Chris:
Today we talk about is the future of our industry, just tires and alignments and Christian ways, the odds of his son’s life. Do you think he makes the right choice? I talk about my dog bite trauma and the greatest comedian of all time. And we get a question from Michael, a new service manager. I’m Chris Collins. This is Christian Lafferty. And that’s what’s coming up on today on service drive revolution.

Chris:
How old your son? Christian? Eight. Eight. Okay.

Chris:
You ready for a, would you rather? Yeah. Would you rather, your son have a pet boa, constrictor, you familiar with?

Christian:
I I’m aware of the animal. Yeah. What boa constrictor long, large snake doesn’t necessarily bite people in. They die by poison. He constricts them and they breaks their spines typically. Yeah.

Chris:
Wraps around them like a slinky and then,

Christian:
And consumes them over a really long period of time. But depending on the size of the prey, so pretty gruesome

Chris:
Death. Yeah. Okay. Would you, would you rather, your eight year old song have a boa constrictor as a pet, a rescue dog that bites people. It’s just a little glitchy, like overall, it’s a nice dog, but every time you look at it, it wants to kill you.

Christian:
Okay. Got it.

Chris:
Or a gecko. Okay. Couple of questions. What color is the gecko? Orange. Okay.

Chris:
So rare venomous.

Christian:
That could be an issue. Um, how, uh, is the boa constrictor? Fully grown

Chris:
A teenager. Okay. Knows it all. We all know about books, nothing worse than a teenage book and stricter that knows everything. Good.

Christian:
Good Lord. And then a very important question. The, the rescue dog that wants to eat everyone, does he want to eat my son? Okay.

Chris:
Uh, initially, yes,

Christian:
But then they start to become friends.

Chris:
Well, I don’t do I have a crystal ball?

Christian:
No, because it hasn’t happened yet. You’re right. Shine. My crystal ball

Chris:
Clear.

Chris:
I mean, there’s, there’s a pretty good chance. He did spit. Okay. I got bit the other day.

Christian:
Yeah. Your dogs have some pretty strong gels too. Yeah, I was worried. Yeah.

Chris:
Cause one time I spent three days in the hospital from a dog bite, tilling nicely though. Didn’t I didn’t get infected.

Christian:
So is that why you were in the hospital for three days? Cause you got infected.

Chris:
Yeah. So my, uh, I was somebody else’s dog and my dog at the time attack that dog. And I tried to break them up and I got bit right through the middle of my hand at the time. I see you can still see it. Oh, it’s a scar. But at the time my system was like, Oh, I worked at a vet all the time. We’re just going to put iodine on it. So he went and got iodine and basically I soaked my hand in iodine and all it did is make me look like I had some weird liver failure, some yellow, yellow stuff coming out. The next day I was doing like a live webinar or something that I had to perform in the whole time. I’m like sweating, just sweating after, you know, swelling. And it just, I felt terrible. So I drove myself to the emergency room right over here and I go in there and you know, they put me in a room and this funny little Asian doctor comes in and he looks at it and then he leaves for, I don’t know, it seems like forever. Right. And he comes back and he says, okay, we, we, uh, we have a bed for you upstairs. You’re going to be here a couple of days. And I was like, no, I can’t stay here for a couple of days. I got to fly to a dealer on Monday and he goes, Oh, he goes, you left-handed right-handed or left-handed. And it was on my left hand and he points and I hadn’t noticed, I literally had read

Christian:
Lot of the infection, went up the arm

Chris:
And he goes, so you learn right? Right-handed it’s okay. I was like, Oh. And so basically every six hours, they gave me a new drip of antibiotics. And I just sat there with my iPad and we counted for three days. That’s not, it was scary. So when this happened, um, same thing, they were just playing in to two of my Bulldogs are playing in. One of them went to get more leverage on the toy and you know, Nick to me, but it didn’t get infected. I doused it in.

Christian:
I was going to say it, but all that worry came back though. Yeah. Um,

Chris:
Your son could, you know, could, could endure that maybe three days in the hospital, man.

Christian:
I know this is probably not going to be popular, but I don’t really pick the popular option apparently, uh, in some cases, but I think I’m going to go with the boa. Constrictor really never had pet snakes. No

Chris:
Me neither. They creeped me out. No,

Christian:
But uh, one, one of our clients actually is, uh, he, uh, has a lot of pet, um, poisonous snakes, but there’s a correct way to handle them and everything like that. And I actually think that my kid would love having a bow constructor. I think that with the caging and everything like that, it’s way more predictable than the rescue dog in a venomous gecko. It’s just rude.

Chris:
Well, you know, about geckos being in Florida, right? Cause they’re everywhere.

Christian:
Yeah. They’re like, uh, uh, they’re like spiders in the Midwest. Like it’s just the UC geckos everywhere. Spiders in the Midwest.

Chris:
Yeah. Spiders everywhere in the Midwest. Really?

Christian:
Yeah, for sure. Well maybe, maybe in the farm lane, like where I grew up and that reminds me of something too. Do you ever wonder why cows have bells?

Chris:
Yeah. All the time. Yeah. I figured

Christian:
It’s because our horns don’t work. That’s a good card choke. Thank you. That’s right. If you’re a service advisor,

Chris:
You should be saying that all day at the drive. That’s funny.

Christian:
That’s great.

Chris:
It’s a good one to break the ice with a customer like that. Cause their horns don’t work. Let’s talk about the future of service departments. So I think you kind of have, you had two sides of this story, right? You have like the doom and gloom where the industry is going to change and there’s no maintenance to be done on electric cars and then you have the, everything’s going to be all right. Where do you fall in that equation? The doom and gloom or that everything’s going to be all right.

Christian:
Uh, I fall way more along the line of, we need to get really good at tires and alignments. Yeah. Why tires on the lemons? Because I don’t think that electric cars need much more than that.

Chris:
So we’re going to be tired, tired alignment shops. Okay.

Christian:
Yeah. Yeah. I really, Oh, so one of our listeners actually brought this up to up North. They also need to do, um, brake caliper services where they’re lubricating slide pins and everything like that. Because on an electric car, you don’t use the brakes very often. So they sit and up in the assault belt. Uh, the CalPERS will stick if you don’t clean them every once in a while and adjust the carburetor Also change out the, the, uh, the fuel pump every once in a while on the electric cars don’t have fuel pumps. Yeah. They don’t have carburetors either, but I know it was joke. I know it was hilarious. I don’t know. I laugh at your jokes, even if it’s a courtesy, you laugh before I tell the jokes. I just think your segues for funny, if you ever,

Chris:
Do you ever wonder about

Christian:
Like, what kind of segue is that? Right. I know. I feel like there are lessons that I’m trying to, trying to teach. You know, it’s a lot like how do you stop a bull from charging? Oh, take away his credit card. Oh, that’s funny. That was a couple of back to back

Chris:
A couple nights ago I went down at norm McDonald’s like I found a new, I don’t know, what, what would you call it on YouTube? Like where they serve up videos, like a new playlist or something warm stuff. She’s so he’s so funny.

Christian:
He’s my, he’s my idol. Honestly. I think he’s so it doesn’t even matter. And I heard somebody describe him the other day is Norma McDonald is the guy that it doesn’t matter what the heck it is. That ends up being funny, even when it’s not. And that’s why I like him so much. He can just be talking about regular stuff and it ends up being funny.

Chris:
He’s the best. Who, so who do you think the greatest comedian is of all time?

Chris:
That is,

Chris:
It’s kind of a dumb question, right? It’s like, okay.

Christian:
Yeah, because I think there’s so many and they’re so different too, but I mean, there’s definitely a, there’s no elite group, right? Like I think that norm is right up there with his genre of comedy that does, I think George Carlin, Sam Kinison. Um, I definitely think people I’m partial to people that are low a little bit to the older. I’m not necessarily into the new humor yet, but I’m trying, I’m trying to give it a shot, like who would be classified as new, uh, like the YouTube guy that has millions of you or some doebrick David Dover consider that guy comedian. I think that he is considered in comedic genre. For sure. I think that the

Chris:
First of all, maybe I should have asked a different like just stand up. Oh, just stand up. Cause I don’t think that kid could do stand up.

Christian:
I don’t know. He doesn’t have to for sure. But I

Chris:
It’s a lot different when you’re doing sketches, then you have other people around you and you have the ability to reshoot something when it stand up. It’s just you and there’s no net.

Christian:
Okay. Then I think standup wise norm. And especially if you watch his videos and the way that he can improvise and work with the crowd and it doesn’t matter what they say he’s gonna win. Um, so I think he’s pretty amazing when it comes to that,

Chris:
That stuff. Yeah. Some of lately like too, like Dave Chappelle, that sticks and stones.

Christian:
Oh gosh. I’ve watched it so many times. Yeah. There’s that opening with the, with the 1999 songs, right?

Chris:
Yep. And then, um, yeah, the great people of Atlanta, we live in a time where Anthony Bordain killed himself.

Christian:
Yeah. And that laugh like the, Oh crap. I just laughed at somebody committed suicide. Like you have these you’re you’re, you’re you’re humored and you’re guilty all at the same time. Like the way he kind of evokes emotion. I think Chappelle’s a genius too.

Chris:
Yeah. He’s in that the, uh, the last Louis CK one before he was killed, but I think it’s called 2017. He does this thing on her where you never know if he’s for or against. Cause he goes so far both ways and it’s, I mean, it’s a really crazy thing to be able to pull that off. Yeah.

Christian:
I think he does that really well. And I think Anthony Jeselnik actually is just as good at that as Louis C K.

Chris:
Yeah. I’ll do. There’s just something about him that he’s not likable. No, he isn’t. He’s an. I don’t like him. So I have a hard time really enjoying him because he’s not likable. There’s something about being likable, you know, I don’t know. There’s something to that. So get really good at tires and alignments. Um, what about the idea? This is a theory of mine, but I think based on a lot of facts that cities like Los Angeles, New York, Dallas are going to implement grids for driverless cars because the thing with driverless cars is they’re not as efficient if they’re not all on it. So there will be zones where once you come into LA, this area of there’s no more stoplights, it’s all air traffic control through the grid. The cloud and cars have to be turned on to the grid. And that’s it because it eliminates traffic. It’s safer there. You know, it’s more efficient.

Chris:
People are going to need their cars retrofitted. I think that though, there’s, you know, there’s already 50 companies out there working on driverless technology, but I think big corporations like BMW Volkswagen will have their own version of it. I think Apple will probably sell their technology. Also. I’ve, I’ve read that. That’s one of the things besides a car that they’re working on is retro kits that would upgrade current vehicles to be driverless. So don’t you think that service departments will be inundated in cities that make it mandatory in the next five to seven years that the cars are driverless. That w all the used cars will be upgraded before they’re sold to that, in that area. And people will be wanting to have that done so they can go into that area to work.

Christian:
Yeah. I think that that’s a, that’s probably going to be one of the last big hurrahs of the service center, right.

Chris:
Will happen more in populated areas. Yeah, no doubt. So I think that we will have huge opportunity there. I think another thing with the future of service departments is more and more, it’s going to be fleet business. I think we’re starting to see that right now, but as time goes, people will be, you know, they will be in subscription base purchases. It won’t even be leasing anymore. And in those will be maintenance and repairs will be included in the warranty and they will just go to wherever that fleet contract is. Right.

Christian:
Yep. And I think that the big thing on that, and just hear me out on this, I think that the, that the value to the fleet company is, is not going to be price. It’s going to be turned around because there’s a cost to that thing being off the road. Yeah. It’s not necessarily going to be, they’re not looking for 1999

Chris:
Trucks yeah. Would with heavy trucks. So there’ll be more fleets. I think that I did have tires also, like you said. Yeah. I think that, uh, whoever has the technicians will win. I think you’ll be able to charge a premium if you have the technicians, because it will be harder and harder.

Christian:
Well, especially when it comes to like your modification theory, right? Like, I don’t want the, I don’t want it. I don’t want a $10 an hour tech doing my modification. That’s actually going to be responsible for driving my car. Right. Like you want that thing done. Right. And they will absolutely be a premium on the people that are the best at it.

Chris:
Th that recently there was a article in automotive news is actually in November and we’re trying to get him on, but he was talking about how in Michigan general motors and Ford switched sides in the lawsuit of the dealers suing. So Tesla couldn’t sell, sell and service cars there. And that UAW, the union also switched sides and was not only backing Ted’s Teslas direct to consumer. They were saying that not even carving out for Tesla for all auto makers, to be able to go direct to consumer. So I’ve said this for a long time. And you know, it always seems like I’m talking to yeah. To air that the manufacturers are going to go direct to consumer with the car sale, which is going to leave service departments for dealerships in an identity crisis, because there’s still going to be very needed in the marketplace.

Chris:
But most of the dealers in general managers, their identity is tied up in how many cars they sell. And so a lot of dealers will sell. So there’ll be more consolidation in the lithium and the auto nations. And all the bigger companies will grow dramatically in the, you know, mom and pop dealer groups. And dealers will slowly sell over time, but it’ll be the Penske’s the lithium is the AutoNation’s the groups. Maybe there’ll be another group that’ll, that’ll come out of nowhere, but there’ll be more and more consolidation through this identity crisis that the car sale will no longer be the star of the show service will, but the service department will become more and more important. And I think, you know, service departments will be allowed to have satellites and it’ll be more about the customer experience. It also will be more of a fleet based type thing where you can do it in warehouses and you don’t have to have the customer facing part of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian:
I think that that’s beautiful for expansion, right? Like that’s the thing with the dealerships is they got these big beautiful multi-million dollar Taj Mahals, but man, if you can have, you can have eight lifts and an off-site location, what kind of money can you generate out of that? Did it’s not customer facing, what would a great opportunity for service centers?

Chris:
Yeah. More than anything, you know, the cars will drive themselves to us or we will go pick them up. But the idea of a service drive will be less and less. Yeah.

Christian:
That flip it. That’s a, that’s a really big thing because I think that, you know, everyone thought that the, the big three were going to kind of sit behind their dealers until the end. Right. And it’s, it was really kind of a downhill thing because I think both Ford and GM invested in like rebellion and, uh, the newer companies and stuff like that. So once they started to kind of say, okay, it’s coming. Um, I think that was my worry for the way that the dealer model is, but it’s not, it’s not going to say the same. And I think, just think we’ve got to get ready for it. But service is definitely the,

Chris:
Yeah. That’s good stuff. Okay. Let’s go to a question. The number, if you have a question that you’d like Christian and I to answer is eight three, three, three, ask SDR. That’s stress, stress ask STR STR, but that’s only if you’re in Maldovia.

Michael Ramirez:
Hi, my name is Michael Ramirez. Uh, I’m a new service manager. I just finished my first year. Um, so I’ve got one year under my belt here and I’m just wondering, what would the top tips you would give to a new service manager? Um, that’ll help them, you know, potentially have a, uh, a successful career. Uh, I appreciate any feedback.

Chris:
That’s great. Michael, we’re going to make a top 10 list for you. There we go. Um, here’s what I propose, Michael. I will send you my book, the irreplaceable service manager, and there’s, I don’t know, 13 chapters in here. So we have how to be an irreplaceable service manager, pattern, interrupt, pricing, selling maintenance, and repair shift meetings, increase customer satisfaction, pay plans and minimum requirements, hiring Bulldogs, bulldog marketing, setting goals, training, common terms, time management, action log, and the rule of five. So we will send that due to you, and I think that’ll help. It will, it will get you started on the right track. And, um, it’s also a fun read. It’s easy to read and, you know, I call this a two cup of coffee, or you can read this over two cups of coffee. So we’ll send you that because, I mean, honestly, you’re kind of, um, what would you say a little, uh, aggressive there that,

Christian:
So his kids at MUSC have the top 10 lists? Um, yeah, I think that the book is definitely a great place to start. Also want to say that Michael’s kind of in that zone that are our favorite, right? Those people that are kind of new, fresh, starting out. And I was thinking from the service manager perspective, he’s kind of right. Like a year is just kind of getting started with everything. And, and I would say that if you learn this stuff in year one year 10 is gonna be great.

Chris:
Yeah. And we, we have online service advisor training and service manager university. We have customer service training and training for your techs to understand what the service advisors are doing and to create communication between them. And it’s, you know, $250 a month, which is nothing compared to what you will see an ROI and return. So go to Chris Collins, Inc com and sign up for our, on-demand, get your advisors on there and get your tax on there. And that that’ll give you a Kickstarter. It’ll change the conversation. Also it’ll change the morale in your service drive. When advisors have tools that are working, they have more confidence or having more fun and just the energy will change. So, you know, sign up for that also, but we’ll send you the book and that’s, that’s a good place to start Christians wearing a shirt. And I’m, I’m actually jealous that they didn’t make me one of these, but our, our crew over kind of the COVID break, we shot a movie.

Chris:
It’s really a movie called the review are all customers crazy. And it’s going up on our, on demand, the training platform that I was mentioning for everybody. And our idea was to have training that was not only entertaining and engaging, but also kind of had a deeper message and that your employees wouldn’t feel like they were just watching a talking head, tell them what to do, but that they were being entertained. And, you know, we’re taking them on an emotional journey at the same time, but the outcome of it is understanding customer service and how to connect with customers on a deeper level. So check that out on demand the reviews going up now, and then we’ll put a preview up for it to on our, on our channel, but fun show. Oh man, this was great. I had a good time. Thanks everybody for joining us. And we will see you next time on the service drive revolution. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of service drive revolution. We’re uploading new stuff every week. So make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out. If you have a question you’d like us to answer on the show, call us at eight three three three, ask SDR that’s eight three three three, ask SDR for special deals on our books and training head over to offers dot Chris Collins, Inc com that’s offers dot Chris Collins, Inc com I’m Chris Collins, and I’ll see you next time on service drive revolution.