I'm going to do this again because it did not go live. Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here morning show. Take it away, you two. Hey, welcome. What day is this? It is Monday. Monday, Monday. Ready to do the week right. Yep. Um, yeah, we've already like, I don't know, we brainstormed some stuff, you know, y'all know that we do coffee time. It's kind of a, um, it's one of our rituals, which is, you know, helps keep us kind of tapped in. Um, but not that we don't keep tapped in cause we live with each other, each other, but it's, it's kind of nice. No, no, uh, electronic equipment. Um, and so we, you know, had our coffee and then we're like, Oh, let's talk about this. So we spent a little bit of time doing that. So we've got a lot of stuff on our docket this week that's all just really good things leading up to. We'll be in Vegas the week of Buy Here, Pay Here United. We won't be attending Buy Here, Pay Here United, but we will be attending the Neo User Summit. And for those of you who are Neo users, just let Scott Scott or whoever your rep is, know that you want to come. It is free. They just ask that you register because they do have, you know, making sure they have enough space and they're supplying lunch. So, yeah, so we'll be there for that because we've got a lot of our clients are on, on Neo and, you know, apparently there's some announcements and it's always like super exciting. And then we have on the 18th of this month is our dealer roundup. And virtual. So, you know, those of you who are familiar with what it is that we do, is this, this is an opportunity for you to get together for like, it's just like a mini event. from conference panels, panels, panels, three of them, three topics. And, uh, Brent Carmichael will be co-moderating. We have a couple of dealers that have agreed to join as panelists. I'm still running down the other ones by text and by, uh, courier pigeon and every other way that I can track them down. Or if you're interested in, um, in participating, you know, just shoot us off a message and, and, uh, we'll, you know, get back to you on that. But the, the, there's three topics. Um, one is, I can't wait to see if you remember. We've been calling them car dogs. Car dogs. Is it a good idea to hire old car dogs for your sales staff? Two is outsourcing. We're going to really focus on BDC for that. Yeah, we're going to focus on BDC. Hot topic. hot topic. And then number three is private capital. And the, the purpose behind that is, is, you know, we were, we're working with a handful of dealers that are like, I would like to be able to sunset some debt. Yeah. And so that's kind of one of the, the, the things that we're looking at. Um, that session will be, um, yeah, that'll be kind of, um, Where would I find private capital and how can I best use it? So that's kind of the theme of that one. And so again, Brent Carmichael from NCM will be joining. And so that'll make it even more fun and interesting. So that's all good. The conversations we've had with him about these topics already have been fun and interesting because he does come with a lot of ideas. a lot of data chops and talking with a lot of dealers, I think. Yeah. Yeah. In this thing long enough to, you know, kind of see swings ups and downs and different things with the industry. So definitely as that perspective. And then, um, let's see, just a couple of quick updates. We have two V8 meetings this week. We have, uh, tomorrow night I have a group two, which is the larger dealer. So you're probably too late to get in that group for this month. And then, uh, That's for groups or dealers that have 500 plus. Correct. And then group one meets this week. I have one seat available in that. If you hurry, we could maybe get you in that group. That one's the kind of 200 to 500 range. So if we got a dealer wants to jump in there, call her at me. Yep. And then we have, and we'll add groups as need be, but we also have room in the newbies, which is people that have 100 or less. And so there's a bit of coaching involved. Are we done with announcements? Okay, fantastic. Let's introduce the topic. The topic today came from a dealer poll. That I put out there in the success group. Let's see, was that Saturday that I did that? It was 15 hours ago, so I guess Sunday. Wow, for it being yesterday, we've had quite a few responses. It kind of sparks the conversation. Do we want to show that? Not yet. Okay. So I can just share the poll. Let me just read it. The poll said, how do you currently handle the word reliable in your sales department? Okay. And then explanations in the comments encouraged. So the options were... Um, number one, we proudly share that we offer reliable vehicles. Number two, we answer yes. If asked, um, number three, we don't, we don't think it comes up much. Number four, we try to stay away from it. And number five, our policy and training prohibits making promises of reliability. And so no one voted for number five. Right. Nobody said, um, and like the next least one is, um, We try to stay away from it. Oh, the next least. Don't think it comes up. Don't think it comes up much. Yeah. And then but by by far the most common answer. And we just had 22 respondents. But 18 of the 22 said we proudly share that we offer reliable vehicles. So, you know, we read through this and we were reading through some of the comments because some of the dealers added comments to the thing. And our guest today was one that we really appreciated the insight into how that's handled on the lot and also the content. So I'm going to add Mr. Seth Merrifield. He's been a regular guest on the show. He's been on at least once, maybe twice. And so we're happy to have you here. When I saw your comment, Seth, I just reached out by text and said, Hey, would you happen to be available to join? And I know you're busy. We appreciate you taking time. We're really quick. And so thank you for just like, yeah, maybe that wasn't the, you know, the, the words behind it was like, yeah, I can do that. Yeah. So we're glad you're here. So it's an interesting conversation. It's, you know, we kind of obviously in the work that we do, we work with dealers and when they're new, we kind of introduce to them the problems that they're going to run into around this thing about, you know, when we start promising reliability on used cars with miles, you know, we try to introduce them to the problems that can come from that. And I knew you'd be a guy who's lived it. So we wanted to hear from you, like I might just share that, you know, as a, as a former dealer myself who did strictly as is with warranty or without warranty. And, and we did side notes to help with repairs. I had my own approach to that, which we can talk about, but I think, you know, we've heard people kind of run the gamut, but people are saying, yeah, we, we, we lead with reliability. We were happy to proudly share that the cars that we offer reliability. So, You know, as Michelle and I talk about, you know, words matter, you know, so it's like the words that we choose sometimes have an impact. So what's been your experience on this? We can share the comments that you had just a minute. Yeah. So it definitely doesn't come up with every customer, you know. But it's still a hot topic. People are worried about the vehicle they're buying. And my philosophy for the years that I've been running this place has always been if I wouldn't trust it to put myself and my family in and take a road trip in it, it's not something that is front-line. Sure. With the few exceptions of some cheap cash deals or something like that. Right. When it comes up... You know, we tell them it's a used vehicle. We've got a shop here. We do all our recon in-house. They're more than welcome to take it to a mechanic of their choice. As long as it's, there's a few, we don't recommend people take them to because they normally nickel and dime over stuff. Oh yeah. Yeah. But, um, know it's a at the end of the day it's a used car we can't we don't have a crystal ball to look into and see what's going to break but that ties into why we offer a warranty to cover any major issues that we're not able to catch you know on the test drive or in recon and it's a used car we lead with the idea that things are going to happen things are going to break normal maintenance items normal wear and tear stuff it's going to happen over the two and a half to four years they're in the vehicle sure And do you think that when a customer asks about, is this reliable, that, you know, for me, when I look at this, it's like, are we promising something that they're anticipating the life of the vehicle, this will be a good car or a reliable car or whatever? Yeah. Do you think that that, I mean, when we leave with that, these are reliable vehicles, the end, what kind of danger does that put a dealer in? Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I think if you are just flat out using a blanket statement like, hey, this is a reliable car, you know, no issues. I think you're you're just setting yourself up for failure because automatically that that customer is going to assume, well, I'm buying this car. They said it's reliable and I won't have to do anything to it. But hopefully oil changes for the three or four years I have. And how many of them actually understand they have oil changes? Yeah. So, you know, when it when it does come up, that's why we tell customers, you know, there's no guarantee on anything. You know, we used to have this whole big spiel about the however many points our inspection was and everything. But I felt like a lot of customers just thought that was fluff because you can add so many things to make it a 200 point inspection. Right. Mm hmm. So sometimes customers ask what's been done to it beforehand and we tell them, but again, at the end of the day, we just let them know it's a used car and there's no way for us to know six months from now if a ball joint's gonna go bad or something. And we've got that as part of our closing process too. We've got a whole separate letter we print out that goes over normal wear and tear and maintenance items the customer's going to be responsible for that we cannot foresee is going to go wrong with the car in the future. Yeah. I think, you know, for me, and we can go ahead and show Seth's comments. I think he, hopefully it's large enough he can read it. But the thing that you said on Facebook kind of reiterates what you said here. You want to read it, Michelle? Yes, it says, we tell customers that we do our best to offer the most reliable used products capitalized, that's like yelling, right? And typing language. Used vehicle, we can. We remind them that they are used vehicles and unforeseen things, repairs, breakage happens that is out of anyone's control. and that we do not have a crystal ball to see what is going to potentially break in the future. We use this as a talking point for our warranty as well to try to give peace of mind around major repairs out of the gate. So what is your warranty? Did you say that already? It's just three, three. Okay. So yeah, I think, I think for us, it's, it's kind of this thing around and I've got some comments from Jack Carter that he gave permission to share as well. And he has a longer warranty, but I think for us, it's really, you know, it's a question of phrasing. And one of the sessions that we have coming up on this dealer roundup is, is around this thing about, you know, car dogs, bringing people over who are experienced in retail. Whoops. I didn't mean to do that. I leaned on a button. One of the things we're trying to do with this car dog thing, when they come over from retail or franchise, they're obviously in the business, they've been in the practice of selling cars and how solid this car is and this car drives great. I took this one to the bank yesterday and the air blows nice and cold and you know, that's just salesmanship, right? And so I think what we were trying to get to here and you're kind of touching on pieces of it, it's like, There's implied responsibility, and then there's actual responsibility, right? And so sometimes I think the reason we were kind of intrigued by how people use the word reliable is because I feel like when we say that, it implies some degree of support or, or really we're implying that the car is going to perform well. Are you saying if that, that is implied, but that is not at part of the rest of a conversation about it is used vehicle. I mean, if you're just out there in, in advertising or whatever saying this is that we sell reliable cars and that's the end of what's being put out there. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously if it can be coupled, but I think my question really is from a language standpoint, just, just trying to be super careful and help the customer not, Because we know customers and all buyers kind of hear what they want to hear, right? And so my concern, Seth, is when I say that, yes, the cars are reliable, I put it on my sign, the car's reliable, even with all your multi-point check, you can't know, as you said, when the timing belt's going to break. You can't promise that the car's going to get them to work. Right. you know, and so, or that they can end up on the side of the road in two weeks time, you know? And so, so the question becomes, well, you know, how does that affect the customer's outlook when they, you promised reliability and all at once I can't get to work. And so I think it's all the same thing. It's just, you can say semantics at Michelle, it kind of say it's words, it's words, you know, it's like how we use these words, but it's like, I think, you know, let me go back to where I was as a used car dealer myself. When customers would approach, inevitably it would happen, you know, a mom would come forward and, hey, I'm a single mom. I got a couple of young kids, and so I've really got to have something reliable. And I would, traditionally, I would just stop them and say, look, here's something you have to understand. These are used cars with miles. I cannot promise that the car is going to be reliable. What I can promise is that I'll support you. Like I'll be there to help you with whatever comes up that I can promise. And so this is what we're trying to really differentiate in this conversation is kind of, do we have to promise reliability or do we have to promise support? And so this is where, you know, you have your warranty. And so I think, I think I could probably get there without ever using the word reliable, but obviously I'm not going to go against the, the poll says, you know, almost eight out of 10 are saying, I'm going to, I'm going to promise reliability. So it's just a question really from us is like, Do we back ourselves into a bit of a corner that's avoidable? And I always say in our line of work, and this is true in all kinds of business, right? I hate to see us create our own headaches, you know? And so this is a question of kind of how to avoid that. Why don't I read the comments from Jack Carter? Because he has. It has a longer term warranty. So you want to read that? Yes. We advertise and promote our free 24 month, 24,000 mile warranty. And then we put pressure on the customer to not void what we are giving them. Um, quote, make sure you change the oil regularly and never run it hot or you'll void the warranty. It shows confidence in our product and puts the responsibility back on the customer. Yeah. And I think, you know, as I hear that, I think it's, it's, um, it's really still a question for me of vernacular. Like I think Jack has a 24,000 mile warranty and if customer changes oil and doesn't run it hot, they could still run into a problem, right? It just, what he's really emphasizing is that we're going to be there to support the customer through whatever happens. So I think that's really the- Don't abuse the car. And so that's appropriate to kind of share. I just, you know, again, for today, I just thought, you know, you're somebody who lives it. We love having dealer on to kind of talk about, you know, how it how it happens. And then we just have seen that situation where customer is now they have a mechanical problem. And how does it affect the relationship that you have with them if they're weeks in or months in and they have a problem? It's a question of how you handle it. So what's been your experience when you do have a customer come back in that's dealing with something and maybe you have to have it towed. It won't start. It won't run, whatever. What's been your experience with the conversation with the customer afterwards? Well, it's so case dependent. I mean, I know you guys know, but yeah. if it's a solid customer that has done what they're supposed to do and stayed in contact with us, we're normally nine times out of 10 doing everything we can to help them. You know, even I know just last week we had somebody who's 13 months out of warranty, whose engine went out and we're in there now tore apart, getting the motor put in it. But, you know, we haven't had really anybody come back and like, hey, you told us this car was going to last and it's not. And, you know, here we are six months down the road and it's blown up or something. Mm hmm. Everybody's got the problem customers that don't change the oil and have issues and want to blame everything on us when we know it was them from the get go. That's different. That's often more of a customer problem than a car problem. Yeah. To speak to your reliability thing, I've noticed, you know, and I don't know if it's just a mindset, but I know everybody thinks Toyotas and Hondas are super reliable. I've actually had more issues out of Toyota Camrys with customers than any other vehicle. Really? On the street. And I don't know if it's due to the fact that somebody buys it and just thinks it's reliable and don't need to do anything with it. Yeah. But yeah, in the past 24 months, that is the number one vehicle that has come back and had more issues than what's worth fixing. Really? Not even like a Nissan? No. So it's interesting that I, you know, having been a car dealer myself and we travel down the road and of course there is conversation about these cars are, you know, supposedly more reliable according to what Google, you know, Facebook, you know, whatever. But I think I see... i see cars on the side of the road honda accords that are broken down and sometimes they've still got a paper tag on them you know it's like okay so we know what happens it's really just a question of what did we tell the customer and how do we support it so you know for me what's fun about this stuff is when I say fun it's like it's part of the work that we do and as a former dealer who was as is I always had the language, and we incorporate in our training and the closings, that the cars as is doesn't have any warranty. That does not mean we won't help you. If you encounter a problem, what we want to do, especially if you're faced with a repair and you're faced with a car payment, what you do is you pick up the phone and call us and let us see what we can do. We didn't promise exactly what kind of help they would receive, but we definitely promised again and again and again that we would be here to support you throughout this whole business relationship, right? So that was kind of the thing. And you would have the same thing if you offer – The service contract, the customer doesn't do it. And then they have a problem at day 95 on your short term warranty. It's a question of, look, I'm still going to be here to support you and help you. We just we cover it. We pay for it during this 90 days. And if we get past that, we just have to have clear boundaries. Right. We have to have a clear understanding. And so I think it's just a question of what language do we use on the front end to. But you're a testament, if you're not having customers come back and giving a hard time about a promise of reliability, then maybe it's not as big a thing as we think it is. I just wonder, as we move forward, Michelle and I hope to be able to do more customer surveys and find out just how much of a factor it is in their decision. you know, and where they choose to do business. And so what's, what's kind of been your experience on the sales side is how much of a, of a factor that is when they're making their decision about where to do business. I mean, I think the warranty is the big kicker. I'm the only buy here, pay here place in town that offers a warranty. And that was why I started it, you know, a year and a half ago, two years ago. But again, I, I think too, the, I've changed drastically how this place was five, 10 years ago, what it was selling to what we're selling now. And I think over time that has helped too. People have seen us go from a 200,000 mile car to an 80,000 mile car. And that has spread. And when you've got... we don't have a large amount of people getting on Facebook complaining and, you know, leaving bad reviews like, Hey, I bought a car from here and two weeks later it was blown up, stuff like that. So I think there's a lot of things that tie into it. I don't, we don't advertise reliability. We don't super push hard that we offer a warranty or anything like that. Um, So I think it just all kind of ties in together a little bit. Obviously when they're shopping, they're looking for a car that is gonna last and they're gonna have support on. And I think the customer, When they come in and are looking to purchase a car, I think they know that coming here from our reviews and our reputation in the area and stuff. That's what I was going to go to is it sounds like in your community that you are getting a reputation of having, you know, supporting and having cars that that are going to. Perform potentially better than other buyer-payer cars. Also, it's not what we're here to talk about, but maybe another indication. You said you started your 90-day warranty. Has it been a positive for you? I mean, financially, is it going well? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's an indication. Yeah, I've thought about upping it. I know there's been talk in 20 groups about having a warranty that at least gets you to your break-even and stuff. Mm-hmm. the the three three has worked for us nobody's ever really pushed for wanting a longer warranty and like I said earlier you know if a customer is doing what they're supposed to be doing keeping in contact with us 99 of the time we're helping them with something you know whether it's trading them out of that and getting them in another car fixing it whatever the case may be yeah um so you know and I think and again it's not some set well it's like you said jim it's not some set guideline you know it's kind of a case-by-case basis but yeah I think it may help you to know that we had one dealer tell us recently that somebody we worked with for a while and he said, we tried going from a three month to a six month warranty thinking from a marketing standpoint, it would help. He said it made zero difference. So we went back to the three month warranty. And so I think there is something to be said for that. It's really just how you present it, right? And I think your reputation probably matters more. I think that move from a three month to a 12 month or 24 month warranty is going to be more of a financial maneuver for you. than it is a marketing benefit. It doesn't matter so much to the customer, but it may matter to your bottom line. Is that what you're saying? Well, yeah. Here's what I can say. I mean, I know dealers like Seth. I mentioned that exaggerated example of a customer has a failure at 95 days when they didn't buy the service contract. Well, you know, Seth is going to still want them to be successful and have a good experience. So, you know, he's still going to be there to help them in whatever way that turns out to be. But it's like I think the point is you just – you know customers got to have confidence in you to step in and then that whole warranty thing for you is more of a financial matter for you you know in terms of how you manage because you're still going to support the customer six months in eight months in so it's a question of how you want to manage that part and so I think that's the part that you know for me if there's a takeaway looking at this I think we could find out if we can promote ourselves in a way that we can still get all the benefit from the warranty and the promises and all of the way we're going to support the customer without necessarily using the word reliable on the front end. I just, you know, if, if it's not causing a problem for people, it's not causing a problem. I just think for me, I would stay away from it and never, I would just address it. Like being forward or front forward with the word reliable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that. I don't, you know, I don't think any, None of us lead with that. None of us are out there trying to sell a car and say, oh, this is the most reliable used car in the area. You know, we've seen some marketing. Yeah. Yeah. And I think if it comes up again, you know, it can't just be a blanket statement. Like everything we sell is reliable. Nobody knows that new car breaks, you know? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Half of our job is to educate the customer, I feel like, and what their expectations need to be. when they purchase a vehicle from us, right? At the end of the day, it's a used car. Things are going to happen. Oh, yeah. You know, I remember talking with Darla Boer, who's on the board for NIADA, and how when she first started that one of the things that she used in her marketing is like, I wouldn't put my grandkids in. We sell cars that I would feel comfortable putting my grandkids in. And so, you know, it's like what you said is we sell cars that I would be comfortable putting my family in and going on a road trip. You know, so it's not necessary, which people get to draw their own conclusions about what that means, you know, rather than it's a reliable car. It's a good car. It's a, you know. all of those things. Yeah, it's all good. I think we, we covered it, Seth. I think there's, there's other layers of this that, you know, we could go into, but we, we covered the parts I wanted to cover today. I think we can let you get back to being a dealer on a Monday. So I hope that your, your April is going well. Yeah. Thank you so much for, for joining us. You're welcome. I think that like the moral of this story is, is be, you know, words do matter. And, you know, we that it's in our business, we don't want to imply something that we can't support um so you know or or back up so you know being careful about the kind of words we use and how it's phrased with all of the other stuff which includes this is how we're going to support you and and I again I really I enjoyed what uh what jack was like so um don't void anything The weight is on you to not what will be here. The responsibility has to certainly be shared. We've got to make sure the customer does their part. Good stuff. Thank you so much. We'll let you jump and we'll catch up again soon. If you want to stand by for just a minute, we'll wrap up the show. Say proper goodbye. Thank you. thank you all righty um yeah be careful what what we say yeah and um you know who no one wants to have someone um you know how it's like your advertising says x and then that becomes a negative review or you know whatever and you know we we we already have enough challenges in the industry let's not create extra ones yeah that's the part I think that we touched on that I think for me is like the language is why It's about overselling. It's about promising something that we may or may not be able to deliver on. And I think if we can avoid that, then our ability to earn trust in the marketplace is going to come much more as Seth touched on. It's going to be much more for how the customer sees us or Google reviews, whether they feel like the dealer is going to be there. you know when there's a problem so right absolutely all good stuff all righty well we are finishing up a another monday um hope you guys all have a fantastic week thank you hope you're able to see the eclipse wherever you are oh yeah yeah yeah we have our little glasses somewhere that we got in the conference from maybe I don't know in utah not as much of a deal but we know people like tommy brandis have had somewhere where they can experience the full eclipse so yep Enjoy your day, everybody, and we will see you on Wednesday where Brent Carmichael will be joining us for the morning show. Have a great day, everybody. Thanks again so much for watching.
