התמלול המלא של Episode 367: Gemini Hallucinations

to make things go their way. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.680 Okay, and this is not something new. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:16.639 There's a lot of a lot of businesses out there, a lot of corporations out there, a lot of genres of businesses that do the same thing. 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:20.639 They're not they didn't invent it, um, but they have got it down pretty good here. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:28.639 And and what they are good at is having legislation made that helps those particular businesses make money. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:29.520 And you know what? 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:35.520 And then this might fly in the face of convention, and you might think, oh, geez, Uncle Jimmy, what are you bailing on us here? 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:51.680 It's actually a good thing, okay, because sometimes the government likes to do things that are not good for dealers, and sometimes they like to do things that are not good for us, and hopefully that would be one and the same because we work for dealers, a lot of us work for dealers. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.400 Uh, many of you out there probably working for independents. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:03:06.800 Uh, you you realize that uh as working for an independent, you're kind of out there on an island by yourself, uh, doing what you can to keep the uh people in your area on the road. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.199 Uh dealers like to help put cars on the road and then keep those cars going. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:15.439 It's a little bit of a different kind of a business uh business model, okay? 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:36.479 But having uh someone who can sort of tweak the uh legislative process in Washington and and possibly even your state capitals in whatever state you're in is not a bad thing at all, okay, because sometimes they try to come up with stuff that isn't good for you, it isn't good for the dealer, and would cripple our industry. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.719 Okay, now I can't really think of anything. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:45.599 Okay, so the question is what has the NADA done as far as lobbying to help the dealers or the employees? 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.479 And let's see here what uh Gemini has to say about this. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:58.240 The National Automobile Dealers Association operates as one of the most powerful trade associations and lobbying forces in Washington, D.C. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:03:59.360 Yeah, kind of knew that. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:02.400 Federal and state regulations directly impact how dealers operate. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:06.240 Of course, they do finance vehicles, pay technicians, and service cars. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.719 And it's kind of weird that they would uh include that in there, pay technicians. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:14.319 Uh, I think the Gemini knows what I'm up to. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:16.399 It keeps track. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:23.360 It's like a it's like a an engine computer in your car, it adapts to the to the shit you ask questions about. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:29.120 So it knows that that's a a touch point for me, at least, uh, pay technicians and service cars. 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.240 Uh they spend millions annually lobbying Congress. 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:57.839 Here is uh what I asked it was uh what have they done so far as lobbying help, uh regulatory defense and fighting federal overreach, challenging when the Federal Trade Commission introduced its combating auto retail scams, which imposed heavy disclosure mandates and restrictions on finance and insurance add-ons and new paperwork burdens, the NADA launched aggressive legal and legislative challenges. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:04.560 They argued the rule added massive, massive compliance costs without providing real consumer protection. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:12.000 Okay, so the government typically, typically, not always, uh, is interested in trying to keep the consumer safe. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:16.399 And uh honestly, probably one of their major targets is car dealers. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:18.480 Let's just be let's just be straight about it. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:22.000 A lot of people feel like car dealers are just out there trying to rip them off. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:29.360 And then honestly, you know, as somebody who works at a car dealer, uh I don't feel like that's true, at least not for the car dealer I work for. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:33.439 They are very above board, straightforward, and honest with people. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:38.560 And uh people still accuse us of stuff that we're just kind of not doing at all. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:44.959 Uh, but that doesn't ever stop people from getting the wrong idea or lumping us all into a group. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:46.800 You know, you're all a bunch of pirates. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.160 Yeah, okay, you know, whatever. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:55.759 Some of the other things that they they try to protect the franchise model and block uh direct sales. 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.680 I'm not sure that that's a good thing. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:06.160 We'll see what happens with uh this slate pickup truck that's coming along here that is probably going to be marketed and sold via Amazon. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.000 Not sure if they're gonna have trouble with that. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:16.879 I know that they didn't like the way Tesla does business, and a lot of states have said yet to Tesla as far as selling them in that particular state. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:24.560 But uh, you know, the the one thing about states is, you know, if you're in a state where you can't buy a Tesla at a Tesla center, well, guess what? 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:26.079 Go to another fucking state. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.160 They're usually typically not that far away. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:32.240 I mean, unless you live in Texas, because Texas is fucking huge, or Alaska. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:37.519 Alaska is uh extraordinarily huge, and oh, by the way, doesn't really

border any other states. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:45.360 So you kind of screwed if you're in if you're in Alaska and you want a Tesla, unless, of course, they're one of the states that says, hey, we don't give a fuck what you sell here. 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:58.240 Uh lots of states do care and and are are having laws either on the books or trying to get laws that would require vehicle manufacturers to use a franchise dealer type system. 00:06:58.399 --> 00:06:58.720 Okay. 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.199 Now, I don't know how I feel about that. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:11.199 Uh obviously, I work for a dealer, and a lot of us work for a dealer, and they do provide for us employment and wages and benefits and that. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:13.199 And we can't really discount that. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:15.040 We do that's all stuff that we need. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:19.680 Uh, and honestly, eight years I've been banging on these people to just pay us a little bit more. 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:21.279 Uh, they don't really want to. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:34.480 And what I found out after asking Gemini some questions here, a lot of dealers operate a very slim margin after they figure out all the costs that they have to incur to keep a service department open. 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:35.360 It's not cheap. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:38.480 There's a lot of employees there, so the payroll is a lot of money. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:54.319 There's uh cost of the uh the infrastructure, you know, the uh the building and the and the land and and uh property taxes and other assorted fees and taxes that they have to pay to have certain things in the building, right? 00:07:54.480 --> 00:08:07.839 I mean, uh I'm pretty sure that if you want to have like a even just like a uh a small gas pump at your dealership, you I believe that there's there is a uh a massive uh fee to get that done. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:18.319 And then there's also probably, I'm guessing, in some states at least, there's gonna be extra fees just for having fuel on site because it can be can be dangerous. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:19.680 Of course, it can be dangerous. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:24.000 Legislation befitting dealership employees and technicians. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:39.919 Here again, they know that it's a technician they're talking to, uh opposing the Repair Act framework, NADA lobbies against certain federal right to repair bills that they argue could compromise vehicle cybersecurity, telematics, and customer data privacy. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:44.720 Um, I'm not sure that I'm not sure the dealerships really care about that that much. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:44.960 Okay. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:50.399 Typically, dealerships care, in my experience anyway, just about the money. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:09:00.080 The vehicle cybersecurity, the telematics, and the customer data privacy, I'm pretty sure you're not going to find a whole lot of people in a dealership who give a flying fuck about that,

really. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:13.279 If customers' data is compromised, if it doesn't cause them a problem if they don't get their identity stolen and credit cards and loans and automobiles bought in their name when it isn't them, I'm not sure that they care. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:17.919 If it doesn't have anything to do with earning the business money, it's not something they care about that much. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:18.320 Okay. 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:33.440 The right to repair, however, does limit independent repair shops from receiving information necessary to repair cars, typically cars of very late model cars, anything newer than five years old. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:37.039 Uh that stuff, they call it proprietary information. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:50.960 They they have uh different sorts of uh, yeah, and you guys know this, they have different sorts of uh machinery and equipment that you need to perform certain repairs, and they don't want to share it with anybody who isn't associated with them. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:10:24.080 And then they'll tell you, oh, you know, these are, you know, we have trained technicians in the dealership that know how to use the this equipment, and uh sometimes that is actually true, sometimes not so much, but they don't want the uh independent portion of the auto repair business to get their hands on their stuff because, well, first off, it costs their dealerships money, and they're very, very uh keenly aware that the dealership needs to make money, and they're very keenly aware that the dealership typically spends a lot of money training technicians and keeping them up to date, and then also jamming some of this. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:31.279 There's no other way to put it, they're jamming some of this equipment that they need to fix these cars right up straight up their ass and making them pay for it. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:42.879 You know, we just got a a fucking machine earlier this week, it might have been last week, it's some crazy ass uh smoke machine, and it was fucking expensive. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.120 And we had to buy it. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:50.559 We had to buy it, and they're going to insist that we use it for diagnosing certain things in the future. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:52.639 I'm not sure how important it was. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:53.279 I'm not sure. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:54.960 I'm sure we'll find out. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:58.080 Uh maybe it it's gonna help us. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.600 Maybe uh sometimes equipment comes in and never gets used. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:09.440 Sometimes equipment comes in and guys have better ways of diagnosing stuff than using the factory approved equipment. 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:21.360 So uh that's one of the things that goes on with the right to repair, is that they have uh diagnostics that you know you're the only one who can do it if you're working at a specific brand dealer franchise. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:21.759 Okay. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:32.879 Uh other things that they they have championed that trying to get catalytic converter theft legislation put through that uh puts VIN numbers on catalytic converters. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:36.639 I haven't seen that yet, uh, but that's that's actually that to me sounds like a good idea. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.799 Although with a nice angle grinder, you can make a VIN number disappear. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:44.480 But also at the same time, if you grind off a VIN number, then it makes it worthless. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:52.960 Nobody's gonna want it because if somebody in a junkyard's buying catalytic converters, and then you know the FBI rolls in and says, Where's the VIN that was on this catalytic converter? 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:55.120 And they go, Yeah, I don't know, Charlie. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:12:00.720 And then you go, Well, you're under arrest, so for buying stolen goods, because there's no way to prove where it came from. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:05.279 And in that situation, they're going to assume that they were fucking stolen. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:16.320 Okay, because I tried to uh sell some converters I had when I was on vacation back home at and uh I had two sets, and they go, Yeah, you got to have the title for the cars they came off of. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:18.159 And I go, uh, okay, never mind. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:19.840 You just sound like too much of a hassle. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:23.279 But in reality, I I actually have two titles for two cars they came off. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:30.960 I have it, I just don't feel like traipsing it all over the fucking county to try to get some money for some converters, although they do pay pretty well, the ones I have. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:33.519 I'll probably do that the next time I go home. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:39.840 Also, to the NADA regularly lobbies for federal workforce development funding to provide training. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:50.720 Uh, and and that's I think that that's gonna work, that works out for us, okay, because some of us have probably taken part in some of the training and some of the grants they have for training. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:13:00.399 I know uh I have not really, I mean, I paid to go to tech school, and then I uh I didn't pay actually to go to my dealer brand training for six months. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:01.360 I didn't pay for that. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:11.519 My dealer paid for that after I'd worked for them for six months, but I didn't I didn't earn anything more than like 12 cents an hour uh while I was going to school. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.919 So it was uh dead chuffed broke dick. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:21.200 I mean, I really just didn't have two cents to scrape together, and really that's one of the things that makes me so tenacious. 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:24.720 What's the other word I want to use to describe how I felt when I got out of that? 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:35.919 I felt I felt like I

was owed, really, because I had suffered uh for six months while I did that training, and when I got out of the field and got$15 an hour, I was like, oh, it's better than nothing. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:48.080 And and so, you know, I I really had committed, I made a commitment to learn what I needed to know to belong in the building where I was working. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:14:07.360 And then the dealer was uh the deal, the first dealer I worked for was god-awful, and so it didn't feel like it was worth it until I went to a dealer in a neighboring town, a neighboring city, and worked for people who really seemed to appreciate uh the time and the energy spent to know what to do when certain vehicles came in. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:15.200 Okay, so training, you know, not having to pay for training afterwards, after all of that, that's so that's that was definitely a very good thing. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:16.879 Uh overtime and labor standards. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:20.159 That's something else the NADA works closely with the Department of Labor on. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:20.799 All right. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.720 So that answers that question as far as what the NADA does. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:35.600 Um, but let me but make make no mistake, folks, they're on the side of the people who pay them, and that's typically your owners or your dealership group. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:48.159 A lot of auto groups out there uh probably pay them very large amounts of money, some of the larger ones, you know, like your Auto Nations, your Lithia, your group one, your Penske, your Sonic, your Asbury. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:58.080 Uh, these people uh enjoy uh they they pay a great deal of money, and and for the things that they're getting, trust me, it must be worth it or else they wouldn't pay it. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:58.320 Okay. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:03.440 I wanted to find out also too how many uh auto groups there are, okay. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:07.200 And this is uh, and I even asked it, I said, how many auto groups are there? 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:13.759 Well, there's uh about 8,000, and I was a little surprised by that number because it just sounds like a lot. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:32.240 Um, and you if you take 17 or 18,000 uh dealerships and divide them uh divide it by 8,000, you've got some dealership groups that are gonna be really small that maybe have just one or two, one or two dealerships, because there's some out there that have an enormous amount of dealerships. 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:37.759 I think Auto Nation is the the number one, if something like three or four hundred particular dealerships. 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:44.000 And you would think, and I would think, at least this is the way I think, excuse me, I don't want to impose upon you what you think. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:48.240 Uh, I would think that Auto Nation must have it going on. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.240 They must know what they're up to. 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:58.480 And probably if you're in the back of one of their buildings wrenching on whatever it is they sell there, you probably don't feel that way. 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:12.080 Okay, because when you have a company like that that has, you know, X number of dealerships, be it two, 10, 20, 100, or 200, or even up to 500 or 1,000. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:13.440 I mean, I have no idea. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:17.200 I didn't ask that question, but it that's not really what I'm looking for here. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:27.279 But when you have that many dealerships, you have it pretty well fine-tuned as far as what you need to pay for specific employees in the store. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:36.159 You have their wages calculated down to the penny, what you can typically get away with paying and what you can't get away with paying. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:51.600 And maybe you have people who are hip and uh know what uh know what's up as far as like uh what to pay in certain locations, because obviously if you have dealerships that are in the north and the northeast for some reason, their wages are stagnant and low. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:17:06.640 And in the south, because there's less people to do the job, or apparently it's it's more, and I'm not I'm not sure whether the supply is high and the demand is low, but it the wages in the south are typically higher, and it's probably a good chunk of both. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:31.039 The supply is low and the demand is high, whereas in the north, it's not there's not such a gap between the two, but you you are able to get a better wage in dealers that are located south of the Mason-Dixon line and and towards the uh Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America, whichever you prefer to call it, and closer to the border of Mexico than closer to the border of Canada. 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:36.880 Okay, you just have a different dynamic going on there, and typically the wages are a little higher. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.440 Okay, that's what I have found in my experience anyway. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:48.799 And with some of these companies, and I know that a lot of these companies I that I just mentioned, Auto Nation and Group One and Sonic, they're pretty big in the south. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:53.119 That is a uh that is a place where a lot of people are going to. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:55.519 A lot of people want to live there. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:05.759 People from the north are moving down there, and so the population is exploding, the need for automobiles is exploding, the need for automobile repairs is exploding. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:13.680 Unfortunately for them, the amount of technicians who can properly fix a car is not exploding. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:15.680 It is not something that is growing. 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:18.160 Uh, it is pretty well stagnant. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:21.519 Uh, I think every time you add a new guy, you lose a guy. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:23.200 It's not a win-win situation.

00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:31.759 It's a it's a win-lose situation where you get a new guy, but then somebody leaves or quits, gets fired, or retires, or dies. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.000 There's several ways to leave a dealership. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:35.279 I just named a few. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:35.759 That's all. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:44.960 What I went on what I went on to ask next was who makes the decisions at these auto groups, owners, boards of directors, presidents, or others. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:48.319 Uh yeah, a lot of them, a lot of them are publicly owned. 00:18:48.400 --> 00:19:07.039 And so you're gonna have a board of directors, which uh is people who are in businesses that are similar to yours and possibly the same business, and have been asked to sit on this board of directors, and then they they direct how the business is run, and they often manifest their decisions through a CEO. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:20.720 And and sometimes they will listen to a CEO and do what he feels like they should do, and sometimes they don't do what the CEO wants them to do, or they don't insist that they do what, and they'll just fire them. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:23.920 They'll just they'll just they'll just say, ah, you're gonna you need to step down. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.480 You're not you're not providing us with the leadership that we need. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:45.119 And and really, in a lot of cases, uh board of directors may be the reason for some of the the fucking heinous shit that goes on in the dealership and goes on with a dealership group because you have a lot of middle management there, and they're really just they're directed by the CEO, and the CEO is directed by wait for it, the board of directors. 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:57.119 So you have people who know business things but perhaps don't know your business trying to tell you how to run your business, and then I don't feel like that's a real a real good idea, at least not all the time. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:05.039 Uh the the particular uh auto group that I work for is run by one guy, one guy, and he's got his shit together pretty good. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:14.960 And he is he is an entity that we look up to and we like and we uh and we want to do good things for him, and he wants the good things to happen to us. 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:23.680 And so he runs his short in a much different manner than perhaps someone with a board of directors, somebody who's publicly traded. 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:27.839 He's in charge, he's large and in charge, and uh I am fine with that. 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:31.359 Where I work has been working fairly well. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:38.160 Uh, obviously, there's gonna be some things that I I don't like and that some of the other techs and some of the other people that work in the building don't like. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:39.200 It's always gonna happen. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:40.400 That's always gonna happen. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:44.559 You can all you can't really eliminate the chaos. 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.240 You can only hope to manage it. 00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:51.039 And on some days you can't, and on other days it's not too hard to manage it. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:55.440 So uh, and that's what goes on in in our businesses all day, every day, pretty much. 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:55.680 Okay. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:04.240 What I want to what it said here was large and mid-sized private auto groups, owners, founders, equity partners hold ultimate financial authority. 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:32.960 Of course they do, and then you they'll have a president or a CEO also in that runs day-to-day operations across the group, and then they have executive general managers and operation VPs and other people who uh are supposed to manage large groups of people, manage maybe several dealerships all at once, or manage one part of a dealership, such as a fixed ops director or or a sales manager, a general sales manager, or overall sales manager. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:40.480 And what I have found in my experience, and my experience is not limited to the 23 years that I've been a professional technician. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:48.400 It is a broader base than that, because I I did uh work in parts departments and dealerships for a number of years before that. 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:59.759 Okay, so I've seen I've seen a lot of different dealerships, only five different dealerships types that I've worked for, five different uh actually, it's gonna be uh yeah, five different. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.400 Types of uh dealership owners and operators, okay? 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:05.920 Uh mostly private. 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.920 I have never really worked for an auto group that was a uh publicly traded. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:25.759 And I would think that that is uh that you if you work for a company like that that is managed to the nth degree as a public entity, that you probably get strangled out of wages uh and and wage increases are probably uh metered out. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:30.559 Well, let's just say uh fiscally uh frugal manner, okay? 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:48.880 Uh but when you work for a family-owned or at least a privately owned, uh you have people who can make decisions without having to check with a thousand people and without having other people tell them one thing or the other and and having the power to say that that they would ixnay a deal such as that. 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:51.039 Um it's just it's just a different setup. 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:57.200 You work for people who are private owners, they can certainly see what you do if they're on site. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:02.960 And even if they're not on site, sometimes they become aware of what you do and how you do it and how well you do it. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:56.400 And so your wages in in those particular uh setups, if you're really any any, you know, if you work at I may have a little

trouble here, but uh whatever, whatever your employment status is at that particular dealership, whether you're a salesperson or a service advisor or some sort of a manager or you work in parts or as a technician or as a lot guy, uh typically a smaller group or a family-owned group or a just a small auto group would know possibly is familiar with you and how valuable you are to the dealership and and would, at least hopefully, in my opinion, anyway, uh pay you a little bit more, a little bit more lucratively, I mean a little bit more aggressively to make sure that you know if you're doing good things and and you're doing the right things and you're a very good employee, that they would want to keep you and that they would know that they should keep you. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:59.359 That's a problem when you work for an automotive group. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:03.200 You're just you're just a number, as Bob Seeger used to say, you're just a number. 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:12.559 One of the other things I wanted to check out here was what is the uh, and I kind of want to take this in a little different direction here, but what is their greatest money-making part of the business? 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:19.119 And it wasn't really uh it took a little bit for this to come up here as a contrary to popular belief. 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:24.480 Selling new vehicles is actually the least profitable primary department for your auto group. 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:25.279 Absolutely. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:30.160 Uh it did, it did kind of steer away from used cars, though. 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:35.680 Uh, I I've always felt that used car department is really the bread and butter of the dealership. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:36.960 This is what Gemini said. 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:50.880 Dealership profitability relies on two core profit centers, fixed operations, which is you and me, the fucking wrench throwing bastards out back, the greasy monkeys that fucking fix them, and finance and insurance. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:57.359 Okay, now finance and insurance is something that I want to say, from my experience, is fairly new. 00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:57.839 Okay. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:17.279 Selling the money and selling the warranties and the insurance for the money and uh the vehicle has become extremely profitable because there's a lot of companies out there scratching it to ground trying to get this kind of business for their bank or for their investment purposes. 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:25.759 And so they have made it lucrative for dealerships to use their particular finance and insurance products, okay? 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:27.759 And it and it's become big business. 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:31.279 Now, I remember a day when it wasn't, it wasn't a big deal. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:40.160 You know, you went into the local dealer, you wanted to buy a Chevy, you wanted to buy a Ford, and they called up the bank in town and said, Hey, does this guy have any money in

the in the bank? 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:42.400 You see, yeah, you know, he's got a couple grand in the bank. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:51.519 Like, okay, he can cover about, you know, in the in the day, he probably could have covered, you know, you know, a whole year's worth of uh payments based on what he had in the bank. 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:56.480 And also, too, by the way, those uh those loans uh were paid off in two years. 00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:57.440 That was common. 00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.640 It was very common to have a two-year loan to pay for a car. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:04.559 It just goes to show you what's happened to our economy, and it's not a real good thing. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:09.119 I mean, I've seen 84 months, and I don't, you know, I'm not that great at math. 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:10.240 84, what is that? 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:11.119 Uh let me see. 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:16.240 60 is five years, so 72 is six years, 84 is gonna be seven years. 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:28.559 You get an 84-month loan for a car, especially in like the north and the northeast, it's a good chance that that thing's gonna rot to shit before you're done paying for it. 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:30.000 It's just not a good deal. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:31.279 Just not a good deal. 00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:38.640 And this is why you are gonna see, and then uh, and this this is kind of off topic a little bit here, but let me just go down this path real quick. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:42.240 This is why you're gonna see the average age of automobiles go up. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:27:00.720 You're also gonna see that it's gonna become very lucrative to become an uh independent repair shop because these people, you know, somebody goes out and buys a car, it's say it's seven years old, maybe they spent 10, 20 grand on it, it's got 70, 80, 90,000 miles on it. 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:05.279 They get it, it's in good shape, tires are good, brakes are good, and they just drive it. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:06.079 That's all they do. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:11.839 They drive it maybe two, maybe a hundred, two hundred miles a week, and it just keeps going. 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:18.559 And when it breaks, there there's no warranty, unless they bought an aftermarket warranty, and even then, they could just do whatever they want with that. 00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:20.720 But then they're they're gonna want to get it fixed. 00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:23.359 And are they gonna want to go to a dealer to get that fixed? 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:24.000 Probably not. 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:31.759 And this is what's gonna happen when they get when a lot of people, and I think a lot, a lot, a lot of people are gonna get priced right out of the new car market. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:38.799 And and honestly, people will tell you, and and I think one of the major people who will tell you this is a gentleman by the name of Warren Buffett. 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:48.799 This is a guy who is frugal, and it's it's completely and entirely unnecessary for this guy to be this fucking frugal. 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:52.480 He's worth somewhere in the neighborhood of$50 billion. 00:27:53.039 --> 00:28:04.400 He is the the oracle of Omaha, he's an investment guy, uh, and he has done super, super well for himself, bought like the entire fucking railroad system in the US. 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:06.480 Um, just he's out there. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.160 And one of the things he does, and it this kind of murders me, really. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:23.440 I mean, because I I don't I don't I don't get it, but he says he has never ever bought a new new car, and he never will, because he says that they depreciate too much. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:35.599 Like, well, you know, honestly, if you have 50 billion fucking dollars, I think that depreciation on an automobile is like it's I can't even think of an analogy for it, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:40.079 It's like, why would you deprive yourself of the joy of buying something brand new? 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:43.039 And there's a there's a joy that goes to it, boy, boys and girls. 00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:47.519 If you've never felt it, you should maybe save some money up and try to find a way to enjoy it. 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:50.880 Obviously, if you have to pay 84 months for it, it might not be worth it for you. 00:28:50.960 --> 00:29:02.160 But I mean, here's a guy who's 50 billion dollars, and he never buys new cars, he buys used, and this is really and he just says basically because they depreciate so quickly. 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:05.119 And he's not wrong, they do depreciate. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:11.759 But if you buy something new and you just keep it, who gives a fuck how much it depreciates? 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:22.160 It you you're gonna use it, and eventually you're gonna come to a point where if it runs and goes, it's gonna be worth exactly what you owe on it, which is nothing. 00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:23.759 You know what I mean? 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:34.000 Uh, but as far as uh what dealerships provide, financing and insurance, I just yeah, they make a lot of money on it, but I just I see this as something that is gonna taper off. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.160 It's gonna taper off because uh we just got some new cars in today. 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:41.920 They were each uh in the neighborhood of$90,000. 00:29:42.400 --> 00:30:03.039 I don't I don't care if you're Warren Buffett and you have$50 million, if you're gonna buy one and you put down maybe you know the bare minimum of uh down payment and your trade-in's not worth jack shit, which pay trade-ins are never worth anything anyway, uh, according to most car dealers, uh, you're gonna you're you're gonna have to make payments for you know 72, 84 months. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:04.559 It's kind of ridiculous. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:10.720 And this is why I think a lot of people, they are going

to be uh driving older cars for a long time. 00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:13.119 It's not gonna, it's not something that's gonna go away. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:20.400 Yeah, so folks, in the future you are gonna see the average age of the automobile go up steadily. 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:22.880 Uh, and that is that is a boon. 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:31.680 That is good a good thing for any of you working out there in the uh aftermarket in the independent uh independent repair shops. 00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:33.519 I think it's gonna be good for you. 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:35.839 Uh, I'm not sure who's coming up with these figures. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.839 It rises by uh 0.2, 0.1. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:43.039 It's been 12 12 years for a long time. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:45.599 I'm blowing that away myself personally. 00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:54.000 I have four cars on the road, uh 1968, a 2001, a 2002, and a 2012. 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:56.480 So I am fucking killing that average. 00:30:56.640 --> 00:30:57.440 I am killing it. 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:03.519 And I don't really see myself, I mean, I talk about it on a regular basis, just a Eric, the producer. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:18.640 I'd like to get something new, but man, I just cannot stand the idea of spending all that money, like Warren Buffett says, and watching it just fucking disappear in the value of a vehicle, especially, you know, the vehicle I want to buy is a GM truck. 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:26.319 I mean, it's like, you know, you could spend 50K to buy a really nice GM truck, and then two weeks later you might want to trade it in and it'll give you 30 grand for it. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.039 It's like, what? 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:28.400 What the fuck happened? 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:31.839 You know, so uh I'm probably gonna continue to drive old stuff. 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:32.400 You know why? 00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:34.559 Because I'm a mechanic and I can keep fixing it. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:38.799 I mean, the 68's on the road, I could drive it to work if I had to. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:50.960 I mean, I don't have it here in Texas where I'm at, but uh if I had it, I did drive it to work for about three weeks while I let somebody in my truck, you know, I don't have any fear of cars breaking down, and I don't, you know, I can fix them. 00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:57.039 And then that's the one thing, and I wanted to just take a second to to point that out to a lot of you technicians out there. 00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:04.319 Being a technician and being capable and handy and able to repair your own vehicle is a treat. 00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:07.680 Okay, it's a good thing, it is a very valuable thing. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:16.079 You should be really proud of yourself, okay, because a lot of people can't, and you see them every day. 00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:22.400 And uh, maybe if you're in the back with the tools and in the wrench, in the trenches with the wrenches, I love that one. 00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:32.640 Um, but if you're if you're in the shop and you're not dealing with people bringing their broken shit into you, into your shop or your dealership, what you find is that they are they feel helpless. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:36.400 They feel helpless and it and it makes them vulnerable. 00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:37.599 And they hate that. 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:41.759 And I know that I would hate that, but I'm not vulnerable when it comes to automobiles. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:43.359 I'm not vulnerable at all. 00:32:43.519 --> 00:32:46.240 If I if something I have doesn't run, I'll fucking fix it. 00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:48.640 If something breaks down, I'll I'll put it back together. 00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:50.880 I'll, you know, if something's not working right, I'll fix it. 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:52.079 And you guys are the same way. 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:56.960 But we take that skill, that ability, we take it for granted. 00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:02.160 It's seriously valuable, it has a serious value to it. 00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:13.680 And because our our shops and our dealerships don't pay us as much as we feel like we're worth, we kind of fall into this pattern where we feel like we're not worth it, it's not worth doing. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:19.359 It's not worth doing that job, it's not worth having that skill, but it is, it is very valuable. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:30.559 And and here we go with the the mantra of Grease to Wheels is folks, there's there's a crushing and crippling shortage of technicians out there. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:37.519 Now, you may work somewhere like I do where they don't have a shortage, okay, for whatever reason. 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:39.359 And then there's lots of reasons, you know. 00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:53.599 Maybe, maybe uh they they treat you fairly well or they pay you fairly well, or you know, maybe one or both, or you know, maybe maybe where you work is very convenient and where you work is nice and it's clean, that's definitely describes our shop. 00:33:53.759 --> 00:34:00.559 And most of the people that I work with are very cool and and do a really good job and really have everybody's best interest at heart. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:08.880 But if you don't, if you work somewhere that's terrible and they treat you like shit, they don't pay you very well, you could certainly grease the fucking wheels. 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:14.800 I mean, there is a shortage in a lot of places, there is better jobs out there. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:33.920 Here's what it says about dealership profitability when referring to the fixed ops center, because that's really it says here uh in terms of pure reliable, this is AI talking, in terms of pure reliable gross profit dollars, fixed ops is the ultimate engine of the dealerships. 00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:35.440 Very interesting way to put that. 00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:40.480 Fixed ops typically uh accounts for wait a minute, here you go. 00:34:40.559

--> 00:34:56.480 Fixed ops typically accounts for only 10% to 15% of a dealership's total top line revenue, but generates about 45% to 50% of the entire entire dealership's gross profit. 00:34:56.639 --> 00:35:10.480 Now, here's what it says while selling a new vehicle might yield a three to six percent gross margin, labor and service gross margins routinely average sixty to seventy-five percent. 00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:20.639 Now, what they find is that after they pay the bills, which and then they even said it here too, yeah, because I asked I asked AI about this. 00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:24.960 It says service gross margins routinely average 60 to 75 percent. 00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:27.440 Is that almost strictly labor? 00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:42.000 And Gemini wrote back, yes, that high gross margin is driven primarily by customer pay labor sales through parts added to those repair orders pay a big supporting role as well. 00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:59.039 The main driver behind that 60% to 75% labor margin is the spread between what the dealership charges the customer per hour, in parentheses, it says the retail door rate, and what they pay the technician, the effective flat rate or hourly wage. 00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:06.000 They're making a lot of money on our backs, but okay, there's always everyone has a big butt, Smoone. 00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:11.760 Uh what we don't know or what we're not calculating, and we we're not gonna do this, you know. 00:36:11.840 --> 00:36:13.599 We don't go, well, it's fair. 00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:20.000 It is fair, actually, because they have to pay a lot of money for everything. 00:36:20.159 --> 00:36:34.239 They have to pay the advisors, they have to pay the management, they have to pay the parts guys, they have to pay the service porters if you have any, they have to pay the car wash people if you have any, and then also pay us. 00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:37.440 They also have to pay the rent on the building. 00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:40.880 They have to they have to they have all these things they have to pay for. 00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:47.119 And by the time it's done, they will end up with 10 to 15 percent as a bottom line profit. 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:49.760 Okay, that's that's a net profit. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:51.679 Gross profit is not net. 00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:56.800 That's uh net is when you calculate out everything you have to buy. 00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:08.960 You know, you have to, and and right about now, it seems like they're spending a lot of money on oil because there's a shortage of it, and we're also clamoring loudly at times for an increase in wages. 00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:15.599 Now, and this is this is honestly one of the things that we don't really calculate uh in our heads. 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:42.320 I mean, when when I tell you that you need to figure out how much of your door labor rate you are actually making, you're not really taking into account all the other things they have to spend money on to keep the shop running, tools and electricity, and water, and heat, and air conditioning, and lifts, and repairs on lifts, and repairs on equipment, and and uh you know support support staff. 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:46.320 And by the time that's all done, that profit is eaten away pretty good. 00:37:46.639 --> 00:37:58.559 But it's so it the gross is so high that typically they will calculate all of the building's expenses, all of it, against the fixed department. 00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:02.480 They do that because they just think that fixed, and and they're right. 00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:07.199 They they believe they work on the impression that fixed is gonna pay for everything. 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:12.880 And if your shop is run fairly well, then that's a definite yes, that's what happens, okay? 00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:20.000 But the problem is that sometimes our wages get the shit kicked out of them because the shop maybe isn't doing as well as it needs to. 00:38:20.239 --> 00:38:29.599 Uh, the next question that I asked Gemini here, and I you want to get away from talking about the uh pathetic uh wages that we that we have and why. 00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:38.639 I don't, you know, I don't actually feel like I need to stick up for dealers and and uh you know kind of verify that this is the reason why they don't pay you enough. 00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:40.559 Like they could stand to pay you more. 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:51.760 But one of the things I wanted to try to find out from Gemini was what would be the best way for us to maximize sales of service and maintenance? 00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:59.199 And this was the question: would it be a good idea to attempt to maximize sales of service and maintenance by having good service advisors? 00:38:59.280 --> 00:39:05.280 And it says maximizing service and maintenance, sales through strong service advisors isn't just a good idea. 00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:12.000 It is widely considered the single highest leverage growth strategy for dealerships long-term profitability. 00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:20.079 Okay, so what he's what they're saying here, what Gemini is saying, is that yes, this is the number one thing that you can do. 00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:22.480 A studio audience was surveyed. 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:31.119 A hundred dealers were asked what's the single highest leverage growth strategy for a dealership's long-term profitability and its service advisor. 00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:37.280 Because fixed ops drives 45 to 50 percent of a store's total gross profit. 00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:42.559 Service Advisor acts as the ultimate gatekeeper for dealership cash flow. 00:39:42.719 --> 00:39:50.079 A skilled advisor doesn't just sell hours, they drive customer retention and fuel the rest of the business. 00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:51.679 I agree with that completely. 00:39:51.840 --> 00:40:00.159 Here is why investing in top-tier advisors pays off so heavily, along with the key strategies to execute it

successfully. 00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:00.639 Okay. 00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:04.000 Now, I'm not gonna sit here and bash on them. 00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:05.119 We're gonna go the other direction. 00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:07.440 We're gonna say, what can we do to make them better? 00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:25.599 Here it is the multiplier effect of a great advisor, labor hours per RO, an elite advisor who builds trust, performs consistent walk-arounds, and presents factory maintenance menus, routinely averages 2.2 to 2.8 plus hours per RO. 00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:30.000 Uh, it says here that an average advisor might write 1.3 to 1.5. 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:38.880 So obviously that's it's bulking you up an hour plus on each RO, which is good for you and it's good for the shop. 00:40:39.039 --> 00:40:39.360 Okay. 00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:42.079 Customer retention is also another point here. 00:40:42.239 --> 00:40:51.679 Over 70% of vehicle owners defect from dealership service departments to independent repair shops once their warranty expires. 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:54.559 I understand exactly why that would work that way. 00:40:54.880 --> 00:40:58.800 Great advisors, and I can't believe they use those two words in the sentence together. 00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:08.320 Great advisors build relationships and clear communication channels, stopping that churn and keeping high margin customer pay work in-house. 00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:13.360 Yes, when you provide the best service possible, who's gonna run away from that? 00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:15.039 Who's gonna leave that behind? 00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:25.679 Especially with some of the work I've seen lately that comes into our shop where they got the diagnosis from us, the professionals at the dealership, and went somewhere else and got something done. 00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:29.119 And now they're back because that work did not get done properly. 00:41:29.599 --> 00:41:30.239 It happens. 00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:31.519 I mean, we're not perfect. 00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:51.519 There's no way I'm gonna sit here and try to tell you that we are perfect as a dealership, as a dealership technician's myself as a technician, we're not perfect, but we do have much better track record than Billy Bob Joe Jed's BMW service or Audi service or Mercedes-Benz service down the street. 00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:53.440 We just have a better track record. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:57.119 We have more experience, we also have the factory backing. 00:41:57.360 --> 00:41:58.880 Sometimes it's very important. 00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:02.639 Uh, it says here service advisors drive future car sales. 00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:04.400 Yes, they absolutely do. 00:42:04.559 --> 00:42:18.559 When a customer trusts their advisor during a major service recommendation, that advisor is positioned to introduce them to sales or trade-in opportunities if repair costs outweigh the vehicle value. 00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:34.559 So, what they're saying here is that probably, and I'm not gonna catch some shit about this one, but probably the most important person in your dealership is your service advisor because they take a relationship that perhaps sales started and they maintain it. 00:42:34.719 --> 00:42:47.440 They maintain it, they keep them coming back by offering them, you know, by by servicing them with respect and and and appreciation and with confidence and skill and and they earn trust along with us. 00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:49.760 We're we're helping with that now. 00:42:50.079 --> 00:43:01.920 Okay, before we were just a bunch of gorillas in the back with tools and and probably, you know, we couldn't even barely speak English and we couldn't walk around the shop without dragging our knuckles on the ground. 00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:14.559 And now, through the uh advent of the uh video, the walk around video or the DV, the video MPI or whatever you want to call it, now because of that, we are suddenly a part of that equation. 00:43:14.719 --> 00:43:22.320 And depending on how well we do our job, it just multiplies and magnifies what a good service advisor does. 00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:38.400 And that relationship is not going to end when that vehicle suddenly, I don't know, something happens to it, or it becomes uh not cost effective to repair it, or just just too difficult to have it keep going, or perhaps they they sell it to somebody or they give it to somebody. 00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:59.280 I mean, a lot of uh a lot of our customers have a tendency to give their cars to their children to go to college or to just have to go to work or whatever, and then they buy a new one from us, or at least I'd like to think they would, if we have done our job properly in servicing their vehicle, because it the old adage is true, it's never been truer than it is now. 00:43:59.440 --> 00:43:59.679 Sale. 00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:05.039 Sells the first car, the service department sells the next one and the ones after that. 00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:11.280 And so it's very important for us to develop and then maintain a relationship with the customers. 00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:14.159 Here's what makes a good service advisor. 00:44:14.239 --> 00:44:18.400 Gemini says you need to have transparent communication and educational selling. 00:44:18.559 --> 00:44:19.280 Absolutely. 00:44:19.519 --> 00:44:21.440 You have to have process discipline. 00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:21.920 Okay. 00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:26.400 And what it says right after this, I and I want to say uh I've never seen this. 00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:38.480 Consistently walking around every vehicle at intake and then reviewing the vehicle history, checking mileage-based factory maintenance intervals, and presenting logical options. 00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:44.000 Folks, I you know, I uh I said I wasn't gonna bash on on service advisors, but and I meant it. 00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:47.840 I don't want to do that, but I have not really seen anybody who does any of those

things. 00:44:47.920 --> 00:44:54.000 I mean, sure, they'll review a vehicle history, and a lot of times they'll do that because the customer's complaining about something they said they complained about before. 00:44:54.079 --> 00:45:00.719 And checking the mileage-based maintenance, uh, they have a tendency to ignore them, at least in my experience. 00:45:00.880 --> 00:45:04.559 And presenting logical options, I don't really see that going on either. 00:45:04.719 --> 00:45:09.920 Now, maybe I'm just not there when they do it, but I'm there on a semi-regular basis. 00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:24.079 And I, you know, I thought about it the other day and I was talking to one of the uh one of the sorry, I was talking to one of the other technicians, and I said I asked him out loud, I just said, Have you ever heard a service advisor selling anything to a customer? 00:45:24.320 --> 00:45:29.599 And he said, No, I have I've never I've never heard that, I've never witnessed that, I've never experienced that. 00:45:29.679 --> 00:45:36.400 Um, I did actually experience it not too long ago, but only because it was late in the day and I wanted to make sure the part got ordered. 00:45:36.559 --> 00:45:50.880 And I asked the advisor to call the customer and they did they did, and we got uh hooked up with a sale and the parts are on their way, and hopefully it doesn't sit too long on my on my lift because it's not going anywhere anytime soon. 00:45:51.039 --> 00:45:53.760 I wanted to move forward here with this particular line of question. 00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:56.000 What is the best way to hire service advisors? 00:45:56.159 --> 00:46:00.000 Should you start from scratch and and train them or hire experienced advisors? 00:46:00.079 --> 00:46:08.960 And it says here there is no single right answer, as the best strategy depends on your dealership's existing culture, processes, and leadership capacity. 00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:11.199 So, what that what he's trying to say here, Mr. 00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:16.880 Gemini, is that you have to look at what you have going on and try to find pieces of the puzzle that will fit. 00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:49.679 Okay, now if you're not doing the job as service manager or a general manager or an owner, if you're not if you're not actively involved in what goes on in the service department, if you're not actively involved in how a service advisor does their job, if you if your culture is that you just trust them to do the job and you trust them to perform the simple things that make up the process and you don't really provide any leadership for them, then you are gonna get the lowest common denominator who follows the path of least resistance. 00:46:49.760 --> 00:46:51.840 And that's true really with any employee. 00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:57.360 If you give an employee two jobs and they're not good at one of them, they're just not gonna do that job anymore at all. 00:46:57.519 --> 00:46:58.079 Forget about it. 00:46:58.239 --> 00:47:03.360 And with being a service advisor, I just want to say it's an extremely important job. 00:47:03.519 --> 00:47:06.480 And it's also a very labor-intensive job. 00:47:06.559 --> 00:47:11.199 And I haven't seen a lot of people who really put in 100% effort to do it. 00:47:11.360 --> 00:47:15.119 That's the least uh scathing thing I can say about it. 00:47:15.280 --> 00:47:26.079 In the automotive industry, the choice between hiring experienced advisors versus training from scratch is a classic trade-off between speed and culture and process control. 00:47:26.480 --> 00:47:34.719 A breakdown of both approaches, along with a hybrid strategy, many top-performing dealers' groups use illustrates how to approach the decision. 00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:38.719 Strategy one Greenpeace slash hire and train from scratch. 00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:48.960 This approach involves recruiting candidates with zero automotive experience but strong customer facing skills, sales or hospitality or hospitality training. 00:47:49.119 --> 00:47:49.920 Read i.e. 00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:56.960 former restaurant servers, retail managers, phone sales reps, or bank tellers, and teaching them the service drive. 00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:04.239 Um, all three of those jobs listed there, restaurant servers, retail managers, phone sales reps, or bank tellers. 00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:05.280 That's four jobs. 00:48:05.440 --> 00:48:10.960 Uh, those those are jobs that are those are better jobs than being a service advisor. 00:48:11.119 --> 00:48:13.920 So I'm not sure you would want to go from those jobs. 00:48:14.079 --> 00:48:16.960 Maybe the phone sales rep, that job might suck, dick. 00:48:17.199 --> 00:48:21.840 But uh the other jobs could possibly be better than being a service advisor. 00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:26.320 And teaching them the service drive, that is not an easy task. 00:48:26.480 --> 00:48:33.039 People are going to expect you to know how an engine works, they're gonna expect you to know certain things about a car. 00:48:33.199 --> 00:48:35.440 Not everybody, obviously. 00:48:35.679 --> 00:48:49.039 Some people are not gonna know anything uh about automobiles, and then there's gonna be other people who are gonna try to baffle you with bullshit and make you think that they know about cars when in reality, yeah, yeah, not so much. 00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:55.440 The pros of having a uh service advisor come in with no experience is that they do not have any bad habits. 00:48:55.599 --> 00:49:06.960 And I gotta tell you, that is a big one for me, okay, because a lot of our experienced service advisors in the past have come with uh, and I called it faulty faulty software. 00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:15.679 They already come with uh ideas about how they're gonna do their job, and and oh, by the way, ideas about how they're not gonna do their job, which is a big deal. 00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:26.320 They have no pre-existing shortcuts, bad desk habits, or clinical attitudes towards

processes like video MPIs, active walk-arounds, or menu presentations. 00:49:26.559 --> 00:49:38.239 I think that if I saw uh if I saw a uh service advisor do an active walk around where they really looked at the car and checked the mileage and checked to see if it had any lights on in the dash, I would probably fucking fall over dead. 00:49:38.400 --> 00:49:41.840 Uh, here's another one that is a pro, hire process compliance. 00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:52.320 They follow your dealership specific DMS with CRM, which is all your customer management software and sales processes, because it is the only way they know. 00:49:52.480 --> 00:50:06.159 And this is why I feel like hiring somebody and training them from scratch, although it's an arduous process and it's going to be difficult to find anybody who will stick with it, to be quite honest with you. 00:50:06.320 --> 00:50:13.119 I think it's still the best way to go because you can train them in your particular, in your particular vernacular. 00:50:13.280 --> 00:50:15.760 You can train them to do it the way you want them to do it. 00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:22.320 You can train them to have the standards and the protocols that you have put in place. 00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:31.280 They will not have these preconsisting ideas about, oh, you know, I don't have to do that, or or I'm not gonna do this, or this is how you fuck the system. 00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:33.840 You know, that that that was a that's actually a big one. 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:39.119 They're not gonna know how to do that until an experienced guy comes along and tells them. 00:50:39.199 --> 00:50:40.079 But they're not gonna do it. 00:50:40.159 --> 00:50:48.880 And you're gonna just tell them right from the beginning, hey, if you if you don't talk to a customer about the recommendations that we have made for their car, we can't use you. 00:50:49.039 --> 00:50:52.000 You have to talk to them, you have to say something to them. 00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:58.639 You have to get into a personal, verbal, one-on-one with every customer that you talk to. 00:50:58.719 --> 00:51:03.360 And before they leave the dealership, they should know what the condition of their vehicle is. 00:51:03.519 --> 00:51:20.480 And I can tell you right now that there's a hell of a lot of service advisors out there all across the country and even the world who are just actively trying to get this customer the fuck out of their face and will say nothing to them about what's going on with their vehicle because they do not want to have a conversation with them. 00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:24.639 They do not want to talk to them any more than they already have, and so they're not going to. 00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:27.280 They will just hand them their keys and say, have a good one. 00:51:27.440 --> 00:51:28.159 See you later. 00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:30.320 It happens, and it happens a lot. 00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:49.760 And so, really, what has to happen, and this is just my opinion, of course, is that you have to train your uh up-and-coming service advisors to always have a personal one-on-one with the customer before he leaves about what might be on an estimate, what might they have found on an MPI. 00:51:49.920 --> 00:51:56.079 Even if you're not going to be able to sell anything, even if they they're in a hurry, just say, hey, listen, here's the estimate. 00:51:56.159 --> 00:52:07.360 There's some things on here you might want to consider getting done the next time you come in, or if they're urgent, you might want to make an appointment for next week or even tomorrow when you have more time so that we can get these things taken care of. 00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:20.239 So if they don't cause you a safety issue or a problem where you might get into an accident or have some kind of a uh of a failure that is going to cause you bigger problems and possibly even hurt you or kill you. 00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:21.039 All right. 00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:23.119 I mean, it's important. 00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:35.440 And it I can tell you right now, in my experience, an awful lot of service advisors will forego any sort of of personal interactions with a customer because they just don't want to do it. 00:52:35.519 --> 00:52:37.519 There's nothing else I can even say about that. 00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:43.599 Uh, the culture fit here, it says that uh they build their professional identity around your store's values. 00:52:43.679 --> 00:52:46.159 I think that that is extremely important. 00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:55.199 That is what I've been talking about here when you know you go to work at Joe, Joe, Joe Blow Chevrolet, you learn how to do things the Joe Blow Chevrolet way. 00:52:55.360 --> 00:52:57.519 The store's values are very important. 00:52:57.679 --> 00:53:08.719 They're important to the people who own that store or run that store and the people who are going to come into that particular store, into that particular service department, into that particular sales department. 00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:17.519 They're the ones who are going to see these values and react to them in a favorable manner, hopefully, okay, if they're presented properly. 00:53:17.679 --> 00:53:29.119 And if you have service advisors who you have trained to their person, there it says here they build their professional identity, their professional identity around your store's values. 00:53:29.280 --> 00:53:35.199 They will tell a customer, say, listen, you know, we're gonna do this, this is what we do here, then this is why we do it. 00:53:35.360 --> 00:53:39.199 And then there's no compromises as far as your safety goes. 00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:45.119 We're gonna talk to you about your tires, we're gonna talk to you about your brakes, we're gonna tell you if they're good, and we're gonna tell you if they're bad. 00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:51.440 And if they're bad, we're gonna offer an estimate, and we're gonna offer to make everything as safe as possible and work properly.

00:53:51.599 --> 00:53:58.480 That should be part of your store's values, that should be part of the personal and professional identity of your service advisors. 00:53:58.719 --> 00:53:59.280 Is it? 00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:01.199 Ask yourself that question. 00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:03.199 You know your service advisors. 00:54:03.440 --> 00:54:04.639 Is that how they are? 00:54:04.960 --> 00:54:06.559 I'm pretty sure the answer is gonna come back. 00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:07.360 Yeah, fuck no. 00:54:07.920 --> 00:54:09.599 I would love it if it didn't. 00:54:09.760 --> 00:54:20.000 Uh, I've known some I've known some service advisors who know exactly what they do, what they're supposed to do, how to do it, and do it right, and put forward a professional identity. 00:54:20.159 --> 00:54:25.039 Uh lower initial cost, yes, obviously you can pay somebody who's in training a little bit less, okay? 00:54:25.199 --> 00:54:28.639 But you're gonna have to monitor, and it's just like with us as technicians. 00:54:28.800 --> 00:54:55.519 When we came up with the goddamn K plan because nobody was really evaluating the uh cost and also the value, and there's a difference between cost and value, by the way, just so you know, but the cost and the value of a technician who comes to work for you, shows up on time, and is eager to learn and get better, and real value in placing this guy on a path to retirement from your particular business. 00:54:55.679 --> 00:54:58.239 And that's what the K-Plan does that we developed. 00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:12.159 It allows people to get the training and the experience and the wages that they that they deserve and that they have earned working for you and makes them a valuable addition to your fixed department. 00:55:12.400 --> 00:55:13.039 Valuable. 00:55:13.199 --> 00:55:16.000 It adds value, it adds value at every point. 00:55:16.159 --> 00:55:19.199 It's like a set of stairs that lead you to the promised land. 00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:21.039 It's a light at the end of the tunnel. 00:55:21.119 --> 00:55:23.119 And you could have the very same plan. 00:55:23.199 --> 00:55:28.239 And in fact, we're if I know Eric, he's probably working on this already and has it worked up for us. 00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:45.760 He's working on a K plan for service advisors where they come in and they learn how to, they learn how to be professional, they learn how to talk to people, they learn how to take criticism, they learn how to handle somebody who's not in a good mood, who's in a bad mood, or is evil or mean or an asshole. 00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:46.880 They have to learn it. 00:55:46.960 --> 00:55:52.079 And the pay structure has to be there to support that because it is really, really, really easy. 00:55:52.159 --> 00:55:55.840 And this is why that job sucks. 00:55:56.000 --> 00:55:56.239 Okay. 00:55:56.400 --> 00:55:58.800 That job sucks because people come to you. 00:55:58.960 --> 00:56:06.239 I would say 50% of them are having a fucking problem

and they don't want to have a problem, and they're pissed, and they're looking for somebody to blame it on. 00:56:06.320 --> 00:56:10.559 They're looking for somebody to take it out on, and it's almost always the service advisors. 00:56:10.639 --> 00:56:13.119 And in that respect, I got to give them props. 00:56:13.280 --> 00:56:14.239 I say it all the time. 00:56:14.400 --> 00:56:16.800 I think they have the worst job in the goddamn building. 00:56:16.960 --> 00:56:20.639 They also have probably the most important job in the building. 00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:31.519 And the fact that they can't do it in a lot of cases, and some of these people are trying and are getting it done, and some of them aren't getting it done, and some of them give up and say, fuck it, I can't get it done. 00:56:31.599 --> 00:56:32.880 I'm just gonna phone it in. 00:56:33.039 --> 00:56:33.920 I understand. 00:56:34.159 --> 00:56:34.880 I understand. 00:56:35.039 --> 00:56:58.480 And you gotta have a real strong, you gotta have a real good backbone, you gotta have real good confidence, a real high amount of confidence in your own personality and in your own confidence and in your own ability and in your in your own mind of how you are, and and if other people uh attack it, try to put you down and make you try to berate you, you just let them know. 00:56:58.800 --> 00:56:59.440 Well, you know what? 00:56:59.599 --> 00:57:01.440 If you want to talk to me like that, that's fine. 00:57:01.519 --> 00:57:02.559 But I'm trying to help you. 00:57:02.639 --> 00:57:10.800 If you want to keep talking like that, then we can end this relationship right now and you can leave, or you can talk to somebody else until you've pissed off everybody in the building. 00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:19.679 I want, I, I will, I will say this, and this is the last thing I really want to say about this, because there's some cons here too, as far as hiring uh people who need training here. 00:57:19.920 --> 00:57:23.280 But I want to say this before I get too much farther is I love them. 00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:24.800 As people, they're great. 00:57:24.960 --> 00:57:25.599 They're great. 00:57:25.679 --> 00:57:26.960 I love them, I really do. 00:57:27.199 --> 00:57:29.840 Um, I don't have anything bad to say about them personally. 00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:41.920 It's professionally where I wish that they could do certain, they would do certain things and be more consistent in what they do, put themselves personally in front of the customers and talk to them about what they need for the vehicles. 00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:54.239 Because it appears to me in the meantime that what they do is they avoid talking to customers, they avoid sending them estimates, they avoid telling them they need things, they avoid it. 00:57:54.400 --> 00:57:59.920 And unfortunately for me and the people I work with and work for, I understand it. 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:02.400 That's why I don't fucking do it. 00:58:04.719 --> 00:58:05.760 Oh my god. 00:58:05.840 --> 00:58:06.639 I'm sorry. 00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:08.239 Now, here's some cons. 00:58:08.559 --> 00:58:16.800 Uh, you got the pros, uh, why it would be good to hire somebody uh who is green and doesn't know how to do this job and maybe shows a lot of promise. 00:58:16.960 --> 00:58:17.840 Here's the cons. 00:58:18.159 --> 00:58:19.599 Uh long ramped up time. 00:58:19.679 --> 00:58:28.559 It takes three to six months for a non-automotive hire to gain confidence with technical terminology, warranty guidelines, factory maintenance schedules, and basic mechanical understanding. 00:58:28.800 --> 00:58:29.679 Three to six months? 00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:31.039 What are you fucking nuts? 00:58:31.199 --> 00:58:35.599 We have we have some that have years in and they don't understand any of that shit. 00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:36.960 They don't understand any of that shit. 00:58:37.039 --> 00:58:39.760 They have to rely on us, and sometimes they don't rely on us. 00:58:39.920 --> 00:58:44.400 Sometimes what they'll say is, well, this guy says that you need this, but I don't think you really do. 00:58:44.639 --> 00:58:46.159 I've heard that happening before. 00:58:46.239 --> 00:58:47.280 So here's another one. 00:58:47.519 --> 00:58:49.199 Demand strong internal training. 00:58:49.280 --> 00:58:52.800 In other words, you have to depend on yourself to learn things. 00:58:53.039 --> 00:59:08.159 If your dealership lacks a structured onboarding program, a designated mentor, advisor, or clear software standards of operation, SOPs, green hires will quickly become overwhelmed and quit. 00:59:08.320 --> 00:59:09.920 That is that is it in a nutshell. 00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:16.320 That's the problem with being advisor, whether you're a greenhorn or whether you're a seasoned veteran. 00:59:16.480 --> 00:59:20.960 It is very easy to become quickly overwhelmed and quit. 00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:22.159 Very easy. 00:59:22.320 --> 00:59:31.119 What I find is, and this was at one of the shops I worked at recently, is that the uh advisors would come out into the shop and hide from customers. 00:59:31.280 --> 00:59:38.880 They'd see somebody pull in, they'd think to themselves, oh, I don't want to talk to this guy, I suddenly have to take a piss, or I suddenly have to talk to a technician. 00:59:38.960 --> 00:59:39.920 And they would scatter. 00:59:40.079 --> 00:59:43.119 For me personally, I would chain them to the fucking desk. 00:59:43.360 --> 00:59:44.480 Oh, you got a pee? 00:59:44.639 --> 00:59:46.800 I'll give you a key, and you can unlock your lock. 00:59:47.039 --> 00:59:50.239 If you're not back in five minutes, I'm gonna fucking come and find you. 00:59:50.400 --> 00:59:52.559 They used to hide in the shop all the time. 00:59:52.719 --> 00:59:53.519 It was terrible. 00:59:53.599 --> 01:00:04.079 Uh, early customer and technician friction, misidentifying customer complaints on a repair order frustrates master technicians and leads to wasted

shop time. 01:00:04.320 --> 01:00:08.800 Yeah, it's a uh and it's a challenge that we all face. 01:00:09.039 --> 01:00:14.800 Uh that service advisors write, sometimes they write what the customer said and it doesn't make any sense. 01:00:14.960 --> 01:00:20.239 Sometimes they listen to what the customer said, write what they want to write, and that doesn't make any sense either. 01:00:20.400 --> 01:00:30.800 And then other times they'll write down that the customer said that this is what's going wrong, and this other thing is going wrong too, all on one line, which is a big no-no. 01:00:31.039 --> 01:00:34.239 Uh, you should never use the word and in a complaint. 01:00:34.400 --> 01:00:40.960 Okay, you got a complaint, and then you have another complaint, and it's completely different from the previous complaint, has to have a separate line. 01:00:41.199 --> 01:00:44.960 Oh, no, no, no, we can't do that because then we have to charge DIEG for both lines. 01:00:45.119 --> 01:00:46.320 Oh, we don't want to do that. 01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:54.159 And then there's the pros and cons, and I'll end this podcast pretty quickly because it's it's been a fucking train wreck of a podcast. 01:00:54.400 --> 01:00:58.320 Pros, the pros and cons of hiring experienced advisors. 01:00:58.559 --> 01:01:00.800 Pros, plug and play productivity. 01:01:00.960 --> 01:01:11.679 They know the DMS system, see CDK Reynolds, Dealer Track, or techyon, understand labor time, speak technician language, and can hit the ground running in days rather than months. 01:01:11.840 --> 01:01:17.679 Yes, yes, if you hire somebody who's got experience, they could conceivably do the job very, very well. 01:01:18.079 --> 01:01:30.000 Immediate revenue generation, experienced advisors know how to structure an RO, handle difficult customer objections, and navigate complex warranty claim requirements without hand holding. 01:01:30.159 --> 01:01:31.199 They may know all that. 01:01:31.440 --> 01:01:39.360 Immediate capacity, ideal if you are replacing a sudden departure or opening new service bays that need immediate production. 01:01:39.519 --> 01:01:43.920 Yes, hiring somebody with experience could conceivably be a good thing. 01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:44.960 Here's the cons. 01:01:45.199 --> 01:01:46.719 You're familiar with some of these. 01:01:46.880 --> 01:01:48.639 We'll bring them to you once again here. 01:01:48.880 --> 01:01:51.039 Bad habits and resistance to change. 01:01:51.199 --> 01:02:03.440 They often bring baggage from previous stores, skipping walkarounds, refusing to adopt new tech tools like video MPIs, or cherry picking high-paying ROs. 01:02:03.599 --> 01:02:05.599 Well, I don't see how they're doing that. 01:02:05.679 --> 01:02:07.119 I'm sure that there's a way they could. 01:02:07.280 --> 01:02:17.519 Cost, top producing experienced advisors expect premium pay plans, guarantees, or sign-on bonuses to leave their existing customer base. 01:02:17.679 --> 01:02:20.880 Yes, I

don't suspect that there's a lot of that shit going on. 01:02:21.039 --> 01:02:32.960 High churn risk, dealership hoppers will jump ship for an extra 1% commission down the street if things get tough or if management demands strict process accountability. 01:02:33.119 --> 01:02:35.360 Uh here they uh they gave me a little chart here. 01:02:35.440 --> 01:02:40.960 It says higher to train from scratch is three to six months before you're gonna see any kind of profitability. 01:02:41.199 --> 01:02:44.320 An experienced advisor might be a week or two. 01:02:44.480 --> 01:03:04.719 Uh, process and tech adoption very high on the new guys and low to medium on the experienced guys, retention and loyalty, and it says here higher, and then in parentheses, if trained well, and on hiring experienced advisors, it says lower because they're prone to poaching. 01:03:04.800 --> 01:03:13.280 It says training overhead heavy on the new hire and minimal on the experienced advisor, and then it says ideal role slash focus. 01:03:13.440 --> 01:03:29.280 The new hire is going to want to focus on express maintenance and main drive trainees and heavy and the experienced guys are going to want to focus on heavy main shop work at a luxury dealer or a high volume dealership. 01:03:29.360 --> 01:03:29.679 Okay. 01:03:29.920 --> 01:03:32.000 What is the best hiring framework? 01:03:32.239 --> 01:03:39.599 Just to kind of finish this off, the most successful auto groups use a tiered hybrid strategy matched to their shop layout. 01:03:39.760 --> 01:03:50.800 Promote/slash train for express lanes for new guys, use non-automotive hires or high-performing lube techs and valets in express service or junior advisor roles. 01:03:51.199 --> 01:03:53.519 Junior advisor roles, that's an interesting one. 01:03:53.599 --> 01:04:05.840 Uh, lower technical complexity of oil changes, tires, and maintenance menus allows them to learn customer management, learn the software, learn the walk around without risking major technical errors. 01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:20.000 Higher experience for main shop, sure, you could do that, and then bring in experienced advisors specifically for heavy repair, complex diagnostic lines, or specialized luxury brands where deep technical knowledge and warranty navigation are critical. 01:04:20.159 --> 01:04:26.960 Key train to hiring for high emotional intelligence, sales aptitude over mechanical genius. 01:04:27.119 --> 01:04:28.559 Yes, that would be good. 01:04:28.960 --> 01:04:30.800 Because it really is a salesman's job. 01:04:31.039 --> 01:04:32.159 You have to sell stuff. 01:04:32.320 --> 01:04:39.599 And if you're not on board with selling stuff and you don't want to do it, then you're gonna wiggle and skirm to try to get out of it, and that's not a good thing either. 01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:44.159 Tech literacy, modern service drives run on digital MPIs. 01:04:44.320 --> 01:04:45.440 They absolutely do. 01:04:45.599 --> 01:04:52.639 That's why we're trying to

get out there and help train the new guys here on uh digital MPIs. 01:04:52.800 --> 01:05:01.199 Texting platforms and automated workflow tools look for candidates comfortable toggling quickly between multiple screens and software interfaces. 01:05:01.519 --> 01:05:02.800 That doesn't include me. 01:05:03.039 --> 01:05:03.840 I struggle. 01:05:04.000 --> 01:05:10.480 I have these big fat fingers, and when I go to press something on my phone, I press three buttons and it doesn't work L at the same time. 01:05:10.639 --> 01:05:11.920 Not a good thing, Eddie. 01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:16.960 All right, so that's a a podcast for you that is just a jumbled up mess of shit. 01:05:17.119 --> 01:05:24.480 And I apologize, but I didn't really have anything to start out with, and then I ended up going down my favorite rabbit hole and talking about advisors. 01:05:24.639 --> 01:05:28.880 As far as as far as service advisors go, let me just leave you with this one thing, okay? 01:05:29.119 --> 01:05:31.599 They're people, they're trying to do their job. 01:05:31.760 --> 01:05:34.400 It's it's a tough, tough, tough job. 01:05:34.559 --> 01:05:35.679 I really mean it. 01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:47.679 And as a technician, sometimes, and and I personally I'm responsible for this, and I really, really try hard not to do this, but sometimes we're responsible for making the job hard. 01:05:47.840 --> 01:05:52.559 Sometimes they don't get what they want out of me, or they don't get what they expect out of me. 01:05:52.719 --> 01:05:58.559 And I I always feel like that they should learn what to expect being different from each technician. 01:05:58.719 --> 01:06:06.400 What they should do on the on the other end of it is when they let a customer know how long something's gonna take, because that they all ask. 01:06:06.559 --> 01:06:08.320 They all ask, oh, how long is that gonna take? 01:06:08.480 --> 01:06:09.760 You need to hedge that bet. 01:06:09.840 --> 01:06:12.320 You need to underpromise and over-deliver. 01:06:12.400 --> 01:06:14.880 And when you do that, you look like a hero, no matter who you are. 01:06:14.960 --> 01:06:18.800 If you're the tech or if you're the service advisor, you're gonna look like a hero. 01:06:18.960 --> 01:06:21.920 Why it's so hard for them to get to do, get them to do that. 01:06:22.159 --> 01:06:23.679 I I have no idea. 01:06:23.760 --> 01:06:28.239 They're constantly coming back and saying, hey, can you do six hours worth of work in two hours? 01:06:28.719 --> 01:06:29.039 No. 01:06:29.920 --> 01:06:33.280 No, I might be able to do it in three, but I'm not gonna be able to do it in two. 01:06:33.440 --> 01:06:36.880 Why would you why would you run us right up against a wall like that? 01:06:37.039 --> 01:06:39.519 Because there's almost always something that goes wrong. 01:06:39.679 --> 01:06:43.679 I had a car the other day that the service advisor wanted it done at five o'clock. 01:06:43.760 --> 01:06:46.400 I said, No, I might have it done at six, but not five. 01:06:46.480 --> 01:06:49.199 And they got upset and said, Well, I need it done at six then. 01:06:49.280 --> 01:06:59.199 And then at six o'clock, I'm finishing up the alignment on it, and they shut the air off, and the alignment rack runs on air, and the car was almost stuck on the lift. 01:06:59.360 --> 01:07:13.440 And I got, I gotta say, I did, I laughed because they they they did not factor in the fact that there might be some unforeseen circumstance, and there it was, staring them in the face, screwing them up, screwing everybody up. 01:07:13.679 --> 01:07:17.519 You can't go and guarantee a job's gonna be done at a specific time. 01:07:17.679 --> 01:07:20.880 You just can't do it because this is the planet Murphy. 01:07:21.039 --> 01:07:22.800 All right, that's enough for your Uncle Jimmy. 01:07:22.960 --> 01:07:26.800 Apologize for a crappy, crappy, crappy fucking podcast. 01:07:27.039 --> 01:07:28.880 As a technician, you work for a business. 01:07:28.960 --> 01:07:31.679 You're technically, if you're flat rate, you're in business for yourself. 01:07:31.920 --> 01:07:33.360 Count on a whole lot of other people. 01:07:33.519 --> 01:07:36.400 You need to help them do what they do if you can. 01:07:36.480 --> 01:07:41.039 Uh, it would be great if everybody was all on the same page and all trying to get the same things done. 01:07:41.199 --> 01:07:52.239 A lot of people in the dealership, a lot of people in the shop are just trying to get us get get the path, use the path of least resistance and not have to do what what they're supposed to do. 01:07:52.400 --> 01:08:05.519 Hopefully, you got a shop full of good people who are working hard for you and doing the things they need to do to get you get you paid, get you services and maintenance and repairs to keep you uh keep you busy, keep you earning money, keep you earning them money. 01:08:05.840 --> 01:08:06.239 All right. 01:08:07.199 --> 01:08:07.840 All right. 01:08:08.239 --> 01:08:10.400 This is your Uncle Jimmy signing off. 01:08:10.480 --> 01:08:11.119 You know how he does it? 01:08:11.199 --> 01:08:12.719 Yeah, he says, See ya.