Oh , it was a thousand dollar tow bill for one little scratch on the driveway .
Speaker 2He specs the whole bill to be comped right yeah , well , the service needs to be free because I got to scratch my driveway and be like , well , I can't do that here , I'll knock 200 off your bill . And well , now that guy feels rewarded , right , because he got something off the bill when realistically , all it should have really been was I'll come out with a sharpie and put a mark in your driveway and you'll never notice it again well , that's it .
Speaker 1Sometimes you do overcompensate compensation , for , you know , the sake of good business practice and the sake of you know and and again .
Speaker 1And that's where you got to really evaluate the customer to see where they're at on this right , like I've had some , whether it be for damage , like I had one . We blew a line right in this guy's driveway . Driveway is like two years fresh paved yeah , blah , hydraulic fluid everywhere so and we went to clean it and it's still like we could not get it fully out . There was a stain right . We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and you know we brought in different chemicals on the set . It just there was . Always there was that little bit of stain that would take forever to go away .
Speaker 1So I made a deal with the customer . I said how about we seal the driveway ? Right , it's pretty fair . We'll seal the boulevard , because it was actually the boulevard section between the sidewalk and the road and he goes well . My problem with that is is that it won't match the driveway up from the sidewalk to the house . I said you're right . I said I can talk to my guy . I'm willing to cover and fix the mistake that I made . If you want , I'll see if you can get us a deal and we'll do that section too as well .
Speaker 1But you're paying for the section from the sidewalk to the house and he goes . I think that's fair . He's like you've wrecked my one area . I mean it's kind of our fault that they won't match . So like I wasn't gonna push the subject , if I had to do the whole thing , I'd do the whole thing . But he's like no , I think it's fair , I'll do my , I'll do that portion , if you do the portion of the road . And like I think the bill ended up being for him like 80 bucks , you know 80 bucks and he ended up paying and got his whole , this whole thing resealed yeah right , because the guy went hey , look , I'm paying for the boulevard , what would you charge me ?
Speaker 1what would you charge for the driveway ? I'll just charge this much , okay , cool , yeah , right , so it's fixing fixing places where you went wrong in a spot like that and and a lot of it . Honestly , ask the customer . That is one thing that I've learned that I've been so shocked by . I had a job that I quoted out and when my driver got there to do this job , it was lowering a boat back into a river on like a track system and everything else . But once I got there , it the job went sideways . It was not quite what we thought it was . They weren't set up the way they thought they were . It was like a three hour job that took seven hours . So I reached out to the customer and I said , hey , and ? And there was the . What made it worse is there was part of the delays were our fault , part of the delays was their fault .
Speaker 1I reached out to the customer and instead of just saying hey , look , I know this went wrong . You know , my driver told me you guys had this , this , this and this . I'm gonna put the bill at this , instead of just telling the customer what I'm gonna charge him . I asked him . I said hey , you know , I know that you guys had a day . It didn't go exactly how we had planned and everything else . What do you think is reasonable ? What time do you believe was spent because of you know , an error , an issue that we had , or we ran out of line , or you know , and how much was caused by , maybe , some issues on your end and we came up with a happy number ? The customer is then happy about the job , right , because we always quote out on that stuff hourly anyways . But instead of me just telling them I went from three hours to five hours and you're gonna pay this bill , I said what are you gonna be happy with ? Like , what do you think is fair ? And so we discussed it and I'm like he's like , you know , I , if you're well , I'm like I'm willing to take a couple of the hours , like as my own right , like that's on us . If I take two hours and you take two hours , do you think that's fair ? We bring it up to five and everybody's , you know . And he goes yeah , I think that's more fair , perfect . Here's a copy of your invoice . I still ate my time that it took me , the customer . I could have just told him he was paying five hours , yeah , but by giving them that conversation , feeling that it's not like , oh , this company is just trying to bully me out of more money . Now this company's trying to be fair with me . We came up to a mutual resolution .
Speaker 1You can do that with a lot of customers surprisingly , by just you know it's something you don't think of and there's customers you never will like . There's customers that just matter . What you say is you know you're going to get those . But at the most part , like following up with the customer , having a conversation , giving them a chance to you know , voice whatever issues they might have had , because I'm going off the information my driver gave me . Let's be honest , they lie too . Yeah , right , like they lie as well . Like they , we sit there and we take our driver's side a lot over customers , but at the same time our drivers exaggerate things to . Our drivers are human , right , they see things from their perspective only as well . So sometimes just just doing that followup , getting that extra little bit of information from the customer and having the conversation with them , go so far .
Speaker 2Yeah . So speaking of drivers , I do want to get into one other topic for this show before we close . You have a driver , you have two drivers that come to your door with resumes in hand . You've got one driver that's worked at four , maybe even five different companies in the last 10 years . And then you have a driver who's worked for the same company for 10 years .
Speaker 2I see the guy that's jumped around to four or five different companies in the last 10 years . There's probably some negative things to him because maybe he just wasn't a very good fit at all these companies and maybe that's good , maybe that's bad . He could have picked up different bad habits over these four companies . But also , on the flip side positive thing about him , he's got more experience because he's worked with different people and he could potentially have learned different things . Right . Where the guy with 10 years at the one company , he might be more loyal to that company because he's put 10 years of his life working with one company . But maybe at the flip side , he's only ever been well . He's only had the ability to learn from whoever's worked at that company over the last 10 years and maybe he hasn't learned that much in the last 10 years .
What are your thoughts on that ? How ? What resume looks better just from years of experience ?
Speaker 1Yeah . So if we're going like we're , we're putting these people as identical people . You know same skill like same . You know appearances , same ideologies . You get from them , same vibe , you get from them and everything . But one's been at five , four or five companies ten once . Once they was one .
Speaker 1The only question I would have for them that that might affect my decision on this is , um , mainly for the 10-year driver , and that is why . Why did you leave ? The reason I say that is , if you've , if you've been 10 years in a place , I feel like that guy is more likely to jump ship than the guy that's been there , that's been to a couple every two years . The reason I say that is because there is so much loyalty tied up into the company . Right , like I had that problem , like , no matter , I worked and and I'd moved around back when , when I moved up to , you know , towards toronto and everything else , I always carried loyalty to the company that I'm with now .
Speaker 1Always I compared everywhere I worked to the company that I'm at now . Right , because I had a long . It wasn't a 10 year , but it was a long . You know , it was a decent stretch with them before I , before I went anywhere , anywhere else . As somebody who's moved around a couple of times in companies and and finding the right fit and everything , I don't look poorly upon the guy with four companies in 10 years . I think that's a good run . You know the towing industry is is and it depends what those companies were , right , you know , um , um , we've worked with a guy who jumped around a lot of companies .
Speaker 1That guy jumped around a lot of good companies yeah I look at that more negatively than I would if it jumped around for shady companies , because you're like , okay , this guy's just trying to find his spot , yeah , um , but you are right , I probably . Which one would look when you , when it says looks better on a resume , it's obviously going to go to the one year , 10 , the one place , 10 year guy yeah , on paper that looks better . The reality is , I think I like the other one more . I think I would be more likely to look a little deeper into the move around again , depending on the companies and whatnot there's . There's so many variables .
Speaker 1That's why I hate these generic questions sometimes , because they're not as easy as just you know a or b , um , depending on what the companies were , depending on what the age is . I mean , if he's not 10 years , he's old enough . Um , yeah , you know , like I take . You know we had a phone call with him , davey . Davey would be one of those guys that his resume shows one company , yeah , right , for 30 years or whatever that number was that he had told us Right . And a lot of people go yeah , it's true , he only got the experience from one person . Like I did learn a lot from different companies that I worked at Right . I learned a lot from the company I'm at now .
Speaker 1Before I left , I learned what I didn't want in a company . To the company I went to directly after I left um and then I went up tron away and I learned a lot from guys like davey , from guys like chris . Right like I learned you know and then you know . For me it was a growth time too , for learning how to deal with different people in different scenarios . Right Then I spent time with a small little company as a filler . We always knew this was a filler , this was never a career path with this company , um , but it was just to kind of scratch that itch and I learned things there too .
Speaker 1You can learn things at a company . It isn't about what you learn . It's not always about learning what you want . It can be just as much learning what you don't want , right , or what not to do , right like I've worked for companies where I went what do you know ? Like , this is exactly what I don't want and I wouldn't have known that unless I worked there I think it a I think the actual resume topic can be brought back up again of okay .
Speaker 2so it's one thing to put the name of the company on your resume and say I was a tow truck operator , but you need to put descriptions underneath of what you actually did . And I think , especially if you have worked at two or three towing places , the description of your job pretty much stays the same . So it starts to make you think , well , maybe should I put some different experience on this resume because realistically you're yeah , because realistically you can normally only got room for three prior jobs on a resume , right ?
Speaker 2so then how do you like break apart one towing company from another towing company and the experience that you've had ?
Speaker 1no , I've absolutely looked . Um , you know , we we always do when I review resumes and a lot of it comes down to um , you know , following up with companies , sometimes right , and and the towing industry is notorious for not following up , I think a lot of them are for not following up and then for following up indirectly with the . You know , you know a guy that works at the company , so you're going to call that guy and be like , hey , what did you think of working with Joe and that driver ? Especially if it's a driver if that just happened to be one might not be able to give you the best example , or might not be able to give you the best you know example , or might not be able to give you the true . It's just his side by side , working as , if , you know , g and I were working side by side . When you do speak with their direct supervisors , a lot of times you'll find out some of the more you know interesting deals about things , whether it be that they were late more often , whether it be all these little things that a driver working side by side with them wouldn't really know . Um , so , seeing those names , as long as you're doing the followup and you're doing some homework on them .
Speaker 1I'm like I'm the first guy that'll take a , that'll take a flyer on somebody . I have made hiring decisions that I would question , that I still question to this day , um , and then I've made some of those decisions that I did not think would work out and they turned out to be great operators , um . So , comparing the experience , I've always been a big believer . I'd rather somebody with very little experience . 10 years is a lot , um , but that being said , you need those guys . You need that stability within the company , these guys that have that experience that , these guys that can do . You know a little bit of everything . Maybe teach some of these newer guys you have coming in . So my opinion on paper it looks better . One place , 10 years . Reality of things depending on the situation , I think the four years can be an ideal . Uh . Four companies in 10 years is uh is still a good candidate . That being said , ladies and gentlemen , we have lost mr toman g . His internet has gone out . While I was on that rant , I managed to save it on my own , so it is a great time , uh , to go out on this show I do .
Speaker 1Thank you all for joining us again . I apologize again for the hiatus , the three episode delay . I'm much more tanned and relaxed because of it . So , as I said in the beginning , I'll never apologize too hard . But I want to thank you for joining us for another episode of the Towing Life podcast . We are out every Tuesday . We will be back again next week with more towing content . I hope you enjoyed . I can't wait to see you . Don't forget , head over to the website , wwwtowinglifeca , email us directly at thetowinglife at gmailcom , or find us on Facebook at the Towing Life Podcast . If you're watching over on the YouTube side , do not forget to comment down below . Hit that thumbs up . Thanks for seeing you . We'll see you again next week . Take care .