AutoFix TechnologyCast

Chris Cotton [00:00:00]:
Hey, everybody, Chris Cotton here from the autofix Technology Cast. You may also know us from my other podcast, the Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton. If you don't already listen to that, I highly encourage it. Anywhere you can get podcasts, you can find it. Also, we have one hosted by Michael Dougherty called the Autofix Advisor Cast for more things specifically related to service advisor type things. So hopefully you're a listener, a subscriber.

Chris Cotton [00:00:38]:
It really helps us out if you go down there and give us a review and hit the five stars wherever you think we're at. Just like in a shop, right? So if you do that for somebody that has a shop, please do it for us. So this is just going to be me today. This is, this comes from. I'm not sure how these are going to play out, but recently we did a podcast with Craig O'Neill from autoflow. And in it, we were talking about noise and all the noise that we're sending and supplying to customers at this point. And even though this is technology related, this is kind of maybe stepping it back to the old school. So I did an episode similar list on the Weekly Blitz.

Chris Cotton [00:01:21]:
So if you've listened to that one recently, this is going to kind of be a replay. But again, I'm not using any notes, so I'm just going through my head from scratch. So after we, after we turned the microphones off, Craig and I were talking a little bit more while we were waiting for the podcast to finish downloading. We were talking about noise, we were talking about customer service, and we talked about a little bit about it during the episode where it's great to use technology for a lot of things, but you have to figure out what to use and when to use it and what to use and not to use it to make your customer experience different. And so whenever I think about the customer interaction, I think about again, using relationship coins and spending those coins with customers. And if you constantly think of yourself as reaching into your pocket and spending a relationship coin, at some point you ask for those coins back, right? But we have to build the relationship first. So, number one, technology is great. Number two is, I guess maybe don't over tech it, right? We have all these text notifications, we have all of these email notifications, and people become inundated with all of these things.

Chris Cotton [00:02:37]:
And I think Craig talked about how like he goes to a dentist and on his birthday he gets the same text message from his doctor Dentist and whoever else and they all look identical. So if you have these automations, do something in these automations to make yourself different and stand out. That's why I love our sponsor Cinch. They help you stand out and, you know, personalize these things for you to make you a little bit different. But what we talked about was the customer service angle and being relationship based. And so I told him like, you know, have a couple interactions recently in the last year, 18 months, and then one super recently where people just stood out above everybody else and even though their products were okay or there's nothing special about it really at this point, the, the thing that makes me feel warm and fuzzy is how the, how the customer service left me or how the customer service made me feel. So I'm gonna talk about those two interactions just a little bit. Well known brand names like we'll start off with Apple.

Chris Cotton [00:03:50]:
I've never been an Apple guy. I've been an Android guy all my life. I'm 52 years old, I was 53 this year and I just liked Android. That's what I started with, that's what I've always used. And about a year ago I needed a new laptop and so I was looking for something small and light most of the time. Like if you could see on my desk here, my laptop is plugged in to my monitors and everything else and it's closed. So it's basically running as a cpu and that's the way it runs most of the time. But like this last weekend we had to go to a conference and I loaded it up, threw it in my backpack and took it with me.

Chris Cotton [00:04:27]:
And so I really wanted something that was lighter, that I could use more as a cpu, but then pull it out and use it as needed and was able to make that connection, make it work, lighter. So I started doing research. I found Lenovo makes a laptop that was really, really small and very, very light. Kind of exactly what I was looking for. Um, it was thin. I looked at measurements, looked at all of it, did quite a bit of time researching, typically more research than what I usually do if I do a product. So I ordered the product, said it would be there in two days because I need it for business. So I wanted to get it quickly.

Chris Cotton [00:05:12]:
Two days. The tracking was messed up. It said it was shipped but they couldn't find it. And basically it was just like robots spinning because you couldn't figure out where it was. I called customer service. Of course customer services is for Lenovo, apparently overseas. Very difficult to communicate and I was having trouble getting the woman to understand, hey, I need this for business. Where's it at? When am I going to get it? And.

Chris Cotton [00:05:39]:
And how do we fix this? And it didn't seem to be too concerning to anybody else. So I think I had to call back two or three different times and finally got up to a supervisor that was like, hey, we don't know where the laptop went. We're going to return your funds. And then if you want the laptop again, you're gonna have to replace the order and start from scratch. So I was like, okay, I really want this laptop. I restarted the order process, and the same thing happened to the next one a couple days later. It hadn't showed up. Nobody knew where it was at.

Chris Cotton [00:06:14]:
I still hadn't been refunded from the first time. So when I called them this next time, they're like, okay, if you don't, you know, we can reship it. We can refund your money, whatever. And I was like, you know what? At this point, if this is how Lenovo's customer service is going to be, I don't want a Lenovo product. So I was like, just refund my money. So now it's been like six, eight days. I've paid for two laptops that I haven't received, still haven't received any of the credits back, and nobody really seemed to care. So at after that point, I went back to researching and, like, Apple's MacBook kept popping up.

Chris Cotton [00:06:52]:
And our daughter Piper, I haven't really talked about her too much on this podcast, but she's had, like, two MacBooks in nine years. They've. They've done great. We were able to resell the first one when she got her second one. And I'm like, you know what? I've never been a Mac person, never been an Apple person, but I'm going to try it. And I never really got to talk to anybody, but just the customer interaction after I purchased was short of amazing. Like, it was on a Saturday. I ordered it knowing that it's probably gonna be like, Wednesday next week.

Chris Cotton [00:07:23]:
Before I got it, I got some communication back that said, hey, we got your order here. It should be there like, Tuesday, 8pm and then. So after I placed the order, I got another text from somebody named Brian. Whether it was a robot or automated or not, I don't know. But it came from. Oh, I got a phone call from him as well, I think after I ordered. And somebody left a message saying, hey, we've got your order here. We're Gonna try to get out as soon as we can.

Chris Cotton [00:07:52]:
Because I put in the notes like, hey, I need this for business. I need it as fast as possible. They didn't charge me any extra to expedite it. But so I get this text from Brian. It's like, hey, here's the tracking. We're gonna have it then. And then on Sunday I got another update from Brian, which at kind of seems like a real person, and it's like, hey, we've got another update on it. So they shipped it out over the weekend at no extra expense to me and updated it and said, you're now going to have it by end of day Monday.

Chris Cotton [00:08:24]:
And then here's the updated information. And sure enough, I got it by end of day Monday, plugged it in, got it set up. You know, going from Android to Apple without a Apple ID or anything is like me. Starting from scratch was fairly easy, no problems. Fast forward to a couple of months ago, it came time for an upgrade on the phone. My Google Pixel was like three or four generations past due and I bought an Apple product. I bought my first iPhone ever at 52 years old because of the interaction that I've had with Apple. And it wasn't so much about the products.

Chris Cotton [00:09:02]:
Like I can take and leave the products and nothing outstanding about them. Nothing really different to me from Android or nothing that I've used that I've noticed. Except for FaceTime. I wish I'd have done this years ago so that we could FaceTime with. With Piper. That's like the big technology aha for me. But I didn't buy it because the technology. I bought it because customer service was so great.

Chris Cotton [00:09:23]:
I was like, hey, if I ever have any issues again with this, this is going to be a great product to have. Customer service is great. So, you know, at this point, I've spent thousands of dollars on MacBooks and iPhones because the customer service was so great. So again, I want you to think about use technology, it's great, but find out where you can deliver exceptional service, something different, something that other people are not doing, build a relationship and really just carry that forward. The other thing I wanted to say is I also had an interaction with Starlink here in the last week. If you're a listener or listener of the weekly blitz, you might know that we have a camper van that we travel in for business. And when we came back from our last peer group meeting and then through Canada and made it back to Albuquerque and then died and the transmissions out of it, that's a whole nother story with Promaster. They've had it more in the last 12 months than we've had it and we still don't know when we're going to get it back.

Chris Cotton [00:10:26]:
But as a result of that, our older Starlink was one of the bigger dishes and we've got a two week trip coming up here pretty soon and we wanted the Mini so that we could throw it on the dash and then I could work or whatever in the car. And I, I called them up because I was having trouble trying to figure out how to buy it on the website. Talked to a great lady. She handled me and all of my needs in like less than 10 minutes. And towards the end of the experience she goes, I hope you've had a stellar experience today. You know, if we've earned five stars, we'd love to have it. If not, then let us know. And then she left by saying, have a stellar day.

Chris Cotton [00:11:10]:
Everything got shipped on time. We got it. I set it up in like less than 10 minutes. And during that time we also had a follow up with another gentleman from Starlink. Again, super, super great customer experience. I don't know how they train those people, what kind of training they put through. I don't know if we could even find that information out, but it was great. So here I am with, you know, I bought Starlink because of the technology, but the customer service was like a cherry on top.

Chris Cotton [00:11:39]:
So again, it takes me back to my original comment and everything. How are you standing out in a crowd? How are you reducing the noise to make sure that you get across? Or how are you managing the noise that you put out in the world and what you put out for your customers. So really that's what I want you to think about today. This is short, this is sweet, and I think all of us could benefit by maybe cutting out the noise. So have a great day everybody. Again, you can listen to the weekly blitz on the Aftermarket Radio Network and you can also get it on our website. You can get it anywhere where podcasts are played. And we also have the autofix Advisor cast as well.

Chris Cotton [00:12:17]:
Anywhere that podcasts are played. My name is Chris Cotton. Have a great day, everybody. See you soon. That wraps up this episode of the Autofix Technology Cast. Thanks for tuning in and being part of the conversation about the tools and technology driving the auto repair industry forward. A special thank you to our sponsor, Cinch for making this podcast possible. Possible.

Chris Cotton [00:12:38]:
Remember, Cinch isn't just a tool, it's a game changer for your shop's customer retention and outreach. I use it in my shop and I know it can help yours too. Don't forget to check out Cinch IO Autofix to claim your free onboarding, a three thousand dollar value and as always, rise and grind folks. I want you to keep pushing forward, stay on the cutting edge and keep your mindset positive. Together we'll keep driving success in the auto repair industry. Until next time, take care and keep thriving.