What is the Columbo Method? To learn about tho origin you are going to have to turn to Google for that. In summary Columbo, a TV detective from the 1970’s, repeats the same, seemingly trivial, questions at erratic intervals often while pretending to be dumb or forgetful, luring the murderer into making a mistake or giving away a tiny but vital detail. It is a formula that represents the best way professionals can get to the truth.

In this episode of Hard Shop Life the GMan and Coach J discuss how to use they have used this technique and when it was used on them.

 

 

This comes up more than you would think! Problems that come up every day in our service and parts departments and make tensions between the customer and the employee very high. When this happens someone will “blow their top”. Typically the customer will pop first and start to use expletives and insults as a tool to help get their point across. Once this happens it’s common for the advisors to disengage (hopefully not escalate), reach out to their manager, and demand that the customer be FIRED! After all, how can you allow your employees to be treated this way? 

Sound familiar? It should because we see it in service departments all the time. As a manager what should you do? On this episode of Hard Shop Life we discuss this scenario, and a few others, with our good friend and special guest Doug Settle, Fixed Operations Director for Don Ayres Honda and Acura. 

Just one more reason why it’s a Hard Shop Life!

In this episode,  Coach J and the GMan have a roundtable discussion with some special guests around the concept of Do The Work.  GMan shares how Coach J and his Do The Work speech inspired him and others during a meeting of automotive professionals.  GMan tells the group how each experience in his life was a story and lesson on growing to be a better part of him.  How doing the work was the thing that leads to greatness and NOT something else.  Listen and find out what that thing that we all believe in, really isn’t “the thing.”  Also, each guest shared the impact they’ve had in their careers by doing work to get results.

In  this episode,  Coach J and the GMan speak to Charley.  Charley is a Parts Manager.  Actually, he’s a Fixed Ops Director who comforts in the title of Parts manager because, he doesn’t know if he can take the pain of more responsibility with a bigger title again.  Like many managers in the automotive industry,  Charley’s past is plagued with getting thrown into the water and told “Make money…figure it out…don’t drown”. Which caused him unimaginable stress and affecting his family.  This episode relates to everyone that has felt the pressures of  failure and has feared getting up only to fail again.  GMan and Coach J walk Charley through his past experiences all the way to the present; Identifying his fears,  his accomplishments,  and his influences.  He fails to Create his BEST REALITY because of one thing,  fear of pain and stress.  This time, the coaches assure Charley that he will certainly be a successful…IF he does this one thing.

In this special episode Coach J and the GMan interview one of the top Honda service managers in the country. On a normal day he’s responsible for 150 customers, 100 employees, 250 used cars and more than a million dollars in sales. All this and he still finds time to help the owners open a new Acura dealership across town.

During one of our coaching visits we sat down with this “one of a kind” manager and discussed everything from recruiting to terminating, setting appointments to delivery, and everything in between. There is something for everyone packed into this episode.

Enjoy!

In this episode Coach J and the GMan discuss the merits of having a Business Development Center (BDC) in your dealership. There are some obvious benefits, better phone presence, improved follow up, increased appointments, etc… But there is a benefit that most dealers and managers miss… And this one thing can transform your business!

In this episode Coach J and the GMan explore the importance of the standards service department metrics. The old saying is “garbage in and garbage out”. If you allow your data to get messy then you have no roadmap for change or improvement. Its a common trap that a lot of dealers fall into, in this episode we talk about how to fix it or avoid it all together

This controversial episode is going to be like when Don Draper (Mad Men) wrote a page-long ad in the sunday paper denouncing Tobacco and their involvement at their firm.  “You can’t bite the hand that feeds you”, they said.  Some, mostly dealers, may not like what we are saying,  but then,  they might.  Why?  Because our clients, some dealers, are the progressive quiet ones on the left side of the composite you stare at each month.  They change with the times and WIN.  This episode is about paying the tech what they deserve.  A fair pays work for their hard earned knowledge and expertise.

Look, We imagine techs being lazy.  Let’s face it.  some techs are lazy.  But so are SOME porters, advisors,  managers,  back counter parts people, etc.  Just because there’s one lazy – or advantage taking – tech in your shop, doesn’t mean that ALL techs – or other staff members – are lazy too.  Get enlightened and Listen to the facts.  Listen to what some are already doing and winning with it.  Winning with retention, performance enhancement,  and profitability.  If you’re scared of losing techs,  be scared.

Hi Performing employees, especially  advisors, can be a pain.  Most  of the time they are testing manager’s limits.  Not to mention all the people that complain about them.  In this episode GMan and Coach J talk about how It takes special leaders to be able to coach high performers for team success.  Imagine Michael  Jordan without Phil Jackson. Or Bill Belichick without Tom Brady.  Those championship coaches knew how to lead winners and their teammates to success.  Also, how do you know if those performers  are true?  Want to learn how to win with them and see if they’re  staying honest?  just listen.

In this episode GMan and Coach J invite Ben Dykstra from Dealershiplife.org to go head-to-head on the topic of BDCs.  They discuss the importance of a sales call ringing into the BDC compared to the service call.  Ben believes that a sales call ringing into the department is far more important than the service call. He says that if both phones ring,  you pick up the sales call.  Coach J and GMan disagree.  Coach J shares a story from his college days where his frat brother compares the consistency of having a girlfriend to “hooking up” with strangers on a night out.