Automotive Repair News Today

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:00:05]:
All right.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:06]:
You ready to talk about it?

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:00:08]:
I'm ready.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:09]:
Want to get into it?

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:00:10]:
Sure.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:11]:
I've got uva, Klein Schmidt with autotech iq, DVI done. Right. And when was this? Early February, about a month ago. So David Roman, Lucas Underwood use DVI Dunwright at their shops. And they've seen some positive results. And so they were like, well, let's, let's make up some posts and change in the industry, the Facebook group, and just tell people how it's working, what's going on, that these numbers are real. And so there was a Facebook post in the group, changed the industry. That kind of went miniviral in the Facebook group.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:58]:
There were some comments made. And I want to talk to you about it because so some of the numbers, the people that got upset over.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:01:09]:
That can't be true.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:10]:
No way you can make that off of your repair shop. David posted this. It was February 5th. There it is. He said, are your estimates hitting an average of $5500 a month? Is your ARO 1700 in a general auto repair shop? And people were like, that's crazy. No, that's not possible. You're lying. No, that.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:36]:
No, I can't do that. So there were a lot of comments. And if you're listening to this, you can go back and find this post. You can search it up. February 5th is David Roman. And there were, I mean, Facebook, social media in general, there's a lot of negativity out there. People look for ways to say things that they don't really have a lot of ground to stand on. They don't really know what they're talking about in some cases.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:01:59]:
And they wouldn't tell you face to face.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:02]:
No, absolutely. But you stepped in and there were a couple situations where you had to own up to saying, hey, I'm going to make this right. And I took notice of that because some people wouldn't do that. They'd hide, they'd cast blame, whatever. But you stood up and said, I'm going to make this right. But you also clarified some things because they are jarring numbers. Those are big numbers. And so I just want to talk about it.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:30]:
I want to put it out there and let people hear from you, your side of this post because dvidoneride.com is changing people's repair shops. People just don't believe it because they hadn't tried it yet. So I'm going to give you the floor. I want to hear from you about this post and what took place in the comments and how you stepped in and changed things.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:02:53]:
Yeah. Let me start with what we mean with DVI done. Right. And why those numbers are possible. Most shops who made the switch to a DVI look at the DVI purely as a boost of the. Of the approval rate during the estimate phase. So the DVI is being used to boost the approved estimate value. Right?

Braxton Critcher [00:03:28]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:03:30]:
And we basically say that's really not enough. And especially the most shops do that is they still have the old process when they had a paper inspection. So they use a new tool, but haven't changed the process. And the old process is you. You do a paper inspection and then use the phone interaction with the motorist to explain what's wrong with the car. Right?

Braxton Critcher [00:04:04]:
Right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:04:04]:
Yes. And there are some pictures on the DVI results, but they're never really clear to the motorist. Very rarely. And so the service advisor has to explain in the phone call what's actually on the picture.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:21]:
Right. Because. And me, you know, I do an automotive repair podcast, but I'm not an automotive guy. So when I see these pictures, to me, that is because it can be very obvious to a technician or a shop owner. But to me, I still. It's all black. I don't know what that looks like. So you're right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:04:40]:
And so Brittany Schindler especially, she owns two shops in Washington state. She's a trainer for ototech iq. She. When we certify shops, we look at the DVI process. When I certified her, it was the best I've ever seen. And best means the pictures were digestible by layman, you understood what's on the picture. And the notes explaining what's on the picture didn't talk about a proof that something is wrong with the car. They talked about why you should do the approve the work.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:05:34]:
This is a huge difference. Right. So Brittany then proposed. Not proposed, presented in our weekly Power moves webinar per process. And we coined the term Brittany process.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:49]:
Okay.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:05:50]:
Because it was so unique that after that, another shop owner in our Facebook group said the following. Halfway through the presentation by Britain, I started pacing in my office, clenching my fists and telling myself, you have been doing inspections. Wrong. For the last four years, changed his process, and within eight weeks gained another two hours of approved work per hour. Right. So there's something fundamentally different and fundamentally different. I just use his words, that shop owner's world. He said, we have to stop thinking we're in front of a judge and have to prove what's wrong with the car.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:06:50]:
Instead, we use the pictures to inspect, illustrate why you should take Care of it. Let me give you an example. Many shops use a picture of a moisture meter for the brake fluid.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:12]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:07:13]:
Britney takes a picture of the brake fluid vessel. That's it. And says this reservoir contains the brake fluid. Brake fluid, if the moisture is too high, loses its ability to apply the pressure to the brakes, Your braking distance gets longer, you endanger your safety.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:45]:
Pretty plain and simple to me, right? Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:07:48]:
Not. Here is proof, proof of the moisture meter that something needs to be done with your brake fluid.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:55]:
So it makes. It makes selling much easier for the service. Much easier. Because it's not even like this is a recommendation. This is. This is very important.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:08:03]:
It's an empowerment of the motorist to make now and right now a decision. So most service advisors argue from. Not argued, sell from the position of authority. I'm the expert. I explain to you what's wrong. Approve. Now, that's sales pressure. Some do it even with instilling fear.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:08:25]:
If you don't do it. Britney's approach is educate, empower the customer, give them the information at the level they understand, back it up with pictures just to get their understanding right, and then ask them for approval. Her other principle is. And that's not just her principle. You hear that from a lot of shop owners. It is the moral obligation of a shop to point out everything.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:59]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:09:00]:
The customer is still empowered to say no. But if you vote with your own wallet and think the customer cannot afford it and don't put it on the estimate, that's from a moral perspective, not the right approach. Right?

Braxton Critcher [00:09:17]:
Yeah. They need to know.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:09:19]:
You need to let them know. That's why Brittany has a 5,500 average estimate.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:24]:
So the average estimate for a lot of shops. You know, obviously the people in the comments were upset saying that's not true. Where do you think that that really is?

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:09:37]:
That's hard to say. My guess is three. 3,000. Okay, so it's substantially lower.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:45]:
Yeah. No, that's a big difference.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:09:46]:
Yeah, it is a big difference. So then our services included and still include pointing out what your decline rates are for the top nine decline job in the industry and then help you lowering those decline rates. That service has been provided until that post by Brittney herself and by Frank, another shop owner. And so the person who posted his experience with Brittany in this case didn't see the value in that service we provided. And it had to be with, let me call it, mutual accountability meetings missed by both sides. And so I stepped in because for me, every problem is an opportunity. Sounds cliche, but I really believe that it's not just making it right, it's finding out what went wrong and if it has some systemic pattern to it, change it. Right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:11:06]:
And so it coincided with me also changing the training curriculum because I believe in the following. Training has. Training is a double edged sword. You go here to vision, you're away from the shop, you go into a class, you learn something which you only take in visually. And in your mind you go back to the shop on Monday. I bet. I think the numbers say overall in training, only 15% of people who go to a training apply it sustainably. The reason is you're excited and then the daily grind catches up.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:02]:
Yeah. And sometimes people try to apply too much. You gotta.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:12:07]:
Very good point.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:08]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:12:09]:
So what I changed the training curriculum and let's do a quick win in the first four weeks, as small as might be. Instead of telling the shop, change your DVI process, build a new sop. Just pick one decline job, ideally low hanging fruit like filters and improve that job decline rate in the first four weeks. So you get excited to take little chunks, but the main point is you get excited that it worked and want more as a student. Right. And so. And have accountability during that four weeks. So you don't wait until the next check in to conclude.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:13:02]:
Yeah, we haven't done much. Right. And so that's another reason why I stepped in because I felt darn, this post didn't need to be necessary because we have already made the changes. Right. And so I took on that particular person who posted me as a trainer.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:30]:
And I understand you had a conversation.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:13:34]:
Yeah, twice.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:35]:
Okay.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:13:35]:
Right. And we are fine. He's just in his situation now. His service advisor quit and he stepped into the service advisor position. So that was positive because now I can deal directly with him.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:54]:
Yes.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:13:55]:
But it's also his time schedule didn't open up.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:00]:
No, no. He's got too much on his plate now.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:14:03]:
He got too much too. So I'm gonna talk to him next week again. But the good news is he shared with me last week he increased his arrow from 500 something to 725 using DVI. Done.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:20]:
Right. Or just taking a couple of minutes?

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:14:22]:
Just taking. Taking whatever he learned before and taking the reins in his own shop and do the service advisor job. Right. So that's pretty cool.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:34]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:14:34]:
For him. Right. So. But I'm dying, of course to talk to him and look at his numbers together with him and see where we can take this. Because if he made such an amazing first step just on his own.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:51]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:14:52]:
Then he might not need us. I doubt. There's always something to fine tune.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:59]:
Oh yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:15:00]:
And so what we, what we. What I basically heard from everybody I talked to who I presented their numbers to is, wow, I didn't know that. Right. So we plot decline rates per job over time and show by a service advisor, if needed, how many got recommended, how many got approved, how many got declined, and do that by inspection status. So you don't find that anywhere else. No point of sale, does it? The point of sale only gives you the decline rate overall and sometimes not even per job. By finding out whether the decline rate per inspection status is good or bad, you know exactly what to do as a next step. So I'll give you an example.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:15:57]:
If the service Advisor has an 80% decline rate on filters, for a filter which is marked as red, meaning immediate attention by the tech, that service advisor needs help educating their customers about filters, period.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:13]:
Right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:16:15]:
If he has a decline rate of 80% for the yellow item, meaning future attention, he did something right. Why he prepares the customer for the next visit. Yellow doesn't meet now, but it allows the service advisor at pickup to say, look, your filters are probably need to be replaced at the next visit. Can I make an appointment?

Braxton Critcher [00:16:48]:
Right. Yes. Right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:16:49]:
Right. So in other words, yellow decline rates are good, high decline rates because they do the job. Red decline rates is an opportunity for the service advisor to get trained.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:04]:
Yeah. And also, you know, this is, this is my limited knowledge.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:17:08]:
Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:08]:
Not knowing most shop management systems, not being in the shop myself.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:17:12]:
Right.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:13]:
Red, yellow, green, those are in most DVIs anyway now, right? Yeah. Yeah. So dvidoneright.com there are lots, like you said, helpful tools to improve your dvi. You're saying go in there and try and find a couple of areas to improve. So also if you follow that, you can get certified through that.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:17:38]:
It's the other way around. You get certified first. So dvi.com gives you a few examples and then invites you to take a survey. And the survey is all about your DVI process. And then you have a meeting with me and I give you feedback. I have seen all the DVI tools.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:58]:
And this is free.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:17:59]:
That's free. Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:00]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:18:01]:
And as a result, I give you two low hanging fruit items you can immediately implement. Right. It's all about quick wins. Because the moment you have a win, you want more, right? I don't want to lecture anybody. I don't want to be a professor knowing everything. Right. I wanna, I look at stuff and share what I see and then I Have every single shop owner I talked to at least said that makes sense. Many shop owners say, I already started implementing different things in my shop when I saw your questions in the survey, because I did think about those steps.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:54]:
Right.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:18:55]:
So the survey in itself also asks you whether you do certain steps in the shop. Well, and that triggers, you know. Oh, yeah, that is important. So anyway, on the one hand, it was not a great experience to see those posts. On the other end, I mean, I think we all learned more from it. Improve the system and.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:23]:
And it's good to have this conversation.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:19:25]:
Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:25]:
I mean, if handled properly, when things go poorly, it usually turns into a positive.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:19:34]:
Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:34]:
If handled properly.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:19:35]:
Yes. It's an opportunity. It's always an opportunity.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:37]:
And so it's never great to see 108 or I guess it's 102. 102. Mostly negative comments. But you stepped in, I think, in such a way that you found ways to make it a positive. So I commend you for that.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:19:53]:
Thank you. Can I say it's the Same Thing with 5 star Google reviews? 5 star Google reviews are fake. I mean, I don't mean individual ones, but if a local business has only five star Google reviews, I've deleted a lot of negatives. That, that, that's impossible.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:14]:
Yeah.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:20:15]:
Right. And for me, every negative review is an opportunity for the local business to explain what their values are.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:25]:
Yeah. And. Well, that's what I was about to say. You know, this is still a new concept. Dvidone. Right.com is very new.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:20:31]:
It's very new.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:32]:
And so there's going to be a lot of skepticism, of course, and there's going to be some like, is that guy for real? Is that, is that true? So, I mean, that's good. You're getting conversation started. And so people can see that post. They can listen to this podcast. Go to dvidoneright.com and try it for yourself, because these numbers are legitimate. Lucas and David can attest they have used this at their shops. And it just points out things that, like you said, you didn't even know that were an issue. So I'm glad we had this conversation and I'm excited because we can't talk about it yet, but you've got other things that are in the works that you're going to be announcing soon that I think are another level of helpful tools, huge resources that shops really need right now and they don't even know.

Braxton Critcher [00:21:21]:
So thank you.

Uwe Kleinschmidt [00:21:23]:
Thank you.

Braxton Critcher [00:21:29]:
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