Stop Losing Price Shoppers: Give Them a Price Range [RR 1111]

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.

Carm Capriotto (0:06)

Hey, good day, everyone. Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio. So glad to have you here as you come for your episodic education. And always remember, one of the reasons you've been doing this with us since 2015, is you're here to listen to learn just one thing. And I know you're going to learn a lot of stuff today, but if you walk away with a great idea, and even if you're not writing it down, try to store it into memory and implement it.

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Brian Walden (1:47)

Hey, Carm. How's it going?

Carm Capriotto (1:48)

Good, man. COO and co-founder of Mango Automotive.

So you're in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Where are you actually? Arizona guy?

Brian Walden (1:58)

No, I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Carm Capriotto (2:01)

We're going to talk about quoting prices on the phone. Now, I know that everyone has this particular way of going about things. Let's just bring in the vehicle. Let's see what we have to do. And there are some camps that say don't, and there are some camps that say do.

And you at Mango Do, how many stores do you have right now?

Brian Walden (2:22)

Eight.

Carm Capriotto (2:23)

Eight. Is the ninth one coming up Monday or Tuesday or something like that?

Brian Walden (2:27)

I sure hope so. Ninth and town.

Carm Capriotto (2:31)

You must be working on something.

You got a lot of stores. I can see how one store, eight to 20, have to have some great policies at our counter. And let me just say to you that I think one of the biggest and most important areas of concern or focus today from shop owners needs to be at the front counter. And we have seen seminars and webinars about training our service advisors, or as I like to call them, client advocates, at role plays, conferences, two, three days. Every big conference you're going to go to is always going to have this going on there. So we are finally focusing on our counter. And I think one of your talking points is, duh, it's about time. And the value and the power that's there is so important. And please listen when Brian talks about, okay, you've got the vehicle, you have an opportunity. How come we're not maximizing ourselves on something like that? Let's start. Stop hiding the price. Use it to build trust.

And I love that point of yours.

Brian Walden (3:41)

This kind of stem from the AI revolution and access to information. There's no difference in a customer right now just asking AI how much it's going to cost to fix their car and calling us to ask a price. AI gives a pretty good estimate. If you just ask if you go to a professional repair facility to fix a price and they fix a water pump on your Chevy Tahoe, it generally is pretty accurate. With this access to AI and information, customers are coming in more educated than ever. They're pretty good at also determining pretty close, not always, and there's going to be a lot of argument about this, about what's wrong with their car. AI is pretty good at telling the symptoms and asking clarifying questions and getting somewhere close to what's actually happening with the customer's car.

For customers coming in asking how much is the water pump on my Chevy Tahoe, they've probably done some research in background. Instead of what we've been taught, I would say over the last few decades in this industry of like, oh no, just we can't tell you a price, come in, bring it on by, and we'll take a look and confirm what's wrong and then get to a price from there, has in some way created, I would say a brick wall effect on the customer. It's the number one call that we get.