Why Customers Don't Trust Mechanics (And How to Fix It) with Curtis Gardner

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00 The only reason you two get those hats is because you don't have heads the size of a bowling ball. Unknown: 0:11 This is auto Collabs. Paul J Daly: 0:13 That's true. You're jealous. They're actually different hats. Have you tried the trucker one on? I have the flap Kyle Mountsier: 0:18 them all on. They don't work for me. Michael Cirillo: 0:21 I mean, it could go both ways. I recently saw a photo of myself in which I knew it wasn't good perspective, because we were standing on a hill, and the photographer was shooting up a hill. So with a quote, unquote, normal size head, I look like that character from Beetlejuice that with Unknown: 0:39 the really tiny head and big shoulders. Oh my gosh, the Kyle Mountsier: 0:45 3d perspective is all wrong. This is already Paul J Daly: 0:47 getting sideways. Yeah, it's probably appropriate that it's sideways, because this is kind of out of the ordinary for us to talk to a technician on the show. Is this the first technician we've ever had on? Kyle Mountsier: 0:56 I think this is it? This is the first 100. Paul J Daly: 1:00 My gosh. Curtis Gardner is joining us, brave enough to join us as a technician. I don't even know how much he knows about this show, but he's about to find out Kyle Mountsier: 1:11 a lot of fun. Hey, we hope you enjoy this conversation with Curtis, the first technician on auto Collabs. Paul J Daly: 1:21 Curtis, what's going on today? It is so good to be with like, kind of a fresh face to us and to our audience. Curtis Gardner: 1:26 Thanks for joining us. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you all for having me so much. You Paul J Daly: 1:29 know, Kyle, and I say this all the time, but fixed Ops is so close to our hearts. And you know, the industry is very sales focused, very finance driven, but really the fixed ops department is the heartbeat of the store that day in and day out, regardless of what's going on with sales or offers or incentives, people are showing up and they have issues that dealerships are solving for them. So tell us what got you into fixed stops in general? Curtis Gardner: 1:53 Well, first of all, I'm a technician, so straight out of high school, went into being a technician, and I've just been riding that wave sort of last 15 years. Paul J Daly: 2:02 What did you did you like Tinker as a kid? Like, how did you High School technician tell us that story? Curtis Gardner: 2:07 I think Legos probably did it for Kyle Mountsier: 2:11 me. My kids gonna be a technician, done Curtis Gardner: 2:15 the Legos. You know, they got me interested. And then obviously cars, and didn't really have a path after high school and started doing some oil changes, and just decided that I wanted to move forward with being a like a technician. So where were you doing oil changes? I did all changes at a quick car for about a year. And then one of the techs there went to a school, and he suggested I go to it. So I went to the same school, UTI, if you guys know about it, yeah, and did that, and got in with a Toyota dealership for a few years, and then somehow ended up at Audi. Paul J Daly: 2:54 What level did you get to in Toyota? Curtis Gardner: 2:56 I was master certified at Toyota as well. Just then, just one day decided I wanted a bigger challenge. Kyle Mountsier: 3:04 Nice, out is a big challenge. The German manufacturing ain't no joke, that's for sure. So, um, you know, one of the things that we know about you, and we kind of like caught wind of you from some of the content that that you've been creating online. And, you know, technician content is few and far between. So, when people are making content and thinking about technicians, it's, it's, it's easier to find than most, I think, but where, like, where did the turn come for you in just like, being focused on what you're doing individually, and your decision to kind of, like, move and go, you know? And I think the broader industry needs to hear a different narrative around the technician path. Curtis Gardner: 3:45 Yeah, I think there's a ton of negativity in the space, and I've always been one to to emit a bunch of positivity. And so when in my technician career in a shop, I realized that I can help people outside of just my own dealership, but all over the United States and the world, about just being a technician, keeping a positive mindset, looking for the brighter side or the brighter things, also just how to be more efficient. We could all use, you know, some time to be more efficient and do that. So the positivity and efficiency has always been a big thing for me, and I just knew it was time to get on social media. Social media is growing. The video inspections allowed me to be a lot more comfortable in the space. So talking behind a camera, you know, as you get so you Paul J Daly: 4:40 got, so you, what you're basically saying is that the social media content and being comfortable with that started, or at least got, got a little bit of energy, because at your store, Video Walk arounds became a thing, yeah, yeah. Like you had to start there. And the discomfort of that, that actually started to prep you for the social media side, is what you're saying. Thing, Curtis Gardner: 5:00 absolutely, because I've been doing social media for about a year, but then we've done video inspections for about two to three years. Let's talk Paul J Daly: 5:07 about video inspections for a second. So I think it's one of those things when dealerships do it well and service departments do it well, the results speak very clearly and very quickly, but there's a lot of hesitancy to get started. I know there's, like, a lot of technician hesitancy. I know there's a lot of fixed ops directors trying to say, how do I get my people comfortable with doing a good walk, you know, video, walk around. So how, what would your advice be to them? Because you started from scratch. I'm sure you were hesitant in the beginning, right? So tell us about that. Like when your manager said, hey, get your phone up. Curtis Gardner: 5:44 Yeah, I mean, definitely they gave us some, like, iPods to record on, and that was very just not good quality, not good sound. And so eventually we were able to use our phones. And I definitely didn't want to do it at first, but did learn very quickly that customers love it, and allows the opportunity for me to connect with the customer, which is important. Not a lot of technicians want to connect with their customers, so I just started embracing it. After a few months, started noticing my approval ratings went up, my CSI scores were going up. So I was like, Well, I just want to focus on this, because it's a new tool for us to use as technicians. It's not in our toolbox, but it's ourselves, and we can use it to communicate with people, and you have to embrace it. There was incentives along the way, and those kind of helped. But just seeing my honestly, seeing my approval ratings go up, and seeing my hours go up, that was a huge thing for me. It was Paul J Daly: 6:38 that pretty immediate. Like, did you notice that right away, like week one, where you're like, Huh? Everybody's kind of saying yes to all these, you know, upsells. Curtis Gardner: 6:46 I wouldn't say week one, because my my video inspections were very rough, yeah, Paul J Daly: 6:51 because they were terrible after, like, I want that Kyle Mountsier: 6:54 away from my mind. We shot them on iPods, not on iPhones. These are Paul J Daly: 6:58 all the kids out there you used to be able to shoot. There was a thing called an iPod, which is basically a phone without being able to call, Curtis Gardner: 7:05 yeah. And they give us gimbals and this whole thing and and they tried really hard to get us going. I invested in my own microphone. I invested in myself as far as my process goes, and just focused on, how can my video be inspection be better for the customer? Paul J Daly: 7:24 What do you think? What are the customers looking for? Curtis Gardner: 7:28 I mean, how many people out there haven't seen the underside of their car? Yeah, right. Kyle Mountsier: 7:34 It's almost thrilling. It's like, Whoa. Paul J Daly: 7:38 Yeah, right. And Curtis Gardner: 7:39 even if you're just showing them everything's good, which usually start with the good stuff, and just show them the underside of their car is good. You talk about their their oil change service, you talk about their warranty concern, you talk about why ever they're in there, and it feels a little bit more personalized and special to them, especially recently, I've started to show my face in the videos at the beginning. Kyle Mountsier: 8:02 So, yeah, well, and I think, you know, as I'm thinking about this, and, you know, my dad, when I was growing up, he had, like, his guy, right? The technician is down the street kind of, like, you know, like, potentially shady, but really legit and loyal technician, like, but it's my guy, right? I know my God, right, yeah. And I think that a lot of times, you know, the franchise world, at least, can kind of feel like the technicians way over there. I never see them, I never understand why they're thinking, why they're thinking, like, I don't have a guy, but this, this shortens the gap between, you know, like, you know, that's, that's that's just, they just fix it, and then I get it back, and I don't really know what happens there in the back. Have you had people that have started to come back and tell the advisor, like, I want Curtis to work on my car now? Curtis Gardner: 8:52 Yeah, and yeah, I've had that for a couple years now. I've actually had some customers show just a significant appreciation to meet their technician, to talk to their technician. They come back and ask for me. And as video inspections evolve, technicians are becoming the face of the dealership, because people are seeing their text there two, three times, yeah, and they're they're coming back to me, or they're asking for me, which feels great to hear too, because I'm like, oh, that person wants to work with me and not the guy next to me. Paul J Daly: 9:24 Is that? Is that starting? Has that caused problems, right? Like, people are willing to wait longer. It's almost like you have, like, a salon and, like, no, no, that's my hairdresser, right? It's my barber, and I have to wait three weeks to see my barber, but I can see another one, like this week. Is that starting to Curtis Gardner: 9:40 happen? I haven't had it congested to that point, but luckily, the dealership on that has loan cars. So where you they usually stay on top of keeping customers happy while they wait for their cars. Kyle Mountsier: 9:52 Got it so no. So just I have to ask, because some of the social media stuff that you're doing is like, complete. Daly against the grain. I saw as as as I was, like, you know, getting ready to hang out with you. I saw you sitting inside the hood of car. Where Paul J Daly: 10:11 did Indians criss cross apple saws doing the whole Zen thing? Yeah, I saw that one too. Curtis Gardner: 10:17 So unfortunately, um, having to do a lot of my content out of my garage, but my wife and I both drive Audis through the dealership, so it works out, yeah, so I'm able to film a good amount of content through, you know, my garage. And so I was just able to, kind of, sometimes I have to use some creativity to get that going, but that was able to just relate to technicians, but then turn it into a positive sense, because it's, it's so easy to get wrapped up in flat rate. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the negativity around dealerships. And I'm trying my best to be, you know, the the light in the dark on the positivity around being a technician. Paul J Daly: 10:57 Yeah, okay. I want to go back to something. You said. You were talking just about the self leadership needed to, like, be motivated, to get in the right headspace. You didn't say self leadership, but I wrote down self leadership because I feel like the technician specifically, there is a very high necessity for self leadership, because when you get a job, take the car back to your bay right whatever day you're having, whatever it may be, a difficult to diagnose issue, maybe a difficult customer, whatever there's it's kind of like a like a track meet. You have your other people to lean on and ask questions too. But like when you get in that game, it's like you on the track and you have to decide how you're going to push how you're going to keep yourself going. You feel like self leadership is a critical element to being a great service. Tech, Curtis Gardner: 11:47 yeah, I mean that, or discipline, being able to go back work on the car, stay off your phone, focus on what you're doing. You have to push yourself sometimes, you know, when you've got three or four cars lined up, everyone's got a promise time everyone needs their cars worked on or something looked at. I mean, you got to dig deep sometimes to get yourself going. If you're having a bad day or you've had a bad week, you know, because work can pick up in a millisecond. So you just got to you said, self leadership is a great way to look at it. And I think the guys around me also focus on what I'm doing. So if I'm picking it up and moving forward, then they see that. Like, Well, I gotta do that too. Paul J Daly: 12:27 Well, you said, dig deep. What does that mean for you? What is digging deep? How do you give us a look inside. Give us a look under the hood. Yeah. Curtis Gardner: 12:35 Well, some some days are very hard. Like, it's been very slow for us this year, and there'll be weeks, well, my hours will be down, and then one day I'll just have a bunch of work, and then it's like it's so easy to fall into that rut of being slow and being complacent. So sometimes a walk around the dealership or a song or some music that gets me going and just gets me back on track, because those cars need to get finished, fixed and worked on. Kyle Mountsier: 13:04 You mentioned something kind of in our chats before, about the fact that so much of the industry is talking about a technician shortage, but you feel like there's, like, a few easy ways to start tackling this, like perceived shortage, both in training and developing people that are already in the industry, but also bringing people into the industry. Give us a bit of the thesis on on where you see, like the technician growth plan or career planning, or even getting people young into a job opportunity in auto tech. How, after being in it for a long time, and kind of, you know, almost stumbling into it out of high school, how do you perceive that that shift happening so that we can not have to, like, continue to talk about a quote, unquote technician shortage? Curtis Gardner: 13:56 Yeah, I think the technician shortage is a lot of perception. But for young techs, they usually start working on cars, because they love cars, and they get started at a dealership. It's easy to make a lot of money if you know what you're doing and you're good at what you're doing, keeping the training evolving, because cars are changing every year, but also challenging technicians, because when you get to be master certified, those classes go away. The training kind of fizzles out. And there's not a significant challenge to reach masters level or to reach a certain amount of status at the dealership as a technician. So having a plan for young technicians to grow, whether it's you know, up through the management or up through the shop, and making that path very clear, because when you do get to the top, it gets a lot harder to keep people engaged myself included. I mean, you know, focusing on what I'm doing and challenging myself outside of what the dealership challenges me to do. Paul J Daly: 14:58 So what is, what are? Are the things that you're looking at moving over the horizon and down the line. You have a passion for helping technicians. You have a passion for encouraging them, leading them, maybe best practices. What is your goal in the next 12 to 24 months? What would you like to be Curtis Gardner: 15:14 doing? Yeah, I think I want to be coaching technicians on how to be more efficient, how to keep a positive mindset. I do love working on cars. I just don't know if that's something that I want to continue doing for the rest of my life, because it is very physically tolling. But helping people do what I do and stay positive and keep the right mindset, how can they keep their process efficient? That's something that is really important to me. I'd love to have my own shop at some point, but I think in the 24 months, realistically helping technicians just focus on themselves and not worry about all the negativity by the guys next to them, or or the dealership life, because there is a lot of that as well. Paul J Daly: 15:58 Yeah, any management aspirations. Kyle Mountsier: 16:05 Maybe not mentor, not manager. You're like, actually, that's a great manager. Yeah, I Curtis Gardner: 16:10 think there's, there's a problem, if I'm just being very honest, there's a if you get to master level and you're flagging a certain amount of hours, moving up to a management position can sometimes be a significant pay cut and and sometimes technicians are not exactly people people. They're not people people, if that makes sense, they're not well with people managing people. So not everyone's meant out or cut out to be a manager who manages other technicians. Paul J Daly: 16:40 And I mean, but, if you're going to own your own shop, Curtis Gardner: 16:43 well, I think there's a difference between owning your own shop, managing a couple technicians, and then moving into a management position in an already established dealership, where, yeah, the dealership has its rules and regulations that it wants you to abide Paul J Daly: 16:58 by. I see, I see where you're going. He's got the entrepreneur. He's got that there's a better way to build this mousetrap. Yeah, tell us about what does the ideal service shop like? What does the ideal shop look like? What's the experience? How is it run? I Curtis Gardner: 17:11 think bringing technicians to a bigger light with customers. I think advisors play a significant role, but also including technicians in that customer experience with the videos, bringing your technician up to speak with customers, or bringing safety reasons, not necessarily bringing customer back to speak to the technician, but just a very honest approach, very trustworthy approach. Technicians and mechanics get a very, very bad rep. I mean, industry needs to be turned around. We need to turn this around for technicians, because people don't trust us, but we've fixed potentially the second most expensive thing in their life is a car. And I want to build that trust with customers for everyone. Kyle Mountsier: 17:58 Yeah, I think that the technician, it's it's mainly a lack of trust because of a lack of connection, right? When we don't have that connection, when we're not, when we're not able to see that person, you know, understand what makes them tick. You know, I talked to so many technicians that the their biggest fear is letting a car out of the service drive that isn't safe to drive right? Like, no, no. You need to get that done, because if you don't get it done, it's not going to be safe for your family. Is a thing that I've heard so many technicians say, and it's not just about like, can I flag these hours? It's like, No, I don't want to let this thing off the lift until it's fixed so that it goes out right for you to take your family or get to, you know, back and forth to work. And I can hear that passion, kind of in, like, in the back of your mind, and that's where that customer connection comes really into play. I want to dial in on one last thing, because I think it's, it's super cool. You've, you've, like, created a system for how to organize your tools even so that you can, so that you can be more efficient. Where did that come from? Like, why? You know, most technicians are, like, throw it in the thing, you know, like, where did you? Where did you, where did you decide to come up with this, like, tool system. I've Curtis Gardner: 19:14 just designed it on my computer. It's 3d printed, and it's just something that I came up with, you know, I see all these pre designed tool organization systems. I see all these big boxes that house the wrenches or house the sockets. And I was just thought, why don't we have something that the technicians can use that fits exactly how they want to use it with minimal space. They can fit more tools in one drawer, or they can just have it. I mean, as simple as the way it looks with the color, because it can choose whatever color you want. So it just allows technicians to customize their chore space in a way that's efficient for them with minimizing clutter. Paul J Daly: 19:53 So cool, that's a simple value prop right there. Super Kyle Mountsier: 19:56 easy and totally changes, you know, makes you feel. Great as a person like I've got my tools the way I want them to be with the colors, all that type of stuff. I know that technicians care a lot about their boxes. It's a big deal. I love it to get their boxes Well, Curtis, it has been an actual, absolute pleasure. I'm excited about your passion. I can't wait to see your next video of you sitting inside the hood of of a car with your zen moment is super fun, and I'm glad you're challenging the status quo of what being a technician looks like in our industry. And thanks for joining us here on auto Collabs. Curtis Gardner: 20:28 Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for giving me, giving me the opportunity, and thanks for having Paul J Daly: 20:35 me. Can you say video inspections enough times in the industry for people to finally understand Kyle Mountsier: 20:40 that it works. Look, I don't know how many times I can tell an operator that all you got to do is get your whole team doing video inspections, and your ER goes up 40% and your dollars per ro can go up up like 70 to 100% and all it takes is, like one simple process change, and Curtis has it nailed. And then, you know, he lops on, like, a little bit of personality and some social prowess, and he's off to the races. Yeah, okay, Michael Cirillo: 21:16 but I mean, like, we got to talk about that for a minute, because as technology advances, as we get deeper into the AI of everything. And, you know, automated this and automated that. What you just said, Kyle, I think, is, is such a powerful point, because sooner or later, what we're going to crave the most is the the things that we've actually been shouting from the rooftops all along, which is human connection, personality, soft skills, experience, regardless Paul J Daly: 21:46 of where you are in the business, where does where you are, Michael Cirillo: 21:49 and in a very real way, technicians and the fixed operations being very critical pivot point to all of that happening. Kyle Mountsier: 21:59 I think you just have to remember, like, people want to know their tech. They want to know their technician, right? That's why we have all these side technicians. And, you know, you dad knew a guy and all that type of stuff. And it's like, why don't you bring that right into the service lane? Like, now I get to know, I get a little bit of insight to who's working on my car back there, and I agree, it totally changes what that skill, what that what that technicians role is within the company, what their value is and and gives them like an elevated career, because they have a new skill. Paul J Daly: 22:38 And the speed to yes on the sales side is way faster, way faster. Well, look, we hope you had a good time. Enjoy the first technician ever won't be the last on auto Collabs, on behalf of Kyle Mountsier, Michael Cirillo and myself. Thanks for listening. Unknown: 22:52 Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news and automotive retail media and pop culture. You can get it now@asotu.com that's asotu.com if you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time you welcome to Annika lab.