Service Drive Revolution — Episode #382

Official Full Transcript

Host: Chris Collins

Guest: Chris Hogland

Published: November 2, 2026

Duration: 50:22

Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify

Continuing our ongoing focus on customer experience, shop floor execution, and fixed operations growth, Service Drive Revolution — Episode #382 tackles the friction points that ruin dealership relationships. Host Chris Collins alongside guest Chris Hogland break down the five most annoying things SERVICE ADVISORS say to clients, why open loops and transactional greetings destroy customer retention, and how shifting the psychology of advisor training transforms your service drive.

---

Key Takeaways & Highlights

• The Danger of Transactional Greetings: Asking “Do you have an appointment?” immediately strips the human connection away and turns a service visit into a cold, clinical transaction.
• Open Loops and Vague Callbacks: Telling a customer “I’ll give you a call when I know something” leaves them anxious and uninformed because their perception of time never matches the shop’s.
• Making Customers Suffer for Shop Shortages: Complaining that the department is “short-handed today” forces the client to bear the penalty of poor internal planning and weak operational systems.
• The Dreaded “Could Not Duplicate” (C&D): Shipping an RO back with a C&D without proper verification alienates customers and makes them feel like their concerns are being brushed off.

---

Why Service Drive Phrasing Drives Customers Away

Many SERVICE MANAGERS and fixed ops directors wonder why customer retention drops off after three years, yet they rarely audit what advisors are actually saying in the drive lane. Routine phrases that feel harmless to an overwhelmed advisor often sound dismissive or cold to a customer making a major financial investment.

1. Killing the Connection With Cold Scripts

When an advisor greets a client with “Do you have an appointment?”, they shut down the customer’s mind. Top-performing advisors bypass the clipboard and look for human connection—noticing details about the client, their family, or their vehicle to build instant trust.

2. The Frustration of Unmanaged Expectations

Communication breakdowns happen when advisors fail to set specific follow-up timelines. Leaving a customer hanging without a clear update creates immense anxiety, driving them straight toward independent repair shops where communication feels more transparent.

---

Financial & Operational Impact of Fixing Advisor Phrasing

When you upgrade advisor psychology and eliminate off-putting vocabulary, departmental performance stabilizes across key metrics:

Performance Area	Operational & Financial Outcome
Customer Retention & Loyalty	Increases dramatically because clients feel genuinely seen, heard, and valued rather than rushed through a queue.
Customer Satisfaction (CSI/NPS)	Rises as proactive communication replaces vague updates and unverified “could not duplicate” dismissals.
Repair Order Approval Rates	Improve when advisors frame recommendations through transparent storytelling rather than transactional demands.

Frequently Asked Questions

---

Final Thoughts

Eliminating toxic phrases from your service drive isn’t about memorizing a script; it’s about shifting your mindset toward true hospitality. When your advisors stop hiding behind policies and short-handed excuses, your service drive transforms into a high-retention engine.

---

Actionable Takeaways

• Audit your service lane today: Stand in the drive and listen closely to how your advisors greet incoming clients—check for transactional checklist questions like “Do you have an appointment?”
• Eliminate vague updates: Train your team to always give concrete callback times instead of leaving customers stranded with “I’ll call you when I know something.”

---

Ready to Strengthen Your Fixed Ops Systems?

Achieving and exceeding your goals is possible with the right systems in place. With Service Drive Revolution OnDemand, you’ll gain access to the proven systems that have made thousands of SERVICE MANAGERS IRREPLACEABLE. Start transforming your department today!

Need help updating your playbook? Let us know how we can support your team’s growth.

Book a 15-minute strategy session with our team. We’ll explore how to unlock your dealership’s real value.

---

Service Drive Revolution – Episode #382 Transcript

5 Things Advisors Say That Customers REALLY Hate | Service Drive Revolution #382

Service Drive Revolution

Hosts: Chris Collins, Hogi

In This Episode

• Why relying purely on new car sales volume is causing traffic to drop in service departments, and how losing customers after the warranty period impacts repair order counts.
• The real truth behind customer acquisition: why driving new traffic is expensive ($50 to $200 per customer) and why focusing on retention is always a better strategy than chasing new leads.
• A comprehensive breakdown of multi-channel traffic generation tactics, including effective reminder systems, phone follow-ups for declined work and lost customers, and purifying your database.
• Why independent shops outperform dealerships on social media by focusing on taste and lifestyle storytelling instead of standard car photos.
• The secret to utilizing Business Development Centers (BDCs) as a force multiplier for outbound calls, tracking no-shows, and managing customer follow-ups effectively.

Opening

Introduction and Welcome

Chris Collins: Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution. Happy Wednesday. We have a very exciting fun show for you today. We’re going to talk about the five things advisors say that customers really hate. Not just hate, really hate. It’s a fun list. A couple of them you’re going to be like

Chris Collins: Um today on Service Drive Academy we are talking about how to recruit customer collectors, how to recruit advisors, the ads that you run, how you approach it, interviewing, all of that. It’s going to be really fun. Um we always do that right after this. If you’re not in the academy, you can go to ChrisCollinsInc.com and sign up. And uh Huggy, we’re talking about this earlier. One thing that it’s funny is it’s kind of taking on a life of its own. We had an agenda of what we wanted to teach, but it’s now being modified by the feedback and what everybody in there wants.

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Collins: Which is a hard thing because he he spent a lot of time on that outline.

Hogi: Yeah, it’s just switch it up. But uh But yeah, I know it’s good. Like, uh people, are people are very reflective on some of these things, and they’re, um, you know, a lot of people are going back and changing their systems. And, and then, uh, as they change systems, uh y-, you know, last episode we were talking about like, uh, or last, uh, academy we were talking about ,y-you, you know, just, uh, who you let on the team and, and how hard culture is to change.

But the, if there is a shortcut to changing culture, it’s with the next person you hire. And then uh you know, I probably it makes sense to outline it that way, too, cuz naturally then their next question was like, yeah, like we need to do a better job hiring. What’s that look like?” And so, uh yeah, we’ll uh we’ll walk down that road pretty far today, for sure.

Top Dogs Recap and Seahawks vs. Chiefs Game

Chris Collins: Good. So, we just uh came off of Top Dogs. So, we had Top Dogs. It’s funny, uh Gary Wexler just sent me a text. Yeah. Top Dogs is the highlight of my year. It’s like going to a retreat. Yeah. It’s really fun. Yeah, we’ve got a lot of great a lot of great feedback and um yeah, it’s you know, you come back with such a shot in the arm and and so many ideas and uh like now the now the thing is like getting everybody back to work. You know, use that momentum uh towards kind of you know, making changes and and uh the things that you need to kind of rolling into next year.

But uh um but yeah, just it’s been fun talking with everybody. There was a uh a couple of pretty big hits coming out of Top Dogs. I want to ask you what your what your favorite part was, but first, we must address the elephant in the room, which I thought it was really interesting that you didn’t text me at all on Sunday. It was like crickets.

Hogi: Woah. So, what I have said That’s Yeah, that’s that’s why I didn’t text you. Um I was very nervous, but um if you are not aware, I am a I was born a Seattle Seahawks fan. Hogie was born a Kansas City Chiefs fan. And the Kansas City Chiefs and the Seattle Seahawks played on Sunday evening on the national game with Chris Collinsworth, which ugh so boring to watch. Chuck. It is. It’s like He is the worst. I know. He really is. Now, the the scenario, if you’re not familiar, is that the Chiefs were undefeated.

Chris Collins: The look really good this year. The Seattle Seahawks, even though we won the Super Bowl, we’ve been we’ve not looked very good. Our quarterback has more interceptions than he has touchdowns. We We turned, you know, our first-round pick who was the running back likes to fumble. And the when we won the Super Bowl last year, the MVP of the Super Bowl was Kenneth Walker, the running back, who the Seahawks let go in free agency, and your Kansas City Chiefs signed, and he has been I mean, there there were a lot of people saying that he’s the MVP of the league because he he was incredible when he played for the Seahawks, but it seems like he’s even better because you guys are kind of using him as one running back, where we were doing a tandem.

Hogi: Uh-huh.

Chris Collins: Which is something was that was very frustrating for him. Although I would say when it came to the playoffs, he was fresh. But you guys have just been letting him run, and he’s been running lights out. Like he’s an incredible running back. All of the Seahawks fans have been questioning the, you know, not signing him and and letting him go, and everybody celebrating what a genius your general manager is for getting him because it opens up your offense. It’s completely you know, kind of changed what Mahomes has to do in a sense. And so, it was a big game. Undefeated Chiefs Seahawks, if we would lose that game, we’d be 500, and coming off of the Super Bowl, not very good.

Kenneth Walker, who we let go in free agency, is coming back to Seattle to play. And um yeah, the reason why I didn’t text you is because one, I’m not confident in my team whatsoever. Second of all, I like the Chiefs. Like I uh you know, there’s there’s teams that that I like because of people in my life. Like I like the Chiefs and I I’m a huge Andy Reid fan. I I like what’s happened with the Bears and you know, so I was curious to see what happened. So long story short and to get to the point of the story which I think is super funny and you being a girl dad have no no idea about this.

The Swifty Tay Voodoo Phenomenon

Hogi: Somehow I know more about this than you do, but we will just just describe for the audience who won the who won the game.

Chris Collins: Oh, the the Seahawks like and and not only won the game like there hasn’t been an NFL game. I was reading some stat not in in NFL history. There’s never been a team that’s that had that did not have a running play over 10 yards or a pass play over 20 yards. And then I think also some combination of total yards for offense for the night, but like was just shut down in dramatic fashion. So Kenneth Walker the running back was averaging what 130 yards a game?

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Collins: We held him to what 37 or something? Something like that. I think it may have been 27. Yeah. I mean it was wild. at your phone. So the the Seahawks won in convincing fashion. A big defense thing. So when the Seahawks won, they posted one of these What do you call these bracelets? Uh friendship bracelets. So they posted this Taylor Swift friendship bracelet that says Seahawks win and the Swifties went nuts.

Hogi: And the Absolutely bananas.

Chris Collins: The caption says In Game which if you’re not a Swifty, that’s that’s one of her best hits. Yeah. Oh, man. And uh And the Swifties are like uh saying that The comments are so good. that Tay voodoo um I don’t know if you’re familiar with that term, but with such an action, the Seahawks have unleashed Tay voodoo on themselves. They’ll regret it. That’s what a Swifty put?

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s Yeah, that’s a thing. Like when people go after um the the you know, historically it doesn’t work out well and they call it Tay voodoo.

Chris Collins: Okay, well, there’s a couple things that I don’t understand and our audience is probably like glossing over right now, but um why wouldn’t a Seahawks fan be able to have Taylor Swift friendship? Like it’s only now the Chiefs that can have friendship bracelets? Like it’s the Swifties are basically saying that if it’s not a Chiefs one, then it doesn’t count?

Hogi: Yeah, I think they’re defending her. Swifties that are Seahawks fans. Yeah. No, and and and I guarantee you if they uh if they got her to ask what her reaction to is it, she would just think it’s it’s funny. Like it’s good fun. It’s nothing Nobody took a dig at her or or whatever. If anything, it you know, but yeah, the comment section reads like you shouldn’t you shouldn’t take cheap shots at at players’ wives and you know, whatever, but um I think it’s genius. Like Players’ wives, you mean Taylor Swift. Let’s be honest. Like his wives. She’s bigger than She’s like the biggest thing on the planet and so funny. She didn’t care to come to the game though. I thought that was interesting.

Chris Collins: Yeah. Is there any sort of voodoo in that that the games she attends that you guys win and the ones she doesn’t? know. I don’t know. Maybe. I’m sure there’s uh uh Yeah, I’m sure there’s somebody tracking that somewhere, but I’m not I’m not sure. But, that’s funny. I can’t believe I didn’t hear about it. Me neither. Like, how am I up on What does that say about me that I’m up on all this girly stuff and you’re not?

Hogi: You need to uh You need to change your algorithm. Somebody told me I wasn’t I’m not on it like I’m not really on Instagram ever, but Oh, that’s funny. Super funny.

Favorite Top Dog Speakers and Office Nostalgia

Chris Collins: Okay, so back to uh back to Top Dog. Who was your Who is your favorite speaker?

Hogi: Oh, man. say yourself.

Chris Collins: No, it wasn’t it wasn’t myself for for sure. Uh I I’ll tell you what, like, the the most feedback we’ve got is on uh on your presentation and um Oh, I was going for it. Like, I Oh. I I went for it, but I’m I’m Yeah, let’s talk about that in a minute cuz I kind of want to Okay. Yeah. Well, I was I That was very heartfelt for me. Yeah, that, that was my favorite, um, and, uh, and also, too, like, I, I have things that I pick up and and kind of look at along the way, but you know, I know, I know a lot of punch lines to the joke or I know what the day is trying to accomplish.

And so, you know, usually my favorite thing is whatever the whatever resonates the most with the audience. And I’m always looking around to see what that is. When people are taking notes, when people are off their phones, when you you you know, like, stuff like that. Um but uh uh I think probably um my my my favorite outside of that uh would have been um uh the the lady, what was her name? Um Rob-Robin?

Hogi: Robin? Yeah, from uh and and not just cuz she was a uh Chiefs fan or whatever.

Chris Collins: She was a Chiefs fan.

Hogi: She Yeah. But, uh uh cuz I’ve told a couple other people man. Yeah. Yeah, she’s from Kansas City and uh grew Well, actually she grew up in rural Kansas like I did, but um yeah, so uh I I thought her uh her whole thing on like um y-you, you know, just the the power that ordinary people have and and uh like part of great customer service is caring about the person on, you know,

On the other side of the counter, and just like uh her whole her whole stick of “be who you came to be” like everybody’s in a position right now, um especially in the in our industry, no matter what position you’re in, your ability to make dynamic impacts. And I just think there’s a uh you know, a lot of places that can use that uh that message right now. And and so yeah, w-without talking about yours, that would be uh right up there with it.

Chris Collins: Yeah, I I really think the way that uh it was curated with her kind of at the end was perfect, too. Like the placement of each speaker worked out really really well.

Hogi: Yeah, production did a amazing job. Like the way the day built, the way it ended. Um the the whole thing. Um which you know, we had a couple people that had to leave early and uh they can’t let it go what they missed out on either, but um yeah, so yeah. there were a bunch of uh celebrities. Comedians, yeah, that was uh that was rough. Um yeah, they were asking they’re already asking if we can have them back next year. out? Like people were posting it online or how did they find out? Yeah. Yeah. And like if you think of like the age group uh that’s in there like there’s a lot from 30s to 50s and the you know.

The Office is by far the most viewed sitcom by a long shot for that age group. Like you know, we grew up on it, we quoted it. We can we can have a whole conversation in office quotes. And uh so you know, Daryl or or Craig who plays Daryl in The Office, having him as one of the anchors of the uh the closing party, uh like, you know, it was just uh uh the couple people that did miss out on it like it was a really big deal.

Christian Hand, Records, and the “Cult” Vibe

Chris Collins: It was funny, too, when uh Christian Hand, who by the way is coming in today for lunch, he he’s going to come in and listen to some records with me. Okay. And I uh was going through my records at home trying to figure out what how I could impress them. Like he’s very picky, right? In in his taste, and I’m not quite sure. Like sometimes I’ll be like, “Oh, what about that?” And he’s like, “Oh, they suck.” And you’re like, “Okay.” So, I don’t I I pulled a bunch of records that that I want to play.

So, he’s coming in um today for lunch, and we’re just going to listen to records. But he’s he says this thing, we’ve had him like two times before, and then we had him this year. And he always says like our group kind of seems culty. Mhm. And this time he was like, “I I don’t know that they seem culty. It feels more like this is a secret uh militia or something that’s going to take over the world.” Or whatever he’s saying. And I thought that was kind of a compliment.

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Yeah, I wonder I wonder why that is. Like what is what he sees that gives him that read. I don’t know, there’s like an intensity to it, maybe. Yeah. Also, like uh remember when he would do his thing, we were doing awards, and so he saw us give out awards. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. might have that in his head, too. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Yeah, the tie was interesting. I thought that was handled really well. There was a tie for Yeah. The American Muscle League, the Top Dog League. Yeah, for manager.

Yeah, that that was a lot of fun. Um and that’s really that really is, you know, just a great example of what’s happening in those leagues. Like those guys are constantly kind of uh jabbing at each other and things like that, but you know, with the many things as we got going, if you got somebody that you’re always chasing, the amount of focus that creates is is hard to replace for a manager in the store. Like it just is this extra wave of momentum that’s constantly helping them. Um and I think that’s pretty a pretty special thing about our our Top Dog League is it creates, you know, it creates that community in that way.

And that would make sense. Like you have all those things going on. If you go to a normal conference, most people don’t know each other. And when you get to these things, even though you don’t spend a lot of time together, so many people know each other through that comp. And and so, you know, it does create a different dynamic. But it’s funny to hear Christian’s outside view um of that. Cuz I I could see I could see how that could be the case cuz um in odd way it is kind of it’s definitely a unique community, for sure.

The Power of Books, Metamorphosis, and AI Traps

Chris Collins: Yeah. I’ve So, I I tried a couple things with with my talk in the sense that um I really wanted to reference the library and the books in the library. And we’ve we’ve put that whole inventory into an AI. And it’s just incredible how many different things are connected in different categories of the library. Like you know, you you can talk about Picasso. Like Picasso is in the art section. He’s in the business section. He’s in the creativity, the psychology. Like it kind of goes across the board. You talk about love or performance or success. Like there there’s all kinds of examples. 

And so I was having fun with kind of trying a new format where I’m referencing books and then reading out of the books. And I I felt like um that was the start of something. Like I I uh Yeah, I like how that felt. Now, I have a bunch of ideas how I could uh how I can build on it, but that was kind of my first time doing that, and I really liked that format of referencing the books in the library about different things, and just books that have had a meaningful impact on me.

Like, I’ve been working on a book called Books That Changed My Life, and it it is crazy how many books have had an an impact on my life in a in a positive way. It’s not, you know, it’s not just a dozen. Like, there’s a bunch. You know, you know, I’ve always kind of uh read a lot of books, so there the chances of books having an impact are better when you read a lot. But, um, that was very fun for me to be able to do that because I’m, you know, one of the one thing that the the team here will say all the time is like, you know, 

“When you come in Monday and you you’re showing us the books that you got or read or whatever, and how excited you get.” Like, that’s the thing that needs to come across on video, and I felt like I got to do that. Like, I got to read from the books and like really share. And then, you know, the the conclusion of of that in the the hardcore truth is, as an industry, the there’s all of these headwinds that that are going on, and we’re in, you know, we’re in some sort of metamorphosis that we will look back on and see opportunity.

But while you’re in it, it’s hard to see that opportunity, which is why a lot of people get left behind, right? Whenever there’s any sort of flip in the economy, flip in in the way that consumers are buying something, you know, uh, a lot of the people in it get left behind. 

But when you look back in retrospect, you’re like, oh, there was huge wealth created, there was tons of success created during this. It’s just the people that are in a habit of doing things the same way they’ve always done them, get left behind because the thing changes, right? They double down on it, but the thing changes. Blockbuster is an example of that, which is often used, but in in agriculture, you know, if you were buying more horses when tractors came out, you were winning. So, the the one thing that would would save us as an industry more than anything else is the customer experience. 

Like, customers don’t like dealing with us. They they uh they see it as a huge inconvenience. And if we as an industry really focused on customer perception and the customer experience more than anything else, and that it has to come from a high level of from the marketing, from the actual experience that they have, from the follow-up, all of that has to has to change. We would come out ahead, but I don’t think anybody’s thinking that way. 

And our you know, the biggest opportunity that we have as an industry is to change customer perception. Like, customers are gravitating towards a buying experience that’s easy. You know, they’re they gravitate towards independence because it’s easy. And that’s that’s where we got to win. We got to change the customer’s the customer’s perception of us. Cuz fixed ops is it has the most interaction with the customers, but it’s the thing that we spend the least amount of time on. Most dealers would rather sell a car than write an RO.

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah. And it that’s not a bad thing. Selling cars aren’t a bad thing, but two things can be true at the same time. Yeah, for for for sure. And and like uh you know, one thing we love to do as an industry also is we like to think we’re keeping up with the changes by kind of buying the buying the latest thing. We love to buy software. We love to, you know, try to have the latest software to to make up for, you know, not having great people, not having customer experience as the as the the guiding thing for your business and as a priority. 

And uh and that’s the that’s the thing is people are talking about it changing and how quickly it’s changing, but then you know, they’re investing in AI tools for every corner of their business. Just like they didn’t pay attention to the customer service portion of it before and make it a priority, they’re not paying attention to the outcomes of a lot of the AI tools they’re putting in place. And like that’s creating this whole new uh friction in doing business with us like uh you know, and your people know it, but we’re still not paying attention to it.

Like it’s an odd thing. Just recently, just within the last few weeks, having a conversation with the dealer group and all the advisors know the AI phone system is a problem and nobody at the top knew it was a problem. Like we’re just not paying attention. And and then in the same breath we think we’re keeping up with the changes cuz we’ve invested in these AI tools and we’re trying them and you know, uh it’s an odd it’s an odd conversation to cut through.

The Bystander Effect and Independent Shops

Chris Collins: Do you think there’s something going on in society that people are less in touch with how the customers are feeling? Like I I feel like there’s an indifference there or I mean, I tried to talk about that in my talk where there’s like this bystander effect where

Hogi: Yeah, you did.

Chris Collins: there’s tons of examples of people, you witnessing something or being in the middle of something and doing nothing to their demise, whether it’s somebody getting attacked or a fire whatever it is and it feels like the customers are voting with their money with going somewhere else. Like we have we have a new client that’s an independent shop that literally they have tons of examples of customers paying for warranty work versus going to the actual dealer and getting it for free.

Hogi: Wild. Wild. Like absolutely wild, like think about think about that for a second. Yeah. Um Yeah, I don’t I don’t know if there’s something happening in society. I think um when you you don’t have to work at a service department for very long and you start to feel that it’s bigger than you and it’s not. It it’s literally uh the person in front of you right now. And and um and if you view it that way, it I it it’s hard. Like you just get caught. 

You you uh a lot of people are service advisor or a service manager in an organization where it’s not priority and what your bosses want uh ultimately it it you know is priority. Um and you think you can’t make a difference. You just feel like you’re you’re uh a cog in a wheel of a machine that’s so much bigger than you that you you know you can’t slow it down. Um and and it’s the exact opposite of the truth. It’s a it’s a I think that’s the main thing with it is people just feel bogged down instead of like uh you see what needs to happen. 

Like, like the bystander effect you were talking about in your presentation. It’s it’s, uh that’s kind of a wild a a wild thing to watch. Like what was the Could you share just real quickly the story of uh um the lady that had been attacked. I think it was in New York City. What was her name?

Chris Collins: So, the very first time that was in my uh

Hogi: you know, I guess in my uh consciousness was in the book The Tipping Point. And then there’s a bunch of books written on it. So, her name is Kitty Genovese.

Chris Collins: Yeah. And in The Tipping Point they’re just kind of talking about um it like just briefly that she was brutally raped and killed over a 30-minute period in a very busy part of New York in uh you know, at 3:00 in the morning when people could hear her screaming. Like, there were there were basically 38 people that they identified that witnessed it or heard her screaming and none of them called the police. 

Nobody did anything. Nobody intervened. And she could have been saved like uh if somebody would have done something. And it you know, it’s it’s a fascinating thing that they that they studied. You know, kind of is the beginning of the term the bystander effect. Like, where people assume somebody else called the police. They assume somebody else is going to take responsibility. They assume somebody else is going to do something. And nobody does.

Hogi: Mhm.

Chris Collins: And then the poor the poor girl loses loses her life in that way. And so, there’s there’s the term diffused responsibility and pluralistic ignorance. Those were kind of the three things that came out of of those uh studies.

Client Comments and Human Interaction vs. Automation

Chris Collins: Yeah, McRola Pig McRola Pig, you were at Top Dog. We got some comments, so let me see uh got we got some uh we We some comments. Oh, no. Sweeney Sweeney was at Top Dog. That’s who that one came from. Said Top Dog was amazing. Chris, your session was tremendous. Huge impact. Togi, you opened my two advisors I brought really made a big impact. Thank you. The Hammer and Captain two. Who’s the Hammer? Fixter. Oh, they call Fixter the Hammer? Makes sense. 

Uh McRollerPig, atmosphere of self-checkout at stores and depths. Leaving food on your step. Carvana buying cars without talking to Carvana is taking off, man. Yeah. It’s crazy, dude. Have you seen their goals? Like they want to sell what’s the number? 3 million cars by 2028 or something? It’s nuts. Yeah. Yeah. And they they got new car dealerships. Yeah. They got a They got a system and people like it. Um And then uh McRollerPig says, uh do you feel like client’s idea of a great experience is less human interaction versus a great human interaction? Great human interaction.

Hogi: Yeah. Everybody wants that. Like everybody wants at the end of the day to be validated and seen. And what happens is when they get a great customer interaction, they feel validated. They feel seen, they feel important., they feel like they matter. And when you when you uh delegate that to a machine or you know, we talked about it at Top Dog, the the automatic switchboards. Yeah. Yeah. And like nothing works anymore. Like you can never get somebody on the phone.

Like all you’re saying to somebody is you don’t matter and we don’t care. Yeah. You’re just reinforcing all the negativity and all the things people already feel about themselves. It it just pushes it further in versus making them feel uh validated, making them feel important. Yeah. Yeah, I think with uh you know, like um one one thing if you go back to Steve Jobs one of his keynotes back when they were introducing the iPhone and iPod. 

There’s a, there’s a thing where, uh, you know, this engineer stands up and asks him a question and tells him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and you know, the thing’s not going to work for all these reasons and all this different stuff. His response to the guy after like sitting there and thinking for a second is, uh, he said the the, the problem with software today is it, it, it looks at what we have right now and then tries to put something together to bring a new software to market instead of starting with the end consumer and then working backwards. 

And, and you know, and then Apple created this ecosystem where it made common people feel like a pro ‘cuz they, all of a sudden, instead of knowing how to go through all these different steps, you could just take a file and drag it and it saved it and dropped it where, where you wanted it to, and it just made it simple. So like with with AI with the continuing thing of technology, people want want to feel like more of a professional with simple things like that. Like they want AI to be able to do simple annoying things that should probably happen anyway. But you know, Delta went through this as well. 

There’s a, there’s a whole outline on, on their AI phone system where they thought they were being going to be able to go backwards and operators, and, and things like that at their customer support center, and they’ve had to increase staffing for that because what they found out is, when it comes to something that’s really important like me getting home that night on a flight, they don’t want to talk to AI. Like they want a real life person. And so what we keep seeing McRollerPig is when it comes to my car if I’m in a truck, when it comes to the the the thing that gets me you know, uh my living, makes my business go forward. 

Those things that are that important, people want a live person. They want somebody on the other side of the counter, uh you know, that cares about them. So, yeah, I I uh I I uh I think uh we can use if we have good systems and people, we can use AI to you know, make it even better. We can use technology to make it better. But, uh yeah, great human interaction for sure over uh less human interaction. Um Yeah. But, it goes back to the thing you were saying, like we we have a vote in that right now. And uh um you know, kind of understanding that experience will be what sets people apart. Uh how they engage with that right now, I think is really important.

Chris Collins: Yeah, I I was even thinking we got to get to our list, so we don’t run out of time, but I was thinking the last couple days since Top Dog, that we really should be more intentional about the clients we’re partnering with. And really like seeking out the the ones that really want to be different in the marketplace and really kind of be on that cutting edge. 

Yeah. Cuz I I think um there’s just going to be a divide in our industry, and there’s going to be the the haves and the have-nots. And the haves are just going to be adopting and moving really quickly, and the have-nots are just going to be blaming the market.

Hogi: Yeah. Yeah, I agree 100%.

Five Things Service Advisors Say That Customers Really Hate

Chris Collins: Okay, so you Let’s talk about the five things service advisors say that customers really hate. Okay. All that customers say that No, five things that advisors say that customers really hate. I’ll say number five, uh but then I want to hear your take on it. So, I have for number five, do you have an appointment? I mean, that’s the most off-putting thing ever, even if you have an appointment. Right? Like it’s not it’s it it’s transactional, it’s not human. 

Yeah. So it’s like, “Hey, there’s no human connection here. Let me just shift this to a transaction. Did you do these steps as a qualifier versus hey, how are you today? What’s going on? We’re so excited you’re here. Must have been a rough night.” Right.

Hogi: Yeah, I just remember you told your pajamas? Are those buttons supposed to be on the inside? No. Yeah, I just remember you telling that story and I tell it I tell it a lot of times too of just like and it always resonates with great advisors cuz anybody that has sought to be really great at this craft has done went through the same thing you did. And when you when you were you know, you had those people ask ask you to teach people at another dealership kind of what you were doing and train them or whatever. 

You just started paying attention to what you were doing, to what some of the bottom advisors were doing, and that’s one of the things that stuck out the most is. like you you genuinely were happy to see people and jumped out there and welcomed them, and you know, started talking like it was an old friend. And then the contrast to that was the the bottom performing advisor; like the first thing they say is, “Do you have an appointment?” Like the the contrast couldn’t be greater.

Chris Collins: Yeah, and and you know, many times I’ve gone into restaurants that that are empty and you walk up to the greeter and they’re like, “Do you have a reservation?” And then they’re like, “Oh well, the wait’s going to be an hour.” And you’re like, “The restaurant’s empty.” None of those restaurants that that happened to me are still open. Yeah. None of them. And one one was a big one in Manhattan in the Meatpacking District and I’d met the owner. He bought one of my bulldog paintings. And uh like I told him too like after I had that experience, I sent him an email because I’m like, you your restaurant’s empty and your people are like they’re like the the DMV, like they’re just figuring out a way to say no. 

Yeah, that’s a different line. You’ll have to go get in this line over here. Yeah, uh and then and just in the short time we’ve talked about number five, it’s been said multiple times across service drives uh in this country. Um Yeah, but it’s a stark contrast uh just like if you want one little one little scorecard for your drive, just go listen in your drive at how often that’s happening and and what the customer’s face looks like at uh at reception.

Chris Collins: All right, number four. Okay, I’ll give you a call when I know something. So, this is my favorite because uh like if you watch a customer’s face when an advisor says, “Okay, I’ll give you a call when I know something.” They’re like “Okay, and what you you know, what they’re thinking that they don’t say often times? And what time is that?” You know, and that’s the age-old problem with this is advisor says, “I’ll give you a call when I know something.” 

The customer’s confused, but they leave anyway cuz they don’t know what to say or you know, the advisor looked too busy to help them anyway or whatever the thing was. And then, uh, it plays out like this all the time where, you know, maybe that was at 10:30 in the morning, 11:30 in the morning. The customer doesn’t know that they wouldn’t have the car diagnosed in an hour or whatever. Then they call the the uh the customer back, or they call the the dealership back; the advisor’s at lunch. Like the other service advisor uh says, “Why don’t you know, I don’t even see your car in the system. Who did you talk to?” 

They’re like, “Oh, I don’t know his name.” You know, like I could go I could kick this can down the road as as far as we wanted to. But uh you know it’s a odd thing that that we do cuz the customer’s perception of time and ours never align. And um yeah, it’s it’s it’s crazy if you just step outside and look a little bit how clear it seems that uh you know, the customer wants you to give them a time to communicate. And um yeah, I thought that was an interesting when we talked about that uh a couple sessions ago in Academy. Um just that one simple thing of giving people a time that you’re going to call them back versus uh you know, I’ll give you a call when I know something.

Hogi: Yeah, open open loops really drive people crazy because there’s no solution, there’s nothing they can grab onto. So, mentally they’re drowning, right? Like Yeah. Yeah, and they leave in that headspace. It’s an odd It’s an odd odd spot for a customer.

Chris Collins: All right, number that ends on a cliffhanger. Yeah. Yeah. Uh number three, our policy is

Hogi: Yeah, unfortunately you think that you wouldn’t hear that anymore, but you still do. Con-constantly. And and whether it’s around loaners or when somebody says our policy is? Uh you don’t want to help me. Yeah. We don’t care. Yeah, just you know, and uh and and just kind of kind of coaching people through you know, the different things they can say in instead of these these things like um Yeah, it’s a it’s a an odd place for advisors to be.

Chris Collins: All right, number two, we’re short-handed today. Like I don’t I don’t know if we realize how much we say this. Um and uh yeah, like there’s so many things we do in the service department where we ask the customer to suffer for for our lack of planning, for our lack of processes, for our lack of systems. And in an odd way, we get we get sympathy from a lot of our customers. Um but you know, I don’t I don’t know why we’re surprised when most of them leave after 5 years. Whatever it is, 75% of dealership service customers leave after 3 years. Um like that’s a wild that’s a wild number, but uh if you just listen to some of the things that are being said, um on your service drive every day, like the these are the reasons.

So, it’s it’s kind of a scorecard for your customer experience. I think a lot of times we feel we do good with customer experience, but you know, as you kind of listen to this, I challenge you to kind of take this list and go, go out, and uh, and just listen, or listen to phone calls at how often, you know, these things are, are being said. Like the coaches, like we joke about this a lot, um, but we’re in a lot of service drives, and some of them are even pretty good, pretty high performers. And you know, even they’re vulnerable to these things, uh but uh but it’s interesting.

Chris Collins: All right, do you have any guesses what number one is?

Hogi: Yeah, do you want me to say it? Yeah.

Chris Collins: Could not duplicate. That’s exactly it. We could not duplicate. Like uh I I get the first time I got an RO back with C&D on it. Yeah. went to the one of the veteran advisor, I’m like, “What is C&D?” I’m like, “Oh, it you know, it’s side and dispatch all day.” Finally got to a tech, nobody came and saw me. I just gave the RO back in the box. So, like You got to duplicate. There’s no can no Yeah. Yeah. I I remember one time as a young tech I I did a could not duplicate on a on a windshield noise. And uh I legit tried to figure it out. Like I didn’t I didn’t pencil whip it and ship it or or anything like that. 

Like I was trying to figure it out. It was a manual five-speed three series. It was a 330 five-speed. And and the the customer wasn’t having it and the advisor came back and got me. I was like, “Yeah, for sure. I’ll go ride with them.” Like I you know, I put 40 mi on this car trying to find it. And I get in the car with the lady and we jump out on the highway right in front of the dealership and she is grabbing gears. It literally confused me. I didn’t know old lady could grab gears this quickly and efficiently. And so by the time she hits fifth gear, she’s at about 90 mi an hour and the windshield starts whistling from the top right corner. 

And I was like, “Okay. Okay, that’s good. I got it.” Like um you know, so so number one like we could open up a lot of conversations surrounding this. Uh but you you know, a lot of these are uh your systems can put advisors in better positions where they’re not saying this dumb stuff. Uh diagnosis questions is probably a a key preparation thing that can be done that keeps a lot of could not duplicates from from happening. Um you know, so we could go 

You got to verify like so my the thing that I that I learned to do with customers and it’s kind of funny because they really know what I was doing but there’s a lot of things going on in this. But what I would tell customers when there was ever something like that is I would say, “Okay, you have to understand something. There’s this invisible dome with over 1 mi of the dealership. Wherever your rattle is or it cuts out or whatever it is, it won’t happen inside of this perimeter. 

And so we have to verify it cuz if I just send it in the shop, you you know, the tech’s going to drive it, they’re not going to hear it. So can you you know, I would try to verify it. And then the the first thing that happens there is the customer realizes, ‘Oh, this isn’t easy.’ Yeah. Yeah. thing going on with my TV at home where it just shuts off randomly. And you call Sony, and Sony says, ‘It’s the It’s the Apple TV.’ So then I I use their stupid internal software, and it still shuts off.

And then you call the And like they just, you know, it’s like I It would At the end of the day, it’ll be easier for me to buy a new And this TV’s not even 6 months old. It’ll be easier for me to buy another TV that isn’t a Sony than to get anybody to fix that thing. Yeah. And so it’s super frustrating. So, you know, but I also know if a technician came out and we were watching it, it won’t go out if the guy sat there for 2 hours, right? Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly right. Yeah.

The Psychology of Advisor Training

Hogi: Yeah, and I think that’s the tough thing about a lot of these is uh you know, you you do have policies that have to be followed. There are times that you can’t duplicate things. Like you know, none of these things aren’t true. You are going to be short-handed sometimes. Um but just like anything else, like uh the customer’s perception is is everything, right? Like uh I know there’s that old saying the customer’s always right, but like you know, 

I think maybe you could continue that and the customer’s always right cuz that’s what we’re left to deal with. Like their perception is what matters, and um, like that’s a great example you give of the “could not duplicate” thing and how you’re bending the customer’s perception around that, you know? And, and um and, that’s that’s one of the key things I think we’re missing in advisor training today is, uh, the psychology of it. Everybody always asks me, “What’s different about your training than everything else out there?” 

It It starts with the psychology of the customer. Not product knowledge, not how well you know the DMS, not any of that stuff. Um painting a picture for a customer that there’s a 1-mile dome around the dealership and whatever problem they’re having’s is not going to happen inside that dome. That like what a frame that sets for them. Um just a different It’s just a different conversation and different philosophy and advisor training starts in a lot of places. And if it doesn’t start there, you you you’ll miss the boat. You’re going to develop a transactional order taker.

Chris Collins: Yeah. It’s good. That’s a good list. Super funny. Yeah. I like it. Good stuff. The other thing that you realize when you if you like try to duplicate stuff with customers before you write put it in, you know, in the shop or whatever. Customers are crazy drivers. Like if you ever ridden in with a customer and just been like, “This is how people drive?”

Hogi: Well, that old lady we’re we’re doing a 100 in a 55 in the middle of Oklahoma City. This is where it is. And she’s 77 years old. customer. Yeah. Wrong way on a one-way. Like That would happen all the time at the dealership I worked at cuz it had one-ways going each way. And the customers would always try to turn right on through the wrong way. You’re like, “Wait, stop. Ah.” Like Yeah.

No, I I don’t It It did almost come to an end for me one time driving with a customer. He had a a noise that would happen when he braked. And uh I went to go ride with him and on that same highway, uh he got up to speed and then like panic stopped in the middle of this highway and we we were just narrowly avoided by a dump truck. Like dump truck had to swerve around us, brakes squeal like And uh yeah, I know a lot of people listening have those things so have

Chris Collins: What I should have said is there’s an imag-imaginary dome where none of your whistles and cracks and snaps will happen, but also you lose your common sense and how to drive. So true. It’s uh it’s wild what’s on the what’s on the road around you. But uh Yeah. No, that’s a fun list. Well, thanks everybody for hanging out with us. Um we go live every Wednesday. Pretty fun. Now, we’re going to go into the academy and talk about how to hire customer collectors, service advisors. Super fun. Look forward to seeing everybody in there. Hope you guys have a great week and we will see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

[Outro]

Chris Collins (Outro): I know from experience that a lot of our dealers owners won’t invest in training for fixed ops, but eight service managers in our coaching group have been promoted to general manager. Something that doesn’t happen enough in our industry. Proof that when you’re given the right tools and the right mentorship, you can do amazing things. And I’d like to personally invite you for something that should exist already, but unfortunately it doesn’t.

And that’s a live fixed ops academy, a mentorship, a community, but what it really is is a Service Drive Revolution. Anybody can afford it. Anybody that wants to invest in themselves. We are going to teach what we know about running a healthy fixed ops service business. Our average coaching client performs well above the industry average and a handful of them are in a league completely their own. In fact, if I told you their numbers you wouldn’t even believe it. They’re so good.

---

About Service Drive Revolution Academy

I know from experience that a lot of dealer owners won’t invest in training for fixed ops — but eight SERVICE MANAGERS in our coaching group have been promoted to general managers. That doesn’t happen enough in our industry. It’s proof that when you’re given the right tools and the right mentorship, you can do amazing things.

I’d like to personally invite you to something that should exist already, but unfortunately doesn’t: a live Fixed Ops Academy — a mentorship, a community. It’s a Service Drive Revolution Academy. Anybody can afford it; anybody who wants to invest in themselves can join. We teach what we know about running a healthy fixed-ops service business. Our average coaching client performs well above the industry average, and a handful are in a league completely their own — if I told you their numbers, you wouldn’t believe it.

---

🔗 Related Resources

• Explore leadership fundamentals: Transcending the Drive: Inside Top Dog 2026 | SDR #381
• Learn recruitment strategies: Why Your Dealership Can’t Find Mechanics (And How to Fix It) | SDR #380
• Fix underlying operational workflows: You Don’t Need Advisor Training | SDR #377

Feel free to explore the linked articles above for deeper insights into each strategy. If you have any further questions or need additional resources, don’t hesitate to ask!