Ring to Revenue: The Power of the First Hello [THA 448]
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast · Aug 29, 2025
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This is the Aftermarket Radio Network.
Hey, everybody, Karm Capriato, Remarkable Results Radio in another Town Hall Academy.
I got a great episode for you.
We're going to talk about that the call is the close in the sales arrangement or arena, fixing your first impressions.
I've got a team from the Transformers Institute here.
Thank you so much for being here, 10 years doing this.
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Hey, welcome back.
I think we are ready to get started.
Let me see.
Transformers.
Hey, Jen.
Hello.
Thanks for having me.
Jen and Doris.
Jen Davis, a sales training specialist.
And Doris, barn, same thing.
Are you guys do the same thing?
Well, we do have some training that we do together.
I do some other things with the company, too.
But yes, we've done Service Advisor training, sales training for a very long time, many, many years together.
So Doris, is like this one of the most important things any shop owner could be doing right now?
Yeah, it certainly is, Karm.
A lot of times we hear shop owners come to us and say, you know, I need to spend more money on marketing.
And I just don't understand why we're not getting the car count that we need.
And time and time again, we mystery shop our clients and we find out that there's a tremendous amount of opportunity on the phones.
And that those marketing dollars are just getting flushed away if we're not intentional about making sure these phones.
And that first impression that we leave on the customer is a really wonderful one.
Doris, you were with us on part one of this, but in part one, Jen was with us, Greg and I and Jen.
I was talking about a restaurant.
I was talking about tips, a whole bunch of crazy stuff coming out of my head.
When I think about the first impression and you go into a restaurant, you've never been to before.
Your first impression zones are, they're like way up there.
Your greetings, how clean it is.
Where's the bar?
What kind of seating do they have, you know?
Oh, it's paper or it's cloth napkins.
I mean, you can go all over the place and that whole thing and then you open up the menu.
And then your first impressions equate to the $25 BLT, right?
Yeah.
I mean, all the studies show we have about a tenth of a second.
It's actually even less than that.
But to make a positive first impression, so that what we do, every visual that they see, right?
Just like you're saying, we're going to start making judgment calls.
And then if it's a phone call, it's how we sound from the very beginning of that interaction.
So yes, we make those judgments quickly.
Jump into mystery shopping.
I had a luxury of listening to a mystery shopping call on a check engine light.
The customer says, I got this red light in my world.
Red is a warning signal, right?
Red's not good.
And the service advisor said, hey, listen, I got an opening in two weeks.
And I'm watching the owner crush into his seat, deciding what day he was going to fire this person.
You could just see it on that person's face.
And your whole point about mystery shopper and the stories that come out of it,
what's it going to take to get a sludge by the side of our owner's heads
and realize that this is an important part of grooming and growing our company?
I think sometimes we have to show it to them.
And that's the unique position that, of course, Jen and I get to be in.
We get that opportunity.
But for the average shop owner out that maybe hasn't yet,
or doesn't have a Jen and Doris in their back pocket,
you really just have to look at this.
It is a part of your marketing plan.
So a great way to look at a piece of your marketing plan is to take a percentage of that budget
and put it into the customer experience.
And this is probably the best way to do that.
And one of the best ways to do that, $50 to $200 is what it costs
to just get the phone to ring, right?
And that doesn't even count bringing them in or paying for training
or what you're paying your advisor or what the lifetime value that customer could be worth
to convert them and do a great job.
So I don't think male shop owners understand truly the financial implications,
but even more importantly than that, the brand damage that can be done from a bad call.
Oh, well, I just love that word brand damage.
Oh my God, that's so powerful.
Let that sink in a moment.
Hey, Jen, a great story on a mystery shopper thing
that really shocked the hell out of a shop owner.
Got one?
And I hear it all the time.
I've actually done mystery shopping myself.
You know, little exercises here and there to get a pulse on things.
And similar to what you were saying with like a check engine light,
it's just crazy.
I've called hundreds of shops and I've listened to inbound calls as well.
But usually, you know, you play the mystery shopper
and this is what I do, keep it really vague, right?
See where they're going to take it.
Not throw them any bones, not team up for a slam dunk.
Just see where they're going to take the call in 98% of the time.
If you just keep it really vague, I get a price right out of their mouth
for some type of diag with zero context.
No name exchange, like super transactional,
no curiosity or probing questions from that advisor, right?
Not a lot of confidence instilled in me as this customer calling in,
needing some, you know, help in some way or another.
So they're just massively missed opportunities.
And I mean, we have a service here at Transformers
where we actually audit 50 inbound calls a month per shop
and it's redundant like this.
And that's our goal is to change the way
and to give them coaching and training
to fix those missed opportunities or holes.
But lack of rapport definitely didn't even close, right?
For an appointment.
A lot of the times too, Karm, you know what I hear is,
we've got to pay our technicians for their time,
which doesn't speak in terms of how I win by any means, right?
So there's not a lot of great cost justification
when I do these mystery shopping calls
and usually the first thing that blurts out of an advisor's mouth
is kind of a flat greeting
and usually a number, which is kind of scary.
You said the biggest and most powerful word so far in this episode.
You said that we're transactional.
And because you were vague
and you weren't giving up a lot of information
and your personality wasn't shining through,
the person on the other end of the phone said,
oh, they're just shopping, so I'll throw them a number
and I got to go on to my next estimator.
You know, the person who's walking in the door
or something like that.
We're probably missing the opportunity to say
that this person really would like a relationship
but they don't know how.
Exactly.
And I mean, we always say this in our classes,
especially in this day and age,
I mean, there's not a ton of car-savvy men and women out there
like there used to be in the good old days.
So like when they call in and they ask about price,
that's just a conversation starter most of the time.
You know, they don't know what else to ask.
I was in that boat a long time ago.
I think I need this. How much? I don't know what else to ask.
So we got to be really careful.
I get into heated debates, Karm, with shop owners
and advisors about this, of not checking a box
or prejudging someone and thinking they're just
a price-conscious, not-or-ideal avatar.
We got to be really careful with that
because a lot of people don't know what else to ask for.
So throwing out a number and giving them ammunition
to use that for the next 10 shops they call
isn't helping anybody.
Doris, what's the scenario where I met a party,
you know, it's an interesting gathering of people,
some friends, some family,
and I'm meeting someone for the first time
and I either feel comfortable or I don't shake hands.
We find something to talk about, I contact.
The whole thing is part of the training
for client advocates that you guys do
is it trying to build a confidence level
to say, listen, you're at a party.
The phone call comes in.
He says, hi, nice to meet you.
Hi, my name is Karm.
And they don't say anything else.
And you're kind of, if you will, stuck in the middle.
Is this going to be an interesting conversation?
And I would want to try to get some information
from that person because that's how I am.
That's me.
There's a bunch of things that you have to do
in order to have that person,
buy that person on your side, if you will.
And again, I keep going back to,
we talked about it in the previous episode, Jen.
How do you get inside of an individual
who is opposite of you?
Why do we let the transactional customer win?
Hello.
Hello.
It's a really good question, isn't it though?
You know, Dale Carnegie, there's a quote that he has
in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People
that I love.
He says, you must have a good time meeting people
for them to have a good time meeting you.
So one of the things that we share
with the service advisors and owners that we work with
is, hey, look, if you were to just accomplish
in a short period of time, this other person
on the other end of the phone to say,
I really liked these guys.
You know, I really liked that guy, Joe.
You've won half the battle.
And so we're missing the mark with this, you know,
so many times a customer's calling
and it sounds like the advisor is having
either a bad day or just an average day
versus really sounding excited and pleased
to welcome this new guest into their home,
the shop, so to speak, right?
And so I think it's exactly that.
Parallel that you gave.
It's that you are welcoming a guest into your home,
into your shop.
And we need to make them feel as though
we really want them there.
We need to get them to smile, right?
Lighten the mood, have fun.
And obviously do all the necessary next steps,
but be inquisitive.
Like you said, ask questions
and proactively offer them solutions.
You need to be the one leading this interaction,
right?
If you're home and calls you
and they're coming to the party,
you're going to be letting them know
everything that they should expect
and, you know, let me know when you're here.
Joe's going to greet you and, right?
We're going to have all these things available to you.
You know, I think, you know,
at the end of the day, right?
It does come back to just,
they don't know what they don't know
in a lot of cases.
These service advisors,
they just haven't had the right training.
Ladies, in your training,
do you have a segment that you just say,
I want everyone to smile for the next five minutes?
Do you ever do that?
Because in my mind,
I'm smiling right now and I'm not sure
if my audience can tell
that I'm happy and that I'm smiling
because you can feel that over the phone.
And, you know, it's wild.
It's like, the advisors always say in our classes,
like, smile over the phone.
Like, we all know to do it,
but it's not happening.
That tonality,
I know we talked about that
in the previous episode, Carm,
the inflections in their voice,
the excitement, the welcome,
the greeting is lackluster at best.
It's not consistently done
or executed properly on phone calls as well.
Like we'll audit calls
and there'll be some that were great
and, you know, a lot of others that missed the mark.
So the consistency is huge too
of just always being on your A game.
But yes, we share studies about how
if you don't have visual aids
at the point of sale, right?
The sale in this case
is an appointment per se for this scenario.
We share all those kinds of psychological components,
so the advisors truly understand
I need to be doing this.
Like, I know I should be doing this,
but I really need to be executing it
because this is a first impression.
It's make or break
in such a short period of time.
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We have a great talking point here
how we unintentionally train
customers to be price shoppers.
God, I want to hear that.
Based off of the hundreds
and hundreds of calls we listen to
it's wild that
there's so many variations
of ways we tell our customers
or callers no.
But in addition to that
when we just give
a blanketed number,
you know, not maybe like
an easy menu item
that we're allowed to,
you know, quote over the phone
but like a scenario
like maybe a water pump
or something that they think
they need replaced
when we give them that ammunition
we're just training our callers
to take that
call the next shop
and try to get them to undercut us.
So we're missing the opportunity
to build value in our services
we're missing the opportunity
to educate these callers
on why a price for something
such as a water pump
wouldn't be in their best interest
ethically even to do over the phone.
We're not even empathizing with them
that we realize they are price conscious
but we are just spewing out
numbers on vehicles
we've never seen
and basically tell them
to call the next guy.
Being able to tell a potential client
the other end of the phone
I just got a great specialist
in the bays
who does, you know,
great work on water pumps.
We've just set an expectation
by just saying that,
oh, I had no idea
people could be specialists
in water pumps.
Think about that.
That just set some kind of bar
inside of the mind
of the individual.
So listen,
there may be other work
that we need to do.
There may be some belts
or maybe some hoses.
There may be some other attachments
to this thing.
Let's work up an estimate
or can you bring the vehicle in?
What's going on tomorrow
at 10 o'clock for you?
Can you bring it in?
Never giving the individual
a chance to say no
or how much
but set up the stuff
and again, you're the experts.
I'm not.
That's why you're here.
I love that
we have to stop the price
to be the main issue
and the no like and trust.
And one more thing,
quality of workmanship
somewhere along the line
has got to be part of this.
We talked in the last episode
as he certified
all kinds of training
and certifications.
What are we doing to say
we're better and we're different?
That's a great point.
The one thing
people can't go anywhere else.
You can't go down the street
to this other five-star shop.
They can't get us.
They can't get our people.
They can't get that gifted tech
in the back.
Like you said, right?
And so I think it's so important
that we do have that conversation.
If not every single time
that we're on the line
with a customer
or a new caller, right?
Why should they come and see us?
What's going to be
the mic drop moments, so to speak?
Well, first of all,
they've got to really like you.
And that's what we talked about already, right?
We've got to really get them to smile
and go, you know what?
I really like these people.
I think I'm in the right place.
If I go in and do business with them,
I bet it's going to be a great experience.
That's a feeling they're going to have
and they're going to have it quickly.
But after that, okay, what is it
that sets us apart, right?
And that is the gifted people
that we have.
Really nothing else can trump that.
And so I think when we can take a moment
and we can share with the customer,
we want to make sure you get the right solution,
not just the cheapest one,
but let me tell you why I know
you're in the right place
with the right people, right?
There are a lot of different places
you could call.
Let me tell you a little bit
about Joe, our Honda specialist
in the back.
You know, let me tell you this guy is
and how he pours his heart into his work
and, you know, he treats every car
like it's the family members.
And he just really cares about what he does.
This guy's a gift, right?
Master certified, right?
If you have a kind of a conversation,
why is somebody going to want to go elsewhere?
And you better bet if they do,
the moment that a mistake happens
to that shop, guess where they're going to be?
Right on your doorstep
or picking up that phone to call.
Let's talk about that.
So much of what we talk about
in sales advisor training,
client advocate training
is about that first time caller.
We're trying to set them up to know us,
to love us, to trust us.
And we get this person
and they come in and we do a great job.
Everything right, soup to nuts.
They call the second time
four or five months later
something, another car.
Do we talk enough about in our training
what happens at interaction two
and then interaction three
and then when does that person
that become a customer
or a client?
And in my mind,
we keep talking about,
so I've got top people.
How do I keep the customers top
with my people?
Do we ever get lazy at the counter
knowing this person's been here before?
And we did all our great work in call one.
We do.
We do often, right Jen?
And I'll general comment on this as well.
But one of the things that we teach Karmier spot on
is that we have to market
and part of marketing is our phones
and how we engage them on that first interaction.
We have to market to,
we say the third visit,
because that third visit,
the percentage and the likelihood of them
actually being a true customer
and choosing us as their home
for their auto repair needs
goes by about 30 or 40%
is what it goes up by
from the time the second visit happens.
And so it's a really big jump.
So we have to be extremely intentional.
Every time the customer comes in,
but what are we doing, right?
And do we have a way to know
that this person is a second time in person?
And what are we going to do to really work
to get them to come in that third time?
And I think that needs to be a system in place for that.
We always say we're always furthering the cause
like anytime someone calls in every touch point.
I mean, even if it's just been a couple hours
between when they dropped off the car
and when they're coming back in to pick it up,
we're still always furthering that cause
of establishing a stronger relationship
and connecting with them and building rapport
and making them feel constantly
that they're working with the right people
because there's nothing worse car than
they come and pick up the car
and they've swiped their credit card
and morning gen was so fabulous
but afternoon gen is on to the next sale.
That's like the worst feeling in the world.
So this consistent, you know, experience
needs to be not only top notch
but no matter who's engaging with the client
no matter at what location they go to
because they could go to different locations that you may own
they're getting that same feeling, that same experience
and it doesn't matter if it's on the phone or in person.
Empathy, education, reasoning.
You guys say those are the three pillars
of phone skills and success.
I mean, one of the things that Jen and I see
and it's consistent, Carm, is that we have a report card
it's about 70 different grading points
when we're looking at an incoming call
and the one that advisors always score the lowest in
without fail is empathy, every single time
and not until they really work hard at it
do they start getting that needle to move
and a part of that is just that as service advisors
they're managing and juggling a bunch of different things
they're keeping a bunch of balls in the air
got someone standing in front of them
and someone else on the phone
and a tech waiting to get an update
and they get stuck in this transactional
there's that word again, mode
and they just stop really being conscious about it
and so they don't stop when somebody doesn't get
the appointment time that they hope for
and empathize, they don't stop and say
you know what, I'm so sorry Carm
I know you wanted to bring it in at two today
I apologize that we couldn't do that
you know what, I tell you what
I know you called because you want to get this solved
let's look at some other solutions
how about, you know, let me ask you this
is it just transportation that you need
what could we do tomorrow morning, right
we're trying to really move mountains
that's the feeling we want this customer to have
I want to help you
yes
maybe that's the word for empathy
I want to help you mode
I'm sorry, I believe
some people don't know what empathy means
of course you can tell them the story
about hitting your hand and you know
no you don't, let me hit your
let me give you the same pain that I have
now that's empathy
and if an individual has a really wonderful life
everything's great
no problems
no problems at home
they eat everything that they want
no, everybody is a tough thing
so yeah
wow
I'll hear calls Carm
that we're auditing and it'll be
someone on the side of the road
you can hear cars flying by
they're calling, you can hear the panic in their voice
they don't know what happened
they're calling for help
and I'll hear service advisors
just blow right through that
not even take a moment to be like
are you okay?
you know this is really unfortunate
I'm sure this is really scary
but you know what, you've called the right company
I've got a tow partner
whatever the situation calls for
we blow through
even like extreme scenarios
teed up
like that on the phone
it's wild
okay so all I can think about
for the last five minutes of discussion
is the environment
that we're working in
and is that environment conducive enough
for me to bring empathy to that call
or is there this
spiral going on
end of day, gotta get it going
we have deadlines to meet
and we don't stop for a moment
let the air out of the balloon
fill it up
and go
it was 7.30 in the morning
and this is a brand new opportunity
I'm not sure I'm right here
but I think we have to do
some environment assessment
we sure do
absolutely, I mean think about
I mean there's like a twitch
service advisors have twitches
just waiting for that next call
there's this pressure
of juggling all those balls
handling the phones
dealing with the customers
calling people back
I get it like I get why it's
hard to just do the basics
of like showing
I wanna help you right over the
phone because there's just so many
moving parts so I believe we kind of
touched on that in the first episode
with Greg Karm is if the advisors
don't have that time you know to
spend with these people on the phone
we're missing a ton of opportunity here
right they're just being rushed
a lot of these calls I listen to right Doris
30, 40 seconds that's it
that's it I don't know how
we can build a lot of value
educate someone
start to create a relationship
or connection and give reasoning
you know for whatever you're trying to
explain in 30 seconds
I don't know how that's possible
How many owners
say either one of you
Jen, Doris, look
they're complaining about not having
enough time this is I'm with you
I totally agree do you pick up the phone
talk to the owner and say
we need to pull off some kind of assessment
some kind of evaluation
you may be ready for a
half-timer or another full-time
individual maybe just a customer
service rep who maybe I don't know
all these great definitions that we have
and what jobs that they all perform
but sooner or later
if you're gonna grow
the business has a 15% growth
number and you can't keep doing
it with the same two or three people
my point is there's a crash
and burn you know zone
before you have to stop that we need
people to end up doing this
and I guess in the back of my mind
as we think about client-advocate
training there's
gotta be some metrics
that come out of this thing
that the owner needs to oh
I think you're right yeah we have had
just a terrible month
things are falling off the table
we're not getting things done
isn't working and it all because
you've got one or two people trying to do
this heavy lift
that's such a critical point
if you want to provide five-star service
and get five-star reviews
we need to think in turn think about an experience
you have at a five-star restaurant
a five-star resort
we need to spend
I mean the numbers prove
that 50 minutes to
60 minutes per customer
is how much time we have to have
that interaction start to finish
that includes greeting them
taking the initial call
doing the car delivery
spending enough time to build value in the services
calling them with regular updates
that's a pretty real number
now some
shop owners have a different philosophy
it's bring in more cars
spend less time with the customer
while you're working hard
or not smarter in that case
and I think that that's
how you stimulate those five-star reviews that you're after
and really build this exceptional brand
so you know it's a trade-off
but we'll see
when we do that is we all know
that the value of one customer singing our song
and saying good things
or telling their coworkers or their neighbors
their family members
is worth way more than it is
to continue to market and chase the next
customer with an oil change coupon
right so
it just depends on what we want to build
if you want to do five-star you're absolutely right
you know
H10 cars a day
where we're spending an hour per customer
is what those metrics show
per advisor of course
H10 per advisor
sure no problem Jan Doris
sitting down with an owner and saying
I think you need to add to your staff
no problem at all
you've been able to see I mean you're working with
their people you're here
they may be telling you things that they don't tell the owner
around them and that they don't have enough time
to truly get
their job done at at least 101%
yeah and Karm think about this
Jen and I say this all the time if the advisor
think about now they're learning some new training
on top of their job so they're going
to take let's say training that they come to
that we teach and then they're going to go back
and they're going to need to implement it
and they're going to need to crash and burn
and they're going to need to practice
scripts and role play and do all these things
to really internalize these new behaviors
that takes time too
and so yes it is up to leadership
to make sure that we are providing those opportunities
and the advisors are going to need to do
if you want to be a superstar you've got to put time in
off the clock I mean there's just no question
about it these advisors need to go home
they need to role play in front of the mirror
or with their dog whatever they need to do
right to get their skills set up
but it's also the ownership
needs to be aware
of what's going on
and what do they really want out of this
experience for their customer and
I mean it all goes hand in hand
Jen is the tide changing
owners are getting way more
on board with the service advisor
training I think so as long
as they stay engaged you know it's one
thing to invest in your people
and you know they come back and start out
on a high but you know I
always do these like post course
shop owner kind of debriefings
to remind them about the key things
they need to check and do over
course of you know the next year
I mean we can't just expect someone
to go to any type of training
you know swallow it all memorize it
within three days and then
go to work and just be a master
of it so they need to listen
to calls and I know that takes
time and I know there's tons of services
whether you're going with AI or humans
out there that can help but
it really truly is an investment
of your time to listen
to inbound calls and
not only get coaching or
training or tips to improve those
but continually audit them
and that takes time but it's
well worth the investment and
it's funny it's like you know once
they hear it they believe it so
they finally understand what we mean by
you know when you shoot from the hip
with an inbound call and you don't really
have a protocol to follow or like a
procedure then
that call can go completely sideways
you may even end up wasting seven minutes
and never even get an appointment
versus the alternative of spending
30 seconds on it and still losing the appointment
so it's well worth the
time investment for all parties.
Doris is it about the personality of the
service advisor, client advocate
more than anything else
if there are people, person and
they have a level of caring built
into them are they going to be
the best for our counters because
we're hiring people
I don't know if I mentioned this in the last episode
I went to a restaurant I had this great
waitress, waiter
I offered him a job they came in
because they were so good they cared to the
nth degree now they came in
they're lacking some knowledge but that's okay
we probably can teach them some technology on the
vehicle is that personality
easier to
conform and to train
than an individual who's
a lump on a log
Jen's laugh. Excuse my
vernacular
it is
right I mean we all know we go
see like you said you have that server
that you go wow
you just know they're supposed to deal with people
anytime we can capture that person
and bring them into our world as a shop owner you're
going to win but to your
point I mean first thing that's a lump on a
log can it be trained
sure but it takes
so much more work
so much more and that person's really got to want
it they've got to work hard they've got a
it's like the rubber band analogy right they're
stretching themselves and
they just want to come back over here but they're
they just want to come back
and we can fake it to make it we can
be good actors and actresses and that can
eventually rub off and actually really change
people but as a shop owner
I would want to start with
somebody who had the natural talent for people I think
of the word good stock making
a good soup making a good gravy
Italian gravy you gotta have good
stock and so
a shop owner calls you guys up you know you're
their coaching company your training company
says I need to hire somebody
do you have the good stock
discussion with them we do
don't we Jen it is there's a list
that we look for and we
your traits you're looking for right
for certain traits and their personality type
Jen tell them how we used to
we interview service advisors sometimes
yeah I mean I've done that for so many
years Karm and it starts to kind of get to
a point of just intuition
you know and not that I'm some
crystal ball reader or anything
but I feel like I've spoken to so many advisors
over the years it's
kind of sometimes obvious to me
on phone calls that this person's heart
is not into it right or they're being
drugged to the altar or it's just
you know yapping just to
piece what I want to hear it's not authentic
you know it's not coming from their heart
and sometimes that's hard for shop owners to
see that feel that sense that
I feel like I have a decent knack for reading
people sometimes just due to my
experience over the decades
but yeah I mean and then you
gotta look at their ethics right like do they really
like helping people do they want to
have a positive touch in their community
are the brain cells there right
like can they do tasks
multitask and
are they willing to get uncomfortable
you know because that's the only way we're going to
change right is we got to get comfortable
with being uncomfortable
so that vulnerability that
want in that open mind
kind of concept to learn new things
and try new things and even if we fail
we'll pick ourselves up by our bootstraps
and keep charging I mean
I feel like that's part of the good stock
we're looking for this has been so interesting
we I know we covered a lot of great areas
are you both teaching these courses
yeah so we have in person classes for example
next week we're doing a three day
intensive what the hell is
it intensive is at the deep
end of the pool well they're there
it's the deep end
it is a
fun but very informative
three day like live class
we do for service advisors
managers owners we have
estimators come to this or customer
care call center people come
to this Doris and I will co-present
that and we do that all over the country
transformersinstitute.com
and is there a special tab
a link there that they can find
all about your training you know what they should look at
is tsmuniversity.com
so we've launched some new options
besides our very popular
three-day course so if they want to do
as if it's transformers sales mastery
so tsmuniversity.com
that'll be the class
that'll direct them there but then yeah
we now have remote continuous
learning options if
we can't make it in person we have
different tiers of accountability
and role playing and follow through
and training we can offer
exactly like continuous
education go sharpen your saw
yep do that sharpen your saw
sharpen your saw
listen this was great you guys got to come back
and we got to share some great stories
and good concepts and strategies again
thank you Jen Davis
Doris Barnes from transformers
institute.com
and tsmuniversity.com
yes how exciting is that
you guys are on fire thanks
thank you for this the call is the
close fixing first impressions
this was a blast thanks for being here
guys thanks for having us
see you soon
About this episode
Exploring the critical role of first impressions in automotive service, this episode features Jen Davis and Doris Barnes from the Transformers Institute. They discuss how effective phone interactions can significantly impact customer acquisition and retention. Through mystery shopping insights, they reveal common pitfalls service advisors face, such as being overly transactional and failing to build rapport. Emphasizing the importance of empathy, education, and a welcoming attitude, the conversation highlights strategies for improving customer experience and ultimately driving business success.
Original notes
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, and Today's Class
Is your shop’s first impression costing you customers? Did you know the phone is often your closest moment to the sale? Join service advisor training specialists Jen Davis and Doris Barnes from The Transformers Institute as they reveal how to turn inbound calls into a loyal customer relationship.
Inside this episode:
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The Hidden Cost of Bad Calls: Missed opportunities like quoting a price without context don’t just lose sales, they damage your brand and waste marketing dollars. First impressions are made in a fraction of a second.
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Beyond Price Shopping: Most service advisors unintentionally train customers to shop for price by failing to ask questions, build rapport, or show genuine curiosity. Price is often just the conversation starter.
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Empathy, Education & Reasoning: Learn the three pillars of phone success that shift calls from transactional to relationship-driven, positioning your shop as the trusted solution.
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From First Call to Lifelong Customer: Strategies to...
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Carm Capriotto, AAP
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