Oh yes, hello, good morning, good morning, good morning, man, i am smiling.
I’ve been smiling since i’ve been up.
Actually it was kind of a rough start.
For me, i’m not gon na lie when i first got out of bed this morning i was kind of like oh man, but you know i’m up and the moment i got out of bed.
I was pumped up and ready to go.
So i’m excited about this day we finished the clubhouse.
We had the room for improvement this morning.
Some amazing people came on this morning.
Great shout outs to them.
I love you all for being there um.
We have a special guest this morning.
Folks we’re excited about.
Today, um today’s tuesday and i love tuesdays, taco tuesday right so but, most importantly, it’s it’s the the day after monday, and it’s and here’s the thing the day before wednesday right so it’s a great day every day is great.
If you make it that way, it’s all about how you wake up and what’s going on between those two years, and if you can actually change your attitude, adjust it just a little bit, have some gratitude and go out there and conquer your day.
I promise you, the attitude alone will take you so much further than having a bad attitude every single time.
I promise it will make you have a better day, even if it doesn’t, even if it’s identical to the day that you have by starting the day off with today’s gon na suck you’re gon na have a much better day.
Just because of once again your attitude.
So make sure your attitude is adjusted because when you do the math on attitude right, you get a which is one and then you do t you add all the numbers like based off the numerical like where they land in the alphabet – and you add them up.
It’s a hundred what it’s exactly 100 with your team, so you have to always give it a 100 every day make sure that that attitude is at 100, make sure everything’s at 100, because attitude is 100.
100 of the reason why that you are successful or not Successful so make sure that you guys adjust that attitude and you get it going right.
I don’t know why here we go yeah.
So since we have the right attitude in this room, do us a quick favor tag, a car guy? Oh it’s that time.
Let your let them know, friends, let your enemies.
Let everybody know that we are brewing solutions on the car guy coffee podcast.
We have a very, very, very special guest, but for those of you that do not know, i don’t know how you don’t.
If you’re watching the show – but i am lou ramirez the car guy and i’m fred lanartz the subprime hero, we have ruined solutions on the car guy coffee podcast go ahead and get some more people in the room.
We have somebody that really is a problem solver.
When you talk about needing to brew some solutions, some serious stuff comes up inside of the dealership world that sometimes people like to put it aside not take a look at and then it becomes a bigger problem.
So, let’s talk about some real fun stuff.
Today, if you want to talk about mitigation, you want to talk about problem solving.
We got the right man in the room.
We might play a little bit of a game uh.
Maybe i don’t know a little stump.
The chump right a little something something to find out what problems this solutionary can solve for you all, but do us a quick favor, because yeah there is one other problem in the room: there’s incredible people that are not in it, so get them in here.
Yes, tag them share tag share, share, share sharon’s caring folks, make sure you do that and wow.
When you do, i promise you.
It feels great.
It really does so make sure you do that we’re going to get this thing going we’re going to drop a few words from our sponsors, real quick enjoy them our sponsors.
As uh.
We get ready to raise the flag of being elite like the elite, fi partners mike myth and all of the solutions that are helping make things happen in f, i departments all throughout the nation uh.
We are excited that we are connected and we can raise the flag with them.
We are all i know.
Is i’m wearing this really cool hoodie? What i really think i like that you know before you add you better think.
That’s right! It’s thinkgroup.
com man check them out.
These are some great people, solutionaries for your butt.
Just in case you didn’t know, uh, there’s so many solutions that the think ad group has uh to make sure that you help to uncover the things that are just beneath the surface of your business.
I mean you can find so many customers out of the customers.
You already have you can do so much business if you take care of the and cultivate the relationships that you already have inside your dealership, no doubt does a great job of that.
You need to uh.
Give us a call, give them a call.
If you want to schedule a campaign for your store, i’m telling you it’s going to be worth it, and it will probably blow your mind as as you jump in.
I would suggest that you reach out to me and lou, because we we got some amazing stuff going on.
Our network is huge and we can connect you with so many different people with so many different ideas, so many different ways to transition your dealership from average to above average below average to back to average to above average, and i can make it happen very quickly.
We have the right people, the right network, the right group, the right anything, the solution that you’re looking for.
We we’ve got to brood up we’re ready to bring it so make sure that you reach out to lou, and i my phone number is 2708-7292 sitting there.
Waiting to help, so let’s go speaking of solutions and solutions that are all assembling things together.
We have our very, very, very good friends over the dealership toolkit we’re always brewing solutions and trying to find a way to help things come together, so that you have the tool inside of your belt, that you need, as you seek solutions for those that you’re trying To serve now car guys cargos, we have a few more messages that we’ll bring through, as the show continues from the rest of our incredible sponsors and partners.
But we want to go ahead and get things started.
We do need to get this sitting party waiting to jump inside of the cafe and brew some solutions with us.
So do us a quick favor, and i mean i don’t know when i think of this special guest of ours.
Oh, let’s go ahead and name them! Mr tom clyde right, that’s what i think of a little song.
Now we do not own the rights to this music.
We do not own the rights to drop, so don’t mute our music, but facebook there is a song.
You might have heard it one time or two, but when i think of this gentleman i think of this, oh no here we go don’t play if there was a problem, yo i’ll solve it check out the hook, while my dj revolves all right.
So if there is a problem, yo i’ll solve it, that’s exactly what this solution is.
That’s what he’s about.
So what? Let’s welcome him to the cafe check out the link? He revolves drop that mug inside of the emojis tom cline.
You know: what’s up the cafe, welcome hey guys great to be here.
Sorry, i don’t have my hoodie on yeah [, __, ], nice you’re.
Looking great my friend, it’s it’s! It’s all about just feeling, good, whether it’s a hoodie, it’s a jacket.
If it’s a t-shirt whatever it is that you feel comfortable in and you feel good in it’s all about you look like you’re feeling great this morning, my friend.
How are you doing i’m doing great doing great? I got my coffee you’re, a special guest.
You get all the special stuff man, so it’s gon na happen.
That’s part of coming on the car guy coffee, podcast, there’s a swag pack that comes right afterwards and we appreciate it wow.
So we have some amazing people in here.
Just you know tuning in um.
We got shiv.
What’s up sheep, we got stephen stephen logsdon, my man, great young man, got jackie grillo she’s in here.
What’s up jackie, smiling ear to ear every single day.
I promise you right now.
She has a biggest smile in the whole world right now going home right, so we appreciate y’all, keep sharing, keep growing and everyone else out there who’s.
Commenting that we don’t see your comments.
We do apologize.
I know that a lot of times these comments, they they somehow don’t show up on the stream yard, and we apologize for that.
That’s hopefully they’ll end up getting that fix, but there’s so many different sources that we share this.
This show at at the same time, right now like on facebook, we’re like in about 30 different groups right now, so not every group will pull up.
So if we do have comments, we will go back and i will try to come back like i always do and write down, and you know you know, give you a little thank you for that.
So we do appreciate it so feel, free to comment.
We will get back to you, but man we have tom klein in the house better vantage point: that’s what i’m talking about, and you know tom klein is somebody that we’ve been connecting with we’ve been just really enjoying what he’s been bringing to us.
You know the the information and the questions that he asks are just they’re they’re exactly what a solutionary is all about, so welcome to the show hope you’re doing great we’re ready to have this good time with you great.
Let’s do it so tom tell us a little bit so that our audience knows what it is that you actually do better vantage point man, that’s just definitely something that you always want to make sure that you take is a different vantage point to what it is That you’re viewing, because a lot of times we’re seeing the same thing but from different angles, and it’s impairing our ability to actually improve something.
Just because of the vantage point that we’re looking at so i love the name of your company.
I love what it is that you’re doing, but for those that are watching that do not know what it is that you do tell us a little bit about what you do before we kick off this five-liner and start flying sure.
So what i do is i make sure that the money that you make is the money that you keep.
So dealers are focused on sales, so we got all the money coming in through the front door, but what i do is make sure it doesn’t walk out.
The back door, so i do that by focusing on three specific areas.
One is dispute resolution right.
The second is risk mitigation and the third is compliance.
So if you’d like i’ll, spend a couple quick minutes on those three or four, please do bring it.
This is your show, we’re highlighting you, my friend, so uh dispute resolution really starts with what i call online risk mitigation, which is what do you do to solve your customers problems online? Do you have a method or do you have a policy and procedure where, when somebody posts a complaint on google or facebook, or as one of my clients, any of the any of the hater sites uh, if, if anybody posts those do you have a way to Solve that problem, do you have a person at the dealership to mitigate that risk, because regulatory and lawyer problems usually start with online complaints and i’ll help a dealer uh either i’ll? Do it myself and help the deal that way or teach them how to do it? So that they start resolving the complaints of their customers, that also goes with employees so dispute resolution.
I call it three legs of a stool, so really that’s.
The first leg is dispute resolution making sure that, from soup to nuts, whether it’s a lawsuit, a regulatory problem, i’ll help bring it to conclusion or bring it to conclusion for the dealer or talk them through or train them on on how to do it.
So that’s number one number two is: how can we excuse me, how can we transfer risk to another party so to an insurance company i’ll go in i’ll analyze? All the insurance policies find out where the holes are, which usually there are a lot of holes and then start plugging those holes with insurance and then secondarily to that plugging those holes with policies and procedures that we can put in place to make sure.
As i said at the beginning that the money you make is the money you keep and then the third part is compliance, which is there are so many rules and regulations, it’s hard for me to even keep up with them, and i’ve been doing.
I was in ownership of the i was an owner of a dealership for 30 years, so so it’s even hard for me to keep up with, but on compliance is anybody auditing? Your deals is anybody.
Looking at your policies and procedures, is anybody making sure that your irs 8300 uh forms are filled out correctly? Are you doing it because penalties are up to 5.
5 million and five years of jail time for willful non-compliance? So these are things that are you just can’t mess with you just have to have a policy, you have to have a procedure and you have to make sure that you’re doing it and i go in from kind of a forty thousand foot view plug all the Holes that i can immediately and then we start working through the process of continuous improvement activity and making sure that, on a monthly basis that we’re looking at all these items and looking at the new ones and looking at the old ones and making sure that we’re Reviewing uh, where the, where the liability could be and doing what we can to make sure the problems stop before they happen.
Wow, that’s i mean once again folks you hear why we started off the show with the.
If there was a problem, yo i’ll solve it right, because there’s so many problems that people get into encountering that they don’t even know we’re gon na come that’s right.
You don’t know that they’re coming, you don’t anticipate it because you’re building your business, you want to think all good or roses, but you have tick people off, sometimes right or you sometimes it’s legitimate.
Sometimes it’s really a legitimate fix that you need to to have inside of your organization.
Sometimes it’s something that you really drop the ball on and we all have to approach a our business with a humble attitude of how do we serve the customer if they had the bad experience? Well, that falls on us.
So we need to fix that experience.
Yeah and adjust it you’ll, be surprised with just calling them and talking to them and just trying to resolve something.
You can do it just one.
It’s it’s as simple as that in a lot of cases, the what you’re talking about is so on current topics.
Right now you know you.
I actually had a great conversation yesterday with a gentleman named gary silman um.
He may be watching it.
If not, you know, hopefully he does check it out later, but gary’s all about compliance.
I mean he’s dude like majorly, like i don’t know if you know who gary is, but gary is like so deep into compliance that he he was like.
I need to talk to you, man.
I really want to talk to you about it, and so we had a great like hour-long conversation yesterday about that type of stuff, and i’m going to tell you it’s it’s it’s, it is it’s coming and it’s happening very fast and dealers out there who are gon Na who think they’re doing it right, they’re actually doing it wrong.
Majority of them are the way they’re keeping their paperwork compliant with how they’re doing their digital um sales.
How they’re doing online sales it’s it’s, though it seems like they’re doing it right, they’re doing it wrong and those fines can lead to jail time, especially if you know you’re doing it wrong two.
It could lead to major fines, major fines to the point where it could shut you down, so you need to make sure that you’re doing it right and then your reputation now as a dealer.
Your reputation is everything when, when somebody starts saying that this dealer does unethical work at his dealership, people are going to not go there anymore, they’re going to start going hold on.
I don’t want to go there.
My information is compromised.
You’re.
Talking about my credit information that stuff, that’s so important that i’ve worked so hard to keep it’s compromise now, so it is key.
What we’re talking about! It is key what tom is all about.
It’s key that he is solving problems for people out there and trying to figure out a way to get a solution for what’s going on and man.
I love that you’re talking about this this morning, tom.
It’s exactly right up our alley.
I mean brewing solutions.
That’s what we do right, so i want to point out something here for those of you that do do some of your reputation management.
You said, i said the understanding that you’re going to run into problems with your customers right as much as you fight and fight and fight to try to get some good reviews understand that you leave yourself out there for other bad reviews to come in, and i Know that it would spin me out, when the first time that i would start going through our google reviews and giving a response right, giving a thumbs up.
Giving a like saying.
Thank you for visiting us and then you run into that one star.
And it’s not even something that that you did wrong right.
It’s not it’s not a broken part of your process and they they bark some really horrible things out at you and you’re like oh man, oh you’re, getting yourself ready, oh getting ready to get your fingers going crazy, starting to give an answer.
Real quick and you got to pull back because your answer can’t be something that looks like you’re as ticked off as you are when you’re writing it back right.
You can’t answer out of that emotion and – and you still got to answer with some sort of a smile, you know as you’re typing there’s got to be a.
We appreciate your constructive criticism.
Thank you for visiting us.
We look to try to make this better uh contact a manager.
I always put that in there please contact the manager um.
In any case scenario, we want to make sure that you’re happy, no matter what the experience please tell us how we can get one more star right, because if it’s either a five or it’s a one and that’s usually where, where it dances, you don’t have anybody Like you know what that was really a three, let me just go with the three on that right: it’s either a five or it’s a one.
It’s either everything or nothing, and we got ta deal with our composure, because sometimes even your response could be a problem.
Uh to the customer and swell up the issue, and if you don’t think people are sitting there reading what the company says back to the customer.
Well you’re wrong and you don’t know my wife and you don’t know his wife.
You know what i mean we’re reading these comments, but folks there is something that’s key inside of that, because even if somebody puts a finger in your face saying something that you actually legitimately did that’s wrong or they’re putting a finger in your face.
That’s unwarranted and you didn’t do anything wrong.
You have to you, have to sit there and apply three f’s in order to does that, keep growing, and so we’re gon na do that before we get this five-liner kick in my man, tom.
We are going to forgive focus and fly together because, ultimately, that’s the only way that we can keep growing and keep improving so join us real, quick as we do that we are going to forgive focus, fly, go ahead and put the hands on the shoulders.
One time brother on three we’re gon na wipe off the weight of unforgiveness, we’re gon na focus and we’re gon na fly on three one.
Two three forgive wipe it off there you go focus there, you go and fly and keep going, keep growing, get it right.
That’s what i’m talking about man i am so excited tom.
You are exactly what i’m talking about.
We love solution areas.
You are right up there you’re right up my alley.
I’m excited about dropping this five liner on you folks, five liner time, five liners five questions that we’d love to ask our guests, and these five questions are designed to get to know.
You see how you got to where you’re at today, so people can be inspired by you and i’m inspired by you.
That’s why you’re on the show it’s time to share that with the whole world.
Let’s get this thing going.
I see you out there, timothy wilson, good morning, y’all! That’s right! I appreciate you folks, i see you out there.
I know i’m looking on linkedin.
I see there’s plenty of people watching on linkedin right now.
Hopefully we can see your comments.
I’ve seen a bunch of y’all, there’s, there’s everybody everywhere.
We appreciate it so keep it going five line of time, five line of time.
My first question is always the same tom.
My first question is my favorite one.
Everybody has a purpose, a purpose, a why? There’s a reason why you go for it every single day when you wake up and you’re like today is going to be the day.
What is that motivation? I like helping people uh fred, i mean what i do is try to make sure, as i said that the dealer is protected and i enjoy that work.
It’s challenging and it’s fun for me, because i’m kind of an ocd ocd guy.
So i like making sure that all the boxes are checked.
Uh i’ve got one client i just started with.
We’ve got uh 54 items we’re working on right now, so i just like what i do so that’s uh.
That’s my that’s my why i love it.
You know, and and like you said, you ocd ocd, helps a lot when you’re when you’re the type of person who’s like what you do.
You know when you’re a solution and you’re out there trying to solve problems.
You got to have some ocd because if you can’t keep up with things and check those boxes off exactly the way you know what’s going on, because when you get done at the end of the day, because you check boxes, you know what you missed right.
You know exactly where you need to go back fix or whatever you need to complete and, and that is the ocd.
I have the same thing, so i totally agree with you tom.
I have that exact same type of mentality, but helping people.
What better cause is there for you? There isn’t every day if your purpose is to help others you’re going to just smile you’re, going to have more energy you’re going to be frustrated, sometimes because sometimes you’re going to want to help people and they don’t want the help or they don’t seem.
Like they’re hearing what you have to say and they’re still doing it the wrong way, so it could be a little frustrating, but at the end of the day it’s the most satisfying thing that you could ever do giving others, because the more you give the more You’re going to get and to get the more you’re going to get part, that’s just a byproduct and you don’t even notice it you’re so so involved in helping others the more you’re going to get to give.
That’s it and that’s it just keeps it’s a cycle.
You know it’s a cycle and we just keep doing it and we keep growing with it.
Man and – and i love that you know when, when you’re a solutionary like you and you’re out there and you’re, just trying to solve problems for people and you’re, trying to figure out a way to make life better, whether it’s at a dealership, whether it’s with your Relationships, whether it’s with whatever it is right, you’re always looking for that.
I love that man.
I love that you said you’re ocd, because i’m i’m guilty guilty.
So that’s awesome stuff.
So with that there’s because so many times we can get fixated on on one little particular problem, and i do know that in in the hopes that a business keeps growing a dealership runs into a problem and actually can get paralysis right.
They can get paralyzed by that small little problem, while business wants to keep going right and and to find out, there’s a guy for that there’s a person that can help you handle that you know that’s like mind-blowing, because you didn’t even know that there was the Problem and then you find out well there’s people that specialize in actually helping this problem come out and that’s what’s so encouraging about having somebody like you in the show, because again we always want to think of everything being the way that we write the script.
But if there’s anything that we know it’s, that the script doesn’t always go according to our penciling right, i’m like an app for dealerships right, there’s an app for that right after that.
There’s a topic for that.
There’s a time for that.
Yes, there’s time for that um tom, and that’s what uh again, why i i appreciate and honor that you do what it is that you do because you’re obsessive about the things that most people are not even paying attention to and that really why they hire you.
Because this is what you’re specializing in and you bring so much experience – you bring so much uh so much for just knowledge from the past into it.
I want to know, i mean you’ve been a 30 year car dealer you’ve been doing this.
For how long have you been doing this for dealers? I started part-time last year after the dealership sold in 2019.
I did some work for the the new dealer through the end of last year, so really full time just started in in december, but part time.
I was doing it last year.
Well, that’s awesome! Well, we’re excited to be part of this journey with you um.
I want to ask you the car guy question of the moment of what is it that made you a car guy? What got you in the car business itself? Well, my grandfather started in the car business in 1925.
Back back when they used to take the uh, the car off of the train and the chassis and the body they used to assemble it next to the railroad tracks.
Wow, so i’m actually it’s in my dna, i’m a third generation car guy.
If you think about it, my family’s been in the business for almost 100 years, wow uh and the country is only what 200 and right 50 years so, like my family’s, been in the business like 30 percent of the of the whole age of the country, so Um, it’s it’s in my dna is the answer to your question: wow wow man, so that that’s an amazing thing and that just shows you folks.
You know this business is a great business to be part of it’s a legacy leaving business.
You know, and it’s the type of business that you can be part of where you can be the bottom of the barrel, which there’s plenty of them out there i mean i’d, say ninety percent of them out to our bottom barrel guys.
I just work.
It’s a job for them, but then it becomes a lifestyle, a career and and that’s what tom has his family has shown that you know his grandfather 1925.
Are you kidding me that is so awesome to hear that that number and and you’re still part of this business, this amazing business that changes people’s lives, the p people don’t realize we don’t just sell cars, we involve transportation problems, we put people in vehicles that are So needed they’re, so emotional.
This is one of the most emotional purchases that people make.
I mean they really do get emotional.
I mean whether it’s happiness, aggravation whatever it is, those emotions get brought up when they go out to buy a vehicle.
You know, and you can try to make sure that those emotions are held to check and try to help them feel like it’s smooth and comfortable and and tom’s been doing that now for three generations.
Almost a hundred years.
A third of what this country’s lifespan is.
It’s amazing what his family’s been doing and and he’s still carrying on that legacy in that tradition and he’s a problem solver and he’s out there trying to make this business better.
I mean you’re right up our alley, brother, that’s because that’s all we’re trying to do.
We want this business to be better and we want dealers out there to be doing it, the right way, being compliant being the type of person who takes care of disputes being the type of person that understands that we’re here to help people not to help ourselves.
You know right and going back to what lou is saying a few minutes ago when you’re, you know when you’re thinking about what you’re going to type on a response to an internet complaint.
Yes, it’s important and you need to take a breath and you need to be positive, just like lou said, but ultimately, what’s important is ultimately it’s not that response.
You have to pick up the phone and call the customer and get them back into the store and fix the problem and then after you’ve fixed it, then you ask the customer to update the review and you use the word update.
Not change.
Excuse me, i’m sneezing on the truth, bless you yes, so you you ask the customer to update the review and you say: hey.
You know we worked really hard to try to get you.
You know get you some help and i it it hurts my feelings when, when these things are out on the internet, so if you’d let people know we’re not such bad guys.
After all, i’d really appreciate that you don’t ask him, you don’t ask him to change the review lou, because if you ask them to change it, they’ll feel manipulated.
They’ll feel like the only reason that you went to help them is just so they’ll go back and and and do that so um.
It’s it’s a very important part of the business because those people often will post because they feel like they’re, not empowered in any other way, and so they’ll complain that way or they’ll complain to the attorney general to complain to the consumer, financial protection bureau or the Federal trade commission all the all of these places, so it’s really important that you solve those problems and mitigate your risk by keeping your customers happy.
That’s that’s key on on so many different levels, because remember we’re not just talking about making revenue, we’re talking about building relationships, right and you’re, building relationships with your customers and and sometimes people act out of turn.
And it’s again like we said earlier, it’s justified and sometimes it’s completely not.
I can’t tell you how many customers that we’ve we’ve looked at the review saw it salesperson, comes up and says: lou, look at what miss martinez said.
You know what i mean and then and i’m like what we bent over backwards.
We did this for them.
We did that for them we did and there’s this one tiny little thing that you didn’t even know they were upset about, or maybe somebody didn’t answer their phone quick enough that you know they complained to a sales person.
Sales person is busy uh, they didn’t get back with them in time, then, all of a sudden, that’s it i’m going on google and then they’ll do their thing.
Then eventually, they’ll make the call to the store and that’s where it gets interesting because you’re in that moment, where you sometimes you don’t get the chance to take the breath, you have the customer on the phone giving you the complaint.
You go up to the google real fast, because the sales person’s standing there saying look boss and then you’re like reading their review and you’re getting fired up you’re like bro.
Why would you know what i mean you want to go into that and you’re sitting there trying to take that breath, you’re trying to take it easy, like hey and you’re right, come in.
Let’s talk about this, let’s talk about.
What’s going on not even mentioning that the review is sitting right there and then you fix that problem, and then you ask them, can you do me a favor? Can you help give me maybe one or two more stars: can you help adjust that just a hair and then eventually it’s like man, i’m so sorry i shouldn’t have done.
I was mad and i just you know, went out and just said a whole bunch of things.
I’m sorry about that.
I’ll! Take that down i’ll fix it.
The customer is usually happy.
What i encourage my guys to know is that, when that problem does show up to to our step, that’s the opportunity to seal something with your customer that you can never at any other time.
Your relationship gets built at the moment that you show how you fix a problem, not necessarily that everything was smooth when a problem shows up how you deal with that problem is what makes that relationship get tight.
I know that some of my best friends growing up were people that we were fist fighting first right and then all of a sudden man we’re best friends.
You know i mean bottom line.
If any good marriage out there has been through some trials and tribulations.
Even you could get deep into that.
You know like if, when you get into a a spiff or another spiff a little fight, you need to use that word with your spouse.
You know it’s how you deal with that problem.
A lot of people will have a major spout and they want to divorce immediately.
That is not how you solve problems in relationships.
You have to sit down and talk and resolve that, and it’s okay you’re supposed to be in arguments when you love somebody and you’re passionate about something you’re going to disagree and you’re both a passionate you’re, both going to have your sides.
But the cool thing is you committed for life when you commit to something like that, and you know that your partner and you decided that your partner for life do sickness in hell.
Do all that type of stuff? You sit down and you work that out and how you solve that problem is so key and it’s really easy.
It’s usually just listen and that’s 99 of time all you have to do to solve a problem.
Listen to your client, listen to your spouse! Listen to your best friend, listen to your brother, listen to your mother, whatever it is, listen a lot of times they just want to let something off their chest.
It’s a problem because they feel like you’re not going to listen to them.
You know you don’t care about my problem, i do i’m going to listen.
You listen and you’ll be surprised just listening, even if you can’t do anything, i’ve literally told clients.
I can’t do anything about it, but i hear what you’re saying right: that’s what they want to do.
They just want you to hear what they’re saying they need to be able to tell to somebody instead of just their friends.
You don’t want them telling all their friends, oh man, this guy used.
You know they screwed us over blah blah blah blah blah blah, but they’re gon na tell everybody bad news spreads like wildfire.
Good news barely goes anywhere, so you have to make sure that you you put that fire out quick and you do it and you do it with love and passion.
Even if it’s just like i said listening yeah making sure that people know that one, you can’t be trampled on right, you have to hold your ground and be honorable know that you’re busy you’re defending your business sure there’s anything that i’d stand in front of it’s The bullet, for my guys it is so hard, even if my salesperson is in the wrong, i would still stand there and eat whatever the customer’s saying about them and let them know listen.
I have.
I have to stand in the way of this.
For my guys, i can’t let them uh be treated like that.
Please don’t speak to my salesperson.
That way, let me take care of this issue for you, whether it’s a mechanic or a salesperson, a customer i mean in a lot of times they have valid points and you have to be able to listen to it and we’re so quick to defend.
But with that, i want to jump in here and and give the opportunity before fred asked the next question uh for those of you that are out there that have ran into some incredibly strange, weird, probably dealing with problems right this very minute, probably sitting somewhere on The desk that you probably pushed over to the corner – and i don’t want to deal with that right now – right whatever it is, that’s going on.
If you have questions, please do us a favor drop them in the comment box.
We’re going to ask them after we get through with this five-liner, see what it is that tom had for you right now, as he gives you explanations to what he would do uh with maybe some of the problems that you’re encountering.
So if you’re talking, this guy has three generations worth of understanding how to solve car transportation problems.
Are you kidding me come on folks? If there’s somebody out there that can help it’s.
We got tom he’s right here, guys seriously, hey luke.
Can i just add one thing to what you said freely for yours for your salesman.
It’s important i found when a customer has a problem and you fix it.
They’re they’re yours for life.
I had customers at the beginning of the internet who posted problems.
I resolved those problems i sold those guys, they would come back and see.
Only me i’d sell them a car and there are a couple customers that i sold.
Six seven eight cars to they started out as complaints, and they ended up being my buddies for life and they would come in they’d, say just take care of me.
They knew, i would be fair with them, and – and it was great, it was a great relationship, so i just want to build on that and make sure that everybody who’s listening knows that by resolving customer problems, you’re building your own business and it can be scary And you have to know if you get nervous in front of a customer, just know that and take your time there’s nothing wrong with with acknowledging how you feel making sure you you know, do a check up with it makes what’s going on and then ask for Your help or ask for somebody else, somebody else’s help to make sure the problem getting get resolved.
Absolutely you are a solution you know what’s going on, he knows.
What’s how you do that, and that’s exactly right when you build something like that and you put that trust in place.
The only thing only thing that can kill that trust is yourself, so you just make sure you just keep following up the way you’re supposed to you know and and tom’s right, six, seven, eight cars! Folks! It’s sometimes it’s hard to imagine that, because you maybe you’re a year in the business, maybe you’re just a month in the business and it’s hard to imagine, oh, i can sell somebody, six, seven, eight vehicles, you do that if you do it right now, you have To st you have to take care of your clients, it’s not just about selling them a vehicle and saying bye, nice to know you follow up with those people make sure you take care of them.
There’s a customer complaint.
You squash it.
You literally just like.
I said if anything it listen to what they have to complain about, that is so key, but being able to build that relationship like he says now to the point where the very first time.
I always tell this to my guys, and i love that you brought that up tom.
The very first time you deal with somebody is probably the hardest time.
If you do it right, every time, it’s much easier, they come back and like just like you said just take care of me: they don’t even double.
They just know that you’re gon na take care of them.
They don’t even worry about it.
They’re, just like tom’s taking care of me today, i that’s my car guy.
I’m gon na go in he’s gon na get my car ready.
He knows what i need he’s gon na.
Let me know what my numbers are and what the numbers are.
They’re gon na be good numbers, because that’s what tom always does so build that trust man do it, and i love it.
That’s a great point.
You made right there, so that leads right into my third question and my question i’m gon na have for you today.
Tom for my third one is, as you were, coming up in this business and i know you’re a generational car guy, you know and you definitely you bring that, and i can feel that about you, but there’s been people along the way that have helped guide you To get to where you’re at who’ve, given you tips, who’ve told you hey, you need to listen to your clients or you need to do these.
You need to do that.
Who is probably the most influential mentor that you’ve had since you’ve come up in this business? That’s a great question: i’ve had some good ones um, but i would say probably my brother uh, who is uh seven years, my senior and uh, and he really had been in the business for many years before i got in so uh.
He did a great job.
So i can give him a shout out this morning right on brotherly love.
That’s it! That’s awesome! Man yeah, my! I have a brother.
That’s in the car business he’s my he’s.
My junior he’s two years younger, i’m the oldest.
I was the first one in so i brought i kind of got him into the business, but so i know what you’re talking about there.
It’s it’s a beautiful thing to see family and you know, like i said it’s been generational for you, but giving shout out to your brother now.
What’s your brother’s name, bob bob? What’s up bob nice to meet you yeah bob? We have you heard the radio the radio show bob and tom in the morning.
That’s pretty cool, that’s neat, but yeah, the the the beautiful thing about that is that you, you did throw love to your brother.
I mean, i honestly, i think, out of all the years that we’ve been well the year, plus that we’ve been doing this and we’ve asked that question.
I don’t think i’ve ever heard anyone throw a shout out to one of their family members as a brother.
I’ve heard fathers mothers but their brother, their older brother, who showed them the light in this business man.
That is amazing.
Good, shout out to tom, from tom to bob shout out to you bob.
I look forward to meeting you one day.
That’s gon na be nice.
So is he still in the business uh he’s doing some consulting for uh for dealerships yeah? That’s what you’re supposed to do yeah! She should be doing it 100 years almost there’s.
Definitely that you guys definitely have a lot of knowledge to pass on.
There’s no doubt about that and that’s great that you guys are doing that out there consulting and helping dealers and it’s amazing so love it shout out to your big bro yeah.
Absolutely.
I think that we might have maybe one other guest that might be able to jump on the show if we even have paul damos on the show, you might say, matt damos yeah right.
That might be that brother connection that might come in here.
So when i say that i mean really just to say that we have so many different layers inside of this business, that we, we can see different lighting and that’s again, why we bring somebody in here an answer to a question that we ask all the time Completely unique, as you say that it’s your brother um, that has been a mentor to you and in this business, it’s key that we have that those people that can cut on us those people that can tell us the truth when it hurts right and still say It with love the truth in a way that we understand, we need to correct ourselves because again, as a problem shows up its way inside of a dealership, it doesn’t get easy to deal with if you’re constantly not trying to see where you can improve in it.
Right and the important part about that lou is, i always told my employees that problems and dealers in dealerships are like rotten fish.
They don’t smell better, as time goes on right, so it’s important to just handle them and there’s an expression that your first loss is.
Your best loss, which means that the first time you encounter the problem you’re gon na, if you fix it right then, and there you’re gon na – spend the least amount of money fixing it or the least amount of time fixing it.
If you procrastinate it and push it off like a customer problem, you think okay, well, this customer’s never going to come back.
I can’t fix them, there’s nothing i can do which i don’t agree with.
There’s always something you can do.
Yes, hello, that’s right! I mean if there’s always something you can do, even if you can’t sell them a car, you can give them a hundred dollar gift certificate to go, have dinner out on the on the dealership if you’ve upset them.
For some reason i mean there’s, there is always something you can do.
Um and and i’ve been told you know when i got to a hotel late at night and um midnight and i’m ready to go to sleep because i got a 7 a.
m meeting and i said i’m ready to check in and i’m an ex-smoker.
So i don’t want to, i don’t want a room, that’s you know been smoked in and they said well, all that’s left is smoking rooms and it’s midnight and there’s no other hotels around the clerk says, there’s nothing i can do and i’m like.
There’s tons of stuff you could do you could make a reservation for me at a different hotel.
You could give me free breakfast, you could say i’m sorry you can do you can do anything.
There’s lots of things you can do so it’s always that way.
With a customer, you can find some way to try to find some common ground and if a customer sees that you’re doing that, just seeing that you’re seeking a solution you’re seeing that you’re putting forward the effort – and sometimes you might come back to them and let Them know i don’t have a solution for this, but at least they know you tried, at least they know you put in the effort.
At least they know that to you, they matter and the business itself has has its reputation a lot of it earned right where we that’s it, they bought they’re done kick them out.
It’s over bye, we’re done with them on to the next right, and that mentality does not work going forward with all of the competition that there is for businesses to keep their customers.
Keep their clientele, keep their personnel right.
You can’t just say screw them.
Eff them.
Forget them, don’t worry about it, no everybody has value, and if your heart isn’t postured in a way to try to legitimately seek a solution for somebody, then why are you doing your business right we’re here to serve? You know the the posture of leadership that i love taking is that servant mentality? Even jesus did it.
He said i’m gon na wash your feet while you’re trying to figure out who’s going to be the best at the table.
I’m going to wash your feet right.
The perfect one i’m going to be the one that cleans you all up, but when we do put that effort forward when we do have a culture that is consistently and again, this word is always going to keep coming up, especially here in the future you’re going To see it a lot more but consistently trying to find that solution, you’re going to find new solutions that you didn’t even know were out there you’re going to find new connections like to tom of people that can find ways to fix the problem that you didn’t Know you were going to encounter and ultimately it makes everybody the better.
It makes everybody more rounded, as as leaders managers, you know friends, people in general and i’m excited about that now.
You’ve encountered so many different problems, and i would usually ask it in the form of what’s the biggest problem that you’ve encountered inside of your career, to help you get where you are.
But i’m going to ask this on the side of a dealer.
What has been one of the largest challenges that you’ve seen and helped the dealership overcome and then see re like reconciliation inside of that, so it’s multi-layered, but hopefully you get what i mean yep i do.
I think i have to start by responding and saying that when you’re handling a customer complaint, the dealership needs to get rid of the paradigm of we did.
We didn’t do anything wrong come on, it’s it doesn’t matter.
If it’s it’s the customer’s perception and if you don’t resolve it, then somebody else is going to create a bigger problem for you.
So i think changing a paradigm of we didn’t do anything wrong and we shouldn’t spend any money fixing this.
I think that’s really.
One of the biggest challenges dealers have outside of nothing bad’s going to happen to me.
I don’t need to worry about compliance.
I don’t need to worry about all the things that tom’s talking about, because it’s not going to happen to me.
It is going to happen to them.
Um i mean, even even if you’re, not a bad guy right there, a lot of bad dealers out there.
There are a lot of great dealers out there there’s a situation that was recently published last year about bronx honda.
I don’t know if you heard about the federal trade commission and bronx honda, you know, in short, they were advertised, they were doing false advertising and as a result of false advertising, they took advantage of a lot of people and, as a result of that, they had To sign a consent form with the federal trade commission that the ftc now get this, the ftc has to approve their advertising for 20 years holy crap.
That’s a long yeah, that’s a long time, 20 years! So so you can, you can be! You can try to do things the right way, but if your head’s in the sand and you’re not working on compliance and continuous improvement activity and working on these things, if a regulator ever comes into your business, and you can’t show them that you’re trying to do Things the right way and the right way starts with fixing customer problems because, let’s face it, problems start usually on two legs: they’re: either: customers, disgruntled customers or disgruntled employees.
One of those two and subsequent to that.
The next problem is advertising problems.
Is your advertising so edgy that it’s not compliant, and so you know reviewing your having somebody like me, or anybody review your advertising to review your website to make sure your disclaimers are correct.
When was the last time with all the dealers out there, please go.
Look at your disclaimers today.
Every time i go look at a dealership website.
The disclaimers are wrong and there’s also often a disconnect lieu between what the disclaimer says and how the salesmen are trained on the floor to handle that, for example, some some dealerships like to put plus freight under in their disclaimer all prices on the internet.
Are you know, plus a processing fee, plus taxes plus freight? Well, if the salesmen aren’t trained on how to handle that when a customer comes in and says, i want to buy this suv for forty seven thousand dollars great come on over.
Let’s write it up and they write it up and it’s forty seven thousand plus the twelve fifty freight, then the customer’s gon na get upset, and so that disconnect is very, very important between between compliance and and the the sales staff.
Everything has to work together or you’re going to upset customers.
So i know that’s a little bit of a longer answer to your question.
But oh that’s right on the money.
It was a long question so yeah! No, that’s you answer that right on the money, and that is huge, you know and and it’s you’re right, the whole team needs to be in unison.
Everybody needs to be trained on what is going on.
Everybody needs to understand the verbage.
Everybody needs to understand how to explain the verbiage right and by doing that, it helps you with that compliance, like you said, it’s all perception.
If the customer feels like they were treated and and done wrong, they were done wrong.
It doesn’t matter if you did it right or not.
It’s the fact that they believe that, and they feel that way, so you have to always make sure without a reasonable, without no doubt that you’re doing that, your your salesperson knows what’s going on the management know, it’s gone everybody’s on the same page.
So when the client gets to the dealership and they’re treated they’re treated the way, they’re treated, it’s uniform, everybody knows what’s going to happen, they know what’s happening and they don’t feel like they just got thrown in an extra fee at the very last second right, and That is that can really upset somebody, especially when you’re, anticipating only pay so much i mean i i can go somewhere and you know think, okay, if, if somebody even adds five dollars to my bill, i’m like what is that? What is this five dollars? You know where’d that come from you told me this this and this what’s this well, this is a convenience.
You know i’m not paying that convenience fee right.
It’s not convenient for me.
Yeah right sounds pretty convenient for you.
My friend, so you know sounds like you’ve.
Been on stubhub or ticketmaster recently, you know it man, that’s exactly what that’s you’re exactly right.
You know this is more than the ticket man yeah, it’s ridiculous! It’s not! I always say the same thing when i pass like it’s not convenient for me, man exactly right.
Man, there was a convenience fee that i saw on well man, i it’s gon na, come to me probably later on, but it was like a little five dollar.
It was like a five dollar convenience fee for something that was really silly.
We’re like how.
How is how is that convenient? I don’t even understand why why you’re calling this fee a convenience fee? It’s because it’s not it’s not convenient for anybody and there’s key people that are out there that are that are either seeking that this is a problem.
Like i mean, even when i get my my dinner, i got to be honest when i get my my dinner ticket or my check right, i just take it and throw the card on it and go from there and i try to get it done, quick right, But a lot of times, especially when i’m with my wife, it’s like slip, let’s take a look see.
Let’s see that wait a minute, i got a water, i didn’t get a drink, there’s only three of these on here and it’s like okay.
Well great.
Well, i appreciate that so because i hate having the conversation of hey.
You didn’t get this right.
You know what i mean and trying to highlight that, but sometimes it takes that addressing you’ve got to say something and then when the wife does find it she’ll sit there and like are you going to say something like that, like i’m just going to? .
