This week’s episode features Tom Dorsey (VP the Digital Shop) & Christoph Schopfer (Auburn Euro Motors, Auburn CA)
[Tom] – Good morning and good afternoon. Welcome to this week’s edition of Digital ShopTalk Radio. I’m [Tom] Dorsey. That’s Napa headquarters. I’m in Atlanta. Not so hot Atlanta, Georgia today. I’m gonna be doing a audition for my Napa Expo breakouts. So you got me in the remote Digital ShopTalk studio. Today I’ve got a great guest on. He’s actually a return guest. You might remember. Christoph Chauffeur from Auburn Euro Motors. He’s a guy who was on a couple months back. And fires were burning all around him. He was operating off of a generator serving his community while everybody else ran for the valley. And last time I saw you Christoph, you were at Digital Shop conference. How did that go for you, buddy?
[Christoph] – It went really well. We brought both our service advisors down there. And we got a lot out of it, so
[Tom] – Yeah. That was a bummer. I mean, I just basically saw you in the hallway. It was so busy. We didn’t get a chance to like hang out. But tell me how it went man. Was it worth the time? Did you come back? You know, did your service advisors come back full of fire and ready to implement what they learned?
[Christoph] – Yeah, I know definitely worth it. We’re gonna go again next year. It was, yeah, it was really good. I didn’t really know what to expect we’ve never been before. So in talking to people that have gone before, it sounds like it’s, you know, it’s gaining some momentum. And just gonna get bigger and bigger. So that’s good. Yeah, I got back. For me, it was more for my service advisors. But they were being rock stars. When they got back. They were already rock stars, but now that they went down the conference and just networking with other shop owners. And it was huge.
[Tom] – Yeah, that’s awesome. Now I’m glad you guys got to come out. I’m glad you got to bring your service riders. I’m glad they’re fired up, you know. What would you say was kind of, let me put it this way. Did you come back with an action plan? And what are you working on implementing from either stuff you learned the Digital Shop Conference or stuff that you had planned on getting done. And just needed some verification when she got out to conference.
[Christoph] – Mostly it was stuff that I’ve been putting off. Stuff I was planning on doing. That, you know, got me to get the ball rolling on that. Some of the other stuff that we got out of it was more just from listening to the speakers talk. I keep looking down, I actually have a whole list of stuff. We typed up on the way back. Actually my service advisor typed this out. Just the networking I had with my two service advisors outside of work was huge And what they expected us as the owner, and how they wanted to go about their day to day. What I can do to help them to give them the tools. Help them do their job better. Maybe this is so we’re always busy.
[Tom] – Yeah, now that’s great. And you know it kind of worked out perfect for you. Because last time we were on, you know, last time you came on the show. I mean, you were just kinda at the end of, you know, getting implemented, right? You were kind of getting your feet wet and getting started in the program. And so now I imagine you’re kind of ready to take it to the next level. Start to refine what you guys are doing. And so what does that look like for you? What’s on the horizon?
[Christoph] – So what I’m working on now is making sure my inspection is dialed. The physical or digital inspection that the technicians do. Making sure that it’s dialed so there’s no questions between front and back. I was seeing a lot of back and forth. What does this mean? What does that mean? Now you don’t, I don’t have an action for that. Or I don’t have a condition for this. So just refining that. I mean, we’re now 14 months in from when we fully implemented. I think last time while I was saying you know, we were eight or nine months. And it took us a good solid five months to get it completely dialed. So yeah, now I’m working on the small things. And there’s still a lot of features of the software that we don’t use. Not that you know, we’re still learning it. So there’s just a lot. But that’s kind of what I wanted to talk about. You know, making your own inspection, making it yours.
[Tom] – Yeah, I mean, that’s so important, right? We give you a couple inspections out of the can. And then you know, we’ve got the library of shops that have shared their inspection sheets. But it really is critical that you get an inspection sheet. And as a matter of fact that you get the technicians in the service rider involved in the creation of that inspection sheet. Because they’re gonna teach you how they like to move around the vehicle, where they start, where they wanna finish. And so they can be as efficient as possible. So what changes are you looking at making to cus[Tom]ize the sheet for your operation?
[Christoph] – So one successful thing that I did is I started from complete scratch. I just clean slate. Made my own inspection. A lot of the actions are can jobs from my POS software that you know AutoVitals just brings right in. But you have to go in there and put them in there. For example brake fluid. I had to do a right foot flush, diagnose you know. I got someone at can jobs. And then
[Tom] – It takes a little bit of setup, but once it’s done then it’s you know, then it’s good to go.
[Christoph] – Yeah, yeah. So it’s it is a lot of work. It’s necessary. I know people who have shared their own inspections. I share my inspection on there. And a lot of people are like well, why do you share it? If you’re telling me to make my own? Well, you know, it’s there as a guide. Every single shop is different. Like for example, if I would open a second location, I’m gonna make a completely different inspection. You know, it’s completely different. We’ve tweaked it to the way we do our inspections from the test drive to putting the car up in the air. The guys have a certain way of doing things a certain order. And it’s constantly evolving. You know, I’m adding stuff probably every couple weeks. One of the guys be like, Oh, can you add this? Or can you add that? Or for example, there’s I know there’s BMW shops out there listening, you know, flex disk on a BMW. I didn’t have flex disk cracking in there. I just added that this morning. You know, I guess we didn’t have one that have cracks flex disk. But anyways, there was no spot for that under driveline. So it’s constantly changing. It’s really important to get the feedback from the technicians. And put what they want in the inspection. But worded in a way where the service advisor can’t tweak it. You know, and it makes sense when it gets sent to the customr. It really, it frees up a lot of time in the front. And in the back. You know, by putting in the time make everything the way it should be.
[Tom] – Yeah, and it’s one of those things where you know, and it’s kind of a living document, right? It’s gonna continue to evolve. As you know, new models come out. And they have different components or different systems on them that you need to add to it. And so, do you have a process set up where your technicians are able to give that kind of feedback. And say, hey, we need this added. Service riders kind of do the same thing. And then work together to kind of evolve it to where you’re getting now. Or you’re going full cus[Tom].
[Christoph] – Yeah, so in the beginning, I made up a sheet that had conditions and actions on it. And you know, condition, action and then like subject. And there was like 10 things for conditions and 10 actions. And I gave each one to each technician. And as they do their inspections throughout the week, if something comes up, they would just write it on there. Like, Oh, brake fluid, you didn’t have high moisture content. They write that. Then the action would be, you know, flush brake fluid. So and then we would have our weekly meeting every Tuesday. They would turn them in to me. I would look at them I would put it in AutoVitals. I did that every week for, you know, solid, three or four months. We’ve tapered away from that. Now, it’s maybe one thing every one week or two weeks. It might go a month before I need to add something. But now what they’ll do is they’ll send me. We communicate through the computers. They’ll send me a note with a conditioning and action. And I’ll just do our thing and they’re gonna test. We all know it takes five minutes, you know.
[Tom] – Yeah and it’s great when you get to that point where you’re just doing one offs, right? And then you just get them done on the fly. And so for folks that are listening, you know, are you getting new to digital inspections? Or you know, you want to take it to the next level. Make sure if you don’t have it implemented now, you get that implemented. Regardless of the delivery, just make sure that it’s monitored, that it’s acted upon, right? So whether you’re doing it in your weekly shop meetings. And you’re getting feedback from the texts and the riders on what changes need to be made to the inspection sheet. You got it on a whiteboard, you’re sending text messages or chats through the system. Anyway, just make sure that the process is communicated. And that you take an action on it when folks give you that feedback. So that you can get to that point where you have the most effective inspection sheet. That most efficient inspection sheet. And then what happens you get better inspections, you get them done quicker, you get more recommendations in there, you sell more.
[Christoph] – Yeah, exactly. It’s more about, you know, I’ve always managed by giving my technicians the tools they need. Giving your staff the tools they need. If you don’t give them the tools they need, they can’t do their job. So it’s our job as managers or owners, as the implementer you know. You gotta put the time in and make sure that that inspection is good.
[Tom] – You know, 100%, right. You can’t expect them to follow those best practices if they’re trying to give you the feedback. And you’re just not following through, right? And so you have to own it as much as you want them to own it. And then together, you guys really, you know, collaborate on what’s the best. And the best thing about it is when you get the text input like that well then now, there’s no real excuse to say, Oh, you know, you didn’t ask me. This isn’t my idea. No, this you know, they were involved. And if they’re involved and they’re committed. And then they’re gonna follow through.
[Christoph] – Exactly.
[Tom] – So what’s that look like? So you’re in the middle of building? And now let me ask you this, are you building multiple inspection sheets? Do you have like, you know, quick 20 point, 25 point that you run first? And then if you find areas of concern, do you do a more in depth inspection sheet? Or you’re looking to do a single comprehensive?
[Christoph] – So I have a single inspection right now. There’s a few I want to add small. You know, we call it our vehicle health check.
[Tom] – Yeah, very good.
[Christoph] – We’re Carlfornia. So you can’t really use the word safety. Even if it’s legal ramifications with the BAR. When you call it a safety inspection. So we call it a health check.
[Tom] – Awesome.
[Christoph] – And there’s some stuff I wanna add. We do a lot of pre purchase inspections. Especially with, you know, high end cars. People wanna have them looked at first. And I have taken our normal inspection and added a couple points to it. But I need to add. I still have a lot of work to do on that one. I recently when I got back from the conference, added like for example, a charging system check. Which is literally two points. And it’s a two point inspection on top of our normal health check which is and honestly 30 or 43 points. Anyways. So yeah, I don’t wanna make it too complex. I like to keep things simple. But once again, you know, we run the season specials for our customrs every now and then. And I’ll have like, oh, we’ll check your battery and your charging system. We usually know. You know, we look at your battery on an inspection. We don’t physically hook it up through a machine and check it. You know, make sure it’s charging. Make sure the battery is up to stack. And everything. So I . It’s two points, you know. It’s an inspection of two things on it.
[Tom] – Now that’s good. And for folks who have like the hundred quick check. Or anything like that or you know battery testers that we integrate with. You know, make sure if you’re gonna add that charging topics just like Christoph did, make sure you go in there and mark that. You know, you want your hunter information. Because we’ll pull that right out of your hunter equipment. And display it on the inspection results for your customr. And well for your service rider to sell off of so. Now that’s fantastic. So have you noticed? So what have you noticed at least from an efficiency perspective? Or are you getting more complete inspections? A more detailed or kind of dialed in that you get your inspection sheet.
[Christoph] – So number one I would say, that the service advisors are doing less editing. They’re still edited the pictures If there’s not a action or condition for something. And the technician has to type it in. And it’s not worded. It’s worded funky or spelling or whatever it may be, you know. The other guy to go in there do their thing. Where it is, if it has a, something they can just click on it, so it frees them up there. I’m sure you know, my technicians haven’t told me. But I’m sure it’s freeing them up as well ‘Cause they’re not typing. They’re just clicking buttons. And then the other thing is, as they give me feedback, like Oh, why are we checking the tires when it’s on the ground? It’s easier to check the tires when it’s there. Okay, let’s move back to this section. Those little things. I mean, it really speeds them up. So to answer your question, yeah, I’m getting more complete inspections. The technicians are a bit faster. As far as what we’re selling. That’s about the same average Because in the end of the day the service advisors were editing. And just took them longer. And I just took longer to get inspection of a customr. Well, now it’s more a lot quicker.
[Tom] – Yeah. Because that’s really important, right? There’s two pieces of two. You know, it’s comprehensive. It’s complete so that you’ve got the information in there. So the service rider can communicate to the customr. But it also has to be efficient, right? It has to be, make sense from a flow. You know, workflow perspective. How your operations setup, how your bays are set up, right? You wanna make sure that you’re getting that input. And you’re testing it and you’re monitoring it. And track it and look at the numbers, right? What’s the average time to completion those types of things. So that you can make sure that you’ve got the best setup possible. And then after that they’re just crank the throttle up, right? So Christoph, let me ask you this buddy. You know when, for folks that wanna do this, right. They’ve just been operating off of the AV, you know, the canned inspection, default inspection that it comes with. What would you recommend? What do they do first? Like how do they map that stuff out? And start to you know, going from scratch is a pretty big thing really. Or what you thinking about it?
[Christoph] – So how I did it is I created my own when I did it. When I say blank, I mean it was blank. You have your boxes. If you have a paper. what I did is if you have a paper inspection and this also goes into implementing too. Take your paper inspection and then go through. I don’t have one here, but you know, I had sections that the guys knew, you know. You have the road tests, And I mirrored. I basically mirrored our paper inspection. Because everybody has their own paper inspection that they’ve refined over the years, you know. Yours might look different than the dealer, than this other shop down the street. We all look at the same stuff. But you know, your guys get used to how you do your inspections. So I basically did that. I took each item, you know, like air filter. And I kept them in the same order. So really, when we did first go digital, it was the same inspection we were doing. It was just in a different format. So that really helped. I know a lot of people are using, like you said that the AV, AutoVitals generic inspection or whatnot. I mean, heck. I’m in the top 20 group. And there’s a guy in my group. He didn’t even like know you can make your own inspection. Then he just gave it to their guys. And they were just, you know. And I’m like, now you got it. You gotta make your own inspection. And it makes it a lot easier. At first, it takes time. I mean, I’m not gonna lie. spent 10 hours making our inspection at first. Not all at the same time. It might be five hours here, four hours here. I sat down and I did it though. And you got to do that. It’ll save so much time in the long run. I mean, it’ll make up for itself in like two weeks.
[Tom] – Yep. It’s time well spent, right? Especially with an implementation perspective. You know, if you’re getting pushback from your technicians, that’s one way to get them to overcome it. Right? Matter of fact I learned that from Bill Connor years ago when he was still working over at Craigs. And you know, his guys there. I think the average age of his text was like 53. You know, he had some old dogs in there. And so it’s, you know, there’s an added degree of difficulty from implementing a digital inspection. Especially back then, right? It was four or five years ago. And so, you know, I’ll never forget. He said, you know, I got them involved. They picked out what tablets they were gonna use in the cases. And then they went through and defined the process that they were gonna, you know. How they were gonna perform the inspections. And the topics that needed to be on there. And he just built what they asked him to build. And then once he got that, right, you asked me to build it this way. And it’s a lot harder on you know. It’s a lot more difficult for you to not use it. Or have excuses why you’re not gonna use it, right? ‘Cause it’s you know, you were involved in its creation. So, now it’s critical, you know. And if you’re getting ready to do that, do exactly that, right? Map that thing out. And get all the input in there. So there’s no surprises. Everybody’s committed. Then you put in the work because like what Christophe said, if you’re gonna sit down. And knock that thing out over five hours or and then another five hours of edits and updates. And then you present it, and they’re all as completely backwards. I need it like this. Well, it goes another 10 hours, you know. And nobody wants to do that. So make sure that you define it well. You know, test it. You know, get that commitment. Then spend the time and build it. And then, you know once you put in the heavy work, then after that, it’s just maintenance. It’s just, you know, a couple, you know, minutes here and there making sure that it’s up to date and complete. And taking care of anything. Like you said, when you get the flex plate that you haven’t had that job in yet, and you add it in. And you just refine it over time. So that’s great Christoph. A great advice for, you know, folks following in your footsteps. Coming up and wanting to create that cus[Tom] inspection for their operation. And so you said you’ve got yours in the library. So it’s under Auburn Euro Motors.
[Christoph] – Yeah, it’s called a Vehicle Health Check. And like I said, I mean, feel free to take a look at it. One thing is, our can jobs are unique to our business. Or you’re gonna see them and they’re not gonna make any sense. But you can kind of check it out. And that’s what works for us. I’ve seen other people’s inspections in, you know, in the system. And to me, it doesn’t make sense for my operation. But the end of the day, they’re checking the same things we’re checking. Just in a different, you know. Their people do it a little different than we do it vice versa.
[Tom] – Yeah, it depends, you know, what type of volume you’re doing. What’s your operation, like, you know. What’s gonna make sense for you? But, you know, once you get in you could see it in the numbers, right? It’s evident. When you get into the business control panel, set yourself a baseline. That’s what I always recommend. You know, first thing you do is you go in and just put an event marker. On this day I changed the inspection sheet. Because then from there, you can start to track you know. You got a baseline and you can start to see. Are things improving? Or are they getting worse, right? From a number of recommendations for inspection perspective. You know, picture, edit rate. Whatever it might be and the ability to convert, right? You might see your recommendations, the estimate or estimate the invoice ratios, you know, either increasing or decreasing. And so after you make those changes. And so you wanna be able to flag that stuff. So you can go back in, analyze it and refine it. So that, you know, we get all the needles moving up and in the right direction. And then, you know, just let it go.
[Christoph] – Yeah.
[Tom] – So that’s fantastic. So a lot of good input from the text, a lot of good input from the service riders. How about the customrs? You know, are the customrs starting to give you that feedback? What are they saying?
[Christoph] – Yeah, so in the beginning, a lot of our customrs didn’t really get the inspection. And this has nothing to do with us training them on it. Yeah, we’ve got better training on what they’re gonna see, what they’re going to get when they send it out. But they just look more professionals. You know, there’s a condition, there’s action. Instead of a condition, it would say see notes. And then there’d be notes and then actions, you know. It’s like it’s there. And it’s there. That there’s condition action. And then one thing I did. And I know you guys worked hard on this. But you have videos that you put out, like, why you shouldn’t change differential . I found for me, I took all that stuff out. So it’s just, it’s very simple. And then the service advisor, you know, kind of will go over why they need to do certain things. I have yet to do this, but I wanna make my own video of me explaining why you do your differential service. Or why you do a transfer case. Yeah, so.
[Tom] – Now that’s great from a personalization perspective, right? It shows you, you know, in your operation. And you know, it’s great. You know, sitting in for that educational content. That’s why we made it that flexible. You know, if your service riders are better at it, take it out. If you need their help leave it in. If you wanna create your own, host them on YouTube. And just put a YouTube link in there. You can also just push a link to your website, right? If you’ve got a really great educational content on your website. You know, the landing page for diff fluid might be, you know, great. It might have video in there and picture and information from the OEMs. Or information from your vendor, you know. Whoever you’re getting your fluids from. And you can push people to that. And it’s kind of serves the same purpose, right? Is because with, you know, with the digital age, you know, everybody shopping on Amazon and whatnot. As we’re kind of conditioned to have these processes where we go through. And we say, okay, I need to decide, do I need this? Or here’s the factors that I’m gonna Google to figure that out. Then I need to figure out you know, how I’m going to get the best deal. And what should I expect. And how much should it cost and how much time should it take. And all these things. And if you can provide that information, you know, either through the inspection sheet or through a landing page. Or through a video of yourself telling them that. That you can add into that inspection result. You kind of check all those boxes. And now they’re ready to make a decision, right? If you don’t check the boxes, well, then they’re going to go Google that stuff. And then good luck, right? Because who knows where they’re gonna end up landing once you get them back on the phone?
[Christoph] – Yeah, exactly.
[Tom] – And so really be creative, you know. Have fun with it. You know, do like you know if you got to catch Neil Daly’s breakout right over at Digital Shop Conference. Neil from Oceanside, right? And there’s a episode he did and he talks about bringing in props and bringing in culture into his inspection program. The educational videos are great place to do that, right? Just keep it you know, just keep it PG and under. Nobody wants to see you running around in your skivvies in your shop.
[Christoph] – Yeah.
[Tom] – Some kids are watching. Do you know? Now a that’s a great point though. And you know, really use that educational content. For what makes it work for you. And then again, put that baseline, put that event marker in there. And see if it’s having the desired effect. You put in the new videos, hey, we’re seeing more sales. And for diff fluid exchange, right? Or we’re not. And then you can mix it up. But don’t just kind of leave it there and hope for the best. Track it through your metrics to make sure that it’s having the effect that you want. If it’s not, tweak it and do it again. Is part of the fun is part of the journey.
[Christoph] – Yeah, like you said, it’s just maintenance after you get And just a few minutes here and there. Yeah.
[Tom] – Yeah and you’re always you know, getting, you know, always. But if you look at it from a perspective of I wanna provide the best value to my customr. Then it’s fun, it’s educational and it’s valuable. And when you do that, you Yes, you will probably do some more sales. But more importantly, you probably have a customr that comes back to you. You know, for life. And continues to tell their friends and bring their other vehicles and whatnot to you. So there’s other you know, there’s ancillary benefits to taking the time to add that value into your inspection program. Other than today’s sale, right?
[Christoph] – Exactly.
[Tom] – And it’s good for culture building inside of the shop too, you know. Your guy, you know, your staff sees that and they see that you’re focused on that type of service. And providing that value to customrs. And then that brings that out in them also. They’re gonna come with great ideas. And you never know, you might have a budding, you know, educational superstar right there in the bay right now. You just haven’t got him out there in front of the camera and let him drop his knowledge, you know. And so you might even have people involved right from your staff that wanna be involved in that. And really bring their passion out. Because I’ll tell you what, I gotta bring my car in and you know it’s kind of like going to the dentist a little bit, right? I know, it’s gonna be painful. But boy, I’ll tell you what, if I see somebody who’s that passionate about serving, you know. Serving the community and taking care of my car. And you know, I mean, it makes it a lot of, you know, easier pill to swallow when you’re going to a business like that. And it’s a really good way to get that reputation out there. And just, you know, develop your culture. You know, we’re big on developing culture through the Digital Shop process here at AutoVitals, right?
[Christoph] – Yeah. And I mean, that’s part of, I think, I’ve been working on culture here for, it’s not an overnight past years. Years, like over three years. And this last year has been just amazing. This last year has been our first year, all digital, and that might have something to do with it, you know. That transparency we provide to customrs, really shows that we care. And the technicians I have really care. And you know, they see me in the ownership doing the things to make it transparent and an awesome experience for the customrs. And they wanna be part of that. So yeah, correct.
[Tom] – Yeah, you know you’d be surprised. You know, hey, you know, culture starts in communication, right? And when you get the Digital Shop installed and you got better communication. And folks are seeing that their ideas and thoughts and concerns are actually important. And being addressed. It has an impact, right? And then from there, you just continue to build on that. And really get as transparent. You know, we like to bring, you know, some of the king of culture, right? Russ Crosby, and you know he had a great breakout at Digital shop conference, talking about the same thing. John Long from shirts, you know, on and on. I mean, I Christoph Chauffeur, right? These guys that are coming out there and focusing on that. And using the Digital Shop to communicate better and bring their team together, right? Show them, like you said, the transparency, what’s the big picture? And you’d be surprised at how many are willing to start pulling the rope with you. Instead of just, you know, before they’re just standing around, hey, I’d like to help. But I don’t really know where we’re going and which way. And nobody’s told me to do anything. So I’ll just stand here and twiddle my thumbs. When you get them involved. Well, you’ll be surprised. And a lot of times you can just get out of the way after you’ve established that type of momentum in your culture. And you know, you don’t have to worry, you know you’re gonna be out of the shop for the next three days. Sales are up, right? Costs are down. Because you got that super strong culture and you you don’t have to spend so much time in there with your thumb on their backs, right? Now, so that’s fantastic, buddy. I mean, I just, you know, first time we had you on, you know and hearing your story. And even meeting you out at drives at the Drive Conference. You know, you’re just a really impressive operator, you know. And I’m excited to see you develop and see. You know, hear your story. And listen and learn from you. You know, as you grow. You mentioned something a minute ago when you said, you know, if I open up a second location. I mean, is that in the cards?
[Christoph] – No
[Tom] – That’s the answer. Yeah, but you know I mean, that’s smart, right? It’s maximize what you can do in your one location. And then when you get to the point where you find yourself, you know, almost like Frank Skinner, And you’re right. Frank’s almost like a trainer and an educator with a shop on the side. Even though he just opened a second location over in Vegas, right? And so you know, it becomes where you guys all of a sudden you got so much free time on your hands. You’re gonna create, you’re gonna help and you’re gonna give back. And you’re gonna pay it forward. And then maybe you say, well, you know, okay. Maybe I’ll do another location or expand my location or my business. Because, you know, once you have a machine in place, it’s hard not to, you know, let it run.
[Christoph] – Exactly.
[Tom] – That’s fantastic. So, when are we gonna have you back on? When can we find out? So do you have specific goals built around the adjustments to your inspection program?
[Christoph] – Yeah, my main thing, as I was stating earlier, is mainly building those secondary inspections. Like said my pre purchase inspection
[Tom] – Well, you guys didn’t lose me.
– [Dustin] No, I think we lost Christoph there [Tom]. Yep. So we can kind of hang tight. Maybe we could talk about next week’s episode while we wait for Christoph to get back in here.
[Tom] – Yeah, fantastic. So next week we will be having the Ramsey brothers from Pennsylvania Meineke multi shop. Multi center owners, Ben and Nate Ramsey. What are they gonna come on and talk about?
– [Dustin] You know, they’re gonna talk about how they have been able to really make dramatic increases their arrow while still, you know, maintaining a high volume. Might be the you know, traditionally pretty high volume operations, right? And so they continue that model while boosting their arrow. But they’re gonna tell us how they did it.
[Tom] – Yeah, those guys are on fire. I mean, they were awesome at conference. We had a good time.
– [Dustin] Oh, man. Yeah, yeah. And actually, you know, yeah, there they were hooting half. But you know even to dovetail off that they’re gonna really dig into how the auditing process that they use. What’s the drive and motorists recharge time. And now that’s really made a huge difference in describing .
[Tom] – Yeah and they have some really, you know, they have some interesting processes, right? They’re very hands on. They’re very customr centric right? Like they go out and you know, meet them in the parking lot. And take them around and give them the whole tour. And they do that for each and every customr. So they’re very hands on. And it’ll be interesting to find out how you’re a high volume shop like that. Which can still be so hands on from your customr service perspective. So I’m really looking forward to seeing those guys. And anybody, you know, out there, Meineke locations or Multi Center owners, tune in next week. Because we got a great pair on there. These guys are just taking it. I mean, they’re just blowing up Meineke. I think they’re about to buy eight, nine more shops or something like that. So it’ll be great. Real good. Christoph, we got your back?
[Christoph] – Yes.
[Tom] – Now thanks for coming back. So we were talking right before when you dropped. We were talking about specific goals. So are you looking to see a sales increasing and your yearly increase? I mean, what number are you looking at to say, you know what this changes to my inspection sheet, were right way to go?
[Christoph] – Average we’re in a pretty good range. I would mainly like to get my existing customrs completely trained on. You know, I want them to be dialed in. To expect the inspection and then just, you know, basically pick up menu what they wanna get done. That’s my main goal.
[Tom] – Yeah, so that would be like motors research time. And probably time to approval right? From sent to
[Christoph] – Yeah, those two.
[Tom] – Now that’s fantastic, man. So that’s great. So we really wanna have you back on. So we’ll probably give you a couple months to get that stuff cooking. And then maybe, you know, in the Spring or sometime in the Summer, you come back in. And tell us how it’s working out for you.
[Christoph] – Okay, sounds good.
[Tom] – Deal. And then I’ll see you. I think I’ll see you in August. At least at the Drive conference, right? (mumbles Pasadena or Good, good, good man looking forward to seeing you. I’ve got to get up to Auburn man. I need vacation. Come on and see your operation. But all right, well, good. Until then Christoph, get out there and keep being successful. And you know like you said looking forward to the follow up. Everybody else tune in. And Christoph you too. Tune in next Wednesday, same time, same place. I think I’ll be in a place where it’s a little bit more warm. Hopefully I’ll be back in Santa Barbara. At the Digital Shop Talk Radio studio. Until then get out and make some more money. Thanks a lot, Christoph. Thank you, Dustin.
- PODCAST: Raising the Stakes By Refining the Process [Ep. 53, Jan. 29, 2020] - February 14, 2020