Grease The Wheels Podcast

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Episode 286: I Should Have Known Better Apr 22, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy shows the flip side of the coin when it comes to customers. While all customers deserve a base level of respect and empathy, there are some situations where they are going to try to turn the tables. We also get into some genuinely useful customer service tips for the customer facing technicians, or anyone doing side work. Good customer service is a huge market differentiator and can often make long-term customers that you make a lot of money off of while solving a lot of their problems. At the end of the day the old adage of “under promise and over deliver” rings truest of all when it comes to preventing tension with the customers. We also get into the phenomenon of the customer's internal clock and just how long they can remain a waiter until they need their car back, or need to find alternative transportation. This one is weirdly useful and completely checks out on a corporate communications level, but you’ve never heard this much interactional breakdown with this much swearing!

Also Uncle Jimmy’s Mom runs a scorched earth campaign on Midas for the better part of 4 decades.

Episode 285: Get Back Apr 10, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the wheels we get to the ethos of the automotive industry - making people mobile. As the people who keep the cars running, we play an absolutely vital part of this ecosystem. We also take a look at emerging automotive trends, which is hilarious because most of the stuff they're soothsaying in the articles has been the standard for 20+ years. The automotive industry is more a slow and steady march rather than a series of massive leaps. Sure, there have been massive leap moments which have propelled the industry forward - but we are the part of the industry that figures it out on a daily basis. This is going to continue through electrification and the move to hydrogen - they’re just going to have to add more training.

Also Uncle Jimmy gets sent to look for a fault that wasn’t a feature for another 8 model-years.

Episode 284: Day Tripper Apr 03, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, we talk about the much maligned doldrums of the flat rate pay system. When the shop isn’t making money - you aren’t making money. Whether it is a market adjustment to raising your door labor rate, to full blown economic meltdowns that make people put maintenance on the back burner - it is an incredibly cyclical beast. We also get into some of the various shop management theories that are floating around out there, as well as some of the end game systems that could ensure a shop's success for years to come. Love it or hate it, flat rate is the name of the game, and in some states that could be very interesting when it comes to warranty work. Tune in for this and more on this week's episode of Grease the Wheels.

Also Uncle Jimmy resists the urge from naming this episode “Good Times, Bad Times”

Episode 283: I Feel Fine Mar 27, 2024

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Jimmy hacks up a lung and explores the line where you should go into work and where you should call in. This is obviously a personal question with personal answers, but it’s important for the 90% of the audience that wouldn’t call in short of missing a limb. Also, if your employer doesn’t give you sick days, that is a pretty good sign to grease the wheels, unless there is some prior understanding to not commit acts of bio warfare on your coworkers. We also get into the myriad of other excuses to call into work, and some of our fan favorite scenarios throughout the years. We also pay homage to the greatest fake calling in sick of all time, and the model to which we aspire to on our days off of work. In the end, Uncle Jimmy makes this one work on a deeper level, because when you’re sick - it's really hard to give 100%.

Also Uncle Jimmy leaves his phone at work so he can't call in.

Episode 282: Ticket to Ride Mar 20, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets into what gets people into the automotive industry in the first place: passion. From your first car, to the first thing you fix, the seeds of passion are planted. For some of us, this culminates in a lifelong passion for certain makes and models. For others, it ends in compulsive hoarding. The best balance is a happy medium. Every make and model seemingly has its own subculture, from the Jeep Rubber Duckie thing, to the Subaru Merit Badges. These serve as small, but oftentimes meaningful connections for complete strangers who’s only commonality might be what they drive. In this sense, it serves to think that the cars we drive are oftentimes reflections of self that also get us from Point A to B.

Also Uncle Jimmy talks about the future's markets on classic cars and the E30 tax.

Episode 281: We Can Work it Out Mar 13, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, we talk about complaining. There are right ways to complain and wrong ways to complain, and we go into both as well as some of the resolutions that get the best results. We also get into the gamesmanship and merits of taking intershop complaints directly to the person you are having them with instead of involving management. We also talk about productive complaints, malicious complaints, and chronic complaints and who in your shop fits each of these monikers. At the end of the day, the way you phrase your complaints and follow them up with solutions is the most important factor to getting them resolved. If the system that you are working in is something that doesn’t respond well to change, it might be time to get out of it and make more money elsewhere!

Also Uncle Jimmy gets into mutually assured boombox destruction and Erik remembers to hit "save", unlike last week.

Episode 280: Why Don’t We Do It in the Road Mar 12, 2024

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy explores the explosion of mobile mechanics in the city of Austin. There are a lot of different ways to fix cars, and getting the job done on the side of the road has really never stopped any of us before but actually making a living with it can be tough. There are big parts of the country where it would be a major undertaking with the elements making life incredibly difficult. We also get into the idea of subletting out jobs that you don't have the right equipment for, getting financing, and a hybrid model with smaller shops that operate by appointment only, with a mobile unit for when the shop bookings are lower. We also get into the “Great Filter” of hydrogen cars, and the way that the industry is going to respond to a third major player in the automobile propulsion game. As Dylan put it, “oh the times, they are a changin’”, but that is a good thing for everyone with the skills to get the job done in the face of a whole rash of people not knowing anything about the technology. If going mobile on your own is something that you are interested in, reach out to us - we’re working on a pretty cool project to help get you up and running with the internet support you need to get jobs and start making money.

Also Uncle Jimmy pulls a Service Advisor move and breaks into looking at memes in the middle of the episode and ends it how Mission Impossible usually starts.

Episode 279: Drive My Car! Feb 28, 2024

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On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, we get into the nitty gritty when it comes to test driving customers' vehicles. Any manager who says that you should blindly test drive a vehicle before putting it up on a lift to see if it is structurally sound should listen to this episode. The aforementioned pitch can be a seriously bad idea, especially if that vehicle has serious problems. We have all seen the “just rolled into the shop” posts where a vehicle shouldn’t have even made it into the shop, and we get into some of the dangers that driving a vehicle like that can pose to both the technician and the general public. We also get into some of the most dangerous cities in America to drive, but for most of them they really have no excuses compared to some of the other parts of the country that go through all four seasons in one afternoon. We also get a bit scientific with the idea that most people are too oblivious to know that they are bad at driving, as well as what happens with your brain when you get into an unpleasant smelling customer car.

Also Uncle Jimmy classes-up “truck nuts” and recreates classic Dukes of Hazzard stunts with his mom’s Vega.

Episode 278: Hello, Goodbye Feb 21, 2024

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we get into the transient nature of the automotive industry, just how bad the technician shortage has gotten, and the insane attrition rate of your new guys. In 2020 the reported technician shortage was around 178,000, now extrapolated out to 2025, which is right around the corner, they are projecting almost 800,000 want ads going unfilled in shops across the country. We get into why that is, but more importantly we get into some of the nitty gritty on what the articles aren’t talking about. Automotive journalists have routinely downplayed the money in their conversations about why so many jobs are going unfilled, and one that is completely ignored is the physical attrition rate of technicians. How many technicians physically can’t do the job anymore because of injuries sustained while working on cars? We have no idea, they don’t really want to ask that question. Finally, we do a detailed analysis of the guys in your shop, where they are going, and what is most likely to happen over a 5 year time frame.

Also Uncle Jimmy quotes numbers from the government that are actually pretty believable!

Episode 277: All My Lovin' Feb 15, 2024

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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we do our own version of ‘how to make friends and influence people.’ Helping to hang a set of exhaust is always going to be appreciated, but being forthcoming with helping other people will signify you as someone who can be depended on in the shop. We also talk about some of the karmic ramifications of tool loaning and just helping people out in general without the expectation of something in return. When all else fails, feeding people is an awesome way to get people to listen in a pinch, and Jimmy’s GM makes Pavlov proud. Being inviting to the new people in your shop is always a good way to start a relationship off on the right foot, and we get into the idea that everyone deserves a baseline level of respect that can either go up or down depending on your interactions.

Also Uncle Jimmy avoids being Dr. Ruth.

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