Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep 98 "Inspect What You Expect"

Transcript

Ep 98 "Inspect What You Expect" · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

0:02
SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity, and pouring back into the community that keeps our door open.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: We're your hosts, Matt, Shelby, and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
0:27
SPEAKER_05: Welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with Lewis Brothers.
0:30
SPEAKER_05: We're your hosts, Shelby and Taylor, holding the four down today, episode 98.
0:36
SPEAKER_05: Getting deep into this thing, figuring some stuff out.
0:38
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
0:38
SPEAKER_05: Right.
0:39
SPEAKER_05: This week talking about inspecting what you expect.
0:42
SPEAKER_05: And I love that this is a topic in the title today because this is something that we try to live in every single day.
0:48
SPEAKER_05: And as soon as we don't, we figure out, hey, get back in it.
0:51
SPEAKER_05: So think about that.
0:52
SPEAKER_05: You don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.
0:56
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
0:56
SPEAKER_05: Right.
0:57
SPEAKER_05: And so we'll fully break that down.
0:58
SPEAKER_05: But something, think of this.
0:59
SPEAKER_05: Something in your business slipped or is slipping this month, and you won't find out until October, to a financial statement or until an AR or an AP, like, uh-oh, there's an issue.
1:13
SPEAKER_05: And think of this: saying something is not a system.
1:16
SPEAKER_05: It's just a hope.
1:17
SPEAKER_05: A hope that, hey, this is gonna work, or like, guys, we need to do this.
1:20
SPEAKER_05: The standard isn't what you announce, it's the worst version you've walked past.
1:25
SPEAKER_05: Most owners think that they have a people problem.
1:27
SPEAKER_05: Usually they have a follow-up problem.
1:29
SPEAKER_05: So we'll fully break that down today.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be a fun one.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: Hey, before we do that, going back to episode 97, everybody agreed that's the problem.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: We went through that.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: You're in a meeting, everyone agrees.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Let's get out of the meeting.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: But you didn't want to just get out of the meeting.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: So we had a whole lot of fun unpacking that, rolling through it, that you've got to be able to have some pushback from your core team that really makes a difference.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: All that and a whole lot more.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: Always make sure you check us out at Lewis Superstore.com for the freshest specials that are going on and the 98 relevant plus hours of stuff we went over on Crosswords Conversation Podcast.com.
2:10
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
2:11
SPEAKER_05: We're talking about what's in the garage today.
2:13
SPEAKER_05: Because if you don't know, if you just follow us for our amazing content, uh we have automobiles, right?
2:19
SPEAKER_05: Uh new forge, new Chrysler Dodge, Jeeps and Rams.
2:22
SPEAKER_05: Uh we sell them, we service them, uh, and everything in between.
2:25
SPEAKER_05: What I want to talk about as we roll, I know it still feels like uh summer because it's just hotter than hot, but fall will be here in no time.
2:33
SPEAKER_05: Well, then come winter, and then your CPA, your tax accountant's gonna say, Hey, you made too much money and you don't have enough offset, you need to buy something quickly.
2:44
SPEAKER_05: And there's no need to just buy something that's not usable just for the tax offset of the credit.
2:49
SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna talk section 179.
2:51
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_05: And they enhance that with the big beautiful bill, the ability to bring that depreciation on sooner.
2:58
SPEAKER_05: A lot of those vehicles you can depreciate up to 100% in the first year.
3:02
SPEAKER_05: First year.
3:03
SPEAKER_05: Based on their payload, or based on their doors, or based on their bed capacity.
3:08
SPEAKER_05: So some vans, some trucks, and also some SUVs.
3:11
SPEAKER_05: Uh, and I love it because we here lately we've been getting tons and tons and tons of heavy duties, super duties, and rams.
3:20
SPEAKER_05: The Rams we had like more duties.
3:23
SPEAKER_05: We talked about 41 plus dualies on the ground.
3:26
SPEAKER_05: We got mega cabs, high outputs, eight-speed transmissions, every configuration.
3:31
SPEAKER_05: But super duties have been so hard to get.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: They have.
3:34
SPEAKER_05: They had that plant fire uh that was the aluminum plant last year, like November, and we've been playing ketchup because that's always a popular item.
3:43
SPEAKER_05: But uh just rolled in this morning and yesterday as well.
3:46
SPEAKER_05: Two different truckloads of high trim and desirable trim option F 250 King Ranches, platinums, trimmers, FX4s, uh some great work truck of XLs and STXs across the board.
3:59
SPEAKER_05: So make sure you stop by and check that out.
4:02
SPEAKER_05: Uh, where you get that Lewis guarantee, you get that truck, and you get that tax write-off.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: And start looking at it now before you get closer to the end of the year, because only thing that's gonna happen towards the end of the year is your schedule's gonna get a whole lot more hectic and the supply is gonna dwindle down.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: It always happens, and we always want to help you out and sell you something, but sometimes that ends up being a purple truck uh that's around cab configuration.
4:26
SPEAKER_05: It's not because we want to sell it to you, it's because that's all you've waited that long and that's all there's left.
4:31
SPEAKER_05: So start doing that now.
4:32
SPEAKER_05: All right, so let's dive into this thing.
4:34
SPEAKER_05: We're talking about it.
4:35
SPEAKER_05: You never actually said it.
4:39
SPEAKER_05: You never actually said it.
4:40
SPEAKER_05: You're talking about the problems, you're talking about inspecting what you expect.
4:44
SPEAKER_05: So handle that is not an assignment.
4:47
SPEAKER_05: What did you actually ask for and by when?
4:51
SPEAKER_05: So, what we're saying is here's a problem, you feel like you have the solution or you have the person to handle that, but did you give them the proper here's how to handle it, and here's when it needs to be handled by?
5:03
SPEAKER_05: What's your thoughts and how do you see that?
5:05
SPEAKER_01: I see it a whole lot of times whenever people get stuck in the mindset of I'm gonna be behind the desk and I'm gonna tell my team what to do, and necessarily of not showing them being able to do it and showing them an outlet of being able to do it.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: I see a lot of times that coming back and checking with managers, they say, Oh, yeah, yeah, I told them to do that.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: I told them to do that.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, you send a text in instead of, and there's nothing wrong with texting, there's nothing wrong with emailing to be able to cover what you need to cover, but you need to go and really this rolls into our whole deal of inspecting, hey, I need X, Y, and Z done, and this is when we need to do it, of giving a whole game plan of this is what needs to be done, let's do this today, instead of just saying, hey, let's move these vehicles or let's clean these vehicles and leaving it open-ended.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: There's never a timeline on the end of it, so it just gets pushed to the back burner.
6:00
SPEAKER_05: There's a couple things said there that help define that when you are inspecting what needs to be done or your expectations is one, you you need to, when you're inspecting that, inspect with proof.
6:12
SPEAKER_05: So by that I mean you're already inspecting, you see what you found.
6:16
SPEAKER_05: Hey, we didn't actually accomplish this, we didn't change the problem, we didn't find a new solution.
6:20
SPEAKER_05: And so then you bring it back to the team and say, This is my fault.
6:23
SPEAKER_05: I apologize.
6:24
SPEAKER_05: Here's what I found.
6:26
SPEAKER_05: Let's go walk the lot.
6:27
SPEAKER_05: I want to show you this, this, and this, and this.
6:28
SPEAKER_05: What's your thoughts on this?
6:30
SPEAKER_05: Or in the office, hey, here's the paperwork.
6:32
SPEAKER_05: We labeled it as this, you see it as this.
6:35
SPEAKER_05: Uh, that's my fault.
6:36
SPEAKER_05: Here's my expectation.
6:38
SPEAKER_05: So, but often it is really, really, really what's in our head versus what we expect everyone to do.
6:45
SPEAKER_05: And if you do not clearly define that, I feel like you're just setting yourself up for failure.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: You are, and it it does nothing but frustrate you more and then I feel like let your team fail too easily, and you're not necessarily giving them the the right foot up, the right opportunity to be able to succeed.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: Whenever they fail so easily, it lets you down, and they're upset because they let if they care at all, which majority of of some of them do, yeah.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: Some of them do, but um, they do care and they do have a sense of pride of, hey, I'm taking care of this for you.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: But if you never really set them up and give them a clear expectation game plan to be able to follow up with and what needs to be done of giving it an owner, giving it a date, and rolling into it, you are the one that fumbled the ball right off the bat.
7:36
SPEAKER_05: And oftentimes, sometimes we do fumble that uh because we feel like if we give them a date, it's an ultimatum.
7:43
SPEAKER_05: Like do this by now.
7:44
SPEAKER_05: It's like, golly, you're so pushy, but it's so necessary.
7:48
SPEAKER_05: Because think of these three things: no owner, no date, and no standard.
7:53
SPEAKER_05: If three-way the task dies quietly and just will, and then you find out in October, what the heck?
8:01
SPEAKER_05: What the heck?
8:01
SPEAKER_05: I thought you were handling that.
8:03
SPEAKER_05: There was no physical one throat to choke, you know, and one person who's that's their pure responsibility.
8:09
SPEAKER_05: You talk to everyone about it, and they're like, somebody's gonna grab it and run with it.
8:13
SPEAKER_05: Uh-uh.
8:14
SPEAKER_05: They all thought someone else was gonna grab it.
8:16
SPEAKER_05: There's no date, so no understanding when this has to be completed by, and there was no standard, like, okay, go clean, like, okay, cleaner than it was, or clean to this part, right?
8:26
SPEAKER_05: And so those very easily happen day in and day out.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and setting clear expectations.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: You always talk about that, and I love love that.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: Your clear expectations are just a roadmap.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: You're not in my head.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, us as brothers can kind of understand and and look at cues, but we can't expect employees to do the same thing.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Tell them what you're thinking and help explain to them the roadmap that's in your head.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: We we do very good at thinking in our heads and having this grand scheme, and then we give this a little bit, and we're upset because it doesn't end up how it was in our head.
9:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and that that's so many times how it happens, right?
9:11
SPEAKER_05: And that's that's the fault of a male of just like, here's what I think, here's what needs to be done, handle it, right?
9:18
SPEAKER_05: And there's just no no roadmap to it whatsoever.
9:21
SPEAKER_05: So this next one is any questions.
9:24
SPEAKER_05: So you go over this with the team or one-on-one and you say any questions.
9:27
SPEAKER_05: That gets you absolutely nowhere.
9:30
SPEAKER_05: Like, they're not going to fight back and say, Yeah, I have a question, this, this, and this.
9:36
SPEAKER_05: Or they might, but that's gonna like, so when do I take my lunch, right?
9:39
SPEAKER_05: Uh you have to ask them to tell you back what they're going to do.
9:44
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
9:45
SPEAKER_05: Right?
9:45
SPEAKER_05: So it's like, okay, here's the game plan, here's what I'm thinking, here's our problem, here's what I feel the solution is, here's the key person that's gonna handle it.
9:52
SPEAKER_05: Now I want you guys to recap that and tell me from your words, learning pyramid, right?
9:58
SPEAKER_05: We're getting deep into the heart of it, how you're going to execute this.
10:02
SPEAKER_05: And then when you hear them say it, you'll hear what you said, and then a brain what you think, and then hear them say it back, and you'll be like, oh my gosh, I'm glad you said that.
10:12
SPEAKER_05: Uh, without just saying that was awful.
10:15
SPEAKER_05: Because sometimes it is awful, but it's like, I'm glad we did that.
10:18
SPEAKER_05: So let's recap that, let's break that down.
10:20
SPEAKER_05: Here's what we're actually gonna handle.
10:22
SPEAKER_05: One, two, three.
10:23
SPEAKER_05: Those others are great ideas we'll work on later, but yes, they were about to go tackle something in the complete wrong section.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, and run the opposite direction.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: What I love what you said about that, have it already set up.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: So if you have a game plan of what you're going over and it's, hey, we're gonna make phone calls with a team, or we're gonna confirm appointments, or or we're gonna set vehicles out this correct, whenever you introduce that whole thing, go back and ask your team of those questions and have a select individual that you're gonna go to.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: You're not telling them before, but whenever you're going over, then you're comfortable with, hey, Shelby, tell me how you're gonna go over with the team on making phone calls.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: That's not saying, hey, do you have any questions about that?
11:07
SPEAKER_01: No, it I'm asking you.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: So then whenever he tells me he's like, oh, I'm gonna get him in there and give him a call list, you're like, whoop, hold on.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: No, I need you to be able to sit in there and go over these intentionally on each of them.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: So you kind of get to ask a question there and then redirect.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: I love what you had brought up about that, about redirecting, because sometimes we have a whole list of things we need to go over, and your team will tell you if if you're asking the right questions, if they're ready for all of those things.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: If not, you can shorten it down and we're gonna stick just to one topic.
11:40
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and by asking that you you are asking the questions, you're not saying, do you have any questions?
11:46
SPEAKER_05: Like people could quickly think those are the same.
11:48
SPEAKER_05: They're completely different, realizing that and the outcome will change.
11:52
SPEAKER_05: The the thing that you soon assume was obvious, because it's lived in your head for 30 years, it is not obvious.
12:00
SPEAKER_05: Like they will not see it the same that you do or that someone else does.
12:04
SPEAKER_05: So you have to have to have to have to ask those proper questions, get feedback and follow up with that.
12:10
SPEAKER_05: You have to think where each one of us at some point in time has been so mad about something that we actually never communicated about.
12:20
SPEAKER_05: Right.
12:21
SPEAKER_05: And so then it circles back to you and we laugh with each other about it because that's all we can talk to.
12:27
SPEAKER_05: It's just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe mobile truck never did this, or this salesperson never offered this, or delivery didn't do this, or services, or I didn't do this.
12:37
SPEAKER_05: But you never sat down with them and say, Hey, your point person, here's what I need you to do, here's what I think works.
12:44
SPEAKER_05: Uh tell me areas that I've missed on this, and I need this by the end of August, right?
12:51
SPEAKER_05: But have you had some areas like that that you've never communicated?
12:54
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I've got I've got a hilarious one that uh this is actually of I was listening to a podcast of Warren Buffett of just a fountain of wisdom that you can hear so many different things, but something's so small.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: So I can walk into any dealership or any business and be able to tell how successful they are by the cleanliness of their bathroom.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: So, and I that stuck with me for years.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: So I'll always find, and I have employees that walk in on me, that I'll walk in and something that's so simple of a bathroom.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: You think of it as a bathroom, and I'll roll this to a different area that I've seen.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: But every time I walk in our bathroom, I'm like, is there are there paper towels?
13:35
SPEAKER_01: Is there toilet paper?
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Are the toilets flush?
13:37
SPEAKER_01: So I'll do a quick check because I want somebody to be able to walk into somewhere simple and be like, man, that was clean.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Because where Warren Buffett was talking about it is if they pay that much attention to something so small, what do they do with everything else?
13:53
SPEAKER_01: What do they do with everything else?
13:55
SPEAKER_01: Like it bugs the fire out of me of a local gas station that absolutely rocks it.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: And in my head, I'm walking through.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if your bathrooms were really nice and people always knew that they were really nice, guess what they're gonna do?
14:10
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna come inside and use your bathroom and then be more interested in buying any of the merchandise you have inside.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: So whatever it is, don't think it's too big or too small.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: You can really emphasize in one area.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: So that's a funny one that I just always pay attention to.
14:26
SPEAKER_05: So you saying that makes me think, because I'm peeling this back, one for just more stuff to talk about, but two and just realness.
14:34
SPEAKER_05: So you do that, right?
14:35
SPEAKER_05: We've always just we have our little things that we do and we lead, but we don't just like, hey, somebody go clean the bathroom.
14:42
SPEAKER_05: We do it.
14:43
SPEAKER_05: The problem a lot of them is you don't tell anybody, and so then it's only clean if you do it.
14:50
SPEAKER_05: So, like, if you think about this, there's 34 different bathrooms on this campus.
14:56
SPEAKER_05: You can't clean all of those, right?
14:58
SPEAKER_05: So it's like, hang on.
15:00
SPEAKER_05: Like, you're gonna be mad every time you walk in and there's paper towels on the ground.
15:04
SPEAKER_05: Yes and so you just grab a paper towel, pick up all the paper towels, wipe the counter off because it's got water all over it, flush the toilets, wipe a greasy handprint off the wall, and go back to work.
15:13
SPEAKER_05: So it's clean, yes, but you didn't fix the the problem, you didn't give a SOP.
15:18
SPEAKER_05: And so it's like those are the things that we talked about that you could be mad about forever.
15:23
SPEAKER_05: It's like, dang it, okay, I need to clean it, but then that's where we inspect what we expect, and we get the person who is responsible and say, Hey, follow me in here real quick.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
15:31
SPEAKER_05: Hey, is there any reason why we couldn't do this every two hours to check on this, this, and this?
15:36
SPEAKER_05: And they're like, mm, no one ever told me that.
15:38
SPEAKER_05: It's like, okay, perfect.
15:39
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
15:40
SPEAKER_05: Steve, the toilet paper is overflowing, we're good to go there.
15:42
SPEAKER_05: So what about these areas right here?
15:44
SPEAKER_05: Can I get you a checklist?
15:46
SPEAKER_05: And so I think that's where we get to say, okay, this needs to happen, and here's how and win.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I love that that it uh uh of being able to see that and instantly that's why I love having people that are around you and are able to say, hey, that's a great idea.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: Great, why why haven't you done it over here?
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Why haven't you implemented it over here of being able to go through because then that makes it sustainable.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Because whether you're in it or you're not, you're still gonna be involved in whatever the whole day-to-day of what the business is, but it it needs to continue to run the same way.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Yep, the the process and the solution and everything in between.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: So that's big.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I got this segment here, two truths and a lie.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: You tell me what you think about it.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: But three claims about how the car business checks itself.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Two are real, one's a lie.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: So your option A there is every U.S.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: car since 1981 has a digit in its VIN, whose only job is to verify the other 16.
16:45
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: B on Toyota's line, any worker could stop the entire plant by pulling a rope.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay, like the city bus.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: That might be uh whoa.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: And C, the VIN check digit will also tell you if a car's been wrecked or had the odometer rolled back.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: So C is C is the lie, right?
17:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
17:08
SPEAKER_05: Uh because you the VIN happens when you build the vehicle, so it have nothing to do with it.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm still more concerned that somebody could be having a bad day on the Toyota line and jerk a rope and stop the whole assembly line.
17:21
SPEAKER_05: Well, yeah, I guess that would be the downside of it.
17:24
SPEAKER_05: I think the upside is that it's like, hold up.
17:28
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
17:28
SPEAKER_05: And it's like, whoa, whoa, Jimmy, you don't need to just pull that because you think this car would look better orange than red.
17:33
SPEAKER_05: Yes, for a severe issue.
17:35
SPEAKER_05: Yes, absolutely.
17:36
SPEAKER_05: That's so funny.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Good facts there.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So inspecting without micromanaging.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: I love this because the two get mixed so easily.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, you really want me to be in there?
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I want you to be in there, but I want you to be out both feet at the same time.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: Because and micromanaging is not bad if done correctly.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: So many people think, oh, if you're micromanaging, yep, you're gonna blow that person out.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna wear them out.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: No, some things, like when you're creating a new habit, have to be touched on.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: Like when Shelby's been teaching me anything of going back around, he'll come back around and say, Hey, did you check on this?
18:15
SPEAKER_01: Hey, how's this going?
18:17
SPEAKER_01: If anything else not, show me your whole process of how you do it every single day.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: So the difference in micromanaging checks how, inspecting checks whether.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: Same walk, different question.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: So, how you go through the whole process there.
18:31
SPEAKER_05: What I love about that is generally when you have found a opportunity, a problem, or uh a bottleneck, then you as a leader say, okay, let's figure out how to solve this.
18:43
SPEAKER_05: And then comes a new SOP.
18:45
SPEAKER_05: Standard operating procedure, the bathrooms are dirty.
18:48
SPEAKER_05: We're identify who can handle that, how we handle that, and then we deliver our expectations.
18:53
SPEAKER_05: But then as a manager who wants to inspect, not so much micromanage.
18:59
SPEAKER_05: Micromanage is that you move your office to the bathroom.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
19:03
SPEAKER_05: You know, thinking of that, and then you're in there constantly saying, Oh, it's 10 o'clock, supposed to be inspecting it.
19:10
SPEAKER_05: And you're like, Well, didn't wipe the counter down.
19:12
SPEAKER_05: That's micromanaging.
19:14
SPEAKER_05: So then the person coming in cleaning is like, hold up, like the toilet was exploded over here.
19:19
SPEAKER_05: I was cleaning that one up.
19:20
SPEAKER_05: I'm two minutes late.
19:21
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
19:21
SPEAKER_05: Give me a second so I can share me this one, right?
19:24
SPEAKER_05: So that's micromanaging.
19:25
SPEAKER_05: That will blow people out.
19:26
SPEAKER_05: Inspecting is I might go by at 10:15 after I know 10 o'clock was supposed to be time.
19:33
SPEAKER_05: I offer a little grace and I go by and I look at it, and then I see if it's clean or not clean.
19:37
SPEAKER_05: So then I go to the person in charge of that and say, Hey, by the way, I wanted to let you know bathrooms have been looking great.
19:43
SPEAKER_05: Good job.
19:44
SPEAKER_05: So that lets them know I'm looking and also gives positive accolades.
19:48
SPEAKER_05: And also then, like if I come around to you and I'm like, hey, let's check this out, that means I've already looked and I know there's still a problem.
19:56
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
19:56
SPEAKER_05: And so I say, Hey, follow me this way, let's check this thing out.
19:58
SPEAKER_05: Go ahead and open LewisSuperstore.com, let's scroll down to the F-150s.
20:02
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
20:02
SPEAKER_05: What's up with this one?
20:04
SPEAKER_05: Instead of saying, like, you failed again, you suck.
20:06
SPEAKER_05: Right?
20:07
SPEAKER_05: Like, that's not how you want to be treated.
20:09
SPEAKER_05: And like sometimes it's like, why do I have to keep walking them to the bathroom to show them we're out of paper towels?
20:16
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
20:17
SPEAKER_05: But you know, it's you you learn that, and then person realizes, hey, they're watching, hey, they're inspecting, hey, they bring positive feedback along with constructive criticism.
20:27
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
20:27
SPEAKER_05: I think that's the difference between the two.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: And I like this of being able to, and I think you can put something in between there, but kind of announcing, hey, this is when I'm gonna go come back around to give them a game plan, an idea.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: That's like giving your date of a goal, like an ending date so they know when they're coming, hey, I'm coming back around on Thursday.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: And once you do a Thursday every couple of weeks or whatever, it's okay to pop in in the middle of it and just check on what's under the hood during the middle of it.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: But I like the Thursday option of giving a date.
21:00
SPEAKER_05: No, that's good.
21:01
SPEAKER_05: So good.
21:01
SPEAKER_05: Like our managers know, hey, we're gonna go over uh KPIs on this day, this day, this day.
21:06
SPEAKER_05: And so they're like, well, I've got to make sure that my KPIs look good by tomorrow morning.
21:14
SPEAKER_05: And so then sometimes we have to do a three times a day.
21:17
SPEAKER_05: When I when I inspect and I'm like, we're not there.
21:19
SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, all right, guys, here's the thing.
21:20
SPEAKER_05: Give me your 10 o'clock checkup, all right, give me your two o'clock checkup, all right, give me your five o'clock checkup.
21:25
SPEAKER_05: And so then I tell them, hey, today we're gonna do a 10 o'clock, a noon o'clock, and two o'clock or five o'clock.
21:30
SPEAKER_05: And so then they understand, and that means, uh-oh, we're not quite at the level we need to be at, and they're watching very closely because you're trying to help them be successful.
21:38
SPEAKER_05: But I think if you tell them up front, then it's not like, get off my back, I'm trying to work.
21:43
SPEAKER_05: It's like, okay, we're not where we need to be, and they're trying to help us get there.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: So inspecting it and going, inspect the work, not in person, the lot, the ticket, making sure you're going over each area of it.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: You want to go and make sure you're looking.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Looking at the area, not being on top of the person, like we talked about, that's really important.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: What you actually look at in a walkthrough and what you actually deliberately ignore, two complete different things there.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: Because whenever I'm going over the issue of what I'm having to dive into, if it's a policy or procedure or somebody's demeanor, you know, we've recently had someone in service that they've had and it's funny whenever you're inspecting because a light was shown that it starts to magnify of maybe somebody's behavior.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Of we've had a service advisor that had had several customers in a row that kind of hit hiccup, and it was just his demeanor of going over of how he delivered the news.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't necessarily mad or mean in the process, but he didn't know, we didn't know because we weren't expecting that inspecting that that issue, not everything, but that exact issue.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: So without that, you're just blinded by the whole process.
23:07
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
23:08
SPEAKER_05: Most certainly there of just understanding of how that delivery happens and how that constructive criticism happens, and hey, this could be an opportunity for this, this, and this.
23:18
SPEAKER_05: But understand, like, hey, you didn't not repair the vehicle.
23:21
SPEAKER_05: You repaired the vehicle, uh, and it might have taken more, but that was the time that was needed.
23:27
SPEAKER_05: But the way that you communicated that, the customer didn't feel heard, they didn't feel understood, they didn't feel like that you communicated.
23:33
SPEAKER_05: So it's like, hmm, gotta inspect that, gotta check that out.
23:38
SPEAKER_05: And this next line I see here that uh going around a manager to check his people and one that costs more than it finds, like that's that I agree with that 97% of the time, but I feel like in 3%, sometimes if you just purely rely on your chain of command, and I agree with that a lot, that you go to the service manager, you go to the parts manager, you this, this, and this and this, and then they handle their team.
24:04
SPEAKER_05: But I think still you're inspecting at all different levels.
24:08
SPEAKER_05: And then when you find a problem, you go instead of just going directly to that person, you go to that manager who reports to you and say, Hey, here's what I found.
24:17
SPEAKER_05: Let's go walk and look at this.
24:18
SPEAKER_05: And then it allows them to address their teammate.
24:20
SPEAKER_05: You're not directly going to the teammate, and that happens like in in our daily walks of walking through.
24:26
SPEAKER_05: I want to talk to the team, what's going on?
24:28
SPEAKER_05: What's the feel?
24:29
SPEAKER_05: Because what'll happen is if you never do that, then you'll get what you want to hear from the manager and it won't be real.
24:37
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
24:37
SPEAKER_05: Because they don't want to repeat all the bad news, or they don't want to bring marks in maybe that they're not all hitting.
24:43
SPEAKER_05: So I think you kind of have to do a little bit of both.
24:45
SPEAKER_05: But there's a proper way to deliver opportunities and criticism.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: And and both sides of that, I think you have managers that resent being checked on because they're not hitting their metrics and they're not doing which it definitely highlights it that it needs to be, and the one who's ready, that tells you really about both and how you manage both, because the two are completely different.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: They may still be productive, but the one that you need to check on really is the one that resents because that probably is the one that has issues hitting those goals or metrics you put out there.
25:22
SPEAKER_05: I think when they resent being checked on, either you have a delivery problem of how you're delivering that you're being checked on, or they have a receiving problem of thinking that you were constantly criticizing their work.
25:37
SPEAKER_05: Right.
25:37
SPEAKER_05: And so then I think that comes to a conversation when you can feel that, that they're like, what are you doing?
25:41
SPEAKER_05: Why are you always staring over my shoulder?
25:44
SPEAKER_05: You know, and then it's like, am I micromanaging too much, or are they just resentful of me trying to help them by inspection?
25:51
SPEAKER_05: And so then I think that's a conversation is like, hey, tell me what's a proper way that I can help you win.
25:57
SPEAKER_05: Like, I'm gonna be looking at these stuff.
25:59
SPEAKER_05: So I want to help you.
26:00
SPEAKER_05: We had one the other day that we saw in backstops that we had of a pricing of a vehicle actually versus what was transacted.
26:07
SPEAKER_05: And we preach from the top of every mountain, transparency, what you see online is what you pay.
26:12
SPEAKER_05: And so we have all these backstops.
26:14
SPEAKER_05: And so then we called manager and said, Hey, here's what we found, and not like, shame on you, ruler to your hand, or not like, hey, this, this, and this.
26:24
SPEAKER_05: And he was like, like, what do you mean?
26:26
SPEAKER_05: How did you find this out?
26:27
SPEAKER_05: It's like, well, we have backstop along the way to make sure that we're inspecting and we're not macromanaging.
26:32
SPEAKER_05: We don't say, hey, we want every deal that you're writing to come across my desk.
26:35
SPEAKER_05: Like, no, that's not efficient.
26:37
SPEAKER_05: And the customer will suffer.
26:38
SPEAKER_05: But and then he was he was like heavily concerned about it in a good way.
26:44
SPEAKER_05: He was like, This bothers me that you know, and it's like, well, we don't think that you're not doing properly.
26:49
SPEAKER_05: It was like, we just saw this and we have checks in place to make sure that our team is honest and to make sure that our customers are getting exactly what's supposed to be.
26:58
SPEAKER_05: And that, and so he was like, I he wasn't resentful in any way.
27:02
SPEAKER_05: He was just like, I want you to know that you can 1,000% trust me.
27:04
SPEAKER_05: He's like, Okay, well, we'll continue to watch this.
27:07
SPEAKER_05: And if there's something that's messed up, please tell us.
27:09
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
27:10
SPEAKER_05: So you are 1,000% on the right path that we're on, that we're speaking, and then we're going.
27:14
SPEAKER_05: And he he was concerned of the fact that we had lost trust in him.
27:19
SPEAKER_05: It's like, you just need to know that we are looking to make sure that it is all right.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
27:24
SPEAKER_05: You know, so that's not a person who's resenting that they were just like, oh, okay, you are really watching this.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: No, and the great thing about it, we came with facts.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: We came with facts that were nonverbal.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't me just sitting down, it wasn't Shelby just sitting down saying this.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: The facts talked a whole lot more than There wasn't like, why did you do this?
27:43
SPEAKER_05: No.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like Hey, tell me what went on here.
27:46
SPEAKER_05: Right.
27:46
SPEAKER_05: There's such a proper way to do that.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: And we haven't always been that great at that, but there is, and it hits so much harder.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Incorrect, in the correct way, it hits so much harder.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: So inspect and I love this part of the that is a great reminder.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: Inspecting the good stuff too.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: So a check-in isn't automatically bad news, hitting the positive accolades of like, hey man, you killed it.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, service has been great in here.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, your process has been wonderful, you've been doing great and cleaning, keeping the facilities clean.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: You have to remember to inspect and report on the good news of letting your team know, giving a shout out, because some that do a good job all the time, don't take it for granted because they're they wouldn't always do it if you're if it goes unnoticed.
28:34
SPEAKER_05: Well, think about that.
28:35
SPEAKER_05: The squeaky wheels get in the grease.
28:36
SPEAKER_05: The person who gets the bad reviews is constantly getting your time and your communication.
28:41
SPEAKER_05: You know, the ones with customer concerns are constantly this, that, and the other.
28:45
SPEAKER_05: Meanwhile, you haven't mentioned Larry, Bill, or Steve over there, and they've gotten all these Google reviews, they've gotten all these manufacturer surveys, and you're just trying to handle the bombs.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: You know, and so it's a really good reminder, and you think it's the easy thing, but and then you get in the daily grinds of the daily grinds.
29:04
SPEAKER_05: Excuse me, and you have to remember to say, hey, I want to celebrate this person.
29:10
SPEAKER_05: It's one of our cake day things.
29:12
SPEAKER_05: This person had 100% fixed first visit, or this person had all of these hundred MPS scores.
29:17
SPEAKER_05: Uh, this person had so many good Google reviews because of this, this, and this, because it's so easy just to work on critiquing to get so good, but you're not celebrating being good.
29:27
SPEAKER_05: So that is so good.
29:30
SPEAKER_05: All right, myth buster time.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: Myth, if you hired the right people, you shouldn't have to check on them.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: No, I think that's busted.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: You I mean, you can't, that's just putting somebody by themselves and not holding accountability.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I mean, I'll even, if Matt was sitting here, I would still call him out of going through there.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: He's the one that started the whole thing of us, so he gets called out frequently, but he's who has taught us all and went down and go, we even check on each other.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: So even us as owners of the business have checks and balances of going over.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, that is busted.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: You need to make sure you're checking on your team.
30:07
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
30:08
SPEAKER_05: Now, hiring the right people is so important.
30:10
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
30:10
SPEAKER_05: And it means your checks are simpler and easier.
30:13
SPEAKER_05: But think about this Toyota is the quality benchmark of our industry, right?
30:18
SPEAKER_05: And they didn't build that on trusting people harder.
30:22
SPEAKER_05: They gave a every operator a way to signal a problem, maybe that was your string to pull, to problem the moment they saw one.
30:29
SPEAKER_05: So small issues got fixed before they became systematic.
30:33
SPEAKER_05: Checking isn't distrust, not checking is just finding out later.
30:37
SPEAKER_05: So it's how you do it when you do it and the process of that.
30:40
SPEAKER_05: So then they gave that whole process to say, hey, in our quality, if you see a problem, you need to stop the whole thing.
30:47
SPEAKER_05: And we need to, is there a system issue?
30:48
SPEAKER_05: Is our robot back there not doing right, or is this person having an off day?
30:52
SPEAKER_05: I think that's so good.
30:53
SPEAKER_05: So hiring the right people is so important, but it does not mean you don't have to check on them.
30:57
SPEAKER_05: No, absolutely not.
30:59
SPEAKER_05: All right, so rolling the last topic here the rhythm and what to do when you find it.
31:04
SPEAKER_05: We're talking about getting in a good rhythm and inspecting what you expect and going through that.
31:08
SPEAKER_05: Inspection has to be on a calendar.
31:11
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
31:11
SPEAKER_05: Think about that.
31:12
SPEAKER_05: Like, hey, on Friday, we're gonna look at this, this, and this.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: And this is a thing that I saw, this just happens to roll into this.
31:20
SPEAKER_05: That I saw one of our shops was not as clean as the other shop.
31:24
SPEAKER_05: We've been in our our new main buildings, Ford and CDGR, since 23, right?
31:28
SPEAKER_05: It's 26.
31:30
SPEAKER_05: Not old at all, right?
31:32
SPEAKER_05: But in three years of doing 4,000 ROs a day of draining fluids every single day, you could get a dirty area pretty quickly.
31:40
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
31:41
SPEAKER_05: Right.
31:41
SPEAKER_05: And some technicians are known for being really good technicians and crazy good organizers.
31:46
SPEAKER_05: Some of them are known for being really good technicians and just crazy dirties, right?
31:50
SPEAKER_05: So I noticed that, and then I went to the foreman's and was like, hey, what do you think about this?
31:54
SPEAKER_05: And what do you think about that?
31:55
SPEAKER_05: I was like, I feel like look at this area versus this area, this one looks rough, right?
32:01
SPEAKER_05: We want to be able to be proud, show this off.
32:04
SPEAKER_05: So I said, How about we do this every Friday, the last hour of the day before we go home?
32:09
SPEAKER_05: Everyone is cleaning their own space.
32:11
SPEAKER_05: Because either if they kept it clean, simple and easy, right?
32:14
SPEAKER_05: Button up, put your parts up, put your course up, wipe down your lift, wipe down your toolbox, close it up, and you're ready.
32:20
SPEAKER_05: So Monday morning when you show up, it's ready to go.
32:23
SPEAKER_05: Now the guy who's going to be upset is the one who has the dirty stall.
32:27
SPEAKER_05: He hasn't returned his course.
32:29
SPEAKER_05: He's got jugs and bottles and cans and stuff everywhere.
32:33
SPEAKER_05: There's dirt everywhere.
32:35
SPEAKER_05: His lift is dirty, his tools are all over the place.
32:38
SPEAKER_05: He's going to be upset.
32:40
SPEAKER_05: So I'm not going to adjust my average based on the dirty person.
32:43
SPEAKER_05: I'm adjusted on the clean person.
32:45
SPEAKER_05: So I said, hey, every Friday we're going to do this.
32:47
SPEAKER_05: Well, then this last cake day that was last week.
32:50
SPEAKER_05: I called out and I had a team go around that had nothing to do with me and had nothing to do with service.
32:54
SPEAKER_05: I said, go inspect every single bay on a random day.
32:58
SPEAKER_05: So it wasn't right after they cleaned it, and said, Tell me the cleanest one and the dirtiest one.
33:02
SPEAKER_05: So then I called that out to everyone because I need them to know that it is important.
33:06
SPEAKER_05: And then we schedule that.
33:07
SPEAKER_05: So it's on the calendar or only it happens when you're angry.
33:12
SPEAKER_05: Like when I come around and I'm like, this has to be right, this has to be right, this has to be right.
33:16
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
33:16
SPEAKER_05: And then it's only when they say, uh-oh, dad's mad.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Right?
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: And I I feel like it at that whenever it gets to that point, they are far less receptive because they're just in fear mode of wondering what's going to happen because the wheels have already come off and we're we're trying to put them back on and keep going down.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: So it's so important to have have that on the calendar.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: But I had a love of it doesn't matter what area it's in.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: That's so and we're finding that, whether it's the bathroom or it's the shop cleanliness.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Because no matter what area it's in, you got to take pride in it of being able to work because if you're taking pride in there, it's going to flow through the sales process, the service process, the whole product that we deliver to the customer.
34:03
SPEAKER_05: The curbapill is just where it all starts.
34:05
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
34:06
SPEAKER_05: Right?
34:06
SPEAKER_05: That's what visually people see, and then it's like, oh, this is such a nice place.
34:10
SPEAKER_05: It's so clean.
34:10
SPEAKER_05: And then you're like, ah, my process needs to be clean as well.
34:14
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
34:15
SPEAKER_05: My demonstration needs to be clean.
34:16
SPEAKER_05: My communication needs to be clean.
34:18
SPEAKER_05: So you're so right in that.
34:20
SPEAKER_05: You have to develop your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, the rhythm that you're going to inspect those certain things and what belongs at each level and what doesn't need checking at all.
34:32
SPEAKER_05: Right.
34:32
SPEAKER_05: There's those certain things that we think about.
34:34
SPEAKER_05: Okay, this one every day.
34:36
SPEAKER_05: And we're not just talking about clean limits, we're talking about all systems and the inspection of those.
34:41
SPEAKER_05: So we you constantly have to look at that.
34:44
SPEAKER_01: We've we've gotten back into that, you know, of one of my main areas I'm focusing on now is pricing and this online wizardry of uh of going through.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: And I finally uh I've gotten so irritated.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: It's only at myself because I I wasn't to the level of what I needed to be at on it, but that I've put it on a daily.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: It was a once or twice a week or every other week of going and I I can't expect my team to be able to get the best leads, the best opportunity, then to show customers our process.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: So I've had to, that's a great example of dialing in level of importance whenever it needs to be, going on there daily and pulling a bigger sample than what I was before.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I was three or four random.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Now it's 10 random of making sure verbiage is right, making sure it's on all sites of going through.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: And so you have to change that whenever you're trying to hyperfocus on an area, whether it be cleanliness, process, online presence, whatever it is, to make sure that it is in fact getting better.
35:46
SPEAKER_05: That's one of those things which you were hyper-focusing on that we had to, I was like, Taylor, we we gotta spend more time here, we gotta work on this, I see opportunity.
35:55
SPEAKER_05: And so then you think like the same thing as Toyota, like if they only check their quality once a week, how much could get away from them?
36:03
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yes.
36:04
SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, it takes 10 hours to build a car, how many hours a day, how many workers?
36:08
SPEAKER_05: Like, that's a bunch of cars.
36:09
SPEAKER_05: So if they didn't check their quality, but every week or every two weeks, because it was like, hey, our quality is pretty good.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
36:14
SPEAKER_05: Our online pricings are pretty good.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
36:15
SPEAKER_05: Right.
36:16
SPEAKER_05: And just based that it's all flowing properly, right?
36:18
SPEAKER_05: There's so many sites and so many everyone wants their hand in the cookie jar.
36:22
SPEAKER_05: But it it is the driver for so much, you know.
36:26
SPEAKER_05: So if it is off, you've got a big problem.
36:30
SPEAKER_05: And we've seen that on both sides.
36:32
SPEAKER_05: If it all breaks and none of the systems are pushing, then it just defaults to no price online or back to full-blown MSRP with no rebates or discounts.
36:41
SPEAKER_05: And so it's like, okay, we fixed our crazy discount because sometimes it'll double dip or triple dip, and we're like, oh my gosh.
36:49
SPEAKER_05: And then you see leads and people show up galore because it's not real, it's funny money.
36:53
SPEAKER_05: And it's like, okay, then how do we be transparent?
36:55
SPEAKER_05: Like this was broken.
36:56
SPEAKER_05: And so we figure that out.
36:58
SPEAKER_05: But then on the other side, it's like there's no discounts, like, okay, we're good.
37:01
SPEAKER_05: It's like, no, we're not good because now no one's paying attention.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, your open sign is turned off.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: It's as simple as you pulled up to the front of the store.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look, they're not open, and you're on to the next place.
37:12
SPEAKER_05: And so you that that is an important daily, right?
37:15
SPEAKER_05: And then the other things you check on more often of a weekly or monthly, and then you you delegate of these, these, these, and these, and these.
37:23
SPEAKER_05: So you think about that.
37:24
SPEAKER_05: Think about this.
37:25
SPEAKER_05: Random beats predictability for some things.
37:27
SPEAKER_05: So random inspections and tests or whatever it may be beats predictability for some things.
37:32
SPEAKER_05: But predictability beats random for most.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: That's because it goes back to putting it on your calendar.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: You're predictable.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: I can predict that of if you're going into of being prepared in the morning, of of being up early, of you going through your workout routine or anything else, of knowing, hey, Shelby's gonna be here early, he's gonna be able to go through that, or if it's going through the process of, hey, we're gonna have this right and ready to go, your team expects that, which is good because then it holds you accountable.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna have your off days, whether it's of being in the routine of waking up early or or not really wanting to get your pricing right or not wanting to talk to those difficult customers, but it's always a great reminder whenever your team's like, hey, you're the man.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: You're the man that gets the team going, you're the man that gets the structure where it needs to be, and no one can talk to a customer like you can.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: So whenever you build that expectancy from your team, I feel like it's a good group behind you that's able to say, hey, no, they give you a little bit of an attaboy of, hey, get out there and help help this.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: So it's good to have your team doing that.
38:49
SPEAKER_05: No, that's good.
38:50
SPEAKER_05: That's the rhythm that is predictable that they understand.
38:53
SPEAKER_05: You you hold yourself to that standard because you know they're watching you to hold you to that standard.
38:57
SPEAKER_05: And then that keeps growing up and up and up and up.
39:00
SPEAKER_05: So it's like, here's the expectation, here's what our VIP appointments look like, here's what our service drive looks like, here's how we do this, here's what I expect someone answering the phone.
39:10
SPEAKER_05: And we talk about inspections.
39:11
SPEAKER_05: I saw someone online yesterday.
39:13
SPEAKER_05: So much, it's funny because people hate on it, but also they expect it.
39:19
SPEAKER_05: I saw an article from Cox Automotive, which is majority of our platforms that the automotive industry uses, and it said that 70% of customers expect a high level of AI integration in the car buying process.
39:35
SPEAKER_05: They expect it to help it make a simple, more efficient, and better process, whether it be information finding, payment gathering, whatever it may be, or scheduling, which is such a big one.
39:46
SPEAKER_05: And the car dealers are falling massively short of delivering that.
39:52
SPEAKER_05: Now, on the flip side of the complainers or the carryings are just a bad scenario.
39:56
SPEAKER_05: And this was the video I saw was that people get tired of all the AI.
40:01
SPEAKER_05: What they're tired of is improperly set up AI.
40:04
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
40:05
SPEAKER_05: A guy had called, AI system answers the phone, and he says, Hey, I'm looking for sales for a new Wrangler.
40:13
SPEAKER_05: And it's like, uh, you want to speak to a manager?
40:16
SPEAKER_05: He's like, No, sales, I'm interested in a new Wrangler.
40:19
SPEAKER_05: He's like, Okay, good.
40:20
SPEAKER_05: So you want to look at a new renegade?
40:22
SPEAKER_05: He's like, No, I said a Jeep Wrangler.
40:24
SPEAKER_05: It's like, oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood you.
40:27
SPEAKER_05: You'd rather speak in Spanish.
40:29
SPEAKER_05: And this was real.
40:30
SPEAKER_05: And I was just like, So I'm like, hey, when you first get that system going, because those LLMs have to learn what your customers are saying and what you're wanting them to say, that's a hourly, you're checking on that dude constantly because it will do a majority of your heavy lifting, but you got to make sure it's lifting the correct item and it's putting it in the correct area.
40:50
SPEAKER_05: Otherwise, you can't just plug it in like, I got it, right?
40:54
SPEAKER_05: And then it really does help.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
40:56
SPEAKER_05: But the customer has crazy high expectations because they're using it as their new search engine.
41:01
SPEAKER_05: They're using Claude or uh Gemini or whatever for their search engine.
41:05
SPEAKER_05: And then so then they expect the car buying, and so then car buying all the chatters about AI, and sometimes we're just like, no, let's just like be good at what we're doing.
41:14
SPEAKER_05: It's like, no, the customer needs it and it's helpful, but you have to have to inspect that and make sure that it's good.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, you don't inspect that, it's gonna be a big issue, and you're in your head.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: This goes back to the first of our topic here, thinking, oh yeah, I signed up for this, I'm good.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: They told me I was good, and you don't expect inspect it, and you go two, three weeks down the road, maybe months, however long, until you do a review, and you'll see a huge fall off.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, huge falls.
41:46
SPEAKER_05: It's not gonna be good.
41:47
SPEAKER_05: This is so good.
41:48
SPEAKER_05: And I was reading this, and it's like, this is this is amazing.
41:51
SPEAKER_05: The first time you find it slipping, your process, the process, how we do this, the first time do you find it slipping, correct it, or you just taught everybody the standard is optional.
42:05
SPEAKER_05: Think of Chick-fil-A said everyone says my pleasure at the end of receiving an order or giving out an order or any interaction, they say my pleasure.
42:15
SPEAKER_05: But then when they saw somebody not doing it, and then the manager thought, they're probably having an off day, I'm gonna just let it go, right?
42:22
SPEAKER_05: Uh they look like they're got a lot going on.
42:25
SPEAKER_05: I'm just gonna let it go.
42:26
SPEAKER_05: Then it becomes optional, and then people take the path of least resistance.
42:30
SPEAKER_05: So when you find something slipping, you have to correct it by correcting the process, the people, the understanding, figure out why there was an issue.
42:39
SPEAKER_05: Otherwise, they're just going to build their own culture, their own operation, and how they want to do it.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: Every single time, and it's you think it's hard, but it only gets so much harder if you let it go farther down.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: If I've learned anything from us putting new SOPs in, new procedures of being able to go through new checks and balances, new micro meetings, everything else.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: I love now, whenever we're coming out with something new, because we figured out it's a great time to be able to put new checks and balances, new level of accountability in for the team that's helpful on our side and the team side as well.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: So they know they have clear expectations that we're able to go through.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: And then it makes it easy whenever the first time something happens, hey, remember, we do this right here, not that option.
43:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: And then it's not blindsided.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: I love of something we've put in now.
43:34
SPEAKER_01: Whenever we hire somebody and bring them on.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: And this is kind of brought forth in our um in HR that they had recommended, but you go over the full job duties and then you have them sign a copy of the job duties.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: So whenever you're doing a performance review and you say, Hey, now remember when whenever we brought you on, we talked about washing these vehicles every single day on the The pad.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: Are we still having trouble with that?
44:02
SPEAKER_01: Because you had told me that we were good on that.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: Then it makes it so easy to do a coachable moment because we don't let it slip and continue to go down the wrong path.
44:11
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's proper expectations right from the get-go, and then you can expect that.
44:14
SPEAKER_05: And realizing that when repeatedly inspecting is telling you that the problem is the process, not the person.
44:21
SPEAKER_05: So you're constantly walking by of a daily or weekly, monthly, and you see that there's a fault.
44:27
SPEAKER_05: There's a fault.
44:27
SPEAKER_05: There's a fault.
44:28
SPEAKER_05: There's a fault.
44:28
SPEAKER_05: And you're like, dang it, Larry.
44:30
SPEAKER_05: Dang it, Larry.
44:31
SPEAKER_05: Dang it, Larry.
44:32
SPEAKER_05: But when you constantly look at it, and you might just that is maybe when you move your chair into the bathroom or right next to it, and you just start working next to it, or outside of it, Craig.
44:42
SPEAKER_05: Um just so you don't violate anything.
44:46
SPEAKER_05: But uh you are literally in the scenario of the problem.
44:51
SPEAKER_05: And so then you actually get to see, wait, we don't have a people problem, we have a process problem.
44:57
SPEAKER_05: And then you're like, Larry, that's totally my bad.
45:00
SPEAKER_05: Follow me over here, sit next to me, look at this.
45:04
SPEAKER_05: I see why this is happening because you can't see this when you pull in, or you can't do this.
45:10
SPEAKER_05: I was totally expecting you to do this, but there's no way you could physically do this and this.
45:14
SPEAKER_05: And he's like, I was kind of thinking the same thing.
45:17
SPEAKER_05: It's like, all right, how do we solve this together?
45:19
SPEAKER_05: How do we accomplish what we wanted to accomplish?
45:21
SPEAKER_05: But we rewrite the process.
45:22
SPEAKER_05: And he was like, Can I show you?
45:24
SPEAKER_05: It's like, yeah, let's go.
45:25
SPEAKER_05: He's like, hop in the truck, let me show you this, this, and this.
45:27
SPEAKER_05: If we went around this way, then you can pull straight in here and there wouldn't be a clog because you can't turn a 180 right there.
45:33
SPEAKER_05: It can't come straight out of the service drive or the quick lane and go straight in the car wash.
45:36
SPEAKER_05: It's like, ah, what if we went this way?
45:38
SPEAKER_05: It's like, okay, let's change the SOP.
45:40
SPEAKER_05: Right?
45:40
SPEAKER_05: Other than you're just like, man, somebody let Larry go.
45:43
SPEAKER_05: He just can't cut the mustard, right?
45:45
SPEAKER_05: It's like pull your chair up next to the wash bay instead of the bathroom, next to the wash bay and wash, you know, watch what's going on and how they do that.
45:53
SPEAKER_05: That helps you identify that.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
45:55
SPEAKER_01: That rolls straight into this last part of there, but building it so it survives you.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: The checks that happen, whether you whether or not you're in the building is so, so important.
46:05
SPEAKER_05: I love that.
46:06
SPEAKER_05: And as we're constantly learning, just constantly learning, uh, because we want to, right?
46:11
SPEAKER_05: Because we have just crazy high expectations.
46:14
SPEAKER_05: It's like you better be so involved, and you better have all the inspections, and you better look at all these things, and you better build this business so that if you're not there, it keeps operating.
46:25
SPEAKER_05: It's like, wait, you told me to do all of that and then teach and delegate everybody so they don't need you.
46:31
SPEAKER_05: Like you want to build your job so that it can keep going without you.
46:36
SPEAKER_05: Like, and you're like, well, hold on, I need to have value.
46:38
SPEAKER_05: No, you need to have value, and you will continue to bring more value, but you need to build that system in so well that it survives you, that you can actually take a day off and your phone isn't on fire.
46:51
SPEAKER_05: And if it is, then it's a reminder, like, every time it does that, I'm making a note, like, why did they call me?
46:58
SPEAKER_05: Did I not give them the power to make the decision?
47:01
SPEAKER_05: No.
47:01
SPEAKER_05: Did they not have the process to handle it?
47:04
SPEAKER_05: Why are they?
47:04
SPEAKER_05: And then if you do that well enough, your phone stops ringing from the the main stuff, all the other stuff still comes, right?
47:13
SPEAKER_05: Uh, but you're like, okay, I've made this where it does survive me, right?
47:18
SPEAKER_05: Where it's not, I'm not the business.
47:20
SPEAKER_05: The business is the business.
47:22
SPEAKER_05: I help build the business and I help bring the excitement, I help elevate that business, but I'm not the business.
47:28
SPEAKER_05: Too many people build their business directly around themselves, and the second they unplug, the business unplugs.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: That's hard to do.
47:35
SPEAKER_01: And that that's you're not replacing yourself.
47:38
SPEAKER_01: You're getting it into a level that it operates to then you're able to gain that next level.
47:45
SPEAKER_01: What's next?
47:46
SPEAKER_01: To then bring the bring the whole business up.
47:49
SPEAKER_01: Because if you teach them everything that how you know how to process and go through, that's great.
47:54
SPEAKER_01: Then inspect it and then learn something else new that you can bring to the team.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: Because if you do not do that, you will never learn anything new that you can be able to bring to the team.
48:05
SPEAKER_05: That's constant.
48:05
SPEAKER_05: That's what I'm seeing, you know, that stuff from Coxon Motive saying about AI is like, well, I don't want to fall into that.
48:11
SPEAKER_05: We need to make sure that we have good systems and that we're bringing value and our team can be efficient in that.
48:16
SPEAKER_05: So, but if you're if you're constantly one answering the phone, cleaning the cars, cleaning the bathroom, doing all those things, you will never be able to see outside of the forest, right?
48:26
SPEAKER_05: And that you just have to be able to build that and figure that out.
48:30
SPEAKER_05: And you're the one like, man, I'm always gotta be here, gotta lock the doors, gotta unlock the doors.
48:33
SPEAKER_05: And it's like, oh, it's important to be here, but then you've got somebody that'll do that.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
48:39
SPEAKER_05: Right?
48:39
SPEAKER_05: They're sitting around anyways.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: You can always go back around and inspect those things, but yes, you have some people to be able to help there.
48:46
SPEAKER_05: Love that.
48:46
SPEAKER_05: So frequently asked questions.
48:48
SPEAKER_05: Taylor, what's something you inspect that people would be surprised that you care about?
48:53
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be about the bathroom.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: I kind of already talked about that.
48:56
SPEAKER_01: And I know we keep talking.
48:58
SPEAKER_05: It's just it's because you love a Bucky's bathroom.
49:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love and I don't know why.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: It's being a business owner now, uh, of going in through and of learning coming up through of um, you know, our different generations of father and uncle and and grandfather, of just the little things that make a difference.
49:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
49:19
SPEAKER_01: I go into a different, but I can appreciate that of just the simple things being done to the A plus plus effort is like, wow.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: They take pride in the process there.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: So I don't think a whole lot of people listen to this now, they would know.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: But besides the one that have seen me in there, like, why the heck is he picking up these shrad uh shrads of uh paper towel and everything else?
49:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, something's simple there.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: Um so uh what did you find?
49:52
SPEAKER_01: Some when did you find something slipping and realize it had been slipping a long time?
49:58
SPEAKER_05: Uh I would say it's not often, uh, but we do find it when we get into micro meetings or looking at details of an account, um, not necessarily like a checking account or savings account or something, but seeing, hey, this policy account or hey, this unapplied time, when we pull those account details and we try to pick a different one in random and look at those things, no different than we were talking to the manager, and you look at it and you see, man, there is a bunch of line items of this, this, and this, and this.
50:28
SPEAKER_05: And so then you figure it out, and you're like, you go to the manager of that, and it's like, hey, why are these all like this?
50:34
SPEAKER_05: It was like, uh, well, we found one the other day in service uh that there was all this stuff that was just moved over to policy.
50:41
SPEAKER_05: And I was like, you know,$38 over here,$47 over here, 40, you know.
50:46
SPEAKER_05: And it was because of a process that they used to use.
50:49
SPEAKER_05: I don't know that they were overlay, people will work their pay plans.
50:52
SPEAKER_05: They'll also they'll all still work what's the leaf pass of resistance that they don't have to go and get an approval and write over.
51:00
SPEAKER_05: But when they were creating the RO, an extra line was being created that had to do with an extended service contract.
51:06
SPEAKER_05: And it was needed on majority of them.
51:08
SPEAKER_05: But if it was not something that the warranty company would pay for, but then the ticket was they were trying to get the ticket closed, got the customer's portion, and then they got the warranties portion, there was still some left on there.
51:18
SPEAKER_05: They found a way to be able to close that so they could keep their ticket rolling, so they didn't get a report that said, hey, you've got you know 480 open ROs.
51:27
SPEAKER_05: They could close that and it would automatically just push that line over to policy.
51:34
SPEAKER_05: And so I don't think facetious by any means, I'll give them that grace, right?
51:40
SPEAKER_05: And so they went to the manager, it was like, hey, what why why is this?
51:43
SPEAKER_05: Why is there two pages of details?
51:45
SPEAKER_05: So I was like, okay, let's go back and see who's doing it, right?
51:49
SPEAKER_05: And see if there's a trend here, and then also see what's our SOP for this.
51:53
SPEAKER_05: Like, okay, we didn't see this, like, shame on you, you should have seen this, but now we've seen it because we pulled just random account detail, and it's like, that's been slipping a long time, right?
52:04
SPEAKER_05: That's been a leak in your boat.
52:05
SPEAKER_05: You didn't even realize it.
52:06
SPEAKER_05: You never went below the deck because you're up top Sun Tanner or just driving the boat or catching the fish or whatever.
52:12
SPEAKER_05: You never actually went down below to see am I taking on any water?
52:15
SPEAKER_05: And there'd been a leak in this area, and they were just rocking and roll.
52:18
SPEAKER_05: They figured out if they did this and they hit F3 and they hit P, then it would print and it was closed, and it just stuffed it over there.
52:25
SPEAKER_05: It just stuffed it over there.
52:26
SPEAKER_05: So it was a reminder like always gotta inspect.
52:30
SPEAKER_05: Always gotta inspect.
52:31
SPEAKER_05: So that that's one of one of many cases, but uh they're not all facetious.
52:36
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
52:37
SPEAKER_01: Great episode today, diving into 98 episodes.
52:41
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you always check us out for the specials at Lewis Superstore.com and all of the episodes and all the content we mount over at Crossword Conversation Podcast.com.
52:50
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for joining us today, and we hope you enjoyed this episode.
52:53
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52:59
SPEAKER_00: We want to know what you'd like to hear, who you'd like to hear from, and what you want to see, or maybe even some questions for us to answer about either the automotive industry or just business in general.