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The Showtime Mindset: How Top Shops Keep the Spotlight on Service [RR 1054]

Remarkable Results Radio Podcast Aug 26, 2025 36 min

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About this episode

Jason Hladnik, a service advisor coach at RPM Training, shares insights on the 'showtime' mindset for automotive shops. Drawing parallels between music and service, he emphasizes the importance of preparation, consistency, and understanding client needs. By treating each interaction like a performance, advisors can enhance customer experiences and build stronger relationships. The discussion covers effective communication, pre-appointment strategies, and the need for ongoing training to adapt to changing client expectations. This episode is packed with practical advice for improving service advisor skills and shop operations.

Topics: service advisor training customer experience pre-appointment communication consistency in service understanding client needs time management technology in service stress management performance mindset ongoing training

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode

Jason Hladyniuk, service advisor coach at RPM Training, draws inspiration from the world of music to show how shops can be fully “in tune” and "showtime ready" the moment their doors open each morning.

In this episode, you’ll learn how this approach helps service advisors:
• Deliver an outstanding client experience without getting lost in paperwork or daily chaos.
• Lower stress by anticipating needs and having everything ready before clients arrive.
• Read their “audience” and adjust communication, whether through a quick text or a detailed face-to-face chat.
• Lead with consistent professionalism, not sales tactics, just as a dental hygienist confidently recommends treatment.
• Use pre-appointment communication to set the stage for stronger client relationships at drop-off.
• Commit to continuous practice and training, because like world-class musicians, the best advisors never stop rehearsing, adapting, and growing.

Don’t miss this episode, it’s your backstage pass to delivering a flawless performance every day and creating lasting harmony with your clients!

Jason Hladyniuk, service advisor coach at RPM Training

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast:

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This is the Aftermarket Radio Network.

Hey, everybody, Karm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio.

Good to see you and have you here celebrating our 10th year.

I love this episode.

I'm going to call this episode Showtime, actually because my guest is calling at that.

But before we get going, please support our great sponsors and partners.

More than 16% of light-duty vehicles on the road are EV and hybrid.

Is your shop ready to safely and properly service them?

Get your shop trained and equipped to service hybrid and EV vehicles with Napa Autotex Innovative,

EV-Ready, Level 1, High Voltage Awareness, and Maintenance Training.

Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the most critical tool in your

shop, and NapaTrax will move your shop into the SMS Fastlane.

On-site training, six days a week support, and local representation.

Find NapaTrax on the web at NAPATRACS.com.

Hey, welcome back, everyone.

Introduce you to Jason Hladnik.

Hello, Jason.

Hey, Karm.

How are you?

Hey, I'm great.

You've been on my show long, long time ago when you still were involved in a

shop.

Now, it's really cool.

Jason is a service advisor coach at RPM Training with Murray Voth.

It was amazing.

Murray's been a mentor of mine.

In fact, I met Murray back in 2009 when I'd opened my shop and Murray had mentored me

all through the years.

So, it's pretty cool now after I sold my shop to jump aboard with RPM and work with

Murray and the team.

It's pretty cool.

Okay, so conceptually, here's why you want to listen to this episode and take

this entire episode in because we're going to talk about what Jason calls

showtime.

Now, yes, he's a musician, plays all kinds of instruments, and maybe near the

end of it, the show will explain all the great things that you do as far as

performance, knowing your audience, and this kind of related exactly into how

you're helping coach and teach and train service advisors.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, the concept is getting ready for showtime, being prepared so when your

shop opens up in the morning, everything's in tune, everything's ready to go.

So now, the service advisor can focus on giving a great experience and not so

much administrative duties.

You know, the thing I love about what you just said, I'm not a musician, but I

love music my whole life.

And when you'd go and see a band or even you go to a local club on the lake

here in Lake Erie and you'd see them come in with their suitcases and drum

kits and microphones, I'm an observer.

So you'd watch them put it all together to set it all up, realizing

that there's a point in time where the music has to be there and it

has to be together and it has to be right and it has to move people.

But what it takes to get there, I love your concept, work toward showtime.

Yeah, any professional band, you're working behind the scenes.

So you're working on songs, you're working on set lists, you're working

on performance, you're working parts, you know, maybe different solos

throughout the performance.

There's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes that we as

audiences may not realize.

So then when the band hits the stage and you've gone to that show,

you're blown away.

It's a great performance.

You know, the backup singers are right in tune.

They've got pyros going off.

Who knows, depending on what kind of show you're going to.

All that hard work is done before the performance.

And that's how I relate it to an automotive shop.

A lot of times when we think of our shop, are we ready for showtime?

When we open our doors, do we really know what's happening

throughout the day?

Do we have all the parts?

Do we have all the necessary tools in place?

And then are our members all on the same page?

I mean, if you've got a technician or another advisor or someone else

that's on the team that maybe isn't pulling their weight or doesn't

really know what songs they're playing, you know, if I related it

back to music, it's like a band.

If you have a bass player that doesn't have a set list or didn't

check his bass to see if it was in tune, that performance isn't going

to be so great.

I mean, the band is going to get through it, but it's not going

to be as great as it could be.

Conceptually, I love this.

I really do.

You could come into work in the morning and somehow life got in your way

and you may not be prepared for that first interaction, that first

phone call, that first dispatch, that first estimate, because you

didn't set up your, I'm going to put it in quotes, equipment.

And that's everything, Jason.

That's mental.

That's everything.

Yeah.

As a service advisor, you're running late.

Like you said, life happens.

You're five minutes before the shop's supposed to open.

You've got technicians waiting.

You open the door and now you're scrambling.

What kind of experience are your clients getting?

I see it time and time again.

The advisors are maybe coming off a bit rude.

They don't mean to, but their stress level is high.

Things aren't controlled.

Now you're reacting.

Phones are ringing.

There's two clients that showed up that weren't supposed to

be there that day.

Like it can all fall apart.

And this is just five minutes after 8 o'clock.

Let this episode move you and stop to think, what are you doing?

Service advisor training in our industry is on fire.

I've gone on record to say, I think it's the single most

pivotal part of the entire operation.

And we need to do the best that we can from all the

technology of listening to phone calls or evaluating

those calls, what we can do better.

But I love the whole music thing.

So work with us on this.

Think about a person getting storytelling.

Let's talk about storytelling as it relates to music

because every song has a story in it, doesn't it?

Absolutely.

And that audience will connect to that song.

When that audience is connected with you,

you're able to express what's happening

and you have that connection.

And now you have full attention.

And that's another thing with service advisors is

sometimes we don't have the client's full attention.

And it's when we share information.

So if someone comes into your shop

expecting to get an engine oil maintenance service

and then we're telling them it needs all this other

additional work, we'll consider the audience.

Were they ready to receive that information?

And are they actually listening to us?

Maybe they're thinking they left the garage door open

or they're thinking about a meeting they're running late for.

And now we're putting stress on them

to make this decision to spend an X amount of money more.

I love what you said.

Connect to a song.

And it doesn't matter what kind of song

that you're probably listening to.

You can relate to some portion of that song,

where I was at the time, what it meant to me.

Was I in a relationship or not?

Were we starting our family?

Oh my God, the laundry list is huge.

I have a problem with my vehicle, right?

I come in, if I'm willing to have a consistency

in the approach to my music back to my client,

I may get a better relation back to me

if I can try to figure out going crazy.

What's the song that my client needs to hear?

Yeah, the approach.

It's like this, it's like, let's say

you bought tickets to go see an orchestra.

When you get there, you're excited to see the orchestra,

but instead of the orchestra, ACDC hits the stage.

The crowd was thinking, hey, it was gonna be orchestra,

it's ACDC, now they start booing.

That doesn't mean that ACDC is not a great band, Carl.

What that means is that ACDC is playing

to the wrong audience.

As a professional advisor, you have to stay consistent.

However, you need to understand your audience

and you need to be able to adapt to certain clients.

Certain clients might be passionate

about factory scheduled maintenance,

so there's going to be a way that we approach that.

There are other clients that may not see the value in it.

That doesn't mean we don't discuss it,

we just need to approach it differently.

I can't imagine Jason trying to prep for a work day

under a showtime moniker,

because isn't every song or client situation different?

It can be, but as advisors, we need to be consistent.

Because if we're not consistent,

now we become negotiators, we become sales driven.

So if I know that I've got five clients coming in

and they're all in for say,

engine oil maintenance services

and my policy in the shop is that

every engine oil maintenance service,

factory scheduled maintenance gets checked.

I need to be consistent with that.

But it's how I present that information

and when I present that information is so important.

Like ACDC songs, when they're playing to the wrong group,

they're still going to rock their songs,

because they believe in their songs.

So as advisors, I believe in my policies,

I believe in the approach or the consistency,

but it's the approach maybe I need to adapt a little bit.

Maybe this client really likes a text message

and they don't want to pick up their phone.

So now I need to adapt to that

and send the information by a text.

But here's the trick with that.

I may not be comfortable sending the text message.

So I don't do it and I try and call the client.

I love what you're saying is I'm thinking

of all the shows that we have done here

on service advisor training

and the role plays that we've done

and we've discussed in the past

knowing the communication style of the client.

Of course, knowing yours and knowing theirs.

And the thing that I like about what you just helped me

with mentally to get over that hump

of knowing what type of song I've got to sing back

to the client.

Is it a dominated extroverts, steady conformity individual?

It's like, what if we could just pick

four different songs, or to your point,

rock band, orchestra, jazz band.

I love this because people occasionally,

they get a mental block.

I just can't get over how I'm supposed to act

or what I'm supposed to do.

Maybe this whole music thing helps.

In my experience through the years

that I've been doing this,

there are say maybe contractors.

When I dealt with contractors,

they didn't want the fluff.

They wanted the straight goods.

In some of those conversations,

I actually had to take out into the shop

because they might not be appropriate to have upfront.

And that's just how some of the contractors I dealt with.

That's just how they like to have a laugh.

I like to have a joke,

but they wanted to get down to the real deal

of what's going on with their vehicles.

Whereas somebody that is maybe

doesn't understand their vehicle

or really is a little intimidated by the shop,

that conversation is going to be look different

to that client.

The information is going to be the same,

but the performance of the advisor

and the experience is going to be a little different.

And that's such an important piece.

We need to be consistent with our policies,

our approach of the information we're sharing,

Karm, but we need to maybe change it up.

And as you say, pick a different tune

at how we approach this client.

Okay, let's move a little bit away from music

and let's talk about pre-appointment communications.

I mean, what is your philosophy on that?

Yeah, so again,

that falls right into getting ready for showtime.

I believe conversations should be happening

two or three days before the appointment.

And the reason for this

is that there's two things happening there.

We're reaching out as advisors

and we're confirming that appointment.

So, you know, this hate is Tuesday at eight o'clock,

still work for you.

But then that gives us an opportunity

to have these discussions about maybe deferred work

or factory scheduled maintenance

that is due on the vehicle.

Now, as a professional advisor,

if we are following factory scheduled maintenance,

I just need to know the make and model

and the kilometers of the vehicle.

And I can quote what's due for that vehicle.

But what I've learned is that now

when I'm having these conversations

before the appointment,

I'm not stressing my client out

because they have time to review the work.

Maybe it's deferred work from the last service

or maybe it's factory scheduled maintenance.

They have time to look it over,

maybe talk to a partner or a spouse

and make an informed decision

and have time to get back to me.

And that's key because when we consider that,

when we consider the alternative,

the old school way was, you know,

when they come into the shop,

oh, by the way, you need this, this, this, this, this.

Well, now it could come off as like a sales pitch almost.

The other issue with that is that

when we give time to the client to decide

and get ready for showtime,

we're discussing business before the appointment.

So everything's been worked out.

We know exactly what we're doing.

As an advisor, I can order the parts

or if there's too much work

that was approved for the client,

maybe I have to talk about moving that appointment

to another day, right?

So I'm keeping control of my schedule

and I have time to react to do that.

So business is discussed.

So when that client drops off or comes into your shop,

I'm building relationships now.

We already know what's happening with the vehicle.

We already know the price.

We already know the pickup and, you know,

the drop off, all that.

But now I can start asking them about the hockey game

or, you know, life.

And now I start to build an experience

and I start to work on those personal relationships.

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How do we know that we are obtaining

quote-quote a professional level in our industry?

I think there's so many on our counter

that we have hired and put there

and I'm not sure that they feel

have been trained or are valued as professional.

We can look at it as where I see advisors

getting uncomfortable, not all of them,

but a lot of them is when they're perceived a salesperson.

Ah, I like that.

That's a great, great point

when they're perceived as a salesperson versus...

A service professional, a service advisor.

See, in a car dealership,

you have sales and you have service.

And so when we run a shop,

if an advisor feels like a salesperson,

they start to feel like they're upselling

or the client doesn't really need this

because I feel like I'm upselling

or this is going to be too expensive

so I don't want to bring this up to the client

because they just spent $2,000.

Now I'm asking for another $3,000.

So when the sales gets into a service advisor's life,

that holds back the professional

because I relate it to this.

My wife, she works in the dental industry.

She's a registered hygienist.

And when her and I talk,

because the industries are, our businesses are close.

She's working on patients, we're working on cars.

But one interesting thing,

my wife's been doing this very professional 27, 28 years,

both at the same time, I've been doing my profession.

And when she has a patient in her chair,

and let's say there's really bad oral care,

like this patient maybe never brushes her teeth

or clearly doesn't look after their oral hygiene,

that doesn't stop my wife

from recommending what needs to happen.

I love that.

That's got to sink in there for a minute.

If we see a person that isn't maintaining

or doesn't care for their vehicle

and it is just quote unquote,

I hate to use the word just transportation for them,

but they just don't seem to have a caring bone in their body

for the safety and the reliability of that vehicle.

I love the analogy between dental and us.

That's brilliant.

With my wife, she'll recommend best practices,

she'll recommend services,

she'll recommend cleaning, whatever it is,

that client gets the recommendations.

Now it's up to the client what they want to do.

So if they want to go ahead with a treatment plan,

great.

That's the mark of a professional.

The emotional bank account,

the pre-seed that, oh, they don't want to do this

or they can't afford this, goes all out the window.

But when we're sales driven as a service advisor,

now we start to negotiate this vehicle.

This thing needs thousands of dollars worth of work

and this client's not going to fix it.

I'm not going to waste my time.

So now you start to pick and choose,

now you become a master negotiator without even knowing,

this approach actually creates more stress

on the service advisor.

Whereas a consistent approach and being ready for that client

and knowing what the vehicle needs

and explaining everything to them,

giving them the opportunity to digest the information

that's a whole different experience for the client.

Does that make a lot of sense to me

to be able to discuss from a position of knowledge

and confidence in a client's business.

In, okay, I guess I could say that your teeth can do this.

I mean, I don't know the medical terms

but they really do say that your oral health

has a lot to do with your heart

and I don't know if that's true or not.

But if that's truly the case, you can state your case

but you can't hammer it home.

Just like you can in the safety and reliability

of your vehicle so that it's there for you

when you need it.

On the other hand, I guess if the relationship is strong

and the trust is there,

they're gonna do what you recommend as a professional.

But as advisors, there's advisors out there

that don't recommend

because they don't wanna be salespeople.

They don't wanna be salespeople

and they're not ready for showtime.

They're stressed out

because they've got the phone ringing,

they've got this client that just walked in,

a wrong part just showed up

and now they have to deal with all this.

So a lot of this stuff gets missed

and then the advisors start to pick and choose.

When I think of a professional, it's about consistency.

When you go to see my wife for your teeth,

she's going to tell you exactly what she sees

and what the treatment plan is.

When you come to my automotive shop,

I'm going to let you know the state of your vehicle.

I'm also gonna let you know the things

that the vehicle is due for,

your factory scheduled maintenance

and I'm gonna give you all the facts

and then we can have a discussion.

With dental work, it's very similar.

All this work doesn't need to be done at once.

The same with your vehicle.

All this work doesn't need to be done at once.

We're gonna pick away the safety severe

and then we're gonna put a plan down.

But in the dental, if you're sales driven,

it's gonna be while this person's teeth,

they've never done any care for their teeth

for the last 10 years.

I'm not even gonna say anything.

See you later, right?

Like it's not fair, it's not professional

but that's what happens in our industry.

You just nailed the word professional to the degree

I guess I've been looking for

and that is if you took that dental person,

so they could sleep at night.

They need to tell this individual the risks that they're under

and they're not selling, they're just telling

and I know that we would maybe rather tell than sell

but if you've got a vehicle that is not in great shape

don't sell, just tell

and maybe that tell, the confident telling

lists the professionalism of you.

I don't wanna be known as a salesperson,

well you're not.

You're just telling the individual

what's around the next corner

and I think in both medical and in vehicle,

not enough people know.

No, and another thing is that some advisors,

some businesses are afraid to give out prices.

They'll tell the client what's wrong with the vehicle

but then it's like a mystery.

The client's gotta call back in

and ask well how much is this and how much is this

and again, that puts more stress on the advisor.

Carl, let me ask you.

Let's say you call me over

and you want your roof inspected

and I jump on your roof and I'm up there

and I'm like whoa, this roof looks pretty bad, Carl.

What's your next question to me?

What's pretty bad?

Right, so then I explain to you,

well this roof looks like we should be changing this roof

within the six, seven month range,

say before snow flies

and what's your next question after that?

I guess I may wanna say then how much.

Right, and when can you do it?

I want more proof.

Take some pictures, come back,

explain to me what it is that you're gonna do,

why is this bad, how old is this?

I think, I don't care, a roof, $20,000,

whatever the hell the number is,

depending on the size of the roof,

people go oh, I got that in my piggy bank.

There's no way that a vehicle repair versus a roof

is in the same category, but yet, I love your point.

If you can't get up to the roof to see what's really bad

and if you can't really see what's really bad

in the vehicle, we have to do a much better job

in setting up our song book

to explain to the client exactly what's wrong with a roof,

what's really wrong with the vehicle.

That goes back to show time.

To show time, all the information ready to go.

I'm gonna be transparent with pictures and videos,

and then as a professional advisor,

I'm gonna anticipate your next questions.

When can you do it?

Well, Karm, we can do your breaks next week.

So I'm gonna put that in and here's the price.

How much is it, Jason?

Here's the price.

So I've already anticipated those key questions

and now I've sent you that information.

And now you can review that and make an informed decision

while I move on to another task.

Because what happens is that advisors,

where we get into trouble and when we don't manage your time

is that we like to give little snippets out.

Well, you need breaks, okay?

So then the client calls back in,

hey, Jason, I got your report.

It looks like I need breaks.

How much is that gonna be?

Well, let me do a quote and I'll call you back.

Well, that goes against everything I've ever heard

in the industry, every great service advisor.

Listen, we find out what's wrong,

we're gonna quote 100%, you know,

we're the 300 rule, right?

The 100 and 100 and 100,

you're gonna do 100% inspection, 100% estimate

and 100% quote.

Doesn't happen.

Yeah, why?

Hello, isn't that your job?

Aren't you pounding on brains out there?

It's a part of our job,

but look at all the other things

that we're not prepared for showtime.

Look at all the other issues

that service advisors have to deal with.

Like let's say the band isn't in tune,

now the service advisor has to deal with a technician

that maybe they don't get along with

and that part they put on didn't fix the problem.

So now you've got that issue to deal with.

Then you've got the pressure of maybe ownership

that you just had a conversation with yesterday

saying our numbers are down, you know,

we need to do this

and we got to put a plan together,

you've got that pressure.

Then in the morning,

when you went to leave to work, your dog was sick.

Then you show up at the shop and you're reactive.

You don't have anything planned.

That's why things don't get quoted

because if you're a professional advisor,

you're gonna be aware of your time management.

And what's interesting about it

is that service advisors are generally really good

at booking vehicles in for their technicians,

but they're maybe not so good at managing their own time

and booking time to get certain things done.

And they're reactive all throughout the day.

You just said something that I think is worthy of

just a comment from me.

Life is heavy and complicated, isn't it?

And there isn't anyone who's within the sound of my voice

that can't probably just shake their head and say this.

It's like there's the graduation tonight.

There's the soccer tonight.

There's swimming tomorrow.

There's, oh my God, they have a half a day of school.

Now I gotta figure out who's gonna babysit the kid.

The level of complication, the heaviness of life,

the complications of life are so strong.

And if it's happening to any individual on our counter

in our bays, in our offices, anywhere,

that burden that we're feeling on our own self

is across from us on the phone or on the counter.

And our job, to your point, I love the music thing,

is to make this music be flawless

in our interpretation of how we can help.

And think of that concept of what the client's going through.

When they're stressed out about life

and there's something wrong with their vehicle,

now if we're ready for showtime,

that it's gonna be a really great experience

and they're gonna connect to the song that we're playing.

The band's in tune, we've got our stuff together,

we're gonna put on a great performance.

They're gonna remember that.

Just like remembering that song car

or my boat where you were at a certain time,

clients remember those experiences.

Now, it could start off to be a really bad experience,

but because you have systems and procedures

and consistency, you know how to perform to get through that

and that cements the relationship even stronger.

When you think of training

and you think of getting ready for showtime,

it's interesting because I love music,

I'm very passionate about it.

I've done a lot of reading on the subject

and what makes bands great.

They never stop rehearsing, practice.

They never stop training on their instrument.

There's a really cool picture of the Beatles

way back before they hit the Ed Sullivan show.

Now the Beatles were getting very big,

they were big where they came in England and that,

they were coming over to America,

they were very successful,

but here they are, four guys in a room,

hammering out a song they've probably played 500 times

before the big show.

Now, when we look at our shops,

how much training do we do on our shops

and how prepared are we for the next day

and put on a great show?

It's interesting, you know?

It is so powerful to say the words,

never stop practicing, never stop rehearsing.

And a lot of that not only can go from a coaching environment

where you've got teams together

or you're listening to phone calls,

you're doing role plays,

but to get a muscle memory going.

And again, this is brain memory going

that I can play a riff on a guitar

without even thinking about it because I feel it.

And, Carm, when you tried to first play that riff,

you couldn't do it.

No.

So, oh God, as a musician, let me,

so here it is, I wanna learn this incredible riff

that, you know, one of the biggest and best riffs

in rock music history.

And I struggled, what does it take 400 times to get it?

The point is, is that, yeah,

there's a lot of natural made, I get it,

tour guide type service advisors out there,

but the rest of us, we gotta work it.

Yeah.

We have to get better at our craft.

We have to acknowledge,

we have to create time and space,

and we have to realize that we don't know everything.

And that's another thing,

the longer you've been in this industry,

you may not be open to that

because you might feel exposed.

Well, I've been doing this for 10 years,

I'm not gonna let someone know

I don't understand how to do that, right?

Because I know you put that pressure on yourself,

whereas you can, I relate back to music.

You've got bands, I look up some of my favorite artists,

I would love to play with these bands, you know,

to play with them, but they never stop practicing.

I was reading an article,

there's a band called the Red Hot Chili Peppers,

we've probably all heard of them.

There's a bass player, Flea,

and he's pretty much been doing that,

you know, basically his whole life

and really he's got it, you know,

he's known worldwide.

And he practices hours a day.

Here's a guy that's at the top of the top,

but he's still learning.

I think of our service advisor industry,

like the service advisor might take a course a year

and okay, yeah, I took training.

Well, what does that mean?

You might have taken the training,

you nodded at some of the good ideas,

maybe you implemented one, but you have to keep on it.

Thank you for this, my mind is going a mile a minute

and I started to think about,

okay, I'm at the top of my craft,

I'm a service advisor, I've got great numbers,

people love me, I love my clients,

I get along really well.

And I could get, you know, if you will stagnant, complacent,

unless, because I was so good and so smart

and so on the cutting edge,

I'd say it's time to learn a new song.

Think about that, right?

If you can come with the showtime mentality

in this whole music and concept that you're working with,

it may be time to learn some new song.

I've always loved this song,

but I've never played it, I've never sang it,

I've never understood it, it's time, new song.

And change with the times.

If we look at bands like U2, U2 back in the 80s

was a completely different band

than what they turned out to be in the 2000s.

And they stayed relevant and they changed with the times,

right?

There's a lot of bands that phase out and they get,

well, this is an 80s band and they were big in the 80s,

but they weren't able to go into the 90s in the 2000s.

But when you look at bands that are successful

and long career, they change with the times.

And this is so important too.

When we think of getting ready for showtime

on a service advisor that's not comfortable with technology,

doesn't mean that's good for business.

Just because you don't wanna send a text message

doesn't mean your client doesn't want the text message.

Yeah, that was one thing I had written down

that I never talked about is,

how do people want to ultimately be contacted,

text, person, call?

If we're singing from the song list,

I have to learn what their song is all about.

That's just logical in CRM management today.

When we talk about online appointments,

there's a lot of pushback in the industry.

Service advisors, I don't want people to have my schedule.

I don't want them to make their own appointment,

but yet the clients want this.

They wanna be able to connect with your shop after hours

and book their own appointment.

So your audience is wanting something,

but you're saying, I don't want it

or I'm not comfortable with it.

Well, who are we here to serve?

Are we here to serve ourselves

or are we trying to get better and serve our clients?

Technologies changed, times have changed.

You too, back in the 80s,

if they were still looked and sounded the same,

they would have been gone years ago.

Okay, let's talk about online scheduling.

I'm open to it, schedule came in

and I see conflict brewing, something just happened.

From your experience,

you just pick up the phone and fix it, right?

It's no different than getting behind the shop

or having someone call in sick that you weren't prepared.

Flexibility.

It's not perfect, right?

Instruments do go out of tune at times.

One of my very first performances, Karm,

when I was playing, I do a 50 styles rockabilly sound

and I play the stand-up bass.

And my first show, if you can believe this,

my bass came apart on me.

All my strings went everywhere.

So here I am, maybe three songs into my set.

I'm nervous as anything

and my worst nightmare happened,

but here's the difference, I was prepared.

So I have an electric bass on standby.

So I was able to grab my electric bass, plug in,

and I finished my set with my electric bass

that at least got me through the set.

And then when I had some time, I put my bass back together.

The difference was I was prepared

and I didn't let that fear of my bass

coming apart stop me from performing.

I learned from it, right?

So when we go to online scheduling,

I hear all this, wow, no, it's conflicts

and this and that.

I'm like, yeah, but like you said, Karm,

flexibility, if 10 appointments can be booked online,

you've just saved time on those 10 appointments.

If one or two you have to react to, who cares?

You've saved all this time.

You've saved 10 phone calls, right?

Yeah, imagine taking that phone call saying,

hey, listen, my check engine light is on.

What do I do?

Or they see their check engine light is on,

they go to your website, they schedule and they're in

and there was no how much,

there was no how long, there was no nothing.

It's just like, please do me.

A classic example is a shop that offers tire storage.

You know those clients are coming back to see you

because you have their tires.

So why do you take all these phone calls

through your busy season from clients

you already know are coming back to see you?

See, we either pre-book that at next appointment

or say we've got something new,

you can now book online.

Because that way I don't have to book

a seasonal tire changeover.

I can work on other tasks throughout the day.

Everyone can notice Jason's talking about tire storage.

He also said the word kilometer.

Jason, of course, is in the Great White North.

Ontario, right?

In Ontario somewhere?

Ontario, yeah.

We just got through a pretty big heat wave

last couple of days, Karam, so.

Yeah, I know and we are the whole entire eastern side

of the US is when we're recording this.

It's just either we're just in it in the middle

or something like that.

We've never seen heat like this and I live in Buffalo

and we usually have 70, low 80s.

We're in the 90s.

It's amazing stuff.

Any final thoughts that we didn't cover

that you just like to give our audience?

Professional averse sales driven.

It's the long term.

You need to be consistent.

When you're not consistent,

you're now a master negotiator.

When you have systems of procedures in place

and your service advisors can have a consistent approach,

whether it's $5,000 or $25,

they present the information

and it's when the advisor presents the information.

When they're ready for show time,

the band, when they've rehearsed,

like when the Beatles rehearsed

to play the Ed Sullivan show,

they went on and they knocked it all the park

because they rehearsed, they were ready for the show.

It's your shop.

Are you ready for show time?

Great concepts.

Thank you so much for this, Jason Helidnick

from RPM Training Service Advisor Coach.

If you've listened to learn one great thing

in this episode, most importantly is implement it

and whatever ever you do, my friend, do it well.

Thanks for being here, man.

Thanks, Carl.

Thanks for being on board to listen and learn

from the Premier Automotive Aftermarket Podcast.

Until next time.

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